Jia loved to dance. It was just a part of who she was. Just because it was the off-season and the dance team wouldn’t start until autumn didn’t mean that she couldn’t start early. Of course, her dancing wasn’t really meant to be something worthy of competition. It was simply an expression of herself, of who she was. Dancing was in her every fiber. The added grace that being a dryad offered only helped.
The young woman began. She didn’t need music as she started slowly, moving her limbs to an unknown tune that only she seemed to hear. Perhaps the crickets were her music, or the light rustling of animals in roaming through the bushes or through the tree tops - the music of the night.
Her limbs moved fluidly this way and that way. Her dark, wild hair swept around her as she danced. Her skirt swirled and rose and fell with each movement. She hadn’t worn any opaque tights because it was late, and none would be near her to see the terrible scar that covered her right, outer limb from thigh to ankle. The animals who might peer at her just as her skirt rose with her movements wouldn’t care. They didn’t gossip. They didn’t question her past.
Jia danced for a long time while sweat beaded on her naturally tanned skin. She wished for rain, but it didn’t come. She wished for peace, but it only came slowly, and even then, it wasn’t absolute. The dryad danced and danced in a world of her own, a world where people were always honest, a world where no one would try to hurt her.
Eventually, as her energy waned a little, she began to come back to reality, and she knew she needed to go back to her dorm. She wasn’t really mentally or physically tired, but she felt like hours had passed, so she needed to try to go to sleep. It wouldn’t do for her to make her sleep schedule irregular. She did feel good about things, though. She had really just needed to dance like that, dance like she was one with nature, with the world in general. It always made her feel a little better about things.
The dryad moved into the nearest tree and emerged from another. She repeated this process several times without thinking, but as she started toward another tree, she heard something faint. “To thy chamber window, sweet!” It sounded, sweet and somewhat sad at the same time. She wanted to get closer, so when she continued on her way to the next tree, she appeared from a tree in a different direction than one that would be closer to her dorm.
She traveled quickly this way, and she was just in time to view a man garbed all in black speaking poetry toward a window. Jia was vaguely aware that this must be the Shae house dorms if she remembered correctly, but she didn’t know who lived in the room behind that window.
Jia leaned against the tree from which she had appeared. It was located behind the man, but it wasn’t too close. It was simply close enough that she could hear him speak the lines of the poem. It was so lovely, and he had a talent for expression. She found she enjoyed the sound of his voice, and when he finished his monologue, she wanted to hear more.