Stone In Heat

I

Humid heat drenched my body. Bugs swarmed, attaching themselves to my sweat. My body aches as I bent over for the millionth time to dig another hole in the stiff mound of dirt. The sun was finally beginning to set behind the mountains, indicating over twelve hours of manual labor. For the past week, I have been waking up before sunrise to help plant the crops for the summer season. Although it is tedious and exhausting work, it is necessary to properly plant everything before it gets too hot.

But today, there were not enough hours in the day to finish the workload assigned to me. Despite working all day long without many breaks, I still had a whole row of eggplant that I needed to plant before I can go inside. I stood up slowly, cracking almost every bone in my body in the process.

"Agh!" I groaned, letting out the stress and tension that has been building up for the past hour. My scream echoed across the field, causing a flock of birds to fly away. Hearing the fluttering of their wings, I looked up to see that I was all alone. I smirked as an idea came to my mind. Closing my eyes in concentration, I slowly lifted my hands with my palms open. I felt the Earth shift from underneath me, hearing movement of loose dirt shifting. When I opened my eyes, I saw a line of tiny holes open in the ground.

Happy with what I saw in front of me, I grabbed a handful of eggplant seeds and ran down the line of holes, dropping a few seeds in each hole as I passed. As I got to the end of the line, I squeezed my hand into a fist, causing a layer of dirt to over all of the holes.

"What. The. Hell."

I froze as I heard the sound of something hitting the ground.

"Luli, please tell me that I am seeing things. I must be going crazy." I turned around to see Huan. Her mouth was gape open. Her face as pale as the moon. At her feet, a canteen spilled out water, soaking into the dirt.

"H-how long have you been there?" I asked, feeling the color rush out of my face. This is not good. I have not told anyone about my earth bending abilities. If anyone finds out, I would be a social outcast.

"I, um... I just got here. I thought you would like some water or some help. I guess you don't need either anymore," Huan said, trying to regain her composure. "Have you always been able to do that? Earth bending, I mean."

I shrugged, uncertain myself. "I... don't know. Maybe I have always been able to earth bend and just not known. I realized I can bend the day Nai nai died." I paused. Just like the field, it felt as if there was a feeling of emptiness in my heart as I remembered that day. "I was so... angry. Next thing I knew, rocks were flying everywhere."

Huan hummed gently, taking in the new information. "Okay, right. You just randomly gained a new ability the day Nai nai died. That sounds very convenient."

"I am telling the truth! One day I couldn't bend. The next, I can!"

Haun looked at me, knowing deep inside that I was telling the truth. But something holding her back from accepting it. Jealousy maybe. Or just sadness for being the mundane sibling. "So you don't know how you became a bender?"

"Do you think I would be so freaked out if I did?"

"Okay, okay. Calm down." She put her hands up in defense. "First things first, we need to find you a bending teacher. And we are not going to find any around here."

I looked at her, eyes widened. "What?"

"You heard me. You need someone to teach you earth bending. There must be a reason why you can suddenly earth bend." I groaned at the suggestion. Not only was I 'gifted' the ability to bend. Now I have to leave town to learn to control my newfound abilities. "There is no need to be a rotten cabbage about it."