The Forbidden Fruit (closed) (NAUGHTY)

Four months. That’s how long I’ve been in the army now. Zhing Ji and Shang Li are still stationed with me here in Omashu, but they’re due for a transfer to Ba Sing Se to join the King’s Elite Guard. I’m happy for them; from what I’ve heard, King Kuan Ti is a kind man. He’s strong, just, and compassionate of his people… I must admit to having developed a hero’s crush on his Royal Highness, despite knowing he is in his 60’s by now. But if tales are to be believed… but that is not what I opened this journal to write about.

Life in the army is entertaining, to say the least. Shang Li can out drink any of the men. Once, Zhing Ji convinced the whole division to try out-drinking Shang Li. When Shang Li found out about it, she boasted she’d drink a pint for every half pint the rest of us drank! (While I am on the subject, I must admit that I did not see the appeal of alcohol when I was a nomad in the forest. Who could’ve known that the numbing of the body could offer such sweet release?)

The challenge being made and not only accepted but doubled, there was nothing for it but to arrange a date for the event to take place. Last night, the whole division of us, all 500 warriors and benders, arranged ourselves in the grand hall of the city’s palace. Shang Li, as the challenged, was seated at the head of the high table, so that it could be seen when she finally collapsed. Those most confident of their ability to outdrink Shang Li were also seated at the high table. Most of these men and women were hardcore alcoholics, able to drink like only hardened soldiers could. Sergeant Li Wang, a grizzled veteran with the thickest beard you will ever see, and Captain Lu Fei, a man of extreme girth but amazing Earth bending talent, were expected to be the toughest competition, and thus occupied the seats to either side of Shang Li.

The contest began at sunset. With a bang and a roar, 10 of the largest clay barrels ever to have been created were brought in by twice as many Earth benders, who weren’t from our division. They joined in the contest though.

Once the beer had arrived, everyone began to drink. After 4 months, I thought I’d seen some heavy drinking in taverns, but never before had I encountered anything on this scale. 500 men and women, drinking as if tonight might be their last… there is no more beautiful scene. Everybody becomes so happy when their drunk! Well, there are a few grouses, but for the most part everyone becomes fun to be around, and for some strange reason when I drink everyone else becomes better looking. Last night, I got so drunk that I nearly let Teni talk me into his bed. Teni! The ugliest man alive! And according to Zhing Ji, I was performing some extremely inappropriate actions with Sula, much to the amusement of the men… I must admit, Zoiya has made me curious of the pleasures of sharing a bed with another woman. But I think I’ll sleep with a man first before allowing myself to be bedded by a woman. No doubt the rest of the garrison is expecting me to sleep with Zoiya at some point now.

Anyway, there were 500 of us drinking at sunset. Four hours later, all but 50 of us were out, the rest of us were completely drunk, and Shang Li was still downing beer like it was water! Li Wang and Lu Fei were still drinking as well, but the both of them were beginning to show signs of drunkenness while Shang Li was sober as a hungry lion-bear! At this point, Shang Li began to drink 4 pints for each one the rest of us were drinking, and might have been slightly drunk, but those of us left standing were outrageously intoxicated.

I’m told that come sunrise, the commander came searching for us, and when he walked in, all he could do was laugh! 500 soldiers, passed out up and down the hall, and Shang Li still drinking!

Shang Li is snoring like a log in her bunk now… it’s high noon and the rest of us are alternating trying to exercise our hangovers away and puking our innards out in between. Somehow, I get the feeling that Shang Li isn’t going to have any problems once she wakes up. I love that woman to death, but I hope the bitch can’t think straight for a week after that. How the hell does she consume that much alcohol without killing herself? Or even getting the least bit drunk for that matter? Oh well, the fun of last night was definitely worth the hangover. I just seem to have an enormous appetite now, for both food and… other things. But perhaps that’s simply because I’m seventeen and a half years old, and I’ve never had a man between my legs? I admit to being tempted by a few of the men here, but those that don’t have some disease or other are too freaked out by my pointed ears to keep it up once we’re between the sheets. It’s quite annoying; I’d like to lose my virginity, and I know that there are several here who’d be glad to take it, but the ones most fervent in that desire are simply not desirable. Perhaps I’ll let Zhing Ji, Shang Li, or Zoiya scout some of the other soldiers out for me. Or maybe I’ll just let Zoiya bed me; it’s no secret that Zoiya prefers the pussy to the dick.

I’ve been away from home far too long; I can see that simply by my language when I write. Day by day, week by week, month by month, I am becoming more soldier and less tribal woman. It’s the same for Zhing Ji and Shang Li, but even before we left our tribe they were more… aggressive. If Zhing Ji wants something, she doesn’t stop until she gets it, and Shang Li… nobody messes with Shang Li, period. Shit, I’m still doing it! Damn it all to Blasted Stupid… Shit. I can’t even control my pen. I suppose it’s time to end this entry then.

