Snowy Stroll [D2, EM] (Open)

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

Well... you sure picked a good time for this, didn't you?

The Tortoise's feet crunched upon the fresh snow as he walked slowly and carefully around the garden in the quiet of the morning, snow still lightly coming down from the sky and landing gently on the freshly-packed inches of it that had come down overnight. Though not too dark for Asakuro's wandering, one brief look up at the sky told him all he needed to know: not just now, but for the day itself, Lady Sun would not smile upon this place. And yet, there was a beauty to it all, a serenity and quietness to a snowfall upon a well-tended garden, and he would make do with it for a moment's respite from the chaos of yesterday and what would be the chaos of today, tomorrow, and all the other days ahead of him.

With his traveling cloak bundled up tight and clutched with gloved hands, hat keeping the still-falling snow off his face, and a small cloud in front of him with every exhale of breath, he stopped occasionally before a snow-covered bush or tree for a few moments, taking in a quiet moment before the snow-topped plant to contemplate before moving slowly, ploddingly through the garden and over the snow once again.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

A familiar face to the Kasuga would come into view. The Isawa wanted to take a stroll and perhaps a bit of cold resistance training. He was not wearing heavy clothes rather medium not enough for hypothermia but not enough to be fully warm. He tried to concentrate to keep himself warm. Yet his concentration broken by a sudden gust. He noted the Kasuga and gave him a bow. "Good morning."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

Asakuro turned away from his brief study of a snow-covered shrub to greet another. As it turned out, a familiar one. "Ahh, a most good morning, Isawa-san - pleasant to see a familiar face again," the Tortoise responded and offered a bow. "Come to enjoy the peace of the gardens at this most early hour?"

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"Yes, sort of." He nodded. "I wanted to find a place suited for meditation that is not a temple. We have plenty of those." He said with a slight chuckle. "I enjoy the open areas better eventhough not good in military terms."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"Ah yes, a place of quiet reflection, contemplation, and meditation, out in the good and natural realm. There are most certainly spots such as the ones you seek that this one has seen in his wanderings this morning - a couple there, one that on another day would be a most wonderful spot over there," the Tortoise noted, his head pointing to his left and right with his nose so that he might not have to lift his arm away from his cloak.

"A dry spot upon which to do so, however? I think this day luck is not on your side for that one, Isawa-san," he added with a short laugh.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

The Isawa nodded. "So it seems." He shrugged. "And what are you doing this morning, Kasuga san?"

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"An early rise this morning turned into thoughts of exploring the gardens before others might arise and the hustle and bustle of the day comes here. The gardens I have visited in my travels have given me inspiration over time for similar landscape and design for segments of the Menagerie that I tend, and the various creatures that make their home in them, and I hoped the gardens here might do the same," he responded as he glanced around him momentarily.

"Even with the blanketing of the snow and the blooms of spring many months away, there is much to look at further: the way the bushes are planted and trimmed around the curve in the path over that way, for instance, or how elegant those pine trees appear on that island in the pond over there, planted apart on either side yet bent inward by the gardeners over time so that one day they might both meet one another in the middle. Such a spot repeated in the Menagerie would be a wonderful place for a pond full of turtles and a pair of nesting birds to find shelter I would think." At both of those descriptions he lightly pointed in the direction of the particular plants he was talking about in that moment.

"And, of course, curiosity over this garden's history drew me to see it for myself, even with the weather. Do you put stock into the story of the Kenku, Isawa-san?" he asked.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

He listened to man explaining his early visit to the garden, impressed that he could see the beauty underneath the snow and ice that covered it all. He pondered. "I don't think I have heard that one, Kasuga san."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"Well... it was this one's understanding that the grounds upon which we walk were designed by one of your cousins among the Shiba to draw forth a Kenku that had once tried to recruit a student for tutelage, only to find none worthy of their time, and thus far the alleged Kenku has never appeared again." He paused.

"... or so I overheard it, but I might be missing a detail or two. Needless to say, am otherwise pleasant garden and training ground nonetheless."

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

I can't believe I had forgotten that one... that is what happens when you pay little attention to history.

"Ah, yes I remember now. Thank you." He smiled. "Hopefully, he found a student somewhere in Ningendo. If not, here we are... wondering if." He looked around. "Perhaps this Kenku is like enlightenment. The more you look for it, the more it eludes you."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"Ahhh... a novel concept, Isawa-san. I wonder how many that trained in these gardens over the years considered that?" he nods his head in agreement as he tilts his head towards one of the small clearings nearby that made for a likely training ground.

