The Dress - Part 2

"How did my life come to this? I help people, I try to be a good person, and this is how I'm rewarded."

The sad short speech was given by Octavia as she stood in the middle of a dress shop, surrounded by people looking at her. She had grown accustomed to people staring at her, but when that happened, she had a good amount of distance between them and her. Yet, these people were right up in her face, practically analysing her whole body.

"I just want to go back to the castle and lay down."

…

It had all started after she was dragged out of the infirmary, where after a quick change of clothes, Sylvia took her out of the castle and back onto the mean streets of Caldaria. Twisting and turning through the streets they eventually came across another shopping area. They also had to pass by the general store from before, where the shopkeeper glared at them as they went by.

In this new area, it was again similar to the last, where there was a large amount of space in the centre, which was surrounded by shops. Annoyingly she didn't even have time to see what the other shops were as she was pulled over to a specific one in the corner.

From the outside, it looked like all the others, although this one was almost twice the size of some of the others. Two stories were the usual situation for each of these shops, where the owners lived above, and that was still the case for this one. Whoever owned this place was doing quite well for themselves given the size.

As they entered Octavia was blinded by all the colours of the rainbow. Everywhere she looked, she found an assortment of colours and shades all attached to clothes in various shapes and sizes. One side dealt with men's outfits, housing tunics, shirts and towers while the other was the women's ware, which is where they were heading.

"Sylvia, what are you doing here?"

As they passed by what appeared to be blouses of some kind, a woman called out to Sylvia. Stepping into view, the only word Octavia could use to describe her was 'Mature'. It was clear to see that she was older than they were, but the years had been very kind to her, having no wrinkles on her face. Her skin was smooth, and she had a beauty that would make many a man pine for her. Her figure was voluptuous and that included her breasts which were bigger than hers and Lyrika's combined.

Looking at her was like looking at what she hoped to look like in the future.

"Maria, this is the friend I was telling you about. She is in need of a dress for the ball coming up. I know it's short notice, but she has been…occupied and has not been able to come."

It was at this point, that Maria spotted Octavia, and with that one look, her face changed to that of surprise and then to wonder.

"Oh my. I have never seen someone like you before." She said as she got closer. Looking her up and down, she then proceeded to walk about Octavia and check out her back as well. "Now this is exciting, making a dress for a race I have never seen before. Well don't you worry, I am the best at what I do, and before you attend the ball, we will have something stunning for you to wear."

"T-Thank you. I mean it doesn't have to be anything fancy, I'm not a noble so just a simple dress should be fine."

"No, no, no. What are you saying? You will be attending the ball which many nobles will be at. You cannot wear a simple dress. It will be an affront to the event and to Lord Desmon who is hosting it and has invited you to join. No, you need something amazing in order to impress everyone there."

Before she could say anything, Maria clapped her hands, and like ninjas out of the shadows three other women popped out around her.

Measuring tapes using units she did not know sprung up in two of their hands, and the other held some sort of paper on a board alongside a bottle of ink and quill.

The two with tapes ran up to her and started to measure all over her body. It was such a blur to Octavia as they moved various parts of her body to take measurements here and there. They eventually got to her tail, and after the various "Oohs" and "Ahhs" as they touched it for the first time, they were able to completely measure her.

Once that was done, Octavia thought she was free, but that was only the start as the women returned with racks and racks of dresses. The assortment of colours was astronomical, along with the different fabrics that were used. She had no clue what each was, but some resembled that of silk and others she had nothing to compare it to.

"Right, now we need to see what looks best on her."

With another clap, each of the dresses in turn was held against her, as Maria and Sylvia commented on each one.

"Too bright."

"Too bland."

"Doesn't go with green."

"It's washing her out."

"Next."

"Terrible."

"Too plain."

The comments about the outfits just kept coming and she could not keep up with it. The issue isn't that she knew nothing about fashion, as while on Earth she did shop with her friends, and try out new clothes, but it was never more than just an activity to do together. Here though, the seamstress's whole job was about fashion, determining what colours go with what, what patterns to use and which fabrics work best, all of which was never involved when Octavia shopped. The only real thing she looked at when shopping was whether she and her friends thought it looks nice.

