[P] all i need to be free

[Samaira]

however big, however small
let me be part of it all

T

he song played by the musician is not the same, of course, as the song her mother would sing to her when she was young, but the melody is similar enough that she can imagine. The sound of the fiddle draws it out of her memories on whispering notes, and Samaira remembers the first time she’d heard it.

It had been just after she’d found out for the first time why they never went outside the forest, why she had never met anyone else, no other children, no other adults. Her parents had sat her down and explained to her the truth about the world they lived in: that the world, it did not want her because she was different. Oh, she had cried, and hid in herself in her room for hours, drowning in confusion and hurt. Until her mother had come, and, gently running a hand through her hair, had sung.

So, too, Samaira begins to sing.

“There are so many ways to go,
Many goals to reach, if you dare.
Believe you have what it takes.
We all have doubts,
But the most beautiful thing you've got
Is a light, shining clearly,
And it lives within you.
A compass which lights up your night.”

And her voice, perhaps, is not the most beautiful. Not clear and high and naturally musical. It is wafted through with the smokiness of her accent, low, with the warmth of a breathy rasp, but there is emotion in it that needs no technique, no precision, to make distinct. It is belief and strength, and belief in that strength within you. Her parents had always made sure that Samaira never felt wrong, even if their world tried to.

Her song comes to an end just as the music does, and Samaira, bashfully, stops swaying and smiles a sheepish smile. But her silver eyes shine in the sunlight and she chuckles, a little breathlessly, “I am not the singer my mother was, but I will always remember the sound of her voice.” She turns toward the fiddler, and the sincerity in her voice is mirrored in her eyes when she says, “You have such talent… thank you so much for playing for us.”

“I’m wondering if you might show me some place where I could stay the night?” Samaira asks, turning back to Asterion, “I’d like to see more of your home.” Her question punctuates the air between them with more things unsaid. ‘I very much enjoy your company, and I am not ready to be alone again,’ is perhaps the biggest, and it is true.

She has been so long on her own that she is not prepared to do it again, even if just for the night. There is so much here that she wants to see, and still a whole day ahead of them. The pegasus hopes, as she begins to turn back toward the sun-filled streets to move further into the court, that he will agree to be her escort on this next journey of her life.

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@Asterion | "speaks" | notes: I do believe that is an end <3 Her song if you're curious, though I used the english translation obviously haha

rallidae