Into Shadow by T. D. Shields

Author:T. D. Shields [Shields, T. D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-01-04T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

I woke stiff and cold again in the morning. The snow flurries had ended, though the morning light was still gray and muted by the continuing cloud cover. I gave up on trying to sleep and slid off the uncomfortable exam table.

Deciding the best remedy was to get moving, I left Roomie sleeping in the tiny exam room and found my way to the old parking lot for the clinic. It was strewn with debris, as most places in the city were, but there was a patch along the west side that was mostly empty. I picked up a few rocks, bits of trash, and chunks of concrete and tossed them aside to clear out the space. I needed some room to complete the exercises that would help reduce some of the achy stiffness and practice my fighting skills.

I began with a slow series of yoga poses. As my sore muscles stretched and loosened, I moved to more complicated poses in preparation for the next phase of my workout routine, martial arts exercises called katas. The katas were detailed patterns of choreographed movements used to practice combat skills. I’d learned them from my father and we had run through them together every morning, usually a quick breakfast afterward before one or both of us was dragged away by scheduling assistants intent on lists of meetings and responsibilities for the day. The morning katas were sometimes the only time we got to spend together.

I had to fight back tears at the memories of my father; though it had been months since his death, sometimes the memories still threatened to overwhelm me. Unwilling to deal with my feelings right now, I shoved the memories away and channeled my sadness into fierce attention to my form.

Finishing my yoga poses with a final standing side stretch, I used the momentum of releasing the pose to turn ninety degrees into cat stance – meaning I shifted my weight to my back leg which was bent at the knee while the toes of my front foot touched the ground a few inches in front of my back foot. I held my front knee, shin, and foot in a straight line, allowing me to snap off a series of sharp front kicks at various heights. I blocked an invisible opponent’s punch with an upthrust right palm block followed by a left palm block, then shifted my weight and spun to the left to assume a cat stance in the opposite direction. Then came another set of forward kicks, followed by a reverse backfist to the nose of my imaginary enemy.

I stepped forward with my left foot and threw a double scissor block with my left arm holding an outside block while sweeping a low block with my right hand at same time. Moments later, I reversed the scissor block using opposite arms. I turned again, bringing both arms in and then up in front of my face before jerking them widely apart as if breaking a grip on my neck or shoulders.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.