Pitch black. It was pitch black when she woke up, but then again, she was pretty much used to it. She was blind after all, and pitch blackness was the usual setup, as far as things could get. She just had to place her feet on the ground, and she'd be able to, if not "See" then at least sense. She could hear voices already. And although in her shifting off from sleep to being awake she didn't recognize them, she was sure they would belong to someone she knew. Most likely those of the "Gaang", that is, Aang, Katara, Sokka, herself, and Zuko.
Something was wrong though, and she felt it as soon as she placed her first foot on the ground. She couldn't sense the heartbeat of her friends, nor could she sense their bipedal way of walking. No, it seemed in here, everyone sort of walked on four feet. Though it weren't feet she was feeling, it were more like...hooves or something?
That instantly got her awake, she stood up from where she was and raised her hands in a defensive position, ready to kick someone or something's butt with earthbending. That was, if she actually could earthbend, at this point she didn't even know. She noticed for the first time the smell. It didn't smell like the slightly dry, dusty, earth kingdom she had traveled for so long, it smelled far nicer...even if there was a slight scent of sweat and hay. She didn't like hay very much. Luckily it also smelled like wood, and clear blue skies, pastries that made her mouth fill itself with desire (and spit), and ink. She didn't know what use there could be to ink to a bunch of four legged beings with hooves, but the smell was there. The most important smell to her, though, was the smell of dirt, and there was plenty of it!! She could feel it stretching out for miles and miles, through some kind of plantation, and then to a sort of undomesticated terrain, with lots of roots and trees.
But she had no time to think of that! She had to act, quickly. Everyone had stopped their wandering around and where now looking at her, she focused hard trying to hear what they said, but through the full on whispers and excited shouts of the little ones (yes there were smaller variations of those beings), she couldn't hear a thing.
She could sense one of them coming, from what looked like a tree. She was confused at first, but then she remembered herself she didn't even know how those beings lived. This one seemed to be slicker and taller, and it was being followed by 5....that soon turned into 4, of those others, who followed it through the town, or settlement, or whatever this was. Toph was nervous, where had the other being gone? The only place she couldn't sense through was the air. and in if those beings could fly she was practically helpless! She could throw spheres of earth at random, but the probabilities of them hitting one of those things would be zero to none.
"Alright twilight, here it is! The being that just appeared in mid air, with a bed." Came a voice from behind her, somewhere up in the air, if she wanted to, she could probably hit her, for it was definitively a feminine voice, but it was best to be on the defense. She didn't want to cause any unnecessary hostilities, yet. And if those things could talk, heck, maybe they could even bring her back home. She was sure her friends were looking for her. Their friendship had been forged on the battlefield.
"Calm down Rainbow I'm sure you're over reacting and there's nothing wrong with...."
She stopped her sentence midway when she saw the strange creature if front of her. Toph could't see, but she was sure she was looking at her, again, a female voice.
"And just what exactly are you? Some kind of threat?"
"Calm down, calm down, even if she were a threat, I'm sure she wouldn't tell us, but I'm also interested in knowing, just exactly, what are you?"
Oh Great. Toph thought. Seems like I'm the first of my kind here.
Her throat dried up a little, she was used to being lonely, she had been for the first 12 years of her life, but in the last few months she had learned all about friendship and stuff, she felt a heavy urge to cry, an urge she suppressed. This was not the time for it. Her voice still weak, and trying to hold it's tone, but failing, miserably, she answered.
"I'm...I'm human."
From the back one of those things got on two legs, (which gave her some brief hope that it wouldn't be so different, but it was quickly drowned in by reality), said something like "SEE? I told you so"
The pony who seemed to be in charge of the whole situation, told her to hush up, and called her a "Lyra". Weird names, first Rainbow, now Lyra. The thought came to Toph's mind.
After a few intense seconds, where everyone was in silence and you could feel the anxiety everywhere, the one in charge visibly relaxed and said she'd "Handle things in private on the library."
The one called Rainbow picked her up from the ground and put her on her backside, and told her to hold still, Toph could feel the creature's heartbeat, as well as some feathers on her sides. Before she could protest, they lifted flight, and she started screaming. It was one thing, riding on Appa, with a group of people she trusted. It was another thing entirely being put in a situation where she couldn't see a thing, and be completely helpless to any sort of things they might want to do with her.
Luckily the ride was short, and after a few minutes they were there.
"Geez, you really do have some lungs, I wasn't going to let you fall or anything, I'm a professional!"
Toph made a small gesture, lifting a few pounds of dirt and making this so called "Rainbow" fall backwards on her rump.
Everyone seemed to be staring at her, again.
"You can do magic? But how? You don't have a horn!"
Now she needed to have a horn to earthbend? And what was this talk about magic? It was simply moving the elements.
"Well....Discord doesn't have a horn either, so..."
Another voice said, and they all started whispering, Toph sighed, and enclosed herself in earth, she was tired (even if she had just woken up), hungry, she was alone, she didn't even know what those things wanted, or what they were. They seemed like just an animal with no mixtures, but that couldn't be. And apparently they could fly, leaving her totally incapacitated.
A soft knock on her dirt turned solid place made her open up and say in a harsh tone (due to anger):
"What?"
"Oh hum, I excuse me....but I...I..I"
"Yes?"
"I've never heard of a human and I'm an animal expert, could you tell me more about yourself? Are all humans capable of doing magic?"
Was she serious? And again with the story about magic, there was something in that voice, so soft it was unbearable, like the creature was afraid of even herself,
"And I also wanted to ask...are you ok? You look like a child, you shouldn't be alone!"
That made Toph laugh, if only this creature knew what she had done in the last couple of months.
"It's good to see you laugh. at least you're not all that bad, it seems."
"I'm fine"
And she enclosed herself back in. The sounds from outside muffled.
"Well, it seems like not all of those creatures are crazy and flying beasts that make me ride them" She said to herself. "Still, I have to do something."
She needed a plan. Soon.
But it seemed those creatures had stopped talking, she emerged from her cocoon of dirt.
The taller one of them started talking.
"If you promise us to behave, and don't go on a magical element bending mayhem of destruction, then I can cure your blindness."
Toph stopped, momentarily, did she want to be cured?