The Waves Are Ours |Virgato|

Chapter 7: Melody

Chris raised an eyebrow as he heard a loud thumping beat coming from downstairs. It sounded like music. Confused, he stumbled downstairs, seeing something moving around on the back veranda. He walked out to the back door finding Joel dressed in an old t-shirt, tapping along to the beat. Beside him was Richard, who was carefully sketching something out with a pencil. His toe tapping along to whatever song was on the radio.

"We're making up posters for the festival. Do you want to help?" Joel questions when he notices Chris watching them. He gestures towards the paper.

Chris blinks for a moment, looking over the objects on the table. He has no idea what they're doing or what a poster even is. He only understands the word festival. He sees bright colored pots and strange stick like objects.

"They're signs to advertise the event," Richard grins. "We ran out of the proper ones, so we decided to make some extras. Joel is right, you're welcome to help us."

"Okay," Chris nodded, though he wondered whether he had the skills to do something like this. Richard and Joel seemed to think so. He supposed that perhaps it was just like rock or wood carving. Some of the tools looked like what they had in the ocean. Chris looked over the materials. He watched as both Richard's straight object moved elegantly over the page, creating lines on the page. It didn't look too hard.

"Here's some paper," Joel grinned when he didn't respond, producing a massive piece and putting it in front of him as well as another old shirt. "If you want to do one like mine, just put some color down and we'll write the details for the festival on later."

Chris couldn't help but stare. Joel was making it sound easy, but he was suddenly feeling particularly nervous. He put the paint shirt on over the one he'd borrowed from Richard.

"You want a brush?" Joel bit his lip, offering a similar item to what the other boys were using.

Chris nodded, accepting the item. He examined it for a moment. He supposed it was like writing with a squid ink dipped shell or a piece of coral, just with more colors to choose from. His hand hovered over the various colors.

"You can use whatever colors you like. We want them to stand out though because we want as many people as possible to come," Joel added.

He nodded quickly. It sounded easy enough. His eyes went between the blue and the green as he carefully dipped the brush into the stuff Joel had called paint.

Though left on his own, Chris frowned at the blank paper. He thought of the way the human's music had made him feel yesterday and he wanted to share it with everyone. His eyes moved between Richard and Joel, who were using the materials carefully.

Chris mimicked their movements as he tried to control the paintbrush. Though to him it looked like a big mess. He frowned at the page as it had turned into a muddy color. He knew this simply wouldn't do. A poster like this was more likely to turn people away from the festival than attract them.

"Can I have another one?" Chris asked nervously, frowning over at Joel.

Joel took one look over at Christopher's page and nodded, before handing him over another piece of paper. Chris stared at his new piece, feeling frustrated. He didn't want to mess this one up.

It was at that point Richard left to get them some food, leaving just Joel and Chris behind.

Chris let out a long, frustrated sigh at his still blank page. He couldn't think of anything and he didn't want to make his page look muddy again.

He looked over, noticing Joel was onto another poster and flicking the paint onto his page with the brush. He grinned. That looked like fun and it was leaving a cool effect on the page. He wanted to try it.