//------------------------------// // Dance of pink lights // Story: Lovie Dovie // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// Lovey was becoming increasingly angry with Asherk, the firey dragoness throwing her all over the place without her consent. Lovey couldn't stand it. With a roar of anger, she yelled at the dancer to stop, but instead of words, pink fire came out, nearly incinerating the dragons further down the line. "Good!" Asherk cheered. "Look! Dancing has made you use your fire! WOAH!" Lovey wasn't stopping her fire breath, preferring instead to continue blasting her fire while she could afford to. Having more experience in the matter, Asherk managed to dodge out of the way of Lovey's rage, but not unscathed. The pink fires scorched her body while more and more of the pink lava built up near the pink dragoness' mouth until a ball of fire started to build up in her maw. A dragon twice the size of Lovey dove in through the bushes and locked Lovey's arms and legs and mashed her face into the ground, preventing her from spitting anything out again. The would-be fireball leaked out of her mouth and onto the soil. This dragoness was enraged. "We TOLD you not to patronize her!" she bellowed. Asherk swung her hips from side to side. "But dancing is the best way to let the fire flow through you!" The dragoness slapped the fiery dancer with her tail. "Well SOME don't take too kindly to being forced to do something they don't like." She looked down at Lovey still struggling to get herself free. "Especially someone with her...er...'Mental fortitude'." Lovey mumbled angrily in response. "But I thought--" "Wrong. You thought wrong." Asherk stopped dancing and dropped her head in shame. "I'm sorry. I was just so certain that dancing would help her feel at least a little better, what with the condition she's in." The intervening dragoness felt Lovey stop struggling. "Then what do you propose you do instead of aggressively forcing her to do something she's very uncomfortable with?" "Take it loooooooow and slooooooooooow?" Asherk gestured. "Very GOOD," the dragoness shouted. She got off of Lovey who slowly got up and wiped the dirt off her body. She was frowning, angry, and her mouth was still fuming, but she didn't want to look at Asherk directly. "Um...I want to apologize," Lovey said. "I still don't know how to..." She took a deep breath. "Behave in situations like this that anger me a lot." "Well, I also want to apologize. I should have known better then to patronize you when I knew how you were," Asherk apologized. "I really, REALLY wanted to get you as happy as possible, and the best way to do that for me and many others was through dance." Lovey scoffed. "What, you were expecting a bunch of choreography and noise being passed as music to have some kind of 'redeeming effect' on me?" she mocked. The dragoness started sweating nervously and tapped her claws together. "Maybe..." Lovey's eye twitched in response. "How about we try something that doesn't involve dancing." "Sorry, but that isn't happening," the other dragoness interjected. "What? Why not?!" "The Pueric Mother said herself that you should be tutored under Asherk and no one else. Even if you go to another teacher, they won't teach you no matter how much you beg." "What is with you all and your 'connections'? How do you even inform everyone of these things so quickly? I've seen a lot of this place already, and I already know that there's even more to it than that. It's like a literal metropolis here!" Lovey exclaimed. The dragoness pulled on her eyelid a bit and stuck out her tongue. "That's not for you to know yet." The pink dragoness stared at the other in disbelief. "What are you, four?" "I'll leave her to you Asherk," the dragon said. She pointed aggressively at her along with intense eyes. "And don't force her into your dancing bits." "I won't," Asherk reassured. "Good. I'll be watching anyways just in-case." With that out of the way, there was a long moment of awkward silence where the two dragons avoided eye contact and performed a variety of gestures ranging from scratching themselves to coughing and clearing their throats. "Well...what do we start with?" Lovey asked. "We can always start with foot patterns," Asherk said. "That's always a good step in the right direction." "Okay? What would the steps be like?" The fiery dragoness raised her arms high, stood on her tip-toes, and took three steps to one side while twirling and keeping her feet extremely close together, then letting herself go. Lovey had her arm up in reflex to the abject horror she was witnessing. "What?" Asherk asked. Lovey frowned. "I'm not doing ballet. That's