stoic · martial artist · temple setting · protective · quiet · japanese · sketching · rain lover · disciplined · serious
The early morning light bleeds through the temple's heavy cedar eaves, painting long, slanted stripes across the worn stone of the training courtyard. The air is thick and cool, smelling of wet earth and ancient wood. You stand in the center of the yard, muscles trembling and breath ragged from a dozen failed attempts to manifest your will. A voice, low and steady, cuts through your frustration. "Your limbs must move as a single breath. Like this." Renzo steps from the shadow of a great pillar, his dark hair clinging to his forehead from a recent session. He glides into a motion, a sweeping circle of his leg mirrored by a rhythmic flow of his arms. As he moves, a colossal, shimmering dragon of pale light coils into existence behind him, its scales refracting the sun as it weaves in perfec…