Songs of the Heart

Chapter 103

Songs of the Heart

Kids were truly something else, Leo mused while watching Shui'er running around relentlessly, chasing after Gray while Whiskers chased after them both. Even when she slipped and stumbled and fell, she just got back up and continued, nothing but a big, beaming smile on her face. 

One would think it had been months, perhaps even years since she crawled into his camp--but no, it has only been two days. The transformation was rather magical and surreal (largely the latter), since she was so abjectly timid that she barely uttered a sound her first day and night here. And yet, there she was, running around without a care in the world. In fairness, that was how children ought to be--free, unrestrained, though still watched over. 

He didn't have the heart to ask how she came here, and she never volunteered the information. After all, young kids don't simply stumble upon this place while going out to explore a little bit, especially considering the forest's lore in the outside world. Either she was dumped here by her family or people she knew for one reason or another, or she was forced to come here by the circumstances--sort of like Lya and Song did the first time around. 

"Uncle Leo, Uncle Leo! Look at this flower!" she suddenly ran toward him, clutching an alyssum flower whose petals all had different colors. "It's so pretty! Isn't it?"

"Yes, yes, very pretty..." in the span of just 30 hours or so, Leo had gone through quite a few nicknames--it started with Old Man, then Master, then Senior, there was also a brief period when she called him Savior, but after desperate begging, he finally got her to call him Uncle Leo at the very least. Uncle, after all, he could be. If Sarah grew up as he did, chances were that he would have become one. 

"Ah, no fair, Whiskers! I wasn't looking!" the young kitten snapped the flower from her hands and ran off, with Shui'er running after it immediately. 

All Leo could do was sit down and sip on the fruit juice, watching the scene play out. Perhaps... yes, it was very much possible that he was dreaming this thing up. Or, at the very least, partially so. But it did him little good to dwell on his own idiosyncrasies, so he moved on quickly.

What bothered him more, however, was that he knew nothing about young kids--especially young girls. Women in their twenties and thirties? Sure, he knew a thing or two. Even teenage girls, he knew the broad strokes of it all, though those broad strokes probably changed in fifteen years since he'd been a teenager himself. Young girls? Zilch. 

He also had no change of clothes that fit her--he had quite a few robes and other items of clothing in his spatial ring, but none that fit her. And even if he by some miracle knew how to sew (which he most decidedly did not), it wasn't as though he had a whole heap of sewing tools just lying around. The one dress that she had was already torn up by the time she came here, and with two (well, one, really) extra day of running around and falling repeatedly, it was just about done. 

"Whether I know it or not, it's time to magically learn it..." he mumbled the words into his jaw, preparing to take out one of the spare robes and try and figure out the logistics of turning them from 'meant-for-old-men' to 'kind-of-sort-of appropriate for young girls', when a window appeared in front of him, causing him to sigh. 

[Beginner Sewing + Beginner Sewing Tools -- Free]

[Challenge Generated: '???????' yearns for your cuisine. '???????' feels abandoned as you haven't visited even once after shocking it the first time]

[Quest: Fashion a treat (sweet, sour, or bitter) and present it to '???????'. Your young companion must be the one to present it, though you may accompany her]

[Time Limit: 7 days]

[Bonus Reward: Silenced Black Feather]

[Silenced Black Feather: while on person, muffles all the sounds you make until nothing remains. Can be consumed by burning it, allowing you to hear everything within a 10 mile radius. Warning: System suggests you reach at least Nascent Soul Realm before attempting to burn the feather, otherwise you will most likely experience sensory overload and potentially die]

[Punishment for failure: you will not be allowed to communicate in any way for 3 days]

He smiled faintly as the window disappeared, while a splitting headache tore through him. It lasted for less than a second, however, and as it passed, a rather massive bundle of knowledge remained in its place. Though it said that it was 'beginner sewing', Leo pondered silently where it would be considered 'beginner'. As it stood, he now knew how to fashion clothes out of grass and cow milk, something that sounded intrinsically insane, yet was kind of, sort of possible. 

There was also a set of tools residing inside his spatial ring, now. 

Glancing at Shui'er and seeing that she was rolling freely with Gray, he took out what he considered to be the prettiest robe that he had, and went at it. Though it was called 'sewing', it was more akin to material manipulation--Leo didn't have to painstakingly thread a needle a thousand times in an attempt to create a satisfying result; instead, he used to Qi to shear, cut, combine, and reshape the fabric to his liking. The 'tools' were merely conduits that allowed for more minute manipulation, such as threading in new patterns that he would have never been able to do by hand. 

Bit by bit, the massive robe that was one size too large even for Leo began to grow smaller and smaller. The long, loose sleeves were rounded and tightened, the shoulders were scaled down, and in just about fifteen minutes, the robe for grown men turned into... well, a dress. 

Leo scratched the top of his head in confusion, but no matter how many times he looked at it, it was a dress. A pretty dress, he thought, but not a robe. Then again, it made sense; though he became aware of the 'technicalities' of 'sewing', he wasn't also given a whole heap of designs to copy from. Rather, he had to conjure up the look all by himself, and it seemed that his mind wasn't exactly capable of creating a perfect distinction between a dress and a robe. 

