A wolf howled in the distance, as the two girls carefully stepped from
stone to stone by the light of the full moon, trying to avoid becoming
one with the swamp muck. The girl in front kept one hand on the chain
linking the handcuffs of the girl in back.
Lina stumbled a bit when Amelia yanked hard, but quickly recovered her
balance. "I can't believe you talked me into this!"
"It's for your own good, Lina. You've been working too hard without a
rest, and it's showing."
"IS NOT!"
"Shh! And it is. Gourry was so sweet, making you that costume for the
ball, but now he'll both miss it."
Lina scowled. "He earned it."
Amelia stopped, turned around, and scowled right back. "How, exactly,
did he earn a week's coma and a broken arm?"
Much to Amelia's dissapointment, her attempt to shock Lina by letting
her own anger at her friend's mistreatment of Gourry show did nothing.
Lina's own simmering rage was nearly visible in her voice. "Just
because I'm not as developed as *some* women does not mean a little
padding can disguise my chest as a man's."
"It's not like no one's ever mistaken you for..."
"He wanted to have me go around topless, with fake muscles hiding my
breasts!"
"It was a nice idea..."
"AMELIA!!!"
Amelia turned away, and yanked on Lina's handcuffs again as she resumed
their journey. "Quiet down, or do I have to use another spell?"
"That's another thing. Why do I have to wear these bracelets? They're
keeping me from casting anything!"
"That's the point. Where we're going, it might be difficult for you to
control your magic, and we can't afford to make a scene. I'll unlock
you if we get in trouble, but this way, we're less likely to get in
trouble. At least, I hope so: I had them enchanted specifically to lock
your magic."
They came through a patch of tall grass, coming into sight of a large,
crude building made of tree trunks and dried mud. Many orcs were
milling around in front of the building, slowly filing in through the
main entrances.
Lina boggled, then glanced at Amelia. "Ok, now we're in trouble,
right?"
"Nope. C'mon." Amelia pulled, dragging a quietly protesting Lina
towards the horde.
One of the orcs, apparently in charge of the proceedings if one judged
by his slightly-less-shabby dress, walked up. "Oy, who goes there?"
"Relax, Gundar. It's just me."
"So it is. Who's yer friend?"
"Someone...who needs this." Amelia smiled, pulling out two slips of
paper.
Gundar peered at the slips, then gestured to a side entrance. "Ok, but
you're reponsible for 'er. You know the rules: you or she innerupts th'
show, and you both get 'et."
Amelia nodded. "Got it." She pulled Lina to the indicated hole in the
wall, encountering less resistance as Lina's curiosity started to crowd
out her anger.
"Wha..."
"Oh, good, we're just in time!" The building was mostly hollow,
covering a large hole in the ground. At the hole's bottom were many
rocks, logs, and other seating surfaces, upon which crouched hundreds of
orcs. At one edge of the pit was a raised stage, currently featuring
some more orcs tuning up musical instruments. Amelia sat Lina down on
a log overlooking the pit, practically a box seat given its
inaccessibility from anywhere other than where the two had come in, then
sat beside her.
"Ok, what's going on?"
"Shh! Just listen!"
Before Lina could reply, the band started to play. Images flashed in
front of Lina's eyes as the music washed over her; it took her a few
seconds to recognize them as her own memories. As the music played, she
noticed that the memories varied with the mood of the music: comedic
moments when the tune was light, sorrowful scenes when the music slowed,
battles when the music sped up, and flashes of her more dramatic spells
as the music gained force...
An hour later, Lina's consciousness finally became unfuzzed enough to
realize that it had been offline. Even now, it was but a spectator to
the emotional roller coaster that the music set her on, twiddling her
feelings as if they were on puppet strings. Utter hatred blended into
pure love ran into desolate sadness faded into sheer ecstacy dissolved
into boundless mirth mutated into awe-struck devotion fizzled into raw
terror and all she could do was FEEL it. A quick glance to her side
showed Amelia running through much the same, to judge by her
expressions. Although the orcs on the floor were too far away to see
their faces, Lina guessed from their body language that they were
affected the same way.
Her mind faded in and out of rationality for what seemed like forever,
until finally she was aware of a silence. Polite applause caused her to
look down. The orc musicians bowed to the audience, then began taking
down their instruments.
Once again looking at Amelia, she thought she should be concerned at her
friend's spaced-out look. But she could not. Nor did the expected
feeling of surprise well up upon that revelation, though her train of
thought did wrap around it. Querying herself as to the nature of the
fatigue she felt, she soon labelled it "emotionally exhausted".
Amelia took a deep breath, and exhaled. Turning towards Lina, her
ever-present smile was now almost forced as she brought a key from her
pocket and unlocked Lina's handcuffs. "Do you think you can get us
home? I feel a little drained...but I always do, after one of these."
"Amelia...what *was* that?"
Amelia blinked. "You've never heard of an orcestra?"
******
Yes, that *was* the point of all this. So I rambled a bit in getting
there... ^_^;;