*The Chronicles of F.R.E.E. Atania's Knight - Raquel Festow* Part 1

Chapter 24 - Lessons Learnt

*Ruth Watson POV*

It was now about eight in the morning and some of the shops were starting to open.
I couldn't bring myself to eat. I was feeling too guilty and ashamed of myself. I had never been a bully, yet there I was, destroying someone's happiness and pride like a teenager in high school. I pulled out my cigarettes and lit one up, walking in no particular direction with no exact destination in mind. Just walking on autopilot.
"RUTH!" I heard someone call me from behind and turned to see Natalia running towards me.
I sighed. 'Here we go' I mentally prepared myself for a bollocking.
"Why did you leave?" She said, trying to catch her breath. "Rebecca wanted to come after you, but didn't want to come face to face with any cars."
"I'm not hungry." I said simply.
Natalia cocked an eyebrow at me. "You have just as much an appetite as Rebecca does, so don't give me that."
"Alright, fine. I feel too guilty to eat, ok?" I admitted. "I feel fucking awful for crushing Xavier like that. I've never done that before."
Natalia gave me a sympathetic look. "Look, I know what it's like. When Rebecca and I first got engaged, it took us both a long time to get accustomed to other Realms traditions and behaviours. Especially our own Realms. I have my releases and rituals, but Rebecca has the songs and prayers that she has to do every evening before bed. When we got married, we had a lot of guests that clashed because of how we did it. We thought our wedding was perfect for us, but some of Rebecca's friends didn't take too kindly to the colourful ceremony and dancing we did together. I had a lot of Fazeebs complain about the food and the fact that we did our vows clothed. They were adamant we weren't properly connected together. It hurt me so much, I approached an Elder in Wacchica to confirm we were latched as soulmates."
She stopped and looked up the high street, at the shops and people walking past.
"Rebecca still doesn't understand my Realms traditions. She hates those figurines we got at our wedding from my Fazeebs and Naraz, as you know, but she is very tolerant of my releases-"
"Yeah, because she gets to watch you doing it naked." I smirked at her, cockily.
She gave me a wink. "I suppose, she likes them just as much as me then. But I am also very tolerant of her beliefs. Rebecca's Realm has gods. Gods that control everything. That's why she took it upon herself to become the infamous Protector of the Realms. Apparently, it was her gods, not the lands, that gave her doppelgängers especially to bring their Realm justice and kill Tiana. She has a whole room in our hut designated to her beliefs and gods. She disappears in there for at least an hour to pray every evening. And prays before a battle too. That's more the reason why she hates being here, because she thinks the gods can't hear her. They apparently punished her with the car and why they stranded her here."
I was surprised to hear this. Rebecca didn't strike me as the obsessively religious type. Then again, I was learning new things about her everyday.
"I don't understand her language, but she took it upon herself to learn the languages of the Realms and can speak fluent Atanian too. She even helps me when I do my Collective Land Ritual, where you dance to music and feel the forces of the land like ground, water, fire, and air. She especially learnt the music so I could do it."
"So that's what that music is." I murmured. "Darren and I have heard her playing a fast tune in the evenings when we've gone for our evening walks on the grounds."
Natalia nodded. "Yes. That's the tune for the Collective Lands Ritual. My point is, we all hold different beliefs and rituals or traditions. But we have to tolerate and learn to respect them, even if they do seem a bit strange to us."
I thought for a moment. "Yeah, you're right. Listen, I'm going to finish off my walk. You go back and eat."
"Oh, I've already eaten." Natalia grinned. "I'm too excited to get shopping."
I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Alright then, shall we head back together?"
She nodded eagerly and we started walking back up the high street. As we neared the cafe, Rebecca was waiting outside for us. She saw us approaching and ran to meet us, engulfing Natalia in a hug.
"Thank god you're both alright." She mumbled into Natalia's neck.
"We're fine, my love. I was just giving Ruth a speech about Realms and their differences." Natalia said, leaning out of the hug to kiss her wife.
"And what a speech it was!" I mused. "I never thought of you as religious, Rebecca."
