Trial Primus

Hey! 2nd post. I'd just like to point out that these are only loosely proofread(I look for red lines) and not revised, as the goal is writing, not rewriting. For now. Thanks for reading : ) History Fact # The waffle can be traced back to communion wafers. In 9th and 10th century Europe, people started making fancy wafers for communion by cooking designs into them, like Jesus being crucified and other religious images(yum?), with molded irons. Sometimes simple flower designs were used, but the bread was just basic flour even when used outside communion. Then the Crusades came along and flavors began to be added from the east(like orange blossoms). It wasn't until the late 14th century, however, that a waffle-like recipe can be found. A manuscript called Le Ménagier de Paris contains instructions from a husband to a young wife and holds the recipe, which included eggs and wine. The waffle iron and recipe didn't differentiate itself for another century, however, but by then the Netherlands and Belgium were cooking up waffles, thus bringing on the Renaissance and eventually the Enlightenment and the modern age.

Specific information from Wikipedia and it's sources.

Elsewhere…

To Rin kal Nogata the rain seemed not to fall—it simply existed.  The torrents blended together into a mass of power, dwarfing any thought past awe.  The ground hid beneath a blanket of steaming sludge as the storm carried away dirt and crops alike—entire shelves of the tier hill beside them seemed to be slouching toward the basin where they stood.  Rin’s thin kimono clung to his skin and his once blue hakama was black and heavy.  Lighting struck in time with thunder, both dancing above as they fought the wind for dominance in Rin’s worried thoughts.  While Rin, having grown tall too fast to balance, stumbled and wavered beneath the monsoon, an even taller figure stood facing him—more solid than the ground around him.

“Find your place, minarai!” The figure spoke, somehow cutting through the din.  He stepped forward and stopped again, so still he seemed to have never moved.  Rivers ran down his bald scalp and through the wrinkles of his face to join his long mustaches before becoming falls.  His shoulders were broad, but stood out from his skeletal body and appeared as bones in the flashes of lightning.  His sunken eyes stared past a broad nose, as black as the clouds that hung out of side above.  

“It’s too,” Rin started, but thought better.  As threatening as the storm might be, Rin knew his master well.  “Yes, Senfu!” he yelled into the storm, only to hear his words crushed to the ground under sheets of rain.  Drawing his shoulders back and shifting his feet deeper into the muck, Rin pictured a stone, a mountain, an island, but was betrayed by his foundation.  A gust caught a wide pant leg and pulled, forcing his foot to slide through the mud.  He caught himself before his knee could land and struggled to straighten again.  He brought his eyes up to meet Senfu’s, who now stood a body’s width before him.

“Let go, minarai!  Feel the storm.  Feel the power of it, the strength.  It is beyond us—you can’t hope to battle against it.  You can not halt the storm as you can not halt the age from passing.”

“How can I stand if I let go?”

“Become the storm, minarai.”

Rin kal Nogata had heard this before.  Many times before.  He’d stood as a weed in every taifu for the past three years, straining to not be moved, straining to feel the power that drove the winds, traced the lightning, and wielded the thunder.  And he had failed.  Even weaker storms than this bested him, though he could hold his own for a time.  In a fury like this, likely to be the storm of the season, Rin suspected Senfu’s interference, blocking the hardest gales and diverting strikes.  Deaths were common for those in shelter in a storm like this, but Rin had survived many in the open fields outside their village since taking tutelage under Master Senfu.  Yet this time, something was different.  The winds tore at him, at his clothes, and moved onward to dash against the nearby hill.  Rin felt it move past him, felt it seek to defy gravity and push the streams back.  Rin felt the immensity of the taifu.  He drew a breath and smelled an imminent strike.  He turned to see it burn purple into his vision.  His spine tingled as the thunder shook his body and the storm.  He’d never felt so insignificant, yet he felt the majesty of the fury around him, each blending into frightening rush of emotions.  His eyes welled and jaw clenched before he spread his his arms, lifted his chin, and laughed.  The wind bent around him and he was still.