Echo's Song

[Dark Crescent]

Echo smiled at first, then her smile faded into a quiet meditation, and she looked across the pond. Her wings folded and settled on her back, and she archd her neck to draw her chin closer to her body.

"Oh, I don't know anymore," she said quietly. "Sometimes I feel too old to sing and dance. Other times..." She smiled a little and tilted her head to one side, looking at him from under her eyelashes. "We all have our wounds, do we not?"

[Silver Shadow]

"We all have our wounds, do we not?"

At the sound of that question, the stallion got the impression that she was refering the question to him; he'd been obviously too open. A now-dulled orange eye looked away, and the stallion fell silent, withdrawing himself a little, making it obvious to the other that he did have wounds, but he did not want her getting too close to anything personal of his.

[Dark Crescent]

Echo understood the silent signal, and smiled gently. She stepped closer to the stallion, and touched on his neck softly with her muzzle, in a gesture of friendliness and caring.

"I am sorry," she said as she withdrew her head. "I did not mean to intrude upon your privacy." She looked at him, unfolding her wings a little. "Might I sing for you, to make amends? I have found that my voice often soothes a distraught mind."

[Silver Shadow]

NeonCobalt froze at the touch against his neck, but once he understood the meaning behind it, he calmed.

"Its alright... it isn't like you knew how I'd react in the first place." The stallion said with a sigh and half smile. "A song would be nice, but you don't need to. Your presence and general understanding is soothing enough."

I know that you won't pressure me to unfold the past...The stallion thought to himself as he looked into the pegasus' eyes. I have this feeling about you, Echo...

[Dark Crescent]

Echo smiled and let out a laugher which seemed to glimmer on the grass like a thousand dewdrops, and she beat her wings, leaping effortlessly into the air. Wind caught her wings and she hovered above the pond.

"I shall sing to you nevertheless," she said, then she frowned a bit, trying to think. Soon her forehead cleared off, and she looked at him. "This time, it is not a spring song."

And she closed her eyes and began to hum, and after she had caught the right tone, she lifted her head and began to float through the air.

And this was what she sang:

The king sits in Dumferline town,
Drinking the blude-reid wine:
"O whar will I get a guid sailor
To sail this ship of mine?"

Up and spak an eldern knicht,
Sat at the king's richt knee:
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That sails upon the sea."

The king has writen a braid letter
And signed it wi' his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the sand.

The first line that Sir Patrick read,
A loud lauch lauched he;
The next line that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his ee.

"O wha is this has done this deed,
This ill deed done to me,
To send me out this time o' the year,
To sail upon the sea?"

"Make haste, make haste, my mirry men all,
Our guid ship sails the morn."
"O say na sae, my master dear,
For I fear a deadly storm."

"Late late yestre'en I saw the new moon
Wi' the auld moon in her arm,
And I fear, I fear, my dear master,
Thatwe will come to harm."

O our Scots nobles were richt laith
To weet their cork-heeled shoon,
But lang owre a' the play were played
Their hats they swam aboon.

O lang, lang may their ladies sit,
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Or e'er they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the land.

O lang, lang may the ladies stand,
Wi' their gold kems in their hair,
Waiting for their ain dear lords,
For they'll see thame na mair.

Half o'er, half o'er to Aberdour
It's fifty fadom deep,
And there lies guid Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet.

[Silver Shadow]

The stallion knew he had no choice but to accept her offer; but it wasn't like he had any objection to begin with anyway. He sat back down and watched her with a fasinated, curious orange eye, listening to her song...

It turned out that the words were hard to understand, and try as he might they just did not seem to make proper sense at first. But what he noted in particular was the flow of the verses, and the words, though in a way unusual and unfamiliar to his ears, had a strange beauty to them that just seemed to fit the song.

He was so absorbed with trying to puzzle out the meaning behind the song, that he felt he was forgetting himself. But not in an unpleasant way, but in a good way to be distracted from troubles and swept away elsewhere in the song's story, filling him with an odd lightheaded feeling. Only then did he realise the song was a story about some boat, lords, scots and someone named sir Patrick...

It took him a moment to realise that the song had ended. He looked around in surprise as though he snapped out of a daze...

