Counting by Octaves: A Short Story

AHHHH THIS GOT FEATURED TYSM OMG :scream: :scream:

(sorry to be that person that freaks out about a feature but this means so much to me thank you :relaxed: )

Before I start, if you’re questioning my perfectly questionable participation in the weekly question, go to the end of the blog :blush:

I wrote this a while ago and decided I’d post it since I had nothing else. This is really bad, but it’s what I have right now :sweat_smile:

I’m planning on making this a yearly rewrite. What’s that, you ask? It’s a piece you rewrite every year to gauge your improvement in writing. I’ll probably rewrite it again after the new year begins :blush:

Why are all my emojis getting cut from the rest of the paragraph??

Well, here we go, I guess.

╱                           ╲

Counting by Octaves

a short story

➳word count: 487

➳character count: 2272

╲                           ╱

:notes:

      The light of the setting sun filtered through the blinds, illuminating beams of dust in the air and casting a fiery glow on the open lid of the Pearl River grand piano. The patterns danced across the dark surface like flames as Kasia’s fingers flew across the keys, her music the only sound in a room heavy with silence.

       Kasia could almost see the battlefield the music described in the blank, slightly scuffed surface of the keys, each quick, sharp note a bullet punching through the grass, each sudden low chord a distant explosion.

       The music was the only thing in the room. There was nothing else, would never be anything else.

       Kasia barely heard the sound of the door creaking open behind her and grinned as she sensed someone pad into the room. Well, she guessed there was something else. Someone else.

       “Mara?” she asked as the soft footsteps slowly came closer. “Mara, is that you?”

      Her sister’s quiet sniffle was answer enough. “I can’t find Shelly,” she said as Kasia played the final chord of the piece—a sharp, low a-minor octave—and turned to face her.

       Shelly was the fading stuffed turtle that Mara carried around everywhere she went—which was probably the reason it mysteriously went missing so often. It had belonged to Kasia at first, but when Mara had begun to seek out the stuffed animal for comfort, Kasia has let her keep it. Now her sister never let it out of her sight—unless she lost it. Which happened fairly often.

       “C’mere,” said Kasia as she pulled Mara into a hug. “I’ll give you your song, and then we can go find Shelly together,” Kasia said, pulling away. “Does that sound good?”

      Mara’s eyes glistened as she said, “Okay.” She clambered up into the bench beside Kasia, her dark hair swaying as she did. Kasia reached toward the high end of the piano, her foot poised on the sustain pedal, and began to play.

       A soft, sweet melody filled the room as Kasia’s fingers moved lower and lower on the C-major scale. Mara gave a little sigh, and Kasia could see her smiling in her peripheral vision. She couldn’t help smiling herself as the image of a waterfall filled her mind’s eye, the spray sparkling through the colors of the rainbow as if it were Iris incarnate. If she closed her eyes, she could practically feel the cool droplets speckling her face like miniature rain, almost hear the crashing of water through the arpeggios.

       As the song came to an end and Kasia played the final rolling chords, Mara nuzzled against her shoulder, and they both stayed there for a moment, relishing the sound of the major cadence echoing through the belly of the grand piano. As Kasia released her foot from the sustain pedal, Mara made a small noise of pleasure at her side.

       “Come on,” Kasia said, finally stirring, “let’s go find Shelly.”

:notes:

The most I can say about this:

It’s trash, but it’s something.

:+1: 🏽

This story is actually based off some of my favorite piano pieces irl. I played them for my level 2 certificate of merit (I think) and they’re just great. They’re both written by Melody Bober. I love her music sooo much :heart_eyes: :heart_eyes: The two pieces I wrote about here are called Video Game Master and Rainbow Falls (I personally play them faster than both of these people, I think they sound better that way but whatever). I know, the first one isn’t actually about war or anything, but that’s just the way it felt to me so that’s how I portrayed it.

I’m currently perfecting another piece by her called Waves of Fury. I am utterly in love with this piece, its so amazing and powerful and alskdjfhfksla I love it so much. I hope to write about it soon.

In all honesty, I’m mainly posting this because I have nothing else to post. I was going to post this with a rewritten version of it after the new year started, but I didn’t want to go too long without posting. So... here you go. My first actual writing piece posted on this Amino. Probably not a great example to start with, but my writing’s pretty trashy anyway, so... yea.

Hope you enjoyed! Background is a picture of my old ded upright grand :joy: :joy: rip my dampening pedal

OK SO I WAS WRITING THIS LAST BIT AND I REALIZED THE WEEKLY QUESTION IS MUSICAL INSPIRATION WHAT?? Does this count? I mean, it is musically inspired :joy: :joy: Idk if it does but for now I’ll count it and make another musical inspiration post later. Plz don’t be mad at me, I just wanna participate :sweat_smile: 🤣

#MusicallyInspired