[Backup] Water and Earth, Prologue, scene 12 -- Talent

[JMR20190312: Backing up Water and Earth:
https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2018/08/we-0-12-talent.html

Originally written between November 2017 and January 2018.
]

Previous: Anonymity

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"Can you help me with this stretch?"

"Sure." Earth Prince stops waving his arms around and goes to Water Princess's side.

(We aren't quite sure whether he was working on expressive dance or defensive combinations. Not that it matters, we are here to observe, not critique.)

She extends her left leg gracefully forward in developpe, and he puts his hands under her ankle and knee for support as she reaches full extension at waist level.

"So how did you get started dancing?" She puts the weight of her leg in his hands.

"Watching Ceri. Thought it looked fun."

"Oh?" Using his support, she rotates her body right, letting the muscles stretch.

"More fun than cricket or track."

"Really?"

"I was totally uncoordinated and just an all around wimp."

She reaches arabesque and extends her arms like a ballerina for a moment and chuckles. "I can't imagine you as a wimp." Then she begins rotating back, still amused.

"Couldn't understand having to swing a bat the way the coach said when I could as easily be swinging my arms wherever I wanted."

She nods. "I could see that." Back in devant, she lifts her leg out of his hands and lowers it. "So how'd you get interested in basketball?"

"Dancing helped me get me coordinated, and teachers pushed me to join a ball club. I wanted to play football. Not rugby or old world football, the football you guys play Stateside."

She lifts her right leg and he supports her as she rotates to the left. "Why so?"

"It's choreography."

"So's soccer."

"Not the same. Not nearly as much."

"Soccer's a lot like basketball."

"I understand old world football now, but basketball uses more visible upper body dance."

"True." She pauses in arabesque before reversing. "So, when and how did you learn to fly?"

Earth Prince starts, but does not drop her leg. His face loses the grin that has been a fixture of his expression the entire morning. As she returns to extension devant, he quietly nods.

"You noticed."

"Anyone who was watching would have been impressed with that dive."

"I had to move fast to keep her from being pulled beneath the vines. Those currents can be impossible to fight beyond certain points, and she could easily have filled her lungs with lake water trying to fight clear."

"That dive was not natural."

"Your influence on Gwen could be thought natural, but not on the vines, or the water flow. The undertow seriously weakened when you ascended. Just coincidence?"

The two stand, staring at each other, Water Princess with her right leg in Earth Prince's hands. Then she remembers what she is doing and lifts her leg out of his hands, lowering it absently to stand in first position.

"Your turn?"

"Sure." Earth Prince raises his right leg, almost as gracefully as Water Princess raised hers.

"So tell me about flying."

"I'm not sure when I realized that my grand jeté was exceeding the range of my momentum. It was before I had started playing basketball seriously. But one morning I teased my modern dance coach by floating an extra meter or two in the leap."

"What did she do?"

"She scolded me."

"Oh? Why?"

"Exceeding my training and technique. Afterwards, when I came down to the lake for a swim, I was not allowed to enter the water."

"Not allowed?"

Earth Prince trades legs.

"I put my foot in the water and felt an awful fear. I kept calling myself silly and trying to wade in, but the fear just got so bad I couldn't even stand to look at the water. That was when I met them for the first time."

"In the water?"

"On the shore. Two men and a woman that time. They told me what happens to people who play childish games with their special talents."

"What did they tell you?"

"You know, people get scared and try to kill the monster. And if you use it for money, fame, greed, entertainment, power, or basically anything but serving God's children quietly, you quickly lose the right to be guided to use it safely. And then you just lose everything important."

"And what did you do?"

Earth Prince finishes stretching his other leg and lowers it. "I learned it's not good to fight God. Eventually I learned to trust Him."

"Okay. You've learned the same lessons I've learned. I guess I can trust this. Sometime, when you think it's okay, I'd like to hear more about your lessons, and I can talk about mine."

See, days, not years.

Water Princess looks up. "Oh. You're here."

Earth Prince turns to face the messengers. "No, she was right. Years."

But she knows who we are now, and she begins to understand what she is being called to do.

"But she must serve a regular mission first, much as it will try my patience."

A mission is one of the courses you've completed. But there are many kinds of missions. Is not a calling of service a mission? Is not raising a family a calling of service?

"And both of us seem to need to prove our interest in each other, before ..., or, whether we should marry. The Prince will have a lot of attention from cheerleaders."

"Not that the Princess will lack attention from her fans."

That is correct.

More courses to complete for both of you.

You will both return in four years, then.

"It might not require a full four years, I suppose, but, yes, no more than four years."

Is Water Princess equivocating?

"No."

It was wise to not reveal your names to each other yet.

"Of course, we have Ceri and Morris and my parents if something comes up." Oddly, it is Water Princess who makes this suggestion.

"If something comes up before her senior year is over." And it is Earth Prince, now, showing patience.

That is also correct.

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