It had been far too long since Unatsikanogeni had played his drum.
The ruddy-furred man smiled as he walked out of his hut, the instrument tucked under his arm. He looked for a spot to sit that wasn’t right in the middle of the path, but he didn’t want to venture far away from the village to be out of the way. He ended up choosing a spot at a crossroads, in a big patch of grass littered with the wood and stone remains of an old hut he imagined had been destroyed by the snowstorm. After clearing a spot of debris, he took a seat and set the drum before him.
He had always had a fascination with drumming, ever since he was little and saw how easy it was. He was too bad at everything to be able to play a flute or other complicated instrument, but even in his childhood lupus form he’d been glad to bat at the taut skin and listen to the sound reverberate. After a while, his playful banging had developed a self-taught rhythm, and while he was far from perfect, simply creating noise served to calm him in a way that little else could.
The farmer grinned as he began to tap, eliciting different notes from the instrument depending on where he struck and how. He used the heel of his palm in some places, the tips of his fingers in others, and imagined the sounds just bouncing from it. The vibration passed through him and through the ground and reached all throughout the earth, and he wondered if a good drummer could awaken spirits.
Blissful for the first time since he’d joined AniWaya, Unatsi closed his eyes and just drummed.
Word Count → 289
For Sighet (and Anatole?)
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