Lady Lithoniel: WOOT back with chapter two! I'd just like to say thanks to my reviewer Eliza, you rock! Now for some explanations, the story is called Vengeance of the Sea because the name Meara comes from the Gaelic word for Sea, so ya. Now I may not be able to update for a while because I have a mountain of homework to do and I've got Christmas to prepare for and I have to practice my flute for my concert on the 20th, plus I have piano practice, that list goes on and on! I'll try to continue to write; hopefully the Mother Goddess will bring me a little luck (anyone who knows about the Druids and Pagans you know what I'm talking about!).
Disclaimer: I own nothing cries, if I did, the sequel would've been way better and Clopin would've gotten some romance!
Meara moved her horse closer to the center of the crowd as a group of people marched into the city square singing.
"Come one come all
Close the churches and the schools
It's the day for breaking rules,
Come and join the feast of…"
Then the gypsy man she had spoken to earlier burst forth from the group.
"FOOLS!"
He laughed and started dancing around the square, pooping up in random places.
"Once a year we throw a party here in town
Once a year we turn our Paris upside-down
Every man's a king and
every king's a clown
Once again its Topsy Turvy Day
it's the
day the devil in us gets released
it's the day we mock the prig
and shock the priest
everything is Topsy Turvy at the Feast of
Fools!"
Meara smiled, they sure knew how to have a good time, and everywhere she looked people were laughing and dancing. She suddenly frowned; she only wished she could share the joy with her own family. Suddenly she realized the singing gypsy she had seen was now sitting beside her on her horse. She looked surprised, but then laughed. He smiled and winked at her before jumping off into the crowd again. Meara suddenly saw the real reason she had come to Paris for. Judge Claude Frollo sat down in his tent like perch frowning as always. Meara's joyful smile suddenly turned into a snarl of rage. She tried to calm herself, she would get him later, and right now she just wanted to enjoy the Feast, besides there were too many people around to make it a quiet job. She turned her attention back to the crowd; she noticed a few of the guards staring at her suspiciously. She smiled at one of them.
"Och, what's wrong have ya ne'er seen a Scottish heavy horse afore?" she said sweetly, laying on her Scottish accent very thickly, for most people had a hard time understanding it and it was just so amusing to watch people try and figure out what she said. She laughed and saw the singing gypsy once more as he went towards the stage.
"Come one, come
all!
Hurry, hurry, here's your chance
See the mystery and
romance
Come one, come all
See the finest girl in France
Make
an entrance to entrance
Dance la Esmeralda
Dance!"
He throw something to the ground and there was a loud bang and red smoke and in his place was he pretty gypsy girl she had seen dancing earlier. Meara laughed and clapped, her mother hadn't exaggerated when she said the Feast of Fools was full of surprises. Suddenly there was a scream in the crowd. A couple of horses had been spooked by the loud noises and strange sights and they went stampeding through the crowd. Meara turned and sat regularly. She spurred her horse onwards. She quickly cut into the charging horses' path. She turned her horse to face them. She made Brandubh rear up, so high she feared he would fall over. Seeing a much larger male horse acting so dominant, the frantic horses stopped dead in their tracks. Meara leaped down as her horse returned to all fours. She snagged the frightened horses' reigns, so they couldn't run off again. She stroked their sweat dampened necks, whispering soothing words to them in Gaelic. Finally they were calm enough to be lead away. Some people around her cheered.
"Well I didn't do it alone, take a bow Brandubh."
The crowd gasped in amazement as the giant horse, stuck out one foreleg and bent the other, lowering his head into what was unmistakably a bow.
"Good boy!" she said patting his huge head, "he just loves things like this don't ye?"
The horse stood up bobbing his head up and down like he was nodding. A few people laughed nervously all asking themselves, 'was she a witch, it looks like she can talk to the beast!'
Meara mounted up again and trotted back to the stage. This time people gave her a wide berth. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
"We always seem to stick out in a crowd eh?" she laughed. The horse looked back at her with a solemn look.
"Don't give me that look, you know you're just as guilty." She laughed patting his neck.
"Thank-you for stopping those horses mademoiselle!" someone said. She looked down and saw the man again. She smiled down at him.
"Ah it was no trouble, I just wanted to help."
"And help you did."
Meara shrugged her shoulders and blushed, muttering I suppose. She was never very good at accepting thanks or compliments; she really preferred to be ignored. The man grinned at her and jumped back on the stage, as the girl finished dancing.
"Here it is, the
moment you've been waiting for
Here it is, you know exactly what's
in store
Now's the time we laugh until our sides get sore
Now's
the time we crown the King of Fools!
So make a face that's
horrible and frightening
Make a face as gruesome as a gargoyle's
wing
For the face that's ugliest will be the King of Fools!"
Esmeralda went down the line unmasking the men as they made grotesque faces. The crowd booed and the little goat rammed them off the stage. Meara clapped and laughed, but it quickly turned to a gasp when the gypsy girl tried to pull off one particularly ugly mask only to find it was the poor fellow's real face. As the crowd around her showed only fear and disgust, she felt pity for him, she knew what it was to be different, an outcast. Then the gypsy man leaped onto the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen do not panic, we asked for the ugliest face in Paris and here he is!" he said pulling out a comical crown and placing it on the hunchback's head, "Quasimodo the Hunchback of Notre Dame!"
