As Kazran walked off to leave the temple, Alena and Elijah observed him.
"Hey Kaz," Alena called to him, "That girl Karra, do you know if she's okay?"
Kazran paused by the door, his eyes lost in concern.
"Her birthday is coming up. At most, she has a few weeks left before she has to leave the village. With how she's been lately... I'm unsure," he responded, his voice carrying worry. "Train hard Alena. Train up, and focus on what's important," he added.
With his thoughts passed onto Alena, Kazran opened the door from the temple, and walked through it. The door echoed throughout the shrine as it was opened, and closed heavy behind him.
"'Focus on what's important?'" Alena mumbled contemplatively. What was important to her? What was she going to train up for? Kazran's words flowed through her mind, as she reflected on everything she has encountered throughout her life; her eyes gazing down into space. Elijah, at this moment, brushed against Alena's ankle and started heading down the steps towards the door, looking back at her on the bottom step. Alena nodded to Elijah with a quickhum of approval.
"You're right. We should continue," she answered him, before skipping down the steps.
At that moment, Alena and Elijah exited the temple, leaving four osenkō sticks standing in the basin.
Outside the dojo, Kenrir sat on top of the dojo's back roof.
He gazed into the clouds, as his eyes reflected the sky before him. As he observed the clouds, Kenrir was reminded of his past — a time when his prior disciple would sit atop the roof, star gazing; and in the mornings before their trainings, how they would sit together taking in the fresh, crisp dews of the morning air, before basking in the rising sun.
Back then, the disciple's keikogi was still fresh as it was worn.
His prior disciple fit well into her garments and had a coat of chocolate, with green eyes in the likeness of a Havana Brown cat. Her hands were human-like with regular nails; her tail slender, medium-long and with a tapered end.
As Kenrir reflected on this past time, he thought of old conversations and tried to consider why he was returning to these memories of old. Somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was a certain similarity between his two students.The wind blew gently around him, and his eye lids dropped slightly as a touch of sadness washed over him, yet he held his chin high, not looking away from the clouds. The air was warm, but something just felt off to Kenrir. He lowered his eyes, and stared over the border into the distance.
As Karra sat off beside her bed, the birds outside were still chirping as her eyes were buried in her knees. Suddenly, everything went quiet, and a knock was heard at her door. At first, she didn't get up to answer it. She remained there, silently sulking with her thoughts.
Another knock sounded on her door, and as it did, Karra turned her head to look upon it, hoping that whoever was knocking would go away.
"Do you think she went in?" a voice asked beyond the door.
Karra let out an aggravated sigh, knowing by the sound of their voice just who it was. She wasn't getting off easy, so she rose to her feet and collected a pair of training gloves, slipping them painfully over her paws.When the next knock sounded, Karra opened her door enough so the two standing on the other side could see her full face. Her expression was stern.
"Hi Karra!" It was Tika, with Maulana standing quietly beside her. "How are you doing?" she quickly followed in her upbeat tone.
"What do you want?" Karra asked, expressing that she clearly was not in the mood.
"Well you see, Maulana and I just thought it would be a good idea to come check up on you! Lately you've been quieter than usual, so we thought maybe we could pep you up!" Tika exclaimed.Maulana turned her head to glare at Tika, who decided to speak on her behalf unannounced. "And today's match? Those were some really impressive skills you displayed! I was so impressed," Tika added.
Karra flinched at the mention of her sparring match and got ready to close the door.
"Yeah, that's great," she said unenthusiastically, before trying to shut the door.
The door had been stopped however, as Maulana had caught the door with her hand for a moment.
"Look Karra, the point is we're worried about you. You're not usually this distant," she explained, "We may not know each other very well, but we've been attending this dojo together for a while, and we care about you." Maulana was rather fond of Karra, as she looked up to her as a talented member of the class, and something else lingered on her mind. Karra however, didn't feel any meaning behind her words.
"Well if you care about me so much, then how about you give me my space?!" she snapped back, slamming the door in their faces. The two stood there quiet for a moment, before Tika broke the silence. "Do you think it was something we said?"
Maulana shook her head in amazement, "I told you not to mention the match," she answered.
Karra leaned against the door quietly, listening to their conversation as she waited for the two to walk away.
On the outskirts, away from the temple grounds, Variann was darting after a strange noise she had heard. As she got close, something bellowed in the distance, as various shifts in movements were heard. Variann stopped in her tracks, hearing the sheer number of tracks coming in her direction. Barely a couple seconds later, various animals were seen stampeding in all directions. Variann remained still as several flocks of animals ran around her, desperately trying to get away from whatever had startled them. Once the number of animals dwindled, she ran forward, trying to find whatever had caused this disturbance. However, the forest around her became quiet, separate from the fleeing wildlife behind her. She looked around in all directions, but nothing stood out.
At that moment, she stopped and stood still.
Variann squatted down, placing her hand on the ground beneath her and sealed her eyes closed. Everything was silent, there wasn't so much as a rumble. As it was, she stood up, planting her staff in the ground and lifted her sound dampening hood off her head. Her unusually large ears stood tall, different from others like her. When closing her eyes again, she listened carefully, shutting down her other senses to concentrate her hearing. Now, she could hear something fading off deep into the distance, all but for a moment. As she opened her eyes, they were shown being sharp with instinct, then upon blinking, they had immediately returned to their usual state. She returned the heavy hood over her ears, hesitating to speak her thoughts amongst herself.
"Whatever scared off those animals, it's already far from here. Maybe it didn't come as close as I thought…" She sighed, as she lifted her staff from the earth, and turned back to return to the village. That is when she looked down and saw a strange substance caught on the fallen leaves in her path. Kneeling down, she touched the slightly dark, transparent, slimy substance. "What is this? It seems familiar," she muttered. It had a tint of red, and smelled vaguely of iron. That's when her eyes widened, as she remembered. "It can't be…" she muttered, with angst in her voice.
Back at the temple, the sun was starting to set. As Alena and Elijah exited the temple, the two of them decided to explore around the back, leading them to the rear courtyard where they would see the tree, and a small structure which peaked their interest. Looking inside, Alena saw many shelves with books; some of them were even closed off with a lock mechanism. She examined the books, and many of them peaked her interest. Elijah however took no interest in such things, and decided to roam the courtyard.Out of all the books she saw, one of the books which was locked away peaked her interest. Alena got closer, kneeling down and propping her paws over the shelf case as her eyes widened, and she felt a sense of desire. It was an old book, familiar to her — it was a book of signs.
Reflecting on her past studies over a book much like this one, Alena was filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling. Her eyes shifted over to the lock panel, as she deeply sighed in disappointment.
"This one takes a key," she muttered.
She looked out the door to where Elijah was, then back at the locked away book. Her expression grew a bit sad, unable to get a closer look at the moment, and she stood up to rejoin Elijah before departing the courtyard to get some rest.