Metronome Hunt

Magpie Tale 146

The band of heroes crept into the music store. It seemed quite ordinary. Stacks of music lined the walls while displays of various instruments – trumpets, fiddles, harps – took up most of the room.

“What are we looking for again?” Rina whispered to Gervas.

Gervas consulted his notes for this particular quest. “A metronome. Six inches high, wood. Has an eye. Delights in tormenting music students.”

Rina scanned the musical merchandise. Metronomes had been one of her stepmother’s favorite tools when she had tried to teach Rina music. Rina hated the metronomes. She wasn’t surprised that one had gone evil.

They quickly found seventeen metronomes in the store that fit the description. Well, except that none of them had any eyes. “I think we should destroy them all just in case. What if it’s sleeping and the eye is closed?” Rina asked.

Silver laughed while Gervas smiled and shook his head. “I think we’ll know it when we find it. We’ll just have to search every nook and cranny.”

And they did. Four hours later the store was a wreck. All the sheet music was on the floor. They had started out in stacks, but with everyone moving around and bumping into them, the floor was now a black and white swamp. Instruments where tilting precariously in their display stands, or shoved rudely onto the shelves. And a pile of metronomes was in the middle of it all. They had only found three more. Rina still thought they should burn them all. When Gervas moved a drum and lost his grip and it fell on him, he declared a break. Everyone sat down with groans and sighs of relief, or stretched stiff muscles.

Rina sat down at one of the harps that had been practically smashed into a shelf. She had never liked her stepmother’s music lessons, but she had liked the harp. She pulled it back and began playing one of the songs her stepmother had hated, which was consequently one of Rina's favorites. After a few bars something fell from the top on the self and crashed into her hands. “Ow!” cried Rina, letting go of the strings.

“You all right?” asked Gervas.

Before Rina could respond, the thing began rhythmically beating her hands. Jumping up from the harp, Rina finally saw what the thing was. A wooden ticking metronome with an eye on the pendulum which glared at her as it swung back and forth. “That’s it!”

Just as Rina dived for it, the band surged into action and leaped too. Rina didn’t think to brace herself until the band slammed into her. The harp broke with a deafening bang. Rina lay stunned at the bottom of the pile, trying to breath. Eventually she heard Gervas and Silver getting the band into order. Once they got up, the remains of the harp fell on her. Rina didn’t really care; she was still worried about breathing.

“Are you all right?” Gervas asked her for the second time his hand on her shoulders.

Rina finally groaned. “Yeah?”

“We missed the metronome,” said Silver. “The rest of the band will keep looking. We’ll make sure you’re okay.”

“Nobody has to look anywhere,” Rina sat up, revealing the metronome clutched in her hands, the eye still glaring and trying to swing against her fingers.

Once Rina got her breath back they took it outside and burned it. Gervas had offered to let Rina light the fire, but her fingers weren’t up to it. She assured him that she was content to watch the evil thing burn. They eye kept glaring at them and Rina had to concentrate hard not to shiver. The flames danced merrily along the wooden body in orange and yellow patterns, and Rina grinned at it while the band’s healer made sure her injuries would heal. Slowly the wood charred the pendulum blackened. At last even the eye succumbed as the flames surrounded it. The metronome was no more.