Hello peoples. As you may know already, I tend to take snippets and ideas from Disney movies BUT the plots are never ever the same. For example, in 'This Is Me', the story DOES feature a mermaid princess who ends up falling in love with a land prince and the prince DOES have a "lover" in a sense, HOWEVER there is no evil octopus lady or 10 different princesses or even a crab. Nope. None of it.
So, for this story, you may see some similarities to the Disney movie 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', but I can assure you, this plot is NOTHING AND I REAPEAT NOTHING like the Disney movie but the times are the same and gypsies are discriminated against. Not entirely sure why.
ok, another thing, I talk a bit about these "large sliver earrings". I got this idea from the holocaust and everything. So, like the Jews wearing the stars, gypsies have to wear these large earrings. Each one is silver, and about 3" long. They look like...ok, imagine taking a long strip of silver metal. Bend the metal into a spiral. Now, take an imaginary hammer, and flatten it. So now you have a flat, sliver spiral. Lastly, picture it as an earring. I know, I'm so bad. NOW SHUT UP AND READ
Silver and Gold
CHAPTER 1: Planning
A tall, dark haired girl stood in the shadows of the marketplace. It was difficult for a gypsy to blend in at this sort of town, where gypsies are hated and discriminated against. The fact that they wore such bright colors didn't help keep them on the down low.
This particular girl, wore a long black skirt, cut horizontally so that it looked as though someone took a floor length skirt, and sliced it up to mid-thigh, revealing her long legs. A blue-purple top hung loosely around her shoulders and reached her wrists, flowing around them like a bell. Bracelets decorated her wrists and bare ankles and a large sliver earring hung from one ear.
Ebony hair that reached down to her hips and unusually pale skin for a gypsy accented her sharp features. Her full lips had been set into a grim line as she watched a second gypsy around a small group of children, their parents stood close by chatting with one another. She couldn't hear what he was telling them, but she knew from his exotic hand movements that we was weaving one of the stories gypsies were famous for telling.
The corners of her lips lifted slightly as she watched him suddenly jump, "fangs" bared and fingers curled like claws. He was undoubtedly pretending to act out a monster from the story, and from the way that the children were screaming and laughing, he had been doing a good job. Her eyes flickered to the parents where some of them had turned around at the noise but after realizing it was only part of the story, quickly went back to their conversations. The sound however, drew other unwanted attention.
"Shit…" she whispered to herself as her blue-gray eyes watched with regret as the young man, was ordered to leave by the guard.
When he refused, a second guard came over and grabbed his arm, preparing to drag him away. The gypsy struggled, and began to scream at the men, but was being over powered and was dragged away towards the dark shadow of the castle that seemed to loom over them all.
The gypsy had to force herself to stay silent and turned away from the scene to walk deeper into the alleyway. "We've got to get out of here." she whispered to herself as she made several sharp turns into deeper and darker alleys.
Her jewelry softly jangled around her wrists and ankles, breaking the silence of the alley.
The woman stopped at a door and knocked times on it lightly. A small panel slid back in the door and a pair of narrowed eyes looked around cautiously before stopping to land on her. Their scrutinizing gaze fixed itself on her.
"Password?" a female voice asked suspiciously. "Open the damn door Sango." she replied, waiting for the figure to let her inside. The panel slid closed and the door was cracked open, the woman hiding behind it quickly ushering the girl inside.
"It's good to see you back Kagome." her friend gave her a hug and stepped back when she saw her friend's expression. "What happened?" she asked quietly. Kagome's face was set in a grim mask, her eyes hard and unfocused.
"They took Nobunaga." she whispered, not looking at her friend but moving deeper inside the passageway. only three words to her friend before moving farther into the room. "They took him Sango!" she spoke a little louder, but her voice still was only raised to a harsh whisper.
The place they were in wasn't very big, but it did work as a conference room for some of the leaders of their troupe. When you entered through the door, you were greeted with a small hallway, only wide enough for 2-3 people. Three doors were placed evenly across from one another, while one silhouetted door stood stiff at the end of the far wall.
On one side, there was a large conference room that held almost all of the leaders at the moment (as expected). The two rooms on the opposite side of the hall were smaller, and used only for talking and eating.
The last room, however, was closed off from everyone but a few restricted people. A large lock was securely hooked onto the door and although it could easily be picked by even the youngest of gypsies, the lock served more as a warning than anything else.
The two girls headed for one of the two smaller rooms, hearing the quiet chatter and clanking of cups come from there.
Mixed colors adorned each and every person and demon, as a sign of what they were. Some were dressed in bright reds of yellows; other wore darker shades like black or brown. But on each and every creature, a spiraled silver earring hung off one ear.
Kagome scanned over the group of people inside the small room. A mini bar was pressed against one wall while the rest of the area had tables randomly scattered around it.
