AN: Double update today! Both the chapters are very short, so I figured why not? Hope you enjoy! In this chapter we get to see another familiar character;)
Changes: Just a little bit.
Guitar
They Say Six-Strings Attract Girls . . . ?
1979
"Like this?"
"No no no no no, like this."
"Er . . . I don't think my fingers can reach that."
"Your fingers, I'll have you know, are longer than mine, and I can reach it."
"You sure about that?"
"Mervin! Just do it already!"
"My my. Someone's bossy this morning."
If looks could kill . . .
"Fine."
Strum.
They both cringed.
"Okay, the A string is out of tune."
"I noticed." Carefully, she reached out and turned the peg just a little bit. "Try again."
Strum.
"Still a little flat, don't you think?"
"Definitely. Just a sec."
"Sigh. We've been tuning this thing for twenty minutes."
"Ten."
"Twenty. Isn't it time to move on to other things? Obviously it's broken."
"It isn't broken, you're just being stupid. Come on, just try it!"
Strum.
"There. It's fixed."
" . . . you sure?"
"Mervin. Shut up."
"That is unnerving . . . "
"What?"
"Nothing. Um, where do I start out again?"
She showed him. "Now stop stalling. I want some strumming, man!"
Carefully, he strummed. The sound wasn't perfect, nor was it exactly melodious, but it was certainly music. "Very nice," she complimented him (Kind Yasmin, charity Yasmin, deaf Yasmin, he thought), "but it certainly could be better." (I take it back.) "Now the next note."
Under Yasmin's sometimes insulting, sometimes laughing, but always loving (in a way that was almost, but not quite, uniquely her own) tutelage, Merlin, er, Mervin learned to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on the guitar.
"So, I did it. Can I go now?"
"Nope!" she cried cheerfully. "Not till you can play Stardust perfectly. I want you married, my friend! To be single is to be lonely!"
Mervin blanched. "Oh no, that's alright, Yasmin. Thank you for looking after my well-being, but really, I'm fine. There's no need-"
Yasmin turned to look at him closely. "You sure?" she asked. "All I can say is, you must be very lonely, all those years, living, watching everyone around you die."
Mervin stood and told her firmly, "Don't you worry your pretty little head, Yasmin. I'm lived fifteen hundred years without a wife, I can live a few more. Besides, I've got friends like you, how could I ever be lonely?" He wrapped an arm around her slim shoulders and squeezed affectionately. She snorted.
"Flatterer."
"At the very least, m'dear."
Guitar case in one hand and instrument in the other, he led her out of the room, and into the sun.
"You've no right to walk into people's castles and take their guitars."
— Diana Wynne Jones