Yin Hu, bound to the railing as he had been for some time now, hadn’t even noticed the commotion further along the ship’s side. He was in fact trying his best to block out any kind of sound and concentrate on keeping whatever was left inside him in place. the stroke of a humongous hand on his back had been too much to ignore though. It wasn’t particularly hard, but the sheer size of it left an imprint in Yin’s fur that wouldn’t go away without some serious grooming. With heavy thumps whoever had touched him walked away and Yin risked a glance. He’d recognize that backside anywhere. Boar, the brutal orc of the Smiling Fist. Yin was shocked to the core. He’d seen the orc break tree trunks in two as easily as any man would split a pair of chop sticks. 

Many didn’t know, but the martial arts community wasn’t as large as one could imagine. The masters of the schools could be considered friends and along with their best pupils and perhaps a handful others they were the inner circle of the martial world. Everyone knew each other up there, at least they had seen the others and heard their name. Yin had accompanied his master Gan Fang on numerous visits to the other temples and had then seen their techniques and training methods. It was during one of these trips that Yin had had the great misfortune of walking in to the Smiling Fist training hall just as Boar unleashed his skills on a couple of unsuspecting pieces of training equipment. 
He’d wandered in there looking for a conversation and perhaps a friendly exchange of techniques, but the orc’s performance had created a big lump in his chest that prevented the manbeast from entering the hall. Quickly, he’d thrown himself against the wall and then, trusting his natural camouflage he’d sneaked out as fast as he’d dared. 
Some hours later he’d calmed down and was enjoying a meal with his master and the master of the Smiling Fist, Weretrigo Nightoak. He’d thought himself rid of the ordeal, but as soon as Boar entered the room to sit down with his master Yin got to experience that same feeling again and had to excuse himself, blaming a head injury from a few days prior. 

A man suddenly placed a cup of tea next to him on the railing and claimed it would help. Yin instantly became very suspicious, he’d heard rumors about lesser fighters who’d stop at nothing to get ahead in the tournament, even poisoning food wasn’t below them. Last year a fighter had been killed, and the assassin thrown out, banned both from the competition and the martial arts schools. Even the deceptive Grieving Spider school wanted nothing to do with the lowlife. 
A question formed in his mind [i]”what is it?”[/i] but his mouth never uttered the words. His nose told him immediately. A collection of herbs of various kinds, Herbology wasn’t Yin’s field of expertise, but he couldn’t smell anything that he hadn’t sensed before in good company. If there was a poison in there it was subtle enough to fool his strong sense of smell.

"You must be Master Gan Fang's new student? My name is Lu Fau." The man said as Yin clumsily grabbed the cup and brought it closer to his face for a better sniff, you could never be too sure after all. The warmth spread through his hands almost immediately and worked its way up his arms slowly. 
“I am” Yin managed after collecting himself for a short while. “But I wouldn’t call myself new, I’ve been with master Gan Fang for many years… ” Then, like a flash of lightning from a clear blue sky the name of the man pierced the thick fog in Yin Hu’s mind. It was more than a name, it had meaning, it was almost magic in itself. 
“Lu Fau?” 
Forgetting about his sickness and the cup of tea for a second, he pulled his head up and gave the human a good look. It had to be true. Last time they’d seen each other had been shortly after Master Gan Fang had offered Yin the apprenticeship, which had been only a few months before Lu Fau left to find the Forest of Spears. Yin wasn’t even sure exactly how many years had passed since then, but he knew they were many. The human had changed a lot, but not enough to fool the keen eyes of manbeasts. 

“Lu Fau? What are you doing here? Is your quest of revenge finally at an end? Master will be so pleased to see you.”