by Mockingbird Sticks on Tue Aug 03, 2010 9:01 pm
Sticks let the cool ale wet her throat, then set it down. Her voice became even and dramatic, and she started speaking in a rythm familiar to performers.
"This is the tale, a tale sad and brief,
a tale of a mermaid and her lad on the reef," she put the instrument, to her lips and and rested the edge of the end on her navel, playing a solemn tune, though it was still energetic.
"She was a singer below, and he a sailor above
He noticed naught once, the song for her love" Her lips gently returned to the instrument, and raised it higher, shrilling the pitch and the song was peppier this time.
"The fish girl loved him, and loved him true
He loved the ocean, in all it's lovely blue." Now she accompanied the shawm with a single wing, rapping it's tip against the wood of the booth and the song built into something a little more frantic. The belled end of the instrument now waved to the rythm as well. She continued, her voice coming faster and a little more desperate.
"I love you my dear,' she called the the railing,
But the ship never slowed, always was sailing.
She cried out to her god, to bring her man close
But never known for mercy, was old Akakios."
The song picked up even more, until it could almost be considered raving, and now her entire body was part of the show. She writhed in time to the music, both wings strumming a patter-beat beside her, and head following the shawm as it slashed back and forth through the air. When she came up for air, her gleaming dark hair was tousled and half over her face, and her pale skin was flushed with effort.
"She watched him from the from the drink,
And he watched his ship sink.
She found his body at the ocean's bed,
And she loved him once and left him for dead.
You may think that god's reaction most trite,
But the boy loved the mermaid for the rest of his life!" She threw her head back and laughed, then pitched forward to play the shockingly cheerful and relaxed ending. When she was done, she leaned back and brought her eyes to his, to judge his reaction. "I learned it from a sailor a few weeks ago, she explained."