let's save up for something new -- open, singing

There were plenty of time when London could be found humming a tune as she walked throughout the tundra every day, but so far she had jet to do much more than that. Singing had once been such a passion for her, but she'd only ever done it in front of her family, back when they had still been alive. They had been happy songs that she had been able to make out from the static tones of the radio, and other music playing devices back in the gas station, like the phone of some former employee there long long ago that had just left it. When her brothers had gotten sick, she'd started using the minor keys more often, and then when her mother died, the girl had not been able to utter a single note. Each time she had tried, the girl found herself bursting into tears. She could still remember all of the moments when Maria had done her best to teach London those chords on the ukulele, and the duets they had sung together. It felt like betraying Maria if she tried to sing again. Humming had just been a temporary substitute, for when the grief of losing everyone she'd ever cared about finally faded away, she should be able to sing again.

In truth, the clouded leopard was a little nervous. She wasn't sure if she would be able to hit any notes as easily as she had before, what if she sounded terrible now? Thinking back to those good old days, she had found each pitch with such ease, but she had also sung so often back then. Perhaps she should start with a vocal warm up? Yeah, that seemed like a good idea, but first, she should probably tune her ukulele, the one she'd left in her private cave or room or whatever. She hadn't played that in the longest time either. Sitting up in one of the trees close to camp she held the blue painted piece of wood close, running her paw down it's neck. She would then start to strum each string, each pitch the instrument produced sounding severely flat. Turning the pegs, she would tune it by ear, working her way up from the lowest sounding string to the highest sounding string. Something she'd done so often once, yet it seemed almost weird now. It was interesting getting back into doing this, everything felt extremely familiar and yet foreign at the same time.

Once the strings were tuned, the girl would play a few simple chords, nothing too complex. "Ahahah ahahah ahahah." the girl would sing, hesitant and sheepish. London cringed at her lack of accuracy hitting the pitches she'd been attempting to hit. She then took a deep breath, getting ready to start again. She did not wish to make a fool out of herself once she did start playing, but just this simple exercise seemed embarrassing enough. Surely someone would hear her. But the albino decided to ignore her worries, and instead she would repeat the rather simple scale a couple more times, plucking some chords between each attempt, until she finally believed herself ready to attempt one of the songs she remembered best. It seemed almost fitting to the situations she'd been in before arriving at Snowbound. And it had been one that she had found on the employee's phone rather than the radio, so perhaps no one would know it anyway? Or perhaps they might, she had no idea.

Instead of allowing herself to fret once more, the girl would just start strumming the intro of the song. It was originally played on a guitar instead of a ukulele, so her version would be an octave or two above the original version, but it didn't change the sound too much, they were still the same pitches, just at a higher frequency, or something like that. She did not know the exact science of it. But it didn't really matter, as the first Stanza was about to come up. "In a world of places..." the girl began, seeming a lot more confident than she had during her warm up. "Let's go somewhere we haven't gone..." the girl would continue, a small smile lacing her features as she watched her paw slide gracefully along the neck of the ukulele to hit each note with the familiar precision she had once had. "We've got younger faces... than our hearts are letting on..."

The memories of singing in front of her mother and brothers flashed before her vision like a photo album, and her eyes would quickly glaze over. The last time she'd tried to sing this happened as well, but there had been so much pain in her chest from the cascade of beautiful mementos then that she broke. "And we won't place... Any stock in old days." It was different now, for as she was taking a glance back at those old days, she was saying goodbye to them. It was a blissful melancholy that she felt now, no longer pained by the sorrow that had once wreaked havoc within her heart."Let's save up for something new..." She was finally free of it all, and this brought more joy to the lionheart than words could express. It was almost as if her family was smiling down at her from whatever afterlife they existed in now. Surely they would be happy that she was able to move on, even if she had done nothing to prevent their deaths. Surely they forgave her? "Someday, I won't have to wait for you..."

song reference