Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Title: The Dancer Healed
Teaser: Toriovico was dancing.
Character(s): Toriovico
Rating: T
Length: 227 words
Notes: For a man who spends most of his time in The Dragon of Despair dancing, Toriovico was surprisingly difficult to write about. Actually, it's probably because he spent so much time dancing that the words wouldn't come. I didn't want to write something that had already been written! Eek! Plagiarism! (hides under the bed) That's why this is so short – everything that needs to be said has already been written. (It's also why this tiny drabble took so long.) But one can't have a series about dancing without including Torio, so, enjoy!


There were times when he cursed the day that his brother had been killed, snatching away his dreams of becoming a professional dancer and landing him a player in a game he had never wanted to play.

There were times, when politics became enough to cause a pounding headache and he was lost to confusion, that he almost gave into despair.

There were times when the weight of the burden he was forced to bear in solitude, the secrets entrusted to him and him alone, made him sway toward the madness that his ancestor, the Third Healed One, had been lost to so many years before.

There were times when he woke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, dreaming of a seductive enchantress with piercing blue eyes that could see into his soul, and of a mighty beast of lore that swooped in from the night with destruction in its wake.

There were times when he saw the pain of the world, the nobility of a dear friend wasting away to the ravages of time, and the destroyed innocence of a little girl shining citrine in the sunlight, and he thought his heart would split in two from the ache of his helplessness.

This was not one of those times. Toriovico was dancing, and, for a few short, fleeting moments, Toriovico was healed.