Legend of the Five Rings: Test of Thunder Part 2
 

It was almost two hours before a simply dressed samurai left the shrine. He wore an immaculate top knot, and had a kind, thougtful face. Many of the Lions looked at him in veiled disgust. They flanked him and he walked down the street. The lion samurai in the Saki house got up and left to return to their posts. Soon the Honor gaurd would be sontinueing south toward Kyuden Shosuro and then onto Ryoko Owari.

Only a few of the ronin drank the swill the barkeep told them was saki.

"I think now is our best chance to go to the Shrine, if we want this snow to stop anytime soon."

The world was slowly being covered in the white flakes.

Tsubasa nodded and stood up. "Yes, this is probably the best chance we have got." Tsubasa agreed, and stepped outside, waiting for the others.

Benitora soon joined her and walked for the shrine. The Torii arches offered some protection from the snows. Thunder and lightning arced above. The shrine was a small building surrounded by pretty snow covered gardens. They were well tended. A middle aged monk in a simple brown Kimono came around the corner carrying two buckets of water. He noticed the ronin but didn't make eye contact.

Hideki walked up to the entrance of the shrine, saying a short prayer and purifying his hands and mouth before taking off his sandals. After entering, he lit a stick of incense, saying a small prayer to Osano-wo, and then standing off to the side to wait for the others. With a little time to look around, he noticed how small, yet well kept the shrine was, something he had to respect its caretakers for. Especially with all the activity around at the moment.

ooc: Thanks to Squishy for the info on how to behave in a shrine. Just remember everyone, be respectful.

Benitora also purified himself and then helped his daughter to do the same. He took off their sandles and they walked in. He rang the small gong. Knowing he had Osano-wo's attention he bowed deeply twice to the statue to the statue and clapped twice then bowed again. His daughter mimiced him. He smiled at her.

Ryoushuken followed the others examples, knowing the importance of being respectful in the temples of Rokugan, and purified himself and slipped out of his sandals before entering. Once inside he bowed to a statue of the thunderer, as Benitora had done, and then waited for the others to enter.

He wasn't completely sure what they were doing stopping at this shrine, as that it wasn't one of the three Osano-wo was concerned with, but he supposed some information might be able to be gathered from the monks about the other temples.

Samoht entered the shrine, and purified his hands and mouth. He was respectful here, most likely because even HE knew when to not cross the line. He bowed before the statue like the others, and mumbled something under his breath.

Thunder sounded loudly out side. Several elder monks came out surrounding the monk they had seen early. The young monk stepped forward. "I am Suana, abbot of this modest shrine." He bowed respectfully to the samurai. "I can sense you are the center of the disturbance in the elements. You bear the mark of Osano-wo. How may I be of service?"

"We are honored, good Suana," Hideki said, bowing. "I am Hideki, this is Benitora and his daughter, Tenshi, Tsubasa, Zenko, Samoht, and... wait, we never got your name, good shugenja."

"We will offer you the hospitality of our simple house. We were to porform a Noh play tonight, but it seems we will have to cancel. We can offer you only two rooms in our simple cloister.