Welcome to Gaia! ::

Espyn watched and sighed, nodding once more. "I'll try..." he sighed, focusing my closing his eyes and forming a fist, placing it against a flat palm in an ancient sign. A few moments passed as the ground shuddered slightly, a deeper crater appearing, rocks now falling from the sky as if out of no where. Espyn was now haunching over at a small angle, tilting his head towards Kaimen.

"Better -now-, sensei?"

-as vipe fell he wacked at the arms then jammed his pole into the side of the canyone..from there he slowly pulled himself up-

"ahh so tired"

After a bout of mindless wandering, Sage finds his way to the entrance of the Matsu Iwa training annex. As he stands there staring at the stone wall he ponders...

why is there a wall here, in the middle of the forest.....and it's all prettyful and stuff....think.....lets see, I'm near a school for ninja's....ninja's use the arts of distraction and illusion to confound thier enemies, so it stands to reason that thier more advanced training facilities would be well hidden and only accessible to those with the skill or knowledge to access them. if we follow this line of thought, I can assume that this wall either houses something of importance, is a distraction to hide the true entrance, a monument to someone's past achievements, or possibly just a stone wall that no one has bothered to move out of here yet.....hmmm....there is writing on the wall....perhaps it is a password? it doesn't seem like a smart move to place the password in plain sight, however, that's exactly why it is such a great place to store things.

After walking up to the wall and reading aloud the words, " Kohana Toya " Sage begins pacing around the area. Stumped as to why the password didn't work, Sage leans against the wall, his hand absentmindedly pressing against the flower , " Kohana Toya ....what could that- " as Sage speaks this aloud he is cut off in mid-sentence by the wall section submerging itself and leaving him to fall back on his butt. "Wagah!"

Sage let's out a yell of suprise " YARRR!" and leaps to his feet as the leaves tickle him in places best left unmentioned. with a look of anger ( stressed ) he turns to face the unseen force in the bamboo thicket. Reaching his arms out into the air, and his mind out to the unseen world from which ectoplasm originates, Sage gathers a generous amount to his hands. with a motion of slapping his engulfed hands together, then bringing the palms to bear (palms facing forward) he mentally throws the ectoplasm he has gathered out into the thicket.

Beaten repeatedly Sage falls the the ground, and holding his hands over his head he yells out " Truce! Truce! " while he yells this he begins forming the ectoplasm he hurled earlier into the form of a giant pie. as he works through teh pain of the repeated whackings Sage's ectoplasmic construction wavers ( as in, each time he gets hit, the clear-blue goo's form wiggles a bit). until finnaly, after his body is rather battered, the pie takes full form and consistency, and begins the emit the aroma of a fresh baked pie (which it technically is). with a twitch filled clap of his hands together and a polite bow to the bamboo Sage says, " Peace?"

After a quick glance around to try and figure out where the voices came from, Sage gets up and drags his bruised, blodded and battered form along the path. As his feet carry him foreward, he relaxes his muscles and clears his mind enough to begin healing himself...keeping his eyes on the path (down) Sage places most of his focus on healing his sore back and arms. by the time he reaches the end of the path he's no longer bleeding and the welts that would have formed from his beating are averted.

Upon reaching the end of the path, Sage sits down takes a few deep breaths, " man...this place is exhausting....the bamboo has sentience and beats people for indiscretions....hell, if this kind of stuff continues, I may well wind up dead before I find an exit......he he he... ow.... why does it hurt to laugh?"

After rubbing his neck a bit and sitting down for a while, Sage stands back up and follows the rest of the path. At the moment that he sets foot on the desert floor area Sage falls over, sweating profusely and twitching, " so...hot....ah! my one weakness, my bane, my kryptonite of sorts, heat! still, there must be a way to get past this place.....aha!"

After sitting up, Sage takes off his shirt and manifests a few small rod sized pieces of ectoplasm. Taking these up, he sticks one on either side of his chest, and one (each) on his shoulderblades. Then, taking his shirt, he props on these bars and mould the bars ( thus winding up with a hands free umbrella of sorts to provide shade for him. Sage then takes and lets out a deep breath before he stands and serveys the desert area...