One of those days... (Open to All)

Takumi Souvenirs, a medium size store located almost leaving the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se and almost at the entrance that lead to the Middle Ring where medium class citizens would normally dwell and live. Although one of the biggest stores around, it still reflected the look of a store ran by poor, honest and hardworking citizens of the Earth Kingdom.

Usually, the customers going to the store would find a lot of exotic sculptures of all sizes and shapes crafted individually by one of the two artisans in the Takumi Family, using earthbending techniques to fulfill every need the customers have for their different purposes.

Inside, one of the Takumi, the oldest son of the head of the family, was using meticulous earthbending techniques to finish a 1.5 meters sculpture made of solid rock from the outsides of the city. Although a normal rock at first, it took the man a few hours to transform the raw material in an elegant piece with a lot of detail that only passion and patience would create... in this case the image of a lion standing in his back paws, opening his jaw in a threatening way with his front paws in a position that suggested that he was ready to jump on his prey.

After a almost 30 minutes, the last details were created and the piece was ready. A small amount of air was released from his lungs creating a sigh of satisfaction at his art piece. With a smile on his face, Kenji moved the stone to his left into a pile of other works.

Without even a break, the young man moved another piece of rock, but this time bigger than him, and proceeded to shape it into a whole new form, a whole new statue, a process that he repeated a few times everyday of his life...

The head of the Takumi family, a 45 years old man with sturdy clothes heavily resembling the ones that he used to wear when he was a military officer; came from the back of the store where Kenji was working.

With an indifferent look in his face, Matsuda, Kenji's father, proceeded to see the recently finished statue of the lion his son finished.

A sense of proud began to fill Kenji's chest as his father looked at the statue carefully, examining what would be a statue that would have to be placed for sale. The man knew that the piece he crafted was not a masterpiece, but a pretty good piece. Nevertheless, the face of his father quickly began to change the way Kenji thought about the statue.

Matsuda looked at Kenji and without anger or joy he just provided his appraisal on the piece. "Kenji... this is not what I taught you... the back paws are disproportioned from the front ones for 1 inch each. We will have to lower the price significantly for that imperfection." Without looking back at all, the man began to walk towards the back of the store once again leaving his son in deep silence, without replying anything at all.

Kenji looked at the statue... a deep sense of anger and disappointment began to raise all the way to his head. I should have known better, there is no way to please father. Thought the man while he stood up leaving the current piece unfinished. It is a nice piece, I shouldn't care what he says. Like if he has done one himself in a long time. Anger began to fill Kenji, anger at the arrogance of Matsuda and the fact that he only knew how to point out his son's mistakes... even if they were almost unnoticeable imperfections.

The ground beneath his feet began to tremble a little bit... Kenji was starting to lose control of his emotions and his earthbending technique. In a burst of anger, the earthbender crushed the piece he was now crafting reducing it to rubble.

With great anger, he decided to leave the store for the time being, trying to vent himself from what he considered yet again, another failure.

Thesus heard a rumbling sound as he admired a giant toad sculpture. It stopped after a little while. He had just entered the shop and was admiring some artwork here and there. He was mostly sniffing the shop. The smell of earth. An earthbending shop of course.
He rang the bell on the counter of the shop, hoping for someone to come up to the counter, and give him the price of a small dragon sculpture he held.

Thesus was growing impatient. He rang the bell again, but this time harder.

Before Kenji could leave, a customer dropped by and began to ring the bell once. Luckly for the earthbender, he was already on his way to the counter to leave the store from the front door, nevertheless; the customer was getting impatient and rang the bell once again.

By the time Kenji got there, all covered in sand in his clothes, he managed to see what seemed definitely someone from another nation with one of his figurines resembling a dragon.

Doing his best to leave his anger behind and to show his best customer service skills, the man smiled and proceeded to speak.

"Welcome Sir, How may I be of service to you?"

"I'd just like to know the pricing of this dragon piece." Thesus said. The earthbender seemed a bit angry. "Is it... a bad time?"

Vexander opened his eyes a little bit, surprised at the fact that he was probably not that careful concealing his anger. While shaking his head trying to clear his mind and at the same time disregard the fact that he was kind of upset, the earthbender replied at the customer.

"Nothing to worry about dear sir, just the kind of stress you get when an artpiece is not what should be." A smile appeared on his face. "But nevermind that, it always happens." Addressing the question the customer had, Vex replied right away about the piece. "That dragon piece is actually a good choice, made from beautiful red stone imported from the fire nation, it is only 3 silver pieces."