Harmonia Book I

Chapter 2: Hearts and Inventions

I'algo let out a loud victorious laugh: "I win ! 54 to 53 !".

"No, it doesn't count ! You took me by surprise !" contested Ava.

"Yes it does !" He scratched the small ears on each side of his head. "Why wouldn't it ?" The boy sat up and already was cartwheeling all over the place. He was about Ava's age, and was wearing nothing but messily patched up brown trousers, with stitches and thread awkwardly hanging from the pieces of un-matching fabric sewn on. If there was one thing their mother's strong hands couldn't do, it was sewing.

"Okay, okay. It counts. But if it does..." Ava took advantage of her brother turning his back, and leaped right back towards him: "Then so does this !"

But already Ava was grabbing the air. I'algo was looking at her upside down, hanging from a branch by the monkey tail attached to his lower back, grinning with a huge taunting smile.

"So does what ?" he mocked "Bet you can't catch me !" And promptly he disappeared among the leaves. Ava followed suit and leaped up into the branches after him.

A great chase had begun as it did often, and the two children leapt from branch to branch, both agile and flexible, their laughter echoing through the Tree. I'algo jumped with ease, using his tail to balance and twist with malice through the labyrinth of verdure. Each time Ava would get close to I'algo, he would turn on his tail to change directions abruptly and throw her off, occasionally passing through a window to the inside of the Tree and leaping right out another ! Ava showed great agility following in the boy's track, leaping in and out of libraries here and dining halls there, jumping onto walls and knocking vases around in a cheerful carelessness that children lead so delightfully. She would curve and arc with great speed to catch her brother, accelerating each time the monkey would turn to stick his tongue out at her in a silly grimace.

As he jumped out a window off the second floor, Ava saw an opening: I'algo, stuck mid-air, had nowhere to go ! She seized the occasion and sprung out after him diving into her brother.

"Gotcha !" Screamed Ava in joy; a joy that was quickly interrupted by both of them crashing into the husk of the Tree in a huff, bouncing on from branch to branch and plummeting in the leaves before crashing through the ceiling.

I'algo and Ava were entangled among the debris from their fall, unsure of where to locate up from down.  It's when she saw the mustache arched towards the sky and the white hair flaring up from the shiny forehead that Ava realized she was laying on her back with I'algo on top of her.

"Oh my ! What gift have the Gods bestowed upon me today ! I thank the Heavens for this beautiful offering that fell from the skies !" exclaimed Professor Mustachio "Let's see, what have we here..." He picked I'algo off the ground to hold him by his tail like he had just caught a fish: "A monkey boy..." The three mechanical monocles on his right eye twisted towards Ava as he bent down to her: "And a wee girl ! How lucky I am on this blessed day !" Ava and I'algo started to laugh at his act, but stopped as soon as they looked at the hole where the ceiling used to be. The look they then exchanged translated both panic and guilt. While they tried to mutter a half put together apology, Professor Mustachio was already rolling on his chair to his latest invention.

"Don't worry about it my dears ! Kids will be kids, uh ?" A sigh of relief came from the two rascals. The greying old man was always kind to them, maybe too much for their own good, since this was not the first time they came plummeting through the roof of his laboratory. The ceiling was starting to look like I'algo's fixed up trousers.

"Come, come ! I have something to show you !"

As long as Ava could remember, the Professor always created the most interesting things in the world. His laboratory was for a child a cavern full of treasures and trinkets, each one more intricate than the last: simple ones such as glasses capable to see through the sun's whitest rays; but some more exceptional, like medicines capable of healing you from any indigestion ( which the Professor came up with especially for I'algo a day he emptied Barbara's entire stock of blueberry jam ) or even welded metallic arms that could wave back, high five, and even play rock paper scissors. The whole room was stuffed from the floor to the ceiling, with maps and charts on every wall, flasks full of liquids that if released would probably melt through the carpet, and different crystals and lightbulbs emanating colourful lights hanging everywhere.