The evening was warm, and the sun was getting low in the sky, casting gentle shadows across the grass. A bare patch of ground showed where the traveller’s camp had been, which had been worn further by the feet of the dancers. Suddenly, as if there had been some signal, the young people came together and began to dance. Chloe and Danial approached the dancers, to better see or understand, but as they came close, quietly at first, but then growing stronger and louder, the traveller’s music, led by the Tambourine called them to the dance. They found themselves mingling with the other dancers, feeling the rhythm of the dance play through their bodies and intoxicated with the music, Chloe’s hair came loose and fell around her shoulders and Danial threw off his jacket to free his movements better to express himself in the dance.
For some two or three hours they danced, every time that the music stopped, they fell on the grass to catch their breath, but as soon as the music began again, they jumped up and danced with abandon to the irresistible sounds.
When night finally fell it found the two Guardians dancing together, holding hands and looking into each other’s faces as if mesmerised. When the music finally stopped, they looked about themselves as if woken from a dream, their hands parted and they both turned away as if embarrassed by the intimacy in which they had been discovered.
‘At least now we fully understand the problem,’ said Chloe, ‘I could not have stopped dancing with you however hard I tried, not that I found it unpleasant,’ she continued hastily, ‘No, you dance very well and I have enjoyed this evening with you. I only wish that I had had some choice in deciding to dance!’
‘I felt it too,’ said Danial ‘Why have we not danced together before! But that aside, at least we now know the full extent of the problem that we have been asked to solve.’
For some four nights the dances continued as before and each night Danial and Chloe, could be found dancing as if their lives depended on it. They had tried to resist by blocking their ears but each time that evening came they found themselves under the spell of the Seductive Tambourine.
During the day they talked through the problem, trying to find some weakness or line of action which could release the dancers from the spell, but to no avail.
‘We must try something totally unusual which might shake the young people out of their rhythm,’ thought Chloe out loud, ‘if only there was something that could upset the power of the Tambourine.’ There was a long pause, ‘I think that I might have an idea.’ She said finally, ’I believe that there must be a willingness or an empathy amongst the dancers which we may be able to undo. I shall find a way.’ The next morning, she disappeared and returned some time later pushing a large barrow full of apples.
That evening, when the sun was beginning to loose its command of the sky and the young people of the town felt the draw of the dancing ground, Chloe and Danial wheeled the barrow of apples to the clearing where the travellers had camped.
When they arrived, they gave each young dancer several apples to hold, each person was given, according to their ability, one more apple than they were comfortably able to hold, so that the final apple was balanced precariously in their grasp. When the music began to swell in their minds, and the impulse to move invaded their limbs with rhythm, the dancing began. First they danced the Branle de Bourgogne in which they must link arms and move from side to side, immediately, several of the dancers dropped their apples and had to stoop down and retrieve them, the shape and rhythm of the dance was broken and then as they tried to regain the shape of the dance, the apples spilled once more. Next, they danced a Gigue and then a Courant in which the dancers partnered a particular person. Again and yet again the dancers tried to build the atmosphere which would transport them into the heart of the music and again and again the apples slipped from their fingers until slowly but surely the sound of the Tambourine started to fade in their ears. Some shook their heads in an effort to regain the joyful sounds that had driven them to dance for the last days, but try as they might the apples dropped, and the music faded.
At last, as the Tambourine became nothing but a faint memory of joyful dances, the young people stood still, holding their apples and looking for all world as if they longed to be mesmerised by the sounds of the Seductive Tambourine once more.
Chloe and Danial parted from the town on good terms, the people had been effusive in their gratitude and offered all kinds of presents to the departing Guardians which Chloe and Danial politely refused. They did leave several Guardian’s Tokens to evidence their visit and rode out of the town together, both of them feeling the remnants of the thrill that had been conjured by their dance together and both secretly listening in their memories to the sound of the Seductive Tambourine.
The Guardians of the Cave 