Dance Practice ...

[Mairead Harker]

November 2022

It was the middle of the night. Maggie was putting together her lesson plan for STARS dance classes as well as getting in some singing practice. She danced barefoot across the rehearsal room floor to Heart's These Dreams. Dance was freeing. Maggie's already tall and still lengthening frame moved with practiced grace as she spun again and again in pirouettes. Eyes closed, she lost herself in the music and feeling of the movements. Much like Pearl was able to dance like a faery sprite while playing her violin, Maggie had learned to dance and sing in tandem with little effort.

Despite having an unsettled feeling as she got to the lines,
These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Every second of the night, I live another life
she continued dancing. A shadowed figure of someone in the hallway caught her attention in the mirror. No student should have been there at that hour. As the song made its way to the coda, she moved to position herself across from the doorway. She executed a series of tumbling moves that finished with a pair of aerials that left her hands free. She lunged out and gut punched the man in the shadows. She had no desire to kill someone for being a peeper.

He coughed several times as he regained his wind. "My Lady." He bowed his head in deference. He was same Knight that had been shadowing her for the Treat or Treat and other recent events. This time, he was not in the bear form and armor that passed as an elaborate costume.

"I did warn you not to sneak up on me." She gave him a wry wink.

He smiled thoughtfully. "What was my error this time?" he asked.

She pointed over her shoulder to the mirror. "That."

"You saw my reflection?" He sounded incredulous.

"I saw the shadows move in the hall."

"That's not ..."

"Not possible? Not likely?" Maggie's words were spoken quietly. "You have much to learn, Padawan." She grinned.

"Due respect, My Lady, that is not what I am called."

Maggie sighed. She had nearly forgotten which side of The Veil he'd come from. "A Padawan is a student, an apprentice."

"I am trained in ..."

Maggie interrupted. "Yes, I know. Well trained in the art of battle. You are not, however, well versed in Maggie 101."

"Protocol dictates that ..."

"Let's go eat. I'm suddenly starving."

He couldn't find a valid argument and joined her in the quest for food.