Lyra Contortionist

393 AC – Something is out of place... It's important to run into things that are out of place from time to time. They tickle our imagination, encourage creativity and cultivate surprise. Discovering a talking hole in the middle of an underground tunnel definitely falls into that category. I crouch down and listen carefully. The fact that an old nursery rhyme is emerging from this opening no larger than a dinner plate definitely adds to the absurdity of it all. I scratch my head and give a shrug. In a way, I guess abnormal things are pretty normal in the Tumult… Suddenly, I realize how rude I'm being. Where on earth are your manners, Auraq? I clear my throat, then respectfully introduce myself to the hole, and the sing-song voice suddenly stops. Oh dear... is this hole a sensitive soul? Perhaps I've accidentally intimidated it? Oh, come on. The opening stares at me, slack-jawed. I smile as I peer into its inky depths.

Just then, like an animal coming out of its burrow, a slender young woman with pink hair and a powdered complexion pokes her head out of the hole. She's wearing a gold lamé bodysuit and fingerless gloves with a harlequin motif. She must be a Tisdhera! My smile grows bigger. In response, her white face lights up with a beaming grin. With a gracefulness of movement that would do a spider proud, she unfolds her body like a disjointed marionette, emerging one part at a time: first her head, then her left arm, her right leg, and so on. She extracts herself slowly, almost languidly from the hole in the wall. Her head tilts a bit to one side as she seamlessly returns to humming the last few bars of the nursery rhyme. She pauses before the last verse, inviting me to chime in and finish the tune. Which I do, of course. Satisfied, she seems to relax, stretching her muscles and her limbs, some of them at curious angles. We've got a lot to talk about.

AURAQ