Welcome to my little short stories, that totally aren't giving me ideas how to write my other work "Journey of Yin and Yang". Anyways Enjoy!
The Hardcore
Thunk! Crack! Thud-Thud-Thud!
The night hung its youth over the horizon. The moonlight, incandescent on the landscape below, reveals a small clearing of trees not native to the land. These trees were not a simple oak or pine, but of an imported ironwood. Chunks had been taken out of many of the wood as trained fists picked it away. Wood which was thought to only be phased by tools was persuaded to break at simple paws. Simple paws that seemed as clean as when they had arrived. One knew better than to visually and overly damage something vital to fighting. Weakness is not an option!
Thunk! Whack! Crack!
Pained gasps reverberate into the ears of the only person around. Physical pain only shaded under the overbearing mental fatigue of which worryingly threatened to put down the young warrior. Disappointment brandished from the increasingly few tears freely flowing down softly furred cheeks. Tears felt relieving in the moment as the crushing reality of what it meant to be a warrior would come bearing down to remind that a true warrior never cries. Grrr…
Thwack! Crack! Crack! Crack-crack-crack-eeuu-Thwoosh!
The warrior stood staring between paws and the felled tree. Silence fell as the remaining sound from the felled tree died away leaving the warrior alone with their thoughts.
"Your form is off!"
"Good job, if you're trying to disappoint me, that is!"
"Focus. Do you want to die in battle?"
"Too slow!"
"Sloppy!"
"Get up and do it better!"
"Do it better!"
"Not enough!"
Not enough, never enough. Is this why I was left at that orphanage..? Who wants a tigress that's not enough? A daughter that could never be enough for any parent, no matter how much hard she ever tried. Why did such a traitor get all the love and catering and I was left with what was left? Why did I, the monster, ever get a chance.
Tigress turned to sit against the stump of the tree to glance back at the forest then up to the palace. One simply cannot be weak if not in the presence of anyone else. At least she was completely alone. She began to cry to herself overburdened by unmatured emotions. Feeling every ache and pain bleed from her eyes washed her over with subtle relief. Hiding away behind a stone wall had only been a delay for any and all Inevitable. Everything always came to light one way or another. Rounds of warm tears soaked into the fur they took their paths through finally falling from the ruff of her cheeks. She sunk her head into her knees, wrapping her arms around them.
Does it pay off being something that contrasts yourself? To have to hide yourself away to appeal to something that in the end, won't matter in the slightest. To ache and not feel where your gentleness matters most. She took her paw to feel the grass below and felt nothing drawing another wave of silent sobs.
It only matters to have the one she so desperately desires to make proud of her because then she will finally feel worth something the one most important to her.
The warrior stood to bury their feelings away once more in wood.
One would consider this warrior hardcore from the outside, but this warrior is just like anyone else.
A tear falls.
A heart aches.
Thunk! Crack! Thud-Thud-Thud!