Rebecca broke out of the hug, but kept an arm around Natalia, smiling at me. "Yup. The gods sent me to protect the Realms but realised one of me wasn't enough, so sent more. Although, they're not too happy with me at the moment, it seems." Her smile vanished and she looked concerned.
I shook my head. "Nah, I recon they've put you here for another purpose."
Rebecca cocked an eyebrow at me. "Possibly. We'll find out soon. Update, though, it will take two weeks to fix that bastard machine. I kind of went a little too far when I went to Uiestea to destroy it before the Order got it."
I rolled my eyes. "Going above and beyond like always, Rebecca."
Rebecca gave me a sheepish grin. "The boys got the same pep talk too. With Raquel's input, of course..." She gave a little chuckle, looking in the cafe's windows at our friends. "I think Hunter is a little... Overwhelmed at having an Aura Reader as a saltazeeb."
"Why?" I asked.
"She could tell when he wasn't taking her seriously." Rebecca raised her eyebrows. "I have to admit, I am fucking glad Natalia isn't able to do it."
"Who said I can't?" Natalia said, looking offended.
"I know you can't." Rebecca said, giving a cocky smirk.
"Think back... Carefully." Natalia jeered.
Rebecca gave her a sneer before thinking, jutting out her bottom lip. After a few seconds she looked at Natalia and shook her head. "Nothing there."
"The Emotional Release?" Natalia said, very slowly.
Rebecca's face morphed into one of horrified realisation. "Oh fuck..." She breathed, inadvertedly taking a step away.
"Oh fuck indeed. I've seen through your lies since day one, madam." Natalia mused, folding her arms triumphantly, then laughed. "I forgot how to do it properly ages ago though. I lost the ability to do it after we got married."
Rebecca looked unnerved now. She chuckled, nervously before walking to the cafe door, mumbling something about getting Cometfell. I turned to Natalia.
"You can read Aura's too?" I asked.
"I learnt it from Penelope Moreno, but after our first night as a wedded couple, it completely disappeared." Natalia shrugged.
"Why didn't you tell her?" I said, lookng through the window at Rebecca who was now talking to Raquel, probably complaining that Natalia hid her secret from her.
"Remember, she wasn't one of us. She wouldn't have understood." Natalia said, flatly. "Besides, it was kind of fun seeing some of the crap she came out with, knowing she was lying."
"What did she lie about?"
"Mostly where she was going. When the war of Neonia had finished, she told me she was going to see the recruits, when she actually went to Atania for my parents permission for marriage. I knew she was lying, but thought she was just going to the tavern." Natalia smiled. "I'm glad I wasn't that strong a Reader, because it would have really spoilt the surprise and would have likely ruined our future together."
Rebecca re-emerged with Raquel, Darren and the others. Rebecca gave Natalia an uneasy look before shaking her head and approaching her to give her wife a huge kiss.
"I love you, you silly bitch," She grinned.
"I love you too, you Vexwraith." Natalia lightly slapped Rebecca's face, jokingly before leaning in for another kiss.
"Where are we going first?" Raquel and Clara squealed in unison.
Natalia immediately detached her lips and went to stand by them, eagerly bouncing in excitement. Xavier got in on the excitement too.
"Sawyer, Hodgson, Hunter. You lot take Xavier and get him some clothes. Meet us here before twelve." I instructed the boys. "Ladies, let's make our way down from the top."
Natalia, Clara, Raquel, Rebecca and I went up to the top of the high street, where I knew a few clothing stores were. The first few shops dragged painfully slowly. Rebecca and I were quick to choose at least seven outfits to last us for a couple of weeks, along with lots of underwear. The Atanian ladies, however, had to try on every single piece of clothing they liked the look of, and they seemed to like the entire shops worth. Dresses, skirts, shorts, trousers, t shirts, crop tops, braletts, anything you could imagine. I ended up going through their entire basket as some of the clothing they chose wasn't practical.
"Natalia, you're not going to a party so you do not need a dress like that. Raquel, if you think I am going to walk around with you wearing a bright orange top and pink shorts, you have another thing coming. Clara, you'll look like a slut if you wear this out and about. It's underwear, not everyday dress!"
Rebecca and I were exhausted by the time it reached quarter to twelve, and we were no where near the cafe. I decided to call Darren and let him know we were running late. Thing is, Darren's phone wasn't connecting.
