{"sf1_id":1054922,"sf2_id":"Welr9ERn","title":"Let it Play (pt 1.)","author":"Seabhacson","words":2360,"posted_at":"2016-08-02T10:24:00.000Z","tags":["Bear","Boomer","Drums","Lei","Pain","Sci-Fi","Talonsreach United","Tigeress"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1054922-let-it-play-pt-1","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/Welr9ERn","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=1054922\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#1 of Voices\n\nThe scenes where we find out why Boomer plays what he plays. Also how Lei helps him with his pain and his past.","content":"It was a common occurrence in Muir Valley and El Portal that the sound of thunder could be heard rolling rhythmically off the valley walls.\u0026nbsp; Rarely was it because of rain or thunderstorms.\u0026nbsp; When it sounded, most of the Artaius visitors would be drawn to the source, familiar with the custom of life drums.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Back then, Lei was not familiar with it but was drawn to it anyway, curious as to what it was.\u0026nbsp; She hadn't been on Muir much as it was considered enemy territory.\u0026nbsp; She was still with the body sculpt and dye job of what Terrans would call a Bengal cat.\u0026nbsp; She had been wandering around to get the lay of the land, no pun intended.\u0026nbsp;If there was a chance to see this supposed Creator anywhere it was supposed to be his own planet.\u0026nbsp; Lei was studying the town of El Portal and finding it crossly to her liking.\u0026nbsp; Was she supposed to believe some idiot half Cains baseline created all this?\u0026nbsp;Preposterous.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; The city was built around the trees with ramps going up to balconies and into higher buildings that were suspended and supported between the trees.\u0026nbsp; She liked the idea of climbing and the higher overlooks of the forest floor.\u0026nbsp; Mirrors around the city bounced sunlight from the upper canopy to the forest floor to make up for the overshadowing of the buildings.\u0026nbsp; The ground was the haven of parks and open air gathering places that were shielded equally well from wind and rain.\u0026nbsp; Irrigation kept the forest floor damp enough, but not too wet to be able to sit on the ground or in some moss and delight in the scent of forest.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She liked the sun dappled decks and walkways of the city, purely against her will back then.\u0026nbsp;Now?\u0026nbsp; Things were different.\u0026nbsp; She paused to allow herself to indulge in enjoying her surroundings.\u0026nbsp; The booming life drums still held sway over the valley.\u0026nbsp;They gave a rhythm to the city.\u0026nbsp;She mingled in with the crowd.\u0026nbsp; In the back of her mind she was forming katas to the beat of the drums and finding it easy to do.\u0026nbsp; Boomer, as usual, was playing a fight or a battle.\u0026nbsp; Back then, there had been a protest at the site of the circle of drums.\u0026nbsp; The Artaius sat around the circle with their backs to the drummer.\u0026nbsp; Drawn to the beat, she'd borne witness to the start of the breaking of her conditioning.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She hadn't known it at the time, but she'd come to Muir on the anniversary of the attack of Boomer's home world.\u0026nbsp; She hadn't known about the customs of the life drums.\u0026nbsp; She thought for a time that Boomer had done something wrong and was up there as a punishment.\u0026nbsp; She hadn't known how close to being right she was.\u0026nbsp; She did know that he hadn't been playing for pleasure.\u0026nbsp; The look on his face made that plain.\u0026nbsp; The grief etched there was what made her thing that he wasn't up there by choice.\u0026nbsp; In that, she was wrong.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Back then, some young cub came up and threw something at Boomer.\u0026nbsp; She remembered that it was some vegetable.\u0026nbsp; Boomer seemed not to notice, concentrating on his playing.\u0026nbsp;The only sound from him was an occasional quiet sob.\u0026nbsp; She noted the tears.\u0026nbsp; They were shared between the player and those that sat around him.\u0026nbsp; She'd thought at the time that they were punishing him, forcing him to be up there.\u0026nbsp; She hadn't realized He was punishing Them with his playing by reminding them of the lives that had been lost in the battle and the attack.\u0026nbsp; The guilt of loss wracked player and listener equally.\u0026nbsp; She had understood then the pain that went into the playing.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; A female Artaius had gone up at one point and pleaded with Boomer to stop.\u0026nbsp; Boomer seemed deaf to the worlds until the female had attempted to take the drumsticks.\u0026nbsp; Boomer roared at her and one huge hand went up for a backhanded strike when HE stepped up and shouted at Boomer to stop.\u0026nbsp; He froze.\u0026nbsp; Lei got her first look at her mark as the Creator strode through the crowd and looked up at the Artaius female with a stern face.\u0026nbsp; He demanded she give the sticks back to Boomer and informed her that he was to play.\u0026nbsp; He then turned his attention to the rest of the Artaius sitting around the circle and cleared his throat.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"If you don't like that he's playing, you may leave.\"\u0026nbsp; He said it like a threat.\u0026nbsp; An uneasy ripple went around the circle.