To Clear The Mind [Shinyama Pavilion]

[Arcinia]

1st of Winter 520
One breath in, A Moment passes, Breath goes out the pattern repeats to the sound of training. The smell of sweat and effort fills the air of the training halls. Initiate and acolyte alike train with their mentors or alone, as she was.

It took discipline to remain still the sound’s the smell of combat training made her wish to get up and throw a few punches, her heart raced but shaky breathing made shoddy meditation, it was imperative to her to maintain her composure. Time and time again she had been told to meditate, to understand your inner soul was part of the discipline of the Shinya, understanding your mind and body perfectly.

The girl’s frame shuddered slightly as she sat cross-legged against the northernmost wall of the room a chill shot across her spine as she heard a loud clang of metal on metal, apparently, someone was ensuring her patience would be tested, but meditating in the training room with all this noise was a test, could her discipline and patience prove useful in keeping calm during combat?

The cold was the most present feeling she had, every clank of metal or grunt of effort could be heard, learning to tune out the sensations that you don't need is part of meditation pushing all the external senses inward she focused on the sound of her own heartbeat, the own measured slow breathing of her body.

Thoughts gnawed at her mind as she breathed but they too were expelled by the breathing. Metal clanking, the sounds of training turned into a droning sound as she pushed them away,
“Remain calm, be still, do not let the outside world intrude” Her uncle's words echoed in her mind.

She could feel her heartbeat even out, her breathing tapered and slowly, her mind gradually slipped into a calm state she could feel the intrusiveness of the world but it was now integrated into her thoughts, the repeated blows, the sounds of efforts from the other initiates and acolytes.
Her thoughts were at peace, for mere seconds.

A harsh screech of metal against wood, a cry of pain, then silence for a second followed by the sounds of sobbing, trainees had a habit of injuries during trainees. Her gray eyes snapped open out of her state of meditation. Standing to her height she stepped over to the trainees, she was far from the only one.

The scene was rather plain, two initiates both armed with staves were going at each other, an average scene in the pavilion one of them, a black haired boy who looked to be a bit younger than her Sniveled and waved his hand in the air, presumably the one who was injured, her eyes directed themselves to his training partner, another initiate he was a few inches taller than her and much more muscular, almost as if he had spent his life weight training, a smirk of indignant pleasure gleamed across his face. This was something she couldn't stand to see, he was not simply helping the other kid train, he was bullying a lesson into him.

She calmly walked over to the younger boy and offered a hand to him. “New recruit?, A pleasure to meet you, my name is Arcinia may I see your hand please?"

[Arcinia]

She gently placed her arm around his shoulder, taking him by the back and leading him away gently, she looked towards the person who had whacked the younger initiates hand probably on purpose as she looked at his hand, asking him to wiggle his fingers, as he did so, it appeared there was no serious damage other than the pride of the young man. “Good no damage, no thanks to him.”w She glared back in the direction and put as much venom as she could muster into the stare if looks could kill, it probably wouldn’t have done much damage but she tried to make it hurt.

“Well then, since your hand isn’t broken, how about we get an introduction out of you sir ?” She gave a friendly smile to the young man, he was only a few years younger than her only a year younger than she was when she first joined. “Jacob, and thanks for checking out my hand.” he clenched his hand into a fist. “He said he would help me train with the staff” There was a hint of a whine in Jacob’s voice.

“Well Jacob I have to say it looked like he was trying to prove he was good at fighting with a staff, have you ever held one before today. In fact, do you even know how to fight? You are greener than me, and I mean no disrespect, everyone was there at one point” She chuckled and her gaze examined the training staff a solid stick made of wood, the core was filled with metal, a weighted staff, she picked up her iron staff, gifted to her by her uncle. “And this is a weighted training staff, you shouldn’t be using this yet anyway, you’re better off with a wood one”

The boy had an embarrassed look on his face, glad they had begun moving away from the center of the training room he sheepishly said to the girl. “I have never swung a weapon before today no, my father was Shinya but he never taught me anything other than breathing techniques and meditation, it was to get over my nerves” A Nervous chuckle escaped him to punctuate his sentence.

“Unarmed training ?” The boy shook his head. Nodding slowly Arcinia gave him a quick jab to the chest with a finger. “You should practice fighting without a weapon first, A Shinya should know how to defend themselves with the first and second weapon first, the mind and the body”