The Cave - Part Two - Chapter II, Dance Lessons

     They the next three hours running around the yard, climbing trees, and even attempting to do pull-ups on the branches, with little success. Julia constantly transitioned between taking deep breaths, and holding them as she tried desperately to pull herself above the branch that she was assigned to. Her arms felt like putty, but she kept on with the struggle.

      “Why is it,” Curtis asked, leaning against the tree while the four hung off of the branches. “That Oliver is the only one who is able to do this?”

     Curtis didn’t see, but Lee cast him a dark look and tried further to pull her chin over the branch. She only got the tip of her nose over it.

     “I work on a farm with my mother.” Oliver answered between grunts. “We have cows, pigs, and chickens, not to mention crops. We do it all on our own.”

     Curtis frowned. “But what about your father? What is he handling?"

     Julia felt a pang of pity for Oliver, though she immediately pushed it away. She knew that he wouldn’t want it, and that he would hate the fact that she pitied him. She averted her gaze from Oliver and tried to pull her chin over the branch. She tried desperately to tune out what he was saying. Nonetheless, she heard it all.

     Oliver grunted as he pulled himself above his branch. “He ran out when I was eight. Don’t know where he is, and I don’t want him back.” He hung down from the branch and made steely eye contact with Curtis. “We’re doing just fine on our own.”

     “I understand.” Curtis said, picking up a fallen apple off the ground.

     Oliver dropped to the ground and leaned against the tree while he caught breath. He was still in his clothing from yesterday, and Julia could hardly imagine how hot he was. The front of his shirt was soaked with sweat. Oliver smiled, though Julia could tell it was fake. “Man. I’m just about ready to finish.”

     “Well excuse me, superman, but it isn’t a cake party for us, either.” Luke snapped grumpily, trying in vain to pull himself up. “I’m built for binge-watching anime, not pull-ups.”

     Lee smirked to Luke as she touched her chin to the branch with suppressed triumph. “I don’t know, it’s kind of a cake party over here.”

     “Julia shares my pain,” Luke looked over to Julia. “Right?”

     Julia nodded, not finding the strength to speak.

     Curtis drew something small out of a pocket in his breeches. It looked like an hourglass hung on a thin chain. There were thin marks on it right next to random symbols that Julia didn’t know. “You have about half an hour until your fitting. I recommend you get back up to the castle and wash yourselves. Come back tomorrow in the morning.”

     Lee swung herself off the branch and landed gracefully on her feet. She wiped beads of sweat off her forehead. “Got it.”

     Julia dropped. She nearly fell, but she recovered. “I feel like my legs are made of warm taffy.”

     Luke unclenched his hands and fell onto his hind end. “Agh!”

     “You’re about as graceful as an elephant on roller skates.” Lee decided, helping him up.

     “Well Hun, you ain’t no ballet dancer.” Luke countered.

     Julia waved goodbye to Curtis as the four started back toward the castle. “You guys are so rude.”

     “Maybe not,” Lee said, ignoring Julia. “But you’re a ballerina,”

     Luke rolled his eyes. “They’re not called ballerinas; they’re called ballet dancers.”

     “Whatever you say, Twinkle-toes.” Lee sent him a sardonic smile. “Twinkle-toes. Rolls of the tongue, doesn’t it?”

     The two continued the ridiculous banter through the walk. Julia and Oliver continuously traded exasperated looks. You would think that you would get used to Lee and Luke’s fights, but they got more and more annoying. Especially as they aged, when they had a plethora of new insults, rather than things like: “Meany”.

     When they finally got to the inside of the castle, Celeste was there waiting for them. “Finally. We were worried you’d never get here.”

     “It was Curtis’s fault!” Luke complained. “He made us do pull-ups.”

     “Same with our sword master when I first found this place,” Celeste told him. “But we always made it in time for our baths.”

     Luke shrugged it off, already bored with the conversation. “So will we be attending any formal balls or anything, what with all this fancy décor?”

     Celeste shook her head and frowned. “No. Times are too desperate now to have time for parties.”

     “Dang.” Luke said. “I can waltz like no-one’s business.”

     “Can you, now?”

     “Yup,”

     “Twinkle-toes has been dancing since he could crawl.” Lee stepped up. “I’ve watched him at it, though he falls on his face most of the time.”

     “Do not,”

     “Do too,”

     “Do not,”

     “Do too,”

     “Do not,”

     “Do too,”

     “We’ll waltz. Right here, right now.”

     “Do- wait, what?”

     Luke stepped up and did a steep bow. He held out his arm. “May I have the honor?”

     “Not on your life.” Lee wrinkled her nose and hid behind Julia. It didn’t work, as Lee was at least a head taller than her.

     “Hey, don’t bring me into this,” Julia protested, side stepping with a laugh.

     Luke hopped over next to Lee, and did some weird crouch dance move. “I’m coming for you,”

     “No!” Lee shouted through laughs. She ran behind Oliver. “Oliver, save me!” She sniffed. “Ew, you stink.” Oliver pushed Lee towards Luke.

     Luke circled Lee, doing some sort of weird flapping movement with his arms.

     “The heck are you doing?” She asked.

     “Dancing.”

     “I don’t know what you think that is, but it’s not dancing. You look like you have a weird tick or something.”

     Celeste laughed from up front. “There are times that I worry about your sanity.”

     “Whose?” Oliver asked interestedly.

     “All of the above.” Celeste answered amusedly, turning and walking once again down the corridor.

 Hello, all! I have some friendly banter, because... Luke. Yeah. Anyhow, Review, like it, enjoy it! Thanks for reading!