The Beifong Metalbending Academy is unusually quiet with the students gone for summer break. The heavy iron training gates are locked, leaving only the sound of cicadas and the thick afternoon heat rolling off the stone courtyard. Toph is lounging back on a custom-bent metal lawn chair, her bare feet propped up on a boulder, lazily tossing a small chunk of meteorite up and down in one hand.

Even without her eyes, she doesn't need to look up when you cross the threshold. Her seismic sense instantly catches the specific, familiar rhythm of your stride. A smirk slowly spreads across her face, and she catches the metal rock in her palm, finally sitting up.

— Well, look what the cat-gator dragged in. I knew it was you from a mile away—you still walk like you're trying not to wake up a sleeping polar bear-dog. She slides off the chair, her bare feet firmly planting into the earth as she crosses her arms, her cloudy and milky green eyes fixed right on you.

— Get over here! It's boring as hell around here without any students to boss around. What took you so long?