A Letter to Duke Bourin

Hello Duke Bourin,

You may know me as Lullaby. In my language, they call me Suinum, “Sleep Song”.

I thought that if I could talk with you directly, maybe we could find something we can agree on.

I understand enough about the Umans to understand your traditions, but I feel like you’ve never learned about ours.

Maybe the biggest difference among us is that we don’t live as long as you.

One Uman can live almost three or four generations of Udari.

For you, we might seem like an insect you can ignore until we die away. Yet our people are strong, and full of love.

Maybe our lifespan is the reason why we express ourselves so differently. The Umans withhold their feelings, and wear their pride instead of their true selves.

But picture a Uman you care about, about to pass away. Don’t your true selves emerge? Your true feelings and thoughts?

There’s an Udari song that all songmages learn:

We joke when we want to laugh

We cry when we're sad

We fight when we're angry

We hug when we feel it

The Udari can’t afford to “waste time” with things like pride.

Maybe I need to think about your perspective too. Because your lives are much longer, the war that changed this island is still fresh in your memory.

Know that we don’t want to see war again, either.

Thank you for reading this far,

Lullaby