When the Drums Remembered Respect

Previously

…She gestured to the drums, their surfaces gleaming in the afternoon light. "Each beat, Kaelen, is a prayer. A thank you. A request for continued blessings. When you approach them with a careless spirit, a loud mouth, or a disobedient heart, you disrupt their song. You make them heavy, and they cannot sing their joy." Kaelen absorbed her words, the images of the silent drums flashing in his mind. He remembered how he’d often raced past them, sometimes even tapping them carelessly as he ran, thinking them merely decorations, or loud toys. He now understood the sadness in his grandmother’s sighs, the dimming of the village festival’s usual, vibrant glow. It wasn