Page 33 of Stalk the Sky

Both Stickyfingers and Lije punched Pretty Face’s shoulders. Pretty Face winced, trying to rub both shoulders at once. “What?”

Pip rolled her eyes. Pretty Face sure was in a mood tonight. “Yes, there are. But don’t bother with your smarmy flirting. You won’t get any farther than you would with the female troll warriors. Not with that beard.”

“What’s wrong with my beard? It’s considered quite stylish in Escarland.” Pretty Face rubbed a hand over the meticulously trimmed and sculpted beard on his chin.

“Stylish in Escarland, maybe. But for dwarves, a small beard is worse than no beard at all.” Pip grinned, perhaps a little too gleeful about that. She could just imagine her muka and brother Mak hassling Pretty Face for his little sissy beard.

“Huh.” Pretty Face rubbed a hand over his chin, as if contemplating what he should do with his beard. Keep it to appeal to Escarlish women or shave it to flirt with dwarven women.

Pip shook her head and trotted to catch up with Fieran’s long strides. She reached his side just as Merrik pulled open the door at the end of this corridor.

As soon as the door swung open, the reverberation of voices thundered from inside the large space on the far side.

This was one of many doors that led into the large arena built deep underground. The stone had been carved into a large, domed ceiling above tiers upon tiers of benches. Sand covered the floor of the arena in the middle where the monthly fighting bouts were held. Many of the troll warriors stationed at Dar Goranth scheduled various training sessions here, so it was rare that the arena wasn’t in use by someone.

Tonight, though, a large white sheet had been stretched across a stand on one end of the arena. Ropes marked the places to sit to see the screen.

Many trolls and humans already packed into the tiers of seats. A few dwarves had even managed to get there early enough to claim the first few rows on the left-hand side.

“There.” Fieran pointed slightly to the left.

Tiny stood up, waving. In the rows above and below him, most of the other flyboys in Flight B clustered on the benches, but the row beside Tiny remained empty.

Merrik was already halfway down the row in that direction, and Pip followed, edging down the narrow aisle. Many of the troll warriors were so bulky that their shoulders and elbows filled the aisle as they sat at the very end of their rows to pack in as many people as possible.

“It’s a good thing Tiny saved us seats.” Fieran’s voice came from directly behind Pip.

“Yes.” Pip reached the row Tiny had saved and followed Merrik into it. Who knew a showing of an Escarlish moving picture starring an elf would be so popular?

When she sat down, she found herself wedged between Merrik and Fieran. Even though Tiny had saved seats, the benches were crowded enough that they all had to cram so close together that she tucked her elbows to her sides to avoid bumping arms with Fieran and Merrik. Lije, Pretty Face, and Stickyfingers crowded in on the other side of Fieran.

As they settled in, Lije glanced around, then leaned closer to Fieran. “I don’t see any elves besides the three of you.” He gestured at Fieran, Pip, and Merrik. “You’d think the elves would like a moving picture starring an elf.”

“Well, the Star Forest movies aren’t exactly historically or culturally accurate, so some elves can be bothered by that.” Fieran shrugged, his movement knocking his arm into Pip’s. “The elven nobility especially.”

“Not all of us are so stuffy.” Aylia’s voice came from the aisle. Pip’s elven roommate halted next to the end of their row, her long brown hair flowing around her shoulders. “Is there room for me?”

“Sure.” Pretty Face scooched over so fast that Stickyfingers was squashed against Lije.

As everyone shifted down, Pip lost the little room she had. She was all too aware of the way her side pressed against Fieran.

Fieran, of course, seemed utterly oblivious.

Just as well. It was bad enough fighting her slight attraction to him without him acting like anything more than a friend toward her.

Aylia gave Pretty Face a stern glare before she sank onto the bench. She leaned forward to speak past him. “The amount of stone does not help either. Many of my squadron mates are not willing to brave the possible headache to watch a moving picture.”

“This would not be a comfortable room for most full elves.” Next to Pip, Merrik’s quiet addition to the conversation was nearly drowned out by the general hubbub of the room.

Still, Aylia must have heard, for she nodded, pulling out the stone she wore on a cord around her neck. “Exactly. We all have our healing stones to keep the headaches and other physical symptoms at bay, but even the healing stones do not erase all the weight of so much surrounding stone.”

Merrik nodded, all too grave.

Did he, too, feel the pressure of the stone around them? While she was half-elf, Pip had never felt the weight of stone the way her dacha described it.

The lights in the large training arena dimmed as the bright light of the projector flared. As the murmuring voices faded, the clicking, whirling sound of the reel spinning in the projector echoed through the room. The first strains of the music blared scratchy from the phonograph.

The title page of the moving picture came to life on the white sheet, announcing they were watching Star Forest and the Princess of Estirinfel, the very first Star Forest book and moving picture.

---