200 word drabble: Fires Inside

Written for avatar_500 prompt #17, Stir.

Summary: They listen and she learns.

Fires Inside

They burn deep under Wu’s feet the night she walkes into the village.  She is young and the green pinches and feels all wrong on her body.  Yesterday, she followed the shifting fires under the rock to the village and glimpsed the volcano, still and serene, through the trees.

And when she went to the captain, he told her what happened to a bunch of Earth Kingdom commoners wasn’t their responsibility.  She thought that was why they’re conquering the Earth Kingdom, to make things like that their responsibility.

She walks into the center of town and shouts.  She knows she sounds crazy, talking about fire, lava and ash raining from the sky.

But they listen.  And they leave.

~*~

She’s fifteen, and they call her Aunt.  They come to her with questions about who they’re going to marry, and where they should farm.  They ask about grandchildren’s names, and sick animals, and whether it will rain.  So she buys scrolls from passing traders about animal husbandry, medicine, weather, farming, and everything she knows nothing about.  She learns everybody’s names and the names of their ancestors.  And she makes things up.

And waits for the fire in the mountain to awaken again.