Avalon Isn't What It Used To Be

Chapter 14: Dancing Hearts

2 days until Christmas

I had decorated my first Christmas tree. I have tried eggnog, and hot chocolate. I found out that ice-skateing is exhausting. I made a gingerbread house and found that I should never be trusted around frosting. I have seen breathtaking Christmas lights. I had taken my very first photograph. Oh, and Owen got me a 'stocking' with my name on it.

I have given up on trying to figure out what to get Owen as a gift, but that doesn't mean I won't ever  be able to get him something...

Its 2 days until Christmas, and I feel like I have experienced so much the couple weeks that I already felt gifted enough. I watched Owen do his normal friendly routines from my hiding spot above the bar and noticed that the air was a bit different. It was crisp and clean. And everyone was excited for Christmas in 2 days. The 'younger crowd', as Owen called them, aren't around during the week of Christmas. Which made the bar serene and peaceful if you ask me.

The night was the opposite of eventful, but I wasn't complaining. I was content hiding away, up high, listening to the Christmas music as I watched the 'older crowd' socialize.

What took me by surprise was what happened after Owen changed the festive music to the Christmas 'instrumentals'. Many of the elderly couples got up from their seats and held their partners as they swayed.

There was one couple that seemed to be more synchronized than that, and I was completely taken. It was elegant, soft, sharp, but very intimate. My eyes were glued on the couples that moved more than just back and forth. I crawled out further onto the shelf just to feel a semblance closer to them. I looked down for a second and saw I wasn't the only watching.

Is Owen just as enraptured as I am?

I watched their feet and their hands. It's like their bodies, or their spirits, were talking to each other with gorgeous nonverbal communique. There seemed to be a code hidden within the song, but I could not understand it in the slightest. Abruptly, the couple I was watching broke off. The short elderly human with short red hair walked her partner to his seat, before she turned toward the bar.

This was a lady who frequented this bar with her Mate. By now I knew that Owen knews her well, but I couldn't remember the name he called her.. Shery or Carol, I think he said.  The lady walked up to the bar and was gesturing at Owen. Similar to my mother, I could read that she wasn't to be turned down. But this lady had a sweet smile and has always been good to Owen—at least from what I've seen.

I watched the lady go back to the floor and wait. Unexpectedly, Owen joined her in the middle of the room and took her waist and hand. My posture perked and my jaw dropped. What started out as slow movement, quickly changed into spinning and double steps. When I thought they were going to turn one way, they turned the opposite. He then held her hand in the air and she spun 3 times whilst still moving in one direction.

I became irrevocably enchanted by Owens movements. Humans were thought to be magicless barbaric monsters, but nothing screamed 'magic' to me as loudly as this. My eyes followed their zig-zags and swirls across the empty bar, desperately trying to decode the language. 

When the song ended--too soon if you ask me--they broke apart, and Owen seemed to glow his way back behind the counter. I scooted back to the shadow of the bottle and tried desperately to remember the steps. I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice when the elderly humans sifted out early, leaving the bar bare and empty earlier than normal.