The Dojo Master’s Daughter
(Wilhelm Dragonsong)
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She was the dojo master's daughter. Surprisingly tall for a woman, she was only a couple inches shorter than my towering scarecrow frame. Completely unlike my fragile stick thinness, she possessed not only muscle but curves and softness in all the right places.
She had beautiful pale skin, pearl in color, and like a waterfall splashing down her back was silken black hair. It was hard to see her eye color from such a distance, but I knew from all the rumors I was forced to listen to when I researched this dojo that her eyes were the unique and rarely seen; violet purple.
Fascinating as her looks were, to any male myself not quite being the exception. What was more important to consider was her skills. She was quite skilled in both the sword and martial arts taught in the dojo, and her name was usually found in the top ten participants of any purely warrior tournament you read about.
But if you managed to have a conversation with her, it seems you would soon surprisingly realize that she mostly lacked pride or arrogance of any kind and was generally an enjoyable person to talk too. However having a conversation with her is not as easy as it sounds.
First of all, she was usually busy training herself or other people, this went on for such long durations it almost seemed that she was busy 24/7. Second of all there were many barriers to talk to her during her rare breaks or “free time”, most of those obstacles were the disciples themselves that trained underneath her. She was quite a beautiful female and was one of the main reasons her father’s dojo hadn’t gone bankrupt,
This was despite the fact that since the war ended only a few years ago and because there had been a very swift transition into peacetime there were a lot less people wanting to become warriors, especially since the so called “hero” of the last few war winning battles, had been well known to be a wizard.
It was a well-known fact that all of the disciples looked upon her, as at the very least a cherished younger sister, and towards the other end of the spectrum she was their worshiped and beloved idol. So as you can easily imagine these obsessed disciples did not tolerate those of lower rank in the dojo talking to her let alone outsiders.
But talk to her I must! In order to enter the dojo while maintaining my anonymity, I had to go through official channels to gain membership. The Master only personally accepted disciples if they were of high level in the sword and or martial arts, (even better if both) or came specifically recommended by one of his friends.
Because I was an absolute beginner (less than apprentice level) in the art of swords or fists and I had (for many various hidden reasons) nothing to recommend me to him, the only way I would be able to be allowed to learn at this dojo in an official student capacity, (and kept to my plan of not reveling my identity to everyone) was if the Vice Master of the dojo, the dojo masters daughter herself, were to give me the required permission.
After careful observation during the past few weeks from the public access opened part of the dojo, as well as using a few of my own tricks. I had managed to memorize the schedule of the higher ranking students as well as most of (more importantly) her schedule.
Luckily for me it seemed that the majority of the disciples of the dojo were very regular and usually liked to stick to their schedule. So I was eventually able to time things just right and quickly walk up to her in that one rare moment when she wasn’t surrounded by others.
As soon as I made sure I had caught her attention I preformed a low bow to the ground and stated the humble traditional words:
“This lowly one wishes to join this great school of wisdom.” As expected I heard the sound of a small snicker, from what I have heard from rumors and seen some of which myself, the Vice Master has never been one for tradition, (I think this comes from being a female warrior in a mostly males world) but what can I say? I am not only a male raised in a very traditional environment, I am also much older then I look and am thus more "old school" then most people.
“Well…” just when the Vice started to answer there was a series of bangs as several higher ranked students slid into the wall in their rush to enter the room.
“Vice Master!”
“Teacher!” they calmed down a bit when they saw their beloved was unharmed, but seeing my humble appearance they all looked at me in disgust.
“Sorry teacher for not being here in time to stop this trash” said one burly guy built like a tank
“Don’t worry teacher we will remove him from your presence immediately” Said another this one deceptively wiry and slim
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Despite the threats I continued to maintain my position on the floor and wait patiently for what the Vice Master had to say.
“Wait, this guy just said something interesting, hey you on the floor could you please repeat what you just said?” her voice was strained for some reason
“This lowly one wishes to join this great school of wisdom.” I obediently reinstated.
“Ha ha hah!” she burst out and chortled with amusement…revealing that reason for her strained voice was that she had been trying to hold back her laughter ”It is just as funny as the first time I heard it.”
“Wahhaha!”
“Heh heh”
“Ho haw ha”
The other students immediately began to mock me with their laughter thinking that she was insulting and refusing me, but I thought that I had a better grasp of her personality then they did. So I said nothing in the face of this humor at my own expense and waited patiently.
“Using such an outdated method to ask for admission…it is just as funny as the first time!” she snickered a bit more then said “Alright I give permission for you to join... what did you call it? Oh yes, this ‘great school of wisdom.’” I sat up in order to see her face, it was blank mask revealing nothing. Seeing that she had gotten my attention, her beauty became slightly less doll like as she said;
“You can start as soon as you pay the 100 gold membership fee. “
She held out her hand in expectation. Immediately the other students started to smirk. My clothing deceivingly looked to be made out of cheap materials, and she had asked a higher price then what would usually be asked, only 10 gold was the norm. However this was well within my expectations, as most disciples would be accepted or chosen after seeing their skills in a school tournament or dojo challenge.
Their actions during either would reveal and showcase their skills and more importantly their physical fitness, most students earned credit that way. Others would be chosen because they were introduced by a current or prior student. Either way essentially they were receiving an invisible discount because of their potential or connections.
As mentioned before, I had neither. I had zero skills, at least when speaking of ones that have to with a mostly purely physical nature, and as for my body's fitness was concerned I was basically a twiggy, frail scarecrow in shape. I had little to no visible muscles and more importantly I looked weak. So basically to me, if I had to worry about money she was kindness itself for just asking for a mere fee of one hundred gold.
“Thank you greatly for the opportunity Vice Master!” I grinned widely and stuck my hand in the depths of the training robes I was wearing and took out the small leather purse I carried with me for appearances sake.
Theoretically if I had been poor I could have requested that I pay the amount through a trade of physical labor and essentially I would have to take on the chores that none of the other students wanted to do. However the whole point of me going through this trouble was to learn how to fight with my body, and doing chores would take up too much of the time that I would spend training.
I felt that having more training time was more advantageous then revealing the truth that I had money. Especially since it didn’t reveal the fact that I had more money then I knew what to do with, just that I had at least 100 gold.
I reached my hand into the small leather purse I had for appearances sake and summoned to me from my own personal treasury 100 gold coins. Needless to say, this amount to me was actually fairly small and it didn’t even make a visible dent in the piles of gold I had stacked up inside my treasury. I happily handed the gold to her. All the other students frowned when they saw this but the Vice Master just looked surprised but happy.
“So you are prepared then? That’s good, though I myself am somewhat disappointed that I won’t have a chore boy to boss around, my father will be much happier to have the gold. Thank you.”
As she was putting the gold I gave her into her pocket, she noticed that the other students there were giving me glares, as in: ‘you will be dead soon’ looks. Seeing their anger towards me she gave the other students a dark look of some sort, I couldn't see and they immediately became contrite, and made ‘we’ll behave’ faces. Satisfied I wouldn’t be beaten to a pulp on my first day she turned to me and said.
“Well the first thing we are going to work on is getting you in shape while installing into you the basics. I want you to run laps around the dojo 100 times, when you come back I will give you more instructions now go!”
I immediately turned around and started to run, with what is sure an idiotic grin on my face…finally, after so long, I can finally start on the path of following my childhood dream!
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Vocabulary:
Dojo: a school, were one can be trained and train in various martial arts and weapon wielding styles in order to officially become a warrior
Warrior: one who uses their body to fight, in order to be official one must learn from a tutor or dojo martial arts and or weapon fighting styles