COMPETE: The Atlantis Grail (Book Two) - Preview

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (draft)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

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"Gravity changing now!"

The seductive voice of the Music Mage speaks at us out of the airy dome—for whatever countless time this evening—as the music track changes to low gravity.

Logan and I sway-float in a slow amazing embrace, with him holding my lower back and waist, and his face nuzzling my ear, while my hands are wound around his neck as we gently come down from the ceiling after a zero gravity dance—possibly my tenth one this night.

Wow, zero gravity dancing.

Since the first time I've experienced this amazing sensation, it never ceases to amaze. At first, when the dance floor falls away, and you remain floating in the air, the feeling is a mixture of panic-dream and vertigo. . . .

Your brain cannot understand what is happening with the sudden lack of gravity, so it tries to compensate, and as a result it feels like you're falling, endlessly.

Falling . . . falling . . . falling. . . .

It's a little like being on an amusement park roller coaster—that moment when the coaster falls down steeply and you scream because you have to—it's what your body does in reflex. Now, take that moment of falling, and just extend it, sickeningly.

At first it's queasy and unpleasant. But then something inside you adapts. And there's a flood of amazing natural euphoria. You are swimming through the air, a strange magic aerial fish, and the sense of freedom lets you feel suddenly invincible, able to do anything, be anything.

You look down, and there's the floor, far below, and it's not rushing toward you sickeningly. Instead, the rules of physics have changed. Suddenly you can fly. You are in control of the universe, existing within the moment—completely alive.

You look up toward the ceiling, and you can reach out and touch it, with a single push off. . . . Just let go of someone's hand and aim high!

It helps the illusion of grandeur that tonight the ceiling is a dome of stars, velvet cosmic darkness sprinkled with light. You can touch them now. Just once, just for tonight. . . . And you do.

And oh, the music! The lighting! It all works together, as you begin to turn softly, swept away by the common rhythm. You circle each other, you tumble and spin and move with your partner, and each one of you corrects the motion of the other with the lightest touch. You're now a part of an endless circle dance, and your hair floats wildly, and your clothing merely kisses your skin, brushing past you in the air. . . .

Even now, everything I describe is insufficient. You have to be there—to soar, to breathe it in completely—in order to understand.

Well, it's now been at least three hours, and I'm in a sweet state of exhaustion and over-stimulated senses. . . .

And I think back on what happened earlier.

After my initial shy protest, Logan dragged me to the dance floor and patiently showed me all kinds of moves, both for the fast dances and the slow intimate ones. Wow, the boy can dance! We were rocking out during the fast bass-rhythm tracks, and the low gravity jumping was pure magic.

"You can dance just fine," he told me. "You have such an amazing singing voice and that indicates you have an underlying sense of rhythm—all you must do is stop holding yourself back. Just let go, and let it take you. Your body knows how to move—"

At some point after the first hour, it happened. I stopped being particularly awkward and just let myself relax. I think I did step on his toes quite a few times at first, but it got better. He laughed at me, and then picked me up and placed my feet on top of his and just carried me around like a doll, stepping for the both of us. And that wasn't even during the low or Zero-G, but normal gravity. Did I mention Logan is way strong too?