King Me

Drawing Blood

Yancey barely had her eyes open to process the camp when she and Conner returned. Adoltlin strummed his guitar by the fire, Mr. Sato sat cocked back in the hovering vehicle's seat, and Aurelia cared for the unconscious Faust. Conner helped Yancey up into the middle row of the vehicle, and she was out. She awoke a few hours later, Adoltlin pressing a wooden bowl of some soup into her hands. "Eat, you must, or perish, you will. Sustenance is key, even if it is swill,"

"Thanks, Adoltlin," Yancey replied, sitting up in the seat. "Any more progress on my song?" She asked hopefully, but Adoltlin shook his head.

"Nay, my good lass, but fear not, the best is always saved for last." He strummed up a quiet tune, Mr. Sato's audible snores coming from the front, "Some songs come together whole, while some come in pieces together in chunks. Will the next come in a minute? An hour? One hundred and twenty months?"

Yancey slurped some soup, smirking at this, "I sure hope it's one of those first two options,"

Adoltlin pulled his guitar off his back, handing it to her, "If you know the flow, then play so all may glow,"

Yancey took the guitar, but shook her head, "I don't. I'd appreciate a lesson, though,"

Adoltlin brightened at this, "How quaint! Here, hold it tight, around the neck. The opposite hand, force it to talk, strum across the deck," 

Yancey complied, holding one hand up high on the guitar while the other strummed across it. She was clunky and trying feverishly to stay quiet, but with Adoltlin, the very king of bards giving her a lesson, she learned at a prodigious pace. In only ten minutes she had learned all the pieces of a full song, "Now, play that all in line, but keep the pace in time,"

Yancey started to strum, following one chord with the next, filling the air with a lullaby tune. She was surprised she had picked his instructions up so daftly; she'd never so much as touched a musical instrument before. And then, lyrics came to her, "A foreign hand, a master's hand, no time to rhyme, gone again. See you soon, upon a land, far from here, in distant lands," It wasn't great, probably wasn't even good, but Adoltlin gave her a marvelous round of applause.

"You felt it, didn't you?! The music, nay, the rhythm was silent hitherto!"

Yancey finished her chord, and beamed with pride, "Yes! I mean, I think so. At first, I felt something, but when I got towards the end, I was thinking too hard."

Adoltlin nodded, "When the words stop coming, just let the music flow. Forcing the rhyme is no way to go,"

Yancey actually knew exactly what he meant for a change, and nodded, "Yeah, I was forcing it. Instead of letting it come, I was trying to keep it going,"

Adoltlin smiled, releasing the pinnacle of warmth, "A prodigal student, I have attained. With further study, you will be ordained,"

Yancey extended the guitar back, retrieving her bowl of soup, "For now, I'm just gonna work on my dinner,"

Adoltlin cocked his head to the side, "Lass, you realize you've been asleep for almost twelve hours?" No rhyme with this. A joke?

"Yeah, that's why Mr. Sato is still asleep, huh?" Yancey replied.

"He is taking a nap. He has already risen up, and fallen again," Adoltlin replied with a wink. Yancey scrunched her nose, agitatedly rising to her feet. Aurelia approached her, giving her a once over before speaking up.

"Doctor Faust requires another transfusion, per Smith Conner Smith," She continued to eye Yancey over, "Have you recovered enough to provide?"

Yancey slurped the rest of her soup down, nodding, "I'll manage," and followed in tow behind Aurelia. She found her eyes shifting across the back of the red-headed roman woman. Even now, in dire states, she was eloquently beautiful, like a figment of the imagination you'd expect to vanish ever time you blinked. But that dream remained and even glanced back at Yancey, quickly shifting from a dream to a nightmare.