The days passed quickly as new people arrived and got adjusted into my ever expanding dungeon, with each individual registering as my dungeon inhabitants in their own time.

The place is fully decorated now with winter patterned macramé and woven vines all around all the major rooms and several of the private rooms.

Everyone seems to have completed their ensembles for the dance and many have created instruments to play music on during the dance.

They are all enjoying a hearty meal tonight as the dance is tomorrow and they plan to have the dance dispersed all throughout the day and all throughout the night.

They will have the talent shows as intermissions to give the musicians a break from playing music and let the dancers rest their feet.

Also the adults will be taking turns sneaking off to mate with each other without the children being aware.

It felt like a good yet exciting night and even with the handful of restless people it still lead into an early morning wake up call.

Dressing up in their winter fur dress and suits and decorative touches made of carved wood, metal, and bone as well as winter seasonal flowers.

The adults who finished getting themselves ready first started transferring the many foods and drinks to the dining area of the ballroom.

Following suit shortly afterward were the musicians who quickly set up their instruments along the stage before everyone else finished gathering to eat their first Winter Festival meal of the day.

Everyone seemed to chatter more than usual as conversations were filled with compliments about each other’s apparel and what songs they each hoped would be played while they dance with their partners.

The meal didn’t last as long as I thought it would as I noticed many people ate less than usual and only a few ate more than normal.

Music started playing and the ladies all went to sit on the bench’s where they would wait to be asked to dance by their partner’s.

The first group that participated as dancers were all the adult couples who already had children, since they were guaranteed to dance with each other and so they can finish their dance and disperse to other tasks that support the dance.

Watching as they paired off with each other one at a time from oldest to youngest of their group they danced to some local songs that celebrated their many years together and the many memories they made together and the hope for them to enjoy many more years and memories together.

Once they finished then they dispersed to keep the food in top conditions and keep the place tidy, as well as swapping out some of the musicians.

One couple from that group was the first to sneak back to their room to mate all the while they were sharing their hopes for a new child to welcome into their family.

The importance of having children seems to be so high that I am surprised that there aren’t many more then there is already.

The next group were the already paired up adults who don’t have children yet, they excitedly dance to music and songs that encourage them to work together through thick and thin as well as songs full of hope for their future together and where they hope for it to take them.

I noticed that they seem to have decided upon the songs for each group to go with some sort of important meaning that they want their dances to convey to their partners.

A short break for the musicians and some changes with whose doing what as well as the return of the ones that snuck off to swap out with the next pair from their group.

Since there’s enough people moving around to distract the children from noticing too much, each grouping will have a couple sneak out at a time and they will notify the next couple of their group upon their return to swap out.

The singles group is next starting from the oldest single male asking for his choice of partner and going on until to the youngest mature male makes their attempt.

This group is the first to receive any refusals from the ladies that are asked to dance and although there’s not many the ones that were unlucky enough to be refused they will end up having to wait until after the children start their dance.

I decided that technically I am the youngest of this group since I don’t think I count as a child but I am also really the youngest here too.

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They were about to start the groups dance session in earnest with the youngest of their males receiving their dance partner when I decided to reveal my surprise.

I started raising my tendrils out of the dungeon floor where the men had stood before approaching the ladies to ask for the dance.

I didn’t form it up as quickly as possible partly to make it more dramatic as I make my entrance known.

I expanded my two main tendrils and made them branch out in a the right places and then I made a show of having them quickly intertwine perfectly snapping into place to make a humanoid figure.

I then made smooth clay coat it and then I used moss to make pseudo cloths and I used the new glowing mana grass as hair.

By now everyone has noticed what I am doing and the place had gone quiet in what they were witnessing and as I finished I made my figurine act as if it was walking over to Luna, I made the ground slide around my tendrils and made the correct gestures to ask for a dance from Luna.

I still can’t talk and unfortunately I can’t make a notification to send her my message but I have the perfect solution as I use the face area to make a ring of just noticeable stalagtights and clay lumps.