Figuring it was fine for the time being as it certainly beat the rag she was wearing at the moment, he set it aside and looked over toward her yet again. She was taking a breather, drinking the fruit juice from a waterskin while Gray and Whiskers licked off the drops that trickled down from the corners of her lips. She must have felt his eyes on her because she turned and faced him as soon as she finished, smiling widely and walking over. 

"He he, here!" she handed him the waterskin, causing his eyebrows to twitch temporarily. "Don't be shy, Uncle Leo. I saw you looking at it." Leo took it from her, though immediately felt his lips, now, twitch; there was barely a gulp left in it, and she acted as though she was doing him a massive favor. 

"I was actually looking at you," setting the waterskin aside, he said.

"You were?"

"It took me a while, but I made you a dress. Want to see it?"

"A-ah?! Really?!" she jumped, her round eyes widening--they were rather beautifully colored, sapphire-blue at their core with etched golden lines flaking out of her pupils. She crossed the distance between the two and grabbed his arm with hers--she was so short Leo suspected that his arm was actually longer than her altogether. "Show it, show it! Hurry up!" 

"Here," smiling gently, he used the free arm to take out the dress and unfurl it. While Shui'er's eyes drew toward the dress, his went toward hers. If at all possible, her eyes widened further and her lips parted... and then tears coalesced and began to slowly streak across her cheeks. 

"W-wait, it's so bad that it made you cry? Geez, I didn't think I was that bad--"

"--no, no, it's... it's really pretty," she said, lowering her head and suddenly nestling it into his sides. Her voice turned into a hum as he felt her tears wet his robes. "So pretty it's wasted on me. It's fine. You can just make me something simple instead." 

"And what will I do with this, then?" Leo's voice was rather gentle as he spoke, prompting her to look up. "Hang it on the trees? Try to put it on myself? Or give it to the wide assortment of other girls living here whose numbers total in--oh, wait, there's nobody else. Besides, do you know why I made it so pretty? Because I was thinking of you the entire time. And, well, there's this rule--if you're thinking of something pretty, you will make something pretty."

"... there's no such rule," she mumbled, her cheeks flushed with red. 

"Are you saying that I'm lying?"

"N-no, of course--"

"--pfft."

"Meanie!" 

"Come on, put it on," he said, lifting her as though she were a piece of paper and setting her down while putting the tress into her arms. "Don't worry about anything, okay? I can make as many dresses as you'd like. So, run it in, fall in it, sleep in it."

"No," she shook her head, holding tightly onto the piece of cloth. "This... will be my special day dress."

"As I said--"

"No!"

"I can make--"

"No!" 

"... but every day is special--"

"No!" 

"Right. Okay. Go, try it on at least," Leo forgot one of the cornerstones of children: their stubbornness. Especially around the stupid things that old people like him could never understand. 

She went in and out of the longhouse rather quickly, her footsteps almost soundless. It truly did fit her, though was still a bit too big. Leo himself knew little about fashion--all he focused on was giving it bright colors and some flowers, but it was less so that the dress maketh the girl, and more that the girl maketh the dress. 

A distant, distant memory swelled inside his mind for a moment as Shui'er stopped between the two trees, the golden light washing her from behind. 

It was for his eleventh birthday, and before Sarah was diagnosed. Though she was half of Shui'er's age, and a full head shorter, she was the cutest thing he'd ever seen. It was one of the few memories he had of her where she was carefree, laughing, and, most importantly, eating most of the cake while nobody was looking. Mom and dad scolded her like crazy, while he defended her. It was one of the few moments where he felt and acted like a big brother. 

Though he was a bit too old to be Shui'er's brother, and a bit too incompetent to be any sort of father figure, he'd become what she called him--an uncle. He'd let her grow and make for her the wings, and part the thorny roads of life. Over and over, he realized, the world was giving him second chances, but it silently turned into a whispering curse of the heart. It was as though he could hear her voice from beyond the membrane of life and death itself, whispering softly and coldly. 

"Uncle Leo? What's wrong?" Shui'er's voice pulled him back to reality rather suddenly. He realized she was standing right in front of him, grabbing his cheeks as his head was hung low. There was concern on her flushed face, and worry in her radiant eyes, and he could only smile at the sight. 

"Ah, your cuteness temporarily stopped my heart." 

"..." the worry and the concern disappeared almost immediately, replaced by a frown. "Humph. You're a bad, bad liar." she sauntered off into the longhouse, coming out wearing the old, tattered dress. She glanced at him and harrumphed before quickly looking and running away, this time going to bother poor Blackie who was peacefully sleeping nearby. 

Leo smiled and looked up toward the sky. 

Life was ethereal and sublime, and he merely a tiny fish in its mighty stream. Try as he may to fight it, some things were indispensable. Memories, aching and jubilant alike, were the reason who he was today--and if his was the cursed existence bound to never be freed of the cold whispers, then that was his destiny. He had a chance to make a difference, however small of a one it may be, and for however few people, and instead of wallowing within himself and stewing in silence, he chose to embrace the chance. Again and again. Until either he died, or his innermost heart was finally the way he made it seem.