My dears, as always, your reviews are too kind to the extreme! I love you all : )
Now, is it just my horrible typing skills, or does this site have a tendency to run words together and delete spaces? I've seen that a lot in my fics, but also in others peoples'. Hmm...
One last question: is this new ratings system confusing anyone else? I find it irritating, but I suppose in a few weeks I'll be OK with the whole thing. Maybe.
The Ogre was laughing. Everythinghad gonehis way; he was laughing a drink-roughened guffaw.
Azelma was always his least favorite girl, and now she was some penniless revolutionary's worry.
He reflected on this and decided that he was penniless as well.
But not for long, if this lengthy and complex measure worked out in the end.
Madame Ogre, an entirely different personage than the Ogress (though equally as vile), sat hunched up in a blanket at her husband's feet.
She was shaking -no, convulsing- no doubt because of the gnawing cold and her useless blanket; if she had been a woman and not a beast, she would ahve beenbe crying.
It was cold, and she missed her girl.
The Frog clattered in, her big ugly shoes pounding loudly on the disgustingly dirty floor. They made a curious sound, and as they were wet the sound was even more curious. It was the closest thing to music these people- no, creatures- had heard in a very long time.
Thud, squish, flap! It was an original piece: "The Entrance of the Swamp Frog Maiden."
Except "maiden" did not describe The Frog.
Neither did "kind."
"Aw, mama," came her rough croak, "Stop your cryin'! Ain't weak,not Thenardiers!"
The Frog collapsed into the only other piece of furniture in the room, besides her father's rough wooden chair. It was a hard chair, the kind that should have a cushion. This particular specimen, however, had only a thin layer of ripped fabric with fading garish flowers.
She propped her feet up on her sobbing mother and began to pick her teeth with her only fingernail.
"Mama, you can shut up," she said roughly, through clenched jaws. "Azelma's the property of one of them men. Better than here, anyhow."
Thenardier's sharp false hack pierced the air. As intended, the others' attention turned to him.
"Now I think it's time for a little, er, sisterly visit. Fill her in on our plan, like."
"Aw, why can't you go?" growled the Frog. "Same words comin' from you or me!"
"Because," he said, hand raised (as was his custom). "I told you to is why."
It was really because the Ogress was beginning to scare him; he doubted if he'd ever go back.
Azelma was black and blue and red; she was sickly fading yellow and tinged with green. Azelma was a great, big, fresh-yet-fading bruise.
And she had only been with that Reptile for two days now.
He still came to the cafe, and she still sometimes refused to see him. But she could never refuse for more than a few mintues; ever since she had become his "property" (she still did not know how that transpired) he had learned her Father's Tone. It made her feeble amount of courage fade, and meekly she would come out.
He had also learned her Father's Touch.
Azelma did not know how he had learned these things, or why he "owned" her now. She only knew that he knew about her past, somehow, and might tell the lady of the house about it.
Azelma had her bouts of cunning, though few and far between, and she knew that here, as Josephine, she was respectable.
Azelma did not want Josephine's reputation ruined, too.
She thought these dark, depressing thoughts as she sat huddled in a chair in the cafe, watching Matelote and Gibelote fuss over wedding preperations. They had stopped asking her opinion on matters; no matter what, Azelma always agreed.
They had also stopped asking what happened to her, as she did not give the particulars of her injury.
That shy man, the one who was as meek as she, entered through the back door. He fixed his gaze on her horrible, injured apperance and approached her very slowly.
"M-my l-lady," he stammered, when he was close enough to speak to her.
She only looked at him blankly.
He turned bright red, looked at the floor, and disappeared.