"Why is it just beeping and cutting off the line?" I said, frustratingly to Rebecca.
"I don't know, do I?!" She snapped, just as frustrated as me as she watched Natalia come out of the dressing room to show us her third dress from the shop. "Just move on to try the others!"
I tried Sawyer, same thing. Then I tried Hunter.
"Hey! Watson! Was just coming to call you." He said, cheerfully.
"The fuck you were!" I snapped. "Where are you? Why can't I get hold of Darren or Sawyer?"
"We're running late, so was wondering if you could call us when you were ready to meet." Hunter said, completely avoiding my questions.
"Where are you, Hunter?" I asked, venomously.
"In the high street." Hunter chuckled, sluggishly.
"Are you drunk?!" I spat, feeling furious.
"I'm not!" He slurred. "Well, not much. Just merry."
"Where are you!" I demanded.
"Alright! Keep you knickers on!" I growled furiously at that. "We're in a pool bar, teaching Xavier snooker."
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" I bellowed down the phone making Rebecca jump and reach for her bag. She relaxed when she realised nothing was actually wrong. "You're meant to be getting him clothes to wear. Darren needs some too!"
"Yeah, we did that in the first hour. The pool bar opened at ten, so we've been here since." Hunter said, flippantly. "You wait until you see the clothes we bought Xavier, he looks fabulous!"
I ground my teeth, Raquel watching me with a worried expression. "If you think that you're going to be joining FREE with an attitude like that, you can fucking forget it mate! You can't follow a simple order, and you have blatantly disregarded your doppelgänger leader!"
Rebecca looked at me, raising an eyebrow in question.
"You have half hour to get back on duty or I'm coming to get you! Raquel too!" I snapped and put the phone down.
"Who were you getting all authoritive with?" Rebecca asked, standing to sneak a peek behind Natalia's curtain.
"Hunter. Raquel, You're going to have to come with me to get it into their thick skulls they were doing a duty, not having fun." I said to Raquel, taking her basket from her to check what was in there.
"Nice to see you still pulling people up on following orders though. Ruby never does that. Her crew always disregard her orders." Rebecca said, pulling her head out from Natalia's fitting room curtain looking amused.
"Will you stop perving on her?" I spat. "It's really unnerving."
"She's my wife. I can do what I like. Within reason of course." Rebecca reasoned, looking at the underwear that was displayed next to us.
I pulled out a golden set of sexy underwear out of Raquel's basket and put them to the side.
"Hey! I wanted those." She complained, picking them up and putting them back.
"Did you not hear what I said to Clara earlier? That's not clothing to be worn out and about." I sighed, feeling thoroughly fed up now.
"I know that! I was going to wear it tonight for Hunter when we go back to his pub." Raquel argued.
I stared at her in disbelief. "Raquel, you're sixteen." I said.
"Yeah, and? I've done vollang before you know!" She folded her arms and pouted.
My mouth hung open for a second before snapping it shut and turning to Rebecca. "Help me out here."
Rebecca looked over, holding a purple bra. "She won't be a virgin, Ruth. They lose it quite early on in Atania. She knows what she's looking at." She looked back down at the bra before putting it back.
"Seriously?" I said. "Are you sure Hunter is the one though?"
Raquel stood silently, watching me for a second. "Not all men are the same, Watson. You have come across some bad men in your past, but honestly, I know that Hunter is the one. I can see it all anyway." She said curtly.
I cocked an eyebrow at her and relented. "Ok, fine. You can get it." I picked it back up and handed her basket back to her. "Clara you're next!" I called out.
Rebecca came back to Natalia's curtain and slipped a set of royal blue underwear through it. "Get these too, darling." She smirked then came to sit next to me.
"Natalia didn't lose her virginity to you then?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation light, but really, I was dying of curiousity.
"Nope. She lost it when she was fourteen." Rebecca said, unphased. "I lost mine when I was that age too."
"You've had sex with a man?!" I blanched, not realising I had shouted that.
Rebecca snorted. "Well, yes. That is how you lose your virginity after all." She mused, smirking.
"No. I know that, I just thought... you never had time to do it around... Everything that was happening in your Realm at that time..." I said, sheepishly, making sure my voice was low this time.
