You know the fantasy web serial I’m running? The drafting phase of this story definitely took the scenic rout. In the end, there were many scenes that didn’t make the final cut. Most of them were scenes I wrote early on of Ellsie dancing, back when I was still trying to get my head around her as a character.
In the end, these scenes were replaced by other dancing sequences that were actually moving the plot along, but I just wanted to share this one because I really liked the way it turned out.
~*~
Reverently, Ellsie lifted the wine glass from her bag, setting it on the grass and taking a moment to admire the way the transparent surface caught the starlight. The grass rose to tickle the underside of the glass, like it knew that this was something unnatural and exotic and wanted to unlock its secrets as to how it could capture the light of the moon which the humble plants could only distantly admire.
Ellsie began the spell-dance that would release the music she had captured in the glass earlier that day. Her feet moved around the vessel, as she focused on the feeling of channeling the magic through her movements.
The spell dance ended. She exhaled completely and stepped her body back to its natural, upright position before looking down at her work and nearly melting with love for the rose-colored glow that seeped from the glass.
For a moment, that’s all it was: just a glow. But then the music started shyly drifting out as well. It was such a clear and perfect echo of the fiddle player Elsie had listened to in the festival earlier that she could close her eyes and have no trouble convincing herself that he was right beside her. Just like at the festival, the music traveled deep inside her, urging her muscles to create the spatial equivalent of this auditory excitement. But unlike earlier, now she had the freedom to do so.
Stepping a few paces from the glass so she wouldn’t kick it over, she again waited for the perfect moment to insert herself into the music. At this point, someone could have been standing there watching her, but she wouldn’t have realized it. Besides, her dancing was so full of purity and joy that they wouldn’t have been able to stop her. She was free and protected, lost in the folds of the music. Ellsie was crying, but she didn’t notice.
She continued dancing until her legs ached and shook, and then for a while after this point as well. When her body could celebrate in the song no longer, she laid on her back, watching the stars, and did not call the spell off. She needed to hear the magic of so many emotions for a little longer.