It was a sunday morning when his parents decided that Francis should clean the attic. It was a dull job that he did not wanted do to. Unfortunately he did not have a choice, his mom was determined. He dragged himself up the creaky stairs and began cleaning. After half an hour of cleaning dust and catching spiders he decided he deserved a break. Francis was about to go downstairs again but his mother, Catherine, shouted at him that he was better finished before going downstairs. He was absolutely done with her, he just wanted a drink after having been stuck at this filthy attic for such a long time. His lungs were filled with dust and his throat was sore, but mommy said he had to keep working so he did. You did not want to get on his mom's bad side.
He pulled away some boxes and a lot of dust came with it. He coughed loudly while he turned away, covering his face with his hands. Behind where the boxes once stood lay a tiny silver box with beautiful glass balls. They looked like christmas balls, but there was nothing to hang them with. They were perfectly round. Francis picked one up and stared at it. He was fascinated by the shiny thing. He wanted to take a better look, so he took the glass ball and walked towards the only lamp in the room.
While being so distracted by the gorgeous thing, he did not notice the cable laying on the floor. He tripped over it and the ball slipped out of his hands. It fell on the floor and Francis heard the glass break. He cringed, such a beautiful thing destroyed by his clumsy hands. He already feared the reaction from his mother. He would definitely be punished for such a foolish mistake. Suddenly he heard a noise, it must be his mother checking out what all the fuss was about.
Frightened he looked up awaiting the punishment, but what he saw was not his mother. Before him stood a beautiful woman, about his age, dressed in a very old-fashioned kind of way. Francis strared at her, but she quickly looked away. He knew of course in the back of his mind that this women should not be here, but she was and he was intrigued by her beauty. As in a trance Francis lept forward, until he was uncomfortably close. Something seemed of about the girl from up close and then it came to him. He was too close. Of course, he thought to himself, anyone would feel awkward being so close to a stranger. They both took a step back and the girl began to speak. "Hello, " she said with a polite smile, "my name is Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. I must have fallen asleep during a the travel to this residency. Would you be so kind to tell me where I am currently staying." Francis was not sure he understood what this Mary was saying. As far as he knew Scotland hadn't had a queen in ages and the only Mary Stuart he knew was a queen that lived approximately 400 years ago. He decided to just answer her questions and try to get to know her better. "Well, you're in France, Orléans to be exact", he told her. The look on her face could not have been described any different from utter and absolute confusion. "Excuse me, I'm afraid that I would not know how I got here of why I am here. I was supposed to go to Paris to meet with the Royal family. " It was not as if Francis knew a lot about history but he definitely knew that France had not had a Royal family in a very long time and for as how she got here. He had no clue either. "I would want to tell you how you got here, but I wouldn't know. You just appeared here from all of a sudden directly after I dropped that.." his voice trailed off. How could that be possible, the glass ball he had dropped was nowhere to be seen. Mary looked at him expectedly. She was of course waiting for the rest of his line. He too was wondering what was going on. One minute he had a glass ball in his hands, the next moment it was gone and there was a woman. As any normal thinking young man he decided there was only one option here. The girl was being kept in the ball as a prisoner. The other balls should have prisoners in them as well. He shared his thoughts with Mary and decided to break another one. Out of this ball came an angry man who told them he was Henry the second king of France. After he did that he gave Francis a pointed look. He said:" Son, would you have any idea's of where to find the one called Catherine de Medici. Francis swallowed hard, he recognized this name instantly. "King Henry, why would you want to look for her? Don't you have to take care of a whole kingdom instead of searching for this woman?", he asked him. The king looked at him as if he was asking himself if one could really be so clueless. The king sighed deep and told Francis in a very matter of fact tone: "I want to find her because she is my wife and she is the one who put me in this thing in the first place. Of course I should have seen in coming, she and Nostradamus had been planning something for a while now, but I did not want to see it. At this he had stopped listening. The only thing he could think about was that these people were probably 400 years old and that his mother was the which that had caught them.
- Prompt from the writing prompts tumblr.