Chapter Text
The group put down their bags in a little room in the shared lodging. They can see that other guests have already settled their own luggage on other beds, but there is plenty of space for everyone. They throw a quick glance at the various style of bags and clothes the other tourists have left on their bed, trying to guess where they are from. Most of them seem to come either from the closest nations of Sumeru and Fontaine. One of them they can't quite guess however, the person in question has a weird mix of Liyue embroidery, Inazuma style clothes and weird accessories spread out on their bed.
They don't want to pry too much though, so they leave most of their stuff on the four close beds they have claimed for themselves and they get out.
"OK everyone," Eula claps her hands to get the others attention,"we're pretty much free for tonight. Diona, remind me to bring you to Kachina's when the time is right. Pacal told me where they live, so we just need to wait for the end of the work day, when the miners end their shift. He told me it should be pretty obvious."
"Oki doki!"
"Amber, Collei, how about we start going to that gemporium we saw when we arrived?"
"Yeah, they had some very cute accessories! I need to start thinking about bringing souvenirs to the other knights!"
"Sure I will come along. I'm sure gran... Madam Faruzan would love some of those gems."
"Good! And Diona, stay close! I know you don't really care about heights but I don't want to have to bring you back from the bottom of the mine pit. The clanking noise of the miners would also surely be inconvenient for you up close."
"Yeah, yeah! Let's go, let's go!"
After agreeing on their immediate goal, the group starts walking around the city in the cliff, chatting freely and looking around with eager eyes.
After a while, the sunlight from above changes into a gorgeous orange, illuminating the whole place with the awe inspiring color of fire. At the same time a bell rings and the sounds of the miners stops: their duty is over for the day and they start coming back home to wash up, eat and rest.
Eula has just bought a nice bracelet with blue and purple gems that she thinks would suit Lisa, the librarian of the knights, when Diona excitedly pulls at her sleeve. It is time, so she takes the cat girl's hand and lead her over to Kachina's home. The pika girl is already restlessly waiting for her new friend, and both children happily go play together as Eula talks to Kachina's parents for a bit.
After a while, a new sound echoes from the middle of the cave. Not the sound of pickaxes and rocks, but the sound of music!
Amber and Collei have been looking around a clothing store, but their attention is quickly drawn to the music and the crowd of people congregating on what looks like a platform on the opposite side of the cliff. Curious, they approach arm in arm through the excited men, women and children rushing past them.
They soon arrive at what appears to be a huge stage where performers are taking turn dancing in weird ways. On the side, one person is expertly manipulating what looks like rotating discs, which seem to be the origin of the music they are hearing. Just behind him someone is playing a complicated rhythm with a strange square guitar, but the melody is incredibly appealing.
On the left part of the stage, out of the spot light, a man wearing a flashy yellow and gold outfit suddenly jumps out to the center.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the 53rd dance battle of the season! We have a few outlander guests tonight, so let's do a quick tour of the event: simply put, anyone can come up on stage and show off their dance moves to the music! Doesn't matter if you are an elder veteran of an ambitious rookie, what counts is the fire in your souls! Whoever gets the biggest audience cheers will be the winner of today's event!"
The packed crowd cheers and heckles at the organizer, with some "Let's gooo!" or "Be kind to the newcomers!" here and there. Amber and Collei are getting excited by the sudden event, and the rabbit themed woman can't help but start jumping up and down at the heavy music. "Oh maybe I should go? I don't dance as well as Eula, but if it's about fire and energy I won't lose to anyone!" She is suddenly startled by a strong hand grabbing her shoulder. It's Eula!
"Did I hear something about dancing?" She winks at both her friends, they all know that the blue haired woman would never let such an opportunity pass.
"Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests, before we begin, allow me to present our guest musician tonight! Coming straight from the nation of geo, she plays Fontaine's rock'n'roll, soon starring at the Iridescence Tour in a few days, please give a warm round of applause for: miss Xinyan!"
From the back, the rocker takes a confident step towards the front of the platform.
The crowd gasps as they look over the new figure. She has dark skin like a lot of natives, but her clothes and attitude are all but local. She wears what looks like Liyue style clothing but with very weird cuts and patches with Inazuman-style sleeves, she has mismatched socks and a fishnet stocking on one leg, and more impressively her dark hair is held up in two big bundles by spiked hair rings. But what surprises the crow is her scary looking face and make up: orange eyes, black lipstick, blood red eye lids, and a mean look, with a toothy smile.
"Howdy people, my name's Xinyan! How are ya doing tonight?!" She screams with a booming voice and accompanies her call with a gnarly chord from her guitar.
The crowd doesn't wait long to react with a surprising positive response from the get go:
"Wooow she looks awesome!"
"Mom, she looks like a tepetlisaur!"
"Welcome girly, show us what you got!"
