Singing - Judy Albietz

Three monkeys, the dog and the girl were on the road to the enclave surrounding the Time Portal Temple. Even though Sam and Sophia had explained to Lily what they needed to do to get her back home, she was not completely clear on the plan. It would take a day’s walk to get there. They had to find out what was going wrong with the Time Portal. Then they needed to fix it so Lily could be sent back safely. And at the same time they had to protect Lily from whoever is trying to kill her.

Time was of an essence, so Lily decided to save her questions for the journey. She was getting used to this whole telepathy thing with Sam. It hadn’t been much of a leap to communicate with the monkeys. However, it was peculiar to hear and understand their voices in her head while also hearing them singing in a strange language full of bird-like clicking sounds. Sophia sang in soft high tones, while Risto and Ajax had rich tenor voices. There was something else Lily noticed as she walked alongside Sam and the three blue monkeys. When Sophia sang, a drumming sound, like a heartbeat, surrounded the air around the medicine woman. Lily wondered if it would be rude to ask Sophia about it. As if she read Lily’s mind—which of course she didn’t—Sophia showed Lily how the monkeys and dogs communicate with the plant life on the island. She lifted her slender blue hands and the drum beat became louder, filling the air. Sam sighed happily. He knew what was coming next. After a few minutes, lovely musical notes joined the soft drumming. It sounded like wind instruments were perched in the tall trees around them. Even the strange-looking yellow and orange plants alongside the road joined in with soothing low background melodies. The singing swirled around them. After several minutes, Lily also sighed as she felt new energy coursing through her body, as if she had just gotten up from a good night’s sleep.