River Symphony I

It had been a full week since Seth's encounter at the forest spring. For five days he had been on guard duty, searching the woods for the supposed "witch" causing sickness throughout the kingdom. Five nights he had detoured to the spring, calling out for the musician, only to hear the echoes of the water, crashing from the glass against the rocks. Ever since hearing Sin's music, Seth had been unable to get the soothing melody out of his head. He could still remember it so clearly as if the fiddler was living inside his very ear. The melancholy sounds ripped through his nerves with a sharp, anxious sensation despite how smooth the image of Sin playing flashed in his head every second.

Seth was alone in this experience.

On the sixth day, he rested. Finally, with time for himself, he had spent as much time as he could flipping aimlessly through the pages of his borrowed library books but found few hints of anything that seemed concrete to answer any of his questions. After so much time and not even hearing Sin's music again he would start to wonder if he really had just imagined it all.

"A whole week of this, and still nothing. We can't continue searching the woods and the mountains for something that we've no proof to even exist. You'd think people would just learn to stay indoors and avoid each other until we figure out the cause of all this, at the very least," Leon whined as he followed his salamander through the woods like the previous nights.

It had been a tiring effort, discovering nothing beyond a few wild berry bushes and a nesting ground for a colony of imps and gremlins. Unless the entire kingdom would believe the scapegoat of trickery magic then it had been doubted worth reporting.

"There isn't much we can do about it now." Seth was treading slowly behind Leon with a lantern in hand, keeping his eyes, or more so his ears perked up in case of anything. A whole week later, and he was still fixated on those sounds, on the man who had been playing it. Yet, now that time had passed he was beginning to doubt himself. Music hadn't been heard in the forest ever since. The waterfall remained as deserted as ever. Maybe it had been his imagination or a dream.

He sighed momentarily, jabbing his spear into the dirt with each step. He was gritting his teeth. Just as he thought it was impossible, Seth's ears twitched, causing his head to turn. A noise plucked and chimed through the air.

"Hey~ you hear that?" Leon piked.

Seth jerked his head and his eyes constricted. Did Leon-

"Man, something must be up with the water! You can hear the fish splashing around like crazy!"

And one could. Amidst the rapids and the trickle of the stream, there was the undeniable chaotic displacement of river fish jumping from and gasping in a mad frenzy. Yet Seth heard something else with it. A tune played in his ear, and for a moment he wondered if there was a correlation between them.

"Maybe the river's been poisoned. We should give that theory to the royal chemist. See if they can do something about it. Wait- no. If it were poisoned then Surely we would be sick by now, too, right?" Leon rambled and turned to look back at his friend.

"You hear that?" Seth asked sternly.

"The fish? I mean, how could I not? They're pretty excited if you couldn't tell."

Leon's salamander beat the ground violently and let out a growl, and then began barking at the air. His face pointed upstream.

"Hey, easy, boy. What's gotten into you? What? You hungry? You don't even like fish?"

Seth saw this and it clicked. It was happening again. Someone was playing music, and only Seth could hear it. Sin was at the rocks again. He wouldn't waste this opportunity to confirm his suspicion and immediately began marching in the direction Sal had been barking.

"Where are you headed? Seth? Aren't we supposed to stick together?" Leon called out as Seth before he was too far. "Or do you want us to search a different area?"

Seth shook his head and looked back behind. "You said so last time we were paired up, didn't you? We can cover more ground this way! Go on ahead with me!" He couldn't risk anything. When Leon had shown up last time Sin had vanished. He had to go alone and right now there was no time to spare. Seth charged ahead without waiting for a response.