It's Gauntlet Time! Act the Second: Friendship is Music

TheCuriousSeed

Let's get back into the story mode like Comforte Cayke a la mode!



Musical Wilderness

~"Going through the Wilderness we dared not waste time for helping out the troubled birds, in all t'were eight, 'Fly' sang the fathers, 'We will fly' sang the chicks so they flew and they flew through the Wilderness in haste," sang Daylily.

~"Finally, a song that doesn't take place on a farm or some other weird place where humans work!" exclaimed Onyx.

~"Do you know any songs that sound a little newer?" asked Elva.

~"I know one!" exclaimed Jessie. "How do you calm a nervous spider? How do you calm a nervous spider? How do you calm a nervous spider? Earl-eye in the morning?" she sang.

~"Coax her in song until she calms down, coax her in song until she calms down, coax her in song, until she calms down earl-eye in the morning!" responded Daylily. "Aye, aye, on we travel, aye, aye, on we travel, aye, aye, on we travel earl-eye in the morning!"

~"And me without my musical instruments," said Strawberry.

~"Or we can simply listen to the sounds of the Wilderness," Saffron whispered before softly shushing everyone and… "You hear that?"

~Leaves rustled in the wind. Frogs and toads croaked. Songbirds chirped. Different animals, plants and other parts of nature made different sounds. To Saffron's musically keen ears, it sounded like a symphony. In the distance she could even hear someone singing.

~"Whoa," said Holly, taking a closer listen. "Is that…?"

~"She's definitely not singing in English or an animal language," said Daylily.

~"Brrrrr… is it getting colder or is it just me?" asked Heidi.

~"And us without a pair of Winter Talents in tow," said Magnolia.

~"Wait, that sounds like… Pearl?"

~Indeed Pearl had been singing in a strange language to the frogs that were a ways off, but her singing carried throughout the Wilderness.

~"What's she doing out here alone?" asked Daylily.

~"I don't know, but her singing sounds a little eerie," answered Tansy.

~As the group neared the music, they saw Pearl singing to all the Wilderness creatures and the creatures were entranced. Heidi then realised…

~"She's singing in Mermish!"

~"That's not Mermish," said Daylily. "Sounds more like wailing in a secret language known only to spectres."

~Because any sentence starting with "There's no such thing" or the like would prove dangerous to Neverfairies, such things were never said, but…

~"Why would a spectre roam around Pixie Hollow?" asked Elva.

~When Pearl finished, Daylily's keen eyes saw tears rolling down Pearl's eyes. "See? True we have sad songs, but never this sad, not even Fly Not Far from Me and that's the saddest song we know."

~"Or that's not the real Pearl, but some weird creature that can shapeshift into any girl she wants," suggested Magnolia.

~"Oh, that's Pearl, all right," said Heidi.

~"But she was definitely wailing in a language no other native Neverlander can speak, not even I," said Daylily.

~"I'm-a go check it out," said Hickory as she neared Pearl.

~"Say, Pearl?" asked Hickory while Pearl was still weeping.

~Pearl continued to weep in silence.

~"Pearl?"

~No answer but silent weeping.

~"Pearl?!"

~Silent weeping, still surrounded by animals. Hickory realised that Pearl had either learnt to cast spells or under a spell herself or perhaps this wasn't the real Pearl after all, but someone masquerading as Pearl that could sing much better than she could hear. Upon touching Pearl, Hickory noticed that she wasn't solid at all, but liquid! Finally she realised…

~"You're not Pearl… you're just a manifestation of Pearl's form built from Pearl's tears."

~Indeed Pearl had been crying since being stuck in the Wilderness gauntlet. With each tear added, the Pearl doppelgänger grew a little. Hickory then found the real Pearl in the bushes crying and flinging her tears to her doppelgänger. Water fairies often wept a lot, especially Rani, but not even Rani could weep enough to make a life-sized sentient doppelgänger of herself from her own tears.

~"I can't find my big sister," sobbed Pearl. "She must've gone lost in the Wilderness somewhere?"

~"Which one?"

~"I think an as-of-yet undiscovered one?"

~"Well, we can't leave this one until we complete every challenge. C'mon."

~Strawberry made some panpipes from some blades of grass and this whole time had been playing them to pass the time. Once Hickory returned with Pearl, the adventure could continue.

Strawberry Songs Forever

~As Strawberry played her grass pipes, many animals revealed themselves to the questers. Tufted titmice and dormice, robins and bluejays, warblers and wombats and even a marmot or three, to name a few. The animals were so entranced by the music that it seemed Strawberry had the ability to charm the animals with her homemade pipes. Strawberry then gathered more grass blades and made some drums, harps, lutes, violins and trumpets! Perhaps she, like Strad, was a Musical Tinker of sorts?

~"How did you make all of these so quickly?" asked Heidi.

~"Just occurred to me," answered Strawberry.

~The Animal Talents all sang animal songs like the different animals, then Strawberry played like never before! Strawberry grew so lost in the music that she found herself transported to another realm!

~Strawberry found herself in a Wintry Realm full of Winter Fairies and Wintry creatures. All of them were dancing in a jubilee and everyone was atwitter with wintry joy. Strawberry even had the honour of playing some charming music when the Wintry Musicians had run out of songs to play.

~This is really amazing, Strawberry thought. I'm in a very cold realm, yet I'm not cold at all.

~Strawberry kept playing all the wintry songs she could muster and soon she heard her name being chanted.

~"Straw-ber-ry! Straw-ber-ry! Straw-ber-ry! Straw-ber-ry!"

~"Straw-ber-ry! STRAAAAWWWW-BERRRRR-REEEEEEE!" Saffron called, clasping her hands onto Strawberry's face.

~"Huh?" Strawberry said once brought out of her musical trance.

~"Thankfully I didn't have to shake because I do not like doing that to anyone," Saffron said, releasing her hands from Strawberry's face.

~"C'mon, silly! Let's go forth and take on some more challenges!" said Heidi.

~The fairies all continued trekking with Strawberry playing her panpipes to keep away the spookies, then they came across a strange bridge.

~"It looks like a music puzzle," said Strawberry.

~The bridge began to sing a small tune, then stopped. Strawberry echoed the tune with her panpipes. It was clear this was a Repeat After Me puzzle, but you had to echo the pitch exactly! After a few minutes, the bridge finally allowed everyone to cross.

~"Oh joy!" exclaimed Saffron. "This was definitely worth the..."

~But there was a singing tree next that sang. Strawberry tried echoing, but it was clear it needed to be done in reverse, which was a little harder. It took a little longer to solve the tree's puzzle, but once that puzzle was solved...

~"This was definitely worth the challenges," Saffron said.

~On and on music puzzles would show up until Strawberry solved them all with her panpipes. On the last music puzzle, it looked like a whole ensemble was needed. Strawberry played her panpipes, harps, a harmonica that she just built from grass blades, violin, guitars, trumpets trombones, lutes, cellos, drums, even a dulcimer she'd just made from grass blades! Finally she made a small melodica from grass blades and played along. It was indeed the toughest challenge yet, but soon the puzzles were completely solved!

~"We did it!" exclaimed Elva.

~Now it was time to take on the next task wherever that would be, but would said challenge still be surmountable?

Don't touch that dial! Why not stick around a while? Anyway, stay tuned!