"We worked during the day, didn't at night." She explained.
"So, who was he?" I whispered, intrigued.
"You know him." Rebecca replied with a straight face.
"I do?!" I jolted, grabbing her wrist. "Who?"
"Jarod."
"The cook?!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "How long have you known him?"
"Errm, since I was seven or eight, I think. He helped me raise the first resistance against the Order. Almost killed me watching him get beaten afterwards, before they sent me to Deathea. I was sure I would never see him again. But when I came back to fight for the Realm again, he was the one who made me realise I loved Natalia." She smiled ruefully at her memory. "After the fight, he came to me and said, 'she's a special one, Beccs. Don't let someone like that slip through your fingers. Fuck what this shithole thinks about those relationships, you make your own path, you're already doing so anyway.' He then said that he saw the way she watched me, as if in a trance, when we were fighting and training. He also mentioned that she was the only one who made me laugh and that wasn't something I should ignore. He has since taught me that, although the past is hard to bare most of the time, there's some things that you absolutely must hold on to, and never let go of."
"He stayed with you right from the beginning..." I whispered in awe. "So that's why he's the only one, apart from Dean now, that cooks for you both."
Rebecca nodded. "He's my first ever friend. I'm actually younger than him by a couple of years. We have a much stronger bond than people realise."
"How did it come about losing your virginity to him then?"
Rebecca looked at me sadly. "We were in a Realm where we were controlled in everything and anything we did. Even if we didn't do anything wrong, the likelihood you got a beating was extremely high. That night, he had come running to my house because he had been caught stealing food earlier that day. We hid him. He was terrified he was going to be sent to Deathea or killed and that was his biggest regret that he had never been able to find his true love and experience anything."
"So you took each others that night?" I said, quietly.
"Didn't want to die a virgin." She said simply, looking down at her hands. "Surely you understand that."
I nodded. "That's why I gave in to... him." I grimaced. "I didn't think I'd see Hodgson again."
"Hmm. Well, let's avoid that subject shall we?" Rebecca raised her eyebrows pointedly at me as Clara came out with her basket.
I took it without looking, too busy looking at Rebecca, whose eyes had glazed over and she was staring at nothing in front of her. I gave her a worried look then looked into Clara's basket. There was only a pair of trousers in there, and they were mens.
"Clara? Why have you got a pair of mens trousers in there?" I asked her, confused.
"They're for Xavier. I wanted to give him a present back." She explained.
I felt a wave of guilt as I thought back to the earlier incident and gave her a sympathetic look. Then had an idea.
"I'll help you choose a present for Xavier." I said, pulling the jeans out and putting them aside. "We'll get him something special."
"Really? I want to give him something traditional from Earth." She said excitedly, grinning at me.
"We'll see what we can find. Natalia? You all done yet?" I called out, standing up to stretch my legs after sitting down for too long.
"Yeah." Natalia called out and came out with three baskets worth.
I cast one look over them and decided there was no way in hell I was going to look through all that, so I headed straight for the tills. It took an age for the poor girl to ring everything up on the till, but she was enjoying making small talk with us all.
Especially when she picked up the little gold number in Raquel's basket. "Ohh, someone's going to be having some fun tonight." She mused, winking at us.
Natalia, Raquel and Clara giggled, Rebecca and I just rolled our eyes.
The lady finished ringing everything up. "Your total is five hundred and forty seven pounds, eighty five. Would you like a bag for all of this?"
I looked at her as if she was stupid. "Are you seriously asking me that right now?" I asked her, incredulously.
"Some people bring their bags for life." The girl replied, smiling sweetly.
"Just put it all in fucking bags." I snapped, the remainder of my patience gone in an instant.
I gave her the cash and took the change without saying thank you before spinning round and leading us all out of the shop, with our countless bags of clothing split between us.
"We won't be doing any more clothes shopping, we have way too much now." I said over my shoulder to the others.
There was a collective groan of dismay from the Atanians followed by a whoop from Rebecca. We dumped the bags at Dean's before heading back out again.
"Will I get to go to that piano shop today?" Rebecca moaned as we walked towards the shopping centre.
