Submission (#1908) Approved

Quest: Resonance - Act 1
Act Type: Study
Word Count: 1046 + 153 from the correction
Adult Elnin Present: Hanami [MYO-ELN038]
Regional Affinity: Kyendi
Claiming Regional Affinity for: Kana [ELN1112]
[Villager] Rank Unlock Mini-Requirement: Home region (Kyendi)

Update: Those suggestions are wonderful!! I'm so in love <3 I incorporated them in the second to last paragraph, I hope this good now as a Kyendi description (again sorry for my english T_T)

Kana lived in a small village in Kyendi, but despite its few residents, it was always very lively. The villagers were not bothered by the intense green moss that covered the rocks and clung to their houses, they said it gave them a very natural touch! And when the fog was low, they played hide and seek! Kana couldn't understand them. The little girl looked out of the window distractedly at the great waterfall that peeked through the dense forest surrounding the village. The waters were clear because the source of the waterfall was located on the top of the adjacent mountain, and the sound of it falling relaxed her completely. In the whole house you could also smell the floral incense that Kana's grandmother had lit in the morning. That's right, Kana lived with her grandmother Hanami. Well, if one could say that, since this Elnin was a great world traveler and they barely saw each other seasonally. Her parents didn't get along very well, so her education had been totally passed on to her father and her maternal grandmother. Her father was more focused on her brother Geki, who was his favorite. Her grandmother, on the other hand, had focused more on her. She occasionally taught her brother a lesson, but she preferred to share her knowledge with women.

What knowledge? About life. Yes, yes, about life. Her grandmother had lived a lot, had travelled a lot, and her charms and sagacity had opened many doors for her. Kana wanted to live a quiet life, so her grandmother had adapted herself to that wish and had taught her granddaughter accordingly, which was no small thing! Kana knew how to deal with the world, although she had no motivation to wander too much. Also, like her brother, she had inherited from her father a taste and skill in calligraphy. Seeing the world? When she could read about it and correspond with other Elnins to share first-hand impressions of faraway regions? Kyendi gave Kana peace and inspired her precious strokes. Her grandmother also told her stories from thousands of places, and since her granddaughter was so in love with calligraphy, she would occasionally bring her books from faraway places and teach her the type of calligraphy from those places. While Kyendi's calligraphy was disciplined, Faerindell's was always full of flourishes, Strynhalde's was cold, Palu'au's was relaxed, Enmir's was dense, SIlveil's was refined, Ealei's very fluid and refreshing, Bellmori's was neat and elegant, Zevija's was sometimes compressed and others seemed to burst with energy, Ahza's stretched out like the dunes of desert... Kana was simply fascinated by each one of them, and could feel the essence of a region in every stroke.

Her grandmother had come to stay for a whole week. She had arrived the night before, and until well into the night they had both shared stories of the last two months that they had spent apart. Her grandmother had visited Zevija, and she planned to take Kana the following week to visit as well. Why Zevija? This lunar year was favorable to pay respects at the tree sanctuary in that region for good luck. Her grandmother had taught Kana to read fortunes and stars, so Kana revered the knowledge offered by the astros and did not oppose the trip.

However, that week until they started their journey, it was time to follow up on her grandmother's lessons. Hanami was not a great master of ink like Kana's father, but her strokes were seductive, and her writing was bewitching. Such was her writing ability, that her grandmother could make others fall in love with her with a single letter, or she could take over a whole kingdom with a couple of letters if she wanted to. It was truly fascinating and frightening.

Kana would get ready at her desk early in the morning, and practice calligraphy from the time the rooster crowed until the sun went down. Her grandmother was strict, which brought out the best of Kana, just as it was taught in Kyendi. Since they were traveling to Zevija soon, Kana had focused on practicing the kanji for autumn words, for scarlet leaves, for spirits of the west, for cold winds, for apples in honey... Kana practiced both a local style of calligraphy and that of the region of reddish trees and academic elnin. Sometimes the little girl would get lost in the traces, imagining the local elnin studying behind rain-soaked windows, or wandering through the mountains that seemed to be on fire, or sheltering from the cold with a cup of hot chocolate.

Kyendi's ca

At the end of the day both were very proud of the Kana exercises. Their strokes were truly praiseworthy. Kana kept them to show them to her father as well, but it seemed that her brother's style was much more to his liking. Kana was frustrated in silence whenever she heard her father's unfair comments, because everyone knew that Kana was as good as Geki. Thank goodness her brother supported her! Kana didn't feel it was worth trying to prove that she too could be on the same pedestal that Kanji had put Geki on, but her brother shared that spot with a smile; and he even tried to discipline their father by showing him that Kana's calligraphy was beautiful too. If it was Geki who was telling him these things, his father would end up calming down. But if Kana tried, it was Hanami who had to get in the way of making him see some sense. None of Kana's words ever reached him, and so she... despite everything... she hoped to improve in calligraphy enough so that at least the strokes would reach her father's heart one day.

The calligraphy of Kyendi was indeed different from that of Zevija, as it was based not only on the discipline of its inhabitants, but also on the breathtaking views of the region. It varied somewhat according to the personality of each Elnin: for the most energetic, their strokes fell hard as the great waterfalls that were born in the floating islands and rushed to the lakes that irrigated the crops of the valleys. For the most docile, they were as soft and rounded as the peaks of the highest mountains or the cotton clouds that crowned them. For other Elnin, their calligraphy was as mysterious as the depths of the infinite jungles, full of mysteries and ruins of ancient civilizations. Kyendi calligraphy, in short, was like an elegant sword movement with the right hand, while holding delicate flowers with the left. A harmony between strength and calm.

Epilogue:

The incense had already been burnt, and both were looking at the moon, which at this time of night was high and beautiful in the sky. "Grandma..." Kana mused.
"Tell me, dear," replied Hanami, without taking her eyes off the white lady of the night.
"Why do you think my father doesn't like my calligraphy?"
Hanami sighed and without even turning to her, she whispered: "Maybe Just maybe... He doesn't want you to walk the path of the ink too, after all the suffering it has caused him."