AN: So, this is awkward. Updating 3 years later. Uh, school got in the way..?

CHAPTER FIVE: Trekking On

Toph lay on her stomach upon her feather soft bed as she rested her head in her hands. She glanced to the side and stared at Aang's staff in annoyance, as if glaring at it would make it disappear. It had been three days and Toph had to keep it hidden under her bed for the most part, not wanting to be questioned on where it had come from. For the past three days Toph has been contemplating on what she should do with it. Toss it, burn it, lie about finding it and giving it to someone or...actually giving it back to Aang?

Toph mulled over the last idea more than the others, but she didn't want to go through the trouble. She didn't even know where he lived.

Toph rolled onto her back and stared at her ceiling and sneered. What do I care if he gets it back or not...and what does a teenager need with a walking stick anyways!?

Toph got up from her bed, walked towards the staff and grab it harshly. She held it side ways so she could hold it in both her hands, then she proceeded with bringing her knee up, prepared to break it in half. He gave you your crown back, though.

"Who cares?" Toph said out loud. Toph held it in her hands and with a frustrated groan she threw it down and climbed back onto her bed.

"Stupid airbender," she mumbled as she fell backwards on her bed again looking toward the ceiling.

She really didn't want to go through the trouble.

"I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this!" She exclaimed to herself. "Haven't I been in the airbender's presence enough?"

Toph suddenly heard a knock. Making sure the staff was hidden, Toph got off her bed and started fixing her dress and straightening out her hair, she then afterward, called for the person to enter.

Toph saw Jin and sighed, "Oh I thought it was my mother."

"No, only me, Lady Toph," she said with a smile holding a tray. "I've come to bring you tea and cakes."

She set the tray down and looked at Toph expectantly, "Anything else you will be needing?

Toph was about to say no but then all of a sudden, an idea struck her. "Actually…in thirty minutes I'll be heading down to the study, to brief myself on past lessons. I plan on being in there for a few hours. I need it to be your duty to not let anyone in there, not even my parents."

"But Lady Toph I cannot deny Lady Poppy or King Lao." Jin simply stated.

"Yes, I suppose," Toph nodded in understanding, "but I need you to insist they do not come in." Toph said a little bit cryptically.

Jin was confused and became a little bit nervous and suspicious at the request. "If you don't mind me asking, Lady Toph, what was it that you are up too?"

Toph knew she could tell Jin, Jin kept secrets very well. But if the circumstances were to present itself, Jin could tell all who asked where it was Toph was headed, if the situation became that serious. So something in the back of her head told Toph that Aang's existence is better left unknown for now.

"If too much time passes by and my parents do worry, tell them after my studying I decided to visit my Aunt Ju Chen with one of the guards."

"Are you really?" Jin asked, hoping a lie wasn't going to cost Toph's safety, and in turn her job or livelihood.

Toph hated lying to Jin, but it was for her own good if she was ever questioned. "Yes." Toph said softly. "You may leave now, Jin."

Jin nodded and headed out the door, but not before casting one last glance to Toph.

"Okay airbender now to find you."

Toph knew if she was to travel to Aang's she needed commoners clothing. Her wardrobe didn't even know of the word. So Toph had snuck into the servants' quarters and grabbed something hanging off the hook.

Toph dressed herself in loose pants that went a bit past the knee, and a long sleeved top that needed to be wrapped and tied at the bottom. It was all designed in earth tones, which Toph thought was good so she wouldn't stand out. Once she stepped into some slip shoes, Toph bunched up her hair and tucked it into a large straw hat that would cover her face well.

Toph proceeded as much as her and Aang did when she was helping him escape, except this time Toph earthbended her tunnel down past the 20 foot under ground metal wall and to the other side.

Pausing to feel the vibrations of everyone outside the castle walls, Toph felt a bush near by and decide it was the best place for her to merge into the crowd.

Once she was out of her tunnel and closed up the hole Toph stood up and dusted herself off but it was futile. Earthbending the remaining dirt particles from her clothes, Toph looked up but wasn't expecting anything like the sight before her, her eyes became large in awe.

She had never seen so many people!

Yes she has attended banquets, balls and such but not enough people to this extent!

In fact, dwelling on it, Toph has never really seen much of anything in the world beyond her walls. She was taken to her Aunt's estates, which was also confined within guarded walls, and to the Pang and Yum Soon Han's family estates, which of course, were also surrounded by walls. Whenever Toph traveled the streets by coach she had no windows to look out of, just vented slots to let in some fresh air. It was always a silent ride alone, only to listen and imagine what she would see.

Toph squealed in delight. She never expressed herself in such girlish joy, but this was different on so many levels. Toph always longed for adventure, to tussle with pirates, and save villagers from bandits, everything from her childhood storybooks. She didn't realize how strong the yearning was until this very moment.

