Solo Save the last dance.

[Salumi Ahera]

87th day of summer, 514. The Dance Festival had been two nights ago, but there was still plenty of merriment on the streets, as performers that stayed for a few days took to peddling on the corners or in the back of inns and taverns for the high-spirited folk. The celebrational time of year brought out much of the best- and sometimes the worst- in others. The air had the faint taste of ozone and insects ran scampering madly around, predicting that the mild summer sky and the thick oozey heat that rose from the sidewalk would not last and soon the smoothering hand of that warmth, like a blanket too tightly wrapped, would release all that excess hotness into the slow moving clouds well out over the sea. There was a fine spray of mist and moisture from the waterfall that only added to the sticky atmosphere of the city and even in simple clothing, sweat was showing. Salumi had never experienced a day quite like this on land. Sometimes warm currents from the ocean would flood through Charobosi, but the temperature was never quite like this so far under the water. A passing guide had muttered something about a storm brewing out at sea; but 'Lumi couldn't see it. She'd experienced a rain or two on land- a most curious sensation; to have water falling like it had. And she'd found that the waterfall that ghosted the city didn't taste so bad when she stood under the spray, but the idea of a storm conjured a different image for her. She'd have to shelter her seahorse, if the ocean currents swelled too strongly. The silt and the dust that a storm would stir up would be interesting to see, she imagined, what with the blue veins that ran so far into the ocean from Riverfall harbour out. The Charodae sat ponderously in a small outside eatery, her teeth working around a lump of honey-dipped bread with a sort of nibbling motion that spoke to the unfamiliarity of the task. She'd been assured no animals had been harmed in the making of her snack; bread and honey being highly unusual fare for her to find and still a taste that she couldn't describe as any particular flavour she knew. Aside her little table, a few musicians had set up shop, busy fiddling and stringing away a jaunty little tune that had a lively beat to it. There were four musicians in all, older men, looking like they'd gotten off a ship and were still relearning their land-legs. The oldest was whistling in time to the music and smiling encouraging at anyone who walked past, giving a nod to those who'd spared a few coins. 'Lumi was tapping her feet in time with the beat, clapping along as best she could; she wasn't exactly expertly trained but she'd been at enough family gatherings to appreciate music. It was so different from her homeland; but still beautiful. The day was yawning away, but the little corner of the Akalak's great city seemed boisterous yet.

[Salumi Ahera]

The Charodae soon finished her snack but found she was loathe to leave the comfort of the music and festive cheer in the air, instead she stood with a bright smile and moved closer to the busking players, twirling around in a circle that set her plain skirt and the thin blue cloak under her arm whirling. She calmly took the cape off and draped it over a small rock-hold nearby, and took to dancing to the sweet and clever tune that was making its way from the performers lips. She mouthed along, although she wasn't game to match her poor singing with the old seaman who were heartily chopping on the words with a grin. Who are you, my pretty fair maid, Who are you, me honey? And who are you, my pretty fair maid, And who are you, me honey? She answered me quite modestly, I am me mothers darling In a city where the male populace outnumbered the female eight-to-one it didn't take long before someone saw a lone woman dancing to music and hurried over to make sure she was not lonely and Salumi gave a small yipee of surprise when an Akalak gave her a charming smile and offered up his arm to assist. She let him pull her unresisting into a more traditional and easy clopping dance that the land-locked seemed to favour, stumbling a little at first, since Char music was more about form and the grace of tides and poise, natural underwater lissomeness - but she picked it up with a little finess. She spun and clopped around in a small circle, laughing lightly and clicking a few appreciatory noises in Char, although it was probably lost on others. A mother and young son joined them from the clothier across the street and another Akalak stole 'Lumi from the first with cultivated ease, pulling her along even as the musicians took up a new tune as someone threw a few mizas to them. The heat did much to account for the sweat on her partner's brow, although his hands were calloused to the touch and Lumi bobbed and hopped pleasantly as she danced along. The second song blended into the next, and then another and another, and soon the Charodae felt her pulse like thunder beneath her skin, she lost this partner and moved again to another, hastily catching her skirts in one hand as the dancers picked up the pace when the performers started on a folk-tune that had been popular two nights ago. She'd started to really like the Akalak; they were a funny sort-always mumbling to themselves like someone else might answer back, but they certainly were courteous of women, and they all seemed very... physical. Her initial opinion on them as barbarians, she decided, had to be wrong. Here were a race (of all males,) who aged gracefully but in fine form. They didn't have gills or spines, but she liked a bit of blue in a man and didn't mind the oddness of their hair and eyes so much. Her mother would have told her she was being strange again. But a girl who doesn't disobey her mother, just hasn't been caught yet. 'Lumi grinned as she caught another pair of bright, strange Akalak eyes and a new partner caught her daintily and pulled her back toward the right hand side of the small area for another skipping song that left her gasping and begging off until she'd had a drink. This third partner offered to buy her one, and sweetly, she accepted.