little ambitions that lays the foothold of greatness

Swook! The arrow hit right on the bullseye.

"Good job," Oha said, "Thirteen shots and 12 on the mark, your archery has improved tremendously."

Smiling, Ami looked at her granny Oha and said, "Archery is finished, sword is finished, I even studied fighting styles, and even my body is fit," Pausing, she irritatedly continued, "Oha, it's been 4 years since my initiation ceremony, I have long since got used to the heightened senses too... I am pretty sure the second World Bead is strongly ready too, when can I breakthrough to second bead?"

Oha chuckled, her wrinkles loosening, "Finished?" her blue eyes shined looking at the lineage's rising genius, and she said: "You never finish training these things girl, but it is true, it is about time you broke through to bead 2."

Apathy smiled and moved near Oha, her black long hair floating behind her, her snow-like skin glistening with sweat, "When?" she asked eagerly.

Oha shook her head and said, "After you get your totems marked."

"Let's do that then?"

Sighing, Oha asked, "Kids your age are barely even Initiated, and now you want to surpass that? Why don't you at least rest a bit, why work this hard?"

Apathy sat beside her gently and looked around, they were in a small clearing in their clan's mountain range, "Do you know what Hyakku said?"

"What?"

"Think of Wuma like climbing a mountain – the higher you go, the more you'll wish you were better prepared when you started at the bottom."

Taking a nut from the side, she threw it at a tree, it hit it and fell.

Oha questioned, finding it funny: "But that just means you have to be more prepared, not rushed to reach higher stages, right?"

Apathy rolled her eyes and said: "This is why they call you old people dumb," Exasperated, "What is there to prepare in such a small stage? Nothing, all my efforts are mostly just waste in comparison to the time spent... you don't have forever to climb after all."

Oha silently contemplated, then nodded, but still said: "Tatto process is actually not useful once you become a Totem Warrior, do you still want to? It is very painful."

Looking at the squirrel eating the nuts she threw, she threw one more, "Pain," she smiled, "Pain, Oha, I believe it will aid me more than anything in this path, my instinct says so."

"Oh? I hope you say that later too!"

"Sure," Ami smiled challengingly as she looked at her grandma, yet, her mind's thoughts were completely different from the ones that came out—

Oha was aging, her hair was greying, and she... was the one person she didn't want to disappoint.

she wanted Oha to witness her achieving at least a part of what she promised her mother.

To become a Great Wuma.

"Shall we start then?" she asked, and Oha nodded.

"Where do you want it?" Oha asked.

"Make it below the leg." She showed her granny her cute bare legs.

"Okay." Oha's air changed, a cool wind started to rise, her pupils started to shine blue light, and she focused on the girl's leg.

Had anyone seen it, they would have been awed.

An ethereal fire burned on her legs, her legs burned with pain, and her vision blurred.

A tattoo of a white snow was born.

The fire vanished.

Nevertheless, Oha warned, "Once you reach the Totem Warrior stage, the tattoos that show up will be different, this one just allows for faster activation of abilities you gain, whereas the true natural one will make the ability passive, it will always stay active.

Like your eyes, but without any transformation like color."

Apathy, gritting her teeth through the pain, asked, "Can I go through my breakthrough to the second bead?"

"Yes," Oha nodded, proud.