Lillian moved her feet in time to the music playing in her head. Sweat ran down her body in streams, soaking the cloth of her halter under her breasts. Her arms flowed above her head, her hands relishing the feeling of the air between their fingers. Her breath was ragged, her body ached, begged for rest, and still she danced on.

The dance was her profession.

The dance was her life.

The dance was all she had.

She eventually collapsed on the ground, allowing her body the rest that it needed. She lay there, staring up at the sky, watching the clouds. Her fingers picked absently at a few blades of grass as she lay there. It was soothing. Calming. The breeze dried her wet skin and damp hair. She closed her eyes, content to lay there for the rest of the afternoon.

Her peace was shattered by a warm fuzzy object landing on her stomach. A warm, fuzzy, pissed off object. With claws. Lillian yelped and sat up, wrenching her body away from the cat that had been dropped onto her, and pushing it off of her lap at the same time. She gave the small animal a death look. The orange tabby glared at her, and then began to wash his face, undaunted.

Lillian sighed and looked around for her attacker, narrowing it down to the tree that she was lying under. For some reason the tree was giggling.

“That wasn’t funny, Kiki.” She growled, picking up an acorn and tossing it in the general direction the laughter was coming from.

“Kiki thinks so,” the branch sing-songed in reply.

“Well I don’t.” Lillian replied, throwing another acorn. The branch seemed to utter a small yelp as the nut hit its target. A small figure tumbled from the tree, a jumble of gold and green.

“Owwwwiiieee…” Kiki whined, rubbing her backside. She pouted in a way that only a seven year old can, “That wasn’t very nice, Lil-Lil.”

Lillian ignored the pout. “Well, you dropping that animal wasn’t very nice, either. For me or the cat.” She checked her abdomen for any bleeding from the cat’s claws. There were only a few welts. She turned her attention to the girl. “What were you doing up there, anyway?”

“Toaster was stuck.”

“Toaster?”

Kiki pointed to the cat, which had become bored with cleaning himself and had lain down for the nap that Lillian had been interrupted from. He watched the discussion with one lazy eye.

“You named the cat, Toaster?”

“Yup.”

“But why? You’ve never ever seen a toaster.”

“Kiki thinks its pretty.” The girl replied, matter of factly. Lillian decided it best to not argue anymore.

Kiki stood up and stretched, shaking the leaves out of her blond hair. “What were you doing out here, Lil-Lil?” She asked, walking over and then plopping down next to the older girl.

“Practicing.”

“For the Solstice?”

“Mmmhmm.” Lillian laid back down, this time on her stomach, and began to half heartedly look for four leaf clovers. Kiki did the same.

“Why is everyone so excited about it?”

“Because this year we are going to try to impress the council of Little Jersey, so that we can combine our resources.”

“Why would we want to do that?”

“Because,” Lillian began, continuing to scan the minute plants with her fingertips, “they have technology. Ah ha!” She exhaled triumphantly, quickly plucking a clover from the ground. Her face fell when she realized that it only had three leaves. The extra leaf that she had spotted was connected to another plant. She sighed and tossed it aside, continuing her hunt.

Kiki bit the side of her lip. “But…Kiki thought that the technology was bad. That’s what the Elders told her in her lessons…” She trailed off, picking a clover randomly from the patch, and handing it to Lillian with only a glace. It had four leaves.

Lillian smiled her thanks, and placed it on the ground beside her. “And they’re right. Most technology is bad. But bigger villages have been incorporating it into daily life more and more. Old plans have been recovered in excavations of the ruins. Your toaster would be bad technology. Its something that our ancestors created out of laziness—“

“Which is why Kiel stuck them down.” Kiki interrupted, handing Lillian another four leafer, which she placed with the other.

“I doubt that it was solely the toaster that angered the gods, but yes, that is what the story says. But there is good technology. Little Jersey has machines that make plowing and harvesting quicker, more efficient. With it we would be able to produce three times the number of crops. We would be able to have a comfortable winter.” She plucked another clover from the ground and seeing she was mistaken again, discarded it. Kiki handed her another example of what she was searching for, and she placed it, again, with the others with a small sigh. She should have known better than to do this with the girl around. She could never win.

“So if we impress the council at the Solstice celebration, they’ll let us have some technology?”

“That’s the idea.”

Toaster decided to take the slight lull in conversation to inform the girls that he was in need of attention. To make this fact known, he walked over and plopped himself in the middle of the clover patch, smooshing it underneath him. Kiki giggled. Lillian rolled her eyes. They both decided to give the animal what he wanted.