Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lonahgan 01-07-07, 02:00 AM	...And I am reminded of a curious encounter I had durring my stay in Yorkeny, a quaint little fifedom nestled some days travel to the south-east of Scornubel. As I soon discovered, it is the custom in Yorkney for newcomers, upon first arrival, to give to the first person they meet- be it man, woman or child- a gift of anything they can spare. Now, you might think that this merely an endorsed method of begging for alms and, indeed, I thought the same, that is until a small waif, no more than eight summers old, approached me and asked if I had anything to give him. I gave him a silver coin and thought that I had bestowed a small fortune on him. --- Disappointed was the only way I could describe his expression and confused is the only way I could describe myself when he handed the coin back to me and asked instead for a small reed flute I had tucked into my belt. I gave it to him and the boy ran off beaming brighter than the Morning Lord himself. --- Later that day, while boarding my faithful horse, Finneas, at the nearest inn, I mentioned the encounter to the stable master and related my confusion. The man, a rather large and hearty fellow named Kemp, simply chuckled and explained to me this odd custom. --- " 'Ere in Yorkney," he said, "we tend to put more value on things of a bit more personal nature than simple coin, valuable, though, coin be. For anyone can give a coin and it means nothin but the value of that coin. But when we share something that we 'ave owned, for no matter how long, there is simply more to it, ye see." As I mulled his words over in my mind that night over a plate of Shepherd's Stew, I suddenly came to realize what he had meant. --- I pulled a few coins from my purse and looked at them... and I could not think of where they had come from or who had given them to me or even of how I might have earned them. I could guess, but I could not be sure. And then I looked at the purse itself and instantly thought of that charming milkmaid in Featherdale- Miranda- and of how she seemed to be forever smiling and smelled of sweet strawberries... and then of how she had given me the small coin purse after I had lost a small bardic compettion, claiming all the night long how I was the real victor. ---I also thought of "other things" from that night which are not to be mentioned here, thank you very much. --- So as I sat there, simply dripping with whistful nostalgia and a most assuredly silly grin on my face, the small boy from that morning arrived at my table and snapped my out of my blissful memories by, somewhat sheepishly, proclaiming that he could not "make it work." I smiled and thought to mend his frustration by telling him that if he wanted, I would spend the entirity of the next day teaching him how to play the instrument. Smiling his Lathander-given smile once more, his response was not really unexpected. --- "Can you play something now?" --- To the amusement and entertainment of all in the common room that night, I played. And though all listened and even sang along at times, my true audience was a single child who beamed his beaming smile and listened as the wandering bard played on his flute, a flute the bard himself gave him. --- When I left Yorkney a mere tenday later, I took with me a better understanding of what made Yorkney such a wonderful place and a notion of how to foster that feeling of a warm community all throughout my travels. But I also left behind two things as well: a small reed flute not worth a tossed copper and a promising young "bardling" who valued it more than gold. The Bard Lonahgan, "Ramblings of a Wandering Bard" Year of the Friendly Dragons
MerrikCale 01-07-07, 08:01 AM	alrighty then.
Melblen_Cairn 01-24-07, 05:13 PM	Wow, very cool, give us another :)