castleinthemist | 02

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02 - open

Toph knew she found the courtyard through various senses. She could smell the fresh air, hear the birds, and feel the warm sunlight and cool breeze. The hard stone from the castle faded into softer walkway stone as she moved out into the yard. When her feet touched the grass, she smiled to herself. No longer was the resonance of vibration from the earth surging out and back at her with all its strength. Instead, it met resistance and the grass muffled her senses as it tickled her feet, creating a sort of static for her until it gave way under her soles to let foot meet soil and allow the reverberations communicate to her nearly half a second later than solid ground.

It was a strange sensation, but she welcomed it. It calmed her, and she continued to smile while she moved to what she thought was a nice spot.

She breathed calmly and evenly as she took her stance. One move, another, and then a third, and a perfectly shaped chaise rose up from the ground. She felt proud of herself as she moved to it and lay down, body lying comfortably against the contour of the grass-covered reclining seat.

Once decidedly comfortable, Toph pulled a flask from her belt and took a drink from it. Nice, cool water. She'd stolen the idea from another castle inhabitant and had made one out of a chunk of metal ripped from her bed frame. He used his for naughty juice; she used hers for water.

Toph felt a little guilty. Most of the castle was trying to figure out how to get out of there. She, though, wasn't putting so much effort into it. Sure, she wanted to leave, but what could she do? She'd promised a new friend that she wouldn't go far without eyes to help her spot the monsters she couldn't detect. While she wanted to do her part of the exploring and searching for a way home, she didn't want to be useless in a fight against a flying shadow with claws.

There were very few times that Toph would admit her blindness to be a hindrance. A skirmish against the monsters that moved without contact or sound was one of those very few times.

"I'll just wait for a friend," she told no one before closing her eyes and laying her head back against her arm.

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It was most likely Toph could feel and hear the footsteps long before Ratchet was close. But the Lombax was out and about again today, wrench in hand, exploring. He was glad to have found his way outside without getting lost today. He needed the fresh air and badly. This place was getting to him again and he didn't want that. He just needed to find some place to relax outside and enjoy the sun. Of course imagine his surprise when he found the girl in the rock chair, just sitting there.

"Um...hi."

By the time he'd approached her, Toph was sitting up, her feet flat against the grassy ground. She'd felt more than heard the foot steps and ... it confused her. She'd never felt anything like that before, except maybe once back home in the forest with some stalking creature.

That being the case, she was quite interested in what was coming her way.

It was startling when he spoke, but with all she'd encountered since arriving, it wasn't really enough to scare her into doing more than lifting an eyebrow.

"Hi," she returned.

Ratchet smiled at her. She was a human like Duo was obviously. And at least she wasn't freaking out about him being fluffy. That was a good sign.

"I'm Ratchet. I don't think we've met."

"I don't think so, either. I think I'd remember a voice like that."

And foot steps like that. Maybe he's what she'd heard once or twice and merely dismissed it as creatures in the wall.

"I'm Toph," she greeted, hand over fist and bowing over it all respectfully.

Oh! Ratchet mimicked Toph's movement and bowed back. It was only the right thing to do...right? He didn't want to make any enemies here. Not when there weren't many places to run.

"So long long have you been here Toph?"

It didn't matter- she couldn't tell whether he'd done it or not. Even if she could, it still wouldn't have mattered. If anything, she did it merely through habit.

She sat back down on her relaxing chair and scratched a leg.

"I lost interest in counting after a few days. How about you?"

"About two or three weeks maybe? I've been keeping count in my room. I make a mark whenever I go to sleep and wake up. Though with my insomnia, I may be a few days short." He chuckled and walked over to her.

"I've been around this castle and never seen the ground be like this before. Strange."

"The ground here is flat," she agreed. "I put it this way."

It seemed like this was an okay place to flaunt her Bending. If anything, people were more interested in it than they were scared by it. She was still so used to having to keep it a secret in new towns and villages because of the Fire Nation inhabitants so it was actually rather nice to get some exercise with it.

"Why, you want one, too?" She smirked at him.

That caught his interest. Somehow she could change and mess with the shape of the ground? He had to see this.

