Chapter 10- The Strangest Ball Ever…
That night I was in Arya's room as she tried on dresses. "No, no, no, no, no! Grrrrrr!"
"They're fine, the one you've got on is fine."
"Fine isn't good enough," she snapped impatiently.
"Why are you getting so worked up about a dance you didn't even want to go to?" I asked curiously. Arya put down the cape she was holding and sighed.
"I don't even know," she replied sadly.
I looked down at the dress I was wearing. It was light green lamarae (a soft elven material) with gold lining and white intercepts decorated with golden swirls. It was drawn in at the waist with a gold band and was off the shoulder at the top in a gold semi-circle. At the top it had three flowers; a rose, a lily and a forget-me-not.
It had a long hooded cape to match and also a swirly gold tiara with an emerald set in it and other matching jewellery. It had light green leggings and a pair of long thin boots too though for the ball I was wearing a pair of green and gold ballet pumps for the dance. Arya and I had gone shopping for it the day before. (I was surprised to know that elven towns had the equivalent of shops- except they worked from their homes and did not want money for anything). My hair was curled and I had only gold lipgloss and eye shadow on.
Eventually Arya decided on a halter necked long silver dress with black pumps, silver eye shadow and lipstick and a graceful black cape (with no hood so, in the fading light, it looked like an extension of her hair.)
When we finally got down to the ballroom Arya wandered off; probably trying to hide from Eragon. There were long boughs of holly draped jauntily across the halls walls, held by magic, and flowers everywhere. Then I spotted Eragon in a corner next to a flower shaped tree looking fretful, probably hiding from dancing. I pulled him over to a free table next to Saphira. "Go ask someone to dance," Saphira urged him.
"No," he said, adamant not to dance.
Soon a female elf in a nicely contrasting orange dress called Lila came over and asked him to dance. She was stunningly pretty with a curly, silver sheet of hair and medium sized brown eyes. Eragon said yes and stumbled to his feet. When they started dancing though they were surprisingly graceful. In the middle of the dance Arya came over in a huff and slumped down into Eragon's now vacant chair. "You should have asked him," I told her. I was rewarded with a dark glare.
"I don't see you dancing," she scolded.
"Well, I don't know anyone and I'm not even an elf so I can't do anything," I replied smugly.
When the dance ended Eragon came over looking dreamy. "Arya, who is that?" he asked fuzzily.
"How would I know?" she snapped. Eragon looked confused.
"You've hurt her feelings. She taught you to dance and you didn't even ask her," explained Saphira in his head.
He snapped his head up and turned towards Arya. "Well then would you like to dance Arya svit-kona?" he asked bending low and extending his arm towards her. She half-smiled then shook her head, seeming to be deliberating with herself for a long time.
Finally, when Eragon's arm was starting to get tired, she smiled took his hand and walked with him over to the dance floor. As they began to dance, more graceful than ever, the whole room stopped to look at them. But they didn't notice they could only see each others eyes. Melting brown into deep green. At first Arya was stiff but she gradually began to relax and they drew closer. I looked away slightly revolted but grinning all the same.
Because Eragon had been so enjoying the dancing, something he thought he would never do, he hadn't realised what song it was that they were dancing to. It was a human love ballad and at the end the couple were meant to kiss! He had no problem with that but he thought Arya would and it would be embarrassing. He hurriedly contacted her through his mind and explained about the ending. She started to panic and suddenly an idea sprang to Eragon's mind. He asked her quickly and she said yes but he had to be careful. Soon the ending couple of notes were sounding and Eragon was prepared. The rest of the elves leaned forward in their seats looking to see what they would do.
Eragon grabbed Arya round her waist, swung her high and let go. She twirled in the air and landed gently to the sound of applause. They smiled and walked back to their seats. Saphira hummed and I said, "Nice save." They looked at me like they didn't have a clue what I was talking about…