Princess came close to her brother and whispered in his ear. "Ken doesn't want to go into the mysterious fog with us."
Jericho looked seriously at his sister. "We can check out the mist after we are done hanging out with your friend. There is no reason to spoil your fun time with him. Besides, didn't you want to adventure in a few places here? Delaying our visit to the mist won't be that problematic."
"True. He said we should visit the elves. Even though they are picky about who they even talk to, he thinks we will have a better chance at befriending them." She sighed.
"They say elves are beautiful. Maybe they will have cloths you can buy. We did earn a bit from the audience this time around." He showed her the 7 gold they obtained and gave her five of them. "However it is almost dinner time again. We probably will need to break before we get too far."
The three left the tree and started their journey east down the safe path that monsters avoided.
Princess ran ahead dancing with the butterflies that seemed drawn to her bright dress.
Jericho looked over at the hunter who seemed to have a conflicted look on his face. "You want to dance with her, don't you?"
"Yes, wait no, I mean…" He stumbled in embarrassment.
"There is nothing wrong with wanting to dance with her. In fact, it would probably make her very happy. While she is good at clogging and other dances that can be performed solo, she prefers dances that involve more people. Her background dancers can only do so much." He replied pointing to the tiny water elementals that appeared and started dancing with her.
Ken sighed. "But I don't know how to dance. She is so good at it that I am afraid I will ruin it."
The bard smiled. "Moira didn't used to be good at it either. Sure, she has a lot of talent in the area but it was because she kept going. Even though most kids don't choose to learn how to dance, she used to be a part of a child dancing group."
"It is hard to believe she didn't use to be a good dancer, considering even now, she looks like a fairy dancing with her friends." He looked at the bright scene in front of them.
"Most dance styles take a lot of practice to learn. However, there are quite a few social and ballroom dances from history that are easier to pick up. Even if you mess up a few times, they still look good to the untrained eye. Even though I am not great at it, I can help you learn the basics of some of these dances and she can turn you into a fantastic dance partner. It will take some time though."
"You would do that?" He asked questioningly.
"Of course. In real life we had to take her out of her dance group since we couldn't afford it. She won't say it aloud but she misses dancing with others and I can't play music and dance with her at the same time very often. It is dinner time in real life. Why don't you come over for a few hours so I can help you learn?"
"That would be great! Since we are in a safe zone still, we can log off without issue here."
The bard smiled and sent a message to his sister. [Dinner time, I will log off to make food. It should be ready in about 35 minutes. Oh, and Ken is coming over for a bit.]
[Wait, really? You are letting him come over? What is the special occasion? You normally wouldn't even consider letting them come over unless I asked you.]
[You will see.] Jericho replied mysteriously.
[But I want to know now!]
[Food first.]
[…Fine :( I will log of after dancing a bit more.]
Jericho left the game and walked into his kitchen. "I'm glad chicken and that non-spicy green curry paste was on sale again."
He put 1 and 1/2 cups of rice into a pan, added a little bit of cooking oil and three cups of water. He turned on the burner.
He pulled out a frying pan, some frozen chicken, the small jar of 'green curry' paste, and a cheap can of coconut milk.
The water for the rice started boiling. He covered the pan, turned it to low heat, and set a timer for twenty minutes.
He sliced the chicken into small uneven squares before frying them in oil. The chicken was quickly cooked.
While things were cooking he pulled out a third pan and mixed the can of coconut milk and about 1/3rd of the small jar of curry paste. He set the burner to medium. "Moira likes it with a bit more flavor." He muttered as he pulled out some nutmeg from his spice cabinet. He carefully extracted about 1 pinch of the powdered spice and put it into the curry sauce.
Jericho drained the oil from the chicken pan once the meat was fully cooked. He placed it back on the heat and poured the warmed sauce onto the meat. He turned off the sauce burner and turned the chicken burner down to medium before waiting for the sauce to start a simmer. Once that was done, he turned the heat off.
The buzzer for the rice rang and he turned the burner off for that one too.
