The gypsy woman stood at the opening of the tent, her arms crossed under her white blouse bosom. Her fluffy black hair that was held back with a pink ribbon in vain curtained her annoyed face. Her plump lips were pursed into a drown, her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Clopin, what are you doing?!" She exclaimed, watching the King jump. She had just spent the last few minutes listening in on Lavender's conversation with him. After all, she knew the girl would come so she dismissed security without the King knowing; she had to listen to the result of this act.

The last few moments he had just sat there, his head down and his hands shaking, his shoulders following the act. The man looked up, slightly surprised, "…Doing what?"

"How could you just send that child away?!" She walked inside the tent, closing the flap to ensure little privacy. Then again, only she were brave (or stupid) enough to spy on the King. "How could you tell her that you want her to go away? To tell her that she needs to forget about you?! She's just a child, Clopin! Look at the man she had to put up with for so many years!"

The man stood up and frowned, his face lit up with displeasure and anger while his eyes were dull, lifeless. "Because she needs to forget about me, about you, about all of us! All of this! Her mother was the gypsy, not her! She was raised in a pampered life with the judge! A cold heartless judge raised my Lavender! I should have been the one to do that but I broke Lilac's promise!

"I fell in love with Lavender, with a 'child'! She will not have me though because, just like her mother, she wants higher class! Esmeralda, don't you see?! It would only be heartaches if I were to continue being her friend! When she marries, when she has children…I can't stand those thoughts! She needs to forget for me!"

A long silence hung in the air after that, the man panting for air. The tent they were in seemed to shiver from the tense feeling in the air. Clopin's shoulders were shaking once more, his eyes dim yet watery. His legs were shaking too, as if struggling to keep standing.

Esmeralda, however, stood there calmly. Her gaze was piercing, her arms at her side, hands balled into fists. Her hair covered a bit of her vision but she ignored it for a moment, pushing it away. When her arm moved, the bracelets she wore jingled.

"She's just a child…a child who needs friends…who needs you. If you were a real King, you'd help a fellow gypsy even if she's a Halfling. If you really loved her Clopin, you'd go and help her." Her voice was as soft as a feather.


I ran through the city without a care or mind where I was. I didn't know where I was going, I just ran like an animal were chasing me. Like a demon was chasing me…perhaps one was. Frollo was bound to start searching for me and he was the reason my father died…he was the reason so many gypsies died…He was a demon.


Next chapter: Frollo is searching and almost burning down all of Paris for Lavender! Will Clopin find the girl and help before Paris is lost? We're near the end of the story! Review please