Word Count: 1067
RUPs 1

Mei!

The girl looked up from her journal as the low, feminine voice washed across her ears. Standing just above her was a woman in a standard issue Earth army uniform, sans the boots as she was also an Earth bender. Her hair was drawn back in a ponytail, which revealed the entirety of her angular face, and her helmet was carried on by her side, propped in the hourglass curve of her hip and her chest. It was a bit of a mystery to Mei as to how a woman as beautiful as Zoiya ended up in the army, even though she was a bender.

Zoiya!!

Mei’s voice came out a little shrill as she slammed her journal shut; the last thing she needed was for Zoiya to read that particular entry. Mei already knew that Zoiya was sexually interested in her. For her part, Zoiya did her best to keep the inuedos to a minimum, as it clearly made Mei uncomfortable, but if she saw what Mei was just writing… there’d be no end of it.

Quite the entertaining party last night, wasn’t it? Zoiya asked in a bright tone as she extended a hand to help Mei to her feet. Zoiya had been one of the last to pass out before the hardcore table, which meant she’d lasted longer than Mei. For some odd reason, though, she had not seemed to have to bad of a hangover, which was more than most could say. Mei had spent most of her morning complaining about her headache, and half her training period puking and retching.

From what I hear, I actually got drunk enough that I let you fondle me. Slightly stiff, slightly joking, a tone for when Mei was trying to be friendly but simply couldn’t do it properly. Her eyes gave it away as she clasped Zoiya’s wrist; she was slightly angry for having been taken advantage of.

From what I remember, you got so drunk that you threw yourself at me. She pulled, and though her words were frosty, her tone was still jovial, a friend trying to brush over an awkward memory. Mei couldn’t bring herself to stay angry at Zoiya.

Oh, we were both drunk. Let’s just move on, okay? Mei gave Zoiya a quick hug before walking back to the barracks. She had to get that journal stowed in her bunk. Once it was there, nobody would violate her privacy and try to read it. Well, Zhing Ji and Shang Li eventually would, but they would tell nobody of what it said.

Writing about me, were we? Zoiya wore an amused expression on her face as she crossed her arms. Mei simply glanced over her shoulder as she placed her hand on the door.

Might’ve been. Or maybe I was writing about how while the rest of you were passed out Teni, Chang, and I snuck into the Governors’ chambers and fucked on his bed. She lost control of her facial muscles then, and a small smirk crept on to her face. She laughed as she walked in the door.

Zoiya snorted with laughter as she walked to catch up. Now that I would pay to see. Cute little Mei, taking on two of the ugliest men in the world on a 4 poster bed!

Mei headed straight for her bunk as the two of them laughed their asses off. They only laughed harder when they got to her bunk and found Shang Li snoring like log, with Zhing Ji humping her like a dog trying to wake her up. (It was a triple bunk-bed. Shang Li was on bottom)

Wake up, sleepy head! It’s no fun ass raping you when you’re not even awake! She thrust again. Shang Li stayed fast asleep. I guess Mei and Zoiya here are going to have to take turns now!

Mei looked at Zoiya and laughed, gesturing for her to go first.

Well Zhing Ji if you insist!

They went on like that for about 5 minutes before Shang Li finally stirred.

Mmm… ram it in… She murmured as she started to rub her ass back.

Zoiya leaned forward and murmured into her ear. If you insist, my feisty little alcoholic!

Shang Li’s eyes jerked wide open. She abruptly rolled over, trying to buck Zoiya off, but instead ended up with Zoiya straddling her.

Zoiya! What the hell?! She yelled as she bucked trying to push her off. Zoiya simply sat there and laughed.

Don’t get mad at me! It was your pointy eared friend here who started it! Her tone was teasing as she climbed off, gesturing to Zhing Ji with her free hand.

Why I oughta… None of them heard what Shang Li ‘oughta’ do, for they’d all taken at a sprint, straight out the door. They spent the next five minutes running around the practice yard, staying just a step ahead of Shang Li. At least until she started puking her guts out.

And the mighty Shang Li finally succumbs to her stomach! Mei laughed as she pulled Shang Li’s hair away from her mouth, so the vomit would not get caught in it.

Retch Fuck retch You Gag… retch.

I won’t be letting you have that honor, but find me a man who’s reasonably good looking and doesn’t have some sort of disease and I’ll gladly let him. Mei meant it to be a joke, seeing as she was the only virgin left in the garrison and was constantly the butt of sexual jokes because of it, but the others took her seriously.

You’re on!

You won’t be disappointed!

