TW: Abusive family dynamics. Descriptions of giving birth.

Chapter 10

"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see." - Arthur Schopenhauer

The pitter patter of four sets of feet on the stairs alerted Erdene to the girls still being awake a moment before they nearly crashed into each other at the base of the stairs.

A small cacophony of hushed voices began clamoring at once:

"Who was that?"

"Did he walk you home?"

"He looked like a dwarf!"

"Why were you wearing his coat?"

Christ almighty. "A friend, yes he walked me home, he is dwarrow, and he was nice enough to let me borrow his coat because I was cold."

And damn did he smell good. Spicy pipe tobacco, and the rest of it had to be him. It's not fair he smells that good. No other male in this world or her original earth smelled that good. Hell Caleb hadn't smelled that good and she was with him for five years!

The four teens remained hovering at the bottom of the stairs. Their young faces conveyed a variety of curiosity, apprehension, disbelief and confusion.

"Papa doesn't like dwarves." Gwen said finally in a low whisper. "He said they're sneak thieves."

Erdene's immediate, knee jerk response was to say something awful about their father. It wasn't a surprise finding out Warren was a racist. There seemed to be an undercurrent of racism throughout the whole city. One everyone lived with but never acknowledged.

Ten. Nine. Eight.

Breathe.

Seven. Six. Five.

Breathe.

Four. Three. Two

"Your father," she began slowly, choosing her words carefully so the girls would listen and hopefully understand. "Hasn't had to live the lives many of these dwarrow have. A lot of them are the exiles of Erebor. They did what they had to in order to survive after the dragon Smaug."

Big eyes met her. Wide, alarmed eyes. Four sets of them. Oh. Come on now. Christ almighty, really?

"None of you know about the fall of Erebor." She muttered in irritation. "Do you?"

"No," Alisa spoke for herself. "Was that a city?"

No of course they wouldn't know about the loss and plight of a kingdom that wasn't human and a people who weren't human. They had the bare minimum of education before being thrust into the workforce. I should start a school.

Yeah. Like that wouldn't go over like a goddamn led balloon at a fair. People in her world fought against girls learning anything even in the modern day. She knew seven girls who went to college with her that were only there for an Mrs degree and quit university right after getting married. Don't need an education if he'll take care of you for the rest of your life, honey. Aunt Lola's philosophy for life made itself known.

Nope. No. Not on my watch.

Erdene blew out a long sigh of frustration, tiredness and said, "Okay, crash course in Middle Earth's world history. Everybody grab something to drink while I get my food."

The problem with education is that people who have been denied it and then receive it, find themselves asking questions. A lot of questions. It was well past the ninth bell and the girls were still asking her things about their own world. Erdene set her nearly empty cup of water to the side of the roughly sketched map she made. Ered Luin, the Shire, the Farthing Woods, the Gulf of Luin, Rohan, Gondor, the Eastern Road, the Trollshaws, Rivendell, the Misty Mountains, Mirkwood, the River Running, Esregoth, and the Lonely Mountain.

She flicked the charcoal she had used to fill in tiny trees around the world while the girls talked amongst themselves. Of the many talents the good lord blessed her with, art wasn't among them. She could imitate, draw from memory but original work wasn't part of her repertoire. Nor could she knit, sew without stabbing her fingers repeatedly, crochet, write an original story (fanfiction came easier), arrange flowers, paint, or dance without someone else (someone good at it) leading.

"Erdene," Gwen was the first to speak to her after they quieted a bit more.

Amber eyes rose from her drawing. "Yes?"

Gwen hesitated, glancing at Alysa before saying, "you've had schooling."

Erdene shrugged in response, setting the charcoal down. "I've had my fair share." Four degrees she probably would never use in this world.

Another glance at her sister before Gwen said, "could," she wet her lips and took an unsteady breath, "could you teach us?"

"Teach you what?" Erdene asked carefully. "How to read? How to write? How to calculate sums? World history? Biology? Chemistry? Mechanical engineering? Anthropology?" She tapped her fingers on the table. "I can teach you a whole list of things no one here knows. Sign language. How to calculate weight versus mass versus force. How the human body works." She pushed the map away from her. "Tell me what you want to know. I'll tell you if I'm capable of teaching you."

Catherine reached out a hand and took the map gingerly. "What is bi-olo-gee?"

"The study of living things."

Her head bobbed. "And chem-eh-stry?"

