The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Heaven's Light

Prologue: The Stormy Night

Dreary clouds went forth to blanket the twilight sky, darkening the quiet Parisian town. The only sound was the harsh rainfall and graceful rings of the magnificent church bells of Notre Dame. Paris had become such a quiet place since the siege of the cathedral. It was plainly not long forgotten. Everything fell calm and peaceful. Nothing unfortunate had befallen the city for a long while. For two years, at least. That night was quiet, wet, cold and households held onto their disappointment. Thunder clashed, covering over the graceful bells' tongs for the evening Mass. The gypsies kept to the pubs and nearest inns to wait out the storm. Some remained for days without care. Some taking a risk of catching a chill to move on to anywhere else, instead of the inns.

On this particular night, to avoid being seen by the local street guards, there was a boy holding a bundle on his back ran through the empty cobblestone alley ways. For the past two years there had been a threat of Spaniard Brigands. Pirates as one would say, who had tried more than once to cross the border into Paris. Those murderers had not yet penetrated the border, but they haven't given up. Oddly, though, there had to be a reason for that threat of invasion, something no one knew. Why did those pirates want to get into Paris?

The boy carrying the bundle ran to a locked wood door entrance of the Fox's Hide and desperately banged on the door. As he waited for an answer, a tiny whimper cried out from the bundle. That softness made the lad panic.

"Shush...be still...." he whispered to the bundle before the door of the inn was opened by a crotchety old man with a face so wrinkled and dry that he easily resembled a raisin.

"I'm afraid there's no vacancy, lad. Be off before I chop that head off yer hide!" he waved the boy off.

"Good, sir, please!" the boy begged, trying to keep the bundle from slipping off. "We - I have been journeying for days, sir! If you please...to a - allow me to rest anywhere in - in here. I's...I's has spare tuppence upon me, sir. Please, sir...."

"You insolent pup! Git on before ye lose a limb! Be off!" the old coot shouted.

The door was slammed into his face. Disoriented, he had to stagger back. But, there was another matter on the boy's mind. That bundle upon his back was actually a child, in her beginning years of five and six. This peasant lad found her hiding in a donkey's shed outside the walls. Finally, he found a dry spot under a pig's pen. He gently set the bundle down and took it off to reveal this poor girl's tired face with ratted, brown shoulder length hair and sad, tired hazel eyes.

"Are you well? You feel all right?" he worriedly asked, stroking the wet hair away from her eyes.

She despondently nodded, staring off slightly. She was haunted.

"At least we got here with no trouble. Maybe – maybe you can live here, ya?"

The girl listened, but not a word she said. The peasant boy soft smile faded away, deep in thought. He trailed his gaze downward. He didn't have the full responsibility to care for this lost one. He was homeless himself. How was he to care for her? He did like her, a lot.

"It'll be all righ'...." he spoke as he gave her a kind nudge on her shoulder. "I'm sure of it that someone will come along." he said as he tried to smile at her.

He tried to keep her calm, but he doubted that anyone would be willing to take care of this girl.

"Oi! You there!" yelled a soldier, spotting them in the pig's sty.

The boy covered her in the spare cloak before running to head them off.

"My prayers be with you...." was the last thing he said to her before he ran the opposite way with the armed men taking chase.

The chase didn't go for very long when the boy valiantly disappeared over a wall in one of the alleys and the soldiers mounted their steeds to circle the streets, shooting a couple arrows at where the boy disappeared. The girl, who he left alone,poked out of the drenched cloak and peered around, unsure of what to do and where to go. She had no idea where she was since she spent most of the journey hidden. Her only guardian she had left her in order for her to be safe. There she sat, listening to the rain before she heard the soft rings from the high bell towers of Notre Dame, hovering over the dozing town. The bell's small tonging began to lull her to rest her eyes for a moment. They were so beautiful to listen to. Tugging the cloak about herself, and covering her whole body and face, she tried to listen to them for as long as she could. Soon enough she fell deep asleep, huddled in the dry corner of the sty right beside the Fox's Hide. Not a sound was heard and she was not seen by the towns awkward, unpredictable by passers.