J.T. worked one arm up and around in an arc, then the other, loosening the muscles of his back and shoulders in anticipation of the sparring match. The cold would make their muscles tighten faster, make them more prone to injury, but as long as they warmed up properly before going at each other in a match, the risk of injury would be fairly low.
Matt took a few long, lunging steps into the sunshine and rolled his neck, then stretched one arm across his chest, grabbing it at the elbow to get more stretch, then repeated the action with the other arm. “Will we be starting with basics?”
“You’ve grasped most of them,” J.T. said. “Positions, basic maneuvers. We’ll do some forms to warm up, then we’ll do an easy sparring match—first to three touches. You know what that looks like, right?”
“Honestly, whenever Marin used to drag me to Ren fest stuff and I’d sit on those damn bales of hay and watch you guys beat each other with sticks I never quite understood why some things that looked like good hits weren’t touches but things I barely saw were.”
J.T. laughed and shook his head. “You and a lot of other people. We’ll sort it out. Ready?”
Matt nodded, swinging his arms around a few times before he squared off in front of J.T., the tip of his kendo stick hovering just short of shoulder level. “Ready when you are.”
J.T. grinned and fell into his own favored stance, holding his kendo stick in a slightly higher guard than Matt. He watched the other man’s eyes for a moment.
Then Matt moved and J.T. reacted, stepping quickly to one side and swinging his bamboo weapon down in an arc to deflect the coming strike. He laughed despite himself, enjoying the kiss of the wind against his cheeks as he twisted his wrist in an attempt to trap Matt’s weapon and possibly disarm him.
The younger man backpedalled, grinning. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” J.T. said, then lunged into a strike toward Matt’s hip. “And everything.”
As the bound bamboo staves twapped against Matt’s side, the younger man swore and jumped back, then laughed himself.
“You’re going to bruise me good today, aren’t you?”
“You and then hopefully Thom!” J.T. said, grinning back. “That’s one nil. Two more to go.”
“Oh, so it’s on now?”
“Yup,” J.T. said. “It’s on.”
He moved to strike again, but Matt was ready this time, dancing back with a devil-may-care grin on his face. “Fantastic!” the younger man said. “Now I get to show you the dirty tricks Thordin’s been teaching me.”
He dipped down and grabbed a handful of snow, pitching it toward J.T.’s face. As the medic lifted his arm to shield his face, he felt Matt’s kendo stick bounce off his ribs.
“Oh, very nice!” J.T. said. “Very nice.”
“Playing fair doesn’t always help you win,” Matt said. “Sometimes it just gets you dead.”
“Wise words,” J.T. said, resetting his stance and wiping the last of the snow from his face. “Ready?”
“If you are.”
J.T. laughed again. “Then lay on!”
The sound of bamboo on bamboo echoed off the trees, off the ruins, as two men squared off in the snow at the top of the hill, laughing and yelling as if they didn’t have any other care in the world.
I’m happy they can do some things that relieve their tensions. I like the character development you have done with J.T. He can be quite entertaining, given time and the right place.
Thanks for the new post. Be well