The Adventures of Tintin. (fan made)

Falcon

We walked in the palace, attracting a few pairs of eyes, probably because of how we were dressed. Our clothes are foreign to the people and nowhere near formal, which seemed to be the preferred attire for this event. Honestly, I didn't care about what people thought. I was to focused on the architecture in this palace. It was gorgeous! I was so distracted that I almost ran into a pillar. Thank goodness, Tintin noticed and saved me from embarrassment by grabbing my arm and pulling me towards him.

I blushed a bit and whispered, "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about." Tintin told me. "But, do try to stay focused."

I nodded before looking ahead of me and following the crowd that was gathering in a huge room, prepared for this event. There were fountains, chandeliers, statues, light streaming in from the windows, and a few containers holding model ships. With every step we took, the louder orchestra sounded. It didn't surprise me that they were playing classical music in a place like this.

Father, Tintin, and I took our seats while Snowy sat at our feet. I looked over at Tintin and saw him looking over his right shoulder. I followed his gaze and saw a palace guard keeping a close eye on the four of us. I looked back ahead with a nervous feeling growing in my stomach.

Due to my weird nervous habits, I started rubbing my hands together and bouncing my legs. I looked down when I felt a hand grab both of mine. Immediately, I knew it was Tintin and without hesitation, I held his hand and linked my fingers with his. We leaned in and rested our foreheads against each other whilst closing our eyes.

"We'll be fine, Lillian." Tintin whispered

Before I could say anything, the orchestra started playing louder. Both Tintin and I looked ahead and saw the same woman from the banner walk in and stand on the stage. She was wearing a fancy purple dress with expensive looking jewelry and white gloves. Tintin, Father, and I followed everyone's lead and stood up to clap for the woman.

My father's mouth hung open when she walked on the small stage and whispered to us, "That's her." He quickly copied everyone and raised his hands almost above his head and clapped, as if he were trying to get the woman's attention.

Before the clapping was gone, I noticed Tintin raise a pair of opera glasses to his eyes. I was about to look back ahead, but Tintin lowered the glasses and handed them to me as he whispered, "The Unicorn..."

I quickly looked through them, past Bianca Castafiore. There it was. The third model ship of The Unicorn. Just as it said in the pamphlet, it was in a bullet proof glass case. I handed the opera glasses back to Tintin as everyone sat down, waiting for Bianca to start. Ben Salaad waved his hand a little and at once, she began to sing.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, but when I heard some weird noises, I looked over to my left and saw that not everyone was having a good time. My father had a hand on the back of the chair in front of him, that a woman sat comfortably in. And by his facial expression it looked like he was in pain. He let go of the chair and raised both of his hands to his ears and plugged them with his index fingers.

"Blistering barnacles." He whispered. "What's that noise?"

I had a feeling that dad wasn't going to like opera, but his reaction was way beyond what I was expecting. I looked back in front of me and tried to stay focused and think of how to get the third scroll. Unfortunately, I got distracted again.

"My ears. They're bleeding." Dad panicked quietly as he looked at his fingers to reveal, no blood.

"No, they're not." Tintin reassured the terrified captain.

I quickly glanced at the nearby guard and saw that he was staring at the three of us. I lightly elbowed father and whispered, "Dad, calm down. You're fine."