Future Warnings from Midnight

Chapter Eleven: Soundless Tune

Drake strummed his fingers across the lute for the eleventh time in the day. Primrose had yet to release him back to Newegg, Ozzy, and Lucky. The boy sighed as he forced his hands on the strings again. The melody was not releasing the desired outcome. The boy could not feel the music like how he did when performed with the other clowns. He tried to picture the performance of Newegg dancing on stage with ease. Drake's fingers went over the cords as Primrose encouraged him with a smile. Drake's fingertips were going numb. He sighed as he peered over at Primrose.

The two of them sat in the ruin down looking tent. The boy had been forgetting the different moments of how he had joined up with the fairies and the clowns. It had seemed to dissolve away with every puck of the lute. Not that Drake had noticed that his memories were vanishing with each note. No as his mind empty of memory, he still kept them as far off dreams and the core idea he had received from the Scarred Man. He was free to be himself. He was no longer bound to what was. Drake was Drake. He could have and had been among the fairy folk as far back as his memory would serve.

He takes a deep breath as another fragment of his dreams surfaced. Most of his past had flattered away without must resistance. But this one like the nameless beautiful maiden lingered. The boy froze with his fingers over the cords as Primrose drew closer. Within the boy's eyes sparked something alive in his soul stirred. It was not empty as the last dozens of tunes. The song had something else. It started with the boy's shaking fingers as he reached within his heart for the melody.

...

It had been a dark night with all the stars having been taken away by clouds. The Queen had been ill in bed with the second child on way. The King and the Queen had been trying so hard to beget another child. A child who it was the long hoped for heir to the crown. The first child could not inherit the crown because of tradition. Drake had understood that for many years since his birth. (He had been no less upset about the conditions. The boy was sure he would have been a fit ruler with his education and ideas for ruling.) But the second child was to fix this problem. After all, the second child would fulfil King Finn's deepest wish. Drake had been ushered away to the exterior chambers as the Queen delivered the child. There was no need to have the undesirable child near the bright hope of the king.

The Queen had done something. Something that no one, but Drake knew. She had gone to a Dream Weaver. The Dream Weaver was known as the Scarred Man. The price for the hope of the second child came at something deep. The Scarred Man wanted Drake to care for him. Not as anything like a parent or to raise him. No the Scarred Man wanted to be granted protective guardianship over the young child. The Queen had permitted the right at the hope that the child would have a lucky star over his name. (Although, Drake knew better than his mother that something would not go right in the end. He allowed it to happen as it was the wish of his mother to have a "proper son.") It would be a secret between the Dream Weaver, Drake, and the Queen.

Drake sat brooding over the result of the night's actions. He stared at his hand as he wore the bracelet from the Scarred Man. The boy had been "blessed" by his new guardian. He would be granted his wishes, if he really wanted it. If he really wanted it... Bitterly Drake awaited the news of the second child. The child who would bring about the continuation of the royal line. He would be just pushed aside. It was then he heard a scream. An unearthly wail came from the Queen's room. Drake bolted up from his chair as King Finn pushed him aside.

Within the chamber, the Queen had did birthed a child. A child no one would ever see beyond these walls. The King covered his mouth as he saw the monster of a child. It was hardly something one could call a child. It was a pale thing of brilliant white feathers like snow. It had sapphire eyes that peered straight through a person. Its head turned this way and that as it sat within the Queen's arms. She pat its odd head of feathers and jewel like eyes. The creature's cries settled down from a wail to a melody. Drake dropped his mouth opened as King Finn pointed to the Queen, "What monster is this!? Have you played with magic!?"