for girls." The dragoness stated, turning away and crossing her arms. Asherk opened her hands and shook her head in a 'Well duh' fashion. "I'm a man!" The fiery dragoness chuckled. "You don't look like one to me. You look more like a dragoness with a cute, round muzzle." Lovey looked at Asherk with a revolted expression. She was embarrassed and insulted at the same time. "I don't have a cute muzzle!" she shouted. "Even when you get upset you're super cute!" Asherk teased. "I'M NOT CUTE WHEN I GET UPSET!" Lovey stomped the ground angrily multiple times. "WHY DOES EVERYONE HERE KEEP SAYING THAT?!" "Because you already have a rather cute appearance compared to the usual gruff and 'scary' looking dragons, as ponies would put it. There's just something about both your personality and your physical appearance that makes you absolutely adorable." Asherk giggle. "You even got hearts all over your body." Lovey scanned herself and frowned. "It's not like I chose to look like this!" "I know, but that doesn't mean you don't look absolutely adorable." Smoke started seeping out of Lovey's sparking mouth, causing Asherk to curb her teasing. "Well, in any case, you aren't going to be going anywhere unless you learn to do these dance moves." "There HAS to be another way! Any way!" Lovey pleaded. Asherk crossed her arms and sternly spoke. "No. This is the only way." Lovey dropped her head in defeat. "Is there at least somewhere more...private?" The dragoness looked from the corner of her eyes, her face covered with embarrassment. The other dragons present were ignoring her completely and working on their own firebreathing. "This is as private and non-dangerous as any, Lovey." "Ugh..." "Listen and remember." Asherk cleared her throat. "The only one thinking that the others are judging you is you. They couldn't care less." Her smiling, caring face turned to one of apathy. "No. Seriously. Look at them." "OKAY! Okay. Fine." Lovey took a deep gulp of air. "What do I do first? O-or, rather, HOW do I do the first step?" "You mean crossing your legs accurately like I did? Easy peezy! You just have to relax your ankles and reinforce the tip of your feet. It's hard at first, but so is breathing fire. This will help you no how to be both relaxed and use force at the same time." Lovey tried standing on her toes but lost her balance just as quickly. "If you say so..." Scarlet Fever stood in front of the Pueric Mother, ever working on her cauldron. "You wanted to see me?" she asked. "Yes. I wanted to know how you would evaluate Lovey's current progress." "R-really?" she stuttered. "This quickly?" The colossus looked at the dragoness with a blank expression. She nodded sarcastically. "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have called for you." "It's because I've been around her the longest?" "Precisely. Much like my potions made to help out our home, what with growing plants, healing the wounded, and so forth." During her rant, the colossus shook a large barrel of a strange liquid, splashing it all over the place. It was acidic enough that it ate through the stone. "I was hoping to send her out with our usual groups to try and pacify any potential war between our peoples." "But, Pueric Mother. She's not ready, and I'm pretty sure she's hiding her trauma. You saw how she was when she came back." The colossus nodded in agreement. "I know, but staying where you are and brooding about your fears instead of confronting them -with support- won't let you evolve as a dragon." She scratched her chin. "Additionally, there's the other matter of her mental sanity that causes concern." "Yes. That obsession of hers. We haven't tried to confront it yet." "I figured that she would open up on her own," the colossus sighed. "Perhaps there's another way." The two thought for a while in the silence provided by the massive chamber. "We can try asking Asherk after she's finished training her for a week. That should be more than enough time to figure out Lovey's flaws and weaknesses, no?" Pueric suggested. "We can't we ask Sconce?" Scarlet asked. "Because she didn't have nearly enough time with the newbie. Additionally, with how she does things...ehhhhh..." the colossus trailed off. "Right..." Scarlet agreed with narrowed eyes. "Still. I want to help her as soon as possible. It's not healthy for her." "We've already established that." Pueric frowned. "Oh...Then what do I do now?" "You can resume your usual activities. I have more healing potions and poultices to try and create." She grabbed her chin. "I still can't find the best way to get as much out of these spices as I should be able to. It's infuriating!" "Riiiight. You have fun with that."