The Mountain Dancer

Chapter 12: Rekness & Shaynike

Be bold. Be the hero.

The words chased each other around in his head. He could think of little else but of the short woman in the blue cloak and what she had said to him. Her and her odd hair. The rule-breaking recruiter from across the endless ocean.

Old Minyel had noticed something, demanding to know why Rek was being so “pensive.” Rek didn’t know that word, but he knew that he could not speak to anyone about a Mountain Dance recruiter meeting him privately in his room. Not even Affsol. He would be kicked out for sure.

All in all, it was pretty darn awesome.

Rekness smiled to himself, and took another glance around the section of the Grand Library that he was relaxing in. The Softshadow orbs nearby were tossing hues of green and blue into the little nook. He hadn’t been able to find the woman since she had vanished out his window (super cool!) but he figured if he stayed near the Crag’s colours she would show up eventually.

Unless she rendered herself into the river, he thought, but that seemed wrong. She had gotten into his room somehow, and it didn’t make sense to tell him all that stuff and then just decide to die. I’ll learn the Artwork she used to do it, he promised himself. I bet it’ll be simple, especially if I have three crystals.

He touched the spot above his left breast where his one – and only – crystal was buried. It was an exciting feeling. Three crystals. A real life Luminary. So awesome.

For his part, he had tried his best to follow her instructions, though it was hard, and it required much more conversation that he was used to. But since he needed to practice anyway, he figured it was the smart thing to do.

Affsol had mentioned stuff about a spot on the council freeing up – but Rek didn’t know how to get one of his friends there. Affsol told him the Head Caterer made all those decisions. As for dates… well that was even more tricky. Once again, Affsol had been eager to help.

“Just got to get to the talking with the ladies, yes? Or them boys, whichever you wanna, ya know, get to know a bit better, aha!” his best friend had said, “you not really lackin’ for attention these days-a, are ya?”

It was true enough. The craziness had died off a bit for sure, but so many more people wanted to talk with him, send him shards, hang out with him… so he took the opportunity to practice his new mantra.

Be bold. Be the hero.

He started by trying to start conversations himself instead of letting people come to him. This was a lot easier than he thought, especially with the girls. He was getting more comfortable with it, and even tried his hand at a few bits of Glammer Artwork to try and impress them. He was okay at that too. A few of the girls had started talking to him more regularly. A few of them were actually quite pretty too… big eyes, tiny noses, and…

“Boo-ooobs, I say, I say, I do!” was Affsol’s enthusiastic way of putting it, when Rekness had uncomfortably (but boldly) approached him on the topic of the female form. “And-a don’t forget this side!” his friend had said, turning around and wiggling his behind.

Rek had been kind of shy about that stuff at first, but found that once he talked about it, it seemed okay. Heck, even some of the girls were cool about talking about it. One had even offered to let him touch... But that didn’t seem super heroic to him, or at least that’s what he told himself. Maybe it was just a next step in being bold. It wasn’t so bad figuring out bold; it was the hero bit was still kind of strange to him. It wasn’t like more fugitives would turn up, waiting to be captured.

He found his thoughts wandering again to the lady who called herself Sila, and the way she had leaned towards him. She was definitely more... womanly than most of the girls he was talking to now. Maybe if she had made that offer...