70. Dancing Fool
Amy straightens up and confidently proclaims, “I accept your challenge!”
The dance soon begins. It's another waltz, and Amy and her partner seem to be doing pretty well, at first. However the pace soon quickens as the music accelerates. Amy and her partner try to keep up, but as they attempt to do the fancier maneuvers that will win the competition at increasingly rapid speeds their errors quickly multiply.
Soon it's too much for them and they both collapse. Amy falls backwards onto her butt and stares dumbfounded at the champion pair as they move in a blur across the dance floor, almost too fast for the eye to make out. As she contemplates her position, Amy decides that perhaps it was unwise to challenge ethereal, incorporeal beings to a dancing competition when she is made of too, too solid flesh.
Finally the dance ends, and the victors loom over her, gloating.
“Well, it seems you are not all that you are cut out to be, no?” smirks Wilhelm. “But do not trouble yourself! All who are defeated by me are given ample opportunity to practice.” He reaches into his jacket and pulls out a snow globe. Inside is a miniature porcelain ballroom, complete with couples that mechanically spin around, dancing an eternal waltz.
Wilhelm snaps his fingers and with a flash Amy's perspective has changed. She is back in dancing position, holding her partner. But now she can't seem to move; her limbs are frozen in place. A glance downward reveals that they have turned to porcelain. Behind her partner the giant face of Wilhelm looms.
“Yes, excellent! You practice, and maybe in a thousand years I'll give you a chance to challenge me again for your freedom. Yes? Gut!” He winds the snow globe that is Amy's new home and a tinkly song begins to play. Amy and her partner begin to mechanically swing around, dancing eternally in this tiny world, and Amy resigns herself to her fate as a miniature dancing toy.
Amy is in no state to continue her adventure.