After the multi-day trip through the woods and the town hall, Alex slept like a log.  The sun was high in the sky by the time he woke up.

“Good morning sunshine.” A pink flamingo cheerfully greeted Alex.

“Ugh,” Alex groaned, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“What are your plans for today?” Fufi asked.

“I don’t know.  We made an appearance in town to keep people from panicking but I didn’t think much past that.” Alex answered. He sat up in bed and stretched.

“Well, I was thinking it might be a good time to focus on your magical girl training.  Do you feel up to doing another dungeon run? I think it might be good to do things that don’t require being possibly infected humans.” The bird asked.

“I’m still tired but you have a good point.  With a cold shower and some breakfast I should be good to go.” Alex attempted to psyche himself up.

Using the communal baths wasn’t a great idea considering the circumstances so Alex settled for a cold shower in the guild.  The valve and showerhead were made out of cloudy glass by Merumeru.  The glass showerhead looked like a flower.  The valve was a quarter turn glass knob.  It was a modified design similar to the one in the carriage.  Not having a source for metal put a damper on things. 

Some of the tribal warriors had run the dungeon but none of them came out with a pile of pipes like Alex did.  They came out of the rift with spears that were wrapped in ribbons, heart-shaped wooden shields painted pink, bows that looked like toys that when fired left a trail of sparkles behind them.

Breakfast had come a long way from the earlier fish and berries for every meal.  Some tribal people whose job was to cook had taken to the kitchen like a fish to water.  They switched from campfire cooking to kitchen cooking with gusto.  With people spending all day preparing meals on the stove or grill, the new norm was for meals to be eaten in the common room of the guild.  Things had settled into a bit of a communal lifestyle.  No one paid for food and stuff gathered went into a common pool.

After eating a breakfast of eggs, fruit (not apples) and bread, Alex headed downstairs to face the rift.

Alex coughed a few times, “Bleh, sorry a bit phlegmy for some reason.  I guess I better see what the next challenge will be.  I hope I can get some more pipes for Merumeru.”

Fufi chided Alex, “Think about yourself too. It would be nice to get some things to help our favorite slime girl but the dungeon is to help you along your path. Remember the lessons from the first two ones and expand upon what you’ve already learned.  Also, hopefully you can get some new shoes.  Those wooden sandals are not enough.” 

Alex placed a hand on the pillar and it broke into swirling blocks of stones that had a portal in the middle.  Taking a deep breath, he entered the swirling magic. The other side of the portal could only be described as a cross between a clock tower and a dance hall.  Dark slits crisscrossed the ceiling like some kind of complex rail system.  A large set of double doors closed the way further into the studio on the far side of the room.

A life-sized marionette stood behind a podium next to the door.  It (she?) was dressed up in a black sleeveless dress.  Alex considers the three dolls who helped as girls so why not this one as well?  On her head she wore a matching basque beret tilted to the side.  She had blue glass eyes and blonde hair.  Many thin wires were coming down from the slits in the ceiling attached to various points on the doll’s body.  The doll nodded at Alex’s approach.

“Um, hello?” Alex tried to speak, not sure if the marionette could even reply.

The marionette picked up a simple sign and held it before her.  On it was written “Welcome to dance class.  Pass the class to clear the level.”

Alex placed a hand on the door knob and opened it up.  Instead of swinging outwards, the door slid into the wall.  Gears turned and a tic-toc sound echoed in the large room.  The door didn’t even need to be pushed open, after turning the knob it powered itself the rest of the way.  The inside of the room contained floor to ceiling mirrors on all sides.  Half a dozen life-sized marionettes hung from the slitted ceiling.  The wires were so thin that they could barely be seen from a distance.  There also was a padded bench in the corner with a brass drinking fountain next to it.

When Alex stepped inside and the door slid shut behind him.  Alex took a look in the mirror. “Gosh, I look exceptionally girly today.”  

No Adam's apple, no leg hair, no facial hair, slender shoulders, flared hips, small hands, small feet, small stature… all these things were looking back from the mirror.  

There was a ticking noise followed by the turning of gears.  One of the ceiling panels flipped around to reveal a sign.  The sign read ‘Welcome to partner dancing class.’

“Dance class?” Alex puzzled aloud.

A male marionette wearing a blazer, dress shirt and slacks stepped forward and spoke. “In this class we teach both leads and follows.  To clear the level the student will need to demonstrate proficiency in partner dancing.  We will begin with the basics.  Everyone line up please.”

All of the marionettes sprung to life and lined up on both sides of Alex.  There were a mix of female and male marionettes, all of them dressed formally.

“First we’ll do the basic steps, everyone please follow along.” The teacher marionette stated.

He took a step with his left foot, then a step with his right foot followed by three alternating steps.

“Step, step, triple step” He said what he was doing while making the steps.

Everyone in the room but Alex started following along doing the ‘step, step triple step’ over and over.

After the marionettes standing adjacent to Alex started giving looks, he joined in.  He focused on his feet and made sure they were doing their thing right.

The instructor came up to Alex, “Hmm, your posture needs work.”  

Alex kept doing the basic step alongside everyone else.

“Okay, everyone don’t look down at your feet.  They are not going anywhere so you don’t need to watch them.  Keep a posture with your back straight, your legs bent slightly, stick your butt out and puff out your chest.  Your eyes should be on your partner but we’ll get to that next.  Slumping your shoulders and looking at your feet is not cute at all.”

“S sorry” Alex looked up and tried to do the correct posture while not fumbling the steps.  Everyone still doing the steps helped keep him on track.

The group did the basic steps for around 15 minutes to set in the muscle memory.

