Minstrel

Chapter #1 ~ Creak

The sound, mystic and forbidden, floated through the air around the girl. Weaving in and out of the trees the reverberations, music it was once known as, spread through the deep forest. No one would hear and no one would know, or at least that's what the girl told herself. It was the promise she had created to calm her conscience, so fear wouldn't stop her from doing the thing she loved most. Making music. It was a glorious thing, a magical thing; something once loved and abundant to unheard of and illegal. The girl often dreamed of a world where music was allowed, even appreciated, but then she would wake up to her reality. She would go back to living in fear, her music silent, until she could find a place away from everyone. A hidden place where she could be herself and get lost in the music.

Like right at this moment, the girl was losing herself in the sound her baritone made, the music that she was making. It wafted around her, mixing with the wind that whispered in her ears. It wasn't easy to find a safe place to play her baritone, as it was a large instrument and made quite a loud sound. But the girl made due, finding secluded areas of the forest where she could sit on the trunk of a fallen tree and create a deep, throbbing song filled with all the pain and frustration of her life. Emotions that drove her to attempt the unthinkable, life threatening risks, again and again, everyday. Risks that would give her brother a heart attack if he knew about them.

"Creak!" Her brother called to her, forcing her to stop her playing. "What do you think you're doing!"

Creak's brother, Stans, stood in front of her, his arms crossed across his chest in irritation. His voice, full of exasperation, continued berating her before she had a chance to explain. "You know what would happen if you were caught, don't you? How many times do I have to tell you before you understand the danger? You know if mother and father were here they would-"

Creak cut her brother off with a swift exclamation, "But they're not here, Stans! They left us and they're never coming back!" Creak could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, a burning pain that spread from her heart to every part of her body.

Perhaps  feeling the same pain or just seeing it in his baby sister's eyes, Stans let go of his anger and wrapped his arms around Creak. Drawing her close and stroking her hair, he whispered to her, "Hey, it's okay. I'm here Creak. I'll always be here... with you. I'll never leave you."

Creak rubbed the wetness from her eyes and looked up at her brother. She could hardly believe how much he had changed since their parents had left. He was nothing like the soft, innocent boy he had once been. He was more protective, a father figure to Creak after their real father had disappeared when she was only five years old and he was eleven.
"You promise," she asked looking in his eyes for any hint of deceit. But all she found in his pale, green eyes, the eyes of their mother, was sincerity.

"I promise to never leave you."

Creak sighed, satisfied, and shrugged out of his embrace. "I don't understand why it hurts so much. I can't even remember them, why do I even care that they're gone? I shouldn't care so much, Stans."

It was true that she couldn't remember her father, but she did remember a little of her mother, which only succeeded in making her more confused. If her memory served her right, then her mother was a kind, soft spoken lady with unfathomable beauty. A mother who loved her children with all her heart and would never leave them to fight for survival on their own. Her mother wasn't the kind of person who would just leave in the middle of the night and never come back, but with no explanation she had.

Stans looked down at her with sympathetic eyes, "It's okay to care, Creak. They were our parents and they loved us."

"How could you know that?" He sounded so sure that what he said was true, but Creak couldn't believe it, no matter how much she wanted to.