And candles. Thin candles. Thick candles. Small, stout, candles that flickered and long thin virgin candles that stood proudly in candelabras lighted up the room giving it a merry, yet solemn, glow. Chandeliers with half melted candles hung from the low ceiling, swinging only a foot above their heads.
Spotting who she was looking for, Kagome made her way over to one of the tables near the wall where a group of women sat chatting away. One, black hair tied behind her neck, stiffened as she came closer, trying to ignore how Kagome's eyes never left her tense form.
At Kagome's appearance at the table, talk around the table stopped and eyes turned to see what had happened. Kagome heaved a sigh, but she had to tell her. Looking the girl straight in the eye, a unreadable expression on her face, she whispered softly to her the words that everyone around them seemed to know was coming, but was wishing that they weren't.
"Nobunaga…" she began, immediately grimacing at the expression on the girls' face. "…I'm sorry Tsuyu. He was taken." She finished sadly.
The girl, "Tsuyu", had the worst expression of pain and despair was etched across her face, tears quickly welling up inside her eyes. A chocked sob rang from her throat before the silver droplets fell down her cheeks in waves of sadness. She slipped from her chair onto the floor, sobbing loudly. By now, everyone in the room had heard and were starting to flock around her, trying to comfort the distressed girl. "No! Nobunaga! NOOOO!" Tsuyu cried to herself, not holding back any tears and ignoring the words of comfort people offered.
Kagome watched the broken woman in front of her silently. It was sad, yes. She knew what it was like to lose someone close to her. It was happening more and more often now. Seeing her loved ones being taken, and knowing that there was nothing she could do about it, ripped her heart apart every time.
As she eyed the people around Tsuyu, each one trying to get closer to her to try and show them their support, Kagome let a flicker of annoyance flash across her face. Even though they all seemed truly sorry, Kagome knew, perhaps more than they did, that they were all silently thankful that it wasn't one of them. That it wasn't one of their loved ones. That it was her lover… and not theirs.
Turning away from the scene and marching back into the empty hallway, Sango in tow, she angrily yanked open the door to the conference room, stopping the chatter of all committee members in their tracks.
Kagome, although she didn't look the part, was actually a respected leader of the troupe, and held a high opinion with the other members. That however, still only made her a few steps up from the rest of the gypsies.
She quickly walked back to the center of the room, eyes slowly filling with anger. She stood behind the table, and slammed her hands on the wood in front of her. "We have to get out of here!" she nearly shouted. "We have the plans, we have the material, why won't anybody just agree that we should leave!" she brought her head up and glared at everybody.
Silence met her loud declaration. Kagome's sudden arrival shocked the older leaders slightly and even the younger ones looked a bit skeptical at her before the words actually processed.
The dark haired woman stood frozen in front of the group of 20 or so committee leaders watching her in stunned silence. A large sweat drop appeared in the back of her head as one of the elders began snoring softly on her left.
Sango stood in the doorway slightly shaking her head. 'Oh Kagome… when will you learn?'
The snoring, however, seemed to bring the rest of the members out of their stupor and one of the taller, burlier men stood up from one of the tables.
"Kagome…" he began, as though talking to a small child, "It's a good plan, but we just can't risk it. There is too much of a chance that many of us will be caught or executed." His deep voice rang out though the murmurs of agreement that followed.
Kagome's eyes flared in anger, but it seemed to disappear in a moment. Instead, she smiled sweetly at him and walked over. Once she was about two feet away, she spoke in a whisper, knowing that everyone would still be able to hear the conversation clearly.
"You gamble don't you?" she asked, her half smile still in place. He raised a bushy eyebrow, but nodded. "Ok, well, lets pretend that you are playing a card game with the Lord of the western lands hm? Now, your daughter, Mary right? Yeah ok, well pretend for a moment… she is sick. Deathly ill, hm? You don't have enough money to buy her the medicine, BUT, is you play this next round, and win, you can get enough money for the medicine, two months worth of food for your family, AND a new bracelet for the Mrs."
She laced her fingers together in front of her face as she leaned on the table, the same cat-who-just-ate-the-carnery-but-is-now-in-a-pissed-mood-because-no-one-will-listen-to-how-he-did-it expression on her face. Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, she continued she voice in an even softer tone.
"However, if you lose, you lose all the money you have. Now, there is also a third option, you could just take what money you have and walk away, but you still don't have enough for the medicine and with taxes, food money, and... Whatever else it is you do with your own money, I really don't know or care, it will slowly eat away at your budget, until you don't have anything left. And now you can't even go and BET your money, cuz you don't have anything left! So what are you going to do? It's a win/lose situation. What's your decision?"
Everyone had been silent throughout her speech and was staring at the man. He was looking at the wall, thinking before shaking his head and speaking sternly, "No, I still say that the plans are to dangerous."
