When the sun goes down (training)

[Dhanya]

39th Summer, 510
purpose: selfmod, training.

Dhanya had been avoiding the rest of her fellow travelers that afternoon. She felt as if she had no words for them and no space inside to hear any they could care to tell her. She was a full cup and inside, something was churning. She didn't know what with.

She ran through scales, again and again, working high to low and backwards. She held the highest and lowest notes and until she felt warm and bored with it.

"La, fucking, la." She sang, standing alone in the desert and watching the sun dip low.

The heat of the day had finally passed but it was not yet dark and cold. She had some time to herself and she was going to take it.

"Can anybody find me..." She held the last note, then decided this was not a song she wished to sing.

"Theres a blue bird at my window, I cant hear the songs he sings." She began anew, voice soft and feet unmoving. "All the jewels in heaven, they dont look the same to me."

"I just wade the tides that turned,
Till I learn to leave the past behind.

It's only lies that I'm living,
It's only tears that I'm crying,
It's only you that I'm losing,
Guess I'm doing fine."

It was a miserable sort of song but she was at least pleased that she was keeping tune and controlling her breathing. She was singing well, even if her throat did hurt.

"And by the way, I hope you drown." The words were not in the original lyrics. She just slipped them in.

It was enough moping. She pondered her mental catalogue for something more upbeat, with an undercurrent of revenge. Anger was still the emotion she was most comfortable with when it came to unhappy days.

[Dhanya]

Dhanya grit her teeth, then exhaled. She breathed in, released, took a sip of water.

"Hello, welcome, here's a song I sing when I'm pissed and angry, not pissed yet, one out of two ain't bad. Clap like you mean it or I'll hit you after." She said, speaking out towards the desert with no one to hear.

"Right."

She began.

"Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide." Her voice was heavy as she sang, projecting out as far as she could will it too, which wasn't far over sand. "Voices trapped in yearning, memories trapped in time..."

She sounded angry, that was how she'd first heard the song be sung. There were dark things hiding in those words and she'd liked being able to hear them. She'd been told this was subtext. She preferred to leave that to others, she wanted her audience to know when she was pleased or moody, even when they weren't there.

"And I would be the one to hold you down,
kiss you so hard I’ll take your breath away,
And after I’d wipe away the tears... Just close your eyes dear."

She felt great pride at how she could remember songs long after she'd last heard them. She barely thought of the words, they were just there, even when she was upset. Especially when she was upset.

"Nothing stands between us here, and I won’t be denied." She spat, glaring at a lizard that scuttled away from her sight.

[Dhanya]

A stray breeze crept by and Dhanya coughed. The sand, the sand, always getting everywhere and nothing to be done about it. She held her throat and forced a few more, she felt as if she'd inhaled something.

Even the water was vaguely sandy, when she thought on it. She sighed into her hands, then muddled out some nonsense. She'd been told it aided in pronunciation or enunciation or some other ation she wasn't familiar with.

"La, li, le, lo, lu." She shifted through notes she didn't have names for, from low to high and down again. "Ta, ti, te, to, tu. Sa, si, se, so, syu."

Her tongue slipped and she felt as if she was tripping over it. She tried a few more times but still messed a tone or two every once in a while. She'd never been one for overt accuracy. She simply lacked the concentration. She did better running from task to task. It held her back as a singer, though it had opened her up to more experiences. She had talent but she was never going to be a diva in any classical style.

And she knew it.

"Oh, I talk when I don't have to," Dhanya lilted, "And, I hope it doesn't matter, 'cause we know what we know."

She was beginning to miss having an audience.

"I don't know how you do it," she paused, "but I change, and you see to it that we ain't got no show."

If she'd been in Endrykas, Kayiri might have been watching. There would have been regulars to buy her a free beer and smile. Perhaps Khiara would have given in, had a drink and got up to dance. Later she'd tell her stories when they were both too riled to go to sleep.

Then she'd go home and Van would be there.

"Yes, I talk when I don't have to, and, I hope it doesn't matter, 'cause we know what we know."

She stood up, dusting the sand from her skirt and began walking back to camp. Then she lifted her feet and took two quick steps, knees high. Sand flew behind her as she flew into a jig, slowed by the drag it brought.

Dhanya danced home.

[Colombina]

The XP Wand Is Waved! Hope you had fun in this little thread! I do appreciate "Possession", I'm rather fond of the song. Next time if you write your own songs I'll give you more xp Dhanya's Loot 1 xp Singing Lore of Releasing Tension Through Singing