Contemplating Soundbending

"I'm not related to these idiots," I said to the Omashu guards, as I jerked my thumb towards the "family" of three. Why couldn't they just walk in normally? I'm sure the guards wouldn't of stopped them.

...

I was exploring Omashu on my own. The reason being that three people couldn't fit in one cart to ride the mail delivery system. So, that sucked.

I had a map in my hand of the Earth Kingdom, looking intently at it. 'Gaoling isn't that far away, maybe I should go visit Toph?' I thought.

To pick her brain about Seismic Sense, as I wanted to start working on Soundbending. Especially since I learned that Sub-Bending required me to be at level ninty for Airbending, so that meant I could have some success in my endeavors. Like with Flight. While not a total success, or even a completely viable option yet, I could still do it.

'I guess I'll find a bookstore in the meantime?' I rolled up the map, and shoved it into my inventory. That sounded like a good idea.

...

All the books here are shit. No imagination. They're written in long words, meaningless descriptions, and have terrible storylines. With a sigh, I could only hope that the fire nation had better books. They were more advanced technology, though I had no idea if that correlated to books.

I looked around the majority of the stores I came across. They had nothing I really wanted to spend my money on.

I had two entire days to myself. Aang, Sokka, and Katara would be with the King of Omashu until tomorrow night. Visiting Toph seemed like a more and more interesting prospect. She was going to be the Greatest Earthbender, and the creator of Metalbending. While she wasn't either of those things just yet, she might give me some ideas.

'The only question is, could I make it back here in two days?' Was that realistic? No, it wasn't.

'I... ugh. Should I risk it, or not? Maybe. In fact, I think it'd be quite a good idea! I'll leave a message with Appa explaining that I went to get Aang an Earthbending teacher and will meet them at the Northern Water Tribe. This will save us some time, making it more likely for him to learn all four elements.' I didn't think it was a bad plan.

'Well, I guess I should start buying supplies if I'm actually going to go through with this,' I thought to myself.

...

Food, water, an extra sleeping bag, a fire starter, clothes, a few notebooks and writing utensils. But then, sudden inspiration struck me.

'A glider,' I thought. If I got an air glider, I could fly without expending much Chi. It'd cut down my travel time.

'But where will I get one?' At times like these, I was frustrated at my lack of foresight. After all, I had lived in the Southern Air Temple for months, and yet I didn't bother stealing an Airbender Staff!

'I guess I was too obsessed with Flight,' I thought. Indeed, if I could fly indefinitely, why would I need a glider? Unfortunately, I couldn't. Yet.

I would get there, eventually. But the quickest way I could get there, I thought, was making Soundbending. My Airbending would have to level up rapidly since I would be trying to make a whole new Sub-Bending Style, right? For that, I needed Toph's insight.

'Actually... do I though?' I wondered. Toph only managed to do Metalbending through something that the blind Badgermoles had innately, Seismic Sense. Or learned. I didn't quite remember that part, or maybe it was never made clear if it was innate or came with the Earthbending package for the moles.

'I'm pretty sure it was innate though,' I told myself. Alright then, that's that.

"Now, what do the Flying Bison have innately? Related to sound?" Maybe I could learn the nature of Air, like how Toph was deeply connected to Earth, if I figured out this question.

"I mean... Appa can hear. He has ears." Shit. Either I was stupid, unobservant, or this was just a hopeless endeavor.

"Wait." But then it came to me. 'How can we hear each other speak if Appa's flying quite fast?' I remembered how there was no sound other than Aang and the rest speaking.

Clearly wind was blowing, as Appa's fur and all our clothes ruffled. But no sound of the wind.

'Is this a lead? Or am I just thinking too deeply about it? Is this how I descend into insanity? Soundbending?' I questioned myself.

'No, I have to be on to something, right?' But I clearly couldn't just ask Appa.

'Hm. Appa probably does it subconsciously, or it's innate like with the Badgermoles.' I guess Toph might help me?

After all, she has an extremely close connection with the Earth. Since Air and Earth are opposites, I could definitely learn from her example.

"Alright, I guess that's it then, I'm leaving" I finally decided. I felt a little bad about leaving Aang and the rest, but this was important! Plus, they would get along fine without me.

So I got to work on writing a note explaining where I was going. In the evening, I set out towards Gaoling, the home of the Beifong Family.

...

Time passed as I traveled. Two days had went by since I first left Omashu. In the middle of all that traveling, I managed to level up {Sword Mastery}. I may of looked like an idiot swinging a sword as I walked, but the results didn't lie. Repetition never disappoints.

{Sword Mastery} (Passive)

LV Master (-99% EXP Gained)

EXP: 0/20,000 (Locked)

Requirements for Next Level: ?

Passively increases DEX by 400% when holding a sword

Passively increases damage with a sword by 250%

Increases the skill in which you wield a sword

[You have fulfilled the requirements to get the title, Master Swordsman!]

"Oh fuck me. There's another level? With unknown requirements?" I wanted to say that it was a good thing the skill could still improve. If it wasn't for the fact that I was TIRED of SWINGING a GODDAMN SWORD! {Extinguishing Sword} had also gotten up to level seventy, but I decided to stop with the sword business for now. Especially since I would only be leveling up one skill if I swung a sword. That was inefficient.

As I was unable to practice swordsmanship anymore, thankfully, I decided to start punching air with {Extinguisher} activated. Air burst from my fist with each swing as I spent chi.

Why did my grind never seem to end?

...

As I walked, I thought about how to convince Toph. Just in case she didn't jump at the chance to run away from her parents. Which, I don't know why she would at this point. The plan was to tell her the secret to Metalbending. Ingratiating herself to me, and hopefully ending up with her trusting me enough to help. There was no harm in having her learn it in advance, only pluses.

Unless she ends up using Metalbending against me. That... probably wouldn't be pleasant.

'That's an understatement.'

...

My mind wandered as I walked, mindlessly punching and using Airbending. Eventually, my thoughts ended up thinking about Aang.

'It's probably been a few days since they noticed I left,' I thought.

'Hopefully Aang didn't take it the wrong way.' I left because I needed to, well...

'I didn't NEED to leave, but... he doesn't need to know that.' I made it sound like I had to in the note I left.

'I couldn't have said I left for the sake of quickly improving my Airbending by inventing a completely, never done before, Bending Style that I don't know if I can actually make or not. Who'd believe that?' The kid would've thought that I left because of something he did. Which just wasn't the case.

...

The mountains where Gaoling resided. I finally caught sight of them after three more days of walking. The time was approaching.

'Hopefully Toph's input can actually help me invent Soundbending,' I hoped.

If not... the trip wouldn't of been worthless, but not as worthwhile or productive as I wanted it to be. But, Toph was a good teacher, so I had confidence.

...

'Finally.' It took to more days of walking, but I was here. Standing in front of Gaoling.

'I'd estimate that we have around a month and a half before the attack on the Northern Water Tribe.' I'm sure we could travel across the entire desert, and then some within that time frame.

'Did I really think this through...?' I questioned myself.