With the liberation wars over, Rhalgr's Reach had slowly turned back from a hub of frenzied activity and military organization to the relatively quiet contemplative temple town set at the base of the Temple of the Fist. The only people frequently visiting nowadays were travelers going between the woods of Gridania and Ala Mhigo and needing a stop for water and chocobo fodder.

The other flavor of visitor were not so much passing through but visiting the temple for training.

The order of the Fist of Rhalgr had recently been 'reborn' of a sorts and just as recently more and more people who were interested in following the path of the Destroyer to protect that which they care for came to the place for instruction, meditation or training.

Currently, two warriors were busied with a slow but rigorous training excersize. Practicing the kata of the different forms inherent to their somewhat improvised combination of street-and-arena pugilism and disciplined martial arts.

"Bootshine... flows into..." the first said, a massive black and white tauric chocobo who was slowly but deliberately motioning out the left-right-left setup punch that made up the start of the martial flow.

"Twin Snake." the other answered. This one an equally sizeable deep orange and black hued chocobotaur, following the motion of the first in synchronized motion before pulling back the left fist before punching the air with both clenched hands at the same time, one over the other at chest height.

Taross, the first, nodded and replied with a wark-chirrup before careful leaning back and bracing the talons of one foot into the soil "Correct, which sets up our balance for Demolish." Shi leant back, extending hir wings for a little bit of additional balance and sweeping hir left leg upwards in a wide arc. Shi balled hir talons a bit to allow the armored pad on the front of hir foot to become the impact point of the kick against the imaginary opponent in this excersize.

This motion was accompanied with a light splashing and a half-grunted kweh from Niko, the other draught chocobotaur training along.

After both set their feet down again, Niko turned to the former and puffed a little air out through hir nares. "Explain to me again why I'm the one who has to stand in the water for this?"

Taross chuckled and mmmed "Because you're the one who needs to train your focus to be unbothered by stupid little annoyances like wet, cold toes." shi answered, gesturing a moment to Niko's left leg. "Your stance is good and your form was correct. But you need to be careful to protect your digits. Kick something hard with the front of your toes and at best you're going to get your talons stuck in... At worst you'll injure yourself."

Niko shook hirself a moment, settling down feathers and nodded "I know, I know. But the wet IS annoying and we've been working up quite a lather."

Taross nodded again "That's the point, really. You have to be able to do this even while you can't fully focus on maintaining textbook form."

At that, Niko lidded hir eyes and the corners of hir beak pulled up in a smirk "Is that why YOUR stance is so sloppy even though you're not even remotely impaired?" shi asked with a bemused tone in hir voice.

Taross chortled, reaching out to poke Niko in the plumed flank before taking the starting position again "Right... lets repeat a few more times..." shi winked "And after that we can do some cooldown."

Both martial artists started to work through their practice again and for a while there were only the noises of an occasional wark of exertion and light splashing of water.

This was a stream flat color piece commissioned by Taross in celebration of hir passing hir motorcycle road exams!
Version 1 of 2: Clean Training

Yeah, I know you might be thinking that fancy fleet footwork isn't entirely my thing; My skills are best applied in the realms of the magical. But you know what they say: Strong body, strong mind! And, I've never been one to pass down a new challenge in competition with my companions!