She Plays a Song

"Pfft!" Robin failed to hide the laugh that burst out of her at the pitiful sight of the unlucky instrument.

"Hey, what's going on?" Christian yawned as he and Keith came out of his tent. "And who are you?" He asked Quinn.

Robin waved him over. "It's a wandering bard whose instrument met its demise bearing the brunt of a charging boar. Which reminds me..." Robin turned back to the masked Quinn. "How did you escape the boar?"

"Um...This is embarassing, but after that, I fell into the river." Quinn replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Is that so? Do you know if there is a town nearby?" Prince Christian asked, giving up on sleep. It seemed that Chelsea, Ponzu, Gerard, and Jasmine were blessed with the ability to sleep through all the noise.

"There should be one nearby. I was originally going to return to town, but I'm afraid I got turned around, and ended up walking in the wrong direction, which is how I met you." Quinn said honestly.

"Hmm..." Christian pondered, eyeing Quinn as he contemplated what to do. Robin, meanwhile, was searching in her magic bag for something she had bought a while back in Port Oracle.

"Nope...that's not it...now where did I.. ? Ah!"She snapped her fingers as the idea came to her. "Storage bracer, of course!"

"Robin, what are you doing?" Christian finally asked.

"Well, he broke his instrument, right? I was in the mood to listen to some music..." She brought out a brand new lute. "...so, I remembered I had this!"

"Where did you buy a lute?" Christian asked.

"Back in Port Oracle, in the market." Robin replied.

"But, why?" Christian's mind was boggled.

"Because I can play it?" Robin almost rolled her eyes before her fingers lightly ran across the strings, softly strumming out the intro to the Beatles' pop song 'Here Comes The Sun'.

Come to think of it, Robin recalled where she had learned this song. One of her busybody survival teachers had forced an old lute into her hand, and mad her learn this every morning before the martial arts lesson.

"I'm not against learning how to play, but why a lute?" She had asked at the time.

"What? And have you possibly wreck my 1957 FT 210 Deluxe Cutaway signed by John Lennon? No way! Besides, the lute is the ancestor of the guitar, so they are similar in execution. Think of it this way, you can play the lute during one of those medieval re-enactments that your brother likes to go to..."

Robin's hand shook. She had never told her teacher, but this song was a somewhat painful memory for her. She had always sung along to it on the radio with her mother and father and older brother. But now, here she was, playing it alone, with no one to sing the words.

All of a sudden, sadness seemed to threaten to overcome her, just like it had seven years ago. While she was sure that no one could tell in the dim light of the fire, her face had grown a bit pale as she struggled to keep her emotions under control.

The other men had not noticed. However Christian had noted the slight quiver in Robin's chin, and the furrow in between Robin's eyebrows. The cheerful tune in Robin's hands had become more wistful, like the sunlight peering in through a crack in the green roof of a forest glade.

She stopped after the first chorus with a small sigh. With that, the lump in her throat disappeared. The sadness was now sealed and back under control.

"Oy, why'd you stop? It's very good!" Sir Earl objected.

Robin chuckled, hiding her former mood. "Me playing isn't the reason I took this out. I'm interested in your playing." She turned to Quinn, who had his mouth open as he watched Robin play.

"Go on, show me how well you play, and I might just be in a good enough mood to let you keep it!" Robin encouraged with a laugh, handing over the lute to Quinn.

Quinn did't immediately play, but ran his finger down the strings, making sure they weren't out of tune. When he was satisfied, he nodded, and began strumming.

Surprisingly, his playing was more similar to the asian zither style, rather than the renaissance style of music. It used flat and sharp notes more often than in Robin's world, and had a certain cadence of its own, causing the listeners to get sleepy.

Soon enough, a soft, whispery song drifted out, lulling everyone to sleep.

"On the nights when the moon isn't quite yet full, and it's long 'til the sun starts to rise,

Let me tell you a tale of a kingdom of old,

and it's name is Paradise.

There the old and the young live forever more, and the market place is bright.

Peering out from the castle walls you see all of the soldier's gleaming might.

There the trees bear their fruits all year round without fail, and the wonders never cease.

