Instead of one baby, Claude Frollo was given two.
Twins Quasimodo and Audette are desperate for the day that they can leave Notre Dame. After spending their whole lives being treated like monsters and hiding in a bell tower, they long for something...
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"This is strange."
Quasimodo and Audette turned down a corner, weaving their way through tents, booths, and stages set up around the square that they had seen from above for twenty years. Ever since their childhood, the sixth of January was the only day of the year that the two saw such a drastic amount of color and chaos in the square.
The two took tentative steps, trying to move with the people around them but going slower than the others in the crowd, the thin fabric of their shoes allowing them to feel the roughness of the cobblestones under their feet. It was an unfamiliar feeling, especially for Audette, who caught her toes in some of the ridges between stones and had to lean against her shorter brother for balance. Quasimodo put one hand on the small of her back, but kept his head tucked away inside his hood, terrified that someone would spot him and scream at his appearance.
Audette was much less scared of being seen by others- With the exception of one particular archdeacon. The stage that Frollo and Alarie were seated on was centered with Notre Dame's main doors, and because of its nearness to the cathedral, the twins had fearfully and nervously passed it almost as soon as they had broken into the flow of the crowd. As far as they knew, they had gone unnoticed.
"Hey, look at that," Quasimodo said softly, giving Audette a small nudge with his hand. "There's the man with the long sticks on his feet."
She looked up from the stones, which she had been carefully observing so as not to catch herself between two and fall again. She smiled when she saw a small man walking on a pair of stilts, his long, striped pants hiding the wood that made his legs so long. The man was swaying in time to the music being played by a small band on the main stage, and he was somehow remaining balanced while he did it. Audette laughed when he waved down to a group of small children and they waved back excitedly, yelling up at him and asking how he had gotten to be so tall.
"Remember being that little?" She asked Quasi, and he nodded from underneath his hood.
"Those were the days," he said with a grin. "Remember when Frollo was teaching me how to carve and I cut my thumb? I was fine, but you cried because you thought I was going to die."
"Hey!" Audette said, giving him a playful shove with her hip. "Blood can easily freak out a four year old! Why did he let you play with knives when we were that age anyways?"
Quasimodo shook his head, anxiously glancing over at Frollo's stage, but his smile never faltered.
"I can't believe we're really out here," Audette said, the smells of assorted meats cooking over a fire and the noise of tambourines reaching her. She had expected to feel overwhelmed, what with all the people surrounding her. But everyone in the crowd seemed to be having so much fun, they weren't even bothering to glance in her direction. She had yet to see a person- Other than the judge and the archdeacon- Who didn't have at least a hint of a smile on their face. Pure joy was in the air.
