I do not own any of the characters. All credit goes to Mattal.
Chapter 1. Corinne's P.O.V
It started out as a normal day. We were out patrolling the Paris streets. Viveca was talking about her latest changes to our uniforms, Aramina was talking about some boy she met the other day, and Renee was talking about the new weapons she had made for us. I tried my best to pay attention but it wasn't very interesting. Not even the weapons. Yep, things were pretty boring. It would be quite nice if someone brought up a good evil plot once in a while. It was so boring without any evil people.
Suddenly, I heard the soft clanging of bells. Only gypsies carried those kinds of bells around now. Gypsies. I started to get excited. I've always wanted to meet one of them. I didn't really know what other people had against them. Not like they stole money. They earned it by performing. While nobody was looking I slipped into the narrow alley, where I had heard the noise. When I got at least halfway through the alley, I saw the Gypsy. She was tall and very thin, and had bright green eyes, long, curly black hair, and was wearing a long blue dress, and had a purple cloth with golden bells around her waist, her skin was a bit darker than mine. She had fear in her eyes, and started to back away. Suddenly, two musketeers, Richard and Henry who weren't very fond of gypsies, appeared in the alley and didn't waste time in arresting her. They put handcuffs around her hands, and started to lead her out of the alley. The girl tried to struggle, but the musketeers were much stronger. Now I knew I shouldn't go against the other musketeers, but I sort of didn't want to see an innocent girl get thrown in the dungeon because she was different. I was sure Louis would never allow that, but his court would. So, not knowing what else to do, I decided to cut them off by using a short cut. When I got to the end of the alley, I tied a rope to a pole on the other side of the entrance to the alley, and waited for the musketeers to come. A few minutes later I heard them coming, I got ready to trip them. Three seconds later they came up to the entrance, and I pulled on the rope. They tripped over it. I quickly tied a cloth around their eyes, so they couldn't see, and tied their hands together with my own handcuffs. Hey, I'm going to release them eventually.
"Come on." I said, taking the gypsy's hand and then letting it go when she was back on her feet, she quietly thanked me, and then we started to run, she quickly took the lead and we ran into another alley except this one was wider, and had doors that led to who knows where. The gypsy led me to a green door, and we went outside.
"Thanks, um..." She said.
"Corinne." I said, "And you're quite welcome." She smiled.
"I'm Callia." She said.
"Well, nice to meet you Callia." I said.
"Nice to meet you, Corinne." She said. I smiled, "Who are you. Not like your name, I mean like what do you do."
"I'm a...musketeer." I said.
"A girl musketeer." She said.
"Yes." I said.
"Cool." Callia said.
"I guess, but things have been pretty boring." I said.
"Yeah, would be nice if there was an evil plot once in a while." Callia said. I smiled.
"Yeah, I guess." I said.
"I can't believe this." Calia said.
"What?" I asked.
"I'm talking to a musketeer, and you haven't even arrested me yet." Callia said.
"Why would I do that? Not like you did anything wrong?" I said.
"Because most musketeers do." Callia said.
"Well, I'm not like most musketeers, and I would never want to be. Unlike them I believe in the 'innocent until proven guilty' line." I said.
"So you don't arrest people without knowing if they did anything wrong." Callia said.
"No, I sure don't. Well, this has been fun, but I better get going now." I said.
"Wait, I want to give you something." Callia said, and then took something out of a drawer. A golden amulet with small emeralds, "Here." She said, giving it to me.
"Um... thanks. I guess." I said.
"No problem. Do you know what it says?" She asked. I looked at her, confused.
"No." I said, "Does it say anything."
"Look on the back." She said. I looked on the back. It had something written on it in green and gold letters, but it was in a different language. It wasn't French or English.
"I can't read it. It's in a different language." I said.
"It's in our language." Callia said, a smile on her face, "It says; The one truth we can really know is that everything will change."
"And what of the other side?" I asked.
"It shows a map of the entire city of Paris. The green emeralds show where our meeting places are. We're over here." She said, and then pointed to a small green emerald next to the weeping willow sign.
"Why is there a willow sign there." I asked.
"Haven't you noticed every door has a picture of a willow." Callia said. I looked out the window, she was right. Every door had a picture of a willow carved on it.
"Wow." I said, "How long did it take you to build this place?"
"No idea. The Willows made it." Callia said.
"Who are the Willows." I asked.
"One of the groups of ancient gypsies who made this town." Callia explained.
"Oh, wait gypsies came here before the French." I asked, everyone I knew always said gypsies came to France after the French did.
"Yep. Four groups of ancient Gypsies. They hid in the alleys they made, and then the French came and declared the land their own." Callia said.
"Wow, you're more misunderstood than I thought." I said.
"Actually, it's quite fine. It adds excitement to life."Callia said. I laughed.
"Guess it does. I wish I was a gypsy. Seems so fun. You're free to do what ever you want, never have to worry about being late. You don't need to go anywhere. Your routine isn't planned for you." I said. I loved being a musketeer though, and I wouldn't give my position up for the world.
"I have to watch your back for guards. Have to fight to survive. I need to be able to clear yourself of all emotions that have sadness in them." Callia said.