\u0026nbsp; Lei scoffed, and did something she considered a cardinal sin; she caught someone's attention.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; An elder Artaius gentleman looked down at her.\u0026nbsp; She could see that the fur on his face was damp from quiet tears.\u0026nbsp; Up in the circle, the female had given the sticks with a strangled sob back to Boomer.\u0026nbsp; The elder spoke to her.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"You disagree with this?\"\u0026nbsp; It was less a question and more a confirmation of an opinion.\u0026nbsp; Caught with the attention, Lei cursed under her breath and nodded, hoping it wouldn't cause MORE attention.\u0026nbsp; She decided it was better to blend in by playing along.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"He's punishing them and forcing him to play.\"\u0026nbsp; She said with a needlessly feigned disgust.\u0026nbsp; \"It seems cruel to me.\"\u0026nbsp; The elder looked at her thoughtfully for a moment and nodded.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"It is cruel.\"\u0026nbsp; The elder agreed.\u0026nbsp; \"For the soldier to do this to himself every year, let alone the rest of us.\u0026nbsp; It goes against the custom.\"\u0026nbsp; Lei paused.\u0026nbsp; Himself?\u0026nbsp; The Creator wasn't doing this To him?\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"What custom?\"\u0026nbsp; Lei asked to give herself a chance to catch up with the situation.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"The drums are meant to be played to celebrate a life.\u0026nbsp; Each one that he plays up there is a life drum.\"\u0026nbsp; The elder motioned to the circle of drums.\u0026nbsp; More than one hundred by a glance.\u0026nbsp; \"They each represent a life, a person.\u0026nbsp; They are played to honor the person they are made after.\u0026nbsp; However, he doesn't play the drums for how they lived, but rather, how they died.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Lei looked again.\u0026nbsp; He was a soldier then?\u0026nbsp; She could see it, then.\u0026nbsp; He wasn't just fit because he played all one hundred plus drums.\u0026nbsp; He pounded out rhythm and was barely breathing hard.\u0026nbsp;His build was firm and hard.\u0026nbsp; She could see the tell tale signs of scars under his fur.\u0026nbsp; This one hadn't Just suffered, he suffered Still.\u0026nbsp; But he stood tall and straight as he beat the drums.\u0026nbsp; She could hear it now that she knew what to listen for.\u0026nbsp; He was playing a battle.\u0026nbsp; Each blow on a drum was a blow landed by the one it was made for.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"The Creator allows this?\"\u0026nbsp; She asked softly, trying not to draw any more attention, but curious by the situation.\u0026nbsp;The elder nodded.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"The Creator was a soldier too.\u0026nbsp; He understands Boomer's pain.\u0026nbsp; He thinks that Boomer should do this to help lay his family and friends to rest, but it does not.\u0026nbsp; The Creator thinks it honors the fallen.\u0026nbsp; He's partially right and partially wrong.\u0026nbsp; He does honor Boomer though.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Lei looked around to find the Creator again to see if he was gloating.\u0026nbsp; But when she found him, he was standing rigidly at attention, a look of loss and suffering on his own face.\u0026nbsp; His right hand was over his heart.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She didn't want to acknowledge the truth of the elders words, but she could find no reason to think otherwise.\u0026nbsp; She didn't know the Great Lady's husband then.\u0026nbsp; She just wanted to hate him to make her own job easier.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; How things had changed.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Now she still mingled with the crowd.\u0026nbsp; She still watched from a distance.\u0026nbsp; But Boomer bore more scars now; her fault and crime.\u0026nbsp; Hers to atone for.\u0026nbsp; It was not for her to cause needless suffering.\u0026nbsp; She was abhorrent to the notion.\u0026nbsp; She grieved with him, for she knew what those drums were.\u0026nbsp; She knew what they Meant.\u0026nbsp; She knew what he played.\u0026nbsp; She saw the footage from that battle.\u0026nbsp; Boomer Did honor the fallen at the cost of his own grief and pain.\u0026nbsp; He honored their valor.\u0026nbsp; He honored their sacrifice.\u0026nbsp; Lei swallowed.\u0026nbsp; He punished himself and his failure with their memory.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She made her way up to a ledge two levels above the drums.\u0026nbsp; She wanted to be able to view it from above, to see him in the circle.\u0026nbsp; She wanted to bear witness to his grief when it caused him to stop finally.\u0026nbsp; When she listened, it was with the respect he had for those lives lost.\u0026nbsp; She understood why the Creator allowed this.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; But the elders words still stuck with her.\u0026nbsp; And it bothered her.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Quietly, she bounded to a nearby branch big enough for her to walk on.\u0026nbsp; She landed lightly and shook not a leaf onto the circle.\u0026nbsp;She stalked slowly around above him, lost in thought.\u0026nbsp; Boomer was below her, moving in a cycle of rage and pain, beating out the memory of the battle in the beats of the drums.