The Dance(Kevin Hughes) She had seem him at every dance. He would quietly survey the room with slow methodical movements of his head. When he came across her, his gaze would stop. A warm, lucid smile would form on his face. His eyes would switch from a cold, almost analytical study of everyone, to a warmth that turned his brown eyes into a sort of burnt gold.

He never held the gaze for long. Nor did she return the look. Instead she would simply nod. Recognizing his apparent interest but waiting for him to approach her. As both protocol and tradition required. And yet, other than the look he gave her, he had never even so much as smiled at her, let alone approach her.

It piqued her curiosity. Sure her status stopped many a potential suitor from approaching her. She was after all, a Winged one. Well, partially anyway. She knew she wasn’t a True Winged One. For the Wings needed a True Love, Friend, and Companion before they would sprout. For some Winged ones, those roles comprised of three different people. For the Most powerful of the Winged One’s, all those qualities were in a single person, being, or entity. For Winged One’s were not restricted by species.

Her own Mother , at True Winged One of great power, got her Wings from her love for an entity. Somehow, the entity had crossed the barrier from the primordial matter that existed before the Big Bang. A form of matter that shouldn’t exist in our Universe, at least not if it wanted to keep our laws of Physics. Yet it did.

It was intelligent in a way that only my Mother could fathom, and from my Mother it learned to love in a way that only it could fathom. So it stayed. And my Mother grew her wings. Wings that spread, soared, and towered over most gathering of regular Humans, and more than a few gatherings of Winged One’s. I don’t know if there are other Entities, or beings of non Human nature. I have always been attracted to Normal Humans.

Hence the Balls.

Dancing was the only activity that nascent Winged One’s and ordinary Humans, (or any other Entity or Being) could enjoy with each other. Dancing had long ago passed from an Art to a signature of a person’s (or a Winged One, Entity, or Being) inner core.

Some of the Dances were flowing effort glides across a lightly sanded floor. Others were throbbing manifestations of passion contained only be a limited amount of decorum. Other Dances became the gentle exchange of quiet puffs of connection limited to only the space between lips and ears. More of an extended gentile hug, than a dance. Movement in that mode of dance limited to just swaying in place with the same grace as a field of golden wheat under the influence of a soft wind.

She had experienced that particular dance exactly zero times. It forced her to sigh.

More than two dozen Balls had passed, and still the quiet man lingering in the shadow of the giant hall, had not approached her. Just that powerful scan of the room to find her. A few moments of that unguarded open bereft of artifice look, and then a long evening of dance - always fun, but lacking in both joy and connection. So she broke all the rules.

Placing a smile on her face, a small spell of “clearing” was all she needed to slide through the packed dance floor, the mulling multitudes resting, chatting, or drinking at the tables surrounding the dance floor and deterring any would be suitors brave enough to angle through to encounter her.

He smiled as she approached. For some reason, she felt a tingle in her Wing roots. That caught her off guard for two reasons. One: She had never felt it before. Two: Her roots were only in her Soul Chamber. Not on her physical body. Nothing should reach her Soul Chamber without her conscious approval. Yet, something must have. Because she felt it.

Confused by the sudden feelings, she stopped short of him by a few feet. Maybe six or seven feet was all that was left to traverse. For her, two quick strides, and she would be in his private space. For him, it was a gulf as wide as an ocean.

She saw why immediately. One leg of his was severely twisted. The foot on that leg was huge…and disfigured. It had no shoe on it, for what shoe would fit? He saw her glance at his leg…and foot. Inwardly he prepared for the two most common reactions: Pity…Disgust. With the latter being the first response and the former the second. He shrugged when her eyes met his.

“I can’t dance.”

She heard the absolute truth in those words. The declared without emotion that he wanted to dance, but physical could not. She could almost hear the slightest chuckle in those words that conveyed a humorous acceptance to cruel fate.

She smiled the smile that anyone would when they know they have a solution to a problem. He was still standing in awe, waiting for the one two punch of pity and disgust. It never came. Instead she just drew closer with the enviable grace and power of a Ballerina. Her smile one of delight, not disgust.

“Oh, I can see that handicap might keep you from the more vigorous athletic dances…but surely you can hold me.”

He smiled from the very center of his soul.

“Oh, certainly. But You will have to hold me.”

“Then …I will.”

The entire room stopped in awe. A path from the dark shadows to the dance floor appeared as if planned. A wall of stunned watchers gasped as Wings appeared on the Daughter of the most powerful of Winged One’s. Those some wings wrapped a gossamer cage around the two of them and whisked them gently to the dance floor.

The music changed.

Others heard it and wound their ways to the dance floor. Lips and ears forming the only distance needed for this dance. Hearts were already in tune with the music.

But for her, and him, swaying in synchronized harmony from breath to heart, the dance floor was empty of all but each other.

Her wings grew steadily during the dance, eventually embracing the two of them in a nest egg of feathers. Blocking outsiders from seeing in- letting them both see what they had been blocking out.

Looking down on the dance floor, a powerful set of wings expanded in delight. The wings encompassing any Winged One, Human, Entity or Being nearby, filling all with the love of a Mother who knows her daughter has chosen wisely. A single tear of relieved joy dipped over the edge of her eyelid, only to be caught before it could fall,

The Entity that caught it, grasped her wings and pulled her to the dance floor. Another Egg of Feathers formed. Two couples were all the remained to dance the night away.

So they danced.

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