The garden of names #4 (freewrite)

This is the fourth part of the story. You may read the first parts here:

The garden of names

The garden of names #2

The garden of names #3

The boy couldn't shake off the low humming at the back of his head. It had been there ever since they'd left the island, not swimming this time, but on a big pear-shaped boat, lead by an invisible captain who made his presence known through his loud wheezing from time to time. The boy and girl sat huddled together, for there was ghastly wind and great clouds a-blowing through their wet-clothes, making the cold fabric stick to their skin and ripple.
They didn't know where they were going and although they had asked the captain, there had been little to no answer. The voice hadn't been too forthcoming, either. It had sent them away, off on a voyage,a journey out of sorts, somewhere in the deep dark, for they were no longer welcome on the isle of Delirium.
But the boy had keen eyes stuck well in his head and he stared out, at the waves that hit the boat from one side, and the impressive calm that presided on the other. And he noted things. He noted they were not going toward the garden of names, or rather the garden of no names, as it had turned out. That was good, the boy thought, he would do anything not to go back there, in the quiet and the maze of flowers, although he'd come to love flowers.
It was like a graveyard, like a room of tombs, where the dead sing no song.

And yet, there was a noise. The boy heard it clear, in his mind, and yet he couldn't quite tell what the noise was or where it was coming from. He tried to hum it to his nameless companion, but the sounds that came out were eerie and out of shape. He was forgetting the sounds in his head as soon as they were out of his mouth. The noise was, quite simply, unrepeatable.
So, the boy closed hi eyes and listened to the music.

They were there, the boy felt certain of it, although the boat hadn't stopped and didn't look like it was going to.
'Let us off,' he cried to the captain, whose head turned slightly to the left and grinned its wide, loopish grin. 'Aren't you going to let us off?'
The boy got up now, as the captain said nothing.
'We want to get off,' the girl echoed. She was good at that, echoing other voices. Once, long ago, this had made her seem weak and silly. People had thought she had no words of her own, but the people had been wrong. She did have words, only she kept them to herself, to her own mind. And most of all, she listened. She heard others speak, she heard the wind blowing, she heard everything.
But in the end, it didn't really matter, she supposed, since nobody heard her. She'd lost her own name because of that, she'd used it so little. Unlike the boy, she had known its value and she had been so very careful not to waste it. Which had been precisely the problem.
'You can yell at him as much as ye like, he ain't gonna stop, ye know,' a voice came up from below the ship, and just maybe, slightly to the left. 'He never does.'
And for a second alone, they both thought that it was like the other island, just a voice, in the air, in the hollows, perhaps in the island itself.
'Well, what are ye waiting for? Why did ye come here if ye did not want to jump?'
So they did the only thing they could do. They jumped.

And they landed. On the soft, willowy sand that trickled through their toes and played on the soles of their feet secret tunes. Or perhaps, just the one. Tune.
It was the song that had been stuck inside the boy's head throughout their journey and now it was clear, as crystal, as a lake, as a song maybe.
'A beauty, isn't it? You've never heard it before?'
The nameless looked up into the mismatched eyes – one pearl white, one dastardly green – of a long-beard man, hopping on one foot in the sand, while his other seemed to be ensconced in balancing three plates full of softly whipped cream.
The girl shook her head.
'I have, I heard it in my head, but I couldn't sing it out,' the boy said.
'That's because you shouldn't sing it to anyone but yourself, and even then, only in your dreams. The song is yours and yours alone, lad. Here, these are for you.'
He arched up his foot and they scrambled to grab the plates before they fell cream-first into the sand.
The two nameless children thanked him and he nodded, taking one of the plates.
'So, you've come to ask for a favor, have ye?' he asked, scooping a big handful of cream and dumping it down his throat.
The boy shook his head. 'No, I mean, I don't know, we were just sent here, see, we –'
'I know. I know where you've gone before, lad, and there's little point in going again, so please don't tell me. You were not simply banished, but sent here with a purpose. Delirium may be a bit strange, but he's not completely bonkers, you know. He sent you here with a reason.'
'To ask for a favor?' the boy asked, as he ran his finger around the already-empty plate. He must've been hungrier than he'd realized.

'Why else do the lost journey here?' the man with mismatched eyes asked, as if to himself. 'Very well, since my brother sent you here, you shall each have one boon. I may help you in your respective quests. But think carefully, once you have named your boon, it cannot be unnamed. Unlike yourselves.'
The man cackled a horrendous noise, racking down their ears.
'I'd like my name back,' the boy said, closing his eyes, as if that would seal it.
'Very well, and you?' the man, suddenly all serious, and his beard perhaps a little longer turned to the girl. 'Do you wish to have your name back also?'
And the girl's soft, sweet-smelling hair shook no. 'I don't really miss it all that much.'
'Indeed, namelessness seems to suit you, little bird.'
'May I save my boon for later?' she asked, looking straight into his strange eyes.
The man shook his head, very solemn. 'Yes, you may. Just call and I shall be there and I shall grant your boon.'
'But you never said we could do that,' the boy protested, but it was a weak protest. He didn't really mind, he just hated not being told all the facts and possibilities.
'It is the way boons have always worked, laddie. Jolly good, then on your way you go. You, lad, may find your name only after you've accomplished three feats laid out especially for you and you alone.'
And they sat around and waited and looked at each other. And wondered.
'Well, what are they?' the boy asked.
'Oh, I may not tell you that, I can simply give you a word of advice. Listen to your song, to that soft melody o' blues, if I'm not mistaken, and I never am, and it will tell you what they are when the time comes. Now off you go.'

He motioned them away, with one brisk hand and called out to the girl to remember the boon she was owed, but he called into the nothingness, for the two nameless children had long vanished into thin air.

Today's prompt word was 'blues'. I admit it took longer than 5 minutes. Check out @mariannewest to join our amazing freewriting community!

Thank you for reading,