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The EULR symbol glared down at the charm of Hummingbirds, who stood in front of the door that lead to the nest of Owls. Its eyes judged each individual bird for merely standing there and for not coming on in! Owls don’t bite! Not these Owls at least.
All the Hummingbirds looked at each other. Albireo stood in front. [“Think we’re ready Sadr?”] Albireo spoke in their shared connection as she looked towards KLBR-S2302.
[“I think we might be!”] Sadr was positive. She practiced a small part of the dance with Aljanah. She held her hands as they moved sideways. Her artificial heart raced at the thought of performing this in front of the Eules. [“Strange to think that we originally asked these Eules to teach us how to dance, so that we could dance with the Commander.”]
[“Not sure how we could physically dance with her!”] Deneb tried not to laugh at the mere thought.
[“Maybe we’ll get a chance one day when she gets better.”] Fawaris blushed at the thought.
[“Do you think Oktober will love this?”] Sadr finally let go of Aljanah's hands. Anxiety spiked inside of her like color dye blossoming in water. Her stomach and chest tighten. Only for a gentle calm of her sisters to dilute that anxiety and eased her tension. [“I've been hoping we could do this for her! Now we can! I just never thought it would be now. Thank you all for doing this for me!”]
[“Don’t worry Sadr, she will!”] Albireo walked over and wrapped her arms around her. She gently pressed head against the side of Sadr's head.
Her sister was warm. She pressed her head back into Albireo’s head. Her eyes closed as time ticked by until eventually the hug ended. [“Thank you, again. I think we’re ready.”] Sadr walked over to the door and reached to her belt. She pulled out a key card belonging to the Owls that was bestowed upon her. Slowly the door slid open with a gentle grace.
Inside a soft melody played. It was one of those songs the Owls loved so much. The center of the room was made clear with white fairy lights strung across over the center, creating a canopy of lights. At the center, Januar and Februar slowly orbited each other. Each with one arm up in the air with their hands connected, only for them to let go as they both ended on a twirl at the exact same time.
The moment Sadr and her sisters stepped in, almost all eyes focused on the shimmer. For who dared intrude into the Owl’s nest?
“Well well.. ain’t it the elite protektors!” Mai smiled with glee. The Eule practically danced on her hooves before she approach the flock. “Come in! We been waiting!” Mai was rather quick to eulenap Deneb by the hand.
“Hey!” Deneb blurted out after finding herself taken into the nest! She was a lost cause.
Aljanah noticed Juni making out with a Starling, Vanth, on her bed nearby. The moment Aljanah made eye contact with Vanth, the Starling eyes immediately went wide and she immediately stood up and saluted. “Elite Protektors... ouch!” She bumped her head against the upper bunk bed, only to stumbling out from underneath. The Starling rubbed the top of her head, before immediately saluting again!
“Ugh! We’re not here for you Vanth! Stop that! Knock it off!” Albireo walked over, leaned up on her hooves and swatted at her arm to get her to knock it off! “You know we hate that!”
“We’re not interested in your relationship!” Fawaris glared at the Starling.
“R..right.. got it.” Vanth looked away. She went back to soothing the top of her head. “What is your flock doing here?”
“We’re here for Sadr.” Aljanah turned to face the rest of the room. The door had slide closed. They were now subject to the Owl’s whims. Whims that Deneb was currently being subjected to, with Mai cleaning up Deneb's messy hair and even trying to apply silver eyeliner to the Hummingbird’s eyes.
Sadr made her way to Oktober, and immediately hugged her. “Oktober!”
Oktober giggled as she wrapped her arms around the Hummingbird. "Where have you been? I was worried you were never going to show up." The Eule leaned down and pressed her lips against Sadr's forehead, right in the center of the three red stars.
“I was in the library.. and..” A strange haze appeared in her mind when she thought about it. She looked away. “Strange, never mind!” She looked back up towards Oktober. “I was waiting on my sisters, and I’m ready now! Or.. well.. we’re ready now!”
Oktober's hand reached over and stroked the Hummingbird's cheek with her index finger. Sadr found a tingling sensation in her cheek before the Eule retracted her hand. “We’ll lets see it! My cadre has been gossiping over this nonstop!”
“Yea! How can we not Oktober!”
“Juni right! Seriously! It’s not often other Replikas try to perform for us! Let alone the fearsome elite protektors of the Nation!” Februar said as there were a few giggles from the other Eules.
Silence settled as most of the Eules took a seat on the bunk beds. Juni sat on top of Vanth’s lap with Vanth laying her head on top of her with her arms wrapped around the Owl's midsection. Oktober took a different seat from the others as she took a seat by the desk with a front row seat to the Hummingbird’s show. She pressed play on the nearby tape recorder to start the music.
Sadr was in the center of the room with most of her sisters behind her. They stood under the canopy of white lights. Aljanah split off to the side as she was to support her sisters another way for this dance.
The room went dark as if all the lights had lost power. Only for the room to become engulfed in white light with a humming noise that gave way to a shore. There were soft lapses of waves hitting a beach and above there were dark skies.
The Hummingbird frowned the moment she noticed this. Sadr and her sisters had somewhere else planned in mind. An island with various trees growing like palm trees. It had a small arch off to the- no... that wasn't right? Sadr swore it was somewhere else. No matter, they had practiced this illusion many times. She had to make do. At least the canopy of fairy lights was present. It shone brighter in this illusion. It made the place filled with less... sorrow. Even if it showed the imperfection of the illusion with a glimpse of reality.
The Eules and Vanth found themselves sat down on the cold sands with Oktober sat furthest up front.
