Jurn's Diary of Sad Songs

[LordCove]

My first song!
Argos wanted to call it Crazy Bear.... or Danger Mouse.
He's so silly.
But TurkeyPig... to the Rescue!!!


*below is a small drawing of some kind of... half turkey, half pig cross-breed, flying through the clouds with a red cape fluttering out behind it.

[LordCove]

Mrs Tegan got me a new guitar! It's so cool... and brand new!
And it was easy... I onlys had to bat my eyes like I see Mr Tempest do... and say "pleeease" a few times.

Argos still hasn't picked a good instwument yet. But said he's going to sum special school's soon. Not for music though. Thats just silly.

Mrs Tempest tried to make me gets on a boat again to go to Mistone.
I couldn'ts though....
...I don't know why I'm so scared of sea and boats... but they scare the bejeeber's out of me.

[ystrday]

*A young man stands by the gates of Lor, that is all he's doing, and he's not really in the way but he's not completely off to the side either. People who pass him trying to enter tell him nicely and not so nicely to either walk ahead or go somewhere else till he decides what he wants to do. After a few moments the boy backs away sharply as if he saw his worst nightmare take notice of him and he runs and runs till he finds the safety of his house. Even then he still keeps running slamming the front door shut, running past his mother and then his father till he's in his bedroom and holding his guitar in his hands playing loud the old Leringard tune that he knows his father loves so much. Jurn repeatedly plays the same tune over and over, rocking back and forth on his bed till he cannot play no more till blessed sleep over takes him.*

[LordCove]

The music drifted in on the air.
It was sweet, soft and jovial... if not the greatest of timing and chord change.
But the idea was there.... some skill obvious.

Workers in the fields and the men minding the cattle around Castle Mask each took a moment... if only brief... to pause in their work and labour, and slowly turn to watch the young boy sat against the tree, playing his music... and allowed it to wash over them for that briefest of moments.



After some time though... the music changed from its happy, jumping style.... to a slow, haunting lullaby.
Occassionaly, the boy would stop, squinting at his guitar, wondering where the song had come from... and starting up again on a more happy and excitable song.

But eventually, unconsciously... that same lullaby would slip from his soul and come out through the gentle strums of his guitar

[LordCove]

Fifth night in a row... the nightmare came. More vivid and terrifyingly real than ever before.
The demons in the mist were now men, their faces twisted and leering out at Jurn through the smoke and din and amidst the cries and shrieks of pain that surrounded him.
Fire crackled and snapped all around the ship, blood splashed like sea water around him... and figures, vaguely familiar in the back of his mind appeared and dissapeared into the thick smoke.



His own cries of terror woke him up as the leathery, twisted and evil faces of the men surrounded him... crept closer and closer with their long blades pointed at him.

Gasping for breath, sat bolt upright in bed, Jurn's last scream still came from his lips as he realised he was crying out aloud.
His sheets soaked in sweat, he threw them off him and sat on the edge of the bed, shaking and trembling.

Quietly, mumbled for the other room, knowing full well he had awoken his foster parents, he heard them mention the name of NorthPoint...
... before the familiar and swift sounds of padded footfalls came hurrying down the hall and Tegan burst with a worried and saddened expression into the room.

[ystrday]

It happened again last night, I hate them, the nightmares. Its bad enough to know that I'm different from everyone else. I cannot stand to have anything around my wrists, or have someone hold my hands together. I mean I've grown used to holding hands with my mom and dad but it took a long long long time for that. I don't like to be to be touched or confined!!

Anyway, whatever my nightmare was this time, it sure freaked out my Mom, I mean she came running with Dad swearing behind her. You would think he would know where the furniture is in the house so he could you know avoid the hallway table. He sure does make durable stuff that's for sure, I think if Dad didn't make that darn table no other table would last.
Anyway, they came running, which makes me more of a freak at my age, though they dont say it. And I'll die before I'll admit it out loud, but Dad hands me my guitar, mom does her thing and lights the room softly, and we sing.. well I end up singing that old leringard song.. I must be getting really good in my singing because I feel really better after I do, and when I see my parents face they seem calmer too.

I guess its safe to write in here, but it feels like almost like magic. *the boy snorts reading that, his frown in concentration deepens* Maybe I should go to North Point, maybe I am going crazy, what in the hells is happening to me???

[ystrday]

I think my mother is nuts, we had a talk, and what she told me.. well is just crazy. I, Jurn carry the al'noth, have the al'noth whatever, I can do magicky stuff. Yeah right! Apparently, it comes out in my music.. somehow. I mean shouldnt I have felt it way before now? Why now?  

*the boy looks up and sighs*

They screwed up my life, pirates.. slavers! If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have to had to have my memory played with. What Mom feels that the block not only surpressed my memories but it also blocked my ability since it happened when I was ten or so.  
Gah! How am I supposed to deal with this? All I wanted to be was a carpentar like Dad, have a simple solitude life. Now because of one nightmare my life changed forever because I was able to turn myself on like a candle just with a thought! Big Whoop!

[LordCove]

The ching chang and clink clank of steel against steel could be heard outside the house clearly.
Passerby's stopped to listen and arch an eyebrow, but becoming more relieved when laughs and chuckles could be heard amidst the noises.
This wasn't a house known for the sounds of fighting practice to be coming from... small explosions perhaps... but not fighting.

But with the laughs and snorts of amusement, the fighting sound didn't sound quite so foreboding to the general passerby's.
Still, it was commented on by people in their daily routine's.



And so, his adopted father taught him the basics, parrying and dodging, having a right good laugh when they tried to set suits of armour onto Jurn, who could hardly walk in the heavier form.

