Soar, Part 3 - Gnome

By the time the lights flickered back on a minute or so later, the three remaining girls had descended their sashes and a number of concerned spectators had gathered to the edge of the stage, including the three judges.

Roxie was sitting on the floor, holding Skye in her arms. She was trembling, holding her hands against her head as she lay across Roxie's lap.

"Skye!" cried out Olivia as she practically sprinted to the two girls' side, kneeling down next to them. Skye made a small whimper and her hand instinctually shot out at the familiar voice, grabbing at air until colliding with Olivia's hand. She more or less flung herself around the smaller girl, wrapping her leathery wings around the two of them. Her sleek tail had snaked its way around Olivia's leg and if her spirally horns were digging uncomfortably against Olivia's shoulder, the other didn't mention it.

"What happened, is she alright?" the female judge was asking, voice slightly panicky, as Olivia petted Skye's hair, cooing against her temple.

"She's alright, I broke our fall," says Roxie, standing up and dusting herself off. She flexed her own wings around for a bit, before tucking them against her back.

"Skye suffers from a fear of the darkness," Alex explained. "If it comes suddenly like that, she might get a panic attack. Olivia will get her to calm down in a minute."

"A daemon that's afraid of the dark," said the judge with a shake of her head,  sounding surprised but ultimately glad no one was hurt. "This is certainly new."

The main door into the hall opened and everyone turned to look. The janitor was standing in the doorway, panting a little and looking sheepish.

"Sorry 'bout the interruption, ladies," she said. "One of the fuses blew. I hope no one got hurt while the lights were out."

"No, no, we're fine, luckily," said the judge, waving her hand. "Thank you for getting the power back on so quickly."

"No problemo, ma'am," said the janitor, tipped her cap, and left the hall again. The judge turned back to the girls on the stage. Skye had calmed down considerably, though she hadn't managed to find her footing yet, and she was still clinging to Olivia.

"So, uh," started Annalise, fidgeting with the hem of her uniform. "Do we... do we redo our choreography, or..?"

"Oh. Oh, no, I don't think there's a need for that. I think we've seen enough already," said the female judge, taking her seat at the judges' table again. The girls' could feel their hearts sinking because that really didn't sound too good.

One of the other two judges leaned in to whisper something into the main judge's ear and she smiled and nodded. The other one did the same. The girls stood on the stage, nervous beyond all measure. Sure they had been almost at the end of the routine when the power cut out, but they had had some great spirals planned to the ending, and if they dropped now...

"You're through to the next round!" said the judge happily, pushing her big glasses along her sharp nose.

The girls stood there for a moment, processing what had just been said. They burst out into cheers simultaneously, jumping up and down in excitement. Roxie even took flight for a few seconds. They hugged each other, and shook hands with the judges, and were instructed on where to go get the instructions for the next round. They left the stage feeling light headed and dazed and happy.

After changing out of their uniforms and back to their everyday clothes they went to the entrance hall to find the person to give the next set of instructions. They found two of them, a harpy and a gnome, sitting by a desk. The girls went over to them, introduced themselves, and got their instructions. The gnome explained things, while the harpy was gazing Roxie's wings up and down, clearly impressed by their beautifully maintained, jet black feather coat. Roxie gave her a wink when their gazes met.

The next round was also being held in Saint Hallows the following Friday, trimming the groups that passed the preliminary selecting into the top ten, who would move onwards to the next round. The third round would be statewide, and it was to be held at the state capital a month from the second round.

"So you're saying if we pass the next round we'll get to the state championship?" asked Annalise, studying the chart on the back of the pamphlet explaining how the selection process worked.

"Yes, although there is no saying how easy that will be, because there's no set number of groups that pass the preliminaries," said the gnome. She was sitting on the edge of the table, dangling her short legs over the edge. "Probably several dozen groups, going by the numbers of the last years. And getting through to the nationals is going to be even harder, because they do only take best group."

"Yeah, we know," said Alex, flipping through the pamphlet and then slapping it on the table, shaking it so that the poor gnome had to lean back to not fall down. "Is it televised?"

"Is what what?" asked the gnome, frowning at the fae. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Is the state championship going to be televised?" she repeated, flicking her shiny hair over her shoulder. "I've always wanted to dance on camera!"

"Yeah, I think so," intervened the harpy. "At least the previous ones have been. It's not live though." Alex let out a thoughtful hum and frowned

"The nationals are live, if that makes you feel better," the gnome offered, slightly amused.

"Well, good enough for me," said Alex, shrugging. "Oh, this is so exciting!"

"It really is, isn't it," says Skye. Though she was feeling back to normal Olivia refused to let go of her arm. "To think we passed the preliminaries just like that... It was much easier than I had anticipated."

"We're just that great!" said Olivia with a gleeful smile. "And our next choreography is even greater!"

"It is also much harder," reminded Roxie. "So we need to keep training this weekend too."

"I know, I know," said Olivia with only a small whine in her voice. "Shall we go now? We could go get celebratory smoothies or something?"

"Pumpkin spice latte!" roared Alex, throwing her fists in the air and the girls laughed as they walked out of the gymnasium into the cool, fall night.
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Fuck off with your gnomes.

I do like that idea that most people aren't humans tho, so I kinda went with it. My current headcanon for the girls: Alex is a forest fae, Skye is a daemon (which is essentially the same as a demon but without as much... christianity), Roxie is a Valkyrie, Olivia is a succubus, and Annalise is a ... idk yet. But yeah, only Alex and Skye's races have been explicitly stated so far, so I guess the others are still up for grabs... although Roxie needs to be sth with wings obvs.

Ha, you thought they'd be like angels wings or fairy wings or some shit? Lol nope, DEMON WINGS! Yaaaaaaas.

Anyway. Your topic is "Weekend". Just write... normal stuff, k?

Pie out.

P.S. In case you are confused about the harpy, I would like to point out that their original depiction is actually beautiful women with wings instead of hands. The whole "chicken with a woman's head" thing came much, much later. Basically what I'm imagining is like a generally humanoid creature with like wings as hands and bird legs and maybe a tail? Possibly a bird-ish face. I might draw some creatures later on, who knows.
P.P.S If you are one of the people who read the epilogue to The Sorcerer during the day of the 1st, I highly recommend you go reread it there's been some additions because I forgot some really important shit. Or, if you missed it completely, here it is. Go read it!