In front of Silas, the two girls continued talking to each other as if nothing had happened. He could tell from their flushed faces and goofy smiles that they had been drinking too much.

“I had never seen a boy like that...”

“Those eyes... that shape...”

“His hair... He looks like a lion!”

“He has a wild look!”

Silas' heart had stopped wondering if he had been found out. For a moment he thought he was about to lose control of his body and turn into a mouse, something he would have actually preferred at that moment because that would mean he hadn't lost his power.

But nothing of the sort happened.

“Is he an elf?” one of the girls asked.

Silas gave them both an outraged look. No! Anything but an elf!

“Of course not, silly,” answered the other one. “Elves can't leave the forest, it would be impossible.”

“But he's so...!”

“What's your name?” asked one of them as they were getting closer. “We've never seen you here before.”

“Are you one of the actors? We didn't see you on stage! Where were you hiding all this time?”

Silas tried to avoid them, but they continued to follow him. He had to turn around, fearing that they would follow him back to the inn. The only thing he could think of at that moment was to scream and run away.

“Olivia!”

Even though he had shown that he wanted nothing to do with them, the two girls followed him, bursting out laughing.

“Olivia!”

He felt ridiculous as he searched for her, but she was the only one who could get him out of that mess.

He found her near one of the bonfires where the couples were dancing.

“Olivia!”

She looked at him in confusion.

“Silas... what's wrong?”

“They...” Silas pointed at the girls who were holding their stomachs so hard they were laughing. “They won't leave me alone! Tell them to go away!”

Olivia looked at him in surprise for a moment and, to top it all, let out an abrupt burst of laughter. Silas couldn't stand the indignation any longer, and was about to turn around and go back to the inn, but she stopped him.

“Don't listen to them. They're just having fun. Enjoy yourself, it's a party!”

“They're making fun of me!”

“No... they're not...”

“But they're laughing!”

“You just don't realize...”

“What am I supposed to realize?”

“Silas... you...” Olivia held her hands to her head as if she was about to say something that was very hard for her.

What the hell was wrong with the female humans? None of the men behaved like this with him.

“What? What's wrong with me?”

“Nothing, Silas... there's nothing wrong with your face, quite the opposite.”

He frowned, he didn't believe her at all, she must be teasing him too.

“Don't listen to them. At some point they'll get tired and leave you alone,” Olivia insisted.

“I can't stand it, make them stop right now.”

Olivia watched the giggling girls, and then sighed wearily.

“I don't think they'll listen to me if I ask them to. But I know a way to get them to leave you alone.”

“What should I do?”

She hesitated for a moment before answering.

“First of all... hold out your hand to me as if you were going to ask me for something.”

“Like this?” Silas asked, doing as she said and putting his hand palm up.

“Good,” in response she put her hand on top of his.

Silas felt a strange yet warm sensation that started in his hand and ran through his whole body. It must have been the bonfire.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She ignored the question.

“Now lead me over there,” she pointed with her eyes to the dancing couples.

Suddenly, Silas understood what she was asking and let go of her hand.

“Are you serious?”

She gave him a bored look, and raised her hands as if she didn't care.

“If you don't want to, it's fine. I was just trying to help.”

“And why would they leave me alone if I do this?”

“They'll see me dance with you, and they'll get bored.”

She spoke as if it was something obvious. Humans had a funny way of thinking.

“Why?” he asked.

Olivia shrugged.

“Girls are like that.”

“It doesn't make sense. Besides... I don't know how to do that...”

“Dance?”

“Yes, that.”

Just do the same thing they are doing.”

“They're just jumping up and down.”

“So let's do that. I don't have much practice either. My father never held balls in Shadowrock... though the servants would throw the occasional party... and Eldrin instructed me that I should learn to dance by the time I...” Olivia shook her head. “Just ask me to dance, you'll be fine.”

She did nothing, however. Silas looked back at the girls, and saw that they had been joined by a few more who had approached out of curiosity. The first two who had started it all were pointing at the boy. If that continued, the number would increase, and they would attract everyone's attention.

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So he held out his hand to Olivia, and she motioned for him to lead her to the dance floor. Now he felt an uncomfortable sensation in his hand, as if it had become wet. That first form of his was disgusting. No wonder his elders despised it so much.

Already very close to the dancing couples, and trying not to bump into any of them, Olivia continued to give him instructions.

