After a very tearful good-bye to my father, I finally forced myself to leave. My biggest concern was if he lived. I asked him if Frollo would let him go or kill him. I may be young but I'm not stupid. I know what cruel things Frollo has done but…there has to be a reason. Forgiveness, I think, is always an option.

Father was blunt and honest, which is why I loved to talk to him so much. He rarely treated me like a child; he told me the trust no matter how harsh it was. And that was one of the reasons why I regretted asking.

"He will torture me for the whereabouts of the Court, Lavender. Only for your mother's memory and sake, I will not tell him. Promise on your mother that you will not tell anyone or lead him, or any of his guards, there. Promise!" He exclaimed with a surprising amount of strength.

I nodded and grabbed his blood covered hand, whispering how much I loved him. I thanked him for trying to help. If this was the last time I'd see him breathing then I'd better make the best of it.

Realizing the reality of the situation, I ran off quickly. This time, I did not trip and hurt myself once again. If a guard were to awaken (fat chance) and catch me, I'd get skinned! Well, not that bad but I'd still be punished.
When I reached the top of the stairs, I smiled softly to see the guards were gone. They were probably patrolling far off but I should be careful. Glancing down at my knee, I gasped aloud. There was no light in the dungeon so to see the damage of the fall was impossible.

Now I was in the moonlight and I couldn't help but whimper at the sight. It looked as though the skin of my whole knee was torn off. Not only was it bleeding, but since I knelt down in that dirty place, it had pieces of rocks and dirt in the wound. Oh how this would hurt!

As I jogged…hopped, I should say, to the palace, I wondered what I should do. I had no idea where the cleaning medicine was and this wound could easily get infected. I wasn't best friends with any of the maids and servants so they were bound to tell Frollo. Wouldn't it be better I told him myself when the wound was just a scrape? If it was infected, he'd get angry and more suspicious.

"Claude…" I finally fell onto the floor. My knee was hurting too bad to walk down the hall and into the living room. I cried out again, "Claude!" How deep did this man sleep?!

Several minutes passed and I felt my tears come again. I couldn't help but act like a child. Finally I gave into my emotions and screamed, "Claude!" Tears were falling, making my voice sound slightly choked.

It took only a few seconds to hear the faint footsteps slam on the stone ground. The door a few yards away slammed open and shoved a very panicked and worried Claude. His eyes were darting all around, trying to find me. When he spotted me, he nearly ran over to my side. His hair was slightly messed up.

"What happened?!"

I muttered, "I was running and I tripped and my knee hurts. I can't walk on it, I tried." It was the truth! I was just…covering up a few things.
He gave a soft sigh of relief. "Is that all?" He picked me up with ease and I resisted the urge to smile. "I'll clean the wound and bandage it. After that, it's off to bed girl." Although he tried sounding cold, his voice was tinted with concern.


The next day was quite…something. I woke up to see the sunlight rush into my room. My first thoughts were something along the line of my father being alive. Was he? He had to be…right?

My second thoughts were actually voiced quite loud. "Ouch!" I nearly shouted. My knee was score beyond belief and even moving it an inch hurt.

Frollo appeared suddenly, making me ponder the chance of him sitting outside my room. "You'll be in pain for a little bit but in the afternoon, it'll just be soreness. We're going to the market for some food, alright?" Without waiting for my answer, he turned and stalked off, allowing me to get dressed.


Every time I walked I grimaced! I cursed my stupidity several times but that didn't take away the pain. How could I be so clumsy?!

We had been walking for an hour and I was using a cane to walk. My knee still hurt but it wasn't as bad, a soreness just like Claude said and a stinging pain he failed to mention. How much longer would we walk, I wondered!

Frollo either didn't notice or didn't care. Or maybe he noticed, but thought this served me right for running. Who knows anymore! Men are so hard to predict. I don't understand what they mean when they complain about us females!

The carts we passed by were worthy the pain, I decided in the end. There were carts of clothing, cloth actually. They were silk and on the bottom of them held a price for so many yards. Thank goodness I didn't need to get fitted for clothes.

Another one was full of candy and fruits. Most kids, predictably, chose to buy candy instead of the healthy food. I smiled and tugged at Frollo's sleeve. He glanced down and nodded with a cold stare, watching me go up and pick two candies and an apple.

Any stranger who glanced over would have seen something completely different than what was really going on. They would have seen a cold judge with a gypsy child, a very odd combination for anyone who knew the story of Frollo. They would see the child being abused.

But I wasn't.

"Stay here, Lavender. I need to go visit someone." He said with a distant voice while walking towards the church. Shrugging, I licked the blue lollipop and glanced around. Seeing a puppet show, I smiled greatly. Carefully I walked over there, wincing physically at each step I took.

The story was about a princess, as usual, and her prince. Actually, it was about her frog. It was that story where she kisses him and he turns into a prince and saves her. Just like before, I couldn't resist snorting at this. Who could honestly believe that a man would come in shining armor and just save them? Stupid foolish villagers!

