This note is the same as before so sorry for any inconvenience. Also thanks for the reviews I have got, they are very encouraging.

Chapter 3: Practise Sessions

Dante had heard somewhere that he used to have a brother, he so wanted to remember if he did, he wanted to remember so bad, but the memories did not return even when he knew about them. This brother of his was a visitor to the farm with him sometimes. He had also heard from the villagers that the last they knew before he returned from the 'awakening' his parents had died and his brother was old enough to be, and was, his caretaker. He wondered how all of this connected to the 'awakening' how one day he awoke in the woods of a land he didn't remember and how his brother had not been there. But the past was the past, at least Dante thought it was, it was so hard to understand the past if half of it had been erased from his mind and he was mending bits as he went along.

One day the travelling merchant, Won, came to his farmhouse and sold him an ocarina for a fair price and told him that if he practised he might be able to play at the Music Festival that was held in the fall. Dante bought it and began to practise when he wasn't getting rid of the stray weeds or chopping wood for repairs and gates. Dante was surprisingly good at it and somehow knew a song straight away that he played with great expertise and grace. It was a sad song, not very joyful, but it made him happy to think that he had something that he must have owned once. Soon Dante could compose his own songs and made many different ones and even requested that Won get the notes for the Fall Festival so that he could practise. Dante started up Mothers Hill, it made him happy to be up there, and soon the wolf pup followed. Dante named her Fable and wrapped his red bandana around her neck so that he could always tell her apart from the other wolf pups that might intrude on his farm.

At the peak of Mothers Hill he sat and played his ocarina, the sound of his tune echoed through the town and the forests below the Mountain top. Fable just rested her head in her paws near him, but far enough away so that she could watch for any intruders coming. Dante continued to play until he heard Fables low growl that signalled that someone was coming, Dante watched the place they, or it, would arrive. There was a rustling in the bushes and a stumble of feet. Soon a girl came through the bushes and she looked rather amusing with twigs in her hair and dirt all over her clothes that were obviously not made for hiking up this hill. Elli smiled and Dante almost burst into fits of laughter.

"Hello" Elli said as she began to walk towards the place where Dante was seated.

She got two steps and fell again; Dante could not hold it this time and erupted into fits of laughter. She got up and dusted herself off and looked at him with a disapproving look. Dante stopped laughing as she began to turn away, he caught her hand as she went to leave and guided her to a place to sit down. Elli quickly pointed out his ocarina and pulled out a flute, she began to imitate one of the tunes he had been playing, Dante did not know how or why, but he joined her and they played together. 'Hello' was all she had said, all that she did say until the sun began to set, they played music until then. Fable got up and started to walk back through the bushes, she was no doubt tired still because she hadn't had enough sleep to recover fully. Elli hadn't noticed Fable until that time, even though Fable growled at her to signal her when she first..arrived.

Elli was wearing a blue dress with a frilled apron, which seemed to be her favourite attire. She had similar coloured hair to Karen, only Elli's was cropped around her face and much suited her eyes. She was almost going to leave on her own but Dante sheepishly asked…

"Can I walk you home, I'll help you back down the mountain as well" a smirk crossed his face but he suppressed it before she noticed.

"Please do, I am dreadfully bad at climbing or going down mountains, especially in a dress" said Elli, half grateful, yet half annoyed by the sounds of things, probably because she had worn a dress.

"I can see that, I will help as much as I can, I just advise you not to wear such an outfit to such an event" he said imitating formality between laughs. Elli returned the humour and soon they were on their way down the mountain.

Dante's visits up the mountain became more frequent, and every now-and-then Elli would join him. Dante went up to the top of Mother's Hill religiously after a time and he enjoyed the peace as much as he did the company of Elli. Elli and Dante only ever spoke a few words, Dante's fault as far as he could see, but idle chit-chat had never been the way he was, at least not that he knew of anyhow.