I suddenly remembered the boys in the pool bar. It was directly opposite the music shop.
"Yes, we will go there now." I said, watching Rebecca's face light up from the corner of my eye.
"There's a piano shop?" Natalia squealed.
"Yup." I said, popping the P. "And it's right opposite where the boys are hiding. You can go in there, while Raquel and I drag the lads out by their ears."
The girls laughed and we marched down the high street to the music shop.
Upon opening the door to the shop, Rebecca gasped in delight at all the instruments around us. There was a vast array of various instruments from violins and guitars to pianos and drum kits, all on display from the ceiling to the floor. Rebecca immediately made a beeline for the grand piano she had seen in the window.
"Can I help you?" A friendly, elderly man said, approaching us.
"My sister has taken a liking to your shop." I said, walking over to stand next to him. "She's especially in love with that grand piano, but that's kind of out of our budget. Do you have a decent, portable piano at a more reasonable price?" I spoke in hushed tones so Rebecca couldn't hear me.
The man beamed at Rebecca. "A piano lover, eh?" He said quietly, before raising his voice to Rebecca. "Would you like to give her a go?"
Rebecca looked at him in shock. "Really?" She whispered, looking overwhelmingly happy.
"Sure! Your twin here said you love pianos. It'd be wrong for me to deny you a chance at playing a luxury like this one. Give it a go then we'll try some others out that would be better for you." The kind man said, warmly.
Rebecca took a deep breath in and sat in the stool, stroking her hand over the keys in awe. She positioned herself better and started playing a very fast, sweet melody across the keys. It was very impressive.
All of us gave her a small round of applause but none more so that the man.
"Bravo bravo!" He called out, walking over to Rebecca. "You sure have talent, young lady. Can you read music too?"
Rebecca nodded eagerly, looking like her wildest dreams were coming true. "I can. But, yours may be different from the ones I have been taught to read." She glanced over at me, wincing a little in awkwardness.
The man stepped over to a stand and picked up a book. "Won't know if we don't try, will we? Give this one a go." He opened the book on a certain tune and placed it on the rest.
Rebecca glanced over it. "Yes. I can read that." She said in relief.
"Fantastic! All music lovers speak the same language, dear. Go ahead, give that one a try. I warn you, it's a little tricky." He folded his arms and stepped back, letting Rebecca take centre stage. He leaned over to me. "I have a feeling she'll have no problem with this piece. Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimski-Korsakov is extremely difficult to master, but with the piece she just played, she'll get it straight away."
Rebecca read through the music first before settling herself to play. When she started, she moved so gracefully and fluidly, the rest of us were put in a trance. The music played beautifully and you could feel the emotions she put in as she performed, softening and hardening the music accordingly to give it the perfect balance. It really did sound like a bumblebee was flying around the room. It was truly inspiring.
She gave the final few notes of the tune a flourish along with her own take of the piece with her left hand on the lower keys and finished with gusto. We all cheered and applauded her performance. She turned on the stool and gave us all the widest, toothiest grin I had ever seen. Natalia rushed over to her.
"That was incredible, my love!" She praised her, cupping both her cheeks and kissing her deeply.
"We have got to get one of these!" Rebecca told her, earnestly.
"Well, it's a little out of budget, Beccs." I interjected. "There's loads of others that'll be much better to take around with us."
"Absolutely, lets put those skills to the test, young lady, and find you your perfect keyboard." He took Rebecca's elbow and gently lifted her off the stool, leading her further into the shop.
"Natalia, Clara, you two stay here. Raquel and I will go and get the boys. Enjoy, ladies." I took Raquel's hand and pulled her out of the shop, across the road to where the pool bar was.
I pulled the door open and let Raquel enter first. We went into a dimly lit corridor that ended with a steep flight of stairs heading to the basement. I led the way down and opened the door at the bottom of the stairs to a huge room with about eight snooker tables, a long bar and a reasonable sized seating area. I spotted the boys immediately at the snooker table right at the back. I marched over to them.
"Uh, Excuse me, love. You gotta pay to play." A young guy called after me from behind the bar.
"I'm not here to play, I'm here to get them out of here." I called back, curtly.
