Name of the Wind - Chapters 19 - 21

Chapter 19

Kote goes feral and survives in the woods alone for months. He teaches himself to play the lute by playing it 24/7 and manages to get pretty good. He only starts thinking about rejoining civilization when enough strings break that he can no longer play. While walking to town, he is picked up by a farmer and his son on a wagon. They start to sing, and his heart breaks recalling his times with his friends and family of the troupe.

There's mention of how he teaches himself to play songs that perfectly capture the feel of the wilderness. It reminded me of how magic works by knowing the names of things. Perhaps he will invent some new type of bardic magic?  While music makes him melancholy, thinking of his past good times, you get the feeling that it will also be his salvation, and he'll have to keep at it even if it breaks his heart.  

Chapter 20

The group arrive in a large city named Tarbean. The farmers offer Kote work but he declines. In short order he runs into some street thugs who try to rob him. He fights back but the lute breaks in the scuffle. The thugs try to beat him to death but run off when they hear someone call for the city watch. When he wakes up he tries to find the farmers but they have left.

Pretty heartbreaking to have Kote lose the last physical link to his family, the lute. He's also stuck in town, his ride out has already left.  What else can happen?

Chapter 21

Kote has been surviving as a beggar in Tarbean. After being caught in his first attempt at pick pocketing, he stumbles upon a basement where a kindly man named Trapis is giving away bread and caring for sick street urchins. He comes to think of this place as a refuge.

Trapis is like the Mother Teresa of Tarbean.  For some reason, Kote doesn't decide to just stay there.  As far as being a pickpocket, the first attempt wasn't too auspicious, but you know Kote is good at everything so he'll be a master thief before long.  This is a slower chapter showing Kote's hardships in the city.  Getting impatient to get back to the Chandrian and some action.