The Dojo and it's Master

A young man and a mature woman were hiking through the forest in the afternoon when the sun was really high up. Surprisingly, neither of them were sweating or even panting from the walk.

These two were, of course, Jason and Felicia. They had been walking in the forest for about 20 minutes but they weren't tired or even complaining. Jason was amazed beyond words though at the feat.

He knew how fit his body was and how straining such a walk would be for normal people. When he heard Felicia say that they had to walk 30 minutes in the dense forest, he thought that they were going to walk 15 minutes and then rest a bit before walking another 15 minutes.

They had been walking for 20 minutes straight now and Felicia didn't seem to have an inclination to stop anytime soon, neither did she even stop to ask him how he was doing. She just kept walking like she was the only one trudging through the forest.

There seemed to be more than meets the eye when it came to Felicia and Jason was getting more and more determined to get close to her and rope her into his group.

If he could have an able woman like her to help him and his family to tide through the future, he would have at least 30% less work to do so he made up his mind and started to plan how he was going to get her.

While he was busy in his thoughts, they had already walked for a few more minutes.

Felicia came to a stop and it was only then that he was pulled out of his thoughts and properly looked ahead of himself.

In front of him, were gates that lead to a compound. It was slightly weird to have a compound smack in the middle of a forest but Jason didn't question anything as he expected something like this anyway since they were in the forest.

The place though did not meet up to his expectations. Since the dojo was in the middle of the forest, he expected something slightly grand and eye-catching.

There were no fancy decorations to be seen on the gate or around its fences. There were no statues of mighty beasts to instill fear or show the majesty of the place neither were there any statues of gods of any mythology. In fact, there were no statues at all to be seen at the gate. It was just a plain gate with plain walls surrounding it.

Jason was slightly disappointed but only just slightly. He knew that his expectations were too much and not too realistic.

In truth, who would spend so much to transfer materials for a lavish decoration of a martial arts dojo in the middle of a forest and the dojo in question wasn't even popular in the region so that would be a big waste.

Jason put away all his unrealistic thoughts and focused back to the reality in front of him. Felicia was already approaching the gate but there was no bell or anything to be rung.

Just as he was wondering how they would notify the occupants inside to unlock the gate, he saw Felicia approach the gate and lightly push it and it opened. The gate was unlocked the whole time.

He didn't think too much about the whole thing and just followed her inside quickly and closed the gate.

Inside the compound, he could see a few people around practicing some basic moves; punches and kicks. There didn't seem to be anything remarkable or eye-catching about their moves, just like the entire compound itself.

Inside was just like outside, not decorated at all and just built with a basic structure of a huge yard for practice with a few buildings littered towards the end of the compound. He guessed that those buildings housed the change and showering rooms as well as maybe the dorm for the caretakers of the place.

When they got into the compound, nobody turned their eyes at all to check who had entered. It was as if no one could see them at all as no one missed a beat (or in this case, missed a punch) as everyone continued as usual.

It was slightly unusual to see especially since he had Felicia with him as he saw how quickly she could affect the atmosphere of anywhere she would walk into. He expected that even if they didn't stop what they were doing, that there would at least be some side glances thrown at them but there was absolutely nothing.

After taking in the sight and finishing his observations, he then moved forward with Felicia to a corner of the compound. The corner seemed to be important as there were fewer pairs leading up to the place.

At the corner, Jason could see a man sitting there with a smiling face looking at everyone. He sat in a meditative position as he took in the sights of everyone around him.

As the man saw Felicia approaching him, his smile went brighter by a few notches as he was clearly happy to see her.

Judging by the scenario and the age of the man, Jason knew that he was the supervisor or the chief disciple of the place. Seeing Felicia going to him first, it was obvious to him that this was the case so he was ready to meet him and then move on to see the old master in one of the buildings.

Jason was walking casually and giving himself a mental pat on the back for his mental powers of deduction. He thought that he had seen through everything in an instant and he was proud of his ability.

Only for a mental bomb to be thrown into his mind at the very first exchange between Felicia and the man sitting at the corner.

"Good evening old man, how's your health today." Felicia greeted him casually with a smile.

"Hahaha little Felicia, this old man is in perfect health, can't you see. I have a few hundred years left in me so you don't have to worry about me at all. Why didn't you bring Lil Cassidy to see me, I have gotten better at that game she taught me so I wanted to show off a bit." The middle-aged looking man said with roaring laughter.

"You know it's a weekday so she's in school right now having fun but she really misses you. She keeps bothering me to bring her to you that she has more games to beat you at. I made her promise to do well in school and I'll bring her this weekend so you better hope she performs well in her quiz." Felicia was smiling while she was talking about her daughter.

"Nonsense, Cassidy my granddaughter is the smartest girl out there so of course, she's going to do well. Those other kids in her class aren't even fit to compete with her. Hmph." The old man said with pride in his voice.

Felicia and the 'old man' were talking so casually as if they had forgotten everyone else in the world. Anyone looking at this would definitely say that they were a father-daughter duo that hadn't seen each other in a few months and suddenly found each other.

They had a lot to say to each other especially about Felicia's daughter Cassidy. Jason was just by the side listening to the talk in shock as he still hadn't recovered from the fact that the middle-aged-looking man in front of him was who Felicia designated as an old man. He could easily be mistaken for a man in his late thirties or early forties. Someone at the prime of his life.

The situation continued for a few minutes before Felicia forcefully stopped the talk to introduce Jason to the 'old man'.

"Alright, we can continue later, for now, its time for business. This is the young man I told you about that wants to learn martial arts. I saw that he had a pretty good build and a decent character on the surface so I've brought him to you. You can assess him however you like." Felicia said pointing to Jason.

Her talk also brought Jason out of his daze as he replied hurriedly.

"Jason Wang greets master. Thank you for the opportunity to come to your dojo and see you. I hope to learn martial arts from you so let me know what I have to do for you to grant my wish."

Jason introduced himself humbly and stated his purpose immediately without beating about the bush or flattering him.

The master then turned his eyes to look at Jason. His gaze was piercing as he assessed him from head to toe. Jason couldn't hold his gaze for too long as he tilted his head slightly to the ground in fear of it. He was overwhelmed. The master's stare looked like it could unearth all of his secrets and read all his thoughts so he dared not match it.

The master continued to stare at Jason like that for a few minutes. It was silent all around as even Felicia said nothing but only stayed by the side to watch everything unfold.

Just as the silence was beginning to get uncomfortable, the master put a smile back on his face and introduced himself to Jason.

"What a fine young man you are Jason. Felicia has told me a bit about you but it pales in comparison to actually meeting you. My name is Albert Jäger. You may call me master Albert or master Jäger. "