"The study of the properties and behavior of matter." That seemed to cause confusion. She took her water and held it over the candle to her left on the table. "Why does fire make things hot? Why does water douse fire? What is water made of?" If she ended up somewhere else, anywhere else in time or space, she might have been burned as a witch. Erdene laughed to herself. Still could be. Middle Earth had some superstitious weirdness happening.

Then again.

Magic was real here.

She grabbed the paper anyway, flipping it over and sketching out a simple drawing. "The chemical composition of water is H2O. Two hydrogen particles and one oxygen. Oxygen," she drew next, "is what we breathe. Our blood needs fresh oxygen to keep our hearts beating, and our lungs breathing. The air is composed of approximately eighty percent nitrogen, and twenty oxygen." She pushed the new sketches toward them. "I meant it. I need to know exactly what you want to learn because here in Arda this information is useless trivia that could get us all in trouble."

Alisa wass the brave one. "How does a man get a woman with a child?"

Sex education. Of course.

They're teenagers.

She should have guessed that.

Erdene took the paper back and crumpled it, tossing it at the low lit fireplace. "You four all have your periods, right?"

Catherine frowned at her, picking at her left thumbnail and the skin around it. She'd been doing that more often since last Sunday. Her skin was beginning to look sore and broken. "Do you mean our courses?"

The nearly ancient term for it but, "menstrual cycle. Start using that term. I assume since you're sisters all of yours have synced?"

"Is it normal that they changed?" Alysa asked, "after you came, ours changed."

I'm the alpha female?

Seriously? Me? What the hell?

"It's normal. It happens." And now she kind of felt bad she didn't realize it before. Hers hadn't changed at all since arriving in Arda. In fact, it got better. Lighter, less painful. She'd thought it was the food. Less processed foods, more natural. Well. Shit. Okay then.

"Okay, crash course in human sexuality. Male seed, otherwise known as semen can live up to ten days inside your body. You ovulate, meaning your egg for fertilization drops approximately two weeks after the first day of your menstruation." She paused, "any questions?"

All four girls drew in breath.

And began talking at once.

This can't be right. This can't be normal.

A pain rips up her spine that steals her breath. No. This can't be right. "Thorin," she chokes out, "I want-" another contraction that leaves her screaming for what seems like forever. It can't be forever, she's still in pain when the contraction subsides. "I want my husband!"

The midwives, dam all, try to calm her. One tells her the king cannot be with her during the birth. Another tells her males are not allowed to be present during a birth.

The third, a dam with nearly black hair exits the room.

It's another two contractions before Thorin with the other dam in tow throws open the door. The two midwives present attempt to argue but one look from their king silences their protests. Erdene holds her arms out to him, tears streaming down her face. Relief that he came floods her.

He comes to the bedside, gathering her against his chest. He's so warm. His comfortable scent, his warmth, his voice. "Amrâlimê," he strokes her cheeks with his thumbs, "Tell me what you need."

"You. Please. I can't do this alone." She gazes at him, pleading with him. Please. Please. Please stay with me.

He nods, pressing reassuring kisses to her lips and forehead before stepping back to remove his boots, throwing his heavy regalia and crown to the side as if they do not matter. He climbs into bed with her. He pulls her up against his chest between his legs. He smoothes her sweaty hair from her eyes and kisses her temple. "Push, Erdene, for our child, for me. Can you do it?"

Weakly she nods. On the next contraction she's crying and gritting her teeth, digging her heels into the bedding and pushes. Their child is born and the cord is cut.

Thorin doesn't ask if the baby is a boy or girl. He kisses Erdene's temple again, whispering in her ear how proud of her he is. She whimpers, pushing her back against his chest.

"I still feel-" her words are cut off as another contraction hits and she struggles against his hold on her. He tightens his grip as she keens a pained sound. There will be bruises later.

"Mahal!" The black haired dam cries, gathering another cloth. "A second babe! Bring the-"

Whatever she says is lost in Erdene's agonizing groan and the wailing of their first child as the baby breathes for the first time without Erdene. Thorin holds her through it all, even when her finger nails begin to break the skin of his forearms. Even when this baby's cord is cut and blood spills on his foot and pants. He holds her through the after birth as well.

He kissed her temple again and again. "You've done so well Erdene."

She nodded, unable to do more than rest her head on his shoulder. "I love you, but I am never doing that again."

He chuckled, nuzzling her cheek. "If that's what you wish."

She huffed at him. "Next invention, contraceptives. I want my cake and the whipped cream topping with cherry and-"

He silenced her with a kiss. "Aye, my wife, rest your brilliant mind. You have done much today."

