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Bing Dee grinned brightly, sincerely taking a liking to the silent prince. She caught his unblinking eyes and batted her eye lashes at him. Such fathomless depths, such immeasurable depths within those eyes. Bing found herself coming closer and closer to Oswald with wonder. A snow flake landed on his head and she lost sight of it. He was just as white as the snow she had come to love so much. She giggled as he tilted his head at her, blushing deeply. Bing twirled in place flirtatiously and blew him a kiss. So, this girl did not belong to the prince? Was he... was Oswald smiling at her? Perhaps... he was not so shy. Bing grinned back and swished her skirts about her legs coyly, looking up at him through frosted lashes.

At the mention of dance Bing's eyes lit up, and she momentarily forgot about the prince. She fluttered up and chimed in laughter, arms out stretched as she spun in the updraft. Dance? Why, I would love to dance! Snow fluttered down upon the other three beings below her as Bing danced on the air above them. She then gasped and stopped, flying down and stopping before Ainsley. Ainsley, she chimed softly. Beings arms were hidden behind her back as her face took on a light blush. Would you mind if I danced with Prince Oswald? Another smile. Bing cheeped and blushed deeper, straightening up.

Neve spotted the snowflakes that flittered off of Gwenliana’s dress and couldn’t stop herself from softly smiling. At least there was one common trait they all appeared to have—a love of dancing. “Of course, my lady, anyone can dance if they practice enough,” she reassured as she gently covered her heart (if she had one, at least) with one hand while holding out the other to Ainsley and Prince Octavian Oswald. “And of course I can teach the prince if he also wishes to dance,” Neve added with a giggle, watching the other dancer flirt with the prince.

She began to twirl into another pirouette, only slower that both Ainsley and her bunny could clearly see. “Why don’t you try a “pirouette”?” she suggested. The French term somehow rolled off her tongue, though Neve had only heard it a couple times—someone familiar with her dancing, she supposed. “It’s like a spin on the tip of your toes, and your other leg has to be like this.” She tucked in her leg to demonstrate. “Careful with your balance though.”

xxxxxGwenliana giggled while pirouetting in line, helping the small girl learn how. The rabbit seemed a bit shy at first, apparently due to his resistance to fall, but that was nothing a little time couldn't fix. Pirouetting felt as natural as standing to Gwenliana, and she loved teaching the little girl, who was a bit stubborn about it all. Still, Gwenliana couldn't help but admire her drive to learn something new, as she had it herself. As each snow dancer pirouetted together, in perfect sync of course, small snowflakes fluttered in the breeze, and flurries were made from their hands. The scene was rather reminiscent of the sugarplum fairy's dance from The Nutcracker, though Gwenliana wouldn't know that, of course.

xxxxxBut suddenly, things took a turn for the worse. Ainsley's balance quickly deserted her, and she fell right down onto the snow, on her poor bum. Gwenliana instantly stopped pirouetting and tiptoed forward to check the little girl's condition. Worriedly she said, "Oh my, should we get some sort of ... assistance?" Of course, Gwenliana wouldn't know what kind of help to get, but the least she could do was offer. The fall did look rather painful, though Gwenliana wasn't sure whether or not it caused pain in this place. Certainly, Gwenliana thought, if I fell over, I do think it would cause quite a bit of pain. But then, how does one know something that hasn't happened to them? Gwenliana was now puzzled.

xxxxxFortunately though, Gwenliana did not have to stay puzzled for long, as the girl was soon up and dusting off her dear prince. The prince, as well, did not look quite so damaged as the girl, save for a few tiny piles of snow atop his head, which the girl was daintily brushing off. Gwenliana sighed with relief, and though it was cold, no hot air was seen twirling like smoke through the air. Instead, tiny snowflakes came out, as with every movement she took, and danced and twirled upon the ground. When Gwenliana looked at Ainsley, she saw that clouds of warm air were pulsing from her mouth, but when Gwenliana looked at her snow dancer acquaintances, she saw only snowflakes. Truly it was a quirky place.

xxxxxNo matter, she thought, for we are all well and cheery, so no error seems to be made. She now offered a hand to the poor, fallen girl and said, "Each snowflake must fall to the ground before it joins a pile of its friends." She smiled gently, as she waited for the girl to get up. "I'm so glad it was fun for you; I must say it was terribly fun for me!" And it was true. Gwenliana did have fun dancing. It felt as though her questionable heart had been lifted and sent soaring; as though dancing was where she was meant to be and what she was meant to do. Giggling again, she said, "Perhaps we should learn something that you'd like to learn? What shall we do next, little princess?" She put a great embellishment on the word princess, as she knew it would delight the child.

