Freebie Friday

My favorite section of "The Dragon's Eye"

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     “And who are you?” the funny looking man asked. “Perhaps I could write a song about it: the young boy who wandered alone the open roads of the southern realm. Ah! But that would make a magnificent tale!”
     As he spoke, his hands moved quickly, bringing out four brightly colored round objects. Throwing them up in the air, he tossed them back and forth in intricate patterns that took Yole’s breath away. Yole laughed delightedly and clapped his hands.
     The young man smiled and stood up to take a bow, “You like my juggling?”
     Yole nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, I do!”
     The strange man smiled again at the delight of his young audience, but then his shoulders drooped and his smile faltered, “It is truly a pity that no one else seems to,” he sighed dramatically.
    Yole looked at him quizzically, “What do you mean?”
    “I am completely unappreciated by many of my audiences,” the man sighed again and put a hand to his forehead, his voice was plaintive but uncomplaining. “I tried to get an audience at the castle, but they have too many minstrels already, or so they told me. Then I tried to juggle and sing for the rich merchants, but they are all more interested in the newer stories and the fancier tricks, bah! Fancier tricks! Why, when I juggle I make their heads spin, but that’s the way of the rich, they’re alright until you want to be paid, then they get stingy on you and hem and haw about how little talent you really have. Hah! They wouldn’t know talent if it reached out and pinched their noses, now there would be a sight! Ha ha!” The man’s voice changed with each turn of his story, as if he were weaving the words into an intricate pattern on some unseen loom.
    Yole laughed at the antics of the minstrel. The minstrel did not notice, but continued talking, almost as though to himself.
    “No siree, there is no greater talent beneath the Dragon’s Eye than that of the Great Kiernan Kane! No, the Magnificent… oh, hello there,” the Great Kiernan Kane abruptly halted his flow of words as he suddenly seemed to remember that he had an audience, small though it was. “What is your name? I completely forgot to ask you.”
    Yole suppressed a smile, “My name is Y…Ian.” He said, catching himself just an instant before he slipped and gave away his real name.
    “Yian! Marvelous!” The minstrel said, “And my name is Kiernan Kane. Kiernan Kane the Magnificent Minstrel they call me in the large cities, (they also throw rotten fruits and vegetables at me, just goes to show how unappreciated I am) but you can call me Kiernan.”