But after a vase toppled here, the couch took a beating and some nasty scratches were noticed on the hardwood floor, his adopted mother suggested taking the training to a more wide open and undamagable area.

And amidst the swaying oaken tree's and patter of wildlife, Jurn began his dedicated training.
It was a wonder what had made him ask to learn such skills. Usually his music took precedence over everything.
But the adopted parents could only guess, that repeated nightmares of creatures and pirates chasing and trying to kill him, had brought on a fear in Jurn that it would be better to be able to defend himself, than not.

[LordCove]

Another training session came about under the tall branches and swaying leaves of Folian's Forest. The Tempest' bench beside the stream served as a good resting point, as mother taught son the workings and how to control his gift.
There seemed a moment of sadness, as though the forest could recall an event such as this taking place many years ago.

But soon Jurn began to master his gift.
He wasn't exceptionally good at it... he struggled grasping and controling the melodys as he attempted to turn and wrap them into an effect. But successful or not, with Tegans patient and detailed teachings, he began to master it.
More so... he began to understand why now.



His mind had been blocked for so long, blotting out the nightmarish acts he had witnessed as a child, that it had blocked his gift.
Now as the nightmares and pieces of memory of that tragic day came slowly pouring back to him, his gift more and more came to the forefront.

And what did they want to do?
Take him back to NorthPoint.. to the Aeridin Temple.. and have him forget all over again.

" You don't understand son. What you were... forced to see.... no one.. and I mean -no one- should have to carry that around or live with it. You might want to remember now... and understand what happened... but.. when you do, I'm scared you'll regret it son... and regret it terribly."  

Sallaron's words. They were cold and foreboding. The first serious warning the man had given to Jurn.

And so what to do? Remember? Let it all come flooding back of how he became an orphan, how he was fished from the see and what happened to his parents?
Or remain ignorant?

[ystrday]

*Jurn sits in a quiet corner in the outskirts of Corax Lake, playing that old Leringard tune of His fathers. As he plays, tears fall shamelessly down his cheeks, as He remembers the man who in Jurn's mind is the only father he ever knew.  Jurn will always remember seeing the look on his mothers face, trying to be brave and solid for them both as she told Jurn about how the Captain fell, and that she will be leaving at first morning light to go search for any sign of Him in the deep. With each memory now mixing with what Jurn can remember from his past, the sorrow of loss, pain and grief floods over him, and his fingers play faster on the guitar as power surges out from him.  This is not an upbeat song but a song filled with anger and hate for feeling so useless and not being able to do anything. It is a frightening song, that would strike fear into the heart of anyone who would happen to pass by. The anger and the hatred swirl around him in the notes, and Jurn suddenly feels the destructive power wrapped up in his music. Scaring himself, Jurn stops, and grabbing his journal from his pack he writes*

I swear from this day onward, I will not feel like this again! Useless! Powerless! Nothing will harm myself or my family again. They will have to get through me! Dad I swear this to you, what you have will not be forgotten or harmed, I will be there and the Tempest name will continue on. *His hand shaking* But please, please if there is a God out there, please.. please.. let my mother find him alive.. please. I don't think she could survive loosing her husband too.

*To follow what Jurn has written, he kneels there in prayer asking for his father back*

[LordCove]

Well... he came back.

I don't know how... his explanation of how he came back was a lie.
I'm not sure if mom could tell or not... but he's a terrible liar... and I've seen him tell his little white lies too many times to not notice it.

I felt so strange seeing him again... after having expected never to.
We just talked... from one end of the hallway to the other.
I ... didn't want to touch him... hug him... anything.
I dont know why and... I can't explain it.

I'm so glad he's back though.
It was strange. Mom wasn't mom when he was gone.
She was different... like something was missing.
I guess he must have been the same without her.

I'm not so sure thats a good thing though... to be totally dependent on another to make you whole.
I know its the whole love and marriage thing... but it just seems more a drawback.




I don't know really.
I just know that... after this little event... the house seems so much smaller.

I wonder if its maybe time I took a little trip of my own.

[LordCove]

Well I took the trip.

It turned out longer than I thought it would... I've been all over!

And I've met some of the -strangest- of people.
But.... it was nice to come back home after it all.
Dad was whining about his coat so I've had to give it back... and mom's talking about taking me for some trip for gold for her guild.

But coming home after everything thats happened, just made the house seem smaller.
And my time in Alindor? Geez!
Who'd have thought protecting Aerdinite altar girls could be so fun!



Still... mom and dads trainings only really helped a little. I've practiced wrapping the Al'noth around my music in battle, and I can see the small effects it has... but my voice is just maybe, a little too small.
I've started practicing raising it, wrapping Al'noth not around melodies and music, but around any sound or note I can muster.

I'm trying to.... wrap an emotion around it... and then throw it.
Its not going so good... but I've heard it can work, so I'll plug on at it.

[LordCove]

I'm a terrible song-writer.
Terrible!

I had the fortune to meet a fellow musician named Aylana.
She was... amazing! The sound of her voice mixed with the quickly-thought up but perfectly matched lyrics!
I could just gawp as she came up with verse after verse of soft song to tease Pretty Polly with.
I tried... I stood and racked my brains to come up with something just as good.
But as dad would say... El Zilcho.
Nothing.
I guess song-writing just isn't my thing.

Still... I've been working on my voice. Trying to use the Al'noth to wrap an emotion around it and throw it.
Its taking some work... and I'm forced to drink large quantities of this honey tea mom made for me... since my throat gets sore and hoarse after awhile.

But it did work once!
I concentrated, summoned my voice, yelled with all my might.. and the thing turned and ran in fear!

Okay... it was a badger.
Not really something remarkable.
But still... its getting there!