Now you’re retch asking for it…

Wait a second! Girls! It was too late; the three of them were now running around, shouting for everyone to hear that Mei was ready to spread her legs. Mei used her bending to create slight fissures to trip them, and indeed it worked on Shang Li and Zhing Ji, but Zoiya felt it coming and sidestepped it.

It’s going to be a long day… Mei thought to herself as she ran to hide inside the barracks.

Word Count 1020
[/u]Word Total[/u] 2087
[/u]RUPs[/u] 2

The rest of today went by in a blur. I threw myself into my training, the men of the garrison tried to throw themselves at me. I hold no delusions of being overly beautiful or charming, however; I am merely, to put it simply, a woman in an order of men, many of whom haven’t bedded a woman in months, even years. I admit that I experience the same urge, the same need, the same drive to have sex, but I am not so consumed with it that I let it direct my actions and my goals. I told Zoiya and Zhing Ji this, but they do not believe me. I guess I’ll just have to prove it to them, and to the rest of this garrison as well. There’s a reason why I’m a sergeant, and not just because I’m a bender!

The things I’ve learned since leaving my people… honor and duty compelled me to stay, but now knowledge and ambition force me to remain. After only a season I was chosen to lead a small group of men. If I can get the hang of standard Earth Bending techniques and then prove that I can apply both my own abilities and those of others, both benders and non-benders, to the situation at hand, I could even become an officer, albeit a minor one! Who would have thought, a headstrong little girl from the forest, becoming an officer in the Earth Kingdom’s army? Duty compels me to be here, and the responsibility of becoming an officer, of leading and being responsible for a large group of soldiers, would be a distinguished honor, especially as one of the first of my people to serve the Earth kingdom. Suppose I went all the way to general? Imagine it! Me, General Ashabi , running the show! Perhaps that’s not such a far-fetched dream; from what I hear, the King is dissatisfied with the progress of his generals. Perhaps if I study more strategy and tactics I could become a general. But that wasn’t what I wanted to write about.

My body is… changing. Not like when my breasts first developed and my moon’s blood came upon me, more like… my bodytype is what’s changing. My arms and legs are growing more muscle. I can feel myself becoming stronger day by day. Muscle is developing on more of my body, altering my figure. When I initially arrived in Omashu, I was a tiny little thing. My arms and legs were barely thicker than sticks, and I could have fit through a grated fence quite easily (Shang Li tells me that I’m exaggerating, but that should give a reader an idea of just how thin I was when I first arrived). Now, I’m slim and lean instead of skinny. I have muscle on my arms and legs, my stomach is flat and hard, and my buttocks are bigger. The life of a soldier is a challenging one, but physically rewarding, as I attest.

Despite all this change, I’m still smaller than your average female Earth bender. Odds are, I always will be. But that should work to my advantage; nobody who faces me will take me for an Earth bender until I actually start bending Earth. That could come in handy if I can get the hang of fighting with my staff. Or even better, a spear… no, I think I’ll just have a blade socketed into the top of my staff. That will perform well enough.

It’s time for me to go now; I’m scheduled for a meeting with the Lieutenant in the morning. Something about my rapid progress? I guess I'll find out when I get there.

Word Count 616
Word Total 2703
RUP 2

Why do you always write in that thing, Mei? Zhing Ji’s voice drifted down from above. Zhing Ji’s voice could be described as high pitched and whiny, but that would be a slight exaggeration. A modern day reader would likely be reminded of their younger sister, constantly asking what the reader is up to and why they’re doing it. The reader would be annoyed at first, resist the urge to slap her, and then order her to leave him alone. The reader would then, after brushing off the annoyance, come to wonder what they are doing, and just why they’re doing it. And somewhere in the midst of contemplating the meaning of life and their place in it, the reader would come to realize that their annoying little sister is the embodiment of motivation. She is hope, courage, dedication, all the things that make life good. As much as she may annoy you, you love her and would do anything for her, no matter what. That is what Zhing Ji was to Mei, so it didn’t even cross Mei’s mind to tell her to mind her own business.

You mean my diary? It helps me express my feelings, Zhing Ji. Don’t you keep one too? Mei was genuinely confused, as Zhing Ji’s diary was hidden in the same place as Mei’s. Zhing Ji had actually started keeping a diary first, and Mei had taken the idea from her.

Yup. But I don’t write in it nearly as often as you do. Once a week is enough for me, but often times I’ll catch you updating it 2 or 3 times a day.

You really get into it, too. I swear you’re more focused when you write than I am when I fight. Shang Li’s voice, liberally laced with her aggressive personality, shot down from even further above Mei. The three shared a three bunk bed, and Mei’s was the bottom, with Shang Li on top and Zhing Ji in the middle. Even after months in the army and differing assignments, the three remained inseparable. Thinking of their impending transfer made Mei sad, as she would have to go on without them.

