A/N: First things first...
Sorry for not uploading the past few weeks! Things have been hectic since my internship ended. College life started again, and I underestimated how bad college life was, holy. Not only that, I had some IRL urgent stuff that had to be completed, too.
I'll make it up to you! From today (Wednesday) to Friday, I'll be uploading a chapter every single day. 3 chapters this week.
After that, from next week onwards, it's 2 chapters a week! Schedule is not confirmed yet.
Again, sorry for the wait! I hope you enjoy the coming chapters in the next few days!
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She's gone.
Excuse my language, but where the fuck did she go?!
I stood in the middle of her room, heart hammering, and quietly shut the door behind me before anyone in the corridor could see the empty room where the young lady should have been, trying to formulate what had occurred.
It was a typical day in the Beifong estate; I woke up early, oversaw her breakfast, then went to wake my lady. Toph grumbled through her morning like she always did, acting as usual with the multiple classes that she had to attend for her etiquette lessons.
Today, though, she finished early. That gave her a good two to three hours of free time before dinner, so she requested that no one interrupt her whilst she enjoyed the downtime.
I should have noticed that something was up; she had always called for me whenever she wanted silence—but how? How did she leave without a single soul noticing?
And more importantly, how long has she been gone? Since she hadn't called for me, I was busy attending to the new servants who joined recently. Clumsy as they were, they had the heart and determination to serve such a noble (and rich) family. Looking at the time, it had been an hour, give or take, since I last saw her.
All she left behind was a note in her handwriting on her desk.
["I'm going out for a while. Don't worry, I'll be back in a few."]
That doesn't explain anything, my lady! Going out where? With whom? How?
The estate walls are high enough for a child her size. The gates are monitored heavily. The grounds are never unguarded with regular patrols. And yet she was gone without a single alarm raised.
Wracking my head, I suddenly remembered something.
Ever since they'd been sneaking out of the estate to give Toph a breather from the tense atmosphere a few months back, she had always been staring out in the distance with that frown of hers while they were out. I've been taking care of her from the time she was a baby, and that frown usually meant that something had caught her attention.
Once, after returning her safely home that evening, I went back alone to investigate. I searched the alley thoroughly from the rooftops to the crates to even the trash piled against the walls. I found nothing that was out of the ordinary. With my paranoia resolved, I let the matter fade.
But with her gone without a trace, I had to search the alleyway again.
Making sure to lock the door after announcing to the servants outside that Lady Toph required uninterrupted rest and was not to be disturbed, I silently slid the window by the balcony open before disappearing with a blur, launching myself over and past the high estate walls and out into Gaoling.
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Vaulting across the rooftops, I cut through Gaoling in a straight line, eventually reaching the familiar intersection that came into view within minutes. I dropped from the ground, landing on both feet.
A few passersby stared at the sudden entry, but I ignored them as I stalked forward with my body tensed, ready to burst into action at any time.
"Toph?" I called out her name as I scanned the passage carefully.
Nothing. I didn't find anything that pointed to Toph being here, other than trash and leftovers that stained the narrow space—
My eyes narrowed as I moved forward.
At the very end of the alley, half-hidden behind a toppled basket, lay a piece of rock. Flat and rectangular, it was far too uniform to have simply fallen there by accident. It rested over what appeared to be a thin crack splitting the stone pavement.
It was light enough to be pulled without both hands. Darkness greeted me with a diagonal tunnel that had no end in sight. The gap was just enough for someone like me to fit in.
Someone like Toph to fit through with ease.
I jumped down the hole without hesitation.
While rocky and jagged at first, the texture and shape of the tunnel eventually smoothed out. It was still a miserable crawl, but the further I continued forward into the unknown passage, the space began to expand.
The ceiling lifted inch by inch, as did the walls, widening to fit my frame until I could finally straighten my back. With my guard up and Chi circulating at a ready pace, what seemed to be hours passed since my lady's disappearance—
The giggling of a young child echoed through the tunnels before me.
I sped up my trekking.
Soon, I reached my objective.
"Badgers?"
In the center of the cavern, rolling across the smooth stone floor, was the young lady herself. Giggling uncontrollably, a cluster of badger-like creatures her size nudged and pawed at her sides, their blunt claws brushing against her ribs and shoulders in a playful gesture, their snouts bumping her gently.
Around them stood the larger variants. Massive animals with striped fur and limbs tipped with thick claws, presumably their parents, quietly watched over the children while they ate from a roughly shaped stone bowl.
My appearance caused a stir as the adults reacted instantly; several of them stepped forward, circling the smaller ones protectively, with the rest turned toward me with their claws digging into stone and fangs bared.
Then her head snapped in my direction.
Our eyes met.
And Toph's face lit up.
"Ren!" she called, scrambling as the smaller creatures chattered around her ankles. "Look, I made some friends!"
Blinking, I lowered my guard as I stared at the animals pressed against her sides. And then my gaze shifts to the adults who disengaged at her excitement.
"Huh."
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"Badgermoles?" I asked as I settled down next to her, watching as she petted the badger-like cub in her hands.
"Mhmm! They're the kind of animals that live underground. And they can Earth Bend!"
I stared at the young lady after processing her words. "... Say what now?"
She grinned excitedly.
Before I could question further, she slammed her heel into the ground. A carved chunk of rock, roughly the size of her head, shot upward from the cavern floor, hovering for a fraction of a second before she drove her fist into it.
The rock launched like a projectile towards one of the adult Badgermoles, who deflected it with ease.
It shot towards another Badgermole, who repeated the same action, deflecting it to another one of its kind. Slowly, it became a game of hot potato, with each participant redirecting the stone without shattering it, without missing, until the final Badgermole in the circle stomped the ground, ending the game by Bending a pillar of rock upwards to intercept the hot potato.
Wiping her brow, she turned her head toward me, eyes sparkling, clearly expecting some words of praise for her display of Earth Bending.
I, however, could only utter a single word.
"Huh?!"
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NEXT UPDATE: 9 April, Thursday
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