November stopped, surprised, when Idrial mentioned family. Though the hint of sorrow in her voice wasn\'t lost on him, what she said was odd enough for him to forget about that - if he would have even cared in the first place. "Family?" he repeated, the word sounding almost as though it were unfamiliar to him. November turned his head to look curiously back at her. Yes, that was right; people like Idrial grew up with a mother, a father and so on. They had families, small groups bonded together by love and blood. It was so strange a thought! "It\'s... December\'s not..." November said, struggling with his words in an effort to explain something that was probably very, very foreign to Idrial. It was rare that the young cait sith found himself at a loss for words, but this had done it.
The white-haired boy licked his lips, narrowing his eyes as he thought. "It\'s not about... family. We don\'t... have those. December is just... special," November said slowly. He\'d never really thought of the closeness he had with his brother as due to the fact he was his brother. Sure, they were related by blood, but that meant little to nothing in terms of closeness. The bond he and December shared was incidental, and it didn\'t really relate to the fact that they were brothers. After all, November had a mother who was probably somewhere around here, a father who he\'d never met (and who\'s species he didn\'t know) and he didn\'t care about either of them. November doubted either of his parents cared about him either.
November simply nodded at Idrial\'s response. That all made sense to him, easily. Nighttime was better than daytime, clearly, just as winter was better than summer. The only place they differed was in the torture. November played vicious games with people, but he never really tortured people to death. When it came time to kill, November simply went for it. It was part of his nature as a hunter, perhaps, combined with his nature as a feline.
Hmph... She asked, November thought when Idrial asked about the food. He hadn\'t wanted to tell her a thing, but she\'d asked so directly... And furthermore, she was an apprentice of his house. It wasn\'t her that he feared, but what she might do to him was uncertain. Though I could always simply... leave, November reasoned, flicking the tip of his tail back and forth as he thought. In the end, he decided it wasn\'t really worth the trick. After all, Idrial might be worth something to the Academy. "Don\'t touch it," November answered, his words brief but to the point. It wasn\'t that she would never be able to return so much as her relation to time in the real world would be lost. November could travel back and forth safely, but the passing of time in the Realms was very different from the passing of time on Earth. For a mortal to get so close to the pulse of the Realms would make things more difficult later. Though she\'ll probably be fine tonight, and with me... November thought. He decided not to share that part.
"Let\'s dance!" November exclaimed suddenly, grabbing Idrial\'s wrist and twisting. The disappeared from where they were, then popped back into existence near the stage where the Moorfolk were playing.
The music, plenty enchanting before, was downright powerful down here. The beats of the drums a beat that pulsed through veins, minds, souls and perhaps even time itself. It turned those close to it from individuals to representations of ages long past and ages yet to come, into a single, pulsing, wild entity. The dancers were supremely unconcerned with how they looked, or how others looked. Bodies rubbed together, and it meant nothing, or everything. The beat raced on, disregarding the people dancing to it.
November fell into the movement instantly, his movements fluid and wild. It was an expression of every cait sith who had ever lived and ever would. Some of the dances seemed oddly scripted, though no dance among the Sidhe ever was. It was almost as though the consciousnesses of everyone present had merged, resulting in eerily synchronised movements.
Above all, though, it was beautiful, demanding and irresistible...