Imprisoning Toph Is Tough

Toph was leaning on Appa when she felt Sokka returning, hopefully with food. She didn't regret leaving Gaoling, but she'd always had plenty to eat there. 

"Great, you're back," Aang said, jumping up when he saw Sokka. Momo hissed as he fell off of Aang's lap. "What's for dinner?"

"We have a few options," Sokka said. She heard a rustling sound as he rummaged around his bag. "First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts. And some rock-shaped nuts that might actually be rocks. Dig in."

With a lazy flick of Toph's wrist, the rocks Sokka had mistaken for nuts flew out of the bag. "Yeah, Snoozles. They're rocks. See, this is why you should bring me along for foraging trips. I can tell you what nuts are actually rocks."

She slightly resented not being able to forage like the others could. Seismic sense allowed her to see things most people couldn't, but it was useless when identifying poisonous plants from edible ones. She wasn't sorry she was blind, since she wouldn't have met the badgermoles and learned earthbending if she could see, but she hated how people viewed her because of it.

Her thoughts were cut off by a loud crash as a rock hit the ground. She placed her palm down on the earth and found the epicenter of the vibrations. A person, a young man, was bending boulders.

"It's an earthbender!" she exclaimed, and raced off in the direction of the earthbender. Finally! Hopefully this earthbender was better than Aang.

"Shouldn't we run away from big booms?" Sokka asked. "And not towards them?" His words fell on deaf ears as Toph continued running.

"He looks dangerous," Sokka continued when he, Katara, and Aang caught up to Toph. "We better approach cautiously." The boy raised another boulder.

"Hello there!" Katara called, walking up to the earthbender. "I'm Katara! What's your name?"

The boy gasped and dropped the boulder as he sprinted away, bending rocks to block their path.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang called after him.

"Pleasant guy," Sokka muttered.

"I just wanted to say hi..."

"Hey, Sugar Queen," Toph interrupted. "That guy had to be running somewhere, right? It was probably towards a village, which means a market, which means no nuts for dinner!"

She easily bent the rocks out of the path as Aang and Katara followed her down the path.

"Hey!" Sokka complained. "I worked hard for those nuts."

---

The four made it to a mining town that could probably fit inside half the Beifong estate. Toph sensed the boy and changed course. "Wait! We just want to talk."

The boy made it to a house and slipped inside. Toph, Sokka, Aang, and Katara followed him. "You," Katara gasped. "You're an earthbender!"

An older woman was in the house already, and she gasped in surprise. Toph's senses were dulled by the wood floor, but there was enough dirt and grime coating it that she could still feel the woman's heart spike as the boy flinched violently.

"They're crazy, Mom," the boy insisted. "I mean, look at the way they dress!"

"You know how dangerous that is," the woman, probably the boy's mother, hissed. "You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending."

"Who's they?" Toph asked, confused. "And what's wrong with earthbending? I do it all the time."

"You're an earthbender?" the boy asked. His eyes were probably widening, but Toph wasn't quite sure. You know, blind and all.