"Why would you need to get rid of emotions?" I asked.
"When people lose things they tend to get emotionally sad. We can't do that, we lose many things each day. Whether it's loss of food, water, and shelter or something teenagerish like your love-life or clothes." Callia said.
"Oh." I said. I guess it sort of made sense.
"Corinne." I heard Aramina's voice call me.
"Oh no, I better go." I said, "Bye. Thanks."
"Bye, Corinne, and you're welcome." Callia said, and then I left. I put on the amulet, and hid it. Then, I ran to the others.
"Corinne, there you are. We've been looking all over for you." Aramina said, coming up to me and hugging me.
"I'm fine." I said.
"Oh that's so good to here. Richard and Henry thought you might've been attacked." Viveca said.
"Yeah, they were all gagged and tied up in the entrance to some alley." Renee said.
"Oh, are they okay?" I asked. Not really very concerned, the ropes weren't too tight.
"They're fine." Aramina said.
"Yeah, personally I want to thank who ever tied them up. They're impossible. They still think they're better than us." Renee said.
"Yeah, they're just sans espoir(hopeless in french.)" Viveca said.
"Come on, let's go." I said.
"Okay." Aramina said. We started to walk back to where we started.
"Hey, Corinne. Where were you." Renee asked. I looked at her. I couldn't tell her, not here anyway.
"I'll tell you later." I said. They looked at me as if I was crazy, "What?" I asked.
"Nothing it's just... that you've never kept anything away from us." Said Viveca.
"And I'm not keeping any secrets from you now. I am going to tell you later." I said.
"Oh alright." They said, and we went back to the castle, where all the musketeers were meeting.
"Ah, girls you're just in time." Said Monsieur Treville.
"Corinne, you alright." Asked Louis.
"I'm fine." I said. He didn't seem very convinced, but he let it go so we wouldn't start another argument. We went to sit down.
"Well, all streets are safe and there haven't been any robberies, or other things. Just one gypsy got away." Richard said.
"Why did you try to catch her? Did she do anything anything wrong?" Louis asked.
"Well... we don't know." Said Henry.
"Than why did you try to capture her?" Asked Louis. Yes, I knew he wouldn't approve, he's the best king of France that has ever lived.
"The first king of France declared to capture any gypsies you can fine." Said Richard.
"Who says rules can't be changed." Louis said. That phrase reminded me of the medallion. It had something similar written on it I guess. Richard had nothing to say to that. Who is he to go against the king.
"What do you want us to do?" Asked Monsieur Treville.
"Don't capture them unless you see them do something wrong." Louis said. I laughed, they think everything gypsies do is wrong.
"Unfair." I said.
"What do you mean, Corinne?" Asked Louis.
"They think everything gypsies do is wrong." I said. Louis looked down. Then, he looked back at me, and smiled.
"Tell you what Corinne. You can decide if what the gypsies do is wrong or right." Louis said.
"Really?" I asked, happily.
"Yes." Louis said. I got out of my seat and hugged him. He seemed pretty surprised at first, but he soon returned the hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you." I said, quickly. He laughed.
"Your welcome." He said. I saw Richard and Henry glare at me. I made a mental note to annoy them more, like this. This is gonna be fun.
"Well, we better go." Renee said.
"Good night, your highness." I said.
"Good night, Corinne." He said, and with that we left.
"So, Corinne, what did you want to tell us." Renee asked, once we got back to our suite.
"Oh, right. I was the one who tied Richard and Henry up." I said.
"You were? Why did you do it?" Aramina asked.
"Because they were about to throw an innocent gypsy in jail." I said.
"Okay, so you helped an innocent gypsy escape." Renee said.
"Yeah pretty much." I said.
"Was she nice?" Aramina asked.
"Yeah, I guess. She gave me this amulet." I said, and handed Aramina the amulet.
"It's beautiful." Aramina said.
"Yeah, I wonder where she got it." Viveca said.
"Probably her ancestors made it, an then passed it on." Said Renee.
"Hey, Corinne what is the writing on the back?" Asked Aramina.
"Oh, it's in their language. Callia told me that it says: The only truth we can really know is that everything will change." I said.
"Callia?" They asked.
"The gypsy I helped." I said.
"Oh." They said together. I looked at the time, it was nearly midnight.
"Oh no, we have to get up at sunrise tomorrow, and it's already midnight." I said.
"Oh yeah, I totally forgot. Well, good night everyone." Said Renee.
"Yeah, I think I'll go to sleep too, good night." Aramina said.
"Yes, I think I'll go to sleep as well. Good night everyone." Viveca said.
"Good night." I said, and then sat down on my bed, but for some reason I wasn't tired. I looked out my window. Then I suddenly saw something. In the middle of the town, there was a carved diamond. On the carved diamond, were four different pictures. One was a willow, another was a calla lily, the third one was a picture of the sun, and the last one was the moon. I looked back at the amulet in my hands. It had the same carvings. Did it mean something. Well, of course it did, if it didn't it wouldn't be on the amulet. It definitely meant something... but what. Were they symbols for the tribes? And if they were, why choose these symbols?
Yey, I finished it. Please review.