Page 60 of Up in Smoke

“I don’t like being hit,” Sandro replied. “As such, I dodged. If you dodge better, you won’t get hit.”

Batbayar swiped at Sandro, who sidestepped without taking his eyes off me.

“Do you have eyes in the side of your head?” I complained.

“He shifted his stance, and I read his body language. When he moved, I was ready. As I don’t want to use up precious energy, I only moved as much as required to dodge him.”

“He is far more advanced than I hoped for,” Batbayar admitted. “Did your parents enroll you into some form of martial arts at a young age?”

“I was a toddler when I attended my first lesson. An energetic toddler with an infinite source of energy. I’m pretty sure they only slept when I was at some lesson or another and some other adult could watch over me. I was truly a terrible child.”

I snorted. “You were so terrible your parents had five more children, and if the next one isn’t on the way by now, I’ll be very surprised.”

“They must have assumed things would be easier after surviving one terrible child.” Sandro laughed, set the sword down, and raised his hands. “Come down from there. I’ll defend you from Batbayar if I need to. While the idea of self-defense is to preserve your life, you can’t learn anything up there.”

“I learned I must close off her routes of escape,” Batbayar admitted. “I also learned she is more resourceful when she perceives a threat she cannot handle. I can chase her for an hour, and she would run because I am a threat she feels she can handle. Together, we are a threat she does not perceive she can handle, so she escaped. Let that be a lesson to you, students. If you have no hope of victory, it is better to escape than it is to die foolishly and stupidly. There is a time for heroism and putting your life on the line for the sake of another. Jade is a good judge of the right time to act and the right time to run. It would have hurt a great deal if we had both caught her at the same time.”

I wiggled on the beam, eased my legs off, and lowered myself until Sandro could reach up and take hold of my hips. Once he had a hold on me, I dropped to the floor. Before I could escape, he wrapped his arms around me, chuckled, and held me close. “Caught you,” he whispered in my ear.

“I may have been lured into surrendering. Does it count if I surrendered?”

“Absolutely.”

I chuckled. “Only because I didn’t want to break something getting down from there.”

“I’m just impressed you made it all the way up there.”

“Now that we have seen her run from both of us, Sandro, I want you to target her lower legs with the flat of your blade. Jade, you are to evade. Take your positions.”

I escaped Sandro, picked up my discarded practice sword, and took my position. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

“Only if I catch you,” he promised.

Friday, June 26, 2043.

Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Alley.

The first timeI escaped Sandro, I ended up on the beam again, and I swished my practice sword at him when he resorted to a chair to try to get me down. The second time, I made it to the hallway before Batbayar caught me and returned me to the studio.

The third time, I made it all the way to Brent’s new restaurant, bolted inside, and hid behind the bar, still holding my practice blade.

A rather unimpressed Brent stopped his work to regard me with a raised brow. “You don’t have any shoes on.”

“No shoes in the dojo,” I replied in a dignified tone, checking to make sure my tail wouldn’t betray me by sticking out from my chosen cubby, which would one day either hold a cart of glasses or cases of beer or ale meant to be served at room temperature. “I was not stopping to grab my shoes.”

“You can’t learn self-defense if you run away from your self-defense instructor.”

“I wasn’t running away from my self-defense instructor. I ran away from that man I foolishly married. The self-defense instructor made me spar with Sandro. I value my legs almost as much as I value my tail, and Batbayar told him to beat self-preservation into me through beating my legs. Sandro does not hold back, Brent. I was saving my own life.” I eyed my wooden stick. “I have a healthy dislike of inflicting suffering on myself. I stuck to my strengths, and I ran.”

“Running is one of your strengths?”

“It is now. I escaped from another beating. If you see Sandro, spare what’s left of my pride, please.”

Brent laughed, and a moment later, he handed me a glass filled with water. “Catch your breath, Jade. I can’t help you with your pride problem, mainly because Sandro was right on your tail, but I’m sure I can talk him into pretending you’re not hiding under my bar for a few minutes.”

“I’m sure I can handle pretending she’s not under your bar for a few minutes,” Sandro said with laughter in his voice. “I figured she’d bolt to here since it was the closest safe space. I have her shoes and sword, as it seems she forgot to grab them on her way out the door.”