A man kept beating his wife for minor offenses until, in her despair she was driven to a ledge beside a pool beneath a thundering waterfall, intending to drown herself in the turmoil of the water. But as she sat on the ledge, her tears darkening the edge of the rock in front of her, she noticed a delicate flower floating on the surface of the pool below. She watched it being drawn inexorably by the eddying current back toward the cascade where it would surely be crushed, crushed as she had been under the beatings of her husband. Although the flower seemed doomed to certain destruction, it was saved at the last moment by the finest drops of spray splashing it away from danger. Time and again, it would be drawn near the thundering energy of the falls only to be rescued by the splash caused by that energy.

The woman's attention was then drawn to a large boulder in the ravine below. A tiger and an eagle were in mortal combat. Both were at their stillest just before attacking, then they would feint, fall, and roll in a mutual dance to the death. They used vastly different styles of fighting, yet seemed evenly matched, as one motion mirrored the other. She watched. She studied. She learned.

When her husband came looking for her and found her loitering by the waterfall, it was too much for him to take, especially after he had exhausted himself that very morning by instructively beating her for being so lazy. He decided to thrash her a good one so she wouldn't forget. But when he took a swing, she wasn't where his fist went. He swung again and again hit air. Suddenly, she was crawling up his torso, scratching ferociously at his eyes until he pleaded for mercy.

He was impressed, amaze at her new fighting skills, and begged her to teach him her secret. She did, and they lived happily ever after, after each one of their many great fights.

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