We’re back in that tent with the lizard women, who are dressing us not for death, but for a party. They take our blue pants back, and Seela changes back into her sarong and wrap top, but this time with the leather vest on top. I told the lizards to just put me in whatever clothes they wanted, so they’re picking some stuff out for me.

When we won, I totally thought that we were going to have them lead us to the tree, and then we’d be on our way. But as the crowd was leaving the field, the boss cat lady approached us. She congratulated us on our victory, and insisted that we come to a party tonight. Of course we accepted, because why would anyone say no to a party? So that’s how we ended up back in the lizards’ dress-up tent.

The lizards come back out, and hand me a green skirt, green shirt, and thick, black leather belt to wear. Putting the skirt on first, I notice there are several rows of copper beads, and from the bottom hang small fangs. It comes up to just below my belly button. The shirt, which is the same shade of green, is skin-tight and long sleeved. It has the same copper beads in three rows, down from the collar, with fangs hanging in a row down the bottom of each sleeve. The lizards come and tuck the shirt into the skirt, and put the thick black leather belt around my waist, which has a large, copper buckle. They tie some of the fringe of my vest in the front, in my chest, so it’s still open enough that my belt is still visible.

Looking me up and down, the lizards seem to decide that something is missing from my outfit, so one of them runs back to where all the clothes are, and comes back. She shows me what’s in her hand - a small, green barrette, with two copper beads and a long feather hanging from it. The feather is dark brown, but when I take the barrette from her and look through it, it’s almost transparent. When I hand it back to her, she pulls my hair back and uses the barrette to hold it in place.

“Hang on,” Seela looks at my outfit, and then at the lizard ladies, “if I had known that you were going to dress her up like that, I wouldn't have changed so quickly!”

The lizard ladies laugh, and go back to the area where the clothes are kept, and come back to Seela. They have her surrounded, so I can’t see what they’re giving her.

When they’re done with her, they step back, and now I can see what they’ve dressed her up in. It’s an outfit very similar to mine, except it’s red, and the beads are blue. Her top also doesn’t have sleeves. She still wears her horned rabbit skull around her neck, leaving her vest open to show it off. Her hair is only pulled back on the right side, and held into place with a red barrette above and behind her ear, where two blue beads and a transparent brown feather hang to her neck.

Seela looks pleased with herself.

“You can keep everything we’re giving you today,” says the smallest lizard, “we’ve never had foreigners win the joust before.”

Seela comes and stands next to me, and we both look in the mirror. We look like a set. The colors of our outfits are totally complementary to each other.

Then the tortoise comes again, and asks “Are they ready?”

“Your timing is impeccable!” says one of the lizard ladies, “Take them!”

So once again, we follow the tortoise out.

~~~

I’ve never been to a party like this before!

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In the center of everything is a huge fire. Surrounding the fire is reserved for dancing, and people are dancing. Some dance by themselves, some dance with one partner, and some hold hands with long strings of people. There’s a lot of jumping, stomping, and kicking involved in the dances. Off to the side, is a group of people singing, playing flutes, and banging on drums. Surrounding the dance circle are long tables full of food and drink, which everyone helps themselves to. There’s meat, flowers, fruits, cooked eggs, and big bowls of… that water from earlier! The tortoise told us that they keep a stockpile of food and drink to prepare for whenever there’s a joust. In the ring around the outside of the food tables, is where people are just eating and socializing. And in the ring outside that area, is some kind of race on the loud, two-wheeled vehicles. When we walked through there on our way in, we had to wait for an opening and run across the track. We were greeted by lots of people eating and drinking, as Seela and I made our way to the food table, where we are now, eating and drinking. I’m not as thirsty as Seela seems to be, so we share one cup, which she drinks most of.

Her eyes sparkle with the reflection of shadows dancing along the fire, with a rosey blush across her nose. I’m beginning to suspect that this water isn’t normal.

“Hey driving champ!” a group of lizard men, wearing helmet, approach us, addressing Seela, “Wanna come join the races?”

She absolutely lights up, and nods her head.

“Hana, can you take this? I’ll meet you. Uh, somewhere,” she hands me the cup, and runs off to join the lizard guys towards the race.

Watching her this happy and excited brings a smile to my lips, as she walks away.

I turn my attention to the dancers. It looks like anyone can run in and start dancing, so maybe I can join them? Continuing to observe them, I start trying to imitate some of the moves I see. The steps vary wildly in complexity. And then, I hear a voice behind me.

“Enjoying the music?”

I turn around, and the boss cat lady is there, wearing a long, sand-colored dress, completely covered in blue beads, and wearing all of her chunky blue jewelry.

I nod, “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“What are parties like where you come from? Boring?” she laughs.

I think for a second about the parties back home.

“More banners. And games. Less fire,” I tell her, my eyes going back to the dancers.

She takes my cup out of my hand, fills it, and hands it back to me. After filling a cup of her own, she raises it to me, and takes a long drink. I do the same.

Yeah, I’ve decided that this is definitely not water. I don’t know how it took me this long to realize, but this is very much not water.

“After the party, I’ll have a group take you to the world tree whenever you’d like. Can’t imagine what you’d want with it though. Damn thing just grows more thorny the closer you get to it,” she says, between sips.

“I can speak to world trees,” I tell her, “and I travel the universe talking to every planet’s world tree that I land on.”

“Ours probably won’t have anything good to say,” laughs the boss lady, “but you’ll be stuck with it a while, so I suppose it’s better to make your acquaintance sooner rather than later.”

“What do you mean by that?” I ask her.

“The gravity surrounding this planet is too strong,” she explains, “you can’t leave once you land here.”

“Have you ever tried leaving?”

“Of course I have,” she says, “everyone does. Travelers who stop here never believe us when we tell them it’s impossible. They usually die trying.”

“They’ve also never won the joust,” I comment, taking a sip of my cup. My face starts to feel warm.

She laughs, looking me up and down with a big grin.

“It really is a shame that you won. You two would’ve been such cute workers. I would’ve loved breaking you.”

Her words send a chill down my spine.

She laughs again, “But don’t worry, I’ll always honor the terms of a game.”

I feel like that shouldn’t make me feel reassured, but it does. Although to be completely honest, I’m positive that, by Seela’s and my powers combined, and even in my current state, we could easily fight our way out of here if it became necessary. Boss cat lady, along with the other cats who look like her, seem like I could rip their limbs off like the spined branches. And we’ve already established that their chain lances don’t hurt me.

We both finish our cups at about the same time. She outstretches a hand to me.

“I can teach you some of the dance moves, if you’d like,” she offers.

I nod, taking her hand, and she leads me to the dancing ring, where we spend the rest of the party. Or at least, what I can remember of it.