Lightship Chronicles Chapter 8 : Art Of Parza

by Florin Nicoara

here." Andee looks over the kids.

  "You two were among my first. Now parents pay me to teach their kids."

  "Really? Now I feel bad. I never paid you once."

  "I didn't start doing this for the credits. I did it to make sure the Art of Parza did not die with me. And the way you two excel in it, I am honored to have been your teacher."

  "Why thank you Master Sensei." Andee responds humbled.

  "Now that you're here, maybe you two can help me with my new apprentices." Pointing to the four teens. "They think they're ready for the Parza ceremony. What do you think?" Turning to Nayaa. She turns to the three boys and one girl, and forcefully pounds her Parza staff into the ground in front of her feet, and leans with her chin against the top.

  "What do you guys think? Are you ready?" Nayaa addresses the apprentices casually but with authority.

  "No." They respond in unison, a bit deflated, looking meekly up at Nayaa who just schooled them a moment before.

  "There. Problem solved." Nayaa turns to Master Sensei with a big grin. Sensei laughs.

  "Oh Nayaa. My little Nayaa, even though you're taller than me these days." Master Sensei responds with a big smile. "You haven't changed a bit. You were both... my most challenging, but also my most brilliant student." Sensei continues with a proud smile.

  "Hear that Andee? Most brilliant." She smirks at him with an exaggerated cocky toss of her hair.

  "I heard. Most challenging." Andee counters her dismissively. She rolls her eyes.

  "Nothing has changed between the two of you." Sensei laughs and pats Andee on the shoulder. Then turns to the four apprentices with his hand extended towards Nayaa. "This is how good you want to be. You kids still have a way to go, but don't look at today's defeat as a disappointment, but a lesson. Now you can see how much more you need to improve. Take that as a challenge and be determined to succeed."

  "Yes sir Master Sensei." The four kids react in unison. Sensei turns to Andee and Nayaa.

  "Are you two up for a challenge? To give all these kids a demonstration"

  "Of course." Nayaa responds. "I haven't challenged Andee with my brilliance in a while." And gives him another cocky look.

  "I'm ready Master Sensei." Andee responds with a hard look to Nayaa.

  "Kids! Sparing circle." Master Sensei shouts his order.

  The kids quickly rush in a large circle while Andee and Nayaa each pull out a wooden arm guard out of their satchels. They attach the arm guards with the built in leather straps to their left outer forearm. The wooden guards extend from just beyond the elbow to past the wrist, ending at the fleshy side of the outer hand. At each end the wood curves out into hooks which can help catch the opponent's staff and prevent it from just sliding off. The hardwood guards only cover the outer edge of the forearm.

  Now fully geared and ready, they turn to Master Sensei and gently bow their heads to him, then turn to each other, and lock eyes. They move away by circling each other to create the necessary distance. They're eyes are locked into each other's, and like two dancers getting set they both sidestep, in fact sweep sideways, towards their positions. Andee grabs his folded staff off his thigh and with a flick of his wrist snaps it open. Nayaa is holding her open staff vertically, behind her right arm, from the bottom third segment pointing up, behind her right shoulder extending high above it.

  They side step until they are four meters apart and perfectly centered in the circle.

  "Attention!" Mater Sensei commands with authority.

  They both stop and slam the bottoms of their staffs into the ground in front of their toes. They are holding on to them with both hands, at chest level, which falls in the middle half of the top third segment. Their movements and posture are clearly ritualistic, emphasized by the absolute unison and flow of their movements. With staffs and bodies rigid, and perfectly vertical, they stand in attention, face to face, and eyes locked into one another's.

  "Salutations." Mater Sensei yells his next command.

  In unison, both Andee and Nayaa bow, gently bringing their foreheads to a soft touch of the top of their staffs. After a two second count they gently lift up locking eyes again. Their faces are strong, but calm. No expression of any emotion, just pure confidence and focus.

  "Fight!" Mater Sensei drops his right arm with a yell.