A knock was heard at the door.
The man opened the door and let the bleached haired youth in. "Moira will be out in a bit. We can eat dinner and then I can help you learn some of the basics."
"Sounds good, um…"
"You can call me Jericho. You don't have to be formal with me."
"Right."
Moria emerged and the three ate dinner.
Jericho turned on some lightly jazzy music. "Kenneth, come over here." He motioned from the furniture-less living room (with the exception of the piano and a few other difficult to move instruments). "The first basics I will show you are for a dance type called 'The Swing'. It is something you can practice both on your own and with a dance partner."
Moira's eyes lit up. "Ken you want to learn to dance?"
The pre-teen scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well, I wanted to learn to dance with you and your brother agreed to help me so I don't make a fool of myself." He walked over to where Jericho was stepping in place.
"Mimic me for now."
Ken started stepping in place to the rhythm as well.
"Lean forward, just a touch. You want to hover over your feet, not behind them. You don't want to be leaning forward excessively though or you two will bonk heads."
Ken let out a light laugh. "Okay."
"Moira, come over and help him get his posture right." Jericho called out.
The sister laughed. "Brother, his posture is better than yours!"
After a few minutes of stepping to the beat, Jericho changed the song to one that had a similar rhythm. "Next is Touch stepping. This is done with the same foot like this." He kept the beat and touched a spot with the tip of his foot and then placed it down like a step. "When doing the swing, touch stepping is very versatile. You can use it to move around, change postures and many other things. Moira will help you out with those but practice touch stepping both below you and also in all sorts of directions."
Ken smiled as he got familiar with the modes of stepping. Without realizing it, his upper body started to sway with his movements.
Jericho grinned at the scene of the awkward kid picking up swing dancing faster than people would have expected. "Excellent, you have swag." He changed the song once more. "The next basic step is called the triple step." It is done like this. Jericho's feet moved at a fast pace stepping three times twice as fast as the original stepping."
"Brother, your stepping is right but your posture is horrible, you will teach him all wrong if you keep it up. Ken, watch my movements." She carefully repeated the triple step.
"Oh, okay!" Ken started repeating the triple step.
Jericho turned off the audio player.
"Eh? Why did you stop the music?" The pre-teens asked.
"So I can do what I do best. Moira, you got showing him the Kick Ball Step and the rest of the moves handled right?"
"Yep! Bring out the saxophone!" She exclaimed.
Jericho went over to the spare room filled with instruments. He grabbed the saxophone and returned.
Moira was already showing him the basics without the music.
Jericho started to play and watched the two of them dance for a few hours.
The sky started to get dark.
"Kenneth, I'll walk you home. The two of you can practice more of the swing as we head towards the elf village and as you two wait for me to log back on."
"Thanks again Jericho for tonight! Can I come over again to keep practicing?"
The adult nodded. "The swing will take a lot more practice for you to learn and there are a lot more dances to teach you eventually. Getting some skill outside of game will help when you do it in game."
The two left the house and started walking.
"Ken, did you have fun?"
"Yeah, the swing is really awesome. It's a bit tiring though."
"Indeed. It is an energetic social dance. Remember what I said though; practice both alone and with others. It will help you learn it faster."
"Um, I did have one question."
"Go ahead."
"Are you really that bad at dancing?"
"No, but I know how to read the atmosphere. You wanted to dance with Moira and spend time with her. I noticed that you were in that awkward stage of both wanting and feeling ashamed to ask her. So, I gave her a reason to take over the process of teaching you so you didn't have to ask. Sometimes it is hard to ask for what we really want because we aren't taught how."
"Thanks."
"On another note, you are quite good at the swing. Here, take this with you." Jericho handed the Pre-teen a small drive. "The songs you were dancing to before are recorded on this. I will need it back but use it while you practice."
"Wow, I can see why Moira talks about you like your biggest fan every day. See you back in game!" Ken ran back up to his house door.
Jericho waved the boy off and returned home. "I'm glad Moira has good friends."
© J Eranoth