I winced, letting my bitterness get the best of me.

"Clopin, we need you back at…" A woman about the age of twenty or so spoke up from a distance. She had fluffy black hair, dark skin, and a ribbon as pink as her lips in her hair. Her eyes were green, jade green actually. She looked pretty. Behind her a goat called out, making the puppet master apologize before closing the show.

My eyes widened and I gaped at the direction this…Clopin ran in. Clopin…the King of Gypsies. Clopin, the man my father told me would help! This would be the man who promised my mother to take care of me! This was the man I had to find! It seems that fate was in my favor for now.

After all, how many Clopin's can there be?

It felt like forever as I ran after him. It was probably a few minutes actually, but pain always made time slow down. My knee would hurt so bad after this! Faintly I wondered if my knee was bleeding again.

As I jogged to a graveyard, I smirked; I was getting close. Father had told me it was a grave with a knight on it. Which one though? I really didn't feel like opening one up and seeing a dead man instead of a secret hide out! That would be…creepy to say in the least.

Walking over to the general area where she last saw the gypsy king, she glanced over the several tops of tombs. Only one held a knight engraved on it. This made me smile; the irony of it all. The last place Frollo would look is a grave of a soldier, a soldier who was under his command and hunted gypsies.

With great difficult, I shoved off the tomb and held my breath. Surprisingly the air did not smell like old dead guy. Glancing down, my jaw dropped a few inches. There was a staircase! An actual staircase led down the place! Whoa!

Using the cane I was given to by Frollo, I slowly walked down there. I had to restrain myself from crying out but a hiss of pain escaped my lips when I touched a step. The stoney steps ended finally, making me sigh in relief.

As soon as I took a step, I yelped and covered my mouth. The surprised strangled yelp echoed through the tunnels, or what I assumed to be tunnels. When I stepped forward, I felt water. It was cold and the stench made me want to gag.

Carefully, though, I kept walking. The sound of legs pushing through water echoed, making me wince. Oh well, if anyone was near, I'd hear them just like they heard me. I wondered faintly where I was going, what with no light.

I had to make sure the water did not touch my knee for it'd cause an infection for sure. It took merely minutes to realize it was the sewers that I walked in. Once again, I felt like gagging and didn't bother to stop it. Merely kept quiet, I suppose.

When I finally found a wall, I felt it as I walked. It felt…weird. To be blunt, strange. I found two holes…no, wait, three and…something bumpy. A row of something bumpy. What was it?

Suddenly someone struck a match or something. Light filled the area! I looked around to see a torch lit on fire and, before I could see who was holding it, felt many people around and near me. Looking back at what I was touched, I let our a toe curling scream. It was a skull! A wall of skulls!

I stumbled back and tripped, landing on ground. Oh how graceful I was for that! If I had fallen in the sewerage water, I'd be living in a bath tub for a few days. It took me a second to realize what my situation was. Ignoring the fact that I touched a skull or two and ignoring the throbbing pain in my knee, I looked around.

All around me were skeletons with torches!

Unable to stop my feminine side from coming out, I let out another deafening scream. It echoed loudly and for some time, unlike the first quick one. Four out of the…six I think, covered their ears, dropping and putting out the fire. I made a grab at one lit torch and pulled away, holding onto it for dear life.

One of the guys behind me, which I didn't even see, grabbed my arms and forced me to stand. I threw the fire at him blindly, hearing it hit the water and sizzle. I shivered, seeing only one lit torch now. Whoever was holding onto me held tighter since I basically tried hurting them. At least the pain in my arms distracted me from the pain of my knee.

"Who do we have here? A child! You can't be any older than ten!" A familiar voice rang out. It wasn't familiar but it was. I hadn't heard the voices talk to me personally before but I did hear it before, that I was sure of!

The light was dim and I had a difficult time seeing who spoke.

"M-My name is Lavender." What was I going to say? I had trespassed and attacked them. Well, I'm not sure you can call screaming an attack but I definitely tried hitting them. Was I to tell them that I had to speak to the King?

Eh, what'd I have to lose?

"I need to talk to the…to the King!"

There was a laugh shared around the skeletons around me. Did skeletons laugh? Before I was able to ponder this, I heard the same voice speak up. "What business do you have with the King?"

I struggled against the man's grip, trying to get into the light. I honestly didn't trust the creatures here…the crawling ones with four legs, sorry. Not humans. "My mother was Lilac. Please, I need to talk to him!"

What if they didn't let me? Would they kill me? Keep me as a prisoner? Either way, Frollo didn't know where I was and didn't know where the Court of Miracles was so I was screwed.

Once again, the skeletons around me gasped. (Could they breathe without lungs?)

"I am the King." With this being said, the torch came closer to the voice and I could see the puppet master!

"Clopin…" I whispered softly, my eyes huge.


Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all that lovely junk! Next chapter (should be up by the end of the week): Clopin listens to Lavender's story. Frollo realizes she's gone. Can she get back to his Palace in time without causing Paris to burn down? Review please!