Post by HENRI D'ARTOIS on Jul 14, 2013 22:43:26 GMT -5
 [style=font-family: times; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: lowercase; color: #989898; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;]955 WORDS FOR Lucille Notes here: Slick Henri. I love how he's right between that awkward stage of young man and boy. DIRECTION [/style] | [atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #6d6d6d;] [style=padding: 10px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px; height: 475px; overflow: auto; color: #1e1e1e;]Henri drew in a quick breath as the light of his candle guttered and threatened to be snuffed out in the slight wind in the narrow passageway. The passageway was so narrow that his shoulders, which now were widening slightly as he grew - though not yet much to speak of - came close to touching the wall, which was an eerie thought because he didn't know when the last time they had been cleaned was. The whole way through the passage he always felt as if he was wiping his way through spider webs. He had been in it a few times before, and he always disliked it. It was just tall enough in most places that he didn't have to hunch over - though a taller man would have had to. But in some places he needed to, or he would have scraped his head. The narrowness was eerie. [/style]He had been weirded out all of the times he'd come through this passage which Chauvelin had showed him. It was supposed to be for 'emergencies only' he knew.. But what kind of 13 year old boy would Henri be if he listened to that advice? Chauvelin had showed it to him, he understood, in case he ever needed to leave the palace if he were to be attacked and Chauvelin couldn't be there right away. But who would know that he was sneaking out of the palace at other times if he covered his tracks carefully? No one. The entire government didn't have time to watch him. Not right now. Not anytime soon. Before the Barricades, there had been a rising and going to bed ceremony, there had been people at his beck and call. And now those people were miraculously fewer. They simply couldn't be spared. Of course there were still people to look after him, but he'd noticed a continuing decrease in the amount of vigilence and the number of people to do the vigilence. He was using the opportunity to stake out the information that his friends gave him about what was going on in Paris. Slipping out was easy enough, and was better than lying in bed - his pristine, supposedly safe, comfortable bed unable to sleep. It wasn't just the sounds of the rioting in the streets below, however, that kept him from sleep. It was his own insomnia. He'd never had problems sleeping up until recently. But now it was almost a nightly occurrence. Without getting up, he'd toss and turn for hours before he drifted off into a restless sleep for three hours or so at most. So, he'd taken to going out. In the dark, with the right clothing no one noticed him or paid him much mind and he could find out many things. But not tonight. After leaving the passage, he pulled his cloak tighter about him. He was still wearing very dressed down clothes but, even with these precautions, he prefered to keep the cloak around him even though it was warm out. Within a few minutes he realized he had walked too far and had not seen the turnoff that he had thought would take him to his initial destination, a little park where he liked to sit and think often times. The moon was beautiful and full, the stars were shining and reflecting on the water which , miraculously, didn't look too murky (for once in the Seine's life) .. but that didn't help Henri get his bearings on where he was. He knew he wasn't that far off his trusty map and reached to pull it out of his pocket and look it over. However, before he could peruse it sufficiently and relocate himself - which would have been a fairly simple task given he could read a map well - the slight wind grabbed the piece of paper and blew it from his hand and over the banks - into the river he'd just been thinking such nice things about. He offered it a soured look. "You stink as bad as the pollution in you." He muttered, aiming a small kick at the bank. It did little good, but made him feel a little better. But now he had to go about safety and getting his bearings. It wasn't safe for someone his size to be out alone in the middle of the night in a not so great part of Paris with no clue how he got there and, what was more, no clue how to get either to where he wanted to go -or- back to the palace. He knew that he'd need to ask someone. Well.. if he had his druthers.. it would be a woman.. rather than a man.. most girls weren't out to do you damage and would help you if they could - no one knew about men though. That could go either way - especially in today's Paris! A few moments later, however, he caught sight of a woman standing alone staring into the water and made his way toward her. She was alone, not particularly threatening looking.. looked young even - perhaps he could ask her. "Excusé moi." He said politely, offering a friendly smile and showing his hands to let her know he meant no harm. "... I was wondering if you had a moment?" ... Now why did you say that? Why didn't you just say you needed directions? He inquired of himself, not wanting to admit that as a man who was starting to care about his reputation as he was getting older, he hadn't really wanted to admit he was lost. He'd have to tell her eventually. No help for it. But maybe he could stall. |
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