Tideline

Chapter Twenty-One

I had never heard such a thing.

It sang.

I had been learning about Human music, but I had not fully understood what sort of instruments they used. And now Caspian was playing one for me. Violin, he called it. A strange instrument that he tucked under his chin while sliding a stick across the strings, while his strong, beautiful brown fingers delicately danced across the strings. And it sang when he did that. Caspian sang. I could see that he was playing something that came from deep inside, something that lifted the shadows from his eyes briefly and allowed me to truly see him for who he was.

Someone who could sing so beautifully.

I wanted to listen to this music, his music, forever. Time seemed to fall away from us, peeled away with every note and leaving behind this perfect bubble of reality where time was still and there was only music. Only the two of us, with the sun shining just outside the window, glowing across the illusion of debris that hid my world.

The sight of the illusion was what destroyed that bubble. Time was not still, time was flowing faster and faster, carrying me along with it without any way to halt it or slow it down. And I had to keep up, I had to swim faster. Walk faster. Talk faster. But I was trying to go as fast as I could, and it still wasn't fast enough. I still didn't know the words I needed and was struggling to find a way to communicate what I wanted with Caspian.

"Hey, you okay?" The music had stopped and all I could hear was Caspian's soft, low voice. That beautiful voice, low and soft like a warm night enveloping me in its shadowy embrace. "You feel okay?"

Okay. That was one of the earlier words I had learned. And it had so many meanings, that was the problem with Human language. One word could mean many things as they didn't have song or color to help add depth and extra meaning to words. As soon as I learned one meaning to a word then I would find another, and a third sometimes.

*Good, yes.* I signed, unable to use my limited vocabulary to properly explain the churning maelstrom of emotion and thoughts that swirled within me. It felt like I was trying to refill the ocean with only raindrops.

Caspian stared at me for a moment that stretched far too long and made me far too aware of how dark his eyes were. Such a dark brown, darker than his skin, with streaks of lighter gold as if sunlight had been trapped in the shadows of his eyes. "Would you like to try?" His voice rose on the last word which I had come to understand meant a question was being asked. "Would you like to sing?"

He held out the violin to me and I understood what he was asking. I nodded a little too eagerly. Yes, I wanted to try this strange instrument. I wanted to sing again. I needed to sing again, like I needed to breathe. Caspian showed me how to fit the violin under my chin with one hand on its long neck, and how to hold the stick in my other hand. It felt warm and smooth in my hands, almost alive. Carefully I pressed down on the strings in the pattern Caspian had showed me, slid the stick across the strings and produced an ear-splitting shriek that sounded like the harsh cry of a tela.

Caspian winced, then laughed, a rich rolling sound that rippled across my bones and pulsed against my heart. "It's okay, that's how it sounded when I first tried. Here, you need to rest the bow lightly against the strings. Like this."

He wrapped one hand around mine, gently guiding it so that a smoother tone arose from the violin. Caspian moved in closer and placed his fingers along the neck over my hand, carefully moving my fingers in the complex pattern across the strings. Gently, slowly his hands guided mine and a short, but sweet melody arose from the violin. My heart leapt at the sound and I looked up to see that Caspian's face was inches from mine. His eyes met mine and our hands stopped moving, and where our skin touched there was fire. Hot, burning flames melting our flesh together until I couldn't tell where his fingers ended and mine began. My eyes focused on his lips, soft and slightly open as if he were about to speak, and I wondered if they felt as soft as they looked. I wondered...I wanted...