Glissade appeared to be late to the 'party' of sorts-but oh, how she missed it! She'd been just so positively lonely so far, and it had made her sad that she couldn't find anyone like her. But now there was a group, and she was glad now!

Slowly descending behind a tree in her smaller form, the snow dancer peeked out from behind a tree, only growing back to human-size when she was positively sure nobody was looking. Gliding across the snow, almost skating, she made her way to the group, silver hair flying behind her. "Hello," she greeted, voice like chimes as all the others were.

She worriedly frowned as Ainsley continued to struggle with a pirouette. Neve had not realized that the spin was difficult—moving and gliding over snow and ice was as natural as breathing (or did she not breathe at all?) and even more, did not think children would have more trouble learning ballet. When she finally fell, Neve stepped forward and her arms reached out to hurriedly pull her up, but for some reason she stopped. She wasn’t crying at least, right . . . ? “I’m sorry. Teaching is harder than I thought,” she apologized as she bit her lip.

“Ah, you mean this?” questioned Neve as she lightly leaned forward, standing on one leg while the other was pointed behind her, both her knees were straight. “A woman who passed by me one time said it was an a-ra-bes-que,” she replied, breaking the foreign word down into syllables.

Another dancer came fluttering from behind a nearby tree. Immediately Neve politely curtsied. “Hello, I am Neve. Your name?”

xxxxx"Ooh yes!" Gwenliana cried out with glee, "An arabesque sounds most lovely!" Gwenliana clapped with pleasure, sending tiny flakes flying in every direction. Some stuck onto her eyelashes and Gwenliana blinked furiously to remove them.

xxxxxGwenliana watched as the child tried to reenact the arabesque. Unlike Neve, the child was rather sloppy, knees were bent, and she was tipping back and forth, as if about to fall, but her effort to learn the move was very profound. Gwenliana admired the child for a moment, standing back and simply smiling. The whole diorama made Gwenliana want to have her own "Ainsley" (at this point, Gwenliana referred to all humans as Ainsleys. She really did not know better), in order to teach it and giggle as it stumbled and got back up.

xxxxxSeeing the dilemma with the girl's lack of experience, Gwenliana had a brilliant idea. "Why don't we practice some lifts?" she questioned innocently. "That way you can make whatever pose you want, and my dancer friends and I can do all the work?" It sounded simple enough. Gwenliana was a little afraid of dropping the child, but with the ever growing number of snow dancers, she did not think it would be that hard to hold up Ainsley. Best yet, she could make whatever poses she wanted, and there would be no fear of falling for her. Perhaps Ainsley would even let one of the dancers hold the prince. My, what a scary task, she thought. Having to be in charge of the prince's safety! Still, it would be terribly fun.

xxxxxGwenliana watched as Ainsley dug her heels into the ice, and listened to her response. Quickly noticing the problem, she put one hand on her hip, and the other on her chin. As she looked around for the other dancers for inspiration, a lightbulb went off in her head. Clapping her hands together, she said, "Ainsley dear, what if one of us holds the prince, and another holds you? That way you will not have to worry a single moment about dropping the lovely Octavian." Nodding, Gwenliana thought this was a most excellent plan, with absolutely no confrontation.

xxxxxNodding slower now, she could see a few possible errors. Perhaps one should drop Octavian? Who would be brave enough to hold up the prince and not drop him? Surely if no one else volunteered, Gwenliana herself would do it, as it was her idea. Perhaps the prince should not want to be lifted? It seemed Ainsley was the only one who could speak to him, and as such, was the only one who knew his preferences and thoughts. Gwenliana just waited patiently for a response from the rest of her dancers.

[Just checking: Ainsley is Chibi Hypnos, right?]

"I'm Glissade," she giggled, curtsying to the small child and then to Neve. She remembered...arabesques somehow. Unlike a few other snow dancers, some moves were as natural to her as breathing...however, lifts were not one of them.

Glissade frowned, the small movement of her mouth contrasting to the clear smile of only moments earlier. "Ah, I...I'm afraid I don't happen to be very good at lifts," she sighed, brushing a pale finger through closely-colored hair. "I'm very sorry."