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Lin sat on her bed, her bare feet touching the stone floor. It was the dead of night and though she could feel the movement of the city outside her home - the vibrations from a nearby factory, the occasional pad of feet, a passing tram - inside, all was still.
Lin had lain in bed since her bedtime, far too strung up to sleep while her mind flashed between nervous and resentful. The tense atmosphere engulfing their house all day hadn’t lifted when her mother and her left for their respective rooms, door slamming behind them. Lin wondered if her mother could feel her heartbeat, transmitted through her bedding through the wood, and down to the floor. Her mother could sense an ant walking on the ground. Could she feel Lin’s heart jittering, exposing that she was awake? Could she tell that Lin had something planned? Did she regret her words, the way Lin regretted hers?
Even with her feet planted on the floor, all Lin could tell was that all was quiet in the house and her mother’s bedroom. Whether her mother was asleep or awake, in her bed or somewhere else was a mystery though.
She eyed her full travel bags where they sat in the open, under her windowsill. Ever since that first big, blow-up argument that never actually finished, Lin had been gradually stocking up on supplies. She had cached away the last of the food after grocery shopping earlier that morning, and finally, it was time.
Lin stood up and smoothly opened her window. Her mother had once told her that running away from home was the best thing she did. As Lin slipped out the window with her bags, she thought that if her mother was going to turn her into a second version of herself, then Lin would at least happily copy her in this.
She darted through Republic City, keeping far away from the occasional partaker in the city’s nightlife. She was confident that she could squash any gang member before they would be able to touch her, but drawing the attention of the police and being hauled back to her mother in shame was the last thing she had in mind.
It was around dawn when she passed between the United Republic of Nations and the Earth Kingdom. There was no hard border distinguishing the two, but as the darkness gradually lightened, the buildings and debris that marked the outskirts of the city had made way for the trees and stones of Earth Kingdom, and all that was left was a winding road.
--
Lin trudged along the road as it followed the hills and contours of the land. It was quieter in the open, without the background noise of a city. It was stiller as well, and Lin wonders if this how her mother had learned to distinguish between the delicate sway of a tree branch in the wind or the footfall of an elephant rat. Lin spent her focus on the vibrations coming from her feet, half in case someone followed her and half because of the wonderful world that seemed to open up beneath her.
So of course, she missed Tenzin on an airscoot until he zipped in front of her face, Oogi close behind.
Tenzin dismissed his airscoot and lightly fell to the ground. “What are you doing?” he asked.
Lin rolled her eyes. “What do you think, genius?”
“Fine. Why are you running away from home?” he asked.
“None of your business,” she replied.
Bumi would have kept pestering her with inane questions, and Kya would have snapped back at Lin, but Tenzin just undid his scoot and started walking next to her. He was considerate that way. Even though Lin could see perfectly well, she was used to relying on vibrations as a sixth sense, and she liked it when she and everyone else around her was connected to the earth.
After a while, Tenzin said, “Your mother dropped by this morning while Father and I were meditating. They sent me out of the room, but I eavesdropped with an airbending trick. I keep on forgetting to show you, but if I set up a stream of air just so, I can direct the sound wherever I want to. I think Father knew I was listening though, because he cut me off after a while. Auntie Toph was all ready to storm off after you, but Father convinced her to give you some space. He said something about children rebelling against overprotective parents, which quieted her down, though I think he was wrong and she was being perfectly reasonable in wanting to go after you and not being overprotective at all.”
Tenzin eyed her after finishing his spiel, to see if she’d react to his evaluation with characteristic annoyance. Lin instead felt relieved at hearing that her mother was no longer upset, as if a knot of guilt that had been buried in her belly since running away was unfolding.
“Did they send you after me as a compromise?” asked Lin.
“More or less. I volunteered, but neither of them seemed surprised,” replied Tenzin.
--
As had been the case for the past several days, the two of them stopped and made camp earlier than Lin had originally planned to, but she knew at that point, Tenzin would have been sick of walking. She was an earthbender and could likely trudge along for days at a time, though she had never actually tested it, but Tenzin much preferred to avoid using his legs. She also wanted to avoid pushing Tenzin too hard, or he would suggest riding Oogi, and she didn’t want to explain that she wanted to avoid further resemblance to her mother’s journeys with the Avatar as a child.
Tenzin lay down gratefully on a plush patch of grass and let out a sigh of relief, while Oogi started munching. Toph quickly set up a shelter for Oogi and a tent for them and ran through their supplies. On the outer edge of Earth Kingdom, the land was sparsely populated, especially since Republic City found it much more efficient to trade over the sea than the land. With their slower pace, Toph didn’t think they would make it to the nearest village without either resorting to the unpalatable hardtack buried at the bottom of her bags or supplementing their stores.
She told him to gather wood for a fire when he felt like standing up again and started walking a bit away from their camp, where she had felt a soft but characteristic rhythm of pulses. She stood very still and stomped against the ground suddenly, and walked over to where a limp elephant rabbit lay.
When she came back to camp, Tenzin had started a fire. He wrinkled his nose at the animals in her hand.
Lin rolled her eyes. “It’s not for you. I still have some buns in my bag for you.”
He started on the buns while she roasted the meat. The aroma made her mouth water and as always, she pitied Tenzin for missing out.
--
The next night, Lin dreamed that she was back in Republic City. The shopkeepers called her Toph Beifong’s daughter and wherever she walked, all roads led to the statue in front of the Police Force Headquarters.
