Chapter 28.2- And so the Dragons Danced

“No, no. Not my daughter. She is frail and blind and can not even understand what is going on here. She can’t offer you anything. Please.” There was real horror in his face. His wife’s arm had tightened around Toph so much that if the girl were truly as frail as they thought, then she would have already been screaming in pain. But she took it all with nary a flinch.

“I do think she can offer me quite a lot. It is not your place to tell me either ways” Almost impossibly, Poppy’s grip tightened and she let out a sob. Lao looked both scared out of his mind and disgusted at the same time. I replayed the sentence in the context again and I realised just what it seemed like I was requesting. I resisted the urge to facepalm, but just barely.

It made me shudder at the thought of the the kind of rumours being spread about my people across the Kingdom if they were so willing to believe I’d be interested in defiling a blind child with literally no evidence to support the assumption either. Even the way Toph had stiffened showed that the concern felt by her parents had begun to bleed into her. I took a deep breath so none of my aggravation would leak into my voice when I spoke next.

“Lao, Poppy. I have no intention of harming your daughter. I do just want to speak with her, and I feel that your presence here would be Counterproductive to that goal, but if you do want to stay, then I will not push the point” I said, yeilding the point to them after thinking for a bit. Even the whisper of a rumour that I did things like that could taint my honour for decades. The worst part was that there would always be those, even among Fire nation nobility, who would believe such a rumour without a second thought. Sure, the taint would be a minor one, but it would one persistent.

Even till date, tongues still wagged of what exactly Admiral Rensuke had done to the water bender women he captured. The fact that the rumours had come to me through word of mouth and I’d just taken them as fact and allowed them to soil my opinion of the man showed me just how careful I had to be.

“Then we will be staying, Major General” The man spoke for both himself and his wife.

“Toph. The name is Toph right?” I asked her.

“Yes. She is named after my-“

“Shut up, Lao. You are here for your peace of mind, but do be silent. This is a conversation between benders” I said.

The man wanted to reply instantly, probably going to spout some shmiel about how she was barely a bender, but he thought better of it.

“Like I was saying, Toph. Do you know I was around your age when I first bent lightning for the first time. I used it to kill a man. He had paid a grave insult to my family, and had caused me a severe injury that even threatened my life. We fought in Agni Kai, and I won. That was when the Fire Nation acknowledged what I’d known for years. I was a master fire bender. More talented than the lot of them, and just plain better” I said.

Her body language was still. Almost like she could barely hear the words I spoke or didn’t care for them, but that was only on first appearances. I knew what a bored Toph look like. The conversation before word had turned to assassinations had bored her. No, she was enthralled with my speech. That was why she did not move.

“Of course, I’ve only gotten better since then. Just as you’d call yourself the Greatest Earthbender in the World, I’d call myself the Greatest Firebender in the World. Except unlike you, it wouldn’t be a mere boast.” Her head snapped to mine. I smiled. Bait taken.

“You have no idea what I can do” She instantly riposted. She hadn’t even bothered attempting to deny being as good as I presented her as. Of course, she could probably read my heartbeat and tell that I was certain about her.

A/N: Progress