<span style="color: #808000">The cold echo of hard soled shoe after hard sole shoe echoed lightly into the misty twilight air of the streets of the french quarter.  Marius enjoyed walking in the hours after the city slept, those, those early hours just before the sunrise.  He other wondered if he would ever find the internal moxie to stand and watch it peak above the Cyprus trees that peppered the marshes surrounding the old city.  Inside he knew it would be a thing of beauty, a level of beauty he'd longed to behold once again, having long ago forgotten the warmth of the kiss of those first rays of the day.  The people he passed in the night, he knew they cared not for that which they have, the sweet beat of rhythm in their chest that pulsed ever sweet life through their bodies, allowing them to grace the day.  He grew tired of their annoyance, taking for granted that which they had, wasting it on this city night after night on alcohol and the comfort of maidens in the red light district.<br/>A smirk crossed his face, a seldom seen occurrence, as he crossed the street lost in his thoughts.  He remembered this part of town, he was entering what is now a theater district, but back in its day, this used to be a street of warehouses. In retrospect this entire city which seemed to rise out of the muck of the bayou used to cater to traders and sailors, little more then a port village populated by french whores and retail shops.  In those days a meal for his kind was written off as a disease or ill happenstance.  The red light district of the days of old were now row houses for the wealthy that could afford to live in the French Quarter.  Still despite his disdain for the world that this had become, as a creature of habit, Marius couldn't bring himself to leave it.<br/><br/>He walked through the old city for over an hour, lost in thought, memories drifting back to the surface from the past.  It was fitting that in such an old city he could be lost in the thoughts of its humble origins.  He remembered the time before this place, the circumstances of his arrival here in the new world, a term taken for granted by the common folk of this generation as they willfully take their fragile existence for granted.  He remembered the old world, the time spent in the glories of France itself, and wondered it it had changed much in the last 200 years or so.  As he crossed the Bourbon Street his mind lingered on the pondering of how such shallow beings could have sprung forth from such a noble beginnings as those that filtered here from his homeland.  It was then that had he needed to breathe, he would have been moved not to do so...<br/>There, crossing the street opposite him was a vision, a creature of beauty he could not place.  As if the past had walked out of his head and taken to grace and form, she walked.  Dressed down almost as if intentional, and driven by purpose.  Here on the lonely streets of the French Quarter  He spied a creature consumed by something real, but a passion so few have held.  She floated with a grace, statuesque in each movement.  As his mind slowed the passing time around them allowing him to drink her vision inward, searching for the memory long since forgot.  Every moment stretched on for an eternity and then was gone again. Each step a resounding drumbeat upon the empty halls of his haunted past.  Who was this creature? Where did she come from, and why did she haunt him so?  Marius turned to watch her pass and vanish into the foggy haze he'd just left behind... the theater district...<br/>He watched long after she had vanished from normal eyes, and in retrospect, longer since she had vanished from his.  Lost in the meanderings of how such a creature could exist in such a torrid world such as this.  His thoughts were interrupted by a pain He'd been careful to avoid for decades.  In his distraction time had lost its meaning, and now the first rays of the sun were kissing his skin.  With haste Marius resounded to the shadows of a nearby alleyway, taking advantage of the early morning gloom and the shadows to hide him.  He didnâ€™t have much time, and had a bit of a distance to travel, but if he focused he would make it just in time... In time to find her once more... after all, what is time to an immortal except the fleeting moments of opportunities lost, and he vowed this would not be one.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">-two weeks past-</div><br/><br/>Marius had walked that same path day after day, every morning since he'd first seen her.  He had followed her unseen to a small warehouse turned performance studio.  Her need to be a creature of habit brought a sad but gainful smile to his face as he sat above the rafters in the warehouse as she arrived.  <span style="font-style: italic">â€œRight on time Emilie,â€</span> he said to himself, Having learned her name from a promotion posted outside the front door of the adjoining theater.  She was fond of dance, which made him more fond of her.  Very few in this day and age enjoyed performing for the sake of the music these days, but from the size and popularity of this performance troupe it was clear that she wasn't here for the money.<br/>He watched as she prepped for her workout  dance, having not had the pleasure of seeing her do so as of yet, but he had decided yesterday that he would seek solace here in the theater itself as opposed to making his way home.  While it would be a risk, it was something he had to, no he <span style="text-decoration: underline">MUST</span> do.  His thoughts about his future plans vanished as she clicked play on the radio, bringing forth a tune as haunting to his mind as the first day he saw her.  An old rare tune not heard for centuries, a song from his past, a song he recalled rather <span style="font-weight: bold">well.</span><br/>Struggling between the memories and the vision of loveliness beneath him, he knew he had found her at last.  The instinctual way she moved to the rhythms and melodies of <span style="font-style: italic">Clair de Lune</span> could only mean that she held a deeper, old world connection to the music itself.  The poise, the grace, the way she echoed the vision in his head brought forth from the shadowy depths of a distant path so long ago a mortal man would have long since turned to dust in the ground.  Not him though, and now that he had found his focus once again he would not squander this opportunity to help her realize the true potential of such a creature so perfect.  The world was not deserving of her...  He watched, transfixed on her until she left for the evening, choosing then to drift out with the audience careful to be unseen as she mingled with the fans.  He longed to meet her, but not now, the time was not right, <span style="font-style: italic">â€œThere's a place and time for everything, and now is not the time or place,â€</span> he thought as he walked into the shadows of the dimly lit streetlamps.  <br/>He hailed a cab and to his luck, it was a private one... â€œperfect.â€ he said as he climbed in, directing the driver to the plantation estates on the northern edge of the city.  The spoke idly on the drive, about the history of the city, and how the driver was a recovering alcoholic, no wife, no children, no family, who had invested his entire life into his cab to try and get back on his feet.  Marius couldn't help but smile inwardly knowing the misfortune of such a statement, as it was all of those factors that would on this nite do just the opposite, and put in on his back, permanently.  It wasn't anything personal, just misfortune and timing.  No one would miss him, and Marius had need of a cab, for in mere days he was to put his plan into action... to test the young Emilie's resolve.<br/><br/>He drove the cab the next two days, awaiting the rainstorm that he knew was coming.  Friday, the most crowded night of the week at the theater, and clearly one of the busiest, today would be the day.  He arrived in front of the burned out corner cafe, the one he had burned down just the night before in his cab just in time to see her arrive outside the police tape declaring the burned out shop off limits.<br/>â€œDammit, I heard this place had the best coffee in town,â€ Marius spoke as he stepped out of the cab to stand beside her in the gentle shower.  â€œthere's another coffee shop up the street and I just turned off my meter if you want a lift, It looks like you're pressed for time and could use a cup, besides no one should walk int his weather.â€ He accented the last of his words with a smile as he opened the door to the taxi stepping aside so she could get in.</span>