The old retired Otter, a familiar sight, made Freya tear up. Though, she wasn't sure if it was joy or something else.

"How have you been?"

The mouse stared up at the otter, before giving him a full body hug.

"Better than I deserve, Miss Uki, better than I deserve," he said.

Freya squeezed and the furry brown otter made a show of choking. She reluctantly let him go before wiping her face clean.

Behind him the dance started up again and a few of the Otters changed partners. Freya’s foot wouldn’t stop aligning to the beat pattern.

"Well since you've made it out here, would you care to dance with me and Carol?" Stone motioned to his wife who was across the way.

Carol was every bit the doting mother, and in their brief encounters before she'd. .. she had made Freya feel safe and secure. As if she could talk to her about anything and the otter wouldn't bat an eye about it.

The dance they were doing, Freya looked at the closest otter, and involuntarily started clapping.

"I take that as a yes, then?" Stone said, nodding upwards to Carol.

She approached and smiled. Without saying anything, she started to clap along to the beat across from Freya.

"Five, six, seven, eight and…" Carol sang, starting to dance in place.

Freya grin stretched from one end of the dance floor to the next. She was about to see if the otters cared about leaking maquillage.

Freya joined in clapping as she danced in a circle with Carol and Stone.

For a few seconds, she forgot herself.

The mice, the rabbits even Abigail and Holly left her thoughts as she danced her heart out.

Seconds turned into minutes and the ballad changed tempo.

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The dancers hooted and hollered as the steps became more deliberate. Many of the adults and some of the children sang along to some tune that Freya had never heard words to.

Freya felt free and as she looked back, so did her feathered friend.

The beast kept the time even better than she could, and she laughed.

And she laughed.

Tears fell down her face, she was laughing so hard.

Her maquillage ran, and she didn't care anymore. For a long moment? All there was, all that existed was a group of otters, a funky chicken and wonderful music.

Did a mouse need more than that?

Freya danced another dance, not daring to think about adult decisions she would have to make.

Would it have been easier to just be an adult, already with a family? Or just to be a child, living a life without responsibilities?

Perhaps life as a druid could strike a third path? What Freya wanted most…

She looked up to see the sun, low in the sky, as it threatened to just up and leave town.

The otter band struck a somber cord as rhe music slowed, and Freya moved to stand apart from the crowd. The crowd who, before her eyes danced arm in arm, fully embracing each other.

They all looked so happy, and Freya tried to think if any otter had attended any of the society events.

Besides the occasional guard, she had not seen any. Truth be told she hadn’t seen many otter children except when she came to the east side of Yellow Rock. Perhaps they all went to a different preparatory school? She’d never asked, and Stone had never volunteered much about the Riverfolk themselves.

She resolved to ask the question at least. As the slow dance ended, the sun dipped below the outermost wall of the city.

"I think that I must be off," she said to Stone.

He and Carol helped her get up onto the chicken.

"You're always welcome to join us Miss," he said as he released his iron grip from her paw.

"Well perhaps an invitation would be in order," Carol said, elbowing her husband in the ribs,"husband, why don't we invite her to the next dance?"

"Oh but I couldn't," Freya said.

"You can and you will, and I will send you an invitation, and oh Miss Uki-"

"Freya, please."

"-Miss Uki, feel free to bring a friend, especially if they're like this one."

Carol's diamond grip released Freya's paw.

"Thanks, I uh… thanks," Freya stammered.

They walked her to the river and insisted on waiting until they saw her safely across.

Freya arrived before the last rays of light went out, collapsing into her bed as her earliest opportunity.

Her jaw ached from smiling.

***

That night Freya dreamed of a place where the sun didn't exist. As she walked around a cool dry forest she was surrounded on all sides by large beasts she had never seen before.

She wandered between large trees, taking shelter under a glowing array of a thousand small stars.

None of the books she'd read as a child had ever prepared her remotely for this. She felt far away from anyplace that remotely felt like home.

In fact, the place was so foreign that she wandered lost for what seemed like hours.

Red eyes followed her, tracking her movements through the underbrush. And like that, she was running, escaping something unseen, and waking with a start.

Freya clutched her blanket with both paws.

But the memory of the eyes stayed with her.