'The Earth Kingdom was loud. No, this entire continent is loud have they were went a day without some bullshit happening. It has been exactly around 3 weeks since we traveled the Earth's continents, and everywhere we go, something always happens. Random spirits on lose or a goddame dragon–I am still trying to figure out the chronology of how it appeared–each time I save them, the kingdoms people always give me shit for firebending.' Aric thought
"I hate this continent," Aric muttered, pitying myself. This time, we found ourselves in a deafening place, not in the crash-boom kind of way—though there was plenty of that too—but in the voices, the carts, the footsteps, the endless markets, and clanking of pots and boots on stone. It was life packed into every inch of earth. And in the middle of it all stood Aric, tea in one hand, the other shielding his eyes from the noonday sun, and a very unimpressed frown on his face.
"Five minutes. I just wanted five minutes to drink this tea without—" He began but then immediately regretted it as he jinxed himself.
BOOM.
A rock exploded across the market square. Screams followed. Dust filled the air. From behind a row of crumbling stalls, a huge stone construct—eight feet tall, hunched like a beast—stomped into view, its eyes glowing sickly green. Sokka blinked. "Did that rock just grow arms?"
Aric took a long, patient sip of tea. "Yup. And legs. And bad vibes."
Aang, already gliding on his glider, soared overhead. "We have to stop it before it hurts someone!"
"Ok, you guys do it." Aric said and added to his reason, "I am a fire bender; thus, I am unable to be anything but a war manic." Aang nodded to his reasoning as Aric went and sat down in the sade of a cabbage stoll and started to drink his tea. 'Wait a second–' Aric thought but couldn't finish it when a boulder came crashing down, taking out the cabbage stoll and Aric tea pot.
"My Cabbages!" The seller cried as Aric joined him, saying.
"My Tea!" before getting up and saying to the cabbage man, "I will avenge us". He walked right into the fight as he spotted Katara, who was giving major support to Aang and Katara.
Katara summoned a stream of water, forming it into a whip. "We can trap it if we work together—"
"No, no," Aric interrupted casually, raising one hand. "Let me."
"Seriously?" Katara snapped. "This isn't the time for—"
"Let. Me." His tone wasn't angry—just quiet. Controlled.
The air shimmered. Fire curled around his hand—not red, not orange, but deep violet, laced with white and flickers of gold. Aang's eyes widened. "Uh oh."
Sokka grinned. "Ohhh yeah, it's time."
'This fire is the most destructive fire in the world.' Aric thought as he created enough so that only the tip of his finger had the flame. With a flick of his wrist, Aric launched a thin thread of flame—hotter than plasma, so pure it made the air sing. It sliced clean through the construct's leg, then the other. The green glow sputtered and died. The stone beast crashed to the ground before exploding in a radiant fire that spilled upwards. When it reached the clouds, it expanded in all directions, equally causing a light that overpowered the sun itself.
Silence.
Someone in the crowd screamed. Then someone else whispered: "Firebender..."
Aric sighed and lowered his hand. "Here we go again."
Night had fallen, and the four of them sat around a campfire on the edge of town, tucked beneath the shadow of an old banyan tree. Aang poked the fire with a stick, frowning. "That wasn't just firebending."
"Correct," Aric said, sipping his tea. "It was rage bending," He quipped, which did not land well as everyone just looked at him with the 'dude, are you serious?' look. Aric shrugged his shoulders, pushing out any embarrassment he had, and said, "What? I thought it was a good joke."
Everyone collectively and telepathically decided not to speak of that anymore as Katara muttered, "You're going to get us kicked out of every Earth continent village if you keep doing stuff like that."
"I saved people," Aric said, defending himself while also sipping tea.
"You scared them," Katara said.
"Maybe," Aric replied, voice still calm but with a joking tone, "It is not my problem that they are too racist to see past my contribution and only look at my power."
"I think we have looked at things differently, You burned the majority of their roof. Do you know how much I have to work to put all of it out?" Katara said, to which Aric looked away and said
"Guilty as charged."
Sokka, lying back with his hands behind his head, cut in: "Okay, but, that entrance though—'Let me.' Bro, you sounded like a villain about to monologue."
Aric grinned. "I was going to monologue about how that thing wasted a perfectly good cup of my tea. But someone interrupted me." Aang chuckled. Katara glared at all three of them, but a faint smirk escaped her lips as she, too, enjoyed their banter like this sometimes.
{Later That Night}
While the others slept, Aric sat alone, firelight flickering in his hand—not normal fire, but the kind only he could summon. 'I have been getting a bunch of notifications from my system earlier. I thought of sitting this one out and looking at it, but the monster targeted me, and I lost it.' He thought as he summoned his system to see a single sentence in red.
[Corrupted Element Detected – Earth
Threat Level: Moderate. Source: Unknown. A multiversal anomaly is suspected.]
"Of course," Aric muttered. "Nothing's ever just rocks and rebels." He looked toward the mountains in the distance, where the wind carried the faint scent of smoke and stone. "The Earth has secrets too, huh?" He stood, letting the flame vanish into his palm. "Good. I hate being bored."