"But she does have a point." A high pitched voice rang out. A stout old woman rose from her chair at the far right end of the room. "If we do wait to long, then eventually the royals will have taken everything from us and we'll have no chance of escape at all. It's now or never" she finished, looking proud of herself for being so bold to say that in front of the rest of the leaders.
Kagome shot her a thankful look as more murmers rose from the different members, some in favor of the desion, some not. Finally, the burly man who had spoke up before, rose up. "Alright." He spoke loudly, stopping all noise from the rest of the group. "We'll take a vote. To leave to the South, or to stay in here and wait things out."
Nods of agreement rose and soon pieces of paper had been passed out, committee members scribbling away furiously at them.
A Little Later
One of the elders in the group was counting the votes. So far, there was a fairly even stack between the two but a large amount of votes still hadn't been counted.
The tall, thin man mumbled the results of each paper to himself as he flicked through them. "Leave… Stay… Stay… Leave… Stay… Leave… Leave… Leave… Stay… Leave… Stay… Stay… Leave… Stay… Leave… Leave…" he continued counting off the votes, while the rest of the room stood silently, holding their breath.
He slowly unfolded the last piece of paper. So far, their was 18:17, Stay was winning. "Leave…" he breathed out. There were a few gasps from the group.
"A tie?"
"But that's not possible!"
"Someone didn't vote!"
The shouts began to get louder as the realization that a tie had occurred and one of the members hadn't voted began to sink in.
The old man who had been counting the votes began to laugh. Quickly, more and more people from the group quieted down as his laughing got louder and louder. "Oh hoo… oh hoohoohoohoo… it seems I missed one. A hahahaha…"
36 pairs of eyes (the 35 committee members and Sango, who was still watching from the doorway) stared at the insane old coot who was laughing loudly at nothing. "A hahahaha… Oh hoohoohoohoo… A hahoohahoo… Oh hoohahooha… A ha-"
"WELL?!?" one of the newer members rounded on him. "AREN'T YOU GOING TO READ THE VOTE?!" "Wah? Of yes, AHEM." The laughter stopped as soon as it started, his face a mask of seriousness once again. "Leave."
Kagome turned around the sewer corner, jewelry jangleing with each step. Random gypsies passed her, many not even looking her way but others waving or giving a short "Hi."
Aside from the conference room (that was limited to leaders only and nobody actually lived there) the gypsies lived together in a large group in the sewers beneath the city though they often came out to go to the marketplace. But for now, Kagome was just working on getting to the other end of the city without running into another pesky guard who would be more than happy to drag her off to the castle like so many others who had done nothing wrong.
Kagome continued to make her ways through the winding pathways to the large cavern they called "home". Kagome scowled. "Home." Yeah right. You're supposed to be welcomed at home, not chased out of the city limits every time you earn a bit of money.
"We have to get out of here." Kagome whispered quietly to herself. "You got that right." A voice sounded behind her. In a flash Kagome had whirled around and was pointing a small dagger she had kept skillfully hidden at the person's chest.
"Whoa! Calm down, Kagome! It's me." Hojo, Kagome's childhood friend, stepped into her sight.
"Hojo! God, you moron! You scared me half to death!" she put the dagger back in the folds of her dark colored skirt and pushed him playfully while he just laughed at his friend's antics. "What are you doing?" she asked as she continued walking through the pipeline, Hojo following her.
He shrugged. "Looking for you." He spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, but he had a slight pink tinge to his cheeks. "Actually Lady Kagome…I wanted to talk to you about something." Hojo's voice became serious and he stopped walking.
"Hojo, how many times have I told you stop calling me "Lady" it's really annoying." she rolled her eyes as she shifted her weight onto one foot, jutting her hip out to one side and starred at him seriously.
"Kagome, after we go through the plans of e-"
"Shh." She put a hand over his mouth. "Sound carries remember? We don't want anyone to know anything they shouldn't." she whispered.
He nodded and started over. "Once we complete the plans, what do you think you are going to do?" he asked her.
She looked confused. "I don't know. Probably grow a garden, make a living off my dancing and fighting skills-"
"Not like that." Hojo interrupted her. He took a deep breath and started again. "I mean… would you want to get married or start a family with anyone?"
She looked thoughtful. "I suppose..." she began, tugging at her earring, "-if I found the right man." she smiled innocently at him and shrugged before waving and walking off, bracelets jangling as she walked.
Hojo watched her go, a look of determination on his face. He would make Kagome his bride. After the escape he planned on asking for her hand. 'Very soon my sweet Kagome… Don't you worry… just a little while longer I promise…'
A/N: buwahahahaha… aren't I so evil? Don't worry, Inuyasha's gonna come in next chappie. Sorry this one kinda sucked… Oh, and before anyone starts to think this is a HK fic, rest assured, I only write KI.
