Arrowhead and the Blind Bandit
Chapter 1: Sneak Away Without Being Seen
by: Jung Ho
Standard Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Avatar: The Last Airbender. All characters and concepts are owned by Nickelodeon/Viacom.
In the dying daylight, there was a rather large shadow moving towards the village of Lishyr. It happened to be a six ton bison, carrying four passengers. The smallest, a little girl, found it truly amazing that she made it through another aerial trip. Before the massive bison even touched the ground, she jumped feeling as if it was the first time she had felt the cool dirt between her toes. She stretched, basking in the receding warmth of the setting sun. "At last, solid ground!"
Her three companions and one winged lemur dismounted the bison with much less vigor. There seemed to be some sort of festival, the four travelers decided it wouldn't be a great idea to crash the party what with their track record of festivals. So in a vain attempt to avoid attracting attention, they decided to walk into town instead.
They walked in silence, still waking up from their naps. The girl, whose name was Toph, skipped several meters ahead of them, humming to herself a simple tune. Behind her, there were two boys and a girl. The girl's name was Katara of the water tribe, master waterbender. Everything she wore was some shade of blue, flawed only by the caked mud on her pants and dress. The taller of the two boys was Katara's brother named Sokka was also clad in blue clothing and, like his sister, had his boots and pants caked in mud. The last boy was Avatar Aang. He wore a baby blue arrow, as a symbol of his airbending mastery. The arrow coming off the top of his head followed his spine branching off to his hands and legs. Unlike the water tribe siblings, he wore a colorful orange and red outfit with knee high boots. With him was his staff, which he was currently using as a walking stick.
"I don't think I can take much more traveling…" wheezed out Aang holding onto his staff as it was his lifeline. "I haven't washed my clothes in a week."
"Don't worry, Aang," replied Sokka in an equally tired voice. "We'll stop here for at least a couple days."
When they finally got to town, Aang and Toph looked for the food while Sokka and Katara looked for first-aid supplies. Katara turned around and looked that the prepubescent preteens. "Get the things on this list, exactly how they're written," handing Aang a list of groceries, frowning. "I don't want a repeat of last time."
At this, Aang began to glow in a faint shade of pink while Toph snickered, trying to hide her laughter. They had done the grocery shopping on one other occasion, before they were going through a desolate plateau. They tried to eat some of the fruit that Toph had bought. It turned out that Toph had gotten a type of pet food. Food for what kind of animal, even Toph wasn't sure. The result was irregular bowel movements and vomiting for a full three days.
"You've just got a really weak stomach, is all," retorted the earthbender, waving her hand carelessly toward Katara. Toph herself was able to stomach two of the numerous pieces of said fruit for that trip and held it for a full day an a half before she too succumbed to the poisonous effects of the pet food.
Katara rolled her eyes and then replied. "Well, just make sure its something that normal people would call edible."
"You got it, Katara," Aang promised and the two pairs went in opposite directions.
"Uhm, Toph? Could you give me a hand?" The question had not come from a human being it seemed, but a rather large pile of groceries. Aang popped his head out of the pile, relieving his body of the crushing weight of the many bags. The Avatar was positive that a few of these things were not on the list. He could not, for the life of him, figure out why Katara would want a "decorated staff of the Earth Kingdom shaman". He was sure of one thing though: Toph had tampered with the list somehow.
Toph looked back and gave a look of mock disbelief. "You're asking me, a fragile little girl to carry heavy bags? What kind of Avatar are you?" She was sure to project her voice over the crowed alley. Aang quickly looked around and saw the excited glances of men, women, and children alike.
Toph smirked as she ran and turned the corner, removing herself from the scene. Aang looked at the huge crowd that seemed ready to attack him. There was a huge, simultaneous attempt to tackle the discovered Avatar into the ground. Aang had somehow been able to airbend himself from the would-be carnage and bolted down the alleyway. The stampede followed him and he quickly turned a corner and jumped onto the roof. He watched relieved as the stampede of crazy fanatics turned the corner. He was distracted by the loud, unbelievably loud laughter of one particular earthbender.
