Prologue and The Bishop
(1815, Toulon, France. The chain gang, overseen by brutal warders, works in the sun.)
Prisoners: Look down, look down don't look 'em in the eye. Look down, look down; you're here until you die. The sun is strong; it's hot as hell below. Look down, look down, there's twenty years to go. I've done no wrong! Sweet Jesus hear my prayer! Look down, look down, Sweet Jesus doesn't care I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true! Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you. When I get free ya won't see me here for dust! Look down, look down; don't look 'em in the eye. How long O Lord before you let me die? Look down, look down, You'll always be a slave. Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.
Hunter: Now bring me prisoner 24601. Your time is up and your parole's begun. You know what that means
Spyro: Yes, it means I'm free
Hunter: No, It means you get your yellow ticket-of-leave. You are a thief!
Spyro: I stole a loaf of bread!
Hunter: You robbed a house!
Spyro: I broke a window pane! My sister's child was close to death and we were starving!
Hunter: And you will starve again, unless you learn the meaning of the law.
Spyro: I know the meaning of these 19 years, a slave of the law
Hunter: Five years for what you did, The rest because you tried to run. Yes 24601
Spyro: My name is Spyro Valjean
Hunter: And I am Hunter, Do not forget my name. Do not forget me 24601
Chorus: Look down, look down; you will always be a slave. Look down, look down; you're standing in your grave.
Spyro: Freedom is mine. The earth is still. I feel the wind. I breathe again. And the sky clears, the world is waiting. Drink from the pool. How clean the taste. Never forget the years, the waste. Nor forgive them, for what they've done. They are the guilty, everyone. The day begins... And now let's see what this new world will do for me!
(He finds work on a farm.)
Farmer: You'll have to go. I'll pay you off for the day. Collect your bits and pieces there and be on your way.
Spyro: You've given me half what the other men get! This handful of tin wouldn't buy my sweat!
Laborer: You broke the law; it's there for people to see. Why should you get the same as honest men like me?
Spyro
Now every door is closed to me. Another jail, another key, another chain. For when I come to any town, they check my papers and they find the mark of Cain. In their eyes, I see their fear: `We do not want you here.'
(He comes to an inn.)
Innkeeper's Wife: My rooms are full and I've no supper to spare. I'd like to help a stranger. All we want is to be fair
Spyro: I will pay in advance. I can sleep in a barn. You see how dark it is, I'm not some kind of dog!
Innkeeper: You leave my house or feel the weight of my rod! We're law-abiding people here, Thanks be to God.
(They throw him out.)
Spyro: And now I know how freedom feels. The jailer always at your heels It is the law! This piece of paper in my hand that makes me cursed throughout the land. It is the law! Like a cur I walk the street. The dirt beneath my feet.
(He sits down despairingly outside a house from which emerges Ignitus, the Bishop of Digne.)
Ignitus: Come in, Sir, for you are weary, and the night is cold out there. Though our lives are very humble, what we have, we have to share. There is wine here to revive you, there is bread to make you strong, there's a bed to rest till morning, Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.
Spyro: He let me eat my fill. I had the lion's share. The silver in my hand cost twice what I had earned in all those nineteen years, that lifetime of despair. And yet he trusted me. The old fool trusted me - He's done his bit of good. I played the grateful serf and thanked him like I should. But when the house was still, I got up in the night. Took the silver, Took my flight!
(Taking the silver cup, he runs off, but is brought back by two constables.)
And welcome to Les Miserables. I know this opening seems cut off, but the script I'm using to work with this is divided into sections already, so I'm using those to mark chapters, plus it helps with making cliffhangers! Either way, I'm instituting a new challenge for my next Return of Malefor story "The Ties that Bind". At the end of each chapter of this story, I will post a riddle from either the 1960's Batman version of the Riddler, or the Puzzler from that pair of episodes. If your comment contains the correct answer, I will use your OC, if you have one, in The Ties that Bind as a celebrity guest at the wedding scene. So here's the first riddle. "Why is a musician's Bandstand like an Oven?" Good luck. Anyways, to find out what happens to Spyro after he gets caught, tune in Next Chapter. Same Time, Same Channel! (PS, if text is italicized, it is being sung)
