A blonde young woman in a yellow dress looked out from behind a curtain, nervously tugging on one of the feathers that stuck out among the flaxen strands.
"So many people…" she whimpered, her blued-violet eyes wide and scared, "Why do I have to go out there again?"
"Because this needs to be done," a warm voice told her, "And besides…all my friends say you're the cute one,"
"You coulda had Mike do it…"
"Amanda…"
The spirit sighed heavily before shyly walking out onto the stage, staring at the massive crowd before her. Everyone fell silent as the spirit came to a stop, putting her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her heels.
"U-U-Um, hi," Amanda stammered, not liking the attention on her, "I um…my name is Amanda Harper…And I uh…I'm one of Elhíni's Characters from the new trilogy Soul,"
She cast a nervous look backstage, catching the gleam of grey blue pride as a shadowy figure nodded their assent.
"Look," Amanda sighed, "Lately, Elhíni's been getting pressured to update the story today. She, even though we characters think otherwise at times, is only human. And worse, she's at college, so that means the updates can be a bit tricky due to school work…and…and…and…"
"That's ok, Amanda. I can take it from here," the warm voice said as a tall, young woman in her late teens early twenties walked onto the stage.
Her hair was mottled gold and brown and cut in a bob so that the front was longer than the back and her bangs were cut unevenly. She wasn't thin, more close to the stocky side of the scale and she was nearly as pale as the poor spirit on the stage. But her most striking feature was her eyes, a dark grey blue color that shifted when the light hit it.
"Gi suilon. Gail síla erin lû e-govaned 'wîn. I greet you. A star shines upon our hour of meeting. Ladies and Gentlemen of the world of Fanfiction. Net," the newcomer started, "My name is Elhíni Prime. Author of 36 stories in the fandoms Transformers, Tron, Lord of the Rings, Merlin, Pacific Rim and most recently Five Nights at Freddy's. Creator of Dusk Greyman and Ultimus Prime as well as this very brave spirit you see before you,"
Elhíni put a hand on Amanda's shoulder, making the spirit blush.
"You can go backstage if you want, or you can stay here with me," Elhíni whispered.
Amanda nodded her thanks and quickly left the stage and to her brother's side. He enfolded her in a warm embrace before letting her turn around and watch the events. Elhíni crossed her arms as she looked at the gathering.
"Look guys, I know that my updates for Soul: Shades have been extremely quick as of late…but that's because I had most of those chapters typed up already. Right now, I'm trying to get reactions and story written for this next chapter and it'll take me a little longer because honestly…I had five different ways that Robby revealing himself to Mike could have played out. I chose the one I did and I'm trying to figure out how she's going to react to the others.
"I'm also a college freshman. And unfortunately, my school life comes before my writing life…because my family is not rich, I don't want to put any more strain on them then I have to…so that means I have to keep my grades up to get scholarships to pay for said education so I can raise more little writers and/or singers to tell their stories.
"So I apologize if you're a little upset that I don't have that chapter up and running. Unfortunately, I can't help that. It would help me if you guys could be patient," Elhíni continued, "So please, have faith that I will update…because I will. Heh, I've got a whole other book to bring to the table here with this series…and believe me…it'll be killer. You guys might hate me some parts of this story and the next one…you might call me evil, but here's the thing…I love it.
"Anyway, I'll be back to writing as soon as I finish here," she finished, "Just please, please, please, be patient…it will come. I promise. And I never, ever break a promise,"
She waved at the crowd.
"Máriessë ar mára tecië. Farewell and fair writing," she called, "Elhini Prime signing off,"