Backstory:
Jazz Brambleshanks and, introducing later, Chi Traverse
Fast talking and full of himself. Even Jazz wouldn’t argue with that description. Ninth of twelve sons and twenty-one children, Jazz always knew that there was more to the wide world than potato farming and skunky ale. As soon as he grew large enough (this took a while, being on the small side) to be called upon to really contribute to the farm work, he began cultivating other talents. His improvised songs became the tools of his trade as he helped the long days of manual labour slide by a bit faster. And, when someone turned their ire upon young Jazz for shirking his duties (imagine!), they’d quickly learn from town gossip that they had become the subject of his next scathing song.
Harvest festival of his sixth-teenieth year was the providential moment when Smooth Ben Drover and the Hoebangers brought their eclectic blend of Varisian music, dance, drinking songs, and sound poetry to the simple Halfling community of Mudvale. That was the night Jazz fell in love three times. First with cold ale imported from the city, second with the lure of the stage and the promise of something better, and third with Harly Hairfoot, who he insists to this day is not his third cousin!
His seventh-teenieth year was one of miraculous work. Jazz began to work in the fields. Muscle began to replace the childish pastry of his frame. He even saved some gold! Enough gold for an engagement band, Harly hoped. Enough money for really good ale once a week, but Jazz resisted the temptation-what strength! Enough money, it turned out, for an affordable (not cheap!) lute and slightly repaired banjo.
Harly was less than impressed. Jazz’s heart was broken for at least a week. Then he wrote a fine song about his breakup that is still sung by the really drunk in Mudvale to this day. The first performance was received with such great enthusiasm and energy, he had to run to avoid being mobbed. Running from his adoring fans, Jazz almost drowned attempting to ford the Mudvale Creek only to be rescued downstream by his hero, Smooth Ben Drover, who was doubling his income as a travelling carp fisherman and netted Jazz easily in passing.
For the next year Jazz learned all he could about public performance and carp fishing from Smooth Ben.
On his ninth-teenienth birthday, Jazz decided to thank Ben and set out for the bigger towns and cities to sing, entertain, and discover the world. Most importantly, for the world to discover Him.
The first really interesting person to discover Jazz was a nearly naked, leathery and dusty bum in a robe named Chi Traverse.
Being of a self-proclaimed practical nature, Jazz found himself in the most affordable accommodations available in the backwater town of Hornswagger: the stables of the Grunt and Hork Tavern. It was warm. The company, a feral cat who was attempting to lick its genitals to death, and a sway back horse who was intent upon biting his hair or stealing his cap, wasn’t as bad as many places he had slept while in pursuit of his fortune. It was all food for his muse. And the garden next door provided him a fine repast, to boot.
Upon being kicked by a clumsy stablehand the next mid-morning, Jazz tidied himself, hoisted his backpack and stepped confidently into the glaring sun.
The next moment found Jazz face down and swearing as he spat away straw and manure. He had tripped across something shin high that had been left by an idiot just outside the barn.
When Jazz pulled himself to his feet he realized it was not something but someone who had tripped him.
“Buddy, watch where you are going!” Jazz blurted at the threadbare and wiry bum sitting cross legged in the dirt, a bowl with three coppers in front of him. The bum kept his silence, staring at a goat calmly chewing grass on the other side of the lane.
“You deaf? I coulda broke something!” Jazz quickly checked his instruments and was relieved to find them no worse after the fall.
“I am Chi,” the bum stated.
“Whut?
“I am neither Buddy nor deaf. I am Chi”
The goat approved.
Jazz’s eyes gleamed. “Yeah? Well, now that I’ve got a name, you’ll regret tripping me like that”
A fly landed on the bum’s eyelid and scampered about. The bum made no motion to shoo it away.
“Maybe not deaf then but definitely paralyzed…” Then Jazz took out his small tabor and struck it theatrically. He cleared his voice and began to sing loudly “:There once was a man named Chi…”
Two hulking brutes of men came staggering out of the tavern and took a look down the lane towards them. An audience! Jazz continued “who was a dumb clumsy bum we’d agree…”
The bum made no motion. The fly seemed to wince at the sound and disappeared. The goat turned its back. The two hulks began a weaving walk closer. Paying customers! Jazz smiled at them.
“Three coppers in his tray, squatting in horse s@+~ all day…”
The men stopped close to Jazz and crossed their arms. They slowly smiled back.
“so he didn’t have to stand up to pee!” Jazz finished with a flourish of drum beats and cymbal shakes from his tabor. He laughed a bit to cue the audience.
The goat bleated. The bum didn’t even crack a smile.
Jazz bowed to the men “Jazz Brambleshanks! Entertainer of many arts. A copper will buys you another!”
“This the one, Jay? The one frum last night?" One brute growled to the other.
“Yep. Sure is.”
“Don’t much like beating up a kid, though”
“Hey, I’m no kid!” Jazz retorted
“That changes things then.”the other brute grunted and lifted Jazz easily by the scruff of his neck with one arm. “Said some really bad things about my little sister yeh did. “
“It was a joke. Just a joke” Jazz squeaked. “It's show business.”
“Made her cry, yeh did.”
“So fair’s fair, eh?” and the brute pulled his arm back for a roundhouse against Jazz who just dangled there.
“Okay. I'm sorry!” Jazz whined and firmly closed his eyes.
There was a flurry of grunts and blows but none reached Jazz. He found himself sprawled in the dirt again but otherwise unhurt.
Standing over the two brutes who now lay immobile and bleeding was the bum, balanced lightly on the balls of both feet, arms extended slightly like coils.
“Uh, …thanks? ”Jazz squeaked.
Chi bowed, picked up his bowl and quickly straightened his robe.
“Fair is fair.”Chi stated.
“Don’t know why they had such a problem” Jazz complained while regaining his feet. he nudged one of the brutes with his foot and laughed. “Yeah..what a punch line!”
“Punches may strike one target whereas words may strike many.” Chi stated.
“It was a joke. Didn’t you get it?”
“Humour is breath for the soul” Chi responded after a short pause.
“But you don’t think I’m funny… you didn’t laugh”
Chi said nothing but began to follow Jazz.
“Lotsa people find me funny, you know. Hey why are you following me?”
“Do you wish me to find another path?” Chi asked.
Jazz took a moment to consider all the people he may have offended the night before. “Nah, it’s okay. You seem okay. Thanks again for sticking up for me back there.”
“I follow the precepts of Irori” Chi stated with confidence and his step lightly fell into the same cadence as Jazz’s. “All paths are his path.”
“Yeah. Okay. Good to have some company on the road, I guess. You don’t smile much do you?”
“The mouth is a line in balance with the world. The world is always in motion. A thin rope best develops balance.”
“uhh….okayyy”
Jazz and Chi walked for much of the day rather quietly..except for Jazz’s whistling and his attempts to create more songs.
One day, Jazz swore, he would sing a song that would make Chi laugh out loud.
Chi walked slightly behind Jazz. Noticing everything. Letting each now run through him, like water through the gills of a fish. As Irori instructed, Chi was always maintaining balance and challenging balance to develop strength. And the world was alive with challenges. Glacier fed springs to bathe in, lava beds to tread across, bamboo poles to poise atop and leap from one to the next above festering marshes swollen with crocodiles and water moccasins . And people were the biggest challenge of all. This little one seemed so unwise, so out of balance yet so caught up in the moment and alive. Irori guided Chi to the moment of their meeting with a purpose. This halfling was a challenge that would refine Chi’s mastery of himself. Even the cacophonous song of the jubjub bird enriched the music of the universe. Chi resolved to embrace the song that was Jazz.
