fanwright:

Here are two final drafts I decided not to use for the “Attraction” entry for 6/18. I will post these on FF on 7/23, on the 7th Saturday of this challenge as a bonus chapter, along with any other drabble drafts I happen to make along the way.

@seyaryminamoto @focusas @clarielparke @intolerabletyranny @capricornicis @purpleplatypusbear21 @icewhisker21 – For your viewing pleasure.

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“Jinzo! Ming!” she cried out.
“Anybody! Where are you!?”

Nothing.

She ground her teeth, sweat
trickling down her forehead in the stifling jungle heat, eyes darting at every
twitching branch.

She coughed, her throat dry
as smoke from a dozen fires choked the air, a gray haze tinged by dancing
embers hanging over her.

Something rustled in the
blackened brush in the corner of her eye. She caught a shadow rushing between
the flames consuming the jungle grass.  

“Damn you!” she roared.

Heat coursed through her arm
as she struck out toward the moving shadow, a long stream of fire burning
through the foliage.

“Stand and fight, you White
Lotus coward! I’ll burn your other arm off too!”

Her desperate attacks set the
ground ablaze. The heat was unbearable and the smoke began to sting her eyes.
She coughed, cursing under her ragged breath.

Through the haze the shadow
rushed forward. She was too slow for it. A swift kick to the head and she was
down, the taste of blood between her teeth.

“… Pathetic rebel,” the shadow
coolly rasped, daggers of blue fire in her fists. “You should have known better
than to hurt him.”

“…You!,” the rebel spat.

Her last word.

---

Sokka was terrified of the
fire that engulfed him, born of passion and pain.

It was too easy now, falling
into that addicting, pleasurable rhythm with her, the oldest and most intimate
of dances. He felt set along a dark and winding path, exploring a passion he
was too horrified to accept.

He knew how it came to this,
how she toyed with his heart like cats toy with yarn, sinking her claws in,
coming and going in the night.

It was her interest in him,
perhaps, or her yellow eyes, or her red lips, or her neck, or her skin pressed
against his, or her scent that lingered in the afterglow of their passion that
drew him in. He couldn’t remember anymore. Couldn’t care less when she was
close to him.

She was bad for him though,
so bad and he knew it. That festering thought in the back of his mind always
reminded him how far he had fallen.

He always forced it from his
mind. Each kiss, each bite, each sigh or embrace sought to chase it away so he
could focus on her. He wanted nothing else to matter.

And the fire would engulf
him again, burning away any doubt and shame, at least for the moment.

fanwright:

Date: 6/18/2016

Word: Attraction

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She had decided, after
closely shadowing his lone forays into the jungle for some time, that when he
tied his hair up it was the most unappealing, unsightly thing she had ever seen, with his sides shaved.

Cultural inclinations be damned. If Azula
wanted to gaze at something that resembled the backside of a flea-bitten wolf
cub, then she’d have… no, wait, she would not
have gone to the South Pole and done just that.

Secluded in the shadows of
the of jungle undergrowth near his camp, Azula could feel the creases of a
scowl forming behind her mask, smoldering under her black cloak in quiet annoyance.

She glared at his bare back
as he knelt by the creek washing his face, her eyes trailing up, watching his
fingers rake through his hair and clumsily undo the pesky knot.

When, at last, his hair comes undone, she feels a
tug at her chest, a fiery swoop that radiates down and through her, and a
vicious desire to see him overwhelmed
and feel hi-

A twig snaps at her feet.
She doesn’t see his ears perk up at the sound or witness him go for his sword.

Like the fleeting moment,
she is gone.

---

Hope you enjoyed! Check this one out on FF as well. Find more info on the challenge at The Crying Demon Forum on FF. 

fanwright:

6/11/2016 entry for the Sokkla Saturdays: Drabble Challenge

Word: Fascination

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It was a thing of monstrous
beauty, glazing at a boy cleaning the blood off his sword.

She watched from the shade
of the jungle leaves, the creek flowing past the sword’s edge, red veins
drifting downstream. He glided the cloth against the blade, singing with a
sharp hiss.

There was something
intriguing about how his shoulders sank, the distant, hollow look in his eyes.
He was somewhere else, lost in his thoughts. He had been rubbing the same side
of his blade for some time.

And then he blinked, as if a
painful spark had been lit within him, dropping the sword into the water,
sucking the fresh cut on his finger.

She remembered him. She
remembered the furious look in those eyes years ago, when the sun turned black,
when phantom voices laced with lies plagued her dreams.

Unbridled fury, walled
within a beguiling soul. And from such a cold, desolate place.

Azula would know in time
what brought him to this remote corner of the Fire Nation. What fascinated her
more was that distant look in his eyes.

“Is there a darkness within
you?” she rasped softly, muffled by her mask. “Have you accepted it too?”

---

A/N:

You can find more details on the challenge on FanFiction through “The Crying Demon: Sokkla Forum”. Feel free to jump in anytime and we encourage all participating authors to post on FF, Tumblr, and/or AO3.

Hope you enjoyed and see you all next Saturday!