What did surprise her was Sylvia's ability to join in with Maria's comments on the dresses. While she didn't have as much to say as Maria, Sylvia did manage to keep up and had a good sense of what worked for her. To Octavia, she didn't seem like a girl who was that involved with this sort of stuff, but she figured as a noble, something in this area must have been taught to her as she grew up.

…

It took a good amount of time for them to get through all of the dresses and decide on a few that looked good. While Sylvia and Maria were enthused by this, all Octavia wanted to do was lay down, all the posing having tired her out.

"Ok, so we just need to choose between these. It might be best if she wears them and we can look at it that way."

A long groan came from the model that was Octavia, as she now knew she would not be able to get her reprieve from all of this, and just left herself to the hands of fate.

Like a doll, the girls undressed and dressed her in the few dresses that had been chosen. Being as tired as she was from all of that, she could hardly care what it looked like anymore and just wanted to rest.

She was moved around in a few poses and looked at from all angles, inspecting how it looked and fit her. While the fit of the dresses was a bust, given these were designed for people with two legs, each of them looked very nice on Octavia if Sylvia's words were anything to go by.

After some more back and forth on the dresses, they finally came to a decision.

"You look beautiful," Sylvia said as she looked at Octavia in awe.

This shocked Octavia out of her near-sleep experience and knew she had to see what it looked like. She was directed over to the side and stood in front of what could only be described as a murky mirror.

As her eyes adjusted, she really didn't know what to say. While she didn't have the fashion sense that these two did, even she could see how nice the dress looked.

Like what she imagined something like this to be, it contained a lot of fabric. The fabric on the inside that wrapped around her whole body, was similar to silk and was a luscious red. It was ruffled at the top where it covered her assets, down to the waist, where it then flowed to the floor. The outside was a beautiful pale pink which was embroidered with flowers. The flower had red petals, and the stems and leaves were green similar to her own skin. The pink fabric covered her whole body, but was open at the front, showing off the red layer beneath it, where Its edges were ruffled, adding more emphasis to it.

What was strange to Octavia was the sleeves, where while her arms fit fine, at her elbow it stopped and the fabric widened creating a gaping hole, where at the top of the sleeve it was adorned by a pink bow. This was the only qualm she had with the dress, but as she finally got a good look at the others, most of them had the same odd sleeves.

But it was beautiful.

It also worked with her green skin, complementing it rather well.

The only trouble was her tail. Of which everyone agreed needed to be sorted out.

As they all looked down, while the front of the dress worked fine, as it touched the floor, it ended up bunching up at the back, ruining how it looked.

Maria had a quick chat with the assistants, and with another clap, they ended up fiddling with this section while she was wearing it. Octavia tried to look over her shoulder at them but was unable to get a clear look. The odd touches here and there on her tail just made things feel awkward.

…

After all of the fiddling, it looked like they had solved the issue. They pinned the dress in several areas, allowing it to rise above the large portion of her tail, but also trail along it, letting the edges touch the floor closing the tail in fabric quite nicely.

And with that, Octavia could finally rest, as they removed the dress and put her clothes back on.

"Finally," she thought, "I really hope I can just go back to the castle and lay down now."

"Well, I think we are done now. We shall adjust the dress to make it work with your measurements, which shouldn't take long and when it is ready, we will send it to the castle."

"Thank you for your help Maria."

"Yes, thank you. The dress is lovely." Is what Octavia's added as she edged towards the door, desperate to just leave.

"Do come again for any more clothes. It has been a pleasure to meet and pla- I mean dress you."

With Octavia's current state of mind, she completely missed the slip-up and just agreed with her as she left, where she then started to head off, before a hand grabbed a hold of her arm.

"Where are you going? We still have more stuff to prepare for the ball."

A look of sorrow formed on Octavia's face and the wailing of a Lamia was heard by all of the shoppers in the area.