But that was not all of the plan. First he'd had to get them to the damned place. Then he'd just slip away to go and enter his son in the tournament and the boy'd have no choice but to compete. If he lost, then Genma would have something to hang over his head to push him to train more. On the other hand, if he won, ther were two ways to deal with that. First, point out all the ways that he could have done better. And second, he could claim the boy's success as being a direct result of his father's training. Either way, he won, with the added bonus of possibly running into opportunities to learn a technique or two.
He simply couldn't lose!
"Excuse me," rasped and aged voice, "But what exactly do you think that you are doing?"
The portly Saotome turned to look at the speaker and winced as he saw what looked like a gnarled troll on a stick. An image of his own Master (may he never be disturbed) ran tthrough his mind. At first, he thought that the shriveled being confronting him was male also, but the long hair didn't match that concept. "I wasn't doing anything."
"On the contrary, it did look like you were doing something."
"Who are you to say if I ws doing something or not?"
A white eyebrow went up, and Genma got the feeling that he was being measured up and failing miserably. "I am an Elder and the Matriarch of this village, young man. I have seen more attempts at deception than you have seen winters."
'Lots more, I assume.' "But I am a simple wandering martial artist looking to further my son and my skills in the Art."
"Are you now?"
"Yes, I most definately am. In fact, that is part of why I am here."
"Hmmm... and that would be why?"
"Oh, for the shame of it!" sobbed Genma, "My son neglects his training in favor of frivolous pursuits!"
"And those would be?"
"They are many, but the main ones are the pack of animals that he has adopted. With them always around, I fairly have to tear him off of them to get him to practice."
"And why do you think that coming here would help?"
"I simply thought that if the boy would compete in the tournament here, then he'd learn to take his skill more seriously."
"I see..."
"You do?"
"Yes. But I do think you should know that:
(Posted Thu, 23 Jan 2003 00:47)
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