Stone and Fire

by Hawki

Oneshot: Earth, air, fire, water. All powerful elements in their own right. But in the end, only earth would remain.

Stone and Fire

All mortals use fire. Yet all mortals fear it.

It is fire that drives away the beast. It is fire that wards against the cold touch of air and water. Yet fire can do what the beast and elements may fail at. But in the end, fire cannot stand against earth. The earth shifts. The earth changes. The earth remains strong. Fire may scour its surface, but it will never go deeper. You cannot make a rock bleed.

And yet I feel pain. Deathwing's emergence has done that to me. Splitting through the earth in a burst of fire. The so called Earth-Warder, now no different from Ragnaros. Mortals feel his wrath on the surface above. His fire. While earth remains torn. We have a common enemy. For now. But they will outlive their usefulness. Earth is eternal. Life is not. Long after this world becomes the blasted rock it's fated to be, long after the last of the Old Gods themselves have departed this universe, earth will remain. It always does.

I can rebuild the earth. Make it stronger than before. One grain of sand at a time if need be. Long. Painless. I can wait out fire. Deathwing. Ragnaros. Even if air and water seek to mimic their fellow element's destruction, I can still stand strong.

I am not mortal. I am Therazane the Stonemother.

To me, fire is not something to be feared.

Fire means life. Fire means death.

But in the end, only cold earth remains.