Somewhere in the Earth Kingdom:
Upon a vast, open plain, beneath a sky bleached pale by the relentless sun, there stood no fortifications and no protective canyon walls. Here, tens of thousands of Earth Kingdom soldiers were arranged in a massive, sprawling formation, their green armor a stark and deliberate contrast against the sun-baked, brown earth. The very air was thick and heavy, saturated with the smell of damp soil churned by countless boots and the palpable, chilling tension of a battle yet to begin. The horizon stretched before them, a flat and unbroken line that promised only the approach of their foe.
General Boqin, a massive, granite-faced man whose voice carried the deep rumble of a landslide, stood atop a hastily erected earthen platform as he addressed his gathered army. His speech was crafted to inspire courage and fortitude, but a sharp ear could detect the subtle tremor of fear he fought desperately to bury.
"Soldiers of the Earth Kingdom! Look around you! You are the living stone upon which the Fire Nation's vile tide of aggression has broken for a hundred years! Today, that very tide seeks to test us once more. They send their so-called 'Butcher.' They send their boy prince, believing his name alone will be enough to make us crumble!"
He slammed a gauntleted fist against his chest plate, the metallic thud echoing flatly across the open, empty air.
"WE ARE THE EARTH! AND WE DO NOT CRUMBLE!"
A roar rose from the army in response, but it was not the full-throated, unified shout he had hoped for; the sound seemed to dissipate, lost in the immense, swallowing vastness of the field.
"He has never faced a force like ours upon an open field. He has no walls to hide behind here, no clever tricks to play. Today, we do not merely defend a position. We defend the very heart of our kingdom! We will show this fire-spawn that the Earth Kingdom endures! For your families! For your King! FOR EARTH!"
This time, a massive roar of approval echoed across the area, the collective voice so powerful it seemed to shake the very ground upon which they stood.
Two young soldiers, Liang and Jian, stood firm in the front lines, their knuckles bone-white as they gripped their spears.
Liang: "Did you see the scouts' faces when they returned? Pale as ghosts. They wouldn't even speak."
Jian: (Trying hard to sound brave) "So what? He's just one man. We have the numbers. We have the open ground. General Boqin is right. We are the earth."
Liang: "The earth burns, Jian. You've heard the stories from the western front. Entire battalions... gone. Not just defeated. Erased. They say his fire isn't orange. It's... white. It doesn't just burn you; it turns you to ash where you stand."
Sergeant Kato: "Stop your yapping. Stories won't kill you. His fire will. Keep your head down, your shield up, and for the love of the Badgermoles, if you see a flash of white, you dive."
Jian: "Sergeant... is it true what they call him? The Butcher?"
Sergeant Kato finally turned, his eyes haunted by memories he could not forget. He spoke in a low, grim whisper.
Sergeant Kato: "I was at Garsai. We had them outnumbered three to one. The strongest earthbenders from three provinces. We felt the ground shake and thought it was us. It wasn't. It was him, walking through our ranks as if they were nothing but tall grass. He wasn't even wearing a helmet. Just... looked at us. Like we were nothing. The man next to me, a master bender who could lift a house... was just gone. A puff of smoke and a stain on the ground."
He pulled up his arm sleeve to reveal a massive,ugly burn covering his whole arm.
"I wasn't even directly hit,and I still got third-degree burns. Don't fight him for glory, boys. Fight him just to survive the next few hours."
The group of soldiers that had formed around him collectively gulped, struggling to calm their frayed nerves.
"Try your best, and may the great badgermoles be with you."
A lone war horn sounded, its mournful cry cutting through the tension and signifying the battle's inevitable start.
A man with binoculars high on the platform yelled, "He is coming! Get ready!"
General Boqin shouted, his voice straining to reach every ear, "Everyone, get ready! Today marks the beginning of the end for the Hundred Year War! Taking him out is the first step! Give it everything you got! We are the Earth Kingdom, we bow to no one! CHARGE!!!"
The war cry that followed was a thunderous wave of sound that shook the earth below their feet, though it was immediately muffled by the literal earthquake caused by the first, unified step of their monumental charge.
The shot fades into black, and a deep, resonant voice is heard from the distance, "This should be interesting. Let's put those pebbles in their place."
Meanwhile, in the Southern Water Tribe:
Two siblings were fishing from a small boat adrift in the middle of the vast, artic ocean. And, as many siblings do, they seemed to be locked in a heated argument about something. Let's see what this whole thing was about.
Katara: "Sokka, I've been washing your stinky clothes for the past decade. The least you could do is show some appreciation."
Sokka: "Let's take everything into consideration, Katara. I hunt and I protect the tribe as the only male warrior. And you wash my clothes." (His tone dripped with sarcasm) "It must be so hard to be you. I'm so grateful for my hard-working sister."
Katara: "You...!"
Yeah, just some love between two siblings. How delightful. They continued to argue, not knowing how their lives would change dramatically in the following hours.