Our story continues:
You have just about had it. For the second time, you're been pulled into an otherworldly space and misled by a magical creature. You KNEW the mysterious old man reminded you of that damn bird.
So you stand there surrounded by statues, and you pause for just a minute to let the fury accumulate properly. And then you draw a deep breath, and you yell for the mysterious old man.
You know he's watching. Of course he would be. And, in fact, he turns up rather sulkily when you call him.
The old man is very cagey. He is astonished that you think he doesn't mean well. He can't help it if he thought the girl next door was the Chosen One, and she turned out not to be and ended up a statue like all the others. Maybe, he says, you're actually the Chosen One. Yes, that's it. He had the wrong end of the stick. It was you all along. You can rid the land of its curse and save it from--
You throw a rock at him.
You can be pretty intimidating when you want to be. You don't have any magical powers, but you have a sneaking feeling that magical powers in this space aren't worth much. You've been figuring things out. You think you know why everything is so strange here, and why there aren't any people. It's not because the land is under a curse and needs to be rescued by the Chosen One. It's that there never was a land. There never were people. There's only the space inside the mirror and the creature that lives there. Maybe he looks like a mysterious old man right now, but he isn't one, is he? And if he calls anyone the Chosen One one more time, you'll bite his legs off.
He glares at you. But you know you've got it right. You're dealing with someone--or something--who lures people into the mirror and plays with them for a while before turning them to stone. You just don't know why. You pick up another rock and tell the old man to start talking.
The mbira is handling this bit of the story because its various sections of tines make it sound as if it is having a conversation with itself. It also shifts moods easily...and as you can see, sometimes the stick falls out of the resonator halfway through the piece, and you have to react to the unexpected situation. That seems about right for this part of the story.
@thedutchwidows Feb 2022
Definitely suits a conversational scene.
I was trying to work out the difference in tone when the bar fell out. I think there is a difference, but I can’t quite work out what it is. There’s a more noticeable difference when it goes back in, but I think your playing was initially softer, so it could be that.
Bit of tension in the story as we near the end…