Chapter Text
(1. Breathe)
Relearning a language I had long forgotten was difficult enough; Sennah thought. But he wanted her to learn to play Ryn music too. She needed to fit in to this new life with her clan, but she wasn't sure about this.
Sennah shook her head. "I not do it for many year, Uncle Gandan. I do not know how."
"Bah, it is easy,” the greying elder said with a smile at his long-lost-then-again-found niece. “You are a Ryn. It will come to you again, just as the language is returning. Just place your fingers so… and Breathe."
(2. Sigh)
She watched and listened to her Uncle run through some basic musical scales.
“But I change my breathing many years past to NOT make sound so.” Sennah sighed, hoping she was using the correct words.
It was such an odd evolutionary feature of her species. No other being she met growing up in the Jedi Temple had a nose that doubled as a musical instrument. She vaguely remembered knowing the fingerings for specific notes, but had been teased about it so much as a youngling that she had trained herself out of it.
“I’m sorry, Uncle, I cannot play my nose.”
(3. Gasp)
“The word is 'Breathe’, Niece. We 'Play’ a guitar or a drum, we 'Sing’ with our voices, but this…” Gandan tapped his own fluted, chitinous nose. “Our people 'Breathe’ this music. It is as natural to us as the first gasp of life.”
Sennah thought about her cousin Fina's children, especially Candun, the little toddler boy. The light whistling sound of his natural breathing the night before as he had snuggled up on her lap and fallen asleep. She loved the simple pure joy she felt from the little one's delight.
He had no problem playing, no, 'breathing’ little tunes Gandan and the other adults were teaching him.
(4. Pant)
As if summoned by her thoughts (which was very possible, from what Sennah was beginning to suspect), Candun dashed into the room.
“Cousin Sennah, Cousin Sennah!” The toddler shouted, panting from his frantic run. Candun climbed up onto a chair and launched himself towards her.
“What, little one?” Sennah grinned, catching him.
“Momma want me to take a nap, but I want to breathe music wif you and Grandpa, so I escape!”
(5. Exhale)
Sennah smiled and hugged the toddler. She started to reply, but Gandan interrupted. “Sadly, Cousin Sennah has forgotten how to do it.”
“No be sad, Cousin Sennah,” Candun said consolingly, wrapping his arms around her neck. “I teach you!”
Sennah closed her eyes, listening to the whispered notes of the toddler's unconscious touch on her emotions. Every day, she found new reasons she was needed here.
Sennah took a breath and exhaled through her nose.
A rough, too loud tone sounded.
“Ah, there, that is step one, to hear it.” Gandan cheered. “Now, we learn to flow with it, and make in it a song of your own.”
Yes, that is the next step. Sennah thought, hugging her Force-sensitive little cousin tightly.