The Lion and the Swan

The Lion and the Swan- The Dance(2)

2 The Dance

Shawny

                The boy brought me back to his camp by carrying me. I just lay in his strong, tanned arms while he ran, and thought.

                What was he doing; why hadn’t he killed me? He was a lion-shifter this is not what they do, they kill and are brutal. Not gentle like he has been with me. A girl’s voice brings me out of my thoughts.

                “Leon! Where did you go; what happened to our date?” I turn my head to see a young, thin redhead standing in front of us.

                “Leon,” she whined, “who’s she and why is she here?”

                “Get out of the way Fiona,” the boy, Leon, says gruffly. It was the first time I had heard his voice since meeting him; it was deep and man-like showing me the obvious, that he wasn’t that young. The redhead gave me a glare and slaked off with her nose in the air. She kind of reminds me of Jenna… No don’t think about her!

                Another woman walks up to us just before we reach a tent that was the same color as the green grass around us. The grass was flattened here by tons of feet and lay dying on the ground. The woman looked older, maybe in her forties, and motherly.

                “Leon what is this? I didn’t tell you to bring home a human,” she says looking at Leon sternly.

                “Mum she’s not a human, she’s like us. She’s a swan-shifter,” Leon replies without looking down at me.

                “Well at least you didn’t eat her this time!” she says jokingly but I shiver for a moment at the thought unable to control myself. “What are you doing so far from home deary?” She looks down and directs the question at me but I keep my mouth shut in a thin line. She sighs and looks up at the boy.

                “You gave her quite a fright, ill take her inside,” the woman says. Leon’s arms tighten around me before he slowly sets me down on my feet. The woman guides me to the tent and I follow her numbly. Just before I walk into the tent I look back at the Leon boy and see him staring at me intently, with an expression that looked almost sad. Then the flap covered him.

***

Leon

                I stood in front of the tent for a couple moments after the girl disappeared, but I realized I couldn’t stand there like a creeper waiting for her so I turn and walked to the center of the camp where my friends are starting the bonfire.

                “Hey Leon!” Dale yells to me as he throws at match into the big pile of wood.

                “What’s up Dale?” I call back to him.

                “I heard you blew off your little outing with Fiona, dude she is so mad at you; you’re screwed!”

                “Nah, I’ll be fine.”

                “Whoa now, who’s that pretty thing?” Dale asks looking over my shoulder while whistling softly. I turn around to see who he’s talking about and see the swan-shifter. She had her hair down now and it draped over her shoulder and it cut off right below her ribcage. My mom had given her new clothes to wear and she now wore a dark orange scoop neck tee with the side tucked casually into the side of the deep blue jeans. I couldn’t take my eyes off her; she wasn’t dressed up and had no make up on but she was breathtakingly beautiful. Apparently, dale thought so too because he was already walking up to talk to her. She glanced at him when he got closer but quickly backed away behind my mom. Without thinking I started walking to them.

***

Shawny

                A boy with floppy brown hair that had been talking to Leon a second ago suddenly appeared beside me. I back away; I don’t trust men anymore. There may have been a day when I would have struck up a conversation with a handsome boy like him but I didn’t trust his looks, it only leads to heartbreaks.

                “Hey,” he says, “never seen you here before.”

                “Dale don’t mess with her,” Leon's mom states. “She’s not one of your bimbos, just a visitor.”

                “Dale leave her alone.” I hadn’t even seen Leon walk up, he stood with his hand on Dale’s shoulder but he looked at me worriedly.

                “Oh I see,” Dale says with a wink at Leon, “she’s yours then.” Leon’s face darkens.

                “No.” Leon takes his hand off Dale’s shoulder as he snorts and walks away.

                I sneak away from Leon and sit on a bench as the sun sets. A big fire blazes in the center of a wide circle of log benches. I stare at the fire, thinking again. I wonder why Leon had brought me back here. I wasn’t going to be welcome here either so tonight I’ll leave; I can’t take another tribe rejecting me. I feel someone sit next to me and I glance to me left. Leon stares back at me with his brilliant sea-green eyes. I look away quickly but he gently turns my head back to face him with his warm hand and I find that I can’t fight him.

                “What’s your name?” he asks, staring into my eyes. His straight brown hair hung just below his eyebrows, not low enough to get in his eyes but his long eyelashes brushed the fringe when he blinked.

                “Shawny,” I manage I say clearly and he lets go of my cheek with a satisfied smirk on his face.

                “Shawny,” he says, rolling my name across his tongue. “Interesting name, I’ve never heard it before.”

                “Well I like it!” I snap turning my head and breaking eye contact. How dare he make fun of me when I only just met him!

                “No, no that’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean to offend you.” I could hear the sincerity in his voice so I sigh.

                “Okay,” I mumble still not looking at him. We sat in silence for a few minutes before a drum started beating.

                The loud noise made me jump and Leon puts his hand on my back to calm me down. I shrink from his touch but not before I felt a small zap where his hand touched me. I looked back at him, horrified, to see him staring back at me sadly. He got up quickly and didn’t look back at me as he walked over to a crowd of people gathered around a log filled with small items. The lion-shifters picked these up and they turned out to be masks. One by one they put them on and began to dance.

                The ‘eagles ran around the fire pretending to soar through the shy. ‘Dolphins’ and ‘whales’ breached in imaginary water and wolves prowled around. After several minutes of the random animals, the shifters left and a couple more walked out with lion masks on. I saw Leon and Dale among them and I watched as they started their dance. First they stalked around the fire, pretending they were hunting. Suddenly someone dressed as a gazelle darted into the circle. The gazelle bounded around as the lions spotted her and it became a chase. I found I was so captivated by it that even when Leon jumped onto the girl I couldn’t look away as he pretended to claw her thighs. The girl falls to the ground and lets out a yelp as she ‘dies’, for a moment everything is silent as Leon stands up, panting. Then applause erupts through out the lion-shifters who didn’t dance. Leon takes off his mask and shakes his hair out. Our eyes meet as the rest of the shifters gather around him, giving out high-fives and slapping each other on the back and soon he’s swallowed up by the crowd. I just sit there frozen, staring into space thinking about Leon’s eyes. Eyes that held a secret darkness that came out tonight; a secret vicious nature that scared me.

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