AN: Here you go guys. I tried taking this a different direction than I originally had it going, and once I made the change, ideas started flowing. I hope you guys like it and please leave a review! Enjoy!
They were traveling North and despite the fact that winter was almost upon them, the further they got the warmer it became. Mélodie refused to speak or eat when the meager portion of food and water arrived once a week for the four of them. She stayed close to Erik at all times despite the fact that they had been given a slightly roomier cage and could each have their own section should they so choose. It was only with his gentle coaxing that they managed to get her to do anything at all.
"She needs to be eating more, Erik," Nadir sighed as their weekly meal was delivered.
"Mélodie dear, won't you please eat?" Erik murmured softly, stroking his daughter's long brown hair.
She raised her head off his shoulder to look up at him. The fire in her normally lively eyes had dimmed, the color faded from a clear island blue to a dull grey behind the lenses of her glasses. Her skin was a sickly paste color and her ribs could be seen jutting out through her worn dress. Erik took his and her portions from Nadir and continued to coax her gently.
"Please, mon ange. For me?"
Mélodie reached over to take the food from her father and slowly began to eat. It wasn't lost on the other two occupants of the cage that Erik had given her part of his own portion.
That night, Mélodie found herself to be the only one awake. How, when she had an insomniac father was beyond her. As she sat, her mind continued to go at a million miles a minute. Luckily, the music had been really quiet over the course of the past month in the cage. However, that left her a lot of time to think. She knew about her father's life with Javert and the gypsies from her mother's old journals. She also knew about the Rosy Hours of Mazanderan and his time spent serving the Shah of Persia.
From the little Farsi she had taught herself, she knew that the Daroga and Erik had discussed the possibility that they were being taken there. The way the landscape was changing as they traveled North was slowly beginning to support their theory. Mélodie was so engrossed in her thoughts, that she didn't realize there was a fifth person in the cage until she was dragged up and a gag was placed over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Whoever it was pulled her out of the cage and toward Javert's private tent at the head of the camp.
Once inside, she was thrown to the ground in a heap. Raising her gaze slowly, she found herself sitting at Javert's feet. A shiver ran down her spine as he stared down at her.
"Thank you, Isaac, that will be all," he addressed the man who had brought her to him.
The man, Isaac, nodded and left without a word.
"They told me you weren't eating, but I didn't think it was this bad," Javert muttered, almost to himself.
Mélodie just stared up at him. He crouched down so that they were at eye level with each other and slowly took off her gag.
"They also told me you weren't speaking," he continued, more to her this time. "I only insisted on this so that you couldn't alert the others to what was going on."
He stood walking over to put the cloth on a small table. Mélodie watched him, biting her lip while his back was turned.
"You know," he said, turning back to face her, "the Shah only ordered that I bring him the three back there in that cage. I don't think he had any idea you exist. Do you know what that means?"
Not waiting for a response, Javert stalked back over and crouched back down to her eye level. He reached out, grabbing onto her chin with one hand and holding it in place so she couldn't turn away from him.
"It means I don't have to hand you over with them. I can do whatever I please with you and no one can stop me."
He let go of her then, and she looked down, breaking eye contact with him.
"This should be fun."