3. Of Life and its Ballads - Kaitlyn's Repertoire

Of Life and its Ballads - Kaitlyn's Repertoire


  • _It is a quiet sunset in Peltarch when Kaitlyn walks away from her home at the Residential District. The war is just over, but the old Jewel of the Icelace lays battered and war-torn, to such extent that she can barely recognise the place she grew in. With idle steps she comes across faces that are familiar and others that are not.

    Feelings overwhelm her young heart as she traverses the main street, lost in the rhythmic percussion of the Icelace's waves against rock and stone. Her dotted emerald eyes are steady to the horizon, face aglow with the last orange rays before twilight beckons the stars. Her lips bear the semblance of a wry smile, as she dwells for the tiniest of moments on the thought that her home was close to not existing anymore.

    With unwavering gaze she turns southwards, towards a patch of solitude and childhood memories - the city's secluded Park. She reaches it just in time to watch the fiery sun be fiery no more, threads of light lingering in the sky, mingling with the rolling clouds until all that is left of the sunset is a chalky mauve that quickly melts away, conceding victory to the stygian darkness that wins and loses daily its battle for the skies. Sequin-silver stars wink down at the young woman while the clouds part, as if bowing in reverence to the lustrous, argent queen of the night who bathes the park with soothing rays of her moonlight._

    Those childhood memories now invade Kaitlyn's mind. She imagines a sunny day, a warm afternoon and around her there are children laughing, playing. And there is her father, a warm and caring smile on his face, watching her play with them, proudly. Kaitlyn finds a melancholic smile in her lips as her senses bring her back to the present moment, when a beam of moonlight grants her the spotlight. "Perhaps…" thinks the young lady - "Perhaps a lot has changed. But everything stays." Kaitlyn sits on a lonely bench as she reaches at her back, pulling out her long-neck bass-lute. Her fingers play slow, melodic chords that are soon joined by her own voice.

    _Let's go in the garden
    You'll find something waiting
    Right there where you left it
    Lying upside down

    When you finally find it
    You'll see how it's faded
    The underside is lighter
    When you turn it around

    Everything stays
    Right where you left it
    Everything stays
    But it still changes

    Ever so slightly
    Daily and nightly
    In little ways
    When everything stays_

    [[Source: Everything Stays by Rebecca Sugar]]


  • _It's noon in Narfell, when Kaitlyn is spending time alone in Norwick. She is enjoying a fresh, ripe tomato under the sun which warms but does not burn, touches but does not stain. A gentle wind brings a flowery scent from the core of the Rawlinswood, right into her nostrils, which she gladly takes in, shutting her dotted emerald eyes for a moment, painting a soft smile in her lips.

    As the young lady opens her eyes again, she becomes the willing victim of mixed, beautiful emotions invading her senses. A moment of euphoria in which everything appears perfect - the warming sun, the soft breeze, the sweet scent bring to her head the tales and myth, stories and fables she's read and heard about. And so she decides to ride the moment, picking up her bass-lute, strumming a few grave, rhythmical chords, singing along an improvised ode to Narfell and its wild, untamed beauty.

    Where the lukewarm Sun shines bright
    Rolling across the sky
    Gilding the sands

    Where the zephyr is pure still
    The soothing starlight is dim
    Stroking the lands

    Where each step becomes a path
    The brooks and rivers talk
    dance with the willows

    Where old warriors tested their wrath
    The rhythm of a drum
    Across the meadows

    Narfell~ this is Narfell
    All an immense garden, this is Narfell
    When the gods created the Heavens
    They thought of Narfell._