[Interludes Vol. 1.5] In which we meet Figurine, a goblin who moves to her own beat.(2/3)

Days passed and I slowly grew older. Around this time, Dad had visited Ivory one night and the following day, I had become an older sister when Ebony came into the world. And she came in hard. Until Ebony, only Diana Artemis and Glace had given Old One a reason to be happy.

"Bone Lord!"

Old One declared Ebony a very powerful strong-one, like Diana and Glace, and was exceptionally pleased. So pleased, in fact, she celebrated by drinking a lot of Blue Water and pushed Dad down only to hop on him a whole lot, saying he wasn't so ugly today for some reason.

But that celebratory feeling of having a strong sister joining the tribe also left me feeling afraid.

I still hadn't found what I was good at, what use I might have, and now I was already having younger sisters come into the world who were far better than I was…

I felt lost.

I felt like I had disappointed my maker, Doll. I had disappointed my Dad… and I had disappointed all of my sisters who tried to help me because I wasn't all that good at anything.

I thought I might be abandoned for being useless and different, but that didn't happen at all.

Dad made me a small axe and told me to join Doll in chopping down trees for now.

When not trying to help Doll, who was a bit frustrated that I chopped slower than her but also didn't scold me for it, Button had said she wanted to spend time alone with me. That involved following her to a spot in the forest where many many mushrooms grew in a circle.

"Rine… you might not be a mushroom goblin like Husband and I are, but you can appreciate the swirly-whirly."

Button was referring to the thing Dad did in the bath where he spun his finger around in a circle and made the water spin and pull downward. I also found it interesting to watch when he did that.

"Tricky Husband Ark taught me the secret of the swirly-whirly, and so I will teach it to you, because I feel like it can help you. What is important about the swirly-whirly is how you find the way to use it… with the way that you are. All you need to know is that Husband and I will always believe in you."

And so, Button showed me certain ways to move and how to throw out my hands and feet to defend and attack, as a hunter without a weapon, like Button was, would.

My days were filled with chopping trees and spinning around while throwing punches and kicks, but I couldn't completely change what the thing behind my eyes, which I learned from Dad was called my mind, told me to do.

One day after working hard at doing both, I was tired and sweaty, and wanted to take a bath before I ate something and laid down to rest and be lazy. I heard a strange sound coming from Dad's cave-hole and rushed inside to find out what it was.

He was sitting by himself in the space to the left of the entrance to his cave-hole. In his arms was some long thing made of wood and his fingers were passing over thin strands of rope which were making sounds that had drawn my complete attention. My feet had taken me right to his side without any delay and I could only stare at Dad in amazement.

"What is that?"

Dad looked up at me and smiled.

"Called Lute. Prima let use. Make music with."

"Music?"

He passed his fingers over it a certain way and different kinds of sounds came out. Every single time it did, my entire body felt strange. Even the place behind my eyes—my mind—said that the thing I was missing, the thing that kept me from being like the others… was this.

"I want to hear more music, Dad!"

"Okay, want teach you fun thing do music?"

I nodded with the entire force my body could muster. I needed to know more about this thing called music.

Dad stood up and began to pass his fingers over the thing he called a Lute and began to speak words that went along with the sounds while doing things with his legs.

You put your left foot in,

And take your left foot out,

You put your left foot in,

And you shake it all about!

You do the hokey-pokey,

And you turn yourself around,

That's what it's all about~!

Dad then stopped the sounds and pointed at me.

"Want try?"

"Yes! Keep making music!!"

He told me the words were something called a song, and the song was called the hokey-pokey (it didn't mean anything). What he was doing was a simple form of something called dancing. Dad would play the song and change the words to suit a different part of my body which I had to extend and then retract and then extend and then shake. It was very comfortable to do, and when I ran out of arms and legs to use, he would move on to weird things like my butt or my tongue or my ears… I couldn't get enough of it.

The grip my mind had on my body since I came into the world had, for the short time Dad made music, let go of the control it had over me. As long as my body moved to the music, I was… free. Until, inevitably, like all other things, it came to an end.

I lay on the floor, sweating, breathing hard, but completely satisfied.

"Dad… I think I found it."

"What find?"

"Teach me how to make music."

Dad frowned a little when I asked him.

"Not know how teach music well. Show Figurine what know, all can do."

I knew the frown on his face was one of disappointment. Not at me, but at himself. Dad was the kind of goblin who would give anything and everything he had to make any of his strong-ones happy. He was just disappointed that music wasn't something he was good enough at to teach reliably. Just like how using weapons to hunt wasn't something I was good enough at to learn reliably. However, even knowing a little bit of how to make music was more important than anything else to me.

We took a bath together after the music ended and Dad began to examine my body closely, especially my arms and legs.

"Figurine train body with Doll?"

"Yes. Button is also teaching me things."

Dad nodded.

"Lute belong Prima, no can make one Figurine. Not know way make string for sound. Lute not only thing make music. Called instrument. Many kind. Make many Figurine try, find which ones like use."

"I want something that can make music while I move my body. Is there one like that?"

"Already know what want? Can make something, need time think how."

"Deal!"

The next day was one where Dad couldn't be found by anyone. Turns out he was in Toy's cave-hole, in the special cave-hole he made for her called the work-shop. He had spent the entire day using his magic to make me things that made music.

The day after, I was in his cave-hole and the long table near the entrance was full of things laying atop it.

"All instruments can use while moving. Can show how use, not sure-think how make right sound with all…"

Each of them had strange names that weren't in gob, but Dad was easily able to fix that.

The first was a pair of wooden things that looked like bird legs. He called them marr-akh-ahs at first, but then called them shake-shakes. He picked one up and shook it. Sound came from inside the fat part that would have been the upper leg meat. Depending on how he shook it, hard or soft, the sounds would change.

Next was the kass-ta-net, which he then called clack-clacks. Using a small piece of rope, they slid onto his fingers and thumbs and would make a sharp sound when clacked together. I liked those a lot!