Ashina
“Do we have to?” Sister Chōrei sighed and bent down to stroke her head. “Yes, Sonam. We have to.” She pouted at her. “But it’s so boring!”
Isa, the nice bison who always gave her licks and helped hide her when she snuck out, groaned.
“You like swords, and Kōfuku-ji are renowned for their mastery of sword techniques. You should look forward to getting there.” Sonam did. She’d seen some of them practise and been in total awe. However, Kōfuku-ji was all the way over at the base of the second mountain. “But it’s a whole day of traveling. One whole day of doing nothing and just waiting.” She’s five, a child, curious and an airbender at that.
They were silly to expect her to just wait to see cool sword techniques.
Sister Chōrei’s brows did this weird wiggle, and she looked off to the side with a smile. “Did you bring your calligraphy set?”
“Yes.”
“And a fun book?”
“Yeah.”
“Why don’t I read it to you on the way there, then?” Ooh! She’s really good at reading stories- “After at least thirty minutes of calligraphy practise.”
Sonam sagged her shoulders. “Okay.”
It’s all good so far. She still hasn’t spilled any ink yet.
Sonam bit her tongue in concentration as she carefully wrote out five lines of the letters. ཀ་ ཁ་ ག་ ང་ ཅ་ ཙ་ “Ka… kha… ga… nga… ca… and cha. There! Done. Is this okay?” She held the scroll up to her. “Can you read for me now?”
Sister Chōrei gave her paper a once over. “Hm, your hooks on cha could be better, but it’s an improvement from last time, so I guess it’s okay. Give me your book.” Sonam cheered, hurried to get her book and made herself comfortable in Sister Chōrei’s lap.
Sister Chōrei opened the book and put her chin on top of her head. “Once upon a time, at a mountain temple in the east….”
Sonam slept for the rest of the flight after Sister Chōrei finished the book.
She woke up to being carried into a towering pagoda. Must be the famous five stories pagoda. Kōfuku-ji’s signature attraction.
“Umgh.” She nuzzled into Sister Chōrei’s shoulder. Blurry thangka’s hung on the walls in the hallway she was walking down. “Awake?” Sonam blinked and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and nodded. “Yeah,” she tightened her grip around her shoulders. “I’m awake.”
Sister Chōrei shifted her onto her left side and slid a door open. “The Elders aren’t against you exploring if you want that.” She looked around. This must be the room they’re staying in. A closet, a butsudan, a low-squared table in the corner, and two rolled up futons in the middle of the room. Bare.
Sister Chōrei put her down and Sonam held on a little longer because her hugs were always really good. Like the absolute best!
“Be back before sunset, okay?”
“Okay.”
Sonam walked the hallways, pausing to admire detailed thangka’s or paintings depicting famous sword duels. It was tempting to look at the upper floors of the pagoda, but the urge to go outside won. She heard a yell as she got to the last step. It startled her so badly she almost tripped over.
“One!” Whiff. “Two!” Whiff. “Three!” Whiff. “Four!” Whiff.
Sonam looked around. Who was that? Where was it coming from? Training? It sounded like training. Bokken training? She wasn’t skilled like Sister Chōrei or Old priest Seigyo to tell yet.
She followed the sound to the three stories pagoda all the way on the other side of the temple grounds. The yells were louder, more determined. Clothes rubbed against each other. Definitely too big clothes. Sonam was familiar with the sound. The priests and priestesses regularly gave them robes a size or two bigger so they could grow into them.
She walked behind the pagoda and she’s surprised to see a small training ground there. And a girl her age. With hair that was red like fire and dressed in an oversized kimono and hakama swinging a bokken made for an adult.
It’s double her size, definitely made for an adult. How could she swing it? Sonam tried once and she couldn’t even grip around the handle.
A pair of narrowed purple eyes turned to her. “Who are you?” It's an automatic response; she’s gotten caught a couple of times back at Kushidera. Sonam raised both her hands and rambled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t- I didn’t mean to spy. I heard you from the other side of the temple grounds and got curious.” No one back home ever raised their wooden weapon at her like this girl was doing after getting caught, but it didn’t lower Sonam’s fear of getting hit.
She looked strong, too. Like really strong. Her hands went around the sword handle. This girl could probably wipe the floor with her.
“Oh,” she’s relieved when she lowered the bokken. The girl looked down at her robes and up at her face, assessing. Her head tilted to the side. “Are you- where are you from?”
“Kushidera temple.” Sonam answered and looked over her shoulder and pointed in the direction home was. “Over at that mountain there.”
