Ocarina

"See over there, we go right at that place and then it's only a short walk away.", Risa said.

"But that's..."

"Well, yes its the bear's territory, but I guess it won't be much of a problem if you come with me like this and leave in the shortest way possible? It's not that far into their territory, so I don't think they will complain that much if you explain yourself, right?

By the way, today I'm going to show you the basics because I don't have much time. Meet me on the next Monday, so in five days, in the tavern again at the same time. At that time I can tell you if you are really worth teaching. Is that good for you?"

"Eh? Didn't you already say you would teach me because I have talent?"

"Yes, but your talent doesn't have anything to do with your technique. You need a certain level of technique to be able to make use of your talent, but it's not very useful before that. And even though I did say that technique comes with time and practice, the level of technique you need is so high that many don't reach it in their lives."

"Ehhhh, How am I supposed to do that then?", first Risa told her that she had talent and would thus teach her, but now the same person told her that her talent was useless. Alice felt betrayed and pouted a little.

"And I wanted to ask for a while, but what is your instrument called? It sounds like some kind of flute, but I have never heard of something like this."

"Ah, right, I sometimes forget about that. You see, its a pretty rare instrument and very old. It stems from one of the ancient civilizations and can sometimes be found in ruins, it's called 'ocarina', kinda funny name, isn't it?"

"It comes from a ruin?! That means your 'oparina' is an artifact?!"

"Its 'ocarina', with a 'c' and not a 'p'. And no, mine is not an artifact, I made it myself. An Artifact would be far too expensive for someone like me to have."

"You made it yourself?!", Alice was surprised, she had always thought that someone else made the instrument for the musician.

"Yes, it's a custom that's special to ocarina players. The reason is simple, there are no two ocarinas that are the same, they are all different.

There are many different things that determine how an ocarina sounds, material, size, form, the placement, size and number of holes. Even the thickness of the walls and the exact position of the mouthpiece.

It all can change the sound your instrument makes. Although for the same reason it can be very hard to truly master your own instrument.

That is also the reason why the ocarina is sometimes called 'the most emotional instrument'. Not only would a musician be extremely attached to his instrument when he has mastered it, but they are also said to have emotions of their own.

The one I have been using today was a happy ocarina for example and I still have a brave one in my current home that I have mastered as well. At the moment I am working on creating a third one.

Though the one you will be using to learn is the very first one I ever had and used to learn how to play myself.

But well, that's all stuff that will only happen much later, so don't think about it too much!

Ah, we're here. Come inside and sit down."

The room wasn't small, but it was still a little cramped since everything one could need was fitted inside. After thinking it over, Alice sat down on the small stool.

Risa went to the chest that stood at the end of the bed and searched around in it for a moment. Alice saw that she pulled something out and then proceeded to sit down on the only chair. In the next moment, she showed Alice what she held in her hand.

Alice was a little perplexed when she saw what it was, she thought that Risa was going to give her an instrument similar to hers, but what she held in her hand was a piece of a thick branch with a few holes.

"Haha, don't look so disappointed. Even if it looks like this, it's still a proper five-hole ocarina. Something like this can be made easily if you have a good knife on hand, so even if it gets damaged I can easily make a new one. And think about it, like this, there would be no one who would try to steal it either. That way you can take it with you without having to worry about it so much.

Now watch, this is the mouthpiece where you blow in air to produce sound and this..."

Like that, Alice first lesson began and it wasn't at all like Alice had expected. Just producing a sound was much harder than she had initially thought, not even talking about the crystal clear notes that her teacher could produce. And doing this for the first time in her life, she got out of breath after only a few minutes. It was the first time in her life that her strong body couldn't help her at all, on the opposite, it actually hindered her even a little. She had to adjust the pressure she produced very precisely, but with her high strength, it became very hard to control her muscles that precisely, especially because they were muscles she never really used consciously before.

But there was also something else Alice hadn't expected, as soon as the lesson started, Risa's personality changed quite a bit. Although Alice hadn't known her for long and only had seen her happy and carefree side, she still didn't expect that such a friendly person could become that strict all of a sudden.

When Alice finally came back to the hideout, she felt completely exhausted. Looking back, it had only been about half an hour, but her teacher had made her memorize all the basics she needed. It hadn't been easy, but Alice was still happy, and if she had had the strength she would have wanted to try on her own for another two hours. But even though her body wasn't more tired then on other days, her mind was, and she fell asleep hoping for the next day to come faster.