Hello there!
Now that you've finished that introduction, it's time for the first story in the collection!
To start things off, we have the first part of a story called The Musical Box (title taken from the Genesis song of the same name). This is a short story and will take place over roughly seven - nine chapters.
It's written… a bit differently than my usual stuff :)
Synopsis: it's been many years since the panda was named Dragon Warrior. Now, a disease has taken hold of the Jade Palace, and the panda's mind has fallen ill. But what could have caused all of this? What happened to everyone else? All of the answers seem to lie in a small, curious object: The Musical Box.
Well…
On with the show!
La. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la.
…
Hope sighed inside the Hall of Heroes.
The sigh lay in the air, poisoning everything:
The artifacts, the walls, the floor.
And yet, Hope's sigh seemed to wash everything clean.
A speck of dust was nowhere to be found,
And nothing disturbed the holy silence.
After all… to disturb it was to disturb them.
Not that there was anyone to stop another from
Interrupting the peace by making noise in a Hall whose walls
Had not heard the sound of voices in ages.
Yes, the Hall of Heroes was sick,
And the disease was incurable.
It was the same anywhere and everywhere.
The Training Hall. The barracks. The kitchen.
This was a poisoned place. A sick place.
The stench of Death and Despair reeked from its very core.
…
The contraption was small, but its millions of little pieces all worked at once, and together.
La. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la.
…
But this Cloud had not the power to poison all the land.
Now, on the horizon's edge, the first rays of the Sun burst forth,
Piercing cloud and air alike to warm the land beneath it.
The Mother, Earth, once again opened her eyes to gaze upon
Her Husband, Sky. The green face stared at the blue face,
Each madly in love with the other, wishing to see nothing else ever again.
Upon the green face sat what was but a speck to Earth.
A village. A small village. The Valley of Peace.
It seemed free of the poisoned air about the Jade Palace.
Tiny beings inside the Valley crawled along Earth,
Unaware of the gall they had to press their feet upon
Their Mother's precious face.
Soon, the reds turned to oranges turned to yellows.
The summer breeze, a gift from Sky himself to his lover,
Cooled the Earth, and all those upon her.
The Clouds, merely the changes in Sky's expression,
Rode the breeze onwards and onwards,
Looking downward at the ants that tread upon the
Ground so far below.
…
The track was in place, and the figure would move the same way, each time, every time. He hoped that somehow, it might take a different path, but it was not for him to decide. It had been determined long ago.
La. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la.
…
The Garden. It now stood in the same Courtyard
Where the Dragon Warrior had fallen from the sky
In the Leopard's "ball of fire." But the stands
Had now made way for soil and wood. Where once
Stood men and women now stood flowers.
Flowers of all kinds: roses and tulips,
Daisies and tiger lilies. Row upon row now stood
In the old Courtyard, offering a new form of life.
The Gardener. Every garden must have one.
He was old. Very old. A panda. A very old panda.
Sitting in a chair of wood and metal and wheels, the Panda
Rolled himself here and there, back and forth.
He could stand when he needed to, but it was rare.
His skin hung over his skeleton so loosely
It seemed liable to fall off if tugged on too hard.
Sunken eyes betrayed a sunken soul.
His favorites were the tiger lilies. He spoke to them sometimes.
He did many things in the garden. He trimmed, he watered,
He picked, he nurtured, he planted.
The plants were his, and he was theirs.
…
The tiny little figurine, a striped tigress, began to move along its track, soon to meet the panda.
La. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la.
…
But the Box. Oh, the Box. It was a music box. The Musical Box.
It was a blessed object. A cursed object.
The Spirits of the Dead were trapped inside that Box.
The Memories of Time Long Lost were trapped inside that Box.
And the Panda's heart was trapped inside that Box.
Often, when he had finished tending his garden,
And he was alone, he would go to the Box.
It was in a little drawer in his room.
He would open it, and watch the figures dance
The Dance. And the Box would play its Song.
It was the same Song every time. It was the same
Dance every time. The panda wished it different.
He wanted a new song. He wanted a new dance.
But the Musical Box played only one song. Its own.
…
The two figures met in the middle, spinning round and round each other. The figures' little paws reached out for each other, although they never quite touched.
And the Box played its Song.
La. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la. La-la-la-la.
La, la, la, la, la. La-la. La-la…
And… thus ends our first chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it! I hope to be able to post the second chapter (and other things) in a more timely manner than I've been doing, but, as you are all aware, life has a way of interfering with well-planned fanfic posting schedules.
And yes, in case you're curious, the entire story will be written in this format :)
Keep being awesome!