Chapter Two.
"Why're you here?"
The question was laced with suspicion, but to my utter surprise, it seemed more out of curiosity than hostility for the reason behind the question. I blinked at the girl, the girl who I had just seen dancing, who asked me the question.
The other two, however, quickly made me bite back down on my spurt of confidence and wallow in fear - they were gazing at us with jeweled eyes ablaze.
It was Emilihai, the political leader of the three of us, who took it upon herself to answer the question. She met the dancer's eyes politely, and I caught a spark of fear inside of them, but mostly the reserve held strong over her expressions. She took a deep breath and held strong in her answer, which I slowly became horrified with, as it was the absolute truth.
"We came here because we're interested in dancing."
"EM!" Revel exclaimed, her voice bouncing angrily back at us in the dead quiet that had suddenly dropped. We all flinched, staring at Revel in something akin to shock. Avians never let on that they were angry, especially not in such an explosive bout of temper. Revel had always been different than us, sure, but in times of trouble I normally counted on her to hold her reserve. "That's suicide to say such a thing to them!"
"But it's the truth," Emilihai pointed out.
The dancer that we had been so avidly watching frowned, looking between the three of us, finally focusing on me. "You haven't said anything," she pointed out. "Care to explain?"
I swallowed. "I…Emilihai's correct." I gestured to her, avoiding Rev's burning gaze. My voice faltered slightly. "We are interested in dancing."
"Are you now?" the dancer mused. I was surprised at how reasonable she sounded, and not the least unfriendly. The feathers on the back of my neck flattened some. I could stand to be unafraid at this moment, so long as I didn't look at her companions.
"Well, I'm Tabitha." She held her hand out to me, rather than Em or Rev. "Call me Taby, if you will." She offered us a smile in turn.
Carefully, I grasped her cool hand, marveling at how different it was from my own body heat. "Amali," I responded. "Ama, I suppose. And this is Emilihai and Revel."
Emilihai managed a shaky smile and Rev looked a bit less stony than before.
One of the other dancers interrupted our casual greeting in an acidic voice. She was blonde, her hair short yet curly, with pale sapphire eyes. "Taby, they're birds." Her upper lip curled in disgust.
"And we're snakes," Tabitha pointed out mildly. "Yet at the same time we're also all human. Surely that counts for something, Lyn."
Lyn let out a slow, unhappy breath, glaring at us once before turning on her heel and stalking away.
The other dancer that had been with them - a girl with slightly darker skin than Taby's fair skin, wild brown hair and probing brown eyes that seemed more avian than serpiente - shot Tabitha an annoyed look. "You're not seriously thinking of including them, are you?"
"I'll take 'em to Winnie, see how she handles them," Tabitha replied cheerfully. "Maybe they can join Destiny's Crowd after proper training."
Destiny's Crowd?
"Roxanne won't accept them."
"Nao, Roxanne hardly runs Destiny's Crowd anymore, it's always you, me, Lyn, Kaza, Riley, Vizi, and Dana running the place."
The brown-haired dancer, Nao, let out an irritated breath similar to Lyn's earlier one. "Tabitha…"
"Nanoa, please, let me handle this."
Nao stalked off, throwing us - especially me - a dirty look from over her shoulder.
Tabitha rolled her eyes. "Those girls," she snorted. "They're my friends and all, but sometimes they gotta be nicer to the newbies. I know Riley would probably agree with me…" She turned her blue gaze back to us, friendly, head tilted to one side. "You birdlets wanna learn to dance? Here, I'll take you to the master of the dance, besides A'isha."
Still holding onto my hand, she tugged me forward, and I had no choice but to follow, hearing the hesitant and light steps of Revel and Emilihai behind me.
Tabitha came to a stop at the other side of the room, and tapped on a serpiente's shoulder. "Miss Winifred?"
The serpiente looked up, and I felt fear start to bubble in my stomach again.