She sniffed, lifting her head, looking at the midwives, "are they boys or girls?"

"Girls," the black haired midwife held both babies in each arm. "Twin girls, your graces."

He kissed her again, longer this time, slower. "Twins." He said against her mouth with a smile.

Erdene sighed, reaching one hand out to lower a little bit of the white cloth her second daughter was wrapped in. Black hair, a little lighter than Thorin's, curly like hers. The tiny bundle yawned, her perfectly perfect little nose wrinkling.

Okay. Maybe having kids was worth all that other shit.

Erdene woke once again to her alarm buzz-chiming at her. Approximately seven am. Time to get up. She pushed up, watching the blanket fall down her body to her thighs. Her hands came immediately to her stomach. She almost felt the ghost of the pain in her back and hips.

Twins. Twin girls at that.

With Thorin as their father?

First, that was almost definitely not happening. She didn't plan to have kids. Or, at least she didn't plan to have them back on Earth. Here in Arda, life was simple and there was no such thing as birth control so maybe she would have at least one kid. Maybe two. Depending on if she did get married and how much she liked whomever she married.

Second, her first pregnancy is twins? Really? Her imagination knew how to take an idea and run with it. Just because her mother and aunt were twins, didn't mean she was going to have twins.

Third, Thorin had zero interest in her. Zero. He was being nice by loaning her his coat. He was being a friend by telling her to get her own coat. Even if he did get kind of pissed off about it at first. He had a point, she couldn't help Cat get out of marrying the nasty old man if she died of something she caught because the cold broke her immune system.

Fourth, she's a common born - her grandmama and granddaddy would argue that until they were blue in the face. They had three houses with names like Willow Tree Lodge in Wisconsin and Plum Blossom House in Augusta and a manor house in Virginia named Beechwood Manor. - human woman. Thorin, while he might work for a human blacksmith amongst other dwarves who worked for or with humans, was royalty.

Sure elevating the person you were in love with from common to noble or higher worked in fiction. Darcy with Elizabeth Bennett, Rochester with Jane Eyre (before the whole already married thing), and Cinderella were the exceptions, not the standard.

But…lastly.

Sadly.

Thorin Oakenshield, even if he was her friend and even if maybe she had a seriously huge crush on him and even if he seemed to care whether she lived or died, was a dead dwarf walking. Be it ten, fifty or a hundred years from now, Thorin Oakenshield, Thorin son of Thrain was slated to die. By Blog or Azog's hand depending on the movie or the book or maybe this was some hybridization of the two?

She could tell him, but what would that do to whatever burgeoning friendship there was between them? He'd think she was a mad woman or worse in league with the orcs. Or even worse, a threat.

Erdene flopped back on the bed with a grunt. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Valis did not expect to see Erdene again so soon. Her last two visits were on Sundays. The clothier was still attempting to sell Valis an overpriced bolt of black silk when the bell over the door rang indicating a customer. She looked up, her typical welcome fading on her lips when Ery gave her a small wave.

"Good morning Ery."

The girl smiled at her, "good morning Valis."

The clothier, another dwarf, glared at Valis with hard black eyes. She tsked at him before telling Ery. "Come in, give me a few moments."

The girl nodded and began to look around the shop.

Valis argued back and forth with the clothier another moment or two while Ery wandered. Finally, though it took some low, harsh words in Khuzdûl, Valis talked him down to a more reasonable price. She paid him and sent him out the door.

"What brings you back? I thought no to see you until at least right before spring."

Erdene shrugged. "A friend of mine talked some sense into me last night. I need a coat. A warm one. And fingerless gloves. If possible."

"Child, you don't have a coat?" Valis did not mean to reach the level of high pitched surprise her voice managed to attain.

Erdene frowned at her, "Valis, I'm thirty and an adult." Wait. Does Thorin think she's a child too? No. He can't possibly, could he? Oh no. No. She was going to have to explain being an adult at her age to someone who was probably four times her age or more. Like right now. "Did you think I was a kid?"

Valis had the grace to look abashed. "Lass, you're the first woman to enter my shop in nearly sixty years. The last was in her eighties and she suffered from a disease of the mind that made her think I was her daughter. I've no idea what age you folk are no longer children."

Dementia or Alzheimer's? "Typically the human brain is considered fully developed by twenty-five."

Valis hummed in response. "So only an adult for five years."

Erdene rolled her eyes. "I've been living on my own and paying my own bills since I was eighteen. I've been a fully functional adult since eighteen. Twelve years. Why? What age do dwarrow become an adult?"