"Very funny Toph." Aang glided down to the ground carrying the many bags with him.
"You think so, too?" Toph answered as soon as she could breathe. "I should to that more often."
"So are you going to help me carry these bags now?" Aang asked, choosing to ignore her statement.
"Why? You seem to be able to handle the load just fine."
Aang was shocked as he realized that he had been duped yet again. He had, alas, been able to not only carry the bags, but also sprint, jump, and airbend, with their added weight.
Toph looked rather pleased with herself. "Maybe I should write a How To book about earthbending." Aang suppressed a shudder as he thought of the perfect title: Get Better, or Die!
'Maybe for the military,' thought Aang as he followed his earthbending master back to the meeting place.
After a couple minutes walking, he was able to think of chapter topics as well, such as "How to Motivate Sissies" and "Positive Reinforement: The Better Way". It was when thinking of a name for the chapter concerning laziness that Aang caught a glimpse of a poster, willingly distracting himself out of possible topics for Toph's book. He paused to read it, forcing Toph to wait for him. Eventually, Toph asked, "so what does the dumb piece of paper say, Twinkle Toes?"
Aang answered in a disbelieving voice answered, "An underground Earthbending Tournament. It's tonight, on the other side of town." Toph's eyes went wide with excitement and sparkled like a child receiving a very special birthday gift. He turned to Toph, who had been able to change her excitement into a frown. "Waddiyasay, should we go and sign up?"
Toph looked back and tried to feign disgust. "Please, it's probably filled with chumps who would call kicking a pile of dirt 'bending'. Besides, what dummy puts up posters for and underground tournament?"
Aang was slightly crestfallen and looked back at the advertisement. "It looks like it could be fun."
Toph scoffed, trying her best to continue sounding uninterested. "Yeah, whatever." To add to her charade, she tried kick a stone on the ground, only to make contact with Aang's shin, making him drop his heavy load. Aang yelped in a combination of annoyance and pain.
"What was that for?" Toph could hear the annoyed tone in his voice.
"What are you talking about? You're imagining things." Before Aang had a chance to retort, she pressed on. "Come on, we have to get back to Katara before she blows up." Toph started a very brisk walk, leaving Aang to struggle with the bags. After he was able to get all the bags on his arms or shoulders, he jogged to meet up with Toph. They continued in silence, both trying to find out a way to sneak away that night without the other noticing.
Aang was proud to say that they made it to the rendezvous point early. However, when Katara found out about the many unneeded, and quite frankly pointless stuff, she blew her lid anyway. Once inside their campsite, out of earshot, she exploded. "How could you buy all this stuff? I mean, come on! A shaman stick?"
Aang was not allowed to handle the money since the incident with the waterbending scroll, but he still felt responsible for letting Toph buy all this stuff. With head bent down, Aang took the verbal beating while Toph continued to look unscathed by the barrage of insults.
"Now what are we going to do with this useless junk?" Katara spat furiously. Just then, Sokka came back from doing his thing and surprised the heck out of them with his squeals of uncontrollable joy.
As soon as he saw the mentioned 'useless junk', his eyes lit up like a toddler who was given a brand new toy. "Awesome! An Earth Kingdom club!" He immediately took the shaman stick and began swinging it. He turned to Katara with big, round eyes. "Can we keep it, please?" Katara, with an infatuated brother on one side and an unrepentant earthbender on the other, sighed in resignation and nodded her head.
"You are the best little sister, ever!" Sokka wrapped Katara in a big bear hug and immediately let go to practice with his new weapon. Toph smirked, while Aang relieved being spared the intensity of the teenager's fury.
Katara lightened up a little and began setting up camp while Aang and Toph sat down, watching Sokka practice with his new toy. Besides the shaman staff, there were a few other things that Toph had gotten. There were weights for a future training session that Aang was bound to hate, and Aang tried to strike up a conversation with his teacher. "So have you thought about the tournament?"
Toph tightened. She still hasn't thought about how she was going to sneak out to participate. She began thinking quickly of how to get out while trying to look indifferent. "What about it?" she asked, nonchalantly.
