Strength flowed through her limbs, ridged yet supple as she executed each position with excruciating deliberation. The vibrant purple hair was pulled into a loose, snaking braid that swung in the light breeze. Her bare feet were warmed by the earth beneath her, coating with dust as she spun and twirled. The quite calm of the park clearing was briefly broken by the metallic singing as her multiple daggers found their marks in every invisible target.

She stood still, her body trembling but slightly, her breathing deep yet even and controlled. White clouds trolled across the brilliant cerulean sky, casting dapple shadows over the emerald earth and glinting off the metal details of the girl's practice uniform. Hers was an art long practiced yet never perfected as she strove to transform the moves of martial arts into her own unique style, blended with her perchance usage of small bladed weapons. In the trees and ground around her glinted the evidence of her great skill, and she slowly lowered her arms and stood at an easy attention. Sharp amber-orange eyes glowed in the solar light as she mentally marked the position of every blade she'd thrown while practicing, turning in a full circle until she was sure she had done her best yet, and a mysterious smile touched the corners of her mouth. Her face softened with the look, but it took a familiar sound to bring out her true, hidden self.

The barks resounded in the quite air, and the young woman jerked her head to glance over her shoulder. Her face broke into a full grin when she spotted the two puppies dashing towards her, yapping excitedly as they nipped playfully at each other in their race to reach her first. As the black and gray creatures reached her, the smaller one took a flying leap, aiming for her arms while the other darted for her feet in a concert effort to get her on the ground. The strategy worked, as it always did, and as the woman caught the little girl in her arms, she buckled her knees, falling gracefully to the ground where the other puppy pounced on her back, wrapping his arms around her neck as the threesome erupted in playful laughter.

The sight brought a familiar smirk to the lips of the gray-haired man following the two children, his hands stuck halfway in the pockets of his leather pants. It was a sight he never tired of, watching her with their children. The young woman caught his eye for a moment, the two puppies still swarming around her, and they shared the same thought. Life had not always been so sweet, for either of them. The past was haunted by ghosts of another world, vastly different and far less hospitable than the one they now enjoyed