At least I’ll still have Zoiya. She thought as Shang Li cut in.

Which is pretty impressive, actually…

Mei laughed a little at that; when Shang Li was fighting, she missed nothing and saw everything. It was truly beautiful to see her art at work. That was the problem though; art, if not put into a form that could weather the ages, would eventually be forgotten by posterity. Mei intended to prevent that, or at least delay it.

I believe it’s important to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Someday, I want to return to our people, and I want to share the tales of our adventures. I also don’t want another Earth bender to grow up like me, having no training at all in the art of Earth bending…

In most places around the Earth Kingdom, a young Earth Bender’s talent is discovered around the age of 5. Most have either a parent or a teacher who can teach them enough to keep their talents in check until they’re old enough to begin learning finer control of their abilities. Mei is quite lucky that your clan’s… what was the word you used? Shaman? Yeah, I think that was it. She’s lucky your shaman, an Air bender, was able to figure out how to teach her to do this.

Mei turned her head to look across the way to the opposite bunk. Zoiya was seated on the bottom, talking across the narrow corridor between bunks to speak to the other three women.

Right. Zoiya, for example, had access to this training. By the age of 12, she was bending what I am now. At 18, she mastered most of what she could. Of course, she could always learn more, but it will be a grueling process.

Mei, if you two hadn’t noticed yet, is something of a prodigy. Despite having learned only a couple of basic forms before arriving here, her progress has been rapid, far faster than anybody the army has ever seen. Well, the King himself probably learned even faster, but he also had access to the greatest of Earth bending masters. Mei’s had to make do with everyday benders such as myself.

Zoiya’s selling herself short; she’s more of an expert than an average bender. The best benders we do have, however, tell me that I have the potential to become one of the greatest Earth bending masters, if given time and the proper training.

They’ve even started pooling a small portion of their wages to help Mei pay for training!

No they haven’t! The Governor of Omashu has agreed to pay for my training, so long as I return to use it in the service of the Earth Kingdom.

Anyway, as the first of our people to be given this sort of opportunity, and as the first Earth bender born to our people in a very long time, I doubt I’ll be around to personally instruct the next of our people born with the ability to bend Earth. Therefore, in order to benefit from my knowledge, they’re going to need detailed notes of my training, and detailed notes of my time serving the Kingdom will go to further our people’s knowledge. Yours too, Zhing Ji. And Shang Li, if you choose to start one. We three are the only tools our people have to learn of the outside world. Would it not be selfish to keep our experiences to ourselves?

Silence greeted Mei as she finished speaking. Across the way, she could see Zoiya’s thoughtful expression, and she inferred that Shang Li and Zhing Ji must have been affected by her words; they were silent, at any rate. Zoiya eventually looked as if she was going to say something, but decided to hold her tongue. A short while after that, the scribbling of a quill on paper could be heard, and then a second. Mei smiled as she pulled out her own diary; her people would benefit from all three women’s memoirs. The scratch of quills on paper would be heard for years to come in the dark hours of the night in Omashu's barracks...

Word Count 1079
Word Total 3782
RUPs 3[

Nights like those came to be cherished memories, as the next few years would be difficult for us all. I used to think that life in the city, in the army, would be glamorous, or at least not so monotonous. For a long time, all we did was train. Shang Li honed her abilities with 3 different types of sword, and started to learn the art of chi blocking. Zhing Ji, already an expert bowman, is now a master archer, and has moved on to other ranged weapons, such as shuriken, and is also learning chi blocking. Zoiya got put in charge of training new Earth benders; the old lieutenant was executed for raping a young woman with pointy ears.

I wish that I could say that despite the hardships, the four of us had each other throughout all of our trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, we didn’t… On the morning I was raped, Shang Li and Zhing Ji were transferred to Ba Sing Se, where they would undergo advanced training to become part of the King’s Guard. Zoiya was on the other side of the city shoring up the gates for.. but I won’t mention that quite yet. What I will mention is that Zoiya saved me from being put through that again. After she saved me… we made love. Losing one’s virginity is a painful experience in the best of situations, but to have a dick shoved inside your pussy when you’re not only dry but fighting, and to have your virgin head broken on top of that… I’d hoped sleeping with someone I cared about would lessen the impact of the memory, and for a time it did. Whenever the memory of it came upon me, the ugly feeling of something hard and unwanted pushing in and out of me, I would also remember the sweet feeling of Zoiya’s caring caress, the sweet taste of her tongue… even now, the memory sends a thrill through me, and makes me wet between the legs.

I wasn’t in Omashu that long after that. You see, that’s when the King arrived in the city, and, more importantly, I met Data.

Word Count 359
Word Total 4041
RUPs 4