Whilst Valise rode the afternoon away upon Gregory, Jte had been putting the time to good use by learning the ways of the courtesans. To put it more urately, however, she’d spent those hours devoting herself to the practice of falling on her rather-lovely bum.


    “Raaargh! I’m never going to get the hang of this!”


    “The trick is in finding your bnce,” Fiona Lynn observed shortly after Jte fell over for the twenty third time in a row.


    “I can’t! It’s gone. I officially have no bnce. My bnce has upped and taken a holiday. It’s rxing on a beach somewhere, sipping margaritas, and leaving me here with two left feet.”


    “The dance of Sel-Muhra is a difficult one. Perhaps we should try something simpler.”


    “No, it’s ok, I’ll get it eventually.” Jte sighed and lifted herself to her feet once again.


    “It is a pleasure to teach a student who is so determined.” Fiona gave an encouraging smile and began to assume the pose from which the dance would begin.


    “Determined? Is that what you call it? I always thought that repeating the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was a sure sign that your head wasn’t screwed on properly.” Lydia was lounging in her usual spot in the tent, pretending to read a book.


    “I don’t remember you ever learning the Sel-Muhra, Lydia. Perhaps you’d like to show Jte how it’s done?” Fiona haughtily offered as Jte matched her pose beside her.


    “I don’t need to find my bnce, Fiona. I know I’m top-heavy.” She lifted her hand to give her barely-d breast a little squeeze and then flicked over the page in her book.


    “Too bad it’s all boobs and no brains.”


    “Boobs are more profitable in our line of work.” The corner of Lydia’s mouth twitched up into a slight smirk as she kept her eyes on her book.


    Fiona gave a long-suffering little huff before turning her head to see that Jte had taken the correct pose. She was trying to keep her bnce whilst stifling augh at the same time.


    “Don’t encourage her. Are you ready?” she asked.


    Jte nodded.Content rights by N?velDr//ama.Org.


    Fiona began the dance in a series of slow, sensual movements that showed off the woman’s feline grace to spectacr effect. At first the movements involved a series of delicate steps that were little more than a way of exhibiting the dancer’s basic form. Then the dreaded moment came that hadnded Jte on her ass so many times that day. Fiona took a deep swerve whilst bncing perfectly on one foot andunching herself upwards in a spinning leap. Her arms stretched outwards and her leg extended behind her in a perfectly executed movement before, of course, shended smoothly on her feet.


    The girl had slowed her own dance enough to watch Fiona’s disy, hoping that she might find some clue as to how the hell the cat-woman did it withoutnding on her furry behind. Part of it was controlling the breathing, she’d figured that out after the fifth attempt. Most of the trick, however, was in mastering a sudden drastic shift in her centre of gravity. Because of this, it was damn near impossible to do the move slowly and with any degree of consideration. Fiona’s body seemed to defy thews of physics in demonstrating it for her.


    In an effort to keep her concentration, Jte closed her eyes and simply allowed herself to study her own body from within. She began the swerve that would lower herself like a coiled spring and then flung herself into the move with all her strength. Her arms extended outwards with a smooth poise and she lifted her left leg up behind her as the shift in her centre came. The rush of the air on her face spilled her bright red mane across her cheeks, letting her feel almost as if she was flying. Then came the tricky part as her upper body threatened to shift her out of bnce and she had to adjust her arms and legs ordingly.


    No. That’s what she’d been doing all afternoon and it had gotten her nowhere. The fear of failure always made her flop her limbs about like a beached octopus and she always ended up falling down. Instead, she focused on the foot that was pointed to the ground and shifted it slightly, guessing where her centre would be when she hit the floor again. Much to her surprise, it worked! She found her footing straight away and followed the smooth twist she’d made in the air back onto her feet, controlling her bnce and then finally bringing her limbs back to the starting pose.


    She opened her eyes, found herself still upright, blinked, and then lifted her arms into the air to let out a victory cry.


    “Woohoo!”


    “That was, um, that was very good. Though you might want to try to learn how to do it with your eyes open,” Fiona said whilst trying to stifle some rather insistent giggles.


    Not quite knowing what was so funny about her moment of triumph, Jte turned to see Lydia sitting upright having been very recently covered in a jug of scented oil. It had quite obviously been kicked off its stand by the twirling dancer’s protege. The gorgeous curves of the lovely courtesan had turned glossy with the stuff and arge portion of her russet coloured hair was drenched with it.


    “Oh!” Jte’s eyes widened, “I’m really sorry! I, er-” Jte was interrupted however as Fiona’s willpower broke and she burst outughing at her oiled-up friend.


    “See? She’s not nearly as dignified as she’d like you to believe.” Lydia grumbled as she watched Fiona fall onto her back in a severe fit of the giggles.


    “Can I help?” Jte reached out to help Lydia try to save the remnants of her book but was halted as the woman raised a hand for her to stop.


    “I think that’s enough dancing for today. You can go tell Rook to run me a bath, if you don’t mind?”


    “S-sure. I really am sorry.”


    “That’s alright dear, now if you’ll excuse us, your teacher is about to get sshed.” Lydia flicked her hand and sent a sttering of oil across Fiona’s face. This quickly got the giggling woman’s attention and she tried to slip out of the way.


    “No, no, no!” Fiona cried out betweenughs whilst Lydia charged at her, quickly tackling the woman and sharing her plight of being oiled up.


    Jte lifted her fingers to her lips and silently thanked the heavens that Gregory wasn’t there. From the way that Lydia and Fiona were rolling around with each other, he wouldn’t have been able to put on his pants for a week without sporting a notable prow.


    She left the writhing courtesans to theirughter and went in search of Rook. He was a skinny young man who had never quite grown out of his e despite being in his early twenties. In all the time they’d met before, Rook had gawped at her like he hadn’t eaten in a decade and she was a chocte sundae. Still, he was a decent sort and she was prancing about the ce in her underwear so that type of thing was to be expected. After picking up her cloak and casting it over her shoulders, she stepped out into the camp and saw him straight away. Upon hearing that Lydia wanted a bath, he nodded vigorously and hurried off to set to the task.