Raquel stuck close to my heels as I made my way towards them, watching them laughing and joking, oblivious to our arrival. Sawyer and Hunter were leaning against the snooker table on the corner, blocking our view of Xavier, who's shoes I could see under the table and Darren was laying across the table on his front, reaching over to do something. I decided to have some fun.
"ON YOUR FEET!" I bellowed.
Darren immediately leapt off the table and stood to attention, facing me beside the table. Raquel giggled. I smirked at her.
"You'll learn to be able to do that too." I whispered to her before turning my attention back to Darren. "Drinking on the job, Hodgson?" I said, authoritivly.
"N-No." Darren replied, his face serious and looking straight ahead, instead of at me.
"Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" I snapped.
Darren looked at me, and let slip a small smile making me corpse too.
"I do love seeing you stand to attention." I chuckled.
"I love it when you tell me to look at you. You know we can never take it seriously when we look each other in the eye." Darren laughed.
"And that's why you're on Ruby's team not mine." I smirked.
"Yeah... Thanks!" Darren rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"You were meant to be getting clothes. Instead I find you in a pub!" I shook my head, shaming them.
"It's not a pub, it's a pool bar." Xavier argued, coming into view. He was wearing mid thigh length vibrant green shorts with a pale pink t shirt that had "Born to be wild" pasted over the chest.
I took such a sudden intake of breath, I choked on my own spit. Raquel looked him up and down with a confused look.
"Is this what men from Earth wear?" She asked, curiously.
"Fuck no!" I spat. "Xavier, which one of these fuckers put you in that?!"
Sawyer, Hunter and Darren smirked, standing up straight to watch the show.
"I did." Xavier said.
"What?!" I blanched. "You chose that yourself?"
"Yeah. Don't you like it?" Xavier asked innocently, looking down at it.
Very aware that I had already upset him today, I forced my urge to vomit at the clashing colours deep, deep down.
"It's fine." I forced myself to say quietly, trying to give him a sweet smile.
The boys all fell about laughing, Xavier looking the most smug of them all. Raquel and I exchanged bewildered looks.
"What's going on?" Raquel asked, slowly.
"Well, we knew you'd be coming to give us a bollocking for being here anyway." Sawyer started.
"So, I drew the short straw and had to come up and call you, pretending to be drunk." Hunter added.
"And I quickly went out and bought the most vulgar things I could find to wear." Xavier chuckled, childishly.
"Because we knew you would back off us if he told you he'd bought them." Darren finished.
"All in all, Watson. We just wanted to play a small joke on you." Sawyer grinned at me.
I folded my arms, giving them a very unimpressed look. Raquel joined in their laughter and I rolled my eyes at them.
"Well, let's get going!" I said, gesturing them towards the exit. "Every minute in here, Rebecca's shopping list is getting bigger and bigger!"
"Why?" Hunter asked, walking up to Raquel and putting his arms around her waist. "Where is she?"
"The music shop across the street." I replied. "So hurry up."
"Awesome. I didn't know there was a music shop here." Sawyer said, heading straight for the exit.
"Hold on!" Xavier said, picking up his bags of clothing. "I want to get changed first."
Xavier rushed to the toilets to get changed, Sawyer leaving us anyway to go to the music shop. Darren came over with his three bags of clothing.
"How has Xavier found everything today? The girls are still wanting to do some shopping." I warned Darren.
"He's enjoyed himself. He was a little too into the shopping, so that's why we hid here." Darren admitted. "I've arranged a new hotel for tonight by the way. Told them I would visit this afternoon and pay upfront."
I nodded, smiling at him.
"Yeah, no breaking the bed this time!" Hunter teased us, both him and Raquel giggling.
"How did you know about that?!" I snapped, glaring at Darren who held his hands up in surrender.
"Natalia." Darren explained, simply.
"Oh fuck sake." I pinched the bridge of my nose and scrunched my eyes closed. "Why does she have to tell everyone everything?"
"Ok, I'm ready." Xavier's voice called over. He looked very handsome in his pale brown khaki trousers and white shirt.
"That's better. Let's go." I said.
When we emerged out of the pool bar, I was shocked to see a crowd had gathered outside the music shop. I exchanged expressions with Darren. Raquel squealed.