[Dark Crescent]

When Echo finished her song, she spiralled down to touch the pond's surface, and then she flew to the shore, her other front hoof brushing the water surface. When her hooves touched on the ground she noticed a slightly dreamy look on Chem's face and smiled. Then the look disappeared and he looked slightly confused, as though he had not noticed the song ended. Well, the echo of her voice bounced off from the trees long after she had finished her song.

"It is a beautiful song," she said as she came closer to the stallion. "Sad, but beautiful. I learned it a long time ago from an old seafarer."

[Silver Shadow]

NeonCobalt nodded his head in agreement, trying to get himself together. "Indeed it is beautiful, though I find it a bit difficult to comprehend. May I ask, what is it about? I think I have an idea, but I'm not entirely sure."

[Dark Crescent]

Echo smiled.

"It is a story of a brave knight, Sir Patrick Spens, whom his king sends out on an errand on a ship with the bravest lords of his realm. One of the lords serving under Sir Patrick warns him that he has a bad feeling that there is going to be a storm. Of course, king's command must not be ignored, so they go anyway... and the song ends into telling how the ladies of the lords are waiting back home for their husbands who will never return, because their ship sank in the storm." She sighed, saddened by the tale a little. "It's a traditional ballad, and it gets to me every time. I do not understand those seafarers who laugh and drink while they sing this song, as though it was some bawdy ballad."

She felt slightly huffed by such ignorance.

[Silver Shadow]

NeonCobalt let out a soft ohh of understanding; he was rather glad that he wan't entirely off the plot.

"I suppose that the meaning behind the song's words gradually became lost over the years when being passed down." the stallion said quietly. "From what I know, it is a rather common thing; some ponies forget value and meaning of something like a song or story..." He shrugged.

[Dark Crescent]

Echo nodded.

"Indeed," she agreed, smiling sadly. "Many things become lost as time passes on. That is why I like this place." She looked around in the forest, but meant a great deal bigger area than that. "In Xanadia, the ancient magic still breathes. When I first came here, I could not leave anymore. This place has captured my heart."

She did not add that there was something else here, too, that had captured her heart. That was not for this stallion to know.

[Silver Shadow]

The blue unicorn grinned. "You are quite right about this place having an ancient air to it. It is one of those things that make this place, well, attractive to those into magic."

He sighed, tilting his head to the side as he considered her. It was hard to tell what that orange eye was saying; it seemed to glow in a friendly manner, but was empty of any sort of inner thought or emotion.

"If it is alright that I ask, but which places have you been to?" He asked after a while.

[Dark Crescent]

Echo's forehead wrinkled as she tried to remember. Sometimes it seemed to her that she had been here for so long that she could not recall any other place anymore. She did wonder what Fewa looked like nowadays. Were her parents still alive? How about Coldsilver, the poor thing? He had been such a precious colt as a foal, in Echo's opinion. And she didn't really mind him zapping her like that, she knew he hadn't really meant to.

"Oh, I come from Fewa," she finally said. "A magical place as well, of course, but so torn with conflict. Here, it has been far more peaceful. I have been to Dream Valley as well, and passed close to the Darklands once. I didn't go there, though. I had no business there at the time." She smiled. "Well, of course magic still exists in all those places, but not the kind that I feel here."

[Silver Shadow]

"Dream Valley I have been to, and Darklands crossed my mind once, but..." He frowned as he spoke. "I don't think I've been to Fewa. Heard stories of the place, but never got much of the chance to go there..."

It seemed as though Echo hadn't been to Fewa for some time. Fewa did sound like an interesting sort of place, seeing as it is land of the gods. Of course, not all the places he wanted to go to in the future had to be magical. He decided that this pegasus was into the magical kind of places if it was the anicent magic of Xanadia that had captured a portion of her heart.

[Dark Crescent]

Echo nodded.

"I was born in Fewa," she said. "But now it feels as though it was so long ago that I hardly even remember... what it is like." She sighed and shrugged. "Ah, well. Such is life." She shook the melancholy away and looked at him. "I assume you are a Xanadian yourself. Not many ponies from the outside come here. It makes me puzzled, however. I have never seen you before, and I move around much. You must have been away for a long time."