Welcome to Gaia! ::

The forest was quiet. Even the birds were quiet, listening to what was going on. A blond child was sitting on an old tree stump, humming as he worked. In his lap, the child had a few sticks, and a small carving tool. After a moment, he lifted one of the sticks, his humming stopped. He put the wood to his lips, and a strange, almost melodic sound filled the air.

"No, that's not right..." he used the carving tool a little more, then tried again. This time, the note that filled the silence was crisp and pleasant. "Perfect, wouldn't you agree?" Aqua green eyes looked to the trees and he smiled. A single bird chirped, as if in response to the question. The blond looked at the sticks in his lap. He had three, all hallowed out, and a couple holes carved in them. "Now to fasten them together."

Someone showed up. Bard smiled at the other child. "Hello..." he knew him, right? They met... in the garden? "...it's Dash, isn't it?" He was pretty sure that was his name. "Nice to see you again." Even if he got the name wrong, it was always nice seeing a familiar face. "Doing? I'm making music. I read about it in a book. You can make the air sound differently through pipes with holes in them."

He pulled out a long, rough spun cord. "I think this was called a pan flute. I couldn't find enough small branches to make it very big." He lifted one of the sticks to his lips. "Listen." And he blew gently. A soft, warm sound came from the wooden pipe, and then the note changed when Bard moved his fingers. He could get distinct pitches, or notes, from one pipe. "Neat, don't you think?"

The forest was a nice and shady place to spend the day. Felix even considered going to the lake for a dip, this time without some of the forest coming with him. He was making his way through towards the East bank when he heard something that sounded....kind of nice. It was almost like birdsong but different. Where did that come from? Curiosity was already making his feet move towards the direction of the sound despite the fact that he didn't know exactly where it originated. He'd walked for a bit yet hadn't found where the sound had come from, thinking for a moment that he would just head back to the lake till he suddenly fell forward straight onto the forest floor.

Apparently he hadn't noticed that he'd walked right into a root that was curled up above ground, which tripped him. Felix was about to just sit there and nurse his ankle (and his pride) till he heard that same sound again just ahead of him. He instantly forgot about tripping and scrambled to his feet, making his way to where two boys were and saw the blonde one with carved sticks. "Hey, did you make that pretty sound? How'd you do that?" He sounded excited to have found where the sound came from and who made it.

"Ah," Dash dipped his head. "You're right, we weren't." He watched Bard tie the pipes together. At first he did not know why the other boy might do that, then he realized their difference in length would make different sounds.

"Oh, no! Are you all right?" He moved toward the new child to offer assistance, if needed, and it wasn't. He was relieved.

Now he turned toward Bard once again, listening. The three notes were different as expected. There was no word or concept of tunes and even songs in his mind. But the sounds were pleasant, sweet. "It's beautiful."

When Bard asked Felix for his name, Dash piped in, "I'm Padparadscha, but I am called Dash." He probably should introduce himself like that more often, just in case he was called by his full name. Hopefully there would be less confusion.

"Felix." Bard repeated with a gentle smile. "That's a nice name. I'm Bard." He looked at Dash, then back to Felix. "I suppose it is like bird song. But, I've read that things like... music... have some structure to them. I want to make music. Not simply the random chirpings of birds. What I read said it could be very moving. Sadly, I couldn't find many examples. Some of the data files that had music were corrupted, but I was able to hear some... I think they were called notes." He looked at the pipes in his hand. "Did you know there is a book of old folk legends in the library? One was about a man who could charm animals with his music. He would play and dance and rodents would follow him." Children also would follow him, and the man in the story wasn't exactly a good role model. Bard chose to ignore that, and simply wanted to sing and play music and dance.

He hopped off the stump where he sat and placed the pipes to his lips again. He began playing, a clumsy little melody. Bard was thinking about the things he had seen. The little birds clumsy in hatching from their eggs, and the way they would flop about as they learned to fly. He tried to put those thoughts to music as his feet carried him around the clearing, dancing between the two brunettes as he played.

"Dash and Bard...cool!" Felix grinned as he looked between the two boys, listening to Bard talk about wanting to make music. He remembered seeing something about that in the library archives before. It was actually pretty sad that a lot of audio files were corrupted but now he wanted to go find the files that weren't so he could hear what Bard was talking about. "Oh yeah, I think I saw that story! Man, you'd think people would know better than to cheat someone out of what they deserve..."

"Yeah, I'm pretty much always falling or bumping into things and whatnot." He looked to Dash when he questioned it, even chuckling a little. "I can't really complain too much, though; every time I do, something good happens...like finding you guys!" Yep, there was that optimism.

Felix looked at Bard when he hopped off. Of the stump and started to move around. He was...dancing? Dash was joining in, apparently, but Felix just watched and listened. Whatever Bard was doing with that instrument he made, he liked it....and it was hard to deny the energy it was giving him. He found himself swaying a bit to the rhythm for a while before he eventually tried to follow along with the other two boys, silently praying that his clumsiness didn't decide to strike while this was happening; he really didn't want to do something to ruin what Bard was doing.

Dash picked up the pace as the tune became lighter. And he stopped when the music did, feeling a little disappointed. But Bard looked a bit winded so it was probably best that they had stopped.

"Honestly, I was only wandering in the forest when I heard the sound." Dash grinned as he quickly caught his breath. The dance had not worn him out too much, it actually felt good.

"I am known for my clumsiness, too," he admitted to Felix. "But I have been training with Argent and I have become better on my feet. Maybe you will stumble less if you learn an exercise, or a dance, anything really."