PANACEA-Book One-By Hell or High Water

8. Naming

Corbin only had a brief word with Edmund after before he went back inside. Edmund had seemed troubled by something I didn't catch. The only thing I heard was from Corbin.

"There's plenty. Enough that if one of you got trapped down there by accident you'd be fine for months." After that, he was gone.

As interesting as it was to watch Edmund cut wood, I wished I could be inside. There was so much I needed answered, and Hero certainly wasn't helping with his unnecessary commentary on the weather. I was a little more concerned with that rod than how many clouds were in the sky.

I glanced at the third structure in the general premises. It was a little off to the side from the other two. I had been in both now, the sleeping area and the living area, as I liked to think of it, with its comforting smells of tea and warmth. I'd never even set foot near the third one, however. Nobody had spoken much of it either. It was probably unimportant.

I looked to Edmund. His back was turned and he was carrying wood over to the living area house. Hero sat on the fence at the edge of the plateau the houses rested on, and seemed to be looking down below at the water. It was misty and barely visible from where I stood. Seeing they weren't exactly offering anything for me to do, I began to walk over to the third building. It was built the same way as the others, from logs. I saw the stone steps on the side that lead up to a door made of the same wooden material as the rest of the house.

I paused before deciding to go up the stairs and saw something behind the building. A trapdoor was built into the slightly elevated ground, with locks and a board between the twin door handles. I walked around to look at it more closely, and saw the rest of the back of the house. The ground split and dropped down to a stream with rushing water a few feet ahead. There was wood laid across the chasm and a few chairs. That was the least interesting part of it, though.

Leaning against the wall, was some sort of wooden...thing. It had a box like structure with curved sides, and it wasn't grainy like the rest of the wood I had seen. It was glossy, and shiny. A long thin board spouted from the top, and stretched long strings down to the bottom over the circular hole. Cautiously, I approached it. It seemed to be protected by the shade of the crooked tree that grew near it, leaving it untouched by any rain that may fall on it.

I heard the boards creak under me. I knelt down infront of the strange thing and ran my fingernail over one of the strings. It was cold. I pulled it out a bit and pinched it between my fingers. It was metal. That was odd. I let go of it and fell back in surprise at the sound it produced. I rang out, growing quiet until it was completely gone. I plucked the next one, hearing a different sound. I couldn't place what was different, other than that it just was.

I heard creaking behind me and turned slowly. Hero was standing behind me, giving me a quizzical look. I stood carefully to avoid falling and looked at him. He didn't say anything, and I feared e would bring up what he might have heard when I spoke with Corbin. What would he think? What did he want to say?

"Do you...know how to play that?"

I frowned. That wasn't quite what I expected. "Play?"

"Do you know how to play the guitar?" he asked me.

That must have been the name of the thing I had been touching. I didn't know what he meant by play however. Hero walked over and picked it up, before he sat back in the chair. I stayed where I was, and watched how he held it. His fingers pressed on the strings at the top and his other hand hung loosely over the top as the guitar rested in his lap. His fingers began to move over the strings quickly. The sounds rang out one after another, and continued to vary and change. I was surprised to say the least. If this was what he meant by playing the guitar, I certainly couldn't do it. He appeared concentrated, and serious, which wasn't common for him from what I knew.