The crowd cheers anew, impressed by the style of the newcomer. Xinyan herself is taken aback for a moment by the unexpected spontaneously positive response. Her style is usually frowned upon especially by the highborn folks, so she feels the welcome incredibly refreshing and beams back at the crowd. That being said today she only wants to be a backer for the dancers, so she quickly moves next to the Djwith a wave of her hand and she starts playing a few riffs to warm up the crowd to loud cheers. People are already jumping and dancing to the beat!
"Now then, who among you want to defy our dancing experts on stage? Raise your hand high and show yourselves!" The organizer screams at the excited crown, and everyone looks around expectantly. Immediately Eula, Amber, and to their surprise Collei all raise their hands. They look back at the latter with wide eyes.
"I want to dance too!" She shouts, with a determined look on her face. Both Eula and Amber melt at her cute but confident face. They all start moving to the stage with a couple other tourists and natives.
The first participants are locals, and they start first to show the newcomers how it's done: two people challenge themselves to a duel, and they both get a chance to show their dance moves and one up each other, with the winner decided by the cheers of the crowd. The first battle ends quickly, all the rules implicitly acknowledged by the participants. Then comes the first guest dancer: Amber!
She is up against a big but fit woman from Fontaine who steps first. She dances mostly with leg work, turning and tapping her shoes on the wood of the floor, producing sounds in rhythm with the music. The guitarist backstage tries to give her some appropriate accompaniment, focusing on the rhythm rather than the melody. She finishes and bows, the crowd claps at the unexpected performance. But Amber stands up straight and proud in front of her, shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders with pretend disdain. She jumps on the dance floor!
The audience gasps at her audacious moves: she starts crouching with her little hands forward, stomping on the ground, imitating what looks like a tepetlisaur ready to pounce at her opponent. The crowd is surprised and the children are already giggling at her unexpected dance moves. But it is when she falls down to the floor and starts moving around like a snake that the whole crowd erupts in laughter. Xinyan and the DJ have switched to an sinister, haunting songs with discordant notes, which contribute to making Amber's moves even more hilarious to the audience.
She ends her unexpected routine and bows to clapping and laughter, winks at Xinyan, before coming back to the side with both Eula and Collei who are trying to hide their embarrassed, red faces. Somehow Amber lost the battle (laughter does not get counted, officially), but she doesn't care as she has obtained the result what she expected.
Next comes Collei! Emboldened by Amber's antics, thinking that she could not be any more ridiculous than her big sis anyway, she proudly walks on the stage and challenges another man from Fontaine. Collei starts first, moving her feet arms and body all at once, her dancing is flowing, she swirls along the music, she keeps her eyes on her opponent and smiles like an angel. She is trying to imitate Nilou's dance of Sabzeruz, and although the music is more aggressive than she is used to, she still tries to adapt to the beat, weaving her whole body to the waves. Her movements are eager but still a bit awkward, stumbling here and there, but the audience is drawn to her eagerness and gentle moves, and they cheer for her with glee. She ends her little routine, bows as well, out of breath. Her boldness exhausted she runs back to the side into Amber's arms. Amber gives her a squeeze and a big smile, proud of her little's sister bravery. The audience claps politely with big smiles on their faces: they are not mocking her, the reason they like those events is to discover new and exotic dances and Collei has delivered! A few little boys and girls are already trying to imitate her intricate moves, to the delight of their parents.
Her opponent takes the stage with a determined look on his face and a feathered hat on his head, and he starts actually break dancing, weaving his body around, rolling and spinning on the floor. The audience's voices rise again to the more usual dance and accompany the obviously more experienced dancer, backed by another expertly improvised song. With no surprise, Collei lost the battle, but she surely won the heart of the audience.
Finally it is Eula’s turn. The crowd and stage go silent as she walks to the center of the stage with a dominant look, sucking the attention of the whole place with her mere presence. She turns her body away from her opponent, who gulps down loudly. She raises her hands, and the music starts, right on cue. She moves, slowly at first, but with incredibly precise and controlled movements, following the unknown music perfectly. Xinyan wants to rise up to the challenge of such an accomplished dancer and she adds complicated riffs and rhythm, to which Eula responds with half steps and swirls without even missing a beat. The audience is transfixed by her beautiful figure on stage, moving like a flickering candle light, a gentle yet strong flame moving to the songs of rock in the nation of fire. She weaves her body in impressive contortions, earning gasps from the audience, men and women alike. She ends in a powerful pose, before the audience erupts in cheers. Both Amber and Collei are screaming her name to the side, once again reminded of her incredible talent. Eula comes back to them with her head held high, not even deigning looking back at her opponent. The battle continues, but the other person, although a local, can't hold a candle to her performance.
The event continues for a good time until the night falls completely, the cheers and screams of the crowd resounding through the cavern. Without surprise, Eula wins the competition with loud cheers, and she wins a cute little bracelet made of red and blue pale gems. Amber and Collei also get participation prized, a little gem of their choosing.
After stepping away from the stage, they are suddenly approached by the devilish looking Liyuan musician Xinyan.