She awoke at the sound of Tenzin talking to the man digging through their bags and felt a knife against her neck.
“You don’t have to do this. We’ll happily share” said Tenzin, who was already bound and against the tent wall.
While another man bound her hands, Lin ignored him and focused on the outside, where yet another man waited.
“Are you alright?” she asked Tenzin.
“I’m fine,” he said, utterly relaxed.
Lin’s feet weren’t bound yet, so she stomped, sending spikes of earth at the temples of the men around her and the one outside.
She felt Tenzin do a backflip and send a gust of air against the guy at their bags, slamming him against the side of their tent.
She and Tenzin dragged the unconscious men outside, and she fettered them with earth, covering their bodies and even their faces, save for some small holes for air.
“Now what?” asked Tenzin, eyeing their handiwork.
“I’m going back to sleep,” said Lin grumpily.
In the morning, she awoke once again to Tenzin talking. When she exited the tent, she saw that he had released their heads and arms from the ground and that they were happily feasting on her rabbit-elephant chunks while Tenzin was sucking on a mango seed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” hissed Lin.
“Don’t worry. I talked to them, and they were quite friendly once I showed them that we didn’t have anything of value in our bags,” reassured Tenzin.
“What about our money?” asked Lin, dropping her voice as low as she could.
“I didn’t show them that of course. I offered to split our food with them, and they promised that they would go find some legitimate work,” replied Tenzin.
Lin couldn’t believe Tenzin’s naivete. “You believe them? You know they’re just going to rob the next group of travellers they see,” she pointed out.
Tenzin shrugged. “Possibly. Unless you want to drag them back to your mother, there’s not much we can do about it though.”
Feeling even more annoyed, Lin stomped over to the men. “What do you have to say for yourselves?” she asked.
“Sorry,” said one.
“I think the meat needs more salt,” said the other.
“It’s not bad. You could do with some spices,” added a third.
Lin held her hand up before the fourth could criticize her cooking, and they all watched her as she grabbed her and Tenzin’s travel bags where they rested against the tent and started walking away.
“Don’t you want to eat something?” asked Tenzin, after he caught up with her, having stayed back to free the men.
“Not hungry,” she snapped, shutting him up.
They stopped a couple hours later, near the shores of a lake. Lin grabbed some jerky out of their bags but swatted Tenzin’s hand away when he started to dig through it for more vegetarian food.
“You gave our food away to thieves, so you’re going to have to replace it,” she said.
Tenzin wandered off, calling for Oogi.
Lin finished eating, then decided to wash up in the lake. As she floated on her back, she wondered how Chief-of-Police Toph Beifong would have acted. Lin decided that there was something ridiculous about running away from home because she was angry that her mother seemed insistent on making her daughter exactly like herself, and then acting just like her.
She stayed there, getting as wrinkly as a raisin, until Tenzin came back bearing a heap of peaches as a peace offering.
--
Er, Lin? Why are we going southeast?
Took you long enough to notice.
Isn’t Ba Sing Seng to the east?
Who said we were going to Ba Sing Seng?
It has to be in Earth country, or you would have snuck aboard a ship back in Republic City. You’re not the only one who seeks out Grand-Uncle whenever they fight with their parents. You just have to hope Kya and Uncle Sokka are getting along or you’ll have to share a room with her.
You’re wrong. We’re going to Gaoling.
What’s in Gaoling?
You’ll see.
--
Eventually:
Lin and Tenzin entered the Jade Dragon, only to find Toph chatting with Iroh over tea, while his assistants greeted them.
“What took you so long?” said Toph, when they reached them, “I expected you weeks ago.” She reached into her clothes and handed Tenzin a sealed envelope. “This goes to Professor Kang at Ba Sing Se university.”
Tenzin blinked. “Shoo, kiddo,” she said.
“Good to see you, Mother, Great-Uncle Iroh,” said Lin cautiously.
“Finally gonna admit I’m right and come back to Republic City? If you’re going to be an earthbender, you might as well learn from the greatest earthbender in the world,” said Toph.
“I’m never going to become a great earthbender if I stay stuck in your shadow,” replied Lin.
They began to argue, which frustrated Lin, because ever since visiting Gaoling, she had decided to be a more understanding of her mother. Iroh had to walk between them, and firmly separated them before they stopped yelling. “Toph, why don’t you show Lin her room so she can put down her things,” he suggested.
Lin grabbed her bags and followed Toph to the guest room. She froze when she entered it, finding her bed and her clothes and the trinkets she had left behind in Republic City.
When she walked back out, Toph was guffawing.
“Does this mean...?” asked Lin, shocked that her mother might have given in.
“Yes,” replied Toph. “I have already made arrangements with Professor Kang, and you will be assisting her with her research starting next week.”
Impulsively, Lin hugged her. “You’re the best!” she said.
Toph shrugged out of the hug. “Wait a couple weeks first. I hear she’s a slave driver.”
“She can’t be worse than you,” said Lin, smiling happily.
“Eeesh, enough with the mushiness. I have to get going. Oh, tell your boyfriend that Twinkletoes wants him to meet him at the Eastern air temple by the autumn equinox,” said Toph, who started heading out of the shop.
“He’s not my boyfriend!” shouted Lin at Toph’s retreating back.
Lin went to find Iroh to celebrate.