Many travellers and fishermen who made their way through the emperor’s forest’s river, which was near his grandiose palace garden, had remarked on the beautiful song coming from the brush. It was so spectacular, that soon the singing was even more known than the garden itself, and it was believed that it could only be a songbird of the highest and rarest caliber that was hidden amongst the wilderness.
This news made the emperor very curious. So curious, that he sent out his most trusted lackeys to fetch this mysterious fowl and find out if the tales were true.
However, they discovered that it was no bird, but a human child living on her own in the high trees of the deep forest.
In her woodland nest she was well protected. Animal pelts protected her character and kept her warm during the night. She was scared of the palace entourage, confused. Knew no spoken language or family. But after some convincing from the palace guards, she quietly went with them to the emperor, leaving behind her home.
And now that this timid songstress was here, it was even more curious how this striking and clear as crystal sound could come from such a small scrawny frame of human. She could be no more than 12 summers old with music as her only way to speak the words she never learned.
And moving poetry she spoke indeed. The melody from her chords carved its way into every eardrum in the room, and soon her song was accompanied by various degrees of sniffles and crying from the crowd of palace maids and soldiers, who were also here to witness the spectacle. When she ended her song, the wall of music subsided, and the room went silent.
“My..little nightingale..”
The emperor’s voice was shaking, and his suppressed sobs was deeply lodged in his throat. He slowly wiped the tears from his strong, clean and well kept jaw.
The girl looked back at him with her big eyes, wild hair framing her thin face, and an uncertain smile brushed briefly across her face.
Yes - she would be quite the addition to his collection.
Drawing from an old unfinished project of rewriting and illustrating H.C Andersen’s fairytale “The little Nightingale”.