The crowd instantly changed their attitude as they carried him around on the palanquin. Meara let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. She smiled and winked at the gypsy man, who had averted what could have been disaster before he went in front of the people holding up Quasimodo leading them through the streets. Meara trotted alongside them and glanced up at Frollo who looked absolutely livid with rage. 'Now why would he be so angry unless…' Meara thought to herself, 'He knows the poor boy!' Suddenly she heard the crowd gasp ad she spun her horse around. She looked and saw that someone had thrown a tomato at Quasimodo which was quickly followed by another. When he tried to run, some cruel person lassoed him and he was soon tied up. People laughed and jeered while throwing various things at him. Meara could stand it no longer. She rode forward, knocking the guards over. She rode in front of him, the huge horse's bulk shielding him.
"STOP THIS!" she roared furiously. He anger channeled through to her horse, who snorted and fought the bit a bit his eyes rolling. The crowd went silent and she saw Esmeralda climb up onto the stage to free him.
"You two get away from him!" Frollo snarled.
"Yes as soon as we free this poor boy." Esmeralda said.
"I forbid it!"
Esmeralda became as enraged as Meara. She glared at him venomously.
"You say you stand for justice, but you are cruel to those in most need of your help, you treat this poor boy the same way you treat my people!" she said pulling out a dagger and slicing the ropes.
"How dare you defy me!" Frollo yelled.
"Oh, I've been defying you for almost 20 years now!" Meara said turning her horse towards him.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the events that took place on the very steps of Notre Dame, where you destroyed my life when you murdered my family!" she said practically shrieking, then suddenly she calmed and smiled when he appeared confused, "what you don't remember me? Well I'll refresh your memory! About 20 years ago you and your men tried to destroy the family of McNamara, but I'm afraid you failed, for one escaped and survived and she's right here!" she said pointing to herself.
"Impossible! You lie of course!"
The crowd had gone deathly silent. Meara just shook her head and laughed and then began to sing.
"Long ago on these very steps
The steps of Notre Dame
You murdered my family
And left me to die on the docks
The docks near Notre Dame
But you made one fatal error in allowing me to live
And now here I stand
Alive and well on the steps
The steps of Notre Dame!"
"Silence you liar!" Frollo commanded, but his voice shook slightly. Meara shook her head and continued to sing.
"You can claim that you're innocent
You can claim you have done no wrong
But you never can run nor hide what you've done from the eyes
The very eyes of Notre Dame!"
She finished pointing at the church. Frollo now looked shaken. The gypsies were looking at her strangely.
"Silence both of you!"
"JUSTICE!" the two women roared together.
"Arrest them!"
Meara whipped out her daggers and winked at Esmeralda who winked back, this would be most satisfying. Esmeralda took out a blue kerchief.
"Ten of you and only two of us." She said sadly, "Oh what's a poor girl to do!"
She sobbed in the kerchief and she disappeared with a bang and cloud of red smoke. The crowd moved back gasping and screaming. Brandubh lashed out with his hind hooves sending two guards flying. Meara turned as two guards on horseback galloped towards her. Meara quickly lopped one foot in the stirrup and hung upside-down on the side of her horse as he charged forward. As the guards horses went by she slashed the saddle's cinches and the guards slipped off the horses while still in their saddles! Meara heaved herself upwards as Brandubh pranced around in place as Meara bowed to the crowd, some clapped and laughed while others looked halfway between cheering and booing. Meara grabbed a long pole and rode around the square as the guards chased her. Suddenly she tossed the pole to two men on stilts who held it in place and the guards rammed right into it.
"Thanks boys!" she called up to the two men who smiled and waved. She saw Esmeralda doing just fine and ducked as the metal helmet went whizzing by her head.
"Time for the finale!" she cried as Esmeralda ran towards the stage again. She galloped forwards and caught up with her. The gypsy girl jumped onto the horses back then onto the high platform where two men covered her with a red blanket and she vanished.
"Well that's my cue." She said to the crowd, "but before I go a little parting gift for the Judge" she spat mockingly. She whipped one of her daggers at him which pinned his hat to the wood behind him. She turned and galloped out of the city at top speed. She didn't stop until she was safe in her little glen in the forest. She slid off her faithful horse and took off his saddle and bridle. She rubbed his sweat soaked neck.
"You did good today boy, you deserve a good long break and it just so happens we're going to get one, we'll need to lay low for a while the strike run and hide again the highland way!"
The horse nickered softly as if to say I understand.
"You know sometimes I think you can almost talk." Meara giggled draping a blanket over the horses back. Meara sat down and started a fire, with some dry brush and some flint she had brought with her.
"Hmm now what to do with myself. Ah I know."
She drew out a very long piece of tough cord she had been working on. She also took out a chunk of beeswax and began rubbing it on the cord working them so they would not break under strain. She looked around, now she just needed some yew and ash wood. She sighed and leaned against the tree continuing her work, she would find them a bit later, and first she needed to finish the string.
Lady Lithoniel: Told ya it'd be longer and ya I know the arch-deacon sang the end of the song but I had major writers block so I borrowed it lol, and HERE'S A CHALLENGE for you!!!!! First or any reviewer who guesses what Meara going to make gets a virtual cookie and their name mentioned at the beginning of the next chapter! Please review guys, the more I get the better and faster I write! Oh and btw the romance will be coming in soon, if you any of you out there have ideas, just tell me in a review or e-mail!