Toph walked a little ways towards a cart, distracted by the trinkets that hung on display when she collided with someone.

"Hey watch where you're going!" Said a gruff women looking to be over age 40 with missing teeth.

"Excuse you! Who do you think you're talking too!?" Toph yelled.

"A scrawny munchkin on two legs."

Toph's jawed dropped, the nerve! "How dare you! Do you know who you are speaking too!?"

"Who am I speaking too?" The woman said stepping up a foot away from Toph in a challenging manner.

"You are speaking to the…!" But Toph trailed off for she remembered who she was, or rather who she wasn't suppose to be at the moment.

"Um, nobody." She finished lamely.

"That's what I thought." And with a shove to Toph's shoulder the woman went on her way. Toph looked around her expecting people to have gathered wondering what the commotion was about but she was surprised that no one was even looking.

Maybe they're all use to it. And as if right on queue, the same thing that just happened to Toph was happening to someone else. Minus the almost-accidental slip of being royalty.

"Still doesn't give them the right to act as if they've never had any house training." She huffed under her breath.

Toph remembered Aang saying he lived forty minutes outside of town. Not knowing where "outside of town" was, Toph tried asking a few people. Some gave lengthy directions, others very vague directions, and a few didn't even help her.

Apparently there were several small dwellings outside of town.

Toph was out wandering for an hour now completely lost. Leaning against Aang's walking stick, exhausted.

Toph asked a few more people for directions to outskirts of town. Once she got solid directions about some dwellings around the same distance that Aang mentioned, she was on her way.

Toph spent the next hour and a half walking, hoping she was going in the right direction and soon found herself walking on a dirt road, with an ostrich-horse drawn carriage passing by now and then.

Happening upon three different cottages during her journey, Toph knocked and received some brash greetings and doors being slammed in her face. It wasn't until the third house that the inhabitants knew Aang and told her to keeping heading in the direction she was going, and that she'd find the house soon enough.

Toph was starting to become tiresome and cranky as half an hour went by, but soon her luck began to turn as she saw a lone stone-wooden cottage up ahead a little ways.

Quickening her pace, Toph was upon the house in a matter of minutes. With a poor attempt to unwrinkled her clothes, Toph straightened her posture and knocked. After few moments the door opened. Toph was instantly greeted by a pair of elderly yet warm blue eyes.

"Yes, can I help you with something Miss?" He said politely.

"Yes, I'm looking for an airbender by the name of Aang." She said officially.

The man's eyes widened slightly and closed the door slightly.

"No, no. No airbenders here, you have the wrong house." And with that he closed, rather slammed the door shut.

Dejected, Toph looked up and down the road from where she stood on the porch, there was no other houses in sight and it might take her, who knows how long until she found the next one.

"Who was it Gyatso?"

Toph paused. She recognized that voice.

"No one Aang, just a lost traveler." Angered that she was lied to, Toph pounded on the door.

"Airbender I know you are in there. Let me in!" She yelled.

"Get back Aang, it could be a spy." She heard the man say.

"Ugh, open this door before I boulder it over! I will not hesitate." Toph began to perspire significantly and became exhausted as she stood out there in the blaring sun. It was as if she was rapidly becoming aware of her increase heart rate and her overworked muscles.

Had it always been this hot? How long had I been walking today, when's the last time I had eaten or had water?

"Okay I'm coming in." Toph exclaimed, trying to sound powerful but it came out weakly.

Toph was ready to lift the boulder out of the earth, and as she did the motion, the door opened, but at that very moment she saw white fill her vision as she fell, seeming to be caught midair before her head hit the ground.

Toph came to; her eyes slowly came into focus of a ceiling. Not her ceiling however. She also took note that she was laying on a rather lumpy, uncomfortable mattress at that.

"Ugrh, make everything stop spinning," she droned.

"Oh, good you're awake. Here drink this."

She recognized that voice, but Toph's focus was drawn since she was being helped to sit up and a cup of water was brought to her lips. Some spilled out towards the sides and spilled out onto her front. In any normal circumstance she would have been embarrassed for appearing so clumsy and sloppy, but she felt too sluggish to care.

Toph looked up and blink away her grogginess as she was face to face with the airbender. She glared.

"Forty minute walk? Great skills of observation, airbender."

Aang's face held an amused smirk. "Not if you cut through the trees, if I would have known you were coming to visit I would have given clearer directions."

As soon as the smirk appeared it vanished "What are you doing here?" He asked seriously and skeptically.

"Did you not notice the large stick I brought with me?" She shot back incredulously.

Aang reached for his staff and held it up.

"You mean to tell me, the sole purpose of your visit was to bring me back my staff?"