And the cheer is shared even to the snail, shared about to all that please.

There the common folk adore their old king, and they cry out "Hail! Hail!"

And he greets their cries with the Prince at hand, fearing neither sick nor ill.

There the mountains' heights, and the Dragon's tail is a sturdy shield for all.

But you won't expect, no you won't believe

the secrets hid in the widened sleeve

of the mountain tall. Maybe you'll not leave

and in Paradise stay forever more..."

By the end of Quinn's song, everyone had fallen into a deep sleep. Quinn dipped his head, shading his eyes from the light of the fire.

"And this one welcomes you too, to Paradise, all." He said cryptically as he stood up, returning the lute to Robin's side.

"A pity. I wouldn't mind listening a bit more to your tunes. But it's already been too long a time. The curse of Paradise must be broken."

And, with that, The entire campsite vanished from the grasslands.

------

A butterfly fluttered about, resting for a brief amount of time upon Robin's nose before once more lifting itself up into the sky in search of wildflowers. The mild disturbance of the air around her face was enough to awaken Robin, whose eyes opened slowly. It felt as if her eyes were covered in lead, she had never felt so tired.

She sat up slowly, with half-opened eyes, yawning loudly as she stretched in an attempt to rouse herself from her sleepiness. Perhaps there was something different in the air that made Robin paused a moment. Regardless, since she felt something was out of place, she raised her head to look about. As her eyes came into focus, she almost believed that she was dreaming again.

Robin blinked as she looked about her at the surrounding tall mountain peaks. She could have sworn that they had camped out in the grasslands last night. How could they have simply moved overnight?

More importantly, where were they?

Beside here, Christian was also waking up. He shook his head dizzily, as if waking from a drunken sleep. She tapped his shoulder.

"What is it?" Christian turned to ask. His expression froze as he saw the white-capped mountain peaks. Robin exchanged wide-eyed stares with Prince Christian, who was just as dumbfounded.

"Good morning, Hero Robin! Good morning, Prince Christian. Isn't it a good day for travelling?" Chelsea asked as she stepped out of the tent, cheerfully. But, she paused, when she saw the two gazing out of camp with pale faces.

"What's the matter?" She asked, as she turned to look. "Ah! Why are there mountains!?" She exclaimed. "Didn't we set up camp in the grasslands? Where in the world are we?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know." Christian's expression grew dark. "It looks like we've become a victim of sudden teleportation."

"Sudden teleportation?" Robin asked.

"Similar to long distance summoning, sudden teleportation is a nasty spell that certain -ahem!- immoral great mages set up. It can happen in completely random locations. Those who are caught in it can be unfortunate enough to be transported in the middle of a raging volcano, or the depths of the ocean." Jasmine explained, as she walked out of the tent. "If this is such a case, then we're lucky that we've landed in a relatively safer position than those."

"The unlucky part is that we're clueless about where we are." Keith grumbled, having been awakened by Chelsea's voice. "Ye can shout quite loudly, can't ye, lass?" He asked, sarcastically, as his northern accent became more prevalent.

Chelsea blushed, embarassed. "I'm sorry if I woke you. I was just so surprised!"

"A person whose eyes see more than most, I'm surprised that anything can still surprise ye!" Keith grinned, teasingly. "Why can't yer crystal necklace tell us where we are?"

"I'm only a young seer, not an almighty omniscient deity." Chelsea retorted. "The heavens may show me snippets of the future, but that doesn't mean I can just search for what I want to see-oh."

The crystal ball on Chelsea's chain lit up, glowing blue like the ocean floor. squiggly lines of light moved upon Chelsea's veil, as if she was staring at water instead of a crystal.

"It seems we have been noticed. Moreover, they sent us a message." Chelsea said, in surprise.

Everyone looked at each other, then examined the surrounding area. Right now, the stood at a spot about a third of the way up the mountain's roots. In the basin formed at the center of the mountain's circle, there was a large lake visible.

"Ah! Over there!" Gerard pointed to their left. It was a bit difficult to spot through the trees, but they could see a tower peeking up in the distance.

"What does the message say?" Christian asked.

"Welcome...to Paradise."