He found himself seated in a large, soft leather chair. Link had never experienced anything so comfortable in his life. It was so unreasonably comfortable that he felt he would never be able to escape the cling of its jealous gravity.
Marin sat in a similar chair, a non-descript smile on her face. She wore a purple and pink dress with gold brocade. Long white evening gloves covered her arms. The hem of her dress failed to touch the ground where water sloshed around her feet.
It lapped against his feet too. There was water everywhere. It extended out to the edges of the floor, where it fell away into the inky dark abyss that seemed to surround them like walls of night.
The red-haired girl raised her right hand and showed him the back of it. She nodded knowingly, the mysterious smile still on her lips.
Slowly, Marin turned her face away from him.
His gaze followed hers and he saw a small figure standing not too far away, shaking as if from the cold. He wanted to call out to the strange figure to see if he was all right, but found himself unable to speak. Link tried to move his lips, but found them strangely solid, as if they were merely a cosmetic addition painted onto his face
Suddenly, the small figure spun round. “Kooloo-limpah!” he exclaimed and clapped his hands.
The short man was dressed in tight green spandex and wore obnoxiously red briefs. He was a pot-bellied man with a pointed goatee and a sinisterly thin moustache that seemed to accentuate the manic expression on his wrinkled face.
With agonising slowness, the man slowly danced across the watery floor towards the chair next to Marin. He could have walked, but much to the boy’s annoyance, the man merely waltzed to some unheard rhythm with jerky, unrefined movements that were utterly cringe-worthy to look at. This man danced like your father, his every movement a ritual to the God of Ageing Disgracefully.
The blonde-haired boy felt his cheeks go red with embarrassment. He didn’t even know this weird little man, but as he watched the man in green settle into the chair, he felt as if he had just turned up at school with no clothes on. His cheeks went redder as Marin and the man in green both turned to stare at him with disturbingly friendly smiles.
“Could it be?” exclaimed the Man in Green suddenly with horrifically exaggerated tones and movements. “Why, sir, I do believe that you are the very incarnation of a fairy!” He giggled deliriously. “Sir, we must be friends. Yes, we really must.”
Once again, Link wanted to say something. He didn’t have the heart to protest, even though he didn’t want anything to do with this strange little dwarf. Still, nothing came out.
The Man in Green’s smile seemed to get wider. “I see you’ve taken a liking to her, my dear friend,” he giggled. “She’s my mother’s sister’s girl, but doesn’t she look a lot like Marin?”
“But she is Marin!” protested Link suddenly.
“I feel as if I should know you,” said Marin, “but we can easily be replaced.” She crossed her arms behind her back and twisted forward with a pained expression on her face.
“It’s a secret to everybody,” continued the Man in Green. “Where we’re from, stepping to the music gets you places. Kooloo-limpah!”
“Kooloo-limpah,” intoned Marin coldly, her face dark with pure hatred.
The Man in Green giggled, as he leapt up from his seat. He continued to dance in the water.
Elegantly, Marin rose from her seat and waded through the water towards him, a disturbingly seductive smile on her young lips. She sashayed up to him and knelt over him, her knee horribly close to his crotch, as she leaned in close to whisper hotly in his ear, the words…
Edited by Wolf O'Donnell, 14 September 2013 - 06:06 AM.
