Drabbles written for the prompt 'earth'
Plans
So much land, so much potential; Sozin stared at a map of the Earth Kingdom. His finger traced its outline while his mind made plans. He would conquer the huge mass with its diverse people, its overflowing cities, its mountains and desert and plains.
Conquer was not the word he would use when proposing the idea to Roku. No, that would not sit well with the Avatar. But perhaps if he used terms like 'sharing' and 'enriching', his oldest friend, his companion since childhood, would agree with his plans.
And really, it would be sharing, wouldn't it? The glory, the superiority, the genius of the Fire Nation would make the Earth Kingdom a better place, make its people wealthier in all ways. He was doing them a favor. Wasn't he?
Despite his delicate phrasing, Roku dismissed the plans. No, dismissed was too calm sounding a word. He condemned the plans as violent and brutish; a powerful nation at the peak of its success setting out to dominate a much larger, but less sophisticated one.
He was right, of course. Sozin hadn't given his friend enough credit. But, he went ahead with his plans anyway. The Earth Kingdom would be ground beneath the Fire Nation's heel. No one, not friend, not lover, could change his mind.
Daughter of Earth
Neither Lao nor Poppy was an earthbender. And when their daughter, Toph, was born, Toph, their only child, it was her lack of sight that dominated their thoughts, not whether or not she would one day be able to make the earth do her bidding.
The parents saw only what they wanted to see, a delicate, fragile girl child, pale and weak, someone to be protected and hidden away, all for her own good, naturally.
But Toph was far stronger than they could even imagine, stronger in body, in mind and in spirit. She found a way to pursue her bending beyond the 'teachings' that were given her. Toph was her own master, making up her own moves, setting her own boundaries. And no one was any the wiser. She was the opposite of the little girl Lao and Poppy believed that they parented. She was tough and cocky and sure of herself. She was solid and stable. She was earth.
When it came time to leave, however, she crumbled, like soil dry from lack of rain, unable to confront her mother and father, leaving in the night without their knowledge. That would come later, when she was even stronger. Everything in its time, she figured, slow and steady, like the ground beneath her bare feet.
What they Fought For
The Freedom Fighters didn't have much. They had their tree house and whatever they managed to pilfer from the Fire Nation soldiers stationed here and there around the huge forest they called home. They had each other, a large, strange family, brought together by tragedy and misfortune and coincidence. And they had their country, the Earth Kingdom, a nation in peril now, invaded, subdued, violated.
Jet wanted so desperately to change that. He wanted the Fire Nation, its killers, its rapists, its destroyers gone and gone forever. He wanted the forest floor, that sweet smelling earth covered with the leaves of years gone by, to be theirs again, and theirs alone.
This Place is Not Home
He hated the feel of it. The dirt stuck to his sweat shiny skin, coating him in layer after layer of filth. This part of the Earth Kingdom was a wasteland, nothing but rock and scrub and grime, with a sun that beat down relentlessly. No clouds, no rain, no hope. A prince deserved better than that.
Zuko dreamed of the palace baths, warm and inviting, the zenith of cleanliness. He imagined stripping down and sinking his weary, earth covered body into the water, dunking his head, then dunking it again, soaping himself down over and over and then stepping into the rinse water, hot to the touch, soothing for sore muscles and weary bones.
The ostrich horse lumbered on, stumbling occasionally, its own thirst getting the better of it. Zuko kept his eyes closed, preferring, for another moment at least, the world of his fantasies to the world that would greet him should he lift his eyelids.
He was not a child of earth. He did not belong in its kingdom. All Zuko wanted was to go home, where fire would embrace him.
