[...PHEAR MY UNCREATIVE THREAD TITLE!]
The night was cool if slightly humid from the thunder clouds some monsoon of the coast pushed inland, but it was still a welcome change from the dry, scorching heat of the day, even if Aidan had lived his whole life in it. Heh. Aidan. Judging by his name and looks, it was hard to believe that he'd been born and raised in the desert community of Hasrak, but truth be told, he had. It was his parents who weren't native--according to his adoptive parents, while his father had never been around, his mother had been an explorer from Serendipity, a strong woman who hadn't even let her pregnancy get in the way of her passion, but she had been bitten by a venomous snake during her visit and left him behind. Kind of an anti-climatic way to go out, but things happened, and he had been adopted by some friends of hers after the incident. They were all the family he knew or needed.
Even if he didn't look it. His jaw-length hair was red, his eyes were blue, and his skin was naturally pretty light, though the desert sun had long since darkened him. He wasn't the only person of foreign heritage among them, though. He was one of the few that did fire dancing, though, an artform he'd been training in ever since it was discovered that he had a natural ability to conjure fire.
As if it somehow made the dance any easier. Heh. He'd been doing it since he was seventeen and he still sometimes screwed up, though he had yet to catch an audience member on fire. That, luckily, had been reserved for himself. He was in no way perfect, he had his off days, but he liked to think he was pretty damned decent if he'd managed to work his way up to performing in the palace with the others, even if he was still considered a newbie by his superiors.
Eventually he'd work his way up. It was what he loved to do, and he was dedicated.
Like all nights in which no performances were scheduled, Aidan left the city and came out into the desert to practice on his own. With the city behind him and miles and miles of sand and shrubs spreading out ahead of him, he staked out a nice, open space free of any nearby bushes to practice. Stripping off his loose, thin shirt and setting it down on the sand--still, of course, wearing light breeches that went down a little past his knees--he checked his sandals to make sure they were firmly laced up his shins and then collected the instruments he used for the dance. They were two long chains, one for each hand, from which a ball dangled at the end, and he grasped the chains loosely in his fingers, arms at his sides, and took a deep breath, clearing his mind of other distractions and running a routine through his head.
Then he lifted the chains, conjured a bit of fire to ignite each sphere, and began the dance, twirling the chains rapidly about him, the fire at the end creating the illusion that he was surrounded by flame as it arced through the air, occassionally licking at his bare skin, though it was moving far too fast to harm him. He fell easily into each form, running through all the simple ones first before gradually increasing the difficulty, throwing in a few twists, more footwork, and backbends--the backbends were his nemesis--as he worked the chains, circling them around his body, crossing them before ad behind him, and working them into various aesthetical patterns, including one that gave the illusion of flaming butterfly wings. So far, so good...
Eventually, he would work his way up, throw more fire into the mix once he was properly warmed up. That was one of the things he was currently working on--other more experienced dancers would create showers of sparks around them, or conjure up a wall of fire about them that would rise and fall as they danced, and other such things. That took a lot of concentration and coordination, though, and Aidan was still a long way from mastering that. So, for now, he just focused on his warm ups, sweat beginning to bead along his skin from both the heat of the fire and the heat of the desert air.
[The things he's using are called "poi", but...I didn't wanna call 'em that because...they're <strike>Hawaiian I believe </strike> Maori and it didn't sound very deserty. XDDD Ah! I love fire dancing. Best friend's sister is doing it, and it's so fun. XD]