  Like two machines operated by the same program, Nayaa and Andee sweep their staffs in beautiful unison to behind them while stepping with their right leg back, from attention stance into fighting stance. Both have their left knee bent out front, and right foot back with the leg at a near forty five degree angle to the ground. Left arm is up and out, elbow bent horizontally at ninety degrees in a defensive stance with the wooden arm guard out front, like a mini shield. The right arm extends back, parallel over the right leg, at forty-five degrees to the ground. The palm is up, holding the staff from below the second joint, at about the middle part of the bottom third segment. The staff leans on the back of the arm extending up over the back of the shoulder, with the tip pointing up and out past the right side of the head. Both Andee and Nayaa are locked in fight stance like statues.

  They hold the position unwavering. Neither move in the first few seconds. Without breaking his stance, Andee gently lunges forward, stomping his forward left foot like a fencer. Nayaa does the same and Andee retreats with the same stiff stance. They do this several times, each time bluffing an attack, but neither break their rigid fight stance. Then Nayaa calmly breaks her stance and stands upright. The staff is now perfectly vertical behind her right arm. She casually walks in a circle. Andee is still in fight stance, holding his staff from below, and over the back of his right shoulder at forty-five degree angle. He suddenly swings the staff out and around in a big fast underhand sweep. From his shoulder, the staff circles out and around with the tip at nearly the speed of sound. It is so fast is 'woojes' with a ghostly gust by Nayaa's face flinging her hair gently in the air, but she is out of range and does not flinch. The staff sweeps round to the left, where he brings the end of the staff to the ground in front of his left foot with a hard stomp, all in a fraction of a second. He rises, placing his left hand over his right in a relaxed salutation stance, and leans on the staff as if bored.

  Nayaa casually swings her staff from back to front, and than starts doing "the figure-eight" again. At the astounding speed she spins it, it looks like a propeller. The tip of the staff is 'woojing' loudly like a chorus of wispy whaling ghosts in the wind. Watching Nayaa do her thing is a beautifully haunting sight, but suddenly she is pulled up into the air from the momentum of the spin, flips over, and does a cartwheel on the tip of the staff. She does two in a row, but on the third she comes to a full stop upside down, into a handstand, on one end of the staff.

  The kids moan and groan in awe. Nayaa's body is vibrating from the tension in all her muscles as she holds herself balanced, upside down, on the tip of the staff. She causally arches her legs over her back landing upright on her feet, but with her back to Andee, and then bursts backwards with stunning speed turning one-eighty. Her staff sweeps at Andee, its tip moving at near the speed of sound. It 'woojes' at him so fast all he can do is lift up his own while turning... wham! Nayaa's staff slams perpendicularly into Andee's with a loud wooden crack from the impact. Nayaa's right foot is now coming as a side kick right into Andee's left ribcage. It's too quick for him to move out of the way, so he blocks it with his wooden armguard. The kick knocks him backwards. He flips back hand springing onto his feet in a squat, defeated, but staff still in hand, although on the ground. The kids cheer with applause. Nayaa gives them quick bow with her chin.

  "Break!" Mater Sensei yells. Both Nayaa and Andee slam the bottom of their staffs on the ground in front of their toes, both hands gripping their staffs from the top third segment, but then relax leaning on their staffs casually.

  "Kids. I just want to remind you that Andee and Nayaa are the best of the best. What she just showed you was a distraction. Andee did the same by leaning on
his staff pretending to be bored. But Nayaa took it to the extreme." Master Sensei looks at her with a smile. She replies with a humble toothy grin. "What she did you can only do when you become a true master of the Art of Parza. So kids remember that. Watch what these two can do, and remember that this is what you want to become. Nayaa and Andee used to come here every day. And they practiced for years to be this good. Remember that as you watch them." All the kids nod accepting their lesson.

  "Attention!" Master Sensei snaps his order. Nayaa and Andee stiffen back up, again holding their staffs in front of their chests, with one end on the ground.

  "Fight!" Mater Sensei drops his arm with a yell. In unison they sweep their staffs behind them and step back into the forty-five degree fight stance. Their movements are so perfectly matched, so smooth and beautiful, they are rhythmic art to the eye. An absolute pleasure to witness. Both hold the rigid fight stance with cold confident glares, for a brief second. Nayaa is first to spin her staff, but only a fraction of a second before Andee.

  The Parza technique seems to be one where the staff is held almost always 'upside down'. In fight stance the staff is held from near the center of bottom third segment with the weapon behind and above the back of the arm extending up over the shoulder. From that position when they