"Yeah. Mind making me one?" He needed to see if she used some sort of tech to do this. If she did, maybe they could use it to restructure the castle a bit and find a way out easier.

"No prob," she smirked, cracking her knuckles before dropping onto her feet again. She replicated her movements from earlier, though with less effort this time.

Within a few seconds, he had his own, just like hers, only just as tall as he was, give or take an inch or two.

"How's that?" She climbed back into her seat and reclined back, hand under her head and feet crossed at the ankles.

"Holy Zoni! How did you do that!" Excuse the Lombax as he walked around the chair, looking at it with wide eyes before he sat down and got comfortable.

"Dang, this is better than it looks."

Toph couldn't help but smile to herself. She loved hearing her work praised. While she wasn't an attention hog, she certainly was just fine with getting all that she was given.

"Thanks," she told him, scratching her chest.

The more she focused on him, the more she began to see his form. Big ears, tail, rather un-human shape and stance and balance...

Her face contorted from confused to surprised and back to intrigued, though she wasn't looking at him as she went through the thought process. It might look a bit odd to anyone not in her head at the time.

"You're welcome but how did you do this? Are you magic or something?" Ratchet laid back in his chair and watched Toph. He could tell by the look on her face she was interested in him and several people were. Not a lot of alien contact in his place.

"Oh, and I'm a Lombax if you're wondering."

"It's not magic, it's Bending," she told him. "What's a Lombax? Like a lemur?"

She didn't mean to be rude. She knew what it was like to be different, and while she knew that most people were like her and were totally okay with it, she was still sensitive and empathetic to those who hadn't yet learned that what made them different could make them stronger and better.

It's just that when she "looked" at him, the closes thing she could compare him to was a great big Momo.

"Bending huh? Never seen or heard of anything like that before. A Lombax is...well I'm from space, pretty much. Where I'm from all sorts of aliens travel in space between planets."

This was a strange way to explain it. Over all it seemed most people here had no idea what space travel was or if it was even possible. Duo knew and that was nice and all. But hey, he didn't mind explaining it.

Toph snorted. So ladylike, wasn't she?

"More space people? Do you live next to the sun and play on the stars, too?"

Clearly, she didn't understand the concept of anything beyond the clouds.

Okay, that got Ratchet to chuckle. Of all the responses he got for being from space that one was the most hilarious.

"Not exactly. I'm guessing you had a world you used to live on? Well there are other worlds out there. Lots of them. So any "space people" just come from other worlds out in space."

She pondered that for a short time, digging in her ear as she did so.

"We just discovered hot air balloons. I was told that's ancient, simple technology, but to us, it's the newest best form of travel."

Let that tell Ratchet how opposite of advanced Toph's world is.

"Hot...air...balloons? You all make me sad. Technology is really a great thing." He sighed and kicked a pebble off of his chair.

"Which sucks because we don't have any here to help us get off this planet."

Toph was quiet. She sat up and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees.

"Do you think there's even a way back to our homes? Technology or not?"

"Well for most of us, yeah. I think so. We got here somehow so there has to be a way to go back. You are talking to a Lombax here. My ancestors created a hat that could open portals between dimensions. If we put our minds to it we can easily get out of here."

Well, now Toph had heard it all.

Hats that could open portals. Living on floating chunks of metal. Being close to the sun and not melting. Being transported to an energy sucking castle out of no where. Monsters made out of shadows. Talking lemurs.

Yep. Nothing could surprise her anymore.

"If you say so," she shrugged, unable to form enough of a fluent thought to argue.

"Yeah this is all a little weird for me too. This place is kind of messed up. I checked almost every inch of that sarcophagus room and found nothing that could have brought us here. Something had to of done it though..." Ratchet leaned back into his chair and tapped his chin.

"I was blaming Avatar magic but I'm the only one here that's ever heard of that... so that's out."

She sighed loudly, sounding annoyed and frustrated with the whole situation. Who wasn't, though?

"Well maybe it was some kind of magic...but I don't know. How could magic pull all of us here like this and we not see anything? There's something really screwy happening here. And I'm going to find out what it is."

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