"Many have waited for the Kenku to return, trained for many seasons waiting for an appearance, only to never happen - perhaps the Kenku had even been watching all this time, knowing they were wanted, thus continuing to stay away. If they stop looking, stop caring, train for purposes other than impressing a creature that may or may not be there... perhaps then and only then will they deign to make an appearance? Perhaps the worthiest student is, in fact, the one that never sought to be one to begin with," he finished contemplating with a nod.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"It is a probability. I find it better that training for oneself betterment is far more enjoyable. Achievement of your accomplishments are sweeter this way." His Dragon half spoke.

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"To learn, to better, to always strive for improvement in one's techniques, one's words, one's actions. As the Tao reminds us: 'Only when you are in the grave will you have nothing more to learn.'" Was that right? It had been some time since he brushed up on his reading of the Tao - the sentiment was there, at least.

"Curious to hear, Isawa-san: if one were to meditate in the gardens, with many options to be found, which spot would one choose and why?"

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"Well...right now a dry place." The young man joked. "In the spring time, close to the aromatic flowers that helps ease people's mind." Then he analyzed his surroundings. "It might also depend on the people, they may chose a spot where the lady sun shines and warms their hearts as well as their day."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"If it can be found, I quite enjoy a spot with the sound of water - be it the loud gushing of a waterfall, the babble of the brook, or even the lightest trickle dripping into and off of the stonework of a fountain," the Tortoise nodded in response, giving his own preference on the matter. "Such sounds of the movement of water, I have found, make for a good point of focus, a wave of ever-moving, ever-marching sound to sink into one's self and reflect upon all things and no thing at all."

He turns slightly to point in the direction of a tight-knit grouping of trees off to his side. "If one rounds the path behind that wall of pines, I recall coming across a gazebo standing next to one of the smaller ponds that might provide for the dry place that you seek. I did pause there for a few moments in my wandering, and though the pond is frozen over, with nobody else around this morning one can clearly hear underneath the ice the bubbling of water from the creek that flows slightly downward to feed it."

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"Another type of sensory experience. My cousins of the Dragon like to sit under waterfalls to meditate. They say that they wash away all thought as the sound make them focus on the void."

He nodded at the proposition of finding the gazebo. "Perhaps it will be dry." He followed the man. "As long as one doesn't get a sensory overload. One can find solace and a perfect place to meditate."

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

Asakuro turned and started up the path, a gloved hand offering a light motion for the Phoenix to follow.

"A most enlightening experience to sit at the bottom of a falls and have the world melt away, or so one of the Togashi once told me. Near to a falls I have had pleasure to sit, but never so close as the monk described: even with great balance from riding the waves for years on the kobune, the swift feet of the monk I do not possess, and rather the kobune deck would I walk rather than attempt delicate dance upon slick stone," he commented as he followed a curving path around some large but neatly-trimmed and manicured bushes.

"Meditation on the kobune, meanwhile, an experience all unto its own. When not so busy on the deck as to create distraction, one can sit out front, close their eyes, and disappear as if they are in the waves themselves. On a gentle day, the dips and rocking back and forth minimized, the sound of waves lapping against the exterior, over and over, combined with the low whistle of a quiet breeze going past the head... it took time and much practice to focus even in these conditions, at first, but an elder seahand described to this one to become one with the waves, not to fight and struggle against but to work with them. And when I was able to do so for the first time: stillness in the Void," the Tortoise nodded knowingly.

"... but the sea is fickle, ever moving, ever-changing, and an unexpected splash of salted water has unfortunately ended many more attempts for this one compared to moments of clarity achieved," he added with a slight chuckle.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"Well, Kasuga san that is quite the trek. Reminds me when I visit my family, one would like a moment's peace but with a child sister that likes to hop around. That might be a nearly impossible feat. Specially, when she summons water on top of one's head." He chuckled. "That is why I enjoy sometimes missions away from home." He continued to walk behind the Tortoise.

Kasuga Asakuro · **Joined:** Sat Apr 04, 2020 12:13 am **Posts:** 274

"Such was the similar treatment I received often from a younger cousin that would visit my family's household, Isawa-san - no easy task is it to stay calm and focused for long," he responded with a hearty laugh as he continued to lead the two of them along the path. Soon came into view exactly as the Tortoise described it: a fairly sizeable gazebo with a short little path off the main one leading up to it, the roof covered in snow but the inside flooring dry in the middle portion, and on one of the exterior sides a pond rested tranquilly with a sheet of ice over its top.

"Well, Isawa-san, it will do nothing for the cold, but at least this should give you the dry spot which you seek," he proclaimed as he stepped carefully up the two steps to stand in the gazebo's interior. "If it is privacy that one seeks, then I will leave you to it - if you do not mind presence of another, however, then perhaps this one might join in contemplation for a while," he offered the Phoenix.

Isawa Inugami · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:31 pm **Posts:** 149

"I will be honored if you join me." He sat in seiza in a dry space. He motioned to the Kasuga to join him.

Snowy Stroll [D2, EM] (Open)

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