“Now, put your other hand on my waist.”

The boy curled his fingers as if he was about to capture a poisonous snake, and placed his hand on Olivia's waist. It felt even weirder.

At that precise moment he started to feel something strange in his stomach, as if the food had made him unwell. Surely he was about to get sick, there was no other explanation.

She put her other hand on his shoulder. They were too close, almost as close as when they had slept for days inside the tree. He could almost feel her breath on his face.

“This is weird,” he said, holding his breath.

“This is how we humans dance.”

“Are you sure?”

“Just look at the others.”

Silas did and, indeed, she was right.

“Hey, you two!” that was Elyssa's voice, who was already dancing as her siblings who circled around the bonfire with their respective partners. “What are you waiting for?”

“I think we're ready,” nodded Olivia, however, even though it had been her idea, she didn't seem very convinced.

Silas lowered his gaze and wrinkled his lips.

“Don't worry, it's normal to be nervous,” said Olivia.

“Who's nervous?” Silas swallowed. “You're nervous!”

She rolled her eyes.

“Just follow the music and let yourself go,” she said.

“What does that mean?”

“Turn with me.”

“How foolish...” said Silas, but more foolish was standing there doing nothing in the middle of all the couples spinning non-stop.

He did as she instructed.

“You move like a rabbit,” Olivia told him. “Just follow the rhythm.”

“I'm following the rhythm.”

“Try not to step on my foot,” she complained.

“Why are you upset? This was your idea!”

They continued to hop around without moving much from their place. Silas looked out of the corner of his eye in the direction of the girls who had laughed at him, but now they seemed to have forgotten as they were no longer there. Meanwhile the other couples continued to dance around, making them look as lost as two leaves swept by the strong current of a river.

Olivia sighed, and a slight blush lit up her cheeks.

“Forget it, you're so ungrateful. This is my first dance... I can't believe I'm wasting it on you. I just wanted to help.”

But when she tried to break away, he held her back. He didn't understand why, but he felt his pride hurt. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't perform something as simple as that meaningless dance. He couldn't let the humans beat him.

She raised her eyes to him, surprised.

“Wait,” said Silas. “It can't be that hard.”

He looked again at the rest of the couples. It was not the first time he had been in that situation. It was not so different from when he had learned to adopt his other forms. The mice moved fast and stealthy, with small zigzags that allowed them to dodge any obstacle and seek shelter in tiny places. The foxes' agile and flexible bodies advanced with light and graceful steps, their ears and eyes alert to any detail that would allow them to capture their prey. The cats' movements were fluid and precise, as they walked on tiptoe, their tails raised in a perfect curve, pausing every now and then to survey their surroundings, ready to pounce at surprising speed. The dogs jogged briskly at a steady, determined pace, their tails wagging playfully, following their masters with enthusiasm, but always alert to any suspicious movement.

And the humans, well... the humans were hard to describe. Not a single one moved the same way. They were unpredictable. They moved all over the place with no fixed direction. Their hands would intertwine and let go, they would change their posture without ceasing to turn. Their steps were varied, some twirled gracefully, others seemed more clumsy, but that didn't seem to matter and they continued dancing with smiling faces. They acted carefree, as if nothing bad weighed on them, as if they had forgotten the rest of the world, as if they were free.

He felt a twinge of envy. He had never felt like that.

There was a knot inside him, Thalassa had said, a knot that was holding him back, and until he untied it he could not be all he wanted to be.

He didn't yet know how to untie it, but, at least for a moment, he would like to pretend it didn't exist.

“Silas?” Olivia looked at him with a worried face. “Are you all right?”

He shook his head, and closed his eyes.

Follow the music, she had told him.

He began to sway from side to side doing little jumps following the rhythm of the drums. She went along with his movements, though then gave him a little squeeze on the shoulder to tell him to start turning. At first they turned on the same spot and then, little by little, continued to move around the dance floor right along with the other couples.

Suddenly, everything turned blurred. The faces around them became distorted, the bodies darkened to shadows in the backlight of the bonfire, and the lights stretched out like golden threads wrapped around them.

The only thing he could recognize was Olivia's face. To keep from getting dizzy, he focused on her sea-blue eyes that stared at him as steadily as he must have been staring at her. Like the rumbling of a drum, his heartbeat pounded inside his chest as if it wanted to escape and fly away like a bird.