"Usually between eighty-five and one hundred."

Erdene blinked at Valis. "Yeesh, ouch, really? That sucks. What if you want to move out and go live your own life before that?"

It was Valis' turn to blink at Ery. "Why would you want to be without your family?"

"Because sometimes your family is so god damn awful and meaner than an angry hornet and leaving is the best way not to end up bitter an' full of hate like them." From the way Valis' expression fell, those were not the words she expected to hear. Erdene shuffled her feet. "Sorry, I-"

Valis came around the counter, gingerly reaching out one hand to gently take Erdene's hands with hers. "That doesn't tend to happen with our people, love. Every union is a celebration. Every child is precious. We want our babies and dwarflings with us no matter their age." She squeezed Erdene's hands. "I'm sorry lass. That should never happen to anyone."

Don't cry. Don't cry.

Don't cry damnit.

Her breath still hitched when she said, "Thank you."

Valis had Erdene come to the counter, splay her hands on the wood to get exact measurements. "You're lucky, Ery, you came before my busy season."

While Valis worked on her right hand, Erdene looked over the material on her counter. Various bolts in a variety of vibrant colors, materials and textures. The black silk looked like it would flow like water while the deep burgundy looked like it would cling in all the right ways. The purple, almost as vibrant as an orchid, felt smooth to the tips of her fingers, while the yellow was a delicate pale shade that could have been the outer petals of a daffodil. The orange was as bright as a tangerine and…she reached over tugging the last bolt free. A dark blue-green brocade, tightly woven so it felt smooth to the touch. It shifted colors between deep blue and sea-green with the light.

Monica would have gone absolutely batshit for Valis' haul.

"Good eye," Valis told her. "That one is worth twice what all of these cost. Even the silk."

Erdene grabbed the black silk, tucking it against the brocade, "too bad you couldn't get those to fade together."

Valis' brow rose. "Fade them?"

"Yeah, do you have a thin black netted material? If," she moved the two bolts to the center of the counter, "if you made the brocade the bodice and about half the skirt, covered the waist and skirt with a less dense to more dense netting, then put the black at the bottom, it would have a faded quality. The color would shift with the light, but always have that darkness in the light look."

Valis could see it in her mind's eye. A bell shaped dress, with eyelet stitches in the brocade itself growing denser to the waist to hide and enhance the netting. With Durins Day coming the dams looking to attempt to spend a moment with the king would kill for such a beautiful dress. She could charge a small fortune for it.

Acorn color eyes watched Erdene, "You've an eye for colors Ery."

The girl smiled, waving her off. "Nah. My friend Monica was into fashion. She was obsessed. I learned by paying attention to her designs and helping to model some of her work."

Monica loved Erdene's figure. You're short and bouncy and curvy. She would pop her tongue and say. Make that shit work for you. Lord knows there aren't enough smol hot girls in this place. Their school in Las Vegas was abundant with women who looked like Monica. Tall, well manicured and polished, in varying shades of skin and hair color. The proximity to Los Angeles and the culture of the area put her in a world she wasn't used to. Where she wasn't just that girl who didn't fit in with her peers because of her brain.

Erdene, who was only seventeen at the time, would blush and tell Monica she was crazy. She'd only been away from her family's influence for two months. Erdene's self-esteem was in a slow recovery at the time.

Valis watched the blue of Erdene's eyes fade to green. "What kind of name is Mon-ee-kah?" Valis asked as she took both bolts and set them aside for her to work on later.

"Um…it means advisor I believe." Erdene's gaze shifted to amber-green. Oh. My. God. Becky! Monica really did love that song, my name means advisor but your name means treasured gem? She huffed and glared at the screen over Erdene's shoulder in their first dorm room. They'd been roommates for five days. I'd be jelly, but I'm trying the whole zen thing. Monica was always trying something new. One week it was a juice detox, the next she had crystals around the room for all sorts of things.

"I'd like to meet her." Valis told Erdene, motioning to the other bolts. "If she's taught you about color and cloth, I'm sure we'd have a few things to talk about."

The green of Erdene's eyes deepened to an almost dark jade. "I…you can't." Her throat constricted. She remembered the way the officer pounded on the front door. Erdene had fallen asleep on the couch of their apartment.

Monica was supposed to be home before two am. Her new boy toy had offered to take her to the Hoover Dam and they'd been gone all day. Erdene fell asleep binge watching Doctor Stone. It took her a second on waking up to figure out what woke her up. The pounding on the front door of their apartment.