“Oh, the samurai temple.” Sonam made a face. There were few samurai families left at the temple ever since they started practising the Buddha’s teachings so many centuries ago. The only true clans left were the Nagao, Sō and the Adachi. There were minor families that broke off from larger clans, but Sonam didn't know the names. “Not really anymore, but their roots are strong, I guess.”
And why was Kushi known for their samurai when other temples also had samurai as well???
The features of this girl looked a lot like those of the fearless clan of Uzushio. She’s familiar with them although, there was something more about her she couldn’t quite place.
“Do you want to spar?” Sonam wasn't the one to say no to a spar, but with her? “Okay.”
She’s an airbender. Her name was Ashina. She learned it after getting her head bashed into the ground and Ashina carrying her to the healers.
“Ashina.”
“I didn’t mean to! I’m honest!”
“Not everyone has a strong body like yours.” The chi was nice. Cooling. Swirling around in her system. Numbing the pain. Sonam remembered the moments before everything went black. How Ashina had so smoothly dodged her bokken swing. “That was a really good swing.”
The… the individual’s hand shook as they laughed. “Really?” Ashina was quiet, her clothes ruffling together when she moved closer.
“I didn’t mean to swing so hard. I’m sorry.” Why was she sorry? That swing was awesome! Sonam gave a thumbs up. “It’s okay, that swing made up for it.”
Ashina felt so bad that she showed her around the temple grounds and gave her three of the six dango skewers the nice old lady by the stand gave them during the tour.
“Monk Bodhin says I might go to Kushi and study there next year if I do well in his classes.”
Sonam chewed on her dango. “Like cross studies?” Ashina nodded. “Yeah, first a couple of months and I’ll come back here for a bit, and then I’ll go back to Kushi and maybe stay a year.”
“Maybe we’ll be classmates.” She’s excited at the mere thought of it. “You have to write to me. I’ll show you around when you get there.”
She’d never been to a beach before. It’s a startling realisation. She’s never been to a beach before??
Ashina looked at her as if she’d missed the miracles of the Buddha himself. “Come on!” She pulled at her arm. “It’s this way!”
Kushidera was too mountainous and had too much forest for a beach ever to fit there. Meanwhile, Kōfuku-ji had one only a minute away with a glider.
The sand was warm beneath her feet. Sonam wriggled her toes. Soft. She looked up at the beautiful sunset. Amaterasu’s light gave the ocean a warm glow.
“What do you want to be when you’re older?” Ashina asked, and Sonam hummed. “I don’t know. A great fighter, maybe? So legendary that everyone is scared of me.”
Ashina raised her hands and cupped them around her mouth and yelled into the horizon, startling her.
“I’m gonna be the greatest swordsman that the world has ever seen!” Sonam looked at her, confused. “Why did you do that?”
“If you want to be something, you have to yell it into the universe as a promise that you’ll actually achieve it.” Who said that? It sounded silly. Although the simple reason in her words eventually won her over.
Sonam would promise the universe that she’d become someone great.
She cupped her hands around her mouth. “I’m gonna be the greatest warrior and terrify all of my enemies!” That felt good. Sonam inhaled as she gazed at the horizon. The world, the spirits and bodhisattvas were watching her now.
Ashina grinned and threw her arm over her shoulders. “Yeah! We’ll be the greatest in the world!” There’s resolve in her in her heart. She will become great. Laughter bubbled in her chest.
Sonam made a new friend. Ashina’s shoulders shook as she laughed with her. This was a wonderful day.
She’s really happy.
Sonam was sad when it was time to leave. She’s been having so much fun! Ashina showed her around the whole temple and told her the stories about the paintings decorating the hallways. They played with the bison and lemurs, the sea minks by the beach, and even made friends with a solitary dragon when Ashina dragged her out to explore the caves up in the mountains.
Sister Chōrei grabbed her things and gave her time to say bye before they left.
Ashina’s hug took her breath away. She radiated warmth. Sonam hugged her back and ignored how her eyes stung. It wasn’t like she’d never see her again. She’d see her soon.
It’s still sad though, even if she knew that she’d see her soon.
Ashina pulled back from the hug. There’s a sadness beneath the fire burning in her eyes.
“Promise me that you’ll practise every day until I come and visit, okay?”
“I promise.” Sonam nodded, determined. “But you have to promise that as well.” Ashina’s brows scrunched up and the unshed tears were more prominent. “Of course!”
Sonam hugged her again and made sure to hold her really tightly to show how grateful she was for the time they spent together and all the fun they had.
She waved when Isa took off. Ashina waved back with both hands.
“I’ll see you soon!”
Sister Chōrei glanced at her from Isa’s head. “Made a new friend?” Ashina's red hair was visible from high up in the sky. She exhaled heavily when she couldn’t see it anymore.
“Yeah, I did.”