A/N: Hiya peeps. This is a one-shot based on the latest eppie; The Blind Bandit. It's from Toph's POV and is about how she feels about her life.

Cages

I was born blind.

My world is all vibrations; bands of white light moving across the black statues that are people, walls, and even the smallest ants.

To me, words like "red", "purple", "blue" and all the other colors are just words. For all I know, a "purple" robe could be "green".

I can feel the sun's warmth across my face, but have never seen its light; at "night", I feel a dark coolness that embraces everyone and everything.

And yet, I don't feel…what's the word? Oh yeah, "helpless" like Father and Mother, and pretty much everyone else, except Aang and his friends (I guess...and hope) seem to think.

Mom and Dad think that my cage is my blindness. Ha! To that, I have but one thing to say: What cage? My blindness is no cage.

My cage is them.

For 12 years, I couldn't even call myself my own person. Why? Because they hid me away from the world, afraid I would've be used against them.

Their so called "love" smothers me; their opinion of my skills traps me more efficiently than any iron bars.

When Father commanded that I be kept at the beginning level, my heart broke Sometimes I felt (and still do...just not as much, now that I'm with Aang, Katara and Sokka...) as if Earthbending was the only thing holding me down; keeping me from falling into the void that would spit me back out as the helpless little thing my parents think I am.

I think that's why I became the Blind Bandit, so I could Earthbend the way I wanted to, when I wanted to. The money and fame were just pleasant perks.

As far as I can see, it is not I who am blind, but my parents.