The ground, charred. The sky, on fire.
The dawn had returned to the sun dominion over the earth... but from where she was standing, it did not seem like there was much left to lord over. The lands had been burned for days on end, tortured with water, the earth upturned. A cowardly rain, dripping down from a sky with little clouds, offered no release from it all.
She got out of her crouch, instead straightening her back and walking... slowly, towards the bodies on the fields, her head still ringing from the night before.
Uh... I didn't know people got this agressive on New Year's Eve... seems like the Fire Works really rocked!
Rocked just like my head right now... uh...
That was the manner of things in Poland, the manner that was and would be. But in England? Fireworks had been illegal for a long time now...
Liwia would not know. For Liwia had a hangover.
And why not? It might not have been such a good idea to mix vodka with champagne, but it sure tasted well! Hmmm... vod- Oh God. My stomach.
She turned, vomited, green-brown sludge spilling over the ground. Liwia groaned, and shuffled on. She finally noticed something that seemed very... glaring.
There's no garbage here... nowhere! The ground is all destroyed, but... wait, is that blood?!
Her eyes grew big as her clouded mind finally noticed the patches of bronze covering the land. Dry blood, and not that old...
"And what might you be doing in this... lovely... field?"
A sharp voice, cutting through her ears. Liwia turned, to look into the face of a girl with a self-confident smile on her lips.
She answered: "I'm uh... here for the fireworks?"
The girl laughed, her high tones haunting in a place where silence reigned supreme for miles around.
"Fire... works? Odd term for war, but it has a rural charm to it, I'll admit. I'm afraid you'll be disappointed, however. The firebending is over, the battle has been won. Go back to your village and serve your new-"
"Wait, did you just say bending?!"
The girl paused mid-sentence, her eyes growing big.
"Yes...? Are you slow in the head?! How dare you speak out to someone so clearly your superior?!"
Uh...
Liwia looked at the girl's face, inspected it. It was very... angular, composed of sharp lines. Her mouth was pursed in a famliar dissaproval, her eyes narrow in an also familiar almost-asian way. But it was only when she looked at her hair, saw the two thick strands that twirled around her face, and the copper emblem of fire, that she knew who she was speaking to.
Uh...
Sweat emerged and started to trickle down Liwia's face. She shivered.
"I... uh... didn't recognize you, princess! I'm not exactly, ah, a "veteran" here on the front..."
Her mouth contorted in a rather awkward smile, shaking along with the other parts of her body.
What the actual fuck just happened oh fuck oh fuck oh-
Azula laughed again, the sudden movement of her lips causing drops of water to fall, until slammed apart by the mud below. She raised her arm, slowly, gracefully, drawing the tips of her fingers closer to one another. Fire flashed into life, a ball of heat that hovered above her pale flesh.
"Such arrogance! Your clothes aren't even red... do you think I'm stupid, girl?!"
oh shit oh shit oh shit
"Uh... I... I don't... ah, kurwa!"
Azula frowned, and asked: "What was that?!"
"Uh..."
Azula's hand leapt forward, the fire it carried plunging into Liwia's face. The Polish girl screamed, terror and pain causing spasms as she fell to the ground. A hand around Liwia's throat, hard, muscular. The collapse of her upper body stopped, she just gurgled as Azula pulled her up again.
"We're going to have some fun, you and I! I've never had the chance to play with such a foreign toy... such... fun!"
Liwia just tried to scream as the skin of her left jaw dripped away, but the hand around her windpipe wouldn't let her.