The Diamond Maelstrom… one of the natural wonders of the known world. A relentless, never-ending storm of the roughest sand imaginable to man. Compared to the diamonds and minerals creating the sands of this area, the Iron Sands of the Sunaku Clan felt like the gentle grains one would feel under his feet on a beach. Some might see a certain appeal to it, the sheet power of mother nature manifesting itself in such a way. A marvelous sight to behold…but not the proper place for people to live. It was this phenomenon that forced the natives of the Wind Country into underground reclose. For the Sunaku, the insult was doubled. Ever since the Sunahoshi faded away, none of their strongest Shinobi were able to seize control of the storm. They could not tame the very element which allowed their clan to thrive across the globe. They lived everyday with the thought that they could not completely seize control over the element upon which the country was built, hoping that one day, a successor to the Sunahoshi would come.
It wasn’t the first time that Sunaku Harupia found himself inside of the unrelenting storm. During his years of training with his father, they would often come here to practice in the extreme conditions. Each member of the clan was expected to be able to manipulate the Maelstrom at least to the point of being able to safely traverse the dunes on their own with minimal protection. It was the expectation that one day they would lift the curse of their land, and Shigeo had high expectations of his son. So they would come here as often as possible, and the young boy would be sitting in the eye of the storm, focusing his mental energies to the most of his abilities, trying to force the wild storm to bend to his will around his body. Of course, his father was there, close enough to shield the boy once his body let up. But he would wait till the very last second, Harupia often times coming back from the training battered and scratched up, much to the chagrin of his mother…
Years later, the grown heir of the clan (or at the very least the most probable prospect) moved through the dunes of the maelstrom with relative ease. Of course, he was wrapped rather tightly in a thick cloth to shield him from the stray grains of the sandstorm, but the years of training and his genuine love for the art of manipulating the element gave him an impressive amount of control. With this ability he managed to wander through the maelstrom into a lone looking gave, relatively far from Soon’s Heaven. A place where he knew for sure he would be alone, at least for a certain while. And he needed that moment of respite.
Though it was safe to say it was quite a long time. Harupia had been in recluse for the last few months. Spending most of his day’s in his art shop, wandering around the city, just being…somewhere. Without missions, conversations, just away. He felt miserable. The whole encounter with the Djinn, the carnage and destruction, the fact of how helps the entire force of the village was against it…it made him feel miserable. All of them trained all their lives of serve and protect their home, and they couldn’t make that creature yield. Ultimately they managed to end its terror…but the costs were so high. So much death, so much destruction. Numbers he couldn’t imagine in the past… he just needed to cool off, take some time to get himself straight… again. It just always struck him so hard…his first kill, and now his first genocide. He cherished life to much to keep seeing so much death.
And yet he knew, deep down, that it was something he had to face. He was a Shinobi, a member of the Sunaku clan. There was expectations placed on him, he needed to lie up to the legacy of his father. And the point was that he wasn’t trying to run away from that. He wanted to live up to what was expected of him. He wanted to thrive, to see his Clan grow in strength and prestige, to be able to help lead his village from the caves, back into the sun. He took in a deep breath, sitting at the edge of the cave, looking up to the glorious orb of fire, or at least trying to through the entire storm. He wanted to look at the sun without any fear…and to share this feeling with the other villagers. To think some of the children didn’t see the sun in their life.
He simply needed the time to think by himself, without the interruptions of his family and friends. His father would probably nag him about trying to seize the situation, establish a stronger position of the clan… after seeing all the dead bodies, he could really care less about politics. He just had to have some peace and quiet, come to terms with what he witnessed back there. Another reminder that life could simply be cruel for no apparent reason. Like nature and the Diamond Maelstrom… sometimes everything just went wrong. And in the end, all you could do is dust yourself clean from the fall and push on forward. That would come soon…Haru just wanted to look up the sky for a bit longer. After all, that was the limit he was shooting for. And it wasn’t like anyone would be interrupting him anytime soon…
Wc= 931
It wasn’t the first time that Sunaku Harupia found himself inside of the unrelenting storm. During his years of training with his father, they would often come here to practice in the extreme conditions. Each member of the clan was expected to be able to manipulate the Maelstrom at least to the point of being able to safely traverse the dunes on their own with minimal protection. It was the expectation that one day they would lift the curse of their land, and Shigeo had high expectations of his son. So they would come here as often as possible, and the young boy would be sitting in the eye of the storm, focusing his mental energies to the most of his abilities, trying to force the wild storm to bend to his will around his body. Of course, his father was there, close enough to shield the boy once his body let up. But he would wait till the very last second, Harupia often times coming back from the training battered and scratched up, much to the chagrin of his mother…
Years later, the grown heir of the clan (or at the very least the most probable prospect) moved through the dunes of the maelstrom with relative ease. Of course, he was wrapped rather tightly in a thick cloth to shield him from the stray grains of the sandstorm, but the years of training and his genuine love for the art of manipulating the element gave him an impressive amount of control. With this ability he managed to wander through the maelstrom into a lone looking gave, relatively far from Soon’s Heaven. A place where he knew for sure he would be alone, at least for a certain while. And he needed that moment of respite.
Though it was safe to say it was quite a long time. Harupia had been in recluse for the last few months. Spending most of his day’s in his art shop, wandering around the city, just being…somewhere. Without missions, conversations, just away. He felt miserable. The whole encounter with the Djinn, the carnage and destruction, the fact of how helps the entire force of the village was against it…it made him feel miserable. All of them trained all their lives of serve and protect their home, and they couldn’t make that creature yield. Ultimately they managed to end its terror…but the costs were so high. So much death, so much destruction. Numbers he couldn’t imagine in the past… he just needed to cool off, take some time to get himself straight… again. It just always struck him so hard…his first kill, and now his first genocide. He cherished life to much to keep seeing so much death.
And yet he knew, deep down, that it was something he had to face. He was a Shinobi, a member of the Sunaku clan. There was expectations placed on him, he needed to lie up to the legacy of his father. And the point was that he wasn’t trying to run away from that. He wanted to live up to what was expected of him. He wanted to thrive, to see his Clan grow in strength and prestige, to be able to help lead his village from the caves, back into the sun. He took in a deep breath, sitting at the edge of the cave, looking up to the glorious orb of fire, or at least trying to through the entire storm. He wanted to look at the sun without any fear…and to share this feeling with the other villagers. To think some of the children didn’t see the sun in their life.
He simply needed the time to think by himself, without the interruptions of his family and friends. His father would probably nag him about trying to seize the situation, establish a stronger position of the clan… after seeing all the dead bodies, he could really care less about politics. He just had to have some peace and quiet, come to terms with what he witnessed back there. Another reminder that life could simply be cruel for no apparent reason. Like nature and the Diamond Maelstrom… sometimes everything just went wrong. And in the end, all you could do is dust yourself clean from the fall and push on forward. That would come soon…Haru just wanted to look up the sky for a bit longer. After all, that was the limit he was shooting for. And it wasn’t like anyone would be interrupting him anytime soon…
Wc= 931