Sleepy eyed and confused, Erdene got up and went to the front door, looking through the peephole. Two Las Vegas PD officers. A horrible sinking feeling started in her stomach. The last time cops came to their door it was because someone found a giant blood covered machete on the stairs on their side of the apartment complex and the cops were going door to door.

She unlocked and opened the door. They wanted to know if Monica lived there. Did Erdene have Monica's family's contact info. Of course she did. Monica's family practically adopted her. She ended up spending most winter and summer breaks with Monica's family before they graduated several years ago.

Abuela Linda taught her Spanish and abuelo Paulo always made her the peach and pineapple sweet tamales she loved. They put her mama and daddy's pictures on their ofrenda for Dia de Los Muertos.

The boy toy's car had been found abandoned off the I15, just a few miles into the Mojave.

Monica and her boyfriend were never found.

"Monica disappeared almost two years ago." Erdene concluded quietly. The working theory was they'd run across something or someone they shouldn't have. Thus Erdene moved to a cheaper place in Sparks and lived with Tracy before her own impromptu dislocation to Arda.

Maybe Monica and her boyfriend of the minute ended up in another world too. It was possible. With the number of people who went missing every year, in addition to knowing multiple people ended up in Arda, the odds weren't great but the possibility was there. It was so much better than the alternative. Human trafficking or worse.

Valis drew Erdene back to reality with a gentle squeeze of her right wrist. "Are you well lass?"

No. "I'll be fine." Her voice was a rough whisper.

She never did find out why Monica and her boyfriend were in the Mojave rather than the Hoover Dam like they planned. There weren't any text messages or emails from Monica saying hey, change of plans. Monica always texted her if there was something different. She took the whole girls protecting girls thing very seriously.

They had to.

They lived in Vegas and traveled to L.A. at least once a month for Monica's internship. The human trafficking between those two cities was insane. Monica taught her what to look out for, what to be aware of.

No one should be walking up to a single woman in a store parking lot for help. No one should be asking to borrow your cell phone when you're walking around Target. No one should be asking for all your socials in line at the grocery store. No one should be following you down the aisles of Home Depot with their phone camera pointed at you.

See something, say something. Hearing the words being polite can get you dead or worse when all she was ever taught was to be polite was ice water down her spine. It was an eye opening education for a then seventeen year old, sheltered (repressed) Erdene.

Absently Ery had begun moving the bolts around, the yellow and orange next to the purple and red, all nearly on top of the black. The yellow felt almost gauzy. While the orange felt heavy, and thick like distressed leather.

Valis was looking at the bolts with a calculating eye.

"So," Erdene felt the creeping urge to change the subject before Valis had any further questions. "…a coat? You probably don't just have a spare one lying around."

That was going to be the way of it? Valis thought, for one single heartbeat of crossing the line Ery had suddenly set. But the girl, woman rather, had given Valis a number of ideas for new creations. New fashions to present to the dam who would be flooding her shop in no less than a week.

"No, none lying about. But a coat in your size would take less than a day for simple colors, black, brow, cream. Come and see me in the morning."

Erdene nodded, her gaze shifting again back to amber. "I appreciate this Valis."

Valis waved her off. "I am happy you came before next week. I wouldn't have had the time lass. I'll make you a deal. You stay a bit, I'll show you the rest of my materials. You give me a few more ideas for dresses. We'll call it even on the gloves and coat."

Flushing pink, from the tips of her ears to the tips of her fingers, "it's just color theory Valis. It's nothing special." But the way Valis looked at her. Like she didn't know what Erdene meant. Oh my god, Becky! A chance to introduce someone, an artisan at that, to color theory? Monica would have her head if she said no.

And her grandmama would have her head if all she got was a pair of gloves and a coat out of it. "And a new dress."

One if Valis' eyebrows went up. Negotiation? "Ery, are you certain there's no dwarrow in your family?"

The girl blinked amber eyes at her. "None that I know of."

And yet…it almost felt like… Valis waved her around the counter. "Agreed. Though you'll be waiting until the end of October for the dress. Now, come. I want to see this color theory you mentioned."

Erdene walked around the counter, following Valis to a room off the back that was locked. Valis unlocked it, pushed the door open and Erdene's jaw dropped.

So. Much. Color.

Monica would have lost her dang mind.

Valis fed her a simple lunch of soft bread, butter and three eggs with two cups of tea. Rosehips, oranges and cloves. A customer came in, so Valis had left her to take care of their order.

