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Date Posted: 20:11:59 04/21/03 Mon
Author: Atumi (Tasiri too)
Subject: Dark days behind us, and bloody dawns ahead.

The black slowly paces into the circle of his students, teal eyes uncharacteristically dull. "Listen up," he murmurs, settling to his haunches and curling his tail about his paws, the velvet-grey blade lusterless in the clouded sunlight. "This next lesson is very simple, it takes very little time, but it must be practiced daily to have any real effect. For some of you, it may take a year; others may only need a month of solid practice to see a creditable difference. I am going to tell you what to do, and then let you practice for a while. I have things to attend to. Mri'fao Tasiri will keep an eye on you; she knows these exercises well and will answer any questions you may have." A silently dark look filters through those usually-luminous orbs and the supple black flicks an ear as though tossing away an unpleasant thought. "Consider Tasiri your trainer for the time being. I will not be gone very long, but until then, give her the respect that you do me." Another muted glint of malice, not directed at his pupils, shines forth briefly.

"These exercises will train your senses to go beyond what is considered possible. As some of you may have noticed, my senses are a tenfold keener than those of any Korat here. My pack, my birth-pack, taught these exercises to the cubs when they turned a year old, and they were told to practice them once a day until they died. I did not, but I practiced them long enough to hone my senses very nicely." The beautiful Korat lets out an inaudible sigh, his normal intensity strangely absent. "Focus on one sense at a time. Start with hearing, then eyesight, then smell, taste, and touch. When you listen, shut everything else from your other senses out. Completely. Your ears are all you have to know the world, and you must rely solely on them for the time being. Focus on one single sound - your own breathing, or the blood rushing through a compatriot's veins. See how detailed you can perceive the sound to be. Then switch to another sound, and another, until you have listened with your whole soul to every little sound that you can hear. Settle back into your senses, and move to sight, blacking everything else out. Focus on one single color, and try to name its exact hue. Try to see not shapes but shadows and patches of light, or areas of similar color. Then focus on movement, and hone your eyesight not only to focus in on detail, but to go outwards and see distant objects with absolute clarity. Do all of this with everything that you can see. Become aware of all senses again, then narrow yourself down to your nose. Sift through the scents drifting on the wind, identifying each one. Pinpoint each texture and each scent's location. Memorize the scents, most specifically those of your packmates, so that a mere whiff will tell you exactly who is who. Go on to taste, combining it with smell to better sense the wind. Then touch, blacking out all of your other senses to feel the tiny air currents, the earth under your paws, and the vastness of space around you. Try to sense your packmates' locations by the air currents twisting around their bodies."

Atumi falls silent, a slight grin tugging at his muzzle as he recalls his old pack leader reciting those exact instructions to a fidgety group of younglings who would rather be tusseling and exploring. "Do these, and eventually, the whole set of exercises will take you no more than a half hour each night. You'll have plenty of time to do them before you fall asleep... for the time being. I don't have plans to work you to death in the near future, but this might change." The black's liquid tenor is unusually flat, but he twists his sleek muzzle in a half-shrug. "This is Tasiri," he adds tonelessly, flicking a silky ear towards her.

The pale-gold tan nods to the group, settling down next to Atumi and almost smiling as her petite frame is dwarfed by the well-built black. The male had already named off his students on the way back, putting in physical identifiers to help the femme recognize each one. Effortlessly silent, Atumi rises, clinks blades with Tasiri gently, and slips out of sight, heading northwards and out of the territory. The tan sends a smoothing ripple down her clean pelt, watching the blacks around her with impassive amethyst eyes.

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