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The only sounds in the bedroom were the soft snores of a sleeping lemur.
Whisper had woken up in the middle of the night - again (she really needed to work on her sleep schedule). And for some reason, she felt the urge to go through the recordings on her mask. She wanted to see the Diamond Cutters again. She wanted to go back to simpler, happier time, even if it was temporary.
Careful not to wake up Tangle, who was fast asleep right next to her, she got out of bed, took her mask from the dresser, stepped out of the room and slowly shut the door behind her.
Sitting down at the couch in the living room, Whisper put on the mask. One of the selections was a recording involving Smithy, who was like a big brother to her.
She hit the play button.
-
“Wow Smithy, you never told any of us you could play the guitar!”
The mask had a much more cheerful Whisper and Smithy in view, so she must have put it to the side at this time. It looked like she had walked in on him… playing a guitar?
“Heh. Honestly, I kept it a secret ‘cause I’m not really that talented at it,” Smithy blushed. “Also my singing voice is… well-“
“Are you kidding? You sounded amazing!” Whisper said cheerfully. “Say, I know this is out of nowhere, but could you teach me how? I’ve always wanted to learn how to play!”
“Hmm, well… Alright! Anything for you, little sis!” Smithy smiled, patting her head.
-
Little sis. Whisper had to take off the mask for a second and wipe a tear forming in her eye.
She kept scrolling to see if there were any videos of him teaching her.
And… yeah, there were. A lot of them actually. She had lost track of time watching through the videos of her struggling, but slowly getting better, and Smithy walking her through it.
Finally, the last video showed her performing and singing for the rest of her friends. Smithy, Slinger, Claire and all the wisps were applauding her after, proud of her for how far she had come.
I miss you guys so much, Whisper thought, taking the mask off. I hope you can see me from up there… I’m doing a lot better.
Then she wondered: does she still have those guitar skills that Smithy taught her? Could she still sing?
Whisper took the mask and headed back to the bedroom. Guess I’ll go to the store tomorrow and answer that question.
-
“Hmmp, ahhh,” Tangle stretched. She had just woken up and gotten out of bed.
She checked the clock on the dresser. 11:00 AM.
Sweet, Tangle thought. I woke up two hours earlier than last time!
After changing into her usual jumpsuit and brushing her teeth, she went downstairs, only to greeted with a giant group hug by Whisper’s wisps.
“Whoa, haha! Good morning to you too, guys!” she laughed, hugging them back. “Say, where’s Whisper? Usually she’s with you guys on the couch, watching TV and eating cereal when I come downstairs.”
The cyan wisp pointed towards the refrigerator. Tangle walked up to it to find a sticky note.
Currently out in town. Be back later this afternoon.
“Hmm. That’s out of character for her,” Tangle said, scratching her head with her tail. “Usually she lets me know beforehand when she’s going out… AND she lets you guys tag along…”
She grabbed some bread and put it in the toaster. “I should talk to her about it when she gets back to see what’s wrong.”
Then she suddenly turned to the wisps excitedly. “On the bright side, we get to spend some time together!!” she exclaimed. “And I know just what we can do!! After I have some breakfast, we could all go to the arcade, win prizes and-“ Tangle stopped when she saw all the wisps tilting their heads, confused.
“What? You don’t know what an arcade is?”
Head shakes from all of them.
“…oh, you guys are about to have the time of your lives.”
-
Four hours later, Tangle and the wisps were returning home, a bunch of stuffed animals in their hands and tail.
“Was I right or was I right?!” she asked happily. “That was a blast!”
The wisps all made sounds that Tangle couldn’t make out. They were probably saying how much of a good time they had in their language.
“Yeah, I had fun too… I should probably stop spending so many rings at that place though. I almost went broke this ti-“
Her sentence was stopped short as her ears perked up. A beautiful melody and voice had made its way into her brain.
“Wow… you guys hear that too, right??” the lemur asked. The wisps nodded, one of them even tearing up.
“Let’s put our prizes inside,” she said, “and check it out!”
Thankfully, the song was still there after they put the stuffed animals on the couch, and got back outside.
“Hmm… ooh, I think I have a gist of where it’s coming from!” Tangle walked towards the melody, with the wisps right behind her. “It’s at… the side of the house? There’s nothing here… hold on, it’s coming from the balcony?”
Then she looked up, and her eyes sparkled.
-
Whisper sighed. She was sitting on the swing seat at the balcony, and had just finished playing the song that Smithy had taught her on the recordings, with a guitar that she had bought from the store. It had been a while since her singing voice came out, and it felt amazing. And while she was a bit rusty, in her opinion, the song managed to turn out great.
I’ve still got it, Smithy.
Her thoughts were then startled by whooping and clapping from below.
She looked down the of the balcony to see Tangle and her wisps applauding her song.
“Brav-O, Whisp!” Tangle called. “That was incredible!”
“T-Tangle?! How long were you down there?!” Whisper blushed, caught off guard. She had figured Tangle was out with the wisps, who were flying up to greet her.
“Long enough! Hold on, I’m coming up too!” Tangle grabbed the fence with her tail, and launched herself up to the balcony.
Just to be cocky, she did a flip and landed safely on her feet.
Her partner sighed. “Can’t you just get up here the right way?”
“Pfft. Where’s the fun in that?” Tangle joked, sitting down next her. “But back on topic… I didn’t know you could play the guitar!”
“Neither did I. …well actually, it’s more like I forgot,” Whisper replied, setting the guitar aside. “You remember Smithy, right?”
“The crafter of your team? ‘Course I do!” The lemur nodded.
“I was going through my recordings last night,” Whisper explained. “Just wanted to take a trip down the memory lane. And it turns out Smithy was an amazing guitarist. And singer as well,” she laughed.
“From that day onward, he taught me everything he knew about guitars. With his help I became great at it. And the last recording,” she picked up the mask on the table next to them, “was me playing that exact song.”
After the explanation, Tangle took a few seconds to process all of that as Whisper strummed the guitar leaning on the table, and the wisps hovered around.
Then Tangle turned to her girlfriend. “I’m sure they’re looking down at you from up there,” she said, putting a hand on the wolf’s shoulder.
“Hm??”
“The way I see it - and this is gonna sound silly, but just hear me out - you playing the guitar after so long is, in a way, carrying on the legacy of the Diamond Cutters.”
That caused Whisper to open her blue eyes, surprised.
Tangle sighed. “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. I did say it was gonna sound sil- WOAH!!”
Whisper had pulled Tangle into a tight hug, causing the chair to swing back and forth.
“W-Whisp!” Tangle yelled, trying to maintain her balance. “We’re gonna fall over!”
“Sorry…” Whisper sniffed, wiping a tear in her eye. “That just… made me really happy to hear. Thank you.”
“Oh, anytime, girl!” Tangle hugged back, glad she got the message across to her.
The wisps then hovered closer to them and said something in their language.
“Oh, hold on a second.” Whisper pulled away from the hug to put on her mask. “Say that again?”
The wisps repeated themselves.
“Ah,” Whisper said. “They want me to play that song again.”
“Can’t blame ‘em. It was beautiful,” Tangle replied, sitting up. “Actually, could you? We only got to hear the last minute and a half.”
The wolf smiled brightly, picking up the guitar. “I’d be delighted to.”
-
After that, the sound of guitar strums and a beautiful voice echoed out into the sky. And later tonight, that voice would find a stuffed wolf waiting for her on the couch.