"You died!? What were you doing? Are you alright?" I knew from personal experience that the undead could resurrect, but the idea of it being thrown about so casually still shook me a little.
"Eh, I'm fine." Rivi said dismissively. "A millennia or two in an Egg of Renewal and some training on the other side, and I'm good as new." She flexed one of her biceps. "Anyways, I was just being stupid. "I picked a fight with a group of demigods because they were bullying one of my friends, and it didn't end too well."
"A group…demigods…" I muttered, stunned.
"Ooh, this one's so nice. The red goes so well with your eyes, don't you think?" She held up a crimson dress she'd pulled off the shelf.
"Come on, standing around won't get us anywhere." She pulled me out of my trance towards the dressing rooms. "We need to try these on so we can see how you look in them!"
I shook my head freeing my head from thoughts of her unfathomable existence.
"Alright, now try these on." She shoved me into the dressing room with several dresses she had picked out.
I looked at them a little stiffly, realizing I had never worn any dresses before and wasn't entirely sure if I knew how to put them on.
"If you need any help, just ask me, I'll be right here!" Rivi said from the other side of the curtain. Luckily none of the dresses she had picked out were the kind that required extensive lacing or corsets, but I still found them a little daunting.
"Ok." I replied, a little of my uncertainty leaking into my voice. I pulled out the black one with white and yellow flowers first since it seemed the most simple.
After taking off my outer garments I realized I just needed to slip the dress on over my head. In the dressing room there was a reflective panel nearly as good as a mirror, but when I examined it closely it seemed a little different. Touching it, I immediately realized it was actually highly polished ice, though how exactly that was possible I wasn't entirely sure.
I pulled on the dress over my head, fitting my arms into the sleeves just like I would do with a shirt. I guess it really is just like a big, long shirt…in a way. I tugged the dress down and examined myself in the mirror. It'd been a bit since I'd last really looked at my own appearance, and I was once again shocked just how beautiful I was.
The blood-like crimson eyes blinked at me from my own porcelain face, a strand of silver hair dangling over the pointed elf ears. "Damn," I said softly, putting a hand on the mirror to touch my own appearance. It still didn't really feel real. Everything that had happened.
After a moment I snapped out of it, and began looking at the dress. Poofy sleeves, pleated skirt, really very similar to dresses you might find at malls on Earth. Suspiciously similar even. I narrowed my eyes, wondering for a moment where the dresses design could have come from before continuing my examination.
It looked cute on me, I couldn't deny that. I felt like a model posing for a magazine shoot in that dress. I turned to look at the back of the dress, and felt a little breeze rise underneath the skirt. Oop. My eyes widened.
I do not like how that feels, ugh. I shivered a little. The absence of cloth on my legs made me feel suddenly so exposed. The skirt itself reached down around to my knees, but that still didn't entirely make me feel safe. Damn girls will just wear this kind of stuff around? I pressed my hands against my legs nervously. Do they wear stuff underneath? They have to, right? Suddenly the tropes of girls squealing from sudden gusts of wind didn't feel so far-fetched anymore.
"Silvie?" I heard Rivi's voice from outside.
"Oh! Right!" I pulled back the curtain. "Uh, what do you think?" My nerves suddenly hit me.
"Oh it looks great!" She looked me up and down. I flushed a little under her gaze. "Could you turn, I'd love to see the back."
I nodded, turning very slowly so as not to have any incidents. "Mm! Yeah! You should get it. I like the way it looks on you."
"O-ok," I stuttered. "I'm going to try the other ones on." I quickly shut the curtain again, and sat down to recover myself.
I looked at the other dresses Rivi had picked out for me. There was a red dress with a low neckline, transparent sleeves, and a shimmery, multi-layered skirt that didn't seem nearly as long as my black one. I gulped looking at, thinking how scandalous I'd probably look.
Then there was a spaghetti strap lavender dress that draped down elegantly into an asymmetrical hem. As well as another simpler summer dress similar to my black one, but this one was yellow with larger orange and red flowers.
I felt daunted just looking at all of them. For some reason the black dress I still had on had felt incredibly approachable, but maybe it was that my courage was failing me, or maybe it was the more elegant or daring styles of the other dresses, but I hesitated to even think of which one to try on next.
"Silvie? You ok?"
I stood there frozen for a long moment. Too long. Eventually my body began to tremble and my face started tingling as I felt a panic attack coming. What? Why? My fragmented mind rapidly tried to take hold of the situation as I sunk down to the ground, tears starting to stream from my eyes as my breaths started to grow more and more ragged.
"Silvie?" Rivi pulled back the curtain. "Silvie!? What happened? Are you alright?" She crouched down next to me, but I could barely hear her. As my mind spiralled inwards and old, half-forgotten memories began to surface before my eyes.