"Are you going to go?"
"Nah," Toph waved away Aang's question as if it was a particularly troublesome fly. She could feel the sudden weight of Aang's body on the earth, meaning he suddenly collapsed or he was slouching. "Are you?" she asked in what she hoped was a disconnected tone.
"I guess not," Aang replied, not noticing Toph's exhale of breath.
"Good." Toph stood up and pulled Aang to his feet. "I've got some presents for you," she said as she pulled the depressed and slightly confused airbender to the large bag. Toph rummaged around in the bag with her arm for a minute and pulled out the ankle weights. "Here." Toph carelessly tossed the weights to Aang, the beginnings of a smirk pulling on her lips.
Aang tried to catch them, but instead, got crushed by their surprising weight. "Wh-What's in these weights, Toph?" he asked, shoving the weights off his midsection and gasping for air.
"Lead," she said in a rather disinterested manner. "I thought your stances could use a bit of work, so I got you some lead weights."
"But I won't be able to move!"
"Come on they're not that heavy." She picked one up with one hand and moved it up and down as if to weigh it. "They're about the same as Momo's weight. So stop complaining and put them on."
Aang cautiously put one on and then the other, admitting to himself that each one was a little lighter than Momo, but their combined weight was substantial. He wrapped them tightly on each ankle and tried jumping with them on. He was unable to get even half of his original height, but he could still move around.
Toph felt the vibrations from his test jumps and nodded. "Good. Keep them on at all times."
Aang was in only slight shock. He must becoming more used to Toph's harsh commands, he mused. Nevertheless, he was surprised that she demanded he never take them off. Assuming she had a reason, he asked tentatively, "Why at all times?"
"Because," Toph said with a sigh. "You'll be more stable. Now you don't have to concentrate as much on stances. Your body will keep going until you get to the point where you keep your stance without even thinking about it; muscle memory, you know. And besides, you'll be faster when you take them off. That's supposed to be a good thing for an airbender, right?"
Aang sighed and decided it would be better to help Katara than argue. He turned and walked way. Toph on the other hand, frowned as she realized that his footsteps were now as heavy as a normal person's, making him hard to identify.
After dinner, Aang was feeling cheerier than he had been. He had completely forgotten about his weights and was now moving at his previous speed. His mood had changed so much that he was considering going to the earthbending tournament alone. Since he was afraid that Toph would be disappointed in him, he made sure to leave when his earthbending teacher was away practicing.
He was just about to go when he realized that he was too identifiable because of his clothes and his arrows. He decided to go in disguise. Like when he had met Jeong Jeong, he pulled his cloak over his head and began marching out of the camp towards the city. He was almost out of the clearing when he was stopped in his tracks by a female voice.
"Where're you going?" He turned around to see Katara staring quizzically at his "disguise". Relieved that it wasn't Toph, he told her about the tournament that night. Katara's smile began getting wider and wider. "But you can't tell Toph," he whispered, looking around for the fourteen year old master. "Alright," Katara said with a chuckle. "But there is no way you're not going to get noticed in that." Aang stood there for a minute, trying to make sense of what she just said. She giggled some more and pulled him by the wrist towards the large bag of stuff. "Come on. I'll make sure that you blend right in."
"Twinkle Toes!" Toph yell into the silence of incoming dusk. She huffed in indignation and crossed her arms over her chest. "Where is he? I've gotta make sure he's not here before I can leave," she muttered to herself. She yelled her pet name again, getting a different boy's voice in return.
"He's not here." She felt the vibrations of Sokka coming out of the foliage. "Katara said he's somewhere practicing his bending." Toph gave a small sigh in relief. "Good. I'll see ya later, then."
"Where're you going?"
"Earthbending Tournament," she stated, realizing a bit too late who she was talking too.
Sokka started bouncing on the balls of his feet in joy. "Oooh! Can I come?" he asked, his voice full of excitement.
"No. I need you to stay here and cover for me. Tell Sugar Queen I went to check out the town or something."
"Aww. That's no fun." His face fell and stopped bouncing. He became defiant. "Well, what if I follow you anyway?"
