[July 21] [The Phantom of the Opera] [Whispers of the Forest Elves, Chapter 2]

[rose-of-pollux.livejournal.com]

Title: Whispers of the Forest Elves; Chapter 2: Into the Forest
Day/Theme: July 21; Voicing out the words he cannot say
Series: The Phantom of the Opera
Character/Pairing: Raoul de Chagny/Christine Daaé
Rating: PG

This chapter will be cross-posted to 30_memories and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4394628/2/


Raoul had to admit that he was feeling slightly guilty about allowing Christine to go deeper into the forest, especially after Monsieur Daaé had clearly trusted him. Better judgment seemed to dictate that, as the older of the two, he should be responsible enough to know better. Yet, in the back of his mind was the haunting thought that this might very well be the last adventure he would be able to share with Christine. And he couldn’t even voice his sentiments.

Oh, how he wanted to tell her everything! He longed to tell her that he had come to see her as a very dear friend, and that he wasn’t even sure if they would ever see each other after she had to leave. She would ask, though, as to why she would be leaving, and to explain to her the reason why would be an even bigger breach of Monsieur Daaé’s trust.

Christine continued to lead the way, blissfully unaware of her companion’s dilemma. Perhaps this was better for her, Raoul realized, as terrible as it would be for himself.

“Here we are…” Christine whispered, her face alight with excitement. She spoke in the tone of a child who knew very well that she would be breaking her father’s rules. She even went so far as to cast a furtive glance around, as though to ensure that they weren’t being watched by any adult who would be likely to run back to the house to alert Monsieur Daaé.

But she need not have bothered; there wasn’t a soul nearby, save for the two of them. She glanced back at Raoul, and was surprised to see that his mind seemed elsewhere.

“Raoul? Are you with me, Raoul?”

“What? Oh, yes; of course…”

“Raoul, you seem troubled,” she said, the concern evident in her eyes. “Are you certain that you are all right? Perhaps we should go back; we can always come again some other day…”

“No, Christine; I’m fine, I promise,” he said, trying to smile. And then he added to himself, “Stop thinking about it now. Pretend as though Monsieur Daaé never told you anything.”

The two friends glanced down the pathway, which quickly vanished into the distance, hidden among the trees and undergrowth.

“Come on!” she whispered, and the two of them headed down the path, heedless of the greenery and low branches.

Raoul had to admit that he was amused; he doubted that there would be any other girls who would risk ruining their dresses by even entering a forest, let alone run through one at top speed. His own sisters had thought themselves to be far too good to even consider such a thing.

The two children held another race as they ran through the woods without a care in the world. This race, also, was inconclusive, as they often stopped to gaze at an animal that scurried by them, or pause to admire the ivy growth upon one of the tall trees that refused to give in, despite the ivy climbing up the trunk. They didn’t find any elves, alas; and as they wandered further into the forest, the pathway suddenly ended, though the forest seemed to go on.

“I wonder why the path stops here…” Christine said.

“I guess this is as far as we can go,” Raoul agreed. “Shall we have some of those sandwiches now?”

She agreed, and the two friends set up their picnic at the edge of the pathway.

“Raoul… do you think that my father shall ever get better?” she suddenly asked, in a slightly small voice.

“I… I cannot say; I haven’t the powers to look into the future, Christine,” the boy answered. “But I certainly hope that he does get well, for your sake.”

“He thinks very highly of you, Raoul,” she said. “He said that he would have had reservations about allowing me to associate with a boy who came from a family of sailors and aristocrats, but you are one of a kind.”

Raoul didn’t quite know how to reply to this; he was intrinsically humble, and didn’t think that he was anyone special, simply because he was born into such a high-class family. Christine was someone special in her own right, he realized; he could certainly tell her that.

“You are one of a kind, too, Christine,” he said.

She blushed in a typical girlish fashion, but her joy was short-lived as her thoughts turned back to her father.

“I know he told me not to worry,” she said. “But that only seems to give me more reason to worry. I think he’s hiding something from me, Raoul; I know it’s probably for my own good, but I do wish that he would tell me.”

Raoul merely nodded along in agreement, hoping that his eyes wouldn’t betray the fact that he knew something that she did not.

“I know the feeling,” Raoul said. “Philippe tends to keep me in the dark as much as possible. I suspect it is because he thinks I’m hopelessly immature to comprehend anything serious…”

“If he had seen you climb that tree this morning, I’m sure that would have confirmed it,” Christine teased, and she dodged the cucumber slice that Raoul threw at her before proceeding to throw one back at him. But the both of them knew that it was all in jest.

A sudden crackling of the undergrowth diverted their attention. Looking through the thick growth of tree-trunks, they could just discern something moving amidst the undergrowth. It was only visible for a moment, but it appeared to have been as green as the growth around it.

“An elf!” cried Christine, her eyes wide with wonder. She leaped up from the ground, pausing only to retrieve that handkerchief she had been sitting on. Not even noticing that she had dropped her unfinished sandwich, she immediately set out to pursue the creature.

“Christine, wait!” said Raoul, getting to his feet as well. “I don’t think that straying off the path is wise--”

“Raoul, you saw it, too, didn’t you?” she asked, turning back to him. “Come, quickly!”

Raoul considered the situation for several moments; he hadn’t intended on going any further, especially since there no longer was a path to lead them. But he couldn’t let Christine go off into the forest alone.

“Christine!” he called, running after her. “Wait half a moment!”

