Pillars of Sand Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

The man dropped into a stance. “I will ask you once to release the Lady, before I remove you.”

I glanced over at Toph. She was staring glumly at the ground, while the rest of the kids looked back and forth like they had no idea what was going on.

“You said you wanted me to handle this?” I asked.

Toph gave a despondent shrug, face carefully blank.

“I don’t know how you managed to leave the manor, but when your father hears about this…” The Earthbender had an annoying voice.

I stepped in front of Toph. “I’m sorry, but I promised her a meal.” I raised my own arms. “Would you really make a liar of me?”

“That’s of no concern of mine.” He shifted, foot brushing against the earth. “For the last time, step aside.”

I noticed that a ring had formed around us, people shifting farther away from the coming brawl. I smiled. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

With a humph, he stomped on the ground. I jumped forward, over the protrusion of stone that erupted from the ground. His eyes narrowed. Yes, an Earthbernder in the air was an easy target. But then, I was no normal Earthbender.

I raised my hands, sweeping up the dust off the street. The man raised his arms over his face, but then I landed. With a twist of my wrists, the dust snapped tight, forming bands. I felt him shatter one, then two. But it was all just sand, and breaking it accomplished nothing. Less than nothing.

So focused on the defense, it gave me ample time to attack. I placed manacles of dust on his wrists, snapping them to his side. It only pulled him out of position for a second, but that was more than enough.

I clapped my hands together.

The cloud of dirt and sand condensed, revealing a squirming earth bender. His arms and legs were bound by thin bands of stone. I squeezed my hand and twisted, hardening my sand into a form much more suited for restraints. It was… almost a reversal of what Earthbenders usually did, making solid stone fluid, so that they could move it.

Here I just converted something loose into a more solid state again.

“There we go.” I stepped forward, poking the squirming man in the face. He toppled backwards, hitting the dirt road with an ‘oof.’ “I’m sure you’ll get out of that in a second, but please.” I stepped over him. “It’s rude to interrupt a lady when you don’t even know her name.”

“L-lady?” The man wriggled on the ground, getting dirt in his long black hair. “You look like you just wandered in out of the desert.”

“Maybe because I did.” I turned back to the children. “Now, I believe I promised you all a meal?”

“Are you gonna just… leave him here.” Aang pointed.

I shrugged. “Why not?”

“What if he gets cold?”

I chuckled. It was getting later in the day, but even still. “He’s an Earthbender, Aang. He’ll be out of those bonds a minute after I stop reinforcing them.”

“Oh, yeah.” The boy rubbed the back of his head.

“Unless you want me to do something to him, Toph?”

Toph blinked once, head tilting over in my direction. “Nah, I’m good.”

She put a grin back on, making a point to walk on the squirming man in the dirt instead of around him. “You said something about food? I’m starved.”

“Lady Beifong! I must insist—”

She stopped on the ground, and a band of stone shot out of the ground to wrap around the man’s face. “Sorry, Master Yu!” She gave a cocky wave. “I think I’m gonna miss today’s Earthbending lessons. Whoops.”

I hummed as the five of us continued down the street. Just as I expected, the moment we rounded the corner, Yu managed to break out of his bonds. I was sure Toph noticed it too, going by the way her shoulders tensed. But instead of coming after us for another try, the man ran off in the other direction.

“Good riddance,” I murmured.

“Soooooo…” Sokka leaned forward, eyes flicking nonchalantly up at the sky. “Wanna tell us what that ‘Lady Beifong’ stuff was about?”

“Wanna get your ugly mug out of my face?” Toph stomped forward, forcing the boy to backpedal. “I’m already tired of looking at it, and I’m blind.”

“Oooh, ouch.”

“Katara!” Sokka hopped upright. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

The girl pulled some water out of her waterskin. “I could get you some water for that burn?”

The boy huffed, even as Aang laughed awkwardly. For my part, I just looked over the four children I found myself accompanying. Toph still looked tense, though I didn’t think she was much more likely to tell me what the whole thing with that man had been about either.

In any case, it was pretty clear that she didn’t learn any actual Earthbending from him. Their styles were different as night and day, and Toph’s was much, much, more dynamic than the staid style this ‘Master Yu’ had used.

I put it out of my head. She’d share it when she wanted to. “So where was this restaurant of yours again?”

Aang’s head popped up. “Oh yeah, it’s right over there.”

We walked into the two story stone building across the street. Inside, the walls were decorated by the stone circle crest of the Earth Kingdom. A dun emblem set against dark green. I raised five fingers and the waitress led us to a table.

It was… surprisingly normal for a kingdom set in a magic feudal era. Of course, even then there were no menus, and the tables themselves were low to the ground, with cushions instead of the chairs I was used to.

The part that rankled the most was how all the kids slid into their seats easily. Hell, Toph even knelt and sat on her heels, in some sort of polite posture that I’d seen people use. I sighed. It wasn’t like I was out of shape or anything, but I was definitely used to more western accommodations, like what could be found in most of the taverns, but I guess Aang had called this a ‘nice’ place.

