With salty air caressing his face and the sunlight around him dimming, a young boy of eight years sat atop a large rock on a beach, a stringed instrument on his lap. The boy"s fingers gently ran across the strings, pulling them experimentally. He hadn"t known the instrument long, only recently trying to play it, but he liked it. He"d heard a few adults producing wonderful melodies with it during mealtime and fell in love. Tomorrow he"d ask one of them to teach him."Brrrrrii!" Something sounded from above.
The young boy looked up to see a flash of bright colors dart by. He followed the blur with his eyes until it settled to his left on the boulder, facing him with an expectant look in its eyes.
"I"m sorry little bird, but I don"t have fish or seeds with me." The boy apologized to the creature before turning back to his instrument. The bird was beautiful, with wings of light green and an underbelly of white and red, but he knew not to interact with it. He"d seen many birds perch near him and other clansmen, but they usually only approached for a meal. If one were to try stroking them, they"d often fly away. Though, now that he thought of it, he had seen a few adults with a bird companion that followed them around. Even sitting on their shoulder.
Forgetting about the bird, the boy went back to strumming his instrument. It fascinated him how different sounds rang out when he strummed different strings, or when he strummed the same string in a different place. He also wondered how the adults remembered which parts of which string sounded like what. Did it take a lot of training? Well, he didn"t mind. Strumming the strings was fun.
A little while later, the boy heard sand crunching below feet and a familiar voice calling his name.
"Manku! Manku!" A little girl with the same caramel skin and black hair as the boy appeared on the beach sometime while he was absorbed in playing with his instrument.
"Manku! Are you ignoring me?"
Finally, Manku lifted his gaze off the instrument on his lap and turned to his right, where the girl had climbed onto the boulder.
"I was," The boy confirmed. "You"re loud."
Before Manku could return to his instrument, the girl continued interrupting the serene silence.
"What are you doing with a zither and a bird?" She asked, eyeing the two things.
"Can"t you see that I"m playing the zither? I"m going to master it." Manku thought that his actions were obvious to anyone and that the girl didn"t need to bother him to figure it out. "As for the bird…" He turned to look at the beautiful creature which still sat next to him, wondering why it stayed. "I don"t know. It just sat there a little while ago."
"Don"t you know that the zither is hard to learn?" The little girl put on a smirk. "You"ll probably never master it."
"I know that it"s difficult, but I want to try. It looks fun." Manku smiled at the zither on his lap, imagining himself playing in the pavilion during mealtimes and making others smile. It was a wonderful daydream.
"Well, good luck, I guess. I like our martial training a lot more than music!" The little girl rose to her feet on the boulder, then threw a few amateur punches and kicks at a phantom opponent. "I think the elders are really, really cool! How they"re able to beat up anyone that challenges them and control water so well! I want to be the same."
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The girl sat back down, satisfied with her display of attacks, and turned her attention to the bird, leaning over Manku in an attempt to reach it. "Do you think it"ll let me pet it?"
Suddenly, the bird trilled at the girl"s hand and hopped backwards, unfolding its wings and a.s.suming a threatening stance. Frightened, the girl quickly retracted her hand and leaned backwards, no longer happy with the animal.
"Heh heh, it doesn"t like you." Manku snickered.
"Well, I don"t like it either! Humph!" The girl slid off the side of the boulder and began following her footsteps back to where she came from. Seeing her departure, the colorful bird returned to its previous position at Manku"s side.
A moment later, the girl stopped walking and turned around. "I almost forgot. The sun"s almost down and your mother asked me to tell you to head back." Accomplishing her goal in approaching Manku, she turned around for the last time and went on her way.
To her back, Manku called out, "Okay, Letscher! I"m going!" before lifting his zither off his lap and beginning to slide off the boulder. Yet, before he let his body fall, he turned to the little colorful bird. "I"ll be gone for the night, little bird. I hope you liked my zither performance." Manku smiled before continuing with, "I promise I"ll get better, so I"d like it if you would come back to hear it." With that, he slid off the boulder and followed Letscher back to the pavilion for dinner.