At some point, he realized that he could barely feel his legs. It was as if they had learned to move on their own, of their own volition, separate from his mind. It was a sensation similar to floating on the water, although in this case he felt as if his body was going to be catapulted at any moment and be launched into the starry sky. He had always wanted to fly, to feel the wind beneath his wings, and this dance was the closest thing to that. He felt light, like a feather.

Olivia must have been feeling the same because she started to laugh. But that laugh wasn't like the ones before it. She had many ways to laugh, from the shyest, to the loudest. Genuine or fake. Some mocking, some even sad... He had kept a record of each one, nothing more than as part of his research on humans, of course. That laughter, however, sounded relaxed, almost sleepy, as if she, also, was about to drift off into the night breeze.

Then he saw it.

A red blur amidst all the confusion of light and shadow.

A wizard watching them.

Silas' mind came back to earth. His feet tangled together, and he fell to the ground, also dragging Olivia who fell on top of him. From the floor, he saw the stars spinning madly and several feet almost kicking him in the face. Despite being so close to the fire, his body turned cold as if he had been left lying in the snow.

Olivia was as stunned as he was, and she took a long time to get up. Meanwhile, he lay stiffly on his back, his heart pounding, waiting for the red tunic that had come for him.

He clenched his fists.

“I want to be a mouse, I want to be a mouse, please, let me be a mouse,” he whispered.

“Silas, what happened?” Olivia asked, and felt his warm hand on her face.

“Are you all right?” Celestia, Elyssa and Alder had come over, and helped Silas stand up.

“He's had too much to drink,” Alder said.

Silas had barely taken that one sip he had to spit out, but he felt perhaps as groggy as the rest of the drunks. His legs were shaking like two twigs about to snap.

He was afraid. He didn't want to admit it, but he was afraid of being caught again. This time he had no way to escape, he was limited by that cursed body.

Even though he had tried, it was impossible to forget. He was not a human, he did not belong there.

He dropped down on Olivia who barely managed to hold his heavy body, and took the opportunity to speak to her in whispers so the others wouldn't hear.

“Olivia, do you see the wizard?”

“Wizard?” Olivia's head turned slowly. “I don't see one. Where did you see him?”

“I don't know, we were spinning...”

“Alder, can you hold him?” Olivia asked the other boy, and Silas reluctantly let him assist.

“We'd better take him to the inn,” said Alder and so he did, helped by Olivia and his sisters.

They crossed the entrance and looked for the room where Silas was to sleep with Alder and a pair of other boys from the group. They laid him down on one of the beds, and Olivia asked them to leave them alone for a moment.

Alder pursed his lips, but he said he was going back to the party anyway. On the other hand, Celestia and Elyssa gave them teasing looks before saying goodbye.

Olivia had wet a cloth, and was now wiping it over her face. The heat had returned to his body in the manner of a sudden, suffocating fever.

“I didn't see any wizards,” she finally told him.

Silas took a deep breath, and gasped.

“I'm sure I did.”

“I'm not saying there wasn't one. Actually, that would be a good thing, because it means he walked away without realizing you were a chimera. The talisman is working!”

“I don't know why I reacted that way,” Silas thought, although then he realized he had said it out loud because Olivia answered him.

“It took you by surprise, it's normal. We danced too much... I also felt...” she smiled. “In the end you turned out to be a good dancer.”

“I can't take it anymore,” he said barely paying attention to her words and taking the cloth from her hand to cover his entire face with it.

“We must be patient, we are getting closer.”

“We could already be arriving at the island if it weren't for the fact that I was unable to maintain the new form that the sirenians gifted to me.”

“There is no point in lamenting now.”

“I hate this form so much.”

“You don't look bad at all. You saw how the girls acted. You're actually very...”

“I don't care what they think or even what you think. I'm a chimera, I need to transform. I can't go on like this, I feel so miserable.”

“I thought you were enjoying the dance...”

“I was just pretending, I wanted to forget about my problems for a while.”

She sighed.

“I understand...”

There was a long silence until she spoke again.

“Do you want me to stay or...?”

“I'd rather you left. I want to be alone.”

“All right.”

He heard her feet dragging on the floor and then the door opening and closing.

Feeling cold again, he threw off the cloth and tried to wrap himself in the blankets.

The silence in the room grew heavier. Rumors of the party still reached him from afar, as he tried to quiet the flood of thoughts that kept him from sleeping.