The sun of dawn shone with an orange-gold light. The warm glow permeated the barren rocky field, highlighting the jagged edges of the terrain. A brisk wind howled across the stony tundra and Benedict could almost pick out individual grains of dust trailing the currents of air.
With a sigh, Benedict lowered his gaze from the glorious horizon down to a hole. The opening in the ground was only slightly wider than his arm. He laid down right next to the earthen maw and plunged his claw into the gaping darkness. His tongue slipped out the side of his mouth as he felt around the miniature cave and grunted when he brushed against something smooth as glass.
With his goal found, Benedict began feeling the extra-smooth rock, searching for the base of the special stone. When he found it, his claws sliced through the outcropping’s base before lifting the cargo out.
Benedict's lips were split by a wide grin when his gentle claws lifted out a sky-blue crystal. With a flick of the hand, the gem was tossed into a woven basket that sat next to him.
Benedict got up and began walking to another hole in the ground. The next hole spat out an emerald, the next held another sapphire, then a strange sort of spicy quartz, and finally, a fire ruby!
For hours, Benedict roamed the land of seemingly dead rock. When he reached a particularly jagged-edged hole, Benedict began his mundane ritual once more. However, when he reached the prize this time, he froze. The crystal had cracks all over it and if Benedict were to pull it up, he knew that the crystal would be a sickly mix of smoke gray with pitch-black covering the cracks.
Benedict sighed as he reached into his basket to bring out a potion bottle. The glowing fluid swirled with all of the colors of the rainbow and tiny cracks of electricity arced around the liquid’s container every once in a while. Tentatively, he reached into the crevice once more to pour a few drops onto the sick crystal.
With a small grunt, he sat up and began searching the grounds for more of the dying gems. After several hours of this, Benedict glared at the surrounding landscape, as if…
“Of all the irresponsible things that idiot does…”
Benedict shook his head before beginning to march into the nearby Everfree. He ignored the chittering wildlife that scampered all around him and he barely acknowledged the darkening of his surroundings.
A scowl grew on Benedict’s face.
“Do they really think that’ll get rid of me?”
The wind howled; it whispered, screamed, and whimpered in a whirlwind of anxiety. The trees grew faces that contorted into twisted smiles and toothy grins and vines slithered around the forest canopy like a horde of snakes.
All the display did was make Benedict growl. He trudged through the undergrowth and swatted away vegetation that got too close. Blood-curdling howls permeated the woods and the forest’s faces started whispering things, terrible things. However, after having witnessed the horror that is Hawaiian pizza, it did little to faze him.
Several minutes passed with the forest’s hostilities berating Benedict, trying to get him to leave, to go home, to leave them alone. However, Benedict would forge on no matter the opposition.
Eventually, he reached the edge of a cliff. Benedict peered over the side and saw the stairs leading down. He hopped from the precipice onto the first step, his scaly feet slapping against the hard rocky ground as he descended. Less than a minute later, Benedict found himself standing before the mouth of a cave. The gaping abyss ahead stretched up and up and up, the ceiling was almost thirty feet in the air. The wide opening was dominated by a glowing tree made of gems with roots sprawled across the floor like an elaborate spider web.
Benedict shook a finger at the tree like a scolding mother.
“What have I said about leaving things to fester?”
The glassy beads that hung off of the branches chimed in slow and low tones. The crystalline trunk glowed an ocean blue. Benedict sighed as he put a claw to his eye ridges and tried to rub away the beginnings of a headache. He stepped just past the entrance and began to stalk towards the tree
“I know that you say that you’re sorry, but you keep making the same mistakes.”
Benedict threw his arms out wide as he shouted at the tree.
“How am I to believe that you really are sorry if you don’t fix the issue?”
The crystal pillar assumed a red hue as the chimes beat out a fast rhythm.
“Now don’t you take that tone with me bud! I’m worried for you. Yes, I know that you can take care of yourself, but you aren’t invincible! The gem rot proves that if nothing else does! Seriously, all I want to do is help, but…”
He reached the sentient stone plant.
“But you need to tell me the issue! I can’t do much if I don’t know what’s wrong.”
The mineral-made plant reverted to its blue coloring while it let out a drawn-out jingle of sadness.
“So. You’re. Gonna. Tell. Me. When. You. Need. Help! Capiche?”
Benedict punctuated each word with a jab of the claw to the tree’s trunk. The vines of precious stone tinkled a soft, accepting trill before tolling a question.
Benedict heaved a sigh, let his shoulders go slack, and his head drooped before he answered.
“Yes, Harmony, we can.”
With that, Benedict smiled at Harmony before he began his trek home. The forest was quiet and bright on the return trip; the gnarled faces were gone. The vines stood still, and the howls had quieted. Light had begun to pierce the canopy again and, as a result, the forest’s greens brightened to their usual lively colors.
Benedict’s woven home took a short time to reach, the violin took even less time to find, but the hike back to the tree took over an hour. Once he reached the mouth of the cave Benedict flipped open his violin case and lifted the instrument out. He plucked the bow but elected to hang it from his horns instead of carrying it normally.