"Heyo! Those were some nice moves ladies!" She greets them quickly, her breath still not fully back from her long jamming session.
"Thanks Xinyan!" Amber winks at her again.
"Aha! So you do remember me, Amber! I wasn't sure since you went straight to dancing over there. Killer moves by the way, mwahaha!"
Eula raised an eyebrow. She hadn't missed any of the two winks her lover had sent to the rocker. "So, you know Amber miss ‘Xinyan’?"
"I sure do! Some time ago I went to Mondstadt with my friend from Inazuma for a summer inspiration trip. Miss Amber over there offered to escort us for part of the way, and she was a great guide!"
"Aha! No problem, I just did my job as an Outrider. By the way, are you still together with Kazuha? Is with you maybe?"
"Heck yeah! He's actually in Natlan with me! He's not here right now, we've gone to different tribes for a few days. I think he doesn't like the sounds in here too much..."
"Oh nice! I hope we can meet him again before we go finish our trip!"
"Tell ya what, we're actually here for a grand occasion, I think you've heard: this year's Iridescence Tour is in Natlan, and ya can bet your family jewels that I triple checked the date and came way in advance! No way I'm missing it this time! Ah, hold on a minute..." She searches through a pocket and takes out a folded pamphlet. "Here! The festival is in a few days at the Stadium! Please come if ya can, it'll be a blast!"
"Sure will!"
Behind Amber Eula coughs loudly. Amber gasps. "Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce my friends!" She continues, a bit more formally: "As you have heard, this is Xinyan, a talented musician from Liyue!"
"Nice to meet y'all!"
"And these two are Eula, my girlfriend, also from Mondstadt," Eula nods politely, "and my lil sister Collei, from Sumeru."
The green haired girl stiffens and bows. "Hello miss Xinyan! Nice to meet you!"
"Oh your dance was beautiful, Collei! It kinda reminded me of my friend, Yun Jin, back in Liyue Harbor!"
"I have heard of Miss Yun's opera troupe. I wish to attend one of their performance one day." Eula says.
"Yeah, she's great! But your dancing was out of this world though, ma’am!"
"Hem, thank you miss Xinyan, I appreciate it." The tall woman blushes ever so slightly, which doesn't escape Amber's keen eyes, who then smiles knowingly.
"Well then, be sure to come to the festival if you can! I still have some things to discuss with the DJ here, he's got some great music sense, t'be a shame if we didn't exchange tips, ya know?"
"OK! Then see you again Xinyan!" Amber waves at the dark skinned musician going back on the stage.
"Shall we go? We need to get Diona back before we get back to our lodging."
"Sure! Also I wouldn't say no to a bit of washing, all these moves made me sweat like craaaazy!"
"You mean with all the dirt you gathered while you were writhing on the floor like a headless mop?" Collei giggles.
"Hey, that was just my way of expressing myself, I am an artist you know!"
The three girls chat and laugh and they go through the streets of the cavern city as the sounds of its denizens slowly starts to fade into the night.
"Sooo..." Amber approaches Eula with a mischievous smile on her face, away from Collei. She whispers. "Would?"
"Who? Miss Xinyan?" Eula obviously knows what Amber means, but she feigns ignorance. Her face gets slightly redder. "...Maybe."
"Aha! I knew her fiery temper would pierce your icy defenses! I should know!" Amber giggles and wraps her arm around Eula's waist in a pretend possessive gesture.
They quickly arrive at Kachina's home, where her parents greet them. But neither Kachina nor Diona are in sight. After asking about their whereabouts, the parents smile at them and tell them to follow discreetly into their home. The mother opens a door slightly ajar and they peek inside: both Kachina and Diona and sleeping soundly together inside, a blanket over them both.
"We didn't want to wake them up, they looked so happy together! I'm so glad Kachina made a new friend..." The mother smiles with gratitude in her voice, trying to be discreet. "So... would you mind if little Diona spends the night here? They both pleaded us to allow her to stay, but I could not promise them without your permission."
In the room they suddenly hear rustling noises. They tense up, fearing to have woken up the little girls, but their sound snoring resumes.
"Of course" Eula whispers, a gentle smile on her face. "We will come back tomorrow morning, is that agreeable?"
"Yes, thank you!" Kachina's mother nods. "How about some hot cocoa before you go? I would love to have a chat with you."
"That sounds lovely. What do you think?" Eula turns towards Amber and Collei, who both nod. "Looks like we're all happy to share a late night drink with you, then."
After a quick clean up the guests sit around a table and enjoy a nice hot drink. But within a few minutes Collei starts nodding off: the night has already fallen and it is indeed time to think about going to bed. They quietly say good by to Kachina’s mother and go on their way.
The three remaining ladies go back to their lodging, wash up and get to bed, quickly falling asleep after their satisfying day. The night is surprisingly silent in the mining city of the Children of Echoes. A fertile time for peaceful sleep and dreams.