The Realm Protectors

Chapter 23 - Faris

"Put your hands in the air!" The DJ calls. The crowd cheers. Most of the older adults have made their way off the dance floor and are making their way to the tables of food that have been laid out. Fancy soups and salads to accompany their fancy drinks.

Meanwhile, the younger adults and teenagers are partying it up.

"This is so much fun!" Ciana laughs, grabbing another sparkling lemonade from a passing waiter. I notice that the suns on her dress are slightly dimmer than they were earlier. "This is like, ten times better than Christenville High's homecoming!"

"I know!" I shout back over the music. "Elenatives are party animals!" We both laugh. Nikolina and Avani make their way over to us through the grinding, arm-waving, leg-kicking crowd.

"There you guys are!" Avani hollers. "We've been looking all over for you! We were starting to think you pulled a Nile and Enya!" The couple disappeared quite a few songs ago, probably into some hidden room to work off their drinks. Ciana cringes.

"Where's Carter and Lyra?" she asks.

"No clue," Avani replies. "They left after the slow dance."

I stare at her. "That was forever ago!"

"I know!"

The song ends and the crowd seems to ponder whether to keep dancing or to make their way to the food tables. A new songs starts playing, the pulsing beat filling the space and igniting a fire in the more inspired dancers.

"Let's just have fun." I say. The girls shrug and start dancing. Nikolina seems a little uncomfortable, simply shifting her weight back and forth. Avani is terrible, bucking her hips and swinging her waist in a poor imitation of the other girls around us. Ciana is... Ciana. A living sun. She laughs her way through the song, raising her hands and swaying, dancing like nobody's watching. Except me. I'm watching. And doing my best to make it look like I'm not.

The song starts it's chorus, and the crowd sings along. "I'll never take my eyes off you, yeah baby! I wanna lay my hands on you, ooh baby!"

"Is this really the most appropriate song to be playing at a Coronauguration party?" Ciana asks me over the music. A curl is starting to fall into her face, and I have the urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear.

"They play anything they want to." Nikolina replies.

"You should hear the songs they play at Asavanra homecoming!" I tell Ciana, laughing. "This is ten times better!"
"Ooh baby! Dance for me baby! Shake your hips for me baby! Let me lay my hands on you, eyes on you! Never gonna take me off of you!" The crowd sings.

"Do they ever play Otherworld songs?" Avani asks.

"Not very often. Very rarely." I reply.

"Just let me touch you, hold you, ooh baby let me kiss you, fold you! Ooh baby dance with me, dance all night long! Oh baby love on me, dance on me, all night long!"

The song ends shortly after, and we decide to make our way over to the food. I grab a plate of the chicken, along with a platter of cheesecake bites. The girls grab their own food, some of them getting some mushroom thing and some getting a salad.

"Are you gonna eat all of those?" Ciana and Avani both ask. They spin to each other surprised. I snort.

"Why, you want some?"

"Yes!" Ciana grins.

"No," Avani cringes. "That'll give me a gut ache for days."

Enya and Nile appear from the hallway, hand in hand. They both look surprisingly put together despite what I assume they were doing. Their matching swollen lips and the dark spot peeking out from under Nile's collar proves my theory. Enya seems to walk a little different too.