Benedict sat down on a rock to begin twisting knobs and testing strings with gentle claws. However, Harmony decided to chime a loud impatient note at Benedict. In response, he scowled at Harmony and took his musician’s bow from his horns.
The tree tinkled a happy upbeat rhythm until Benedict violently sawed at his violin’s strings. The resulting cacophony resembled a team of drills grinding against bone rather than music. His ear flaps folded back and the tree turned emerald green.
Benedict stared at the tree for a moment before going back to his tuning. This time Harmony busied itself with… something while it waited.
After finishing with the knobs, Benedict drew his bow across the trio of strings one last time. The first string was slightly too low, the third-string was slightly too high, and the middle one was just right. He smiled at his handiwork before standing to face Harmony.
His smile from before stretched wider, exposing sharp teeth in some places.
“Ready?”
Harmony gave an affirmative chime.
Benedict took a deep breath while fanning his ear flaps out. The wind’s whistling was just within the range of hearing as it blew through the cave. Water dripped in a steady beat, the soft splats giving a base for everything around him. Birds twittered off in the distance as they flitted about their afternoon activities and he could even hear the creeks of ancient trees that grew above Harmony.
Higher in the skies the wind howled a high-pitched screech, wolves growled as they prowled the wood, and a mighty river rushed by in the distance. However, one noise dominated the rest, holding Benedict’s attention in a vice-like grip.
The low rumbling of the earth made itself known to him. The muted crashing of tectonic plates, the slow grinding of stone on stone, the groans of strained rock that echoed through the deep, all of it roared in Benedict’s mind, consuming him in the violent, imminent movements of the world itself.
Benedict’s mind recoiled at the vast expanse of noise and began to focus on the dripping water.
Drip
Benedict inhaled.
Drip
And he exhaled.
Drip
In…
Drip
Out.
He repeated the cycle a few more times before bringing his bow up to the strings. He squinted at the shimmering lines of tightly woven fibers before drawing out a single note.
The singular note held the same pitch as a foghorn but held less power. However, every time it echoed, the one-note base would gain strength. Each echo, each refraction, each moment of repetition, built up into its own little symphony.
Tension in the air mounted as Benedict began to feel the note thrum in his chest, the vibrations shaking his lungs and rattling his ribs. With a flick of the arm, Benedict sliced a high pitch note through the air. The shrill second voice cut right through the base like a knife through hot butter. However, it wasn't quite right. The notes were just a half-step off of perfection; a mere breath away from heartbreaking harmony.
Benedict repeated the movement. One long, low note was cut off by a higher one while scaling up and down the ladder of pitch. If it were put to paper, the melody would resemble a pair of snakes made of beads slithering through tall thin grass.
The long notes echoed around the cave as the tree began to glow. The high pitch squeals that parted the air were mellowed out, almost as if Harmony was blunting the edge of a knife.
The echoing base continued in its off-key hum as Benedict began a new tune. He brought his bow across the violin in a simple three-note ascension, one for each string. The first note was too low, the second was thrown off by the first, and the third ground against the first two like claws on a chalkboard. All the while he would alter the pitch just a whole step or even a half-step in one direction or the other.
Benedict began walking around Harmony, taking careful steps as to not break pace. He began tapping a divot in the wood of his violin’s neck, keeping time with the drops of water.
He continued the procession of notes, releasing a full triplet with every drip of water. The first notes he’d played were still repeating but the sharp highs had started to line up with the triplets, punctuating the ending of each with a melodic blade. However blunted Harmony had made them, the swords of sound danced to the beat of water, and the lower notes droned a ground-shaking bass. The melody would shift one way or the other but only ever so slightly.
Benedict was a third of the way around Harmony when he switched again. He snapped the bow across the third string to whip out a high note before jumping to the low string and ending with a soft transition to the center.
When Benedict reached the two-thirds mark in his hike ‘round Harmony, he began to bounce between two notes; the same two notes. At first, one note would hold out for an entire beat, then two would share the space, then four, and so on and so forth until he was violently sawing away at the instrument with his bow.
As Benedict ended his trek, back where he began, he shifted his focus from the two-pronged trident from before onto a singular point. The violin's highest string sang the same note over and over again. Harmony cut off all of the echoes except for the first movement of the piece so that the swords of sound could punctuate the spears of melody’s triplets while the hammering base would accompany the drawn-out note that would follow.
Benedict and Harmony followed the pattern a few times before ending.
He flopped onto the ground and sighed. The muscles in his back that surrounded his shoulders ached, his arms felt rubbery, and his fingers seemed to barely stay attached to their respective hands.
“Phew, this was a fun one.”
Harmony shone a sunny yellow in response. Benedict chuckled before deciding that while the stony floor was hard, it was currently the perfect place for a nap.
Benedict fell into the land of dreams as the last piece of the discordant symphony faded from his mind.