“Class, please pair up.  Ladies for follows and gentlemen for leads.”  One of the female marionette’s joined the male instructor. “My beautiful assistant here has volunteered to dance the part of the follows.  So ladies please use her as an example.”

The female marionette curtseyed gracefully.

The pair then stood facing one another and continued the basic steps.

“The only big difference is that the follow starts off on the opposite foot as the lead when facing one another.  For example, I do a back step with my left foot and she will do a back step with her right foot.”

A male marionette stood in front of Alex and bowed slightly.

Alex wasn’t surprised.  He was in fact the shortest person in the room.  This wasn’t really a battle worth fighting.  

The lead couple spent another 15 minutes doing the basic steps mirroring each other perfectly.

“Good job everyone so far.”  The instructor said,  “The next step is to hold your dance partner.  The important part of this is the connection.  Everyone needs to be a little firm so that they can feel the give and take and know what to do from that.  My lovely assistant will show a bad example first of what happens when a follow and lead don’t have a connection.”

The instructor took the female dolls hand in his.  He took a step forward, she didn’t move her arm went back and he almost walked into her.

“Now keep your arm firm like you are supposed to.” He asked the other marionette.

The instructor walked forward and the space between the two remained the same.  She took steps backward matching his pace.

“For partner dancing forming a connection is the most important thing.  See how we are holding hands?  I’m not grasping her hand, it is more like a hook.  A lead’s job is to be foundational, his goal is to show off the beautiful dancer.  The follow’s job is to take that foundation and use it to show off.”

The pair went back and forth side to side, not trying to do fancy steps just walking to show the point.

“Next is how to hold a lady when dancing with her.  There is more than one way but let's start with this one.  Leads, your right hand goes behind your follow’s shoulder blade.  Follows, when your lead is light this you must lean back slightly.  That improves the connection.  Follows rest their hand on the top of the arm just below the shoulder.  This will change slightly depending on the difference in height.  The other hand like shown earlier is like a hook.  These are not steadfast rules, the importance is maintaining the connection between partners.”

To show the example, the instructor repeated the walking exercise before but instead of holding hands and keeping stiff the lady marionette leaned back into his hand and they were able to walk around easily, maintaining the distance between one another.

“Now please show us what happens if you don’t lean back and there is no connection.”  The instructor asked.

Like before, he took a step forward, she stayed in the same spot and he almost walked into her.

“Now class, let's see you try.”

The marionette in front of Alex held his left hand out and Alex took it with his right hand.  He gently pulled but all that happened was Alex extended his arm further.

The Marionette tilted his head.

“Ah darn, sorry I guess I wasn’t listening.  Sorry I’m like a wet noodle.”

They repeated the holding out of hands and this time Alex remained firm to form a connection.  It became really obvious that the Marionette was leading Alex to take a step closer.  Alex did so and the Marionette placed an arm behind his shoulder.  Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, he leaned back slightly, copying the female marionette’s example.

They practiced doing the basic step facing each other and dancing slowly around the room.

“The next thing would be a spin or a twirl.  The concept is the same.  The follow is just reacting to the connection.  Leads, you have to be careful about this.  You are not spinning your partner.  Trying to force it is how someone gets a shoulder injury.  All you are doing is just building the pressure and she reacts to it.”

He showed the dance move by doing the basic step holding the female marionette in both hands and then pulled her arm in front of her so that it was on the opposite side of her head.  She reacted to this by spinning around in a circle.  His arm was held out at her shoulder’s height and he caught her again with his right hand placing it right back where it was on her shoulder blade.  

“Okay, now you try class.” The dapper marionette said.

Alex thought spinning might get the wires twisted up, but they seemed to handle spinning just fine.

The dance class continued following the example.  They milled about the room doing the basic step and integrating twirls every now and then in their dance.  

“Don’t lose focus, keep your eye on your partner.”  The dance instruction chided Alex. “Also, you need to watch your posture.  Stick your butt out more and bend those knees.  You look like a bean pole.” 

Alex sighed and stuck his butt out.  He thought it was kinda silly like the body language said “Hey look at my ass” but he wanted to pass the dungeon so learning how to dance properly seemed to be the only way.

The class continued throughout the day.  They practiced lots of different dance moves, like send outs, ariels and dancing side by side.  

Eventually Alex was too tired to continue and begged the instructor for a break.  He was covered in sweat and really needed a shower.  Alex drank some water and sat down on the bench.

“Ugh, that took a whole lot out of me. I’m burning up.” Alex said.

The room was completely quiet.  None of the marionettes were moving.  When Alex sat down it was like the whole thing was put on pause.  Alex summoned the carriage and ate a sandwich.  Then put the carriage back into the card form. Seeing that none of them were going to complain anytime soon Alex decided to rest his eyes a bit. He closed them and sleep took him.

Opening his eyes, Alex cursed.  A nap turned into falling asleep.  Alex sat up and tried to run a hand through his hair but it felt surprisingly feathery.

“What the?” Alex gasped.

Arms were replaced by wings, feet were replaced by bird claws.  

“Oh no.”  Blinking a few times didn’t make it go away.

Looking into the mirror showed a harpy staring back.  Alex had large breasts pushing against the corset.  Placing a wing between [her] legs revealed that there was nothing swinging down there.  The harpy’s wings were white with pink tips.

“Crap crap crap.  I thought I did well practicing social distance and not spending too much time in groups.  How in the world did I come down with bird flu?!”  Alex complained to the very girly harpy in the mirror.

melchi

I'm a little bit worried this story might be offensive to transgender people.  If the majority of readers think I should remove the transgender tag then I will.  It was not my intention to create an inflammatory piece of fiction.