“Quickly, Raoul, or we shan’t be able to catch up with it!” she informed him, slowing down her pace to allow him to catch up.

“Mind the nettles!” Raoul cautioned, noticing how she was hovering closely to several of the stinging plants. Finally, he caught up with her. “Are you certain this is a good idea?”

“We came to find the elves, Raoul, and now we’ve found one!” she exclaimed, slightly out of breath from running. “If we can find it and follow it, it just might lead us to more of them!”

The two friends ran for a few minutes longer, but saw nothing. Disappointed, Christine came to a stop.

“Well, the book said that forest elves are a quick and clever bunch,” she said. “We should be lucky that we even saw one.”

Raoul wasn’t sure as to what they had seen; he had always been the slightly skeptical one of the duo. But he wasn’t about to disillusion her by saying that they could have seen just about anything.

“We should be getting back, Christine; I don’t think we ever would have been allowed to come this far,” said Raoul. “We could go buy ice creams at the village square, if you’d like…”

He trailed off as he turned around and saw that the path had long been left behind. The boy was slightly concerned about this, but he knew that they had run in a straight line. All they would have to do is walk in a straight line backwards.

“Raoul!” Christine exclaimed. “Listen!”

A faint sound reached their ears; it was a quiet, mewling cry.

“That cannot possibly be an elf…” said Raoul. “It sounds like a kitten.”

“I think you are right,” said Christine. “Oh! You don’t suppose that the poor thing wandered in from the village and got lost in here, do you?”

“It’s highly possible,” the boy replied. “Perhaps that is what we saw?”

“It couldn’t be!” she exclaimed. “What we saw was green, and I have yet to see a green cat! But, never mind… we must find that poor kitten.”

“Christine, I don’t think we should go any further,” Raoul advised.

“But, Raoul, who knows how long it has been wandering out here?” she asked, the concern evident in her eyes. Christine was an intrinsically caring person (as was Raoul, of course), though she would often allow her heart to go ahead of her mind, therefore leading her into trouble.

“Alright, we shall go a little but further,” said Raoul, giving in. “But we need to find some way of keeping track of where we are…”

“Do you still have that chalk-like stone we found the other day?” asked Christine. “You can write something on each tree that we turn at.”

“You don’t seem too worried about getting lost,” Raoul noticed, as he retrieved the stone from his rucksack.

“I would be if you weren’t here,” she said. “Everyone knows that sailors are the best navigators. Isn’t that right, Commodore?”

“Well… yes…” he replied, once again not wanting to disillusion her.

He drew a dash on the tree, whispered a slight prayer that things were not going to go as bad as he was expecting, and followed Christine, who was searching for the lost kitten.

“After we find the kitten, we can go to the village square,” she said. “Who knows; perhaps the kitten’s owner will be there, looking for it. Wouldn’t that be nice, Raoul? We may not have found where that elf ran off to, but we might be hailed as rescuers!”

“And we’ll have had our grand adventure after all,” he agreed, his concerns of becoming lost slowly leaving him.

“And it isn’t as though we didn’t see an elf,” she reminded him.

Raoul nodded, wondering what on earth that creature really had been. He had to admit that he had never seen anything quite like it, what with the vivid green color. However, he hadn’t had the chance to get a closer look.

“Who knows, though?” he thought to himself. “Maybe Christine is right, and we did see an actual elf. After all of the times we tried and failed to find one, it seems fitting that we finally were able to today, when we might not have another chance to do so again…”

He had to wonder… when Christine left, would she find a new friend to seek out elves with? She would certainly want to continue with her adventures, and she would hate to do so alone. But Raoul didn’t like the thought of someone else leading Christine around; whoever the new friend would be, he would never be as concerned for her as Raoul was.

But Christine wasn’t the type to cast Raoul aside so quickly, and he knew that, too. Their friendship was a special one; neither of them would have guessed that they would form such a close bond from something as simple as a lost scarf. Looking back, Raoul realized that he had been lucky that he hadn’t been caught in a riptide, but he knew he wouldn’t have had any regrets, even if he had. Helping others seemed to come naturally to him, no matter what the consequences would be. And that was something that annoyed Philippe to no end.

Philippe had not been pleased to hear of the scarf incident. He had chided Raoul for a long time afterwards, going on and on about how a Chagny should be far too dignified to chase after something as unimportant as a scarf, let alone running headlong into the sea.

Raoul sighed as he recalled this incident; he often wished that he and his elder brother could one day see eye to eye. He understood his brother’s frustrations; it wasn’t easy to take on responsibilities of Comte, and he wanted to be worthy of the title. And he also seemed to think that Raoul should act more worthy of his own title of Vicomte; it was easy for him to forget that Raoul was but a child.

And that was why Raoul especially enjoyed his time with Christine. Christine didn’t treat him any differently, just because he happened to have a title to his name. And he, in turn, never even gave a second thought to the fact that she came from a poor family.

Raoul was brought back to the present by Christine’s excited voice.

“Raoul, look! I found it!”

She was kneeling in front of a hollow log. Raoul knelt beside her, and the large, furry kitten was clearly visible.

But as Raoul took a second glance at the kitten, he realized that something didn’t seem quite right. The kitten had two very large tufts of fur on its ears—something that he had never seen on a domestic cat.

“Christine, I think we should leave,” he said.

“But, the kitten--”

She was cut off by an angry growling behind them. The two turned around on the spot to see an angry mother lynx.