The Tales of the Shadows

9.1. EL: Together

Elek grinned at the sight of his wish finally being fulfilled. Elara pouted as she held her guitar case in her hands, carefully removing the instrument from that thick, black bag. The sight of the golden strings tightly wound above the glossy black surface and the brown fretboard instantly made her smile, and she lightly strummed all six strings to see how out of tune they were.

Elek wore a mellow smile as he saw Elara immerse herself into tuning the strings, doing so with ease without requiring any additional support other than the tuning pegs. She strummed the strings again, now smiling with satisfaction.

"This is a very simple fingerstyle piece I learned a long time ago. I like to play it whenever I'm thinking since it's so simple and serves as good background music."

Elek's smile brightened and he brought out his notebook, opening a blank page with a swift movement of his hand. It then brought his pen to the paper, making some quick strokes that were now out of Elara's focus.

The girl leaned on her guitar, perhaps getting a better sense of the sound through the wood as it vibrated against her ear. She was careful to play softly, not wishing to disturb anyone or anything. She took a deep breath, sat up slightly straight and looked at Elek.

"You mentioned you have a friend who plays the piano, right?"

Elek nodded enthusiastically, his eyes momentarily glinting.

"Do many shadow-trappers play musical instruments? Do they use other human inventions?" Elara asked, her fingers still moving from her muscle memory.

"A few do. We use books, pens, some material for furniture, I suppose, but not too many other things. Practically no technology, no fancy versions of most things, no vehicles and so on."

Elara nodded. "Hm, well what about..."

Elara's fingers continued as the two friends talked endlessly, hopping from one topic to another, often seemingly unrelated ones. It was then that Elara noticed his left hand remained in his pocket for the entirety of their interaction that day. She stopped playing the guitar, sitting up straight.

"Elek," Elara started slowly, a little shy. "Do you know what a high five is?"

Elek nodded, a little surprised at that sudden question.

"Gimme one with your left hand!"

Elek frowned. "Why the left hand?"

"I've always wanted to see how my aim would be with my left hand since I'm right-handed, hehe."

"That is so random," Elek said with a chuckle. "Do you get random thoughts like this often?"

"Oh yes," Elara replied quickly, and the many instances of such a fluctuation ran through her mind. "One time I was playing a piece on the guitar, was thinking about the piece, then started thinking about other things and by the time I came out of that fazed state, I was playing an entirely different piece."

Elara raised her eyebrow funnily and Elek laughed. Elara smiled, observing her friend and her attention once again came to his hand.

"Hey!" Elara said with a frown, once again catching Elek by surprise. "You're avoiding this, aren't you? What happened to the high-five?"

"Randomness," Elek said with a shrug, and Elara laughed.

"I see what you- wait, you're doing it again! Show me your hand this instant."

Elara's tone was firm, her eyes fixated on Elek, and the Shadow there was no getting out of that situation. He reluctantly removed his arm, revealing a thick ring of something that looked like black dust on his wrist. It didn't seem like it could come off, and a yellow glow surrounded the patch as if it was taking energy from its surroundings.