The Spirits Animals Cult Story Remastered

Shattered Glass

"Yeah, Meilin can really dance," Rollan said to Worthy. He laughed and nodded.

"Oh, I'm sure she can."

"I challenged her to a dance-off when we were in Eura."

"Yep, I overheard the conversation."

"She said no. I bet she was just too scared I was too good."

"Yeah, probably," Worthy wasn't really listening to Rollan. His eyes were glued to Shadow, who was singing. She didn't realize the others were watching her, but she should have known by now he rarely took his eyes off her. She stood up and stretched, still singing, and then, to Worthy's surprise, she dropped to the floor, moving her hands like seaweed but in slow motion, spinning and twisting.

She began to dance. Worthy didn't know what kind of dancing she was doing. She just seemed to be kicking and twisting her body, and then she turned around and caught sight of him and Rollan. She lowered her hands and stopped singing. She was blushing.

"You never cease amazing me," said Worthy as he sidled up next to her.

"No, please, Worthy," she said, shaking her head.

"Oh, c'mon, that was amazing!"

"It wasn't- I was just enjoying myself. Besides, that kind of dance is silly."

"You don't need to hide from me, remember? I'm your husband. I won't ever stop loving you." Without warning, she threw her arms around him.

"Oh, I love you so so so so so so so so SO much Worthy!" he found himself blushing now but hugged her back tight.

"You know, I'm with Shadow," said Rollan. " She isn't the best dancer ever."

"She is!" snapped Worthy. He knew one fact and that was that Shadow was the best at everything."Eh, Meilin is better."

"She can't be!"

"You didn't see her! Besides, she was doing proper dancing, not whatever that was."

"Shadow did amazing! She combined multiple daces into one!"

"Yeah, but you didn't even see Meilin-" At that moment, the door flew open, and Meilin strode into the room.

"I heard my name?" Worthy gave a low growl, and Meilin held up her hands. 

"Woah, what did I do?"

"I wasn't growling at you."

"Who then?" Worthy pointed a claw at Rollan. 

"What did you do this time, Rollan?" asked Meilin.

"Nothing,"

"You could have made her feel bad or upset, or like she wasn't good enough or-"

"Worthy, I'm fine," Shadow said softly. "I know what I can and can't do. I can dance, but not epically."

"You can do it epically!" Worthy protested.

"No one is better than meeeeeeeeeeee, thoughhhhhhh," Song said, swinging in through the window and shattering the glass. Worthy pulled Shadow out of the way of the glass and then saw a shard heading for her. He stuck out his hand, and the sharp glass embedded itself in his wrist. He howled in pain, and Song stood there staring at him a little judgingly.

"Song!" scolded Meilin. The others had heard the commotion and had come to see what had happened."Um, you gonna clean that up, Song?" asked Shane, annoyed.

"No," said Song. "That's what Rollan's for." 

Raisha and Jolt both burst out laughing, then realized they were the only ones laughing and abruptly stopped... all in sync.

"Worthy, are you ok?" asked Shadow. She took his injured hand in hers, intertwining their fingers, then placed her free hand on his wrist, supporting the shard if the glass was still embedded in there. It hurt when Shadow touched the skin around it, but he didn't complain. Had it been anyone else, he'd have hit them, but he knew she meant him no harm.

"Let me take a look at that," said Meilin. Dawson came forward too, concerned about his brother, but when he saw Tasha following him into the mess of smashed glass, he stopped and held his arm out in front of her, knowing how accident-prone she was.

"I'm fine," said Worthy. he wasn't, as it hurt a lot, but he didn't want to admit that. He wanted to be tough and unfazed, not needy and whiny. 

"Worthy, you have a shard of glass embedded in your wrist. You are not fine." Shadow said she showed his hand to Meilin, who released Jhi. She walked up to his wrist, and as Shadow let go of it, the panda licked it. Worthy felt the pain disappear but soon returned as the panda removed her tongue. Jhi licked it again, and this time, Meilin yanked the glass shard out of his wrist. He screeched and closed his eyes. He was very glad for Jhi right then. Shadow placed her hand over the wound, which was now bleeding.

"Shadow, no," he said. "Don't do that, that's not helping-"

"I'm trying to stop the bleeding."

"With your hand!?"

"Yes, with my hand! I have nothing else." He yanked his hand away from her and shook his head. She wiped his blood off on her leggings before putting her arm around him.

"Can someone get a bandage?" asked Meilin. Katalin rushed off to grab one.

"So, what was going on here?" asked Kalani.

"Well, you see-" Rollan began, before Shadow cut him off.

"Song wants a dance competition." Song looked up.

"I do?"

"Yes," she said stubbornly. 

"You want to know who the best dancer really is."

"Meilin isn't," said Rollan.

"Hey, Rollan!" Meilin scolded.

"Why don't you want another shiny trophy?" she sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Of course I do."

"I'm in, of course," said Shadow, grinning up at Worthy. The pain in his wrist seemed to just disappear as he pulled her into a hug, and then he realized she was shaking.

"Shadow, you ok?"

"I'm fine." she sighed. "I just, um, I'm worried about you."

"What do you mean?"

"You moved your hand in the way of the glass d-did you want to get hurt?" There were tears in her eyes. Everyone was watching them now, and then Dorian walked in.

"Woah, what on Erdas is going on in here!?" Kalani giggled.

"Nothing," she said. Finn and Maya entered behind him, and everybody turned their attention to the three. Worthy was glad he preferred speaking to Shadow alone.

"Of course not," he said.

"So then, why did you do it?" she asked. She looked so small and young, like an innocent child in his arms.

"To protect you." Her expression showed how confused she was. 

"Shadow, that glass was flying straight towards your heart."

She grabbed his wrist and looked at the deep wound. He felt its pain again and winced but kept her touch. Then she threw her arms around him and kissed him, and he kissed her back. They stood there like that for a moment, when he finally pulled away. He realized everyone was watching him. He put his arm around Shadow and walked past all of them, out the door and down the hall. Poor Katalin was going to wonder where he was when she got back with the bandages.