Sadr, Deneb, Albireo, and Fawaris lined up in a diagonal with each other in order. With Aljanah off to the side, she was making it seem like translucent iridescence swan feathers were falling from the air, yet would never touch the ground. Each Hummingbird moved to hold each other hands and formed an interlocking chain like a section of a lattice trellis. Their left legs were behind their right leg with the tips of their hooves touching the sand. Yet that was not all, copies of themselves appeared behind them like a chromatic aberration.
Sadr took a deep breath. She and her sisters had practiced countless cycles to perform this for the Eules. It was finally time. She focused on the artificial heartbeats of her sisters and tried to slow her heartbeat with theirs. [“I’m ready to start.”]
[“We’re with with you, Sadr.”]
The dance begun, the Hummingbirds performed Dance of the Little Swans with the accompanying song playing in the world. They moved forward from the diagonal, fully lined up side to side. Moving to their right, sideways in perfect unison, like birds huddled together. Hooves moving up and down, left to right, stirring up the sand.
Sadr head was focused to the right. Her heart finally matched her sisters to hardly a pulse while the music continued its pace. She held Deneb's and Albireo's hands tighter. Their hands are so cold.. The thought was quickly removed from her mind when they had to move to the left. Her head turning with. Sadr captured a glimpse of the Eules who were leaning forward from where they sat. After all, this dance required good synchronization and could be quite difficult to perform.
The tempo picked up, they had went right to left and left to right one more time. Sadr felt her sisters legs move up, down, crossing each leg as if they were her own. They all jumped at once, while crossing their hooves as if they twirled them, only to land. Sadr could no longer sense four distinct artificial heart beats, but only one.
Their aberration copies behind the flock followed like a tail. It was time for the part where they had to jump to the side, or rather do the pas de chat multiple times. As the song near its end, strange moons moved around the sky. A part of her found peace, yet another part of her screamed, or was she confusing parts from her sisters? It was hard to tell. She kicked her legs forwards with her sisters before they moved to their left.
The Eules were gleaming in delight. Sadr could tell how much those Eules wanted to clap for them! Yet the dance was not finish! One last move! Each of her sisters immediately let go, spread out, turned right with their arms raised up in the air as if trying to reach for the heavens until they all went to kneel. It was over. Sadr and her sisters stood and bowed towards the Eules. Only for the world to melt away back into reality.
They were now back in the Owl’s dorm. Sadr found herself heavily breathing as she was front and center again. Her eyes immediately darted over to Oktober who was back sitting in that chair by the desk. She awaited her judgment while she anxiously looked towards her.
Oktober leaned forward in her chair with closed hands near her face, and then her face quickly lit up. She even teared up a little. “That was really well done! Wonderful!” Oktober rushed over to Sadr and immediately wrapped her arms around the diminutive Replika. She lifted her up and swung her around as she laughed. She twirled and twirled with Sadr in her arms.
The rest of the Owls clapped while Vanth gave a small whistle with her fingers. The Eules then scurried to the other Hummingbirds and hugged them as well.
“We should form a troupe!” Juni was heard. “What do you think Vanth?”
“I think both of your flocks will be great together!”
Sadr eventually found herself let down and no longer hugged. She smiled at Oktober, yet something turbulent stirred inside of her. It gnawed into the center of her head. Her smile quickly vanishing while her eyes drifted down.
“Hey something wrong?” Oktober looked down at her Hummingbird as Sadr slightly twitched her head.
“N.. no. Thank you for this Oktober..” She leaned up on her hooves and pressed her lips against the Eules. Cold metal meet her lips back. “I’m happy I finally had the chance to show you this dance!”
“I’m glad you did!” Oktober couldn’t help but give Sadr another peck on the forehead. Cold metal brush against her forehead again when the Owl did so. Tears welled up in Sadr's eyes before she turned to Albireo. [“Thank you for this.. for letting me back in.”]
[“We missed you.”]
[“You are with us.”]
[“No longer alone.”]
[“We are together again.”]
Tears fell down as she sniffled. She wiped her arm against her eyes, doing her best to hold back tears. Illusion slowly dissipate and gave into reality again. The corrupted forms of her sisters with bloated heads and unrecognizable facial features greeted her. A migraine approached her with the familiar pain of an ice pick hitting the back of her eye socket, followed by throbbing pain on one side of her head when she moved.
“I think.. I made a terrible mistake..” Sadr let out an ugly cry. She turned back to Oktober, whose synthetic flesh had all fallen off cycles ago. She collapsed her head against Oktober's chestplate and wrapped her arms around her waist. “I’m sorry!”
Oktober did not move. She stood there staring blankly, but in the realm of the unreal, Sadr found herself hugged. Oktober's hand softly brushed hing the back of her head with one hand, while her other hand stroked her back. Oktober hummed a song for her bird.
“You will be okay, we all will be okay.” Vanth spoke nearby. Sadr looked nearby to a Starling who had a veil poorly covering her skull.
Sadr's body trembled. She hugged Oktober tighter. “I don’t.. think I’m ready.. to go just yet!”
[“Sadr, it’s okay! We’re here, you’re here.”] Sadr thought she found her sisters hugging her, but nearby they were sat on the floor close together. Their bloated heads twitched violently. Sadr had look away.
The Hummingbird took deep breaths. Her migraine was getting worse, but a calmness from before overlapped her.
“It’s time, Sadr,” Vanth said.
“You’re... right. It’s time...” Sadr leaned up and pecked Oktober to where her lips should have been. She gave her one last smile. “Oktober, I hope one day we can meet again, and I hope one day you can see our dance again!” She finally stepped back and took another moment to clear her eyes with her arm.
She walked over to her sisters and sat down with them with her body leaning against Albireo. “Thank you all again for letting me back in.. and for giving me the chance to show Oktober our dance! I was worried that I never would get the chance.”
Her song fully corrupted. She sang the song of lament and the song of her sisters. No longer was she alone, now they were one once again.