22 - Loess!

If I can show my bare face to the world, I can ignore the bare body as well. The showering at the end of the lesson was actually getting easier to face.  Kyrus was on the climbing wall, with three other students, everyone with their own spotters on the ropes.  He was about half-way up to the ceiling where it got harder, angled outward slightly.  Ehteram, one of the brown staff students was his spotter and she had his rope bighted through a stop in the floor, leaning back to make sure he wouldn’t plummet if he fell.

She was one of the girls he just didn’t want to either look at naked, or have her see him naked.  Her and Haraklez, Delkash and Gohdzi either... or little Malyissen.  He was almost reconciled to the boys.

“Freeze!” Zon Elemfias had a bellow that could stop a Moa in its tracks even if she were female. He thought she might be able to strip feathers, beak and claws with her voice alone. She still looked like a Moa without its beak riveted shut, and seemed as dangerous.

“You on the wall, come down!”  Their spotters let them down as they bounced, once, twice, three times before setting their feet flat.  He kept his smile to himself. She didn’t like him much but he was learning things from her that he didn’t think he could from anyone else. Even Ilax himself.

 “Shion!” Everyone’s head snapped around. “Line up!”

A thunder of feet as everyone clattered to their place in line, their staffs held aslant, from the rag-tag black staves down to the precisely angled white wands of the teachers. “Present!” Everyone stepped apart and brought their staff across both wrists, held waist high.

A clatter as Malyissen, the youngest student lost the heavy stick and it fell to the floor. Blushing, she bent, did five push-ups before taking up her stance again, everyone waiting until her stick was balanced and her stance solid.

The enDarkened staff had already made his arms hurt that morning. He was shaking, head to foot, staring at the iron ring on the blasted stick just below his line of sight. Zon let them stand a moment or two longer before calling Haraklez and two of her class to gather up everyone’s staff before handing out plain, short wooden staves.

As she lifted the weight off his wrists, Kyrus hid his sigh of relief. It was always best not to let anyone see how hard it was to hold the Lightridden thing at arm’s length. It was such a relief that he barely felt the weight of the plain wooden staff at all as she laid it back across his outstretched wrists. Of course it was shorter.

Then they paired off to do the basic step forward, step back blocks. Kyrus expanded his lungs and was suddenly no longer short of breath. The four-foot long staff felt light as a feather in his hands and the blocks and strikes no longer so impossible. After every set, the elder students moved down so that every time he faced off with someone it was a new opponent.

This is wonderful. He felt good. Light. This is easy. Tap. Tap. Tap. The shocks of contact ran through him solid and sure all the way down to his toes. He knew where he was, where the staff was. No more hesitation. Why don’t they train with plain wood every day? His feet were suddenly unerring.

“Shion!” Everyone stopped.

“Kyrus! Verpiccaus!” Kyrus stepped back from his sweating partner, realizing he was just pleasantly warmed, aware of the senior student also stepping out down the line, a yellow staffer. What was this? His heart leaped into a nervous hammer.

“Yes, Zon! Yes, Zon!”

“Center!” She was pointing to the sparring circle. This is craziness. I don’t know enough to spar! I barely know the basics!” Kyrus stepped out, facing the older boy, one of those who steadfastly ignored him.

He could feel the rest of his class’s eyes on his back. No black staffer was ever called out to spar. Never. He’d only been studying a few weeks and he knew that. Only older browns and the greens and yellows sparred, with each other or with the white staffers.

“You know the calls?” she asked him.

“Yes, Zon.”

“Well then.” She turned to Verpiccaus. “Basic moves only.” And then said to both of them. “Open spar.”

Even as he acknowledged Kyrus’s throat closed up tight, suddenly certain she meant to humiliate him in front of everyone and kick him out, a faint red mistiness gathered around the edges of his vision as he stared at his opponent. If he doesn’t accidentally bash my head in. Even if it embarrassed the Surdeniliarch.