Author’s Note:

Finally, here’s chapter 2 of “Cloudy Eyes.” Hope you like it, this one is

where Zuko comes in. Please review!

Disclaimer:

I would like to, but no. I don’t own Avatar or any of its characters.

Cloudy Eyes

Chapter Two: A Day Off

“Toph, where have you been? We woke up and you were gone.” Katara told Toph as she came in the door. For a minute Toph didn’t say anything, she just smiled in triumph.

“Oh, nowhere. I just went outside to get some fresh air.” She lied and sat down on the floor with the rest of the group.

“So, what are we going to do now? We still haven’t figured out anything about where Appa is, and the Dai Li’s probably making sure we don’t do anything else that can stop them.” Toph said and laid down on the floor with her feet up on the table.

“I don’t know…how about we just have another day off? That was fun before, wasn’t it?” Katara looked at the rest of the group, who all agreed except Toph.

“No way, last time we had a day off, you dragged me to that day spa thing where they touched my feet and put makeup on me! If we have another one of those ‘day offs,’ I’m going on my own this time.” Toph shouted, surprising the rest of the group. The others didn’t really think it would be a good idea to let Toph go out on her own again, especially since the last time she wanted to Toph couldn’t even put a poster for Appa up the right way.

“Are you sure that’s such a good idea, Toph? If you run into trouble, something could happen to you.” Sokka questioned. By now Toph was incredibly tired of everybody thinking that she couldn’t do things by herself. Just because she was blind, didn’t mean she couldn’t see.

“I’ve already told you, I don’t need anyone to take care of me. I’m twelve years old and can take care of myself just fine. Besides, I’m able to tell when someone’s coming near me.” Toph told them, finally calming down a bit.

“But you can’t tell who it is near you, so you should at least have one of us with you incase you come to close to an enemy.” Aang tried to convince Toph, but it wasn’t working.

“I’ll prove to you I can go a day by myself!” Toph shouted and walked out the door, slamming it along the way.

On the other side of Ba Sing Se, someone else was also getting a day off.

After working everyday until sunset at the teashop, Zuko finally got a break. His Uncle Iroh also had the day off, but chose to go back to the apartment and sleep through it.

This was the first time Zuko had really gone into town alone without actually being dragged there. He usually didn’t even like walking around, but this time he could go wherever he wanted without having to follow his uncle every place he went.

As he kept on walking, searching for something interesting to do that would die off his boredom, he noticed something highly strange. Nobody was around. Usually there were people all over in the lesser parts of Ba Sing Se, but for some weird reason all the stores were empty, and the paths were deserted. Something was going on, but where?

Zuko hunted around for someone he could ask what was going on, but the entire place was deserted. About to head back to his apartment and tell his uncle, Zuko saw someone up ahead of him turn a corner. He quickly turned the same corner to follow the person, but as he did, he saw what was causing the lack of people.

Toph was only walking for a few minutes when she started feeling large banging vibrations coming from up ahead of her. The closer she got to it the louder and heavier the vibrations were. Toph wasn’t sure what it was, but the noise it made was incredibly loud.

As she rounded a corner, she began running towards the vibrations. Once Toph became close enough though, she could hear music along with the noise, and was finally able to make out what the sound was. In front of her was a huge drum, beating to the sound of music a group of people were making with various types of instruments. People were all around listening to the music, dancing, and buying items from the booths set up all around. There was some kind of celebration going on, but Toph wasn’t sure what it was for. She had been to celebrations like this before, but not since she left to be Aang’s earthbending master. From the huge amount of people, it seemed as though every person in Ba Sing Se was there attending it.

“What’s going on here?” Toph wondered out loud.

Hearing her question at one of the booths near her, a lady answered her, “You don’t know? Why, it’s the 3rd Annual Bending Festival! People from all over the Earth Kingdom train every year for the Annual Bending Festival, where earthbenders and waterbenders gather to compete for the grand prize.”

At this point Toph became very curious about this strange competition, and wanted to know more.

“Well I’m an earthbender, and I’ve never heard of the Annual Bending Festival.” She told the lady.

“It’s only been going on for 3 years, so people who are new to Ba Sing Se probably don’t quite know a lot about it right now. Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll tell you all about it, ok?” The lady questioned.

Toph thought about it for a moment, wondering if it was really worth listening to some boring story about how the competition started, but decided to since it seemed like a pretty cool contest. So Toph sat down, and the lady started telling her all about it, and about the best thing of all, the grand prize.

As Zuko stood there, he saw what was making such a commotion that the entire city seemed abandoned. All over were people dressed in fancy clothing, and dancing to some kind of Earth Kingdom melody he had never heard before. Why were they doing this? Was it some kind of special day in the Earth Nation? It seemed to be something important, since tons of people were there celebrating.

Zuko was about to ask someone what was going on, when someone stepped up on stage, causing the crowds of people to become quiet.

“Attention ladies and gentle man, benders and citizens of Ba Sing Se. Welcome, to the 3rd Annual Bending Festival!” The mobs of people began to clap and cheer as the announcer continued, “This year we have some new competitors, making the competition a little more intense. Hope everyone is ready for this! Shall we start now?” Everyone around Zuko began shouting and cheering even louder than before, making Zuko cover his ears. For some reason, people really seemed to like this competition, so it must be good. Instead of walking off like Zuko felt like doing, he decided to stay and watch some of it; just enough to see what it was all about.

Once the announcer was done explaining about the competition, everyone came up near the front of the stage. Zuko noticed this, and walked up to the front also to go with the crowd and not get noticed himself.

All of the sudden, the ground under them started to shake. A large badgermole came up from behind the stage, and a muscular earthbender jumped off and onto the platform, waving at the people all around. Three more earthbender’s came up from the ground, landing on the stage one by one.

Next, a waterbender flew onto stage, creating a slide-like piece of ice that he came down on. Like the earthbender’s, more waterbender’s also came onto the stage, using the same technique as the first.

Once every competitor was there, Zuko could tell the Annual Bending Competition had begun.

Hope it was good:) Please review if you liked it, I love to get reviews. Also please let me know if you see any mistakes.