�������� �� T he mornings katas had gone smoothly enough, as tired as
she was
Khyaris had managed to get through the exercises without getting
winded.
Much of an improvement over a few days past when half way
through she
would have to stagger to a stop, caught in the clutches of a
painful
coughing fit. The dizziness and nausea still would sometimes
rise up if
she didn't keep her breathing measured and paced for the
exercises. But
the episodes were dropping off to almost nothing.
��� ��� From what she could tell, symptoms from the infusion of
Wyddoe's
dark essence into her were gone. All save one: Here eyes still
bothered
her. From time to time a stabbing pain, or a nagging itchiness
that made
her rub at her eyes until they were red. This day, oddly enough,
there
was no sign at all of the sickness that had kept her enfeebled
and
nearly bedridden for a week.
��� ��� Looking to the sky a moment she gauged her time. She had
started an
hour ago and worked through till the last of the moves and the
sky was
still dark. The exhaustion that had plagued her for quite some
time now
did not allow her to take the katas at full speed but she was
still
making good time in her practice. If Flame were here the very
last kata
move would have blended directly into a rigorous spar. She
smiled to
herself at a warm yet fleeting thought. She savored the passing
instant
of memory and let it go. It had come time to make her practice
more
interesting.
��� ��� '' Oscuresss...'' The whispered command was the first
syllabant word
in a series that opened the Shadow Realm to her summons and
manipulation. She stood on the beach among the myriad colored
shadows
that the mornings twilight had laid out around her. The small
puddles of
darkness in the sand glimmered to life with a soft ripple of
breath
between the material and demi-shadow planes. Though her eyes
were closed
she could 'feel' the tendrils from the small islands of darkness
curl up
around each other. In her mind's eye she held the image of what
the
shadows slowly began to form as they wove together a few paces
in front
of her.
��� ��� The shadow image stood unmoving till the summoning had
ended. Once
done, it tilted its head down to look on her. It stood a good
head and a
half taller than her. With a series of thoughts and images she
relayed
what she expected of it and then slid back into a fighting
crouch ,
circling slowly.
��� ��� It watched her move for a moment and began circling
opposite her.
She quickly threw a fist into its insubstantial torso before
twisting a
kick to its mid-thigh. Though her blows went 'through' rather
than
hitting with force, it staggered back slowly, gained its ground
and then
delivered a similar combination of its own. She agilely moved
aside of
the strikes and dived to the side coming to a roll from behind,
and
sliced through the back of its legs with a sharp spinning kick.
Twirling
on some alien axis.. it faced her again. In the quick few moves
she had
delivered to it.. it now grasped its task. No longer wrapped in
the
sluggish hesitation of inexperience it began to move rapidly
and
unpredictably. Firing off its blows in a flurry while keeping
its form
fleet and liquid. Khyaris snapped her head aside, as the chill
touch of
the shadow stung her. Caught as she was by the unexpected change
in
speed, she grinned to herself and began to return in kind. The
spar had
indeed begun.
��� ��� The match was vigorous and demanding, especially on
Khyaris. The
shadow image, knowing no such thing as fatigue was relentless.
The
effort to keep up with the shadow's strenuous pace was starting
to
become evident. Her strikes were markedly less precise and the
shadow's
strikes were finding their mark more often. In her growing
exhaustion
it had even begun to feel like the shadow had gained more
substance as
the fight went on. She decided to call the match when it felt
like her
limbs were leaden and her breaths begin to come in gasps. She
took a few
quick steps out of range and hissed the word that would banish
the
shadow image, only to find herself knocked onto her back into
the sand
by an all too solid kick to her chest.
��� ��� The blow came so suddenly and swiftly that it took a moment
for the
cloudiness around her vision to clear. When it did, the breath
that had
been knocked from her lungs refused to return. The shadow shape
she
looked up at was no longer a vague humanoid form, but the large
well
defined and powerful build of Warrior, the half-tiger form that
Flame
took in deadly combat.
��� ��� ''Flame?'', the only word she could manage after being able
to breath
again. ~* Anam Cara? *~
��� ��� A deep resounding growl of challenge came from Warrior, as
shoulders hunched into a crouch and forearms flexed menacingly.
The
growl seemed to split and echo strangely for a moment before
Schemer,
Stormy's battle form, stepped from behind Warrior and out to the
side.
Though smaller, Schemer still hulked massively over Khyaris as
it
circled aside, foreclaws slowly flexing and uncurling
alternately. Both
crinos moved away from each other in the synchronized grace of
their
instinctual hunt-mind. The were-tigers began to stalk to either
side of
their prey.
��� ��� ''Stormy..?'' the query to her best friend echoed the
uncertainty
and confusion that she felt. She slowly began to push herself
up, trying
to watch both at the same time.
��� ��� The sinking sensation in her stomach plummeted to its depth
when
she first looked into Schemer's eyes and saw within a vast
expanse of
infinite space. A night sky filled with dark stars. Immediately
she
looked to Warrior's and saw there, even within the slightly
gaping
mouth of a snarl behind black fangs, the same terrible
boundless field,
glittering with obsidian vespers. Yet the thing that broke her
from the
paralyzation of watching in the helpless fascination of
Unreality, was
seeing the tip of Warrior's perfectly sleek tail flicking side
to side,
agitatedly.
��� ��� Scrambling to her feet she back-pedaled, trying to keep
herself in
front of them and from being the centrepoint of the circle they
were
closing. Opening a shadow behind her to fall through was all she
needed.. and all she would have time for. And so she summoned
shadow..
only to stumble and reel backwards, staggering on the relative
solidity
of the sand, instead of deftly into the Shadow Realm. The
shadows had
gone 'flat'. And the Quickning were closing.
''Shadow Boxing'' Copyright � 1999 Angelina Greenwood