Two Sisters: A Tale of the Seven Deadly Sins [Watty Awards 2011]

The Harper's Five Harp

      Luke looked down and moaned. Was this all he had to work with? Bones and tattered clothing?

"Well," he said to himself, "Bone is better than nothing at all." And he began to work. It took him a few days to carve the bone to the shape he wanted and string the cloth to sound like a prize. When he had finished, he wiped the sweat from his brow and gazed upon his instrument. It was the finest he had ever contructed. But looks weren't everything. Nervously, he strummed a simple tune on its strings. Tears welled in his eyes for it was the lovliest and saddest sound he had ever heard. Anya's soul soured. She had been found! She whispered to the harpist by singing through the harp: 

       Harper, hear my voice

       I give you this choice:

       Take your harp to the Village of the Sea

       And there you will play your harp for me.

       In a manor lives a woman

       Whose deed to me turned her villain

       Play the harp and my song shall ring

       Into the ears of the knight of the king.

      Justice shall be done

      And the seven deadly sins will not have won.

Luke stared at the harp in awe.The harp....sang to me.  He shook off his shock and listened to the words. He knew that spirits, above all, even gods, must be appeased before all else. So he walked to the nearest town and bought a horse, speeding off to do the task the harp had given him.