Faded Rainbows

Heart strings

The three shared a look, and then all began poking and nudging Trollex in an attempt to wake him. When Poppy mistakenly gave his injured shoulder a poke, the aquatic troll suddenly sat bolt upright, just barely giving the three time to move out of his way.

Trollex gently held his shoulder, looking around with an expression of evident confusion. "What happened...?"

Poppy smiled brightly, pulling him into a hug. "Oh man Trollex, you just passed out all of a sudden! We were so worried!"

Trollzart nodded, gesturing to his own chest. "Yes, it was rather alarming. Your heart rate was half the speed of mine, perhaps slower still."

Trollex looked over at Bach, who seemed to be about to pull his hair out with worry. "Half the... Oh, wait! The music... It got slower, right? I wasn't imagining that part, it got slower."

Bach paused a moment, then nodded. "In a sense yes, I use longer held notes to give the illusion of slowing the tempo, why...?"

Trollex sighed, rubbing the back of his head. "Did you guys ever wonder why Techno has such a fast tempo, nearly every time? The music my tribe is used to has another purpose for us. Our hearts sync to the music we listen to, so if it gets to slow, we fall asleep. If it gets too fast, well..." He gave a little lop sided shrug. "It's not good, I'll say that."

Trollzart fluttered a little closer, looking the king of Techno over appraisingly. "Fascinating... Truly we are all unique."

Bach glanced back at the violin, then down at Trollex. "I am very sorry for that, King Trollex, I wasn't aware that was even a possibility..."

Trollex pushed himself off of the floor of the stage, stretching his back out a bit. "It's alright Bach, you didn't know. Not even many Techno trolls know. My parents told me to keep it in the family before they passed, so I just keep my music from getting to fast, and we don't have to worry too much."

Poppy tilted her head. "But if you're the only one that knows that, then how do you stop the other Techno trolls from making their music to fast?"

"Oh, that's easy. No one else in the Tribe can produce the music we listen to. You need equipment, and that stuff is really hard to work. Plus you get the fact that none really try to learn and you're left with no danger of anyone getting hurt."

Poppy and Trollzart both seemed utterly shocked by this.

"Wait, so NO ONE else in your tribe makes music? At ALL? It's ALL you? What about now, you've been gone for a few days, what's your tribe doing about music?" Poppy rubbed her head, clearly not quite registering this.

Trollex looked down at his tail, folding his arms over his stomach. "Well, we haven't... we haven't had any music at all since the after the tour. My equipment got destroyed, and repairs can take a few months, since we have to wait for any injured critters to heal and any broken coral to re-grow..." He closed his eyes. "We've all been stressed down there, so after the first tribe opened their gates, we've been going to enjoying ourselves outside of the water... It's very quiet down there without music."

Poppy let out a soft whimper, then pulled Trollex into a hug, which surprised the young king. "Ooh, Trollex...! No wonder everything happened... Just a kid and all that..." She nuzzled into his cheek, causing him to blush lightly.

Trollzart seemed to have heard the kid comment. "I do not think calling him a child is right, Queen Poppy. He is, after all, a king of a tribe."

Trollex sighed, already preparing for the shock. "That's the thing though, Trollzart, I AM a kid, sort of. I'm 19, and I've been running my Tribe for about 4 years alone."