The Dance - Part 3

"Okay, slide to the left…Now slide to the right…No, no you're doing it wrong."

It would seem that while Octavia had let her frustration take over when figuring out how to dance with her tail, it was nothing compared to Sylvia's annoyance at needing the dance to be nothing but perfection.

"Sylvia, there is only so much I can do with my tail. You said at the start of this that I didn't need to do it perfectly."

"I know, I know. It's just now that we are doing it, I want it to be perfect…Do that bit again."

The defeated sigh from Octavia was drowned out by the musical tune which had been repeated many, many times. She would say it was close to a hundred, but Octavia was pretty much on autopilot now and could hardly take in anything aside from the dancing routine.

What made things worse was that they were only less than halfway through the dance after four hours of practice, as each move she made was analysed and critiqued by Sylvia, meaning the pace was slow.

"Right, I move here, you follow. I step back, and you slide back, arms outstretched." Sylvia spoke through all the moves as they did them, which was likely for Octavia's benefit given how well Sylvia already knew the dance.

"Now back together, release your left, and now right arm up and I spin."

It truly did look beautiful and assuming all went well with Octavia memorising the moves, they should be able to put on quite the performance at the ball. There was still a way to go though, as aside from having to learn the second half of the dance, there was still the need to perfect everything. Thankfully, most of the first half was already done.

"Now pull me in, and hold the position."

This part of the dance had thoroughly embarrassed both of them, where after Sylvia finished her spin, it was a very romantic move where Octavia pulled her inwards and wrapped her arms around her. But by now, neither of them felt much about it, it being more of a routine they have repeated several times.

"Then back out, hands together and move to the side. Then it's backwards while twisting. Good, good."

Things were getting better. The hope was to reach the halfway point of the dance and then use their time tomorrow to plough through the second half. Then it's just a matter of ensuring it's all memorised by putting it all together and then perfecting the perfection Sylvia had already forced on each of the moves. Hopefully.

But while that was the plan, all Octavia wanted to do was finish up now and get some sleep, given that it was getting darker and darker by the minute.

"Now I follow, then forward with a twist, back again. Watch your tail. Then forward-."

Watch her tail. The number of times she had heard that during their practice. While it was obviously a concern when other guests were there, the fix they came up with before seemed to be going strong. It looked odd, that was true, but her tail was compressed, and with all the practice, she had gotten the hang of moving with it like that. Not that there wasn't the odd lapse in which her tail tried to unwind itself, which on the day would knock several nobles down.

"-Release your left hand, move your right, I spin around, back to the front and then…part."

There were a lot of spins in the dance. It wasn't on your toes spinning at full speed types of spins, but slow twirling where one spun and the other held their hand, helping to guide them. What Octavia was thankful for was that she had little to no spins to perform. There was the complexity of doing it with a tail, and so Sylvia had given her Galadro's role in the dance. The one that she did have to do was towards the start, and that did take a while to complete and perfect.

"Okay. That wasn't so bad. We still have a lot of work to do, but that is the first half of the dance, I think it's a good stopping point."

"That and the fact that the lamps are probably going to die soon leaving us in complete darkness." Octavia managed to sarcastically respond back while struggling to keep herself awake while also breathing quite heavily.

"…Well that too. Not that we can't just get more to solve that."

Sylvia headed over to the recording crystal and stopped the tune.

"First thing tomorrow we shall continue with the dance and get the second half done." Sylvia quickly stated as a matter of fact.

"Err… Well, I will need to visit Knight Commander Althea as well at some point. But, given that we do need to get this done, first thing in the morning sounds…great."

And with that, they both headed off to bed.

With Sylvia's room still under repair, they both took Octavia's bed. Like before when it felt intimate, sharing the same bed in nothing but night clothes, it should have been the same thing tonight. But with the exhaustion both of them were feeling, they hardly took notice of much as they quickly changed and all but crawled into bed, getting some much-needed sleep.

…

When she woke up, Octavia expected her tail to be wrapped around Sylvia in some way like last time, but we was surprised by the way her tail was positioned in the morning. Rather than coiling around Sylvia, or just in the bed for that matter, her tail was as stretched out as straight as possible. It did not fit on the bed fully and so continued onto the floor where the tip and a good portion of it now resided. It would seem that all of the odd movements and coiling of it caused her to unconsciously stretch it out and work out any kinks from the dancing.

As she rose still yawning from the night before, it wasn't long before Sylvia followed. After the usual morning routine, they headed for breakfast and were very quickly back in the ballroom.

"Now for the next half of the dance."

Octavia, while knowing this had to be done, could only groan internally.

…

Several hours later of harsh dance training, she had got the second half of the song down. She knew all the moves, and had a least once, been able to go through it without her tail breaking from its weird position.

All of this hard work had led to her laying on the floor breathing heavily. It would seem she had not been cured of the exhaustion from last night and today had just added to it. Sylvia however was still moving around and working out any problems with the dance moves.

Which is the scene that Knight Commander Althea Saw when she entered the ballroom.

"Err…what happened here? You're not tired from dancing, are you? I mean really?"

Even as the lay there almost gasping for air and trying to relax her muscles, the tone of Althea's voice managed to break through the huffing and puffing, making her day worse. She wanted to say something witty and sarcastic in return, but she hardly had enough oxygen to breathe let alone use her brain properly.

"You…don't know…how hard…it's been." That was all she managed to say in between breaths.

"But it's, dancing. How hard can it be."

"You've never danced before?" Sylvia asked, wondering how this was the case. Octavia could only imagine, and that was much later when she could think straight, that being so high up in authority, being a knight commander and all, she must have been involved in some formal dances.

"No, never. Always managed to get out of the ones I was forced to attend."

"Really…how?"

"Don't answer her Knight Commander Althea." Sylvia said before turning to Octavia, "You can't get out of this even if you try."

A groan was all that emanated from Octavia.

"I still don't get why she's like that. It's only dancing."

"Well, we have been doing it for five hours today, and about four hours yesterday as well."

"Wha-" Althea was flummoxed by that. "Nine hours of training for a dance over a couple of days. I'm surprised she's not worse. You need to take more breaks when training. Sword training is only a couple of hours a day. Also, how are you completely fine."

"I dance all the time, this was simple for me. Octavia on the other hand…"

She didn't have to say any more after that.

"Knight Commander Althea, may I ask why you have come here."

"Ah, yes. Well, I was going to grab Octavia for our lesson, but I don't think that is going to happen anymore."

Both Althea and Sylvia just looked over at Octavia who was pretty much conked out on the floor and was starting to fall asleep.

"But we will have that lesson. You have one more day until the ball, so I'm sure you can finish things tomorrow." She told Sylvia, before looking over at Octavia. "Rest now, and we shall have a training session later today since you've managed to get out of the two times I've asked."

These were the last words she heard before sleep took her, the exhaustion of the dance practice getting to her, again.

…

When she woke, she found herself still in the ballroom, but her head now rested on a pillow, and she had sheets covering her.

"Who-"

"I was going to move you, but well, with your tail and everything, it didn't work. So, I had to bring the bed to you." Sylvia said a short distance from her.

"How long was I asleep for? I didn't miss the lesson with Knight Commander Althea did I?" Octavia asked, her tone as calm as she could make it.

"Huh, no. You've only been asleep for a few hours."

"Damn."