Chapter 2…..The Girl

"Ugh…" Dawn groaned, raising a hand to her head. She knew there was such a thing as motion sickness, but time travel sickness? How strange!

As she looked around, that was the only conclusion she could come to. There were no paved roads, only cobblestones. The houses, the torches instead of street lights, the lack of cars…

Unless her escort was playing a very big joke on her. Turning to face him, she gave him a Look.

"No, I am not playing a trick on you. What you see before you is Paris, France. It is the year fourteen-twenty-eight. Look around you…if this is a trick, it's a very well-staged one beyond my means."

She shook her head.

"This can't be real."

"Oh, but it is."

"And just who the Hell are you, anyway? You come into churches in the dead of night unannounced and you talk in circles!"

Her escort only grinned again. She also noticed that his clothing had changed.

"How did you do that?" she asked, shocked.

"The same way I did everything else," he answered cheerfully, "but it's rather complicated. A mere human could never understand."

"A mere human? Does that mean you aren't human? You look like one. Sort of."

He chuckled.

"You'll understand later. Now, come on. You'll need a place to sleep, food, and a means to support yourself while I'm away. There's also that other little matter…but I won't start on that for now. First things first."

Squishie growled suspiciously.

"Come on, Squish," Dawn sighed. She really needed to get home, but her curiosity was overriding her "this man is a nut" instinct.

"Who have we here?" a gruff voice demanded, "Speak quickly!"

"It is I," the man beside Dawn said calmly. Apparently, they knew him well enough by his voice that he didn't need to tell them his name.

"And the girl?" the voice asked suspiciously.

"She is an entertainer, a musician."

"Bah! What use have we for poets?"

"I promise you that she will make twice as many sous as your best dancer, Esmeralda, alone. If she doesn't, I will take her somewhere else and pay off her debts. You must treat her very well, however, and not violate her in any fashion or so help me, I will know. And no one but her is to touch her instrument without permission."

Dawn suddenly realized that he held her guitar and its battery-operated amplifier. What the…?

She was sure he hadn't been holding those a minute ago, either.

"How-?" she started to ask, but his outstretched hand cut her off.

"There will be time for your questions later. In the meantime, follow this man. He will show you to your quarters for the time being."

"You're leaving me?" Dawn asked, surprised and a little nervous.

"Only for a short time. You have to trust me."

She didn't, but she didn't let him know that. She followed the other strange man down into a cavern.

"I hope your as good as he says you are," the man muttered, "I could get in all sorts of trouble for this."

Dawn stopped in surprise.

"What?" he asked, annoyed.

"Say something else."

"Why?"

Dawn's brain was having trouble figuring out what had just happened. She clearly heard him speaking French, but she somehow understood him though she could not hope to repeat what he had just said in French. The sound was French, but they registered after a moment as English. It was like when she'd taken Spanish that she was able to decipher a sentence after a second or two.

"Are you deaf?" he asked, annoyed.

When Dawn spoke, he heard French, but it was heavily accented by another language he had never heard before. Upon realization of this, she clapped both hands over her mouth.

"Oh, my goodness! How am I doing that?" she whispered, more to herself than anybody else.

The man was irritated now.

"Sorry. Lead the way," she said awkwardly. She did not talk to him anymore for the rest of the journey.

"Here," he said carelessly, gesturing to a tiny room. There wasn't even a window, only a ratty-looking bed.

"Thanks," Dawn mumbled, trying really hard not to sound put off. He left. Squishie, apparently not having the same level of pickiness, jumped up on the bed and curled up. Dawn didn't want to sleep on this bed…there was no telling what was living in it, but her exhaustion got the better of it.

I'm dreaming. I've got to be. Hopefully I'll wake up in my apartment tomorrow.