It was a cold, windy day in the mountains. Hanzo disliked this time of year, preferring the warmer and calmer weather, but his father insisted that days like today were the best to train. The chill from the driving wind would be a good test for the young lion, just barely starting to grow a mane. Focusing wholly on his training would take every once he had, forcing him to ignore the cold biting at his extremities as he ran the obstacle course worn smooth by years and years of Shimada heirs doing just as he was currently doing.

Gritting his teeth as he began his final lap, Hanzo pounced over a large rock before sliding under an old log propped up in a small crevasse between two boulders. He was on his paws in an instant though he couldn't feel them any longer, toes long having gone numb in the chill. He wasn't looking forward to what came after this last lap - meditation - so he put a little more speed into the run to hopefully warm himself up. Sitting in complete silence without moving for what seemed like hours on end was hard enough when it was nice out.

Hauling his small but sturdy body up onto a rocky outcropping, Hanzo scaled a small but sheer wall, finding the tiny footholds with practiced ease. He knew someday he'd train on areas he was unfamiliar with where he didn't know the right place to put his paws, but if he trained his body well enough now it would know how to react without much thought going into the process.

A few more minutes of climbing, sliding, running, and jumping finally found Hanzo at the start of the course. He was panting heavily, little lungs struggling to supply his body with the oxygen it craved. He wanted to flop down in the dirt and rest, but he knew his father had eyes everywhere. To see such weakness would be sure grounds for punishment. Instead he moved his exhausted body over to the mediation area of the training field, a flat-topped boulder that was unfortunately completely exposed to the elements. As he climbed up he grimaced, bracing himself against a particularly strong gust of wind. Once it died down he scrambled up and seated himself squarely in the middle of the rock, just as his father had done before him, his father before him, and so on.

Taking a deep breath through his nose, Hanzo closed his eyes and tried to focus on his pounding heart rather than his freezing toes and tail. He did tuck his tail over his paws to try to get some warmth going between the two though he knew it was a lost cause. Oh well...hopefully they'd survive.