Ery found herself sifting through traditional designs for ladies dresses, male dwarrow clothes and things for children. Tiny dwarrow. Several outfits for infants that reminded her of Victorian fashions for babies.

How adorable were dwarrow children? She'd only ever seen the drawing of Gimli during The Desolation of Smaug. He looked tiny and smushy.

Betty had been absolutely perfect the day her aunt plopped the tiny bundle of pink and blonde into Ery's small hands. She liked kids. She just didn't want to have them with someone who wouldn't treat her with respect.

I wonder if humans and dwarrow can have kids? Everyone thinks I might be a quarter dwarrow so maybe they can. I wonder if, because we're all humanoids, the fertility is the same? Dwarven sex drive versus human, who prefers sex more often?

Once again the memory of that dream. The one where she told Thorin she was pregnant. He'd looked so worried and happy at the same time. He'd kissed her like he could make her part of him. Like he could make himself a part of her. And she'd kissed him with equal fervor, passion and need.

They loved each other.

They wanted one another.

That was the kind of marriage Erdene wanted. A partner. And then children. Twin girls. She shook her head. The things her brain came up with when it wanted to.

Sifting through Valis designs, she began going earlier and earlier to the designs that looked less common and more artistic. The paper was older, yellowing. Long flowing dresses made from vibrant shades of red, orange, purple, blue, green, yellow. Less medieval and more Florentine Renaissance. One even showed shoulders. Behind that, others of a similar style. Were these the fashion of a hundred years ago or the ideas of a younger, more idealistic Valis?

Erdene selected the best of them, the ones that screamed fashion forward trendsetters. Once she had them set out on the workbench before her she began pulling samples from their slots on the wall. Valis organized the back room of her shop by color and by material type. Silks, chiffon and brocade were the most expensive, followed by thin, thick and distressed leathers. Delicate lace in shades of white and bone. Wool and cotton being the most common.

Hell the only materials Valis was missing were jeans and polyester.

By the time Valis returned, which was much after the first afternoon bell - the dam were beginning to place their orders in hopes of catching their king's eye (a hopeless dream, Mahal knew but every year the same ones tried again) - she entered the workroom to find Ery setting out sample colors next to drawings. She came closer as the girl held up a royal blue bit of cloth with a burnt yellow-orange strip.

Once Valis approached she saw her older drawings. Oh. No. These her father deemed much too immodest and ostentatious. "Ery."

The girl looked up, breaking into a bright grin. "These are beautiful."

Valdis, Valis father, had disagreed. Adamantly. "They're immodest."

Erdene snorted, shaking her head. Mahogany curls in her eyes. "No they're not. They're the right hint of skin. You want to see immodest. I'll show you a," she hesitated, "I'll tell you about a burlesque show I went to. Dita Von Tease did this dance in a giant martini glass that had me questioning my sexuality. Trust me. These," she held up one drawing of a long dress, small train, dark blue bust with a similar but lighter blue sleeves and skirt. "These are tame as fuck compared to some of the stuff I've seen women wear." The Kardashian tortilla chip bikini came to mind.

For the first time, Valis felt like there is something behind Ery's kind words that mean something else. But she has to ask, "What is a burlesque show? Who is Dee-ta Von," what was the word, "Tease? What is a martini? Is she a pixie to dance in a glass?"

In response, Erdene cackled. Like a witch. Head thrown back, eyes closed. The sound wasn't cruel or menacing. It's a sound of true amusement. "You might have over a century on me, but I am definitely less innocent than you are."

Less innocent? Valis was truly confused. Her brow furrowed and a deep frown graced her features.

Erdene did not elaborate save to say, "No, Dita Von Tease is not a pixie. She is an adult woman who makes a living being beautiful for entertainment. A burlesque show is typically women and men in less clothes than either of us wears to bed, corset, panties, stockings, gloves, some very sparkly jewelry, dancing, sometimes singing. It's raunchy and sexy and a hell of a lot of fun."

Valis, for all her years and experience, is the one blushing now. Men and women. In next to nothing? Dancing! Mahal!

And Erdene, for such a shy creature, laughing with her eyes and mouth, not blushing. As if it's completely average for her to say and see such things. Where does she come from that such a woman, shy and sweet, has such a life? Why would she choose to leave that place?

Her family.

"Besides, if they're quote un-quote immodest," Erdene waved nonchalantly at the wall behind her with windows to the alley shared with other small shops, "we can fix that. It's a lovely little trick fashion has employed for longer than either of us have been alive." She held up a long strip of thin, white, nearly see through bit of chiffon.