"I hadn't thought of that," Toph said in complete truthfulness. She promptly turned around and kicked him in the groin. Sokka's voice squeaked as he went up five octaves and held on to his family jewels in fear that they might fall off from the immense pain. "Good counter point," he squealed as he keeled over onto his side.
"What are you going to tell Katara?" asked Toph in her dangerous sing-song voice.
"Out on the town," Sokka replied in his squeaky one.
"Good boy. I would have made sure you don't follow me in a less painful way, but I'm late." And with that, she began running towards the town, leaving Sokka gripping his cash and prizes, with is eyes watering from the intense pain.
Aang wasn't sure what to make of the arena. It was on the other side of the town where only the villagers lived, sure, but it was an open air arena. A huge stadium was dug out of the solid ground. Aang was getting a slight nervousness from just looking at the ring's immense size. He gulped, trying to imagine what would happen if he was unmasked in front of hundreds, possibly thousands of screaming spectators.
He was violently pushed ahead by a rather large earthbender. "Move it, squirt," the burly man grunted, shoving Aang ahead of him with a small push. Aang stumbled by the added force of the large fighter and moved up in the cue of potential fighters.
The line, it seemed, was endless, winding into probably a good three blocks into the village. The Avatar sighed, fully expecting to be barred from contending one way or another. Plus he was going to have to explain himself to Toph. True, she didn't explicitly forbid him from competing in the tournament, but something told Aang she would be upset about it anyway.
When he got up to the registration desk, he pulled down his bandanna to cover his arrow point. A thin, shrewd looking man looked him up and down with a critical eye. "Name?" asked the officiant in a nasal voice. "Uh…" Aang was at a loss for a good ring name. He certainly wasn't going to take Toph's mocking name of "The Fancy Dancer."
"Well?" the man behind the desk asked, this time with blatant irritation in his voice. Aang quickly grabbed something out the air. "Uh…A..Arrowhead. Yeah, The Arrowhead," he stuttered, adverting his eyes from the man in front of him. The man looked Aang over again with a disbelieving glare and wrote the name on the roster. "Fine. 'Arrowhead', you'll be fighter number nineteen." Aang took the piece of parchment with the number nineteen on it and pinned it to the front of his clothes. "Report back when we announce the preliminary rounds."
Aang nodded and began walking toward the stadium once again, marveling in its vastness. He then turned around and decided to go down to the locker rooms to avoid being noticed.
"Finally! My turn!" shouted the large man who was behind Aang. He stepped forward to give his name when there was an odd disturbance in the cue behind him. He turned to see a ripple go through the line, finally making it to the front. He looked around for the guy with the attitude problem, only to be shoved aside by… a little girl?
"Hey, girlie! No cuts!"
"Tough break, weakling."
The earthbender began fuming. "What?" he sneered.
"You heard me. Or should I repeat that for you?"
The man let out a primal roar and charged at the girl, only to be halted by a stone wall that seemed to appear out of thin air. He slid down the wall, landing at the ground dazed. "Anybody else have a problem with me cutting?" The silence of consent was almost deafening, making the girl smirk.
"Er… name?" asked the officiant.
Her smirk widened and replied "The Blind Bandit."
So what do you think? I'm a little rusty, what with this being my first thing out in the new year. I've been playing around with this idea for a while now, but I've always put it off. Why? Because, quite frankly, writing is a chore unless I'm in the right mood. Sadly, that mood only comes once in a blue moon, and at ungodly hours of 1:00AM or later.
I was originally going to have this be a oneshot, but I was thinking too big, and so I tried to make it more manageable by cutting it into chapters. That, and I'm too lazy to write the next bit.
Oh, and those who are wondering, I got Aang's fighting name from the bottled water brand, Arrowhead. It's all I've been drinking lately.
Finally, please keep in mind this version was proofread quickly by me only. I'm hoping to get Sifu-KataraRose,
to proofread and revise this.
Sifu Toph and animekraze have already done so and I've corrected some spelling errors in it. Please tell me if there are more.
So yes. Please review after reading. It would mean a whole lot to me if you did.