Chapter IV.

Meeting Clopin And The Gypsies

I was paralyzed with fear. It wasn't the same terror that I had experienced that night when Istanbul was burnt down. This was a completely different fear. The fear of being caught. And we were.

Part of what made it so nerve racking was the fact that none of us had the slightest clue what these people were saying. It was a foreign tongue that I had never heard before.

They were dragging us back to their camp now. When we got there, they tied all four us to a post in the middle of the camp, near their campfire. Then, they began to talk amongst themselves, as if trying to figure out what to do with us. Obviously, they had never seen people like us either, so we weren't the only shocked ones.

Scanning the camp, I noticed that some of the travelers were teenagers about our age. They were all staring at us, and them seemed interested. I didn't know at the time if it was good or bad.

Eventually, the man who seemed to be their leader stepped forward. The others were bombarding him with questions, but he brushed them aside, his eyes intent on Ramus, Jasmine, and Heidi and I.

"Bonjour," he said, in a thick accent to a language that I had never heard. I was surprised that he could actually speak the same language as us. "I am Clopin," he continued. "I don't know who you are yet, but I'm guessing by your clothes and appearance, that you are from the city of Constantinople, or what do you call it now…Istanbul?"

All four of us nodded our heads.

"How did you know that?" asked Ramus.

"I have traveled to many lands," Clopin replied. "And I instantly recognized you as Turks when I saw you."

I remember feeling awkward that someone could tell where I was from just the way I looked. I nodded slowly, and let Ramus introduce ourselves.

"I am Ramus," he said, "and this is my brother Julian, and my two sisters Jasmine and Heidi."

Clopin nodded. "Good to meet you. As I said before, my name is Clopin, and this is my band of gypsies. We are actually a long way from home right now as well, because our real home is in Paris, many miles west of here."

"Paris?" asked Heidi.

"Yes, indeed," replied Clopin. "We've been here in Romania for most of the summer collecting items from the forest to use back in France. We return by the end of the week."

"Wait, so we're in Romania right now?" asked Ramus, astounded. "I had no idea we'd come that far."

"Yes, indeed," Clopin replied. "It's very beautiful here wouldn't you agree? I was born here before I moved to Paris, but the rest of us here are from Spain."

"Spain, where's that?" asked Heidi. (We had little knowledge of the world outside of Turkey).

"West of France," Clopin replied.

One of the other gypsies, as Clopin had said they were called began to speak to him rapidly in that strange language again. Clopin, nodded a few times, then shook his head, nodded again, and than shouted something back at him, frustrated.

"What was that all about?" Jasmine asked.

"Ah, that is just one of my friends. He's worried about you four being strangers. He says it's dangerous to trust people you have never met."

"Believe me, sir, we're far from dangerous," Ramus replied.

"Oh, I'm not the one worried. It is just the rest of us. We learn at a young age that there are few people in the world who you can really trust."

As I stared around us at the other gypsies, I could tell that they all seemed a bit hostile. Except for Clopin, none of them seemed very friendly.

"Now, we'll cut to the chase," said Clopin, this time not as kindly as before. "You have either two options, join us or have your throats slit."

"Isn't that a little harsh?" asked Jasmine. "I mean, what did we do that was so wrong."

"I'm sorry," Clopin said in an expressionless voice. "This is what we have to do in order to keep the Court of Miracles a secret."

"The Court of Miracles?" I asked, "what's that?"

Clopin laughed. "It is us," he replied. "All of us, together we make up the gypsies of the Court of Miracles. We are named after our secret hideaway in Paris. Now, would you like to become one of us or not?"

That was a no brainer question. Of course we wanted to join. I mean we obviously had come to far to die now, and didn't have anywhere else to go as it was.

But of course the question was left up to stupid Ramus to decide. I was surprised that it took him so long to actually say that we wanted to join. When he did, he seemed to be speaking more for ourselves than himself. That was typical of him.

"We'll join," he replied.

"Ah, it isn't as simple as that," said Clopin, chuckling slightly. It was a demented chuckle, sort of the same kind that the villain would always give before he did something terrible in all the fairy tales. But this wasn't a fairy tale, it was real. What did Clopin mean that it wasn't as simple as that?

Clopin turned away from us, to face the other gypsies. He began to bark orders in that strange foreign language again, and the other gypsies did exactly as he said, smiling to themselves, and I heard mean laughter from some of them.

Two burly men came out of a tent pushing a cart with a dummy on it. The dummy was supposed to resemble a person, and it jingled, because there were many bells tied to it.

"What the hell are we supposed to do with this?" Ramus asked, frustrated.

Clopin chuckled. "You're task is simple. In order to prove to us that you are worthy enough to live in the Court of Miracles, you must pickpocket the dummy without ringing a single bell. Also, I won't tell you where the money is, because part of your task is to find it. If I, or anyone else hears a single bell ring, then it's off with all your heads. Oh, and to make it a little more interesting for the rest of us, you have to do it while standing on one leg."

I could see Ramus's eyes were bugging out of his sockets.

"Are you completely serious!?" he asked. "You want me to do that? That's impossible."

"Would you rather we slit all your throats right now?"

"No, I just…never mind, we'll do it."

Never before had I ever seen Ramus more nervous than right now. I held my breath as he walked toward the dummy. Our fate was in his hands, literally…