Ch. 3
Paris in the early morning is a nightmare. More so than the one I've just witnessed.
Especially when you take into consideration that a cab costs more than a day's earnings for most. The streets hustle and bustle around me as I am pushed and pulled along the great tide of the city. I am lost in my own world, clutching the Book to my chest as if it were my own beating heart. I'm trying to riddle it out, make sense of it all, because if I don't I fear I shall go mad.
I'm still wandering around like a deranged lunatic when I run into someone. Hard. "Pardonnez-moi Monsieur, I did not see you."
I've fallen to my knees, still clutching the Book as if my life, and I look up to see the smart polished uniform of an officer of the guard. "Non, non Monsieur, the fault was mine." I blink in surprise, but then I recall. With my breeches and nearly skeletal frame I look like nothing more than young boy running around Paris in search of work. The officer's a kind looking older man with a bushy mustache and blue eyes. He reaches down a hand and helps me to my feet. "Where were you headed in such a hurry? I'd be happy to escort you. My, what is it you have there?" He points to the Book and I reel away from him.
"I have to go." I say as an excuse, though there is nothing that will make up for my appalling lack of manners, and I'm hurrying off in the opposite direction, toward the river. The kind officer calls after me, causing several passersby to scowl and whisper, but I don't look back. I don't stop running until I hear the call of the dock workers and the smell of the river. Oh, it is so very much like the smell of the ocean. The smell of home.
Until the scent of pollution hits me. I scowl but I'll take it. It's better than nothing.
I take a seat on the wharf and curl my knees to my chest, ripping off the cap that had concealed my waterfall of brown-black hair. The Circle never told me that...creatures existed. Or that a crazed man in black would come looking for the object I was supposed to protect. The Livre de Lumiere. What ever that is. They never told me Sebastian had Changed...
We were to Change together. I was to shed the proud title of the Prideux dynasty and his title of indentured servant and we were to travel. See the world. Escape Paris forever. But he went missing three months ago and I've been searching ever since. The Circle told me that if I protected Notre Dame I would be Changed and then given all the assistance I needed to find Sebastian, little did I know I wouldn't have to look far. And now there is no point to Changing because Sebastian has been lost to me forever.
Paris in the early morning is a nightmare. More so than the one I've just witnessed.
Especially when you take into consideration that a cab costs more than a day's earnings for most. The streets hustle and bustle around me as I am pushed and pulled along the great tide of the city. I am lost in my own world, clutching the Book to my chest as if it were my own beating heart. I'm trying to riddle it out, make sense of it all, because if I don't I fear I shall go mad.
I'm still wandering around like a deranged lunatic when I run into someone. Hard. "Pardonnez-moi Monsieur, I did not see you."
I've fallen to my knees, still clutching the Book as if my life, and I look up to see the smart polished uniform of an officer of the guard. "Non, non Monsieur, the fault was mine." I blink in surprise, but then I recall. With my breeches and nearly skeletal frame I look like nothing more than young boy running around Paris in search of work. The officer's a kind looking older man with a bushy mustache and blue eyes. He reaches down a hand and helps me to my feet. "Where were you headed in such a hurry? I'd be happy to escort you. My, what is it you have there?" He points to the Book and I reel away from him.
"I have to go." I say as an excuse, though there is nothing that will make up for my appalling lack of manners, and I'm hurrying off in the opposite direction, toward the river. The kind officer calls after me, causing several passersby to scowl and whisper, but I don't look back. I don't stop running until I hear the call of the dock workers and the smell of the river. Oh, it is so very much like the smell of the ocean. The smell of home.
Until the scent of pollution hits me. I scowl but I'll take it. It's better than nothing.
I take a seat on the wharf and curl my knees to my chest, ripping off the cap that had concealed my waterfall of brown-black hair. The Circle never told me that...creatures existed. Or that a crazed man in black would come looking for the object I was supposed to protect. The Livre de Lumiere. What ever that is. They never told me Sebastian had Changed...
We were to Change together. I was to shed the proud title of the Prideux dynasty and his title of indentured servant and we were to travel. See the world. Escape Paris forever. But he went missing three months ago and I've been searching ever since. The Circle told me that if I protected Notre Dame I would be Changed and then given all the assistance I needed to find Sebastian, little did I know I wouldn't have to look far. And now there is no point to Changing because Sebastian has been lost to me forever.
