Prompt #3 - Undying: "Dust and Stone" blue lacquer K+
Title: Dust and Stone
Author: blue_lacquer
Rating: K+
Words: 495
Genre: Romance/Backstory
Char/Pair: Oma; Oma/Shu
Warning: Spoilers for The Cave of Two Lovers (early Season 2).
Summary: It's been one hundred years since Shu's death.
Dust and Stone
One hundred years ago, she was a farmer's daughter and he was a potter's son. She climbed the mountain to pick Heart-of-the-Earth for medicine. He climbed because he was bored. She was hardworking and practical, with a strong back and watchful eyes. People said she was pretty, but she was too busy to pay her looks much mind. He was charming and clever, with a quick tongue and nimble hands. He was the most handsome boy she'd ever seen. She had never wanted anyone before.
Now, he was long dead. She was the ruler of a young, proud city, the founder of the art of human earth bending, the mother and grandmother of future monarchs. And she was dying. She told no one, but she knew she would not live to see another spring.
She believed she would die a hundred years ago, when she, a girl unarmed and alone, faced two armies in the field. She had only used earth bending to dig tunnels, not to fight. She stood on the side of the mountain, the bones of the earth her bones, her rage flowing like lava and cooling into conviction, hardening her to stone. Her legs fused with the mountain, drilling deep to mine the raw power of the earth. Her arms cut across the stone face, hammering massive boulders from the surface to crush everyone below, her people and Shu's people. They would die for killing her love, and she would die rather than live without.
In the roar of crumbling rock, she heard his voice in her ear, as close and clear and sweet as when he told her he loved her. My dearest Oma, do not be stone for crushing when you can be fertile soil for growing. I am dead and can only be dust, but I promise you this dust shall always drift on the wind alongside you.
She hurled the boulders over the heads of the terrified combatants. She gave the commanders a choice: peace, now, or death.
The commanders chose peace. One month later, she discovered she was pregnant. Six months later, she first visited the plain where the new city of earth benders would rise. One year later, she taught her first earth bending students to dig tunnels. She had many suitors--some wanted her, most wanted her power--but she never married. She wanted none of them.
She spoke to Shu when she was alone, always listening for his voice, but she never heard it again outside her dreams. One hundred years after his death, she stood on the mountain where they met, talked, laughed, loved, learned to bend the earth itself, and would be buried together. She said, "My dearest Shu, I have been both soil and foundation stone for this city, named for us so our heirs may remember the cost of war. I will soon be dust, like you, and we will drift on the wind together, undying."
--end
Author: blue_lacquer
Rating: K+
Words: 495
Genre: Romance/Backstory
Char/Pair: Oma; Oma/Shu
Warning: Spoilers for The Cave of Two Lovers (early Season 2).
Summary: It's been one hundred years since Shu's death.
Dust and Stone
One hundred years ago, she was a farmer's daughter and he was a potter's son. She climbed the mountain to pick Heart-of-the-Earth for medicine. He climbed because he was bored. She was hardworking and practical, with a strong back and watchful eyes. People said she was pretty, but she was too busy to pay her looks much mind. He was charming and clever, with a quick tongue and nimble hands. He was the most handsome boy she'd ever seen. She had never wanted anyone before.
Now, he was long dead. She was the ruler of a young, proud city, the founder of the art of human earth bending, the mother and grandmother of future monarchs. And she was dying. She told no one, but she knew she would not live to see another spring.
She believed she would die a hundred years ago, when she, a girl unarmed and alone, faced two armies in the field. She had only used earth bending to dig tunnels, not to fight. She stood on the side of the mountain, the bones of the earth her bones, her rage flowing like lava and cooling into conviction, hardening her to stone. Her legs fused with the mountain, drilling deep to mine the raw power of the earth. Her arms cut across the stone face, hammering massive boulders from the surface to crush everyone below, her people and Shu's people. They would die for killing her love, and she would die rather than live without.
In the roar of crumbling rock, she heard his voice in her ear, as close and clear and sweet as when he told her he loved her. My dearest Oma, do not be stone for crushing when you can be fertile soil for growing. I am dead and can only be dust, but I promise you this dust shall always drift on the wind alongside you.
She hurled the boulders over the heads of the terrified combatants. She gave the commanders a choice: peace, now, or death.
The commanders chose peace. One month later, she discovered she was pregnant. Six months later, she first visited the plain where the new city of earth benders would rise. One year later, she taught her first earth bending students to dig tunnels. She had many suitors--some wanted her, most wanted her power--but she never married. She wanted none of them.
She spoke to Shu when she was alone, always listening for his voice, but she never heard it again outside her dreams. One hundred years after his death, she stood on the mountain where they met, talked, laughed, loved, learned to bend the earth itself, and would be buried together. She said, "My dearest Shu, I have been both soil and foundation stone for this city, named for us so our heirs may remember the cost of war. I will soon be dust, like you, and we will drift on the wind together, undying."
--end