Momentary Peace. <Omashu, Earth Kingdom>

[valiant]

The smell of smoke and charred earth dissipated as the four teenagers rose into the sky upon the flying bison, who let out a low grumble of a reply to the bald-headed boy’s command of: “Yip, yip!” The ancient creature weaved above the clouds away from the formerly grand city of Omashu, now lit up like a smoldering candle, and it slowly began to shrink away from the waterbender’s soft cerulean eyes. Upon the sea of tan walls, molded and carved from the Earthbenders centuries ago, she saw something that made her stomach twist with disgust. What she saw made her hands turn cold and her breath caught in her throat: the raising of Fire Nation flags. She could see the bright splash of blood red across the devastated capital’s walls for all eyes to see. It was a warning, a trophy for the imperial cowards who took King Bumi as a hostage. She turned away and winced at the sharp pangs that made her lungs feel like they were filled with lead, it was... painful seeing Omashu like that. A flash of the Fire Nation’s soldiers stampeding into her village burned across her mind, pointed-toe footprints from their iron and steel shoes branding themselves in white blanket of winter’s first snow.

And now, they’ve picked up an ill-mannered little girl who seemed too busy bossing everyone around rather than being honored she was even considered to teach the Avatar earthbending. What a snooty little child! Katara couldn’t understand how Sokka just smirked and Aang scooted around her insults by merely ignoring it. Instead of jumping right to teaching Aang, they now had to go to Gaoling for reasons unknown to anyone else but her. You would think that since it’s their flying bison, they’d get to choose the destination. But, no. Of course not, that would actually have to make sense and comply to someone other than Toph. Fuming in her mind, she shoved her arms across her chest. This just was ridiculous. The day they’d get ordered around by a rude little--- ugh.

She let out a constricted sigh and relaxed her tensed muscles, she would just have to deal with her until Aang finished his training. The breeze brushed against her face and her eyes fluttered open to the circle of people around her. Sokka, sitting cross legged, Toph, grime coated feet outstretched, one leg over the other, and Aang, gray eyes peering north to Gaoling. Momo curled into a ball of fluff, wings tucked in along with the tail, napping comfortably on the large saddle on Appa’s back, letting out an occasional purr. It was a momentary time of peace and it was definitely something to be enjoyed till the very last second. She wasn’t about to break it by starting a fight with a girl she barely knew. Maybe she was just getting too emotional over the loss of Omashu and was just taking it out on Toph. The logic seemed reasonable to Katara, so she spoke, filling the silence with a seemingly innocent question, “So, Toph... why do you want to stop in Gaoling?” Easy enough to answer, right?

[blindgirl]

To be honest Toph was nervous being on this huge lumbering beast, she didn't trust the assembled group as far as she could throw them, well, without earth bending. Her arms hooked on the side of the saddle giving her a little security. Not much though. Her stomach was flipping constantly, she was on pins and needles. How long were they in the air, when would they come back down? The blind girls lips pulled into a firm frown as she crossed and uncrossed her legs in the annoying dress coated in grime from the trip through Omashu. This would be a problem from her, at least they were almost home. What was she going to tell her parents, not like she could see them. Hopefully they'd head home. She didn't know what to do. What could she tell them? Would she even stay home?

Toph blanched feeling a small bump in the air, were they going down? Up? What was happening, it wasn't as if she knew. For a while now she'd been eerily silent, it could have only been a few minutes or a few hours, she was feeling so anxious it didn't really matter anyway. Though the silence was broken once the water tribe girl spoke up. Toph's head tilted upwards toward the voice, her messy bangs flitted across her face all but obscuring her eyes from view. She grimaced, what was their problem, they were going it wasn't like they needed to know why. All too quickly she snapped back at the water tribe girl " That's were I live, ya want me to stay in that firenation infested city? Maybe I can go back to that metal hell hole with King Krazy Pants and we can call it a day."

Crossing her arms she looked off to the side the wind whipping her hair, sure she had let go of the side now but she was pissed and wanted to correctly express the emotion to the idiotic girl, if she had a problem with it she could deal, once they landed in Gaoling she'd be out of their hair. They could go be hero's else where. She didn't need to be apart of it, she'd only been roped into their group from some sort of dumb luck. Like she cared that the whiny kid was the avatar, that they were on a flying bison, or that they broke into a heavily guarded city to talk to some senile old man. Toph was no ones whipping girl, she wasn't going to look out for anyone but herself. besides, they owed her a ride home, after all she helped the lot of them. Without her they would have gotten caught, that was how she saw things.

[airnomad]

They had only been together a short while, but Aang could hear the undertones of frustration between the female passengers. Katara was being friendly enough in starting up a conversation, but Toph didn't seem to be in the mood for small talk. And having traveled across the world and back with the Souther Water Tribe girl, Aang knew that there was potential for this flight to turn very sour, very quickly.

"So, Toph!" he called back loudly from his perch between Appa's horns. The young Avatar spun around in his seat, clutching his staff and the reigns on his lap. "While we're in town and finding your parents, would you be able to point us toward a good Earthbending teacher? Maybe the same Master who taught you." Aang smiled again, forgetting that it was a moot gesture when speaking to the blind girl. "Wherever you learned those moves from, that's the kind of bending I want to learn!" He made a gesture in what he believed to be an earthbending style and punched a fist into the air while propping the other against his elbow.

[meatandsarcasm]

Sokka watched from the back of the saddle with crossed arms, resting. He didn’t feel like sleeping, but he felt too lazy to do anything. Toph, he noticed, wasn’t enjoying the ride too much. It made sense, since she couldn’t very likely see up here. Given this, he had known better than to talk to her at all. His sister, on the other hand, either didn’t realize this, or was deliberately prodding the girl. Considering the looks she’d been shooting the blind girl every now and then, he figured there was a good chance it was the latter. He grimaced. Katara could get like that, especially when someone had an attitude like Toph’s. Aang either missed this completely, which was entirely possible for the flighty kid, or he had the common sense to appeal to Toph’s ego. Either way, Sokka still didn’t see it helping too much, and decided to step in before everything went haywire.

“Well, it’s getting late, and Appa will probably need to rest soon, anyway. Maybe when we land, Toph can show you some earthbending moves?” Sokka suggested in response to Aang. “It couldn’t hurt to learn some of the basics.”

The truth was, Sokka was curious to see how Toph would handle the idea, too. She was awfully good, and he still remembered what Bumi had said in Omashu. It was a long shot, but maybe this whole thing would work out after all.

[meatandsarcasm]

[Due to Katara being MIA, and our Zuko wanting to get back to the action, the Gaang has been fast forwarded to Gaoling. Hoorays!]