She was short, but easily the most muscular person I'd ever seen. Her skin had a light tan as well. Her hair were many different colors, changing from silky black to coffee brown to dirty blonde in different strands. Her eyes…they were a piercing red, the sort of eyes that can see right through you. She seemed very young, but at the same time, old enough to know of the world and its cruelties. Perhaps late-twenties to early-thirties. I'd never know.
Winifred eyed us, then nodded to Tabitha. "Yes, Taby?"
"I think we've got some new members that would like to learn from you…"
-
"My hips," Revel groaned.
It was hours later - sunset - and we were all sitting outside my house, rubbing different parts of our bodies that were aching. Revel's hips had always bothered her, and we had found out the reason why today, courtesy of Winifred - Winnie, as we called her. She always sat back so all her weight rested on her hips. Winnie had corrected her posture before moving on to teach us dance.
Emilihai was rubbing her muscles, too, especially the ones on her ankles. I sucked in a breath and wished I could rub my back, but that was impossible. I'd have to take a long, hot bath at some point in the night.
Winnie had proved to be a very serious and capable instructor. She told us she wasn't going to suffer for wishy-washy, half-assed dancing. No, she was only going to tutor those who wanted to be there, who wanted to take from her. If we didn't want to learn to dance, we had to get our feathery butts out of the Wyvern's Nest at that second and never look back again.
But if we did want to learn to dance, we had to take from Winifred.
She showed us the simplest dance - the morning rituals dancers performed in the morning, and started to teach us the technique of it. Going through all the proper technique of dancing would have taken forever, so she only covered the basics. Still, though, it was enough to make our muscles smart.
Dancing was hard work.
About halfway through the session, Kallithea and Cailys had joined us. However, Kallithea and Cailys had arrived too late to take from Winnie, so they were sent to another dance instructor, one that I did not know of. We had not heard from them since then, and frankly, Revel and Emilihai were relieved not to talk to them.
I, on the other hand, sort of missed Kal, despite the fact none of my other friends did. I liked her, even if no one else did.
"Quite the day," Revel finally managed out, staring off into the distance. Emilihai nodded in agreement. Indeed, it had been quite a day. On top of dance technique, we'd learned what Destiny's Crowd was - a small group of dancers started by Roxanne, almost an elite group. We didn't get the chance to meet them all that day, and frankly, I felt relieved. The serpientes had given us all very odd stares, some hostile, like Lyn and Nao, others merely curious, like Tabitha, and yet others critical, like Winnie. Thinking about the whole day got the adrenaline in my veins pumping again.
"Agreed," I murmured after a few long moments of silence, staring off into the sunset.
-
I did not know dancing was going to change my life.
A few weeks passed, I gradually grew into the habit of entering Wyvern's Nest about midday, and my new hobby remained hidden from my parents Reed and Desi, along with my little brother Sal. Elisa Beth was off somewhere, probably exploring the world, most likely sewing beautiful clothing like she normally did (she was training to be a seamstress). I hadn't heard from her in months, and it wasn't likely I would for months more. I suspected Revel's parents knew about it, but I also suspected they rather didn't care. Emilihai's single mother remained uninformed as well. Kallithea had also taken to the dance, but seemed less into it than I did, perhaps merely trying to get into Destiny's Crowd, along with Cailys.
I had met a few members of Destiny's Crowd, and indeed come to be great friends with them. Riley was one of them - a boy with a humorous attitude, and Revel always seemed to watch him the most during class. Lyn was taking a while to warm up to us, but Nao a little quicker (perhaps Tabitha had influenced her). Taby remained my best serpiente friend.
How unusual - an avian friends with a serpiente.
Cailys was unable to keep her mouth shut about our new hobby, and had in fact told her friend Jocelyn about it, something I had been completely nonchalant about. Another new few people were about to enter my life, too - as I would get accepted into Destiny's Crowd, a few of Tabitha's friends would, too, but most importantly, her cousin was coming soon for a long visit of a few months, her cousin Dai. He, too, would join Destiny's Crowd, and of course, Tabitha would introduce him to me and Revel and Emilihai and Kallithea and Cailys.
The ease of the summer months, I should have known, would be too good to last.