Hideaway Strath Set the stage

all the lessons of her life did not prepare her.

a dancer, when others weren't watching. wise in the history of her people, a carrier of folk tales now lost, as the last of her house.

but a beast? no.

satsu should have left well enough alone. she could have fled from the giant, carried within herself another layer of guilt and shame for it.

the stranger shifted their weight in to a warrior's stance. like her brothers, or the hanshi who served her father.

they commanded that she, learn. and she knew, even before she began to move towards that line in the soil, how important this was.

to back down and show weakness was beneath her, yet she was afraid to face the wrath of the stranger. afraid that she would disgrace her name — and by doing so, the memory of her family.

had her life been reduced to moments like this?

satsu carried herself blithely across that line and then began to pace within the circle, wanting to keep herself as far from reach as she could.