The atmosphere here was nice, actually, with small lanterns providing a gentle light even as the sun continued to set. Right now, the place was mostly full, but there was enough room between the tables to have a private conversation.

I sat. “To begin with… why don’t you tell me more about this war you have with the Fire Nation.”

I listened patiently as the three kids exchanged glances. “No offense, Lady, but how do you not know about that?”

“Sokka.” I met his eyes. “Did you miss the part where I said I wandered in from the desert a week ago?”

“Ah well.” The boy rubbed the back of his head.

“And also, no one uses ‘no offense’ unless they intend to give offence.” I waved a hand. “But that’s a different issue. I wanted to hear more about the Fire Nation.”

“Well…” Aang leaned forward, lowing his voice. “I guess it started about a hundred years ago? When the Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads…”

I sat quietly and listened as the three of them, haltingly at first, but then with greater speed, talked about their journey, and, to a lesser extent, the history of the world. Katara and Sokka came from the Southern Water Tribes, though their own clan was barely more than a handful of people. They’d found Aang in a giant ice cube of all things, and from there, had resolved to help him on his journey.

From there, they’d had all kinds of adventures. They’d run into pirates, criminals, Fire Nation soldiers. Apparently, they even had some exiled prince after Aang’s head. It sounded like the plot to a three season TV show and awful movie adaptation, or something. But then, I guess my life sounded a lot like a TV show too. Or else some troll’s way too long forum post.

Those in glass houses really shouldn’t throw stones…

“I see.” I nodded to myself. “So you plan on completing this cycle of training, and rally the support of all of the tribes in order to combat the Fire Nation.”

“Um, no one said anything about rallying the troops?” Sokka rubbed the back of his head. “We’re just making it up as we go mostly.”

I sighed, a smile flicking over the corner of my face. “I guess I wasn’t all that concerned with larger implications either, when I was your age.” I looked over at Aang. “From what it sounds like, the Fire Nation is too large for any one man to topple, even the Avatar. You’ll need support, and you’ll need allies.”

“That… sounds like a lot.” Aang squirmed slightly in his seat. “I don’t know the first thing about that.”

“Well I guess this is the point where I say something suitably foreboding like ‘that’s why you have me.’” I waved a hand. “We’ll talk about it, but you can consider me onboard, if you still want me.”

“Of course!” Aang nodded. “That was a really interesting application of Earthbending, how you took down that Master Yu guy. It was almost like Airbending!”

“And what am I, chopped liver?” Toph crossed her arms.

I nudged her gently in the side. “I’m pretty sure he still wants you to teach him.”

“What if I don’t want to teach him?”

The other three all started to talk, but I held up a hand. “Is there all that much for you here, really?” Toph shifted, and I took that as a sign to continue. “Let’s be realistic, you could probably take the entire Earth Rumble crew all at once without breaking a sweat. Even I only won because I got a bit lucky.”

She huffed. “I might have to break a sweat if you were still there.”

“Yeah, well, I’d be on your side in that case.” I leaned back on my hands. “I like my internal organs where they are.”

Toph laughed. “I like the Earth Rumble, though.”

“It’s too easy though, isn’t it? Five times champion at what, twelve?”

“Eleven.” Toph puffed up her chest, shooting me a mock glare. “And it would have been six.”

I nodded. “You’re a big fish in a tiny pond. Don’t you want to see what else is out there? See what the rest of the Earth Kingdom, or the world, has to offer the Five consecutive times reigning champion of the Earth Rumble?”

Toph hummed.

Part of me… felt bad, convincing this eleven year old girl to run off on an adventure. Shit, at least I’d been a high schooler on my first night out. But I saw the way she acted when Master Yu showed up, when he started talking about her family.

It actually hurt a bit, seeing her go from boisterous and vivacious to closed off in a second. I was hardly an expert on bad home situations. You know what they say.

Each unhappy family is unhappy in their own unique way.

“It sounds to me like you’re just trying to get out of a rematch.”

I chuckled. “Tell you what. I don’t think we’ll get to keep the belt, but if you come with us, we’ll have that rematch.”

“How often?”

“Well.” I smiled. “I think we both promised to show each other a thing or two, didn’t we?”

Toph hummed, tapping her finger against her arm. Then she stopped. “Ah, crud.”

“What?”

Toph tilted her head towards the door, then I heard the sound of a commotion. Another man, dressed in fine silks, bulled his way into the restaurant, with Master Yu a step behind. With even just a glance at his face, I could see the resemblance between him and Toph. It only took him a second to spot us as well.

I guess there weren’t too many groups composed of two water tribe teens, a bald kid with a lemur, a desert vagabond, and a blind child running around this part of the Earth Kingdom. Go figure.

“Toph! Toph, there you are.” The man rushed over to our table, slamming his hands down on the stone. “I was so worried about you. Come, let’s get you home before you get hurt.” He reached out, grabbing his daughter’s hand, and I felt something knot in my stomach. “As for the rest of you, you should be ashamed, taking advantage of a defenseless blind girl.”

“Ah.” I nodded to myself. “So that’s how it was.”

“How what was?” The man glared at me.

I reached out, and put a hand on his shoulder.