\u0026nbsp; His motions were a storm contained in that circle.\u0026nbsp; They gusted around from drum to drum, each part of the memory played out.\u0026nbsp; The tears came later and later as he played.\u0026nbsp; But they still came.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She watched and knew it was coming.\u0026nbsp; The pain became too much, the memory of loss too close to present.\u0026nbsp; The sticks slowed.\u0026nbsp; Then stopped.\u0026nbsp;Then dropped from his unknowing hands.\u0026nbsp;Lei dropped down quietly as you please just outside the circle and entered.\u0026nbsp; Respectfully, she picked up the sticks and went to Boomer.\u0026nbsp; She was little more than half his size.\u0026nbsp; It didn't matter.\u0026nbsp; She took one of his big hands in her own and rubbed them on her cheek.\u0026nbsp;There was nothing else she could do, and in truth, nothing else that was needed.\u0026nbsp; Boomer had never had anyone to sob to before and it was such a new and unknown thing to him that it was one of the few things that broke him out of those memories.\u0026nbsp; He sat down cross legged in the circle and slumped.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Lei gently laid the sticks in his lap and went around behind him.\u0026nbsp; It was also a new thing, to trust someone back there.\u0026nbsp;She rubbed up and down his back soothingly with her hands.\u0026nbsp; After a while, she went around front and just held him, comforting a friend with a shared experience.\u0026nbsp; Her way of saying \"I am here\" to him in a way he'd understand.\u0026nbsp; And he did, for he sobbed quietly onto the top of her head.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; After a while, she got antsy about being watched by so many people.\u0026nbsp; She nudged Boomer on the bottom of the chin and looked up at him.\u0026nbsp; His brown eyes were still wet from tears.\u0026nbsp; She nudged her head toward the tarps that he used to cover the drums.\u0026nbsp;He looked at them blankly for a moment and then looked back at her and nodded.\u0026nbsp; He got up and untangled himself from her.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Once free of him, Lei leapt over the drum circle and grabbed the side of one tarp and leapt up over the circle again.\u0026nbsp; She carefully tied the tarp down to the drum stands and went on to the next tarp.\u0026nbsp; Boomer had a third that he was working on.\u0026nbsp; She got her second set tied down and walked over to collect his sticks.\u0026nbsp; She ran the pads of her finger paws over the carved images that were on the sticks to study them and commit them to memory.\u0026nbsp;She already knew the weight and balance of them.\u0026nbsp; In her hands, the sticks were just as much weapon as instrument.\u0026nbsp; She looked up to Boomer, but he seemed lost in his own memories again.\u0026nbsp; He'd stopped tying the tarps over and was just staring at one of the drums.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Thankfully, Lei noticed that the locals around were giving the big Artaius space to put the drums away.\u0026nbsp; Most of the tourists also understood that this set was not for public use.\u0026nbsp; There was no applause for the playing.\u0026nbsp; She kept the sticks for the moment and went to the fourth tarp to tie it down.\u0026nbsp; Then she went back to him and took the last tarp and tied it down.\u0026nbsp; Boomer seemed to start as if waking from a dream.\u0026nbsp; She understood what that meant.\u0026nbsp; She grabbed him gently by the hand and started to walk him back to his dwelling.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"Thank you.\"\u0026nbsp; came the soft rumble as they walked.\u0026nbsp; Lei just nodded at him.\u0026nbsp; But she also turned up to look at him.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"When do you play for yourself?\"\u0026nbsp; She asked him.\u0026nbsp; Boomer paused in walking for a second thinking about it.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"I..\"\u0026nbsp; He paused again.\u0026nbsp; Lei nodded at him.\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"You should play for joy again.\"\u0026nbsp; she said softly to him.\u0026nbsp; \"I think your fallen family would want you to.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; Boomer stopped walking and the breath went out of him.\u0026nbsp; The look he favored Lei with was someone haunted with the ghosts of memories.\u0026nbsp; \"I...\u0026nbsp;Lei, I can't.\"\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; She didn't answer that.\u0026nbsp; She wouldn't because she wouldn't believe that he lacked the ability.\u0026nbsp; Her ears laid back at the thought of it.\u0026nbsp; She felt him flinch at her.\u0026nbsp; She half growled under her breath and suppressed it, but her tail twitched and then lashed. Boomer's head dropped.\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\n\u0026nbsp; \"Sorry..\"\u0026nbsp; He mumbled, thinking he'd upset her.\u0026nbsp; He himself hadn't.\u0026nbsp; Lei, however, didn't have the words to explain that.\u0026nbsp; She did the next best thing.\u0026nbsp; She took his hand and rubbed her cheek on it again.\u0026nbsp; But her ears were still laid back and her eyes narrowed.\u0026nbsp;Boomer understood.\u0026nbsp; He started walking again.\u0026nbsp; This was not a conversation that was over, nor a battle she would walk away from.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\n\n  \n  \n\n"}