Chapter Three: Dances With the Unknown

While the man in the green mask and I danced, we had a conversation. We asked questions like, "Do you have any siblings?", "Where did you come from?", "What's your favorite color?", etc. etc.. The conversation was nice, and his answers seemed so familiar but I couldn't figure out who he was during our dance. Then we had to switch partners. I ended up with a man in an intricate black and gold mask. I saw that my old partner was now with Mira. They seemed to be having a good time. I turned back to my partner and started a conversation. It was quite pleasant. He seemed to be very well read and intelligent because when I accidentally said something in my native language, he responded in that exact one. It was quite exciting since no one really knows how to speak Metiophian. We had a very witful conversation, filled with laughs and smiles. We had to switch partners once more afterwards. I then moved on to another person. I danced with men with blue, purple, gold, maroon, like me, silver, and yellow. They were all quite diverse. For instance, the blue masked one once when on a sailing expedition and came back with thousands of pounds of glimmering gold. This made his kingdom the third richest in all of the land. I was quite impressed. "So you can sail?" He replied with a very detailed reply on how to operate a ship and a crew to have everything work in a flawless manner. It was actually quite fascinating. The gold masked man told me he was chased by crowds of girls because of his superb performing skills as well as his very charming looks. "I'll bet you'll even fall for what's behind the mask," he once teased during our conversation. To which I replied, "No, I'd care more about your personality rather than your looks. The looks would just be a bonus." He was a bit speechless to that, and then broke out laughing. I soon joined him. The maroon man told me he was abused by his old fiance. I comforted him and told him that he would find the perfect woman for him someday. He smiled gratefully and then pretended to trip on my toes. This lightened the mood around us drastically."Ouch!" I exclaimed. Then he'd laugh and his eyes would have a mischievous glint for the rest of the dance as we kept getting back at one another for stepping on each others' toes and bumping into each other on purpose. I deduced that he was one of those "flirty, teasing men". The man with the purple mask was very sarcastic. If I accidentally let out an unintelligent statement, he'd scoff and use sarcasm to make me feel flustered. I could tell he quite enjoyed doing that to me. To counter his remarks, I'd have to come up with something more sarcastic. We'd have a good laugh afterwards and talk about music, something we discovered we had in common. During our dance, we'd sing together with the music. It was a perfect harmony, surprisingly. The silver man was very motherly, with the broadest shoulders ever. Whenever I'd stumble, for I am quite clumsy, he'd hurriedly ask if I was okay. I'd reply that I was and we'd continue dancing. He seemed really tense and shy. "Hey," I said, "you can talk to me, you know. I don't bite, I promise." Silver man laughed in reply and eased up a bit. He then told me a joke. "Why was the king only a foot tall?"

"Why?"

"Because he was a RULER." He laughed at his own joke. It was adorable, honestly. I thought it was pretty funny too, so I laughed along with him. Jokes and witty comments to go with them took up most of the rest of our conversation. I then had to move on to the man with the yellow mask. He was shyer than the silver man. His face was flushed a bright red. When I greeted him, he stuttered out, "H-hel-llo…" Then we'd have an awkward atmosphere. I kept attempting to have a conversation with him. Eventually, we came upon a topic which he seemed really animate about. It was the fabled hero, Ranulphus the Young. His eyes sparkled like a little kid as he expressed his admiration for him and how he was his idol. He wished to be as noble, kind, courageous, and handsome as him. I told him he seemed pretty much like him. When he was surprised and how I'd know, since I barely knew him and he didn't really talk to me, I responded with, "I can see it in your eyes. Plus, my gut instinct is pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'm pretty good at reading people, even if they're behind a mask and barely talk to me."

He chuckled at that, and finally opened up to me. We talked and had a lot of fun. Considering this was our last dance, we tried to make it the best.

It was an amazing night overall. The best part was at the end of the ball, when all the guests would take off their masks and reveal themselves. I was really excited for that, for it was finally time to know with whom I've had my dances with the unknown.