Twinkle And The Piano

The five year old pup padded down the empty street. She was an orphan. She had traveled a long distance from her old home in the past couple of years, and she never really found a place to stay. Stopping at the only den with the lights on, she cautiously approached the door and delicately knocked. It was answered by an elderly snow leopard.

Noticing the raggedy cape and hood the pup wore, the leopard invited the child inside. The den was filled with dozens of antiques and wonders the pup had never seen before. One thing in particular caught the pup's eye. "That?" She questioned, tilting her head.

"It's called a piano, dear. Let me show you." The leopard said, and made her way to the object in the tastefully decorated living room. The child followed her and sat on one of the antique chairs and turned her attention to the elder jammer. Grabbing some sheet music, the snow leopard placed her keys upon the keys of the piano and began to play. Her paws danced upon the keys and created a beautiful melody that could only be described as amazing.

When the leopard finished playing, the pup bounced up and down on her seat, giggling and clapping her paws. "Teach me?" She asked with a smile on her face. Amused by the young animal's eagerness to learn, the elderly jammer nodded. "Okay, I'll teach you."

Every day since then, for two years, the pup learned. She listened. She read. She played. She got better every day. She was a prodigy. But the one piece the small pup had trouble with was Ludwig Paw Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". The pup would often get discouraged when she made a mistake. She would cry. But the snow leopard was there to comfort her. "There there, don't give up. Keep trying and I'm sure you'll get it right." So the pup tried. She practiced every day and night. She practiced not until she got it right, but until she couldn't get it wrong. She would play for the snow leopard every day, and the snow leopard would play for her. The pup had come to think of the leopard as her grandmother, despite the species differences.

But one day, the leopard, the only parental figure the child had known since her parents were taken from her, passed away in her sleep. After the funeral, the pup began to wander the streets again, until she was finally taken in by a tiger and her three nieces. She didn't have very high hopes. She was somewhat depressed for a while. But then, she was shown the living room. And inside there stood a piano, just like the one she used to play.

Every year, on the anniversary of the snow leopard's passing, the pup would play Ludwig Paw Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" in the legacy of the snow leopard, who had taught her to never give up. And the tigers would listen. The youngest tiger, Lizzy, the pup's adoptive sister, would learn new pieces with the young canine together.

When Lizzy's aunt was killed by phantoms on the same day the snow leopard passed one year, the pup, Twinkle, played together with Lizzy in memory of the family members they had lost before they left the house for good. Peck helped them along until they reached the Alpha Tower.

The children were taken in by the Alphas and began training to fight phantoms immediately. Twinkle hardly had any time for the piano anymore, due to new friends and challenges coming along, but she never forgot how to play. And she made sure that on the same day, every year, she would play the piano. Lizzy would play too. Their new friends listened to them every year, on the same day. If they had their own instruments, they would join them in playing. They would play in the memory of their friends, family members, and comrades they loved and lost. And whenever one of them made a mistake and got discouraged, the others would tell them to never give up. They all learned. And they all played. Together.