Singing in the woods~ (Open? First post goes to Vermilion)

It was a beautiful, chill morning, the sun was barely up and was poking it's peach and orange head over the horizon, bathing the trees and earth with its majestic light. Birds were singing their morning song and nocturnal animals were scurrying back to their places of slumber, while others were just waking up. A perfect time for walking through the woods, wouldn't you agree? That's exactly what Inari Tachibana thought as she skipped happily through the woods, humming aloud. Her fuzzy friends Kiara and Kokomoe were trailing behind her, well, more like Kiara trailed behind her while Kokomoe snoozed on the twin tailed vixen's back. Inari occasionally stopped to watch some interesting animals lurk between the trees, pulling out a sketch pad once and a while to draw down a paw print or an animal face. All this nature and tranquility was so awesome! So awesome in fact, Inari suddenly got the impulse to sing, and why not, no one was here, right?

"The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountaaaaaaaaiiiin~" Inari paused for dramatic effect "And what do you think he saw?~". The song itself was pretty childish she could admit, but at least she wasn't a bad singer.

The young prince lay in the grass, sitting between the trees as he rested along the road.  He was in the middle of the woods in former Elemental Kingdom, once the Scarred Lands, now known as the Healed Lands.  He was on his way to the City of Akio, named for the old Earth King that had ruled the Kingdom centuries ago.  Friend of the old Fire Lords; centuries ago.  Raijin laughed at the irony.  The land owned by the Earth Kingdom once had been taken by the Elemental Kingdom as a refuge for benders of all nations sometimes after the days of Aang.

The Kingdom grew and flourished and was a bastion for peace and cooperation for years.  Though their royalty never received grand recognition or massive support by the other nations, the original four that fought and squabbled among themselves for supremacy, they had peace and the people were happy.  When war occurred, people fled to the Elemental Kingdom.  The Kingdom grew and prospered, and eventually their king gained entrance to the Seven Nation Summit.  Then it all went to shit.

The lands were burned and destroyed by the magic and the dragons of the Ullondorian invaders.  Apparently they didn't like Fa Kudo discovering their land and what it meant.  While the nation leaders looked for a way to peacefully introduce themselves to the Ullondorians, the Ullondorians were scorching the Elemental Kingdom to the ground.  The potent magic made the lands inhospitable, and the rest of the nations went off to war for fifteen years.  The Ullondorian Crusades.  Raijin was very, very young when the war ended.  He didn't remember any of it.  

His older sister, Alyssandra, she remembered more of it.  She spent her childhood by their father, Owlan's, side, on the battlefield, being trained to inherit the throne.  That was, until Izanagi was born.  Raijin's older brother, one of the three triplets along with him and Izanami.  After the Ullondorian Crusades ended, the nations were destitute, save for the Empire, who had sold weaponry to their allies to help supplement the war costs.  The Earth Kingdom gave the Scarred Lands to the Empire in a 15 Year Lease.

This lease gave the land to the Empire for 15 years; while it was still Earth Kingdom territory, taken back immediately after the fall of the Elemental Kingdom and the death of its royal family.  The Empire would administrate and pay for reparations, and be allowed to keep all taxes and profits made from trade and the like in the mean time.  Recently the land was given back.  Smart move by the Earth Kingdom.  They got their land back in 100% shape, paid for and prepared for them on the bill of another nation.

Then, Raijin's small afternoon nap was cut short by the belting out of a song by some tone-deaf traveler.  Not even the alcohol Raijin ingested dulled his senses to the yelling.  He sighed and stood up, walking out to the road, stretching and tousling his hair so that it stood somewhat cleanly.  A few twigs and roots were stuck in it.  Raijin was too tipsy and too tired to give a shit though.  He yawned, and then looked at the girl singing her tone-deaf little heart out.  With a smirk Raijin replied, "A tone deaf traveler trying to sing and failing horribly?"  Sarcasm.  Raijin's oldest and closest friend.