It had been two years since the girl had been brought to the orphanage. The 72 hour time limit had long since passed.

  The head caretaker, Delia, had taken care of the nameless girl ever since she had been dropped off and according to her, the child was an angel. Sweet, cute, never threw tantrums, which was kinda concerning in itself. What kind of child never spoke, nor cried?

  Be as it may, the child was wonderful. She never complained, did all of her chores, and helped everyone she could. She was the perfect child. Delia sincerely hoped that one day she would be adopted by a household that would care for her and love her dearly. One thing that got rather frustrating with this child was her curiosity. She would climb every shelf, taste every food (a toddler's sense of what food is anyway), and walk up to any stranger. It was getting out of hand.

  Once Delia took the children out for a small field trip, it wasn't even 15 minutes when Delia realized that child had wandered off. She found her in a small community garden surrounded by small animals like a Disney Princess.

  Eventually the child found a way to sneak out of the main building. It became such a common occurrence that the townsfolk would regularly tell Delia where the child was when they saw her outside the building. This was one such occurrence.

  "The kid got out again!"

  "Again?"

  "What is it this time?"

  "She's in my store!"

  "Hey! She took an apple!"

  "She's going for Main Street!"

  "At this time of day?"

  "She might get run over by a horse if she keeps on going!"

  "Is she messing with the bards again?"

  "That rascal."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "I got 'er!"

  "We got her cornered!"

  "AHH FUCK SHE BIT ME"

  "Didn't you learn your lesson from last time, Randy?"

  "SHUT YUR TRAP!"

  "I swear, we gotta make that caretaker pay for this interference!"

  "Oh come on, we know she don't got the money for it."

  "Oh thank the goddesses, Servel caught her."

  "Servel is really saving our hides these days, that crazy woman."

  Who was Servel? Servel was a young woman who owned a mechanical shop on the main street of the town. She made machines that weren't powered by the magic crystals that normal everyday technology used. She used geothermal, solar, anything she could get her hands on. Her newest invention preserved energy in a container that worked almost exactly like the magic crystals of convenience. She was called a genius, unhinged, delusional, incredibly talented, but that isn't what the kid liked about her. The kid liked her music.

  From her ukuleles, to her ivory keys, the random bits of tech that beeped and booped to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That child was in love with it. She loved plucking strings while Servel worked on an old trinket, pressing buttons to a rhythm, even if she herself never made a noise. This day Servel was working on an extremely strange project, she had taken a normal guitar and plugged it into a speaker to make a unique sound that no one had ever heard before. It played a tone with no variation until another was played. It was rather interesting. It didn't look like a normal guitar either. It was made of wood like normal, but there was a strange resin-like substance on top. Even stranger, it was shaped like a stretched out star instead of a normal guitar shape, which was just weird.

  "You like it, kid?" Servel asked.

  The child nodded in response.

  "Ha! I knew you would!" She laughed, answering the child's gesture. "This is something I've been working on for a while, I brought it out today to show you! You've seen the bards playing their lutes, and guitars out on the street, right?"

  The child nodded in response.

  "It can be hard to hear them sometimes, you know?"

  The child nodded in response

  "So, I came up with this baby! Just attach it with a power source and an AMP, and you'll be good to go!"

  The child tilted her head in curiosity.

  "What's an AMP, you ask? It's short for an amplifier. Higher class people use them all the time to make their voice heard through a large crowd. I modified this special one to be compatible with his work of art right here. Cool, right?"

  The child nodded in excitement.

  "I still find it strange that you act like you understand this stuff. Last time, I went on a rant about thermodynamics and you just sat and listened, like you understood everything I was saying. You're a real neat kid, but that stuff can get creepy."

  The child stared back.

  "Sorry! I didn't mean to call you creepy!" Servel chuckled at her own remark. "Like a cute kid like you could be creepy! Anyway, want to hear some music with this thing?"

  The child visibly jumped in excitement from her seat.

  "Wow, you're real excited! Let's get started with this beauty then, shall we?"