Birds! (Open)

[Lin Shiyao]

The day began like any other. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and a gentle breeze wafted through the branches of the Torino Kingdom's giant tree.

And then came the young Marine from the South Blue. With a shout, he threw rocks in the general direction of the tree with all the ferocity of a crazy, half-starved tiger. This caused the birds to scatter, just like he planned. Petty Officer Lin Shiyao flexed his muscles and took a running position. "All right. Time to show these birds the power of the Jugon!"

He ran forward at top speed, leaping up to put a foot on the trunk of the tree. According to his book, "How to Fight Like a Jugon for Fun and Profit," the next step was to run sheer up the side of the tree, leap off, and take out the closest bird with a powerful spinning Jugon Tail Slap Kick while it flew away. Incidentally, this was considered to be one of the "beginner" exercises in the book.

Unfortunately for him, what had happened was not even close. He pushed off of the trunk too hard, and what was supposed to be a step up the tree turned into a kick off of it. Only a few feet off the ground, he began to fly back down to earth. He still managed to try a vicious Jugon Kick, but none of the birds felt like being cooperative and flying all the way down to his level. And so, the young Marine found himself crashing head first into the dirt, bouncing, and rolling a ways before coming to a stop.

Once the world stopped spinning, Lin leapt to his feet, shaking a fist at the birds as they flew off. "Curse you, avian fiends, and your uncanny ability to defeat gravity with the help of specialized appendages!" He sat down, with an expression that could only be considered "pouting," and stared at the tree as though it had also wronged him.

He checked his book, opening it to the page that listed the beginner exercises. He read past the ones he had already accomplished (Punch a brick wall until it cracks, taunt a Sea King, survive a trip down the side of a mountain in a grog barrel...) to the current objective. He sighed. The other ones had been difficult, so it was no surprise that this one would be giving him heartache as well. Still, he was starting to consider skipping it and going on to the next one (Taunt a Sea King again, this time by covering yourself in seasonings). Of course, it would simply be unmanly to give up, especially when one was so close to mastering the art of running up a tree without breaking one's neck. He thought he was pretty close, at least. He had gotten the neck part down...