Out there by the fairest light (Complete)

Chapter 43- Nearing dawn

Night still consumed the raging streets of Paris as war broke out with both sides fighting for their dignity and ultimately their lives. Little hints of daylight had started to creep over the building tops but it came rather slowly as shadows still lingered everywhere as the flaming torches were the only source of real light in the square. Phoebus and his army had dismounted their horses, drew their swords and had began to fight off unwanted guards.

"L-let me go!" A woman cried as a guard held her threateningly by the arm with a sword ready to be drawn at her. Gasping at such a sight, Phoebus charged toward the woman as he knocked the guard unconscious with a bash of his fist. Bleeding and dazed, the guard plummeted head first to the ground his body lay sprawled across the cobblestones.

"Thank you" the thin, shaking lady said with a bright smile that caught Phoebus's eye.

"You're welcome...please I think you need to go and hide...it's not safe out here...hurry!" Taking her hand in his, his stern expression made the lady nod before giving him one last smile. After she ran off into the smoke and fire infused courtyard, Phoebus looked one last time all around him. Knowing that what he was seeing now was only a portion of the carnage and destruction of what would be revealed when the morning light came. Fires burned, everyone was fighting, lunging and screaming. Then whilst standing in the middle of the fight, he newly saw how disastrous and damning this fight had truly become. Seeing an empty wagon standing in the square, the captain climbed atop of it and with sword in hand addressed the fighting crowd below him.

"Citizens of Paris, Frollo has persecuted our people, ransacked our city..AND NOW HE HAS DECLARED WAR ON NOTRE DAME HERSELF!! WILL WE ALLOW IT?!!!" Raising his sword higher in the air, Duke stood proudly amongst the liberated crowd, seeing their anger toward what Frollo had done. Phoebus steppes down from the wagon just as a guard was charging head on toward him. With one sharp swing he had caught him across the front. Looking about him once more, his mind wandered up toward the cathedral. His only hope, their only hope now rested in the hands of his friends.

High up above and away from the devastation that ran throughout the square, Quasimodo climbed up and over the balcony and began to walk quickly toward a room that was once his own. In it was a tiny makeshift bed adorned with pieces of straw and an old blanket. Carrying Snow protectively in his arms. Her body was boiling to the touch and her hair and grown a tiny bit static as it hung in ebony ringlets around her. As delicately as the night he found her, Quasi placed Snow down on to the sheet, laying her head down tenderly with his hands.

With the door ajar, the faint noises from outside were the only other sounds besides Quasi's rapid breathing. Standing by the side of the bed and taking hold of Snows hand the concerned bell ringers heart jumped for joy and finally being able to see his love again.

Furrowing his brow, he observed all that she was. But the more he looked the more terrified he became.

"W-What?...w-what did they do to you?!" He whimpered as he held Snows arm running his fingers daintily against the harsh burn marks on her wrist. Red and coarse, they still bled out a little. Soon after his eyes moved down to the puddle sized stain of blood that covered her once gleaming ivory white dress. Gripping her hand again, Quasi winced seeing the wound seep out like a red river.

"O-oh!..." gulping Quasi's frantic hands reached over toward a cloth that rested on a bedside wooden table. Dipping into a bowl of water, he forcefully wrung it out before scampering back to Snow, kindly pressing it into her abdomen. As it rested there, the cloth soaked up a good deal of blood as it's colour soon matched that of Snows dress. Moving his sympathetic eyes, Quasi saw just how beaten and mistreated Snow had been. Dark, purple circles rested around her eyes, a vertical red gash was sprawled on her left cheek and her face was covered in soot and sweat. Her usual pale, vibrant skin now looked sickly and dull.