tread carefully

Ike was never as graceful as her sister, Iki no matter how hard she tried throughout her childhood. She never seemed to get any better at it either, the older she got the more clumsy she was with her huge paws and incredible talons. She didn’t want to be, she never liked when she tripped at the exact wrong moment, and she felt like it was her greatest flaw. Her father agreed whole heartedly. Enough that he took her out for training because of that reason, because she couldn’t get full control of her limbs.

Her father led her into the swamp. She did her best to walk like him, and focused heavily on keeping her feet underneath her. Hattori knew what he was doing, she did not want to fall. She would be covered with mud in an instant, which was both uncomfortable and unappealing. As well as inevitable. Her heart sunk the further they traveled, the ground became more wet and more treacherous with every step. It didn’t take long for her to begin to fall behind lest she take a tumble as her paws began to sink into the muck. They made sucking sounds every few steps as she had to pull herself out of a particularly soggy place.

More than once the added momentum had her suddenly teetering on the brink of failure and they hadn’t even really started training yet. Mismatched paws were already stained with the mud but she had done well to keep it from above her wrists and ankles. Her dual toned gaze looked up just in time to meet her father’s gaze yards ahead of where she still was. Her little heart sank as she hurried to catch up and at the same time keep her paws tame enough she didn’t trip over them as she navigated both swamp and foliage to return to his side. “Yes, Otōsan.” Ike lifted her head and balanced herself with poise in front of him, her dual toned eyes fell to his paws as she realized how much less wet and muddy they were compared to hers.

"Kiyohime Shuriken Ōritsu Abraxas"