Letting Luna see it clearly before I add a larger clay lump in the center and then clearing it I then made a stalagtight in the center before clearing it again, all just to ask her yes or no for the dance.

Luna reached out to hold my out reached tendril hand as she laughs with delight that fills me to the brim with joy!

Luna, “Well if this isn’t a surprise I couldn’t have even hoped for, just how did you come up with something so creative!

Of course I will dance with you!”

Her announcing her response seemed to restart the festivities of music and dance that had paused during my display, so I lead her over to the best area for me to be able to move around for our dance.

My figure and Luna get many interesting reactions from the surrounding people but I don’t mind as I find their reactions to be amusing in many cases.

Luna on the other hand seems to have become quite flushed from it as the rose pink shows up splendidly upon her tan skin.

We started our dance and I unfortunately discovered a miscalculation on my part that I failed to notice in all of my secret practice sessions.

With me having to shift the ground around my tendrils to move my pseudo legs, it’s also effecting the ground underneath Luna’s feet too!!!

I keep tripping her up on accident even as I try my best to limit the surface I effect making her stumble over and over again as I have to catch her repeatedly to avoid her falling down!!!

I feel so embarrassed and I start getting flustered and nervous that I might have accidentally made her night worse than her not having a dance partner in the first place.

Luna looks quite flustered as well, as she also realizes the problem, but to my surprise she started laughing instead of getting upset at me!?!

I remake a questioning circle around my figures face region as I don’t understand her reaction and I want to know what I should do.

Luna, “I don’t know what exactly I was expecting but this seems to be quite the predicament that we have gotten ourselves into!

(giggles)

But why don’t we just make the best of it for now….. let’s try having me keep my feet planted and see if you can just try moving the surface to mimic what my steps should be to go along with yours.”

I try and I find that I have to keep the ground around us as mailable clay for it to work out as letting it become stone kept leading it to breaking and cracking as I moved our footings in contrasting directions at times.

We start to get the hang of it as our groups songs about new beginning and the start of a new chapter in life as well as hope for something more to continue, wraps up.

The children all start their dancing to songs that all seem to be about the joy of being young and having fun in life, and appreciating the little moments that they can have together and some simply silly but catchy songs that seem to be more about the easy to dance to cadence of lyrics and music.

The children are very care free in there dances a some just hold hands and run around or jump in circles with one or more partners as they don’t seem to care about rhythm or elegance like any of the older inhabitants.

The cutest by far definitely has to be the three and four year old human and water deer beast-kin that simply hugs each other and rocks each other from side to side without really going anywhere.

The last few bachelors and bachelorettes pair up with each other until all the available ladies were gone and the sad remaining men resigned themselves to taking up other roles for those who aren’t dancing.

By now multiple couples have snuck off and returned from the many locations that have been used for these matting escapades, not just the bedrooms but locations including the gardens, pools, bathrooms and even the kitchen and prison have been used by these intimate couples.

This observation has really broadened my original understanding of the matting process as before everyone mainly kept it in their bedrooms but now it seems to be in all sorts of places and in all sorts of ways.

More breaks are being taken now and the talent shows are acting as intermissions between the waves of music and dancing.

All sorts of talents are shared from knife throwing and archery to juggling and bird calls, even little puppet shows and funny little skits and jokes are done for everyones enjoyment.

Luna made commentary on things that she believes I wouldn’t know about, which I greatly appreciated as even though my responses are very limited I still enjoy her spending time to explain things to me.

Granted with all do respect sometimes I just like listening to the sound of her voice regardless of what she is actually saying, I don’t ignore what she’s saying as I usually give her the majority of my focus.

The talent show takes a break for everyone to return to dancing or eating which from what I understand is how the day is going to continue.

By alternating between dancing and talent shows they can change people out from the musicians position and give the dancers a break, also having it where everyone can wonder off to eat the banquet of food whenever they get hungry or thirsty.

It makes it feel like there is a lot more going on than just having the dancing in the first half and the talent shows for the rest of the day.

Things seem to be going very well as people are enjoying themselves all over my dungeon and I am learning so much from this experience that I am looking forward to my time with Luna even more than before.