Crippled. That was all anyone thought of her, Master Yu, her guards, her own father and mother. Crippled.
"Excellent work Toph, hold that stance and remember to breathe properly."
She held back an acid remark and struggled to breathe as her thoughts boiled with anger. She was way beyond these simple exercizes, they were boring and tedious and nothing she could say or do would convince Master Yu to go even one step further. Her father had forbidden it and what father wanted Master Yu did, after all father paid hansomly for 'lessons' for his beloved daughter.
Breathing exercise this, stance that, it made her want to scream in frustration but she couldn't even do that. One step out of line, one breath of irritation and her father would see it as a threat to his 'fragile daughter' and put it out of sight. At first she had been excited about learning earthbending from Master Yu and astounded that her father had allowed it.
She was going to learn how others applied earthbending, she was going to learn how to protect herself so that her father didn't have to. It had all seemed simple in the beginning, Master Yu would teach her earthbending, she could show her father what she had learned and her father would accept what she had learned as legitimate strength. Not, as he had done in the past, as the flights of fancy of his precious daughter.
She had practiced long before Master Yu had come along, and nothing she had done had been good enough to convince her father that she could fend for herself.
"Good, good Toph. I think that will be all today, you did well, you should be proud of yourself."
She put on a fake smile and replied, "Thank you Master Yuu." Oh yes, keep up that humble routine. She sighed in relief after she heard the door close behind her. "I thought you'd never leave," she grumbled.
"Urrraauhg!" she yelled stomping the ground. A rather large patch of earth flew into the air in response to her temper. Her father had even denied her the opportunity to gain strength as he saw strength, he had crippled the lessons itself and left it a shadow for her to play with. If her father was going to keep things from her, then she would start keeping things from him.
Author's Note: Hello and welcome dear readers. To those of you that have read this far I am your humble host, cobblestone at your service. This is my first published fanfic so go ahead and flame on. This will be the first of I don't know how many chapters in this story, I haven't finished writing it yet.
This fanfic is taking place before Toph met the Gaang and will not deal with how she met them. Any future ideas surrounding the Gaang during or after the ATLA series will most likely be posted as a separate fanfic. This fanfic is, as the title reads, the Origin of the Blind Bandit.
I know this story has already been done by a very poetic author by the name of effie's head, (go and read Gods and Magnolias, it's good) but I wanted to write it my way.
Please by all means read and review, all input is welcome if not always appreciated.
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar nor any of the rights to said show.