"Ohhhh, a PARTY!" She screamed and ran forward to join the crowd, pulling Hunter along with her.
"What is going on?" Darren asked slowly.
"It'll be one of two things. Either it's Rebecca playing, or Natalia and Clara dancing..." I said warily.
Thankfully, it was Rebecca's playing that had drawn the crowd in. We pushed ourselves through the masses of people and saw all the front windows of the shop were open, allowing Rebecca's beautiful music to spill out onto the high street, reach people's ears and spark their curiousity.
We walked through the now open doors and almost every keyboard and piano had been moved from their original position to allow Rebecca to try them out. Natalia was watching her with glassy eyes and Clara was grinning. Sawyer was standing next to them, his arms folded, a faint hit of astonishment on his face as he watched Rebecca play.
Rebecca looked like she was having the time of her life. Her eyes were sparkling with happiness and fullfillment, the grin pasted on her face was the widest I have seen for a long time, and she was breathing erratically because of how much playing she was doing. She looked over when she saw me enter with Darren and launched out of her seat, grabbing my hand and pulling me to a large keyboard with a lot of buttons along the top.
"I have decided on this one." She said, her voice slightly higher pitched than normal due to the excitement.
"Why have you chosen this one?" I asked, running my hands over the hundreds of teeny tiny buttons.
"Watch." She said simply.
She moved me out of the way and lifted it up, carrying it to a stand and a stool. She gently placed it down and looked expectantly at the shop owner who was looking overjoyed at his customer's enthusiasm for music. He plugged it in for her and she took a seat. She then struck up the thrilling, twinkling first chords of the music we had heard her play during our evening walks when Natalia was doing her Collective Lands Ritual. After she had played the first few chords of the cheerful, spunky melody she quickly pressed a button and it switched the sounds to a different instrument. It was now pan pipes and it fit in with the song amazingly accurately. It also changed her style of playing, the notes became slightly shorter and she played breif additional notes in a scale like way, up to the next note as if someone was actually blowing along a pan pipe as they moved to a higher note without stopping for breath.
Raquel and Xavier came in, along with Hunter, and stared at her in amazement as they heard the tune being played oh-so beautifully. Clara darted over to join them and the three started doing the bendy, twisty dances that strongly reminded me of Moreno back in Swindmore. It had the same affect on Sawyer too, as he all of a sudden broke his fixed gaze on Rebecca and glared disapprovingly at the trio. Natalia's eyes started brimming with tears and she cupped her hands over her mouth and nose.
"Hey! Are you ok?" I said to her as quietly as I could so she could still hear me over the music.
"The way she plays it... It's like I'm back on Atania..." Natalia said, lowering her hands and looking delighted.
Rebecca finished the final few chords in a flourish and let her hands fall to her lap, staring at the keyboard eurphorically, before looking over to me and catching sight of Natalia. Her face morphed into concern and she launched over to her, wrapping her arms around Natalia and pulling her comfortingly close.
"I'm so sorry, darling! I didn't mean to upset you. I thought you'd like it." She murmured, burying her face into Natalia's ebony hair.
"I'm not upset, my love. I'm overjoyed. It was perfect. I felt like I was back in Wacchica." Natalia pulled back so she could see into Rebecca's eyes.
Rebecca gave her a confident grin before looking at me and nodding. "This is the one. Definitely!"
I grinned and pulled my bag off my shoulder, pulling the small bag of money up, but not quite taking it out of the bag, grabbing a handful of fifties and looking up at the shop owner.
"How much is it, sir?" I asked, politely.
"Eight hundred and seventy." The man said, my eyes nearly falling out of my sockets from the price. "But I'll add in the stand and stool for her along with a few music books. It's been the most incredible day."
I nodded, in startled silence, counting the money. Once finished, I stood and put my bag back on my shoulder walking to his till. He rung it up and I handed over the cash. He gave me an intrigued look.
"If I might be so bold, where are these ladies from? Their taste in music is exquisit." He asked me in wonder.
I looked over my shoulder at Rebecca who was letting Natalia sit on the stool and play with the different buttons on her new prized possession. "Somewhere very special." I replied vaguley, before turning to face him. "They're not from around here, but the places they do come from, are very special."