Toph noticed his disbelieving expression. She did not want to give him the impression that she was somehow kind and generous so she tried her best to make light of the situation that she had been regretting since she journeyed out here in the middle of no where.

"Well I needed to get rid of it. No way could I explain to anyone why it was on my person. If I was a firebender I would have surely burned it," she added seemingly ruthlessly.

Aang was quiet for a moment looking at his staff, rolling it in his hands before he looked up at her.

"Thank you. That was a very generous thing of you to do."

He seemed genuine enough, so Toph had no choice but to grit out a quick you're welcome.

Sitting in awkward silence seemed to be a habit. Not knowing what to say was definitely Toph's least favorite social confrontations.

Noticing the sun wasn't as high in the sky, and seeming to be drastically lower than when she arrived, Toph asked, "Um, what time is it?"

"Quarter to seven."

"WHAT!?"

Her random outburst caused Aang to jump high in the air out of surprise. Toph really needed him to stop being so jumpy about everything.

"What!? What's wrong!?" He exasperated.

"Oh no, no, no." Toph put her head in her hands, as the panic quickly closed in on her own predicament.

"I was never supposed to be gone this long. I calculated my time away with a forty minute walk in mind." She stared pointedly accusing at him.

Aang became offended once again. She was constantly laying fault onto him, it seemed to be her new favorite hobby.

Aang stood at his full height. "Hey! It's not like I invited you here or expected you to come here, ever!"

Toph stood as well. "Oh, so you're telling me you wouldn't be boo-hooing right about now wondering where you're precious stick is!?"

"It's not a stick!"

Not liking that he was taller. Toph got up on top of his bed to come head-to-head and shout to him from there.

"Please, I almost gave it to the goat-dog as a chew toy!"

Aang gritted his teeth as Toph glared back, but her demeanor faltered for she became light head.

Aang noticed the change in her facial expression, and just as her knees buckled, he was quick and caught her, sitting her down on the bed in the process.

"Have you eaten anything today? Drank anything other than the glass of water I just gave you?" He asked calmly.

With the fight drained out of her, Toph simply answered the question, "I woke up and was to concerned on how to get here. I haven't eaten since last night."

Aang nodded. "Well then I'll get you something to eat."

Toph was about to fight him then, not only did she want to get out of this place, but she really needed to leave. She has been gone far too long.

"No, I should go now. Before it becomes unreasonable late." She was about to stand, but Aang pushed her gently to stay seated.

"You're to weak to travel back on foot. You need to eat."

"No you don't understand. I need to get back right away. The cavalry will search every bush and stone if I do not get back as soon as possible."

Aang began to look alarmed. "Well how were you able to leave in the first place? Where did you tell them you were going?"

"Well since I've been away this long, they will be thinking I went to visit my Aunt Ju Chen."

"Well I highly advise you eat something first. Why don't you tell them you'll be late?"

"No, it's considered ill-mannered to have guest over at such a late hour," she said off-handedly, "and to send me to travel alone without my family at night, as well. Not customary among the monarchs. It would only be plausible if I were staying over, since it is my aunt. It's the only thing that would sound believable."

As soon as she said it, the idea hung in the air and slowly became a loud ringing that neither could ignore.

Aang coughed awkwardly. "So the best outcome in this situation would just be to write your family and tell them you're staying at your Aunts'?"

Toph took a deep breath to keep her temper in control. It would seem she does in fact have the worst kind of luck when around the airbender.

"It would appear so," after a beat. "Do you have a messenger hawk?"

Aang appeared embarrassed. Having the Earth Nation's Princess in you home, whose own bedroom could easily swallow your house, was a bit daunting. Aang started to become hyperaware of everything in his bedroom, or lack there of.

"Um, no we don't."

"Figures." Toph rolled her eyes.

"Listen, I know I'm not royal, or rich, or even well-off, but this is my home and I will not allow you to insult me in my own home. I've risked my neck to return something precious to you, and I appreciate you doing the same for me. I'd be glad to let you stay if you can just let up and actually be appreciative for once in your life," Aang huffed.

Toph was silent and had many rebuttals on the tip of her tongue ready to strike, but she had to acknowledge that he was right. She hadn't a clue what it was, but ever since met this airbender, he had gotten under her skin. She was not use to anyone ever speaking to her in the manner that he does. In all the previous moments of their encounters, instead of shouting for a guard to come and get him out of her sight, she felt she could take anything he had to say, and then dish it right back to him. She didn't need protection of any kind from anyone.

"I'm sorry." She said calmly. Toph saw the flicker of disbelief in his eyes at her apology that seemed to come without any bite behind it.

Aang cleared his throat. "There is a shed about a mile away where all the messenger hawks reside. There should be some available for us to use."

Toph nodded. "Okay, let's go then."