Behind the temple, Karra was working away, expelling her frustrations of her lost sparring match. As she took out her anger against the tree standing before her, she threw punch after punch. Pieces of bark could be seen falling from the tree as a wide, bare patch was formed around her repetitive assault, denting the softer outter layer. She pulled back her arm, shifting her body to the side before she threw everything she had behind the punch, shouting in frustration.
When her pawed fist collided with the tree, small leaves descended from above. Karra was panting heavily as the joints of her paws were stained red. She just couldn't believe how weak she was compared to someone as young and small as Kazran, not just in terms of strength, but in skill. This boy prodigy was insufferable to her. How could he still be so much better than her, after all the training she has done? She was jealous. Jealous and frightened of the road ahead, as she was the oldest of the students and was next in line to begin her own initiation. Yet someone so much younger than her had made her feel weak.
"This sucks..." she muttered.
She was trying to be tough, but her paws were trembling from the consistent flows of collisions dealt upon the tree. In that moment, Karra felt hopeless and defeated, as though no amount of training would prepare her for the dangers of leaving the safely grounded parameters of the forest. She had no one to blame but herself.
"If I can't get stronger, will I ever be able to make it back home to my family?" she asked herself. Karra was at a stand still of what to do.
The next moment, two more girls were seen exiting the library at the opposite side of the rear courtyard, carrying a few books each, as they saw Karra standing heated in front of the damaged tree.
"Wow, I wonder what happened," one of them said. "Is she like that because she lost the sparring match today?" the other asked.
Their names were Tika and Maulana, an inseparable pair. Tika, with the traits of an Aegean cat, has dark, green eyes, semi-long hair with splashes of white, black, blue and ginger. She has hands like that of a humans, while Maulana, who has the traits of a Burmese cat, has short and satiny, sable-colored hair, and dense nails that come to a point; her eyes yellow in color.
When Karra noticed the two girls looking at her, she scoffed, and turned around to storm away from their view. Having been seen in this state of mind left her feeling a sense of humiliation, which she didn't know how to deal with.
"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Tika asked her companion.
Maulana appeared a little more laid back about the ordeal.
"I'm sure she'll figure it out," she insisted.
As Karra marched out of site, she stopped along the side of the temple where no one else was around to be seen. She stood facing the temple wall as feelings of fear and humiliation had overwhelmed her. Karra laid her head against the wall as her eyes welled over in frustration. Her chest and shoulders rose and fell rhythmically, when she suddenly clenched her eyes shut and drug her claws down the temple wall, as tears began to stream down her face. Her heavy breathing quickly turned into jolts of hyperventilation, as she restrictively cried quietly against the temple wall. Her clawed paw turned into a fist as she propped it against the wall.
Once she heard voices closing in, Karra immediately held back her emotions and wiped the tears from her face as she turned tail and stormed off in the opposite direction.
Soon, Tika and Maulana could be seen coming around the corner, carrying their books.
"So what do you think of that new girl? Do you think she'd be worth talking to?" Tika asked.
Maulana was immediately eager on the topic.
"Maybe. Did you see that cat on her shoulder? Who ever knew cats were allowed to participate in the class? Do you think there's something our feline relatives could learn here as well?" Maulana replied.
"What? No way!" Tika answered her, "Teaching a cat in nekomatian arts? What would they even do with that source of information? I have to say, I am a little jealous though. Those two look inseperably cute together!"
Maulana nodded in agreement as the two of them carried on.
Karra had turned off towards the temple entrance, while the two girls made their way into the courtyard, heading for the temple courtyard's exit.
Karra, who stopped at the temple door, rested her paw on the entrance as she watched the two girls walk by. When she was satisfied the other girls hadn't noticed her again, she turned around to push the door open, entering the temple.
Inside, a short staircase lead up to a platform where one would find a shrine. On either side of the few steps, there was a red, decorative inner wall which wrapped around the shrine. This inner wall had plenty of intricate gaps, allowing the viewer to see through it. Around the outer edge of the inner wall, there was a small, wrap-around hall. Every few feet, a large, golden medallion could be seen imbedded into a pillared layer on the outer wall.
As Karra entered the temple, she took a deep breath before proceeding up to the shrine.
Hanging from the ceiling, in the center of the shrine platform, was a decorative, gold chandelier. It was lit with wide spread candles along the rim. The shrine itself was a series of stone alters which held large, gold rimmed bowls containing smoldering ash. In front of the alter was a long, rectangular stone basin filled with sand. On either side of the basin were short pillars where many sticks of incense, or osenkō, were displayed on a specially designed incense rack.
Beyond the rear of the inner wall, could be seen a gigantic, gold medallion imbedded in the main outer wall. Along the bottom of which, there was a small stone alter where many bouquets of flowers were set.
Karra knelt to her knees before the stone basin, and collected two sticks of osenkō from the rack. On either side of the incense racks were small, narrow poles that held a small, metal bowl of smoldering coals up by a chain, which she used to light the osenkō. She held the osenkō in front of her, between her middle and pointer fingers, with her thumbs on the bottom of the sticks as she stared into their ember, watching as they slowly burned away.
"What am I going to do?" she asked herself.
The temple was quiet, aside from the faint sounds of smoldering coals and ash. Her voice seemed to echo within the temple's ambiance. Taking in a deep breath, Karra closed her eyes in prayer, and after a few moments, she opened them up again and drove the base of the osenkō sticks into the sand.
It was warm within the temple, almost freeing, but Karra's mind remained filled with worry.
As she gave the shrine a gentle bow, Karra rose to her feet. When she turned to leave the shrine, the sounds of the temple door being opened echoed, and Karra could see Kazran stepping inside. The boy's eyes rose up to Karra, and the two of them stood in silence as their eyes locked together, while the temple door closed.
The air became heavy, as the echoes chimed throughout this inner sanctum.