Chapter Text
"Can I go out by myself?" Belle asked in the morning.
"Belle, I can't let you go. If he knows I let you leave he would-"
"No Polly, I'm not talking about leaving the castle grounds, or going home. I was wondering if I could explore on my own?" She asked.
"No one in the staff would stop you, but I wouldn't recommend it Belle. The hallways can be more confusing than they seem. You might not end up where you want to be."
"I just wanted to go out to the gardens. I remember the way. Straight on out my door, follow the wall until it turns left and then follow it until the outer doors." There was nobody she trusted in the castle more than Polly, but she wanted to lay in the gardens and clear her thoughts without a babysitter.
"Yes Ms. Belle. I will however, alert the staff to keep their eyes peeled for our guest roaming the halls in a blind confusion."
Belle laughed, "Okay, that's fair!"
-The Beast-
"We're being massacred. This isn't simple hunting! This is sport!" Birch said.
The Beast King nodded. "I agree."
There was nothing he could say to placate the tree creature while they stood in the ashes of what used to be one of his brothers. Killing one of his spies wasn't just sport as Birch said, It was a warning.
"You can't just expect me and my family to- wait you agree?" He asked, his already high pitched voice gained another octave.
"Yes. I won't ask your brothers to risk themselves anymore. Head south, away from their territory, and keep near the borders of the forest. The wolfmen won't bother you there. The further you are away from the castle the better." He said.
The creature nodded awkwardly. "Oh, very good then." He said, walking away from the Beast before stopping and turning back to him. "It's not that we do not recognize your kingship sire. It's just that the Treeize cannot continue the same fatalities and maintain our strong prestigious culture." Birch stuttered out. Birch was the grandfather of all the Treeize more commonly referred to as the eyes and lips of the forest. They were his most effective spies in knowing where the wolfmen were, but since the blood moon, his family were being torched during the day and torn apart by night.
"You have all served me well these past few years and my father for even longer. You are friends to the castle, and I will answer your burdens."
Birch smiled slyly. He got what he wanted. His family was released from their oath and remained in good graces with the crown.
"You honor me King Beast." He said with a stiff bow and disappeared into the forest.
The Beast let out a haggard breath. The trees no longer belonged to the Beast King. The whole forest would be echoing that sentiment when Birch and his brothers draw their retreat. Another victory for the wolfmen. His father's voice was in his head telling him that he had made a mistake. His father would have held the Treeize to their oath until every one of them died.
"That's a pity." A voice called from behind him. The Beast didn't need to turn around. He knew who it was. It was Laeman, the Alpha of the wolfmen.
"What are you doing here? Come to admire your handiwork?"
"Me?" He asked with fakeness dripping from every syllable. "You couldn't possibly think that my people were behind this." He said.
The Beast turned, facing the wolfman evenly. "Leave me or challenge me wolfman." Laeman was too smart for that. Too smart to be goaded into a challenge that he would lose.
The wolfman turned, but he looked over his shoulder one last time. "You would do well to remember the ways of the forest young king. Your father forgot the most important rule. The weak die.
The alpha left, leaving the Beast alone in the ashes. The weak die. That couldn't be completely true. His father was dead.
He returned to the castle with a dark cloud following him. The trees were no longer the King's trees. Vandy will act nonchalant, but he'd be panicking. Everyone will panic when they hear the news. War was the quiet word that was passed around at the dinner table when he was absent.
The wolfmen loomed over everyone's head like an inevitable evil. They killed his father and they would kill him, it was just a matter of time.
He stopped in the garden to prolong having to tell Vandy the news. Vandy would tell Polly and Polly would tell the kitchen and once the kitchen staff knew it would spread like wildfire until everyone in the castle became afraid of what will happen when the wolfmen take the forest. He could not shield anyone from this burden.
If he was killed, they would take the castle. They wouldn't afford mercy on anybody or anything. They would destroy everything to prove it was theirs. His eyes landed on the rose bushes that lined the walkway. His eyes fixated on the line of rose bushes his mother had planted.
He'd grown to hate them ever since the curse, but he couldn't bear to let them die. That wouldn't matter soon. Soon, everything would be dead.
With that thought, he stalked towards the first rose bush in a line of rose bushes and he ripped it out of the ground easily. The roots desperately clung to the soil it was removed from, and thorns dug into his hand. He tossed it aside and pulled at the next rose bush trying to feel anything other than the crushing weight of responsibilities on his shoulders.
He tore through another few rose bushes, determined now to destroy all of them, but even bleeding and covered in dirt, it wasn't working. Nothing could change what he was and the inevitable fate that lie in front of him.
He tore at the roots of a stubborn rose bush that was determined to stay put, when he was interrupted.
"I feel inclined to inform you that I am sitting right here."
The Beast started at the voice and turned to see Belle sitting at the bench down the way, sitting on the edge of the bench flinching away from his display of anger.
He stopped clawing at the ground and took a deep breath, staring into his hands. He was ashamed of his childish temper tantrum, and he wished that anybody was sitting on that bench besides her. She was the one person in the castle who didn't need any more reason to find him repulsive, and here he was, acting like an animal.
"I apologize for intruding on your afternoon." He said. He turned to leave trying to put as much distance between them as possible just like Polly had told him.
"Don't leave!" She called out and he froze at her command. "I mean on my behalf. Don't leave because I am here. It sounds as though you have a lot of gardening to address." She said.
The Beast looked to the dirt packed underneath his claws and the fallen rose bushes that were now strewn all over the grass. Hopelessness settled over him.
"No, I will leave you to your afternoon. I have urgent business. I hope that your Prince is swift in his venture to rescue you, or your fate might not fare any better than these rose bushes." He said bitterly. If the wolfmen crossed the wall he wouldn't have any warning, and with her sitting there like a duck, she would be worse off than any of them. They would tear her apart in a second.
"Who said you could just sit unassuming in the gardens alone?" He added. He had enough to worry about without losing his little prisoner before her people could come for her.
She was vulnerable, yet she was sitting in the gardens taking in the sun as if she wasn't in the center of the Beast King’s Forest. What if-'s filled his mind, and each one ended with her death. Seeing her sitting there, completely relaxed, drove him mad.
"I asked Polly if I could- She started, but The beast didn't need to hear anything else. "Polly". he said, knowingly. Polly was always the one at the center of everything.
"I suggest you return inside to your rooms." He said, before finally turning away and leaving. He needed to talk to Vandy and then afterwards he needed to find Polly and talk to her about their guest.
-Belle-
She had left for her room and this time she did not have any desire to leave her room ever again. The Beast King despised her, but the worst part was that she no longer hated him. He wasn't the Beast that she had grown to know from the rumors and stories that men tell children to keep them from wandering off.
Every time she thought of home she remembered that she was only here out of pity. It was a kindness that he picked her up from the forest. The people she knew and trusted were the ones who had put her out there, and she would have died. The truth of the matter is that if her people came upon the castle tomorrow they would cut down every beast in their past. They would cut down Polly and Vandy and Anette, probably even the children. The Beast had to know this. He had gone through this before, but her life still mattered to him. If it didn't, she wouldn't be here.
The search party was probably already out in the forest looking for her. They were probably already trampling through land they had no claim to, killing everything in sight. Her mind circled around the carnage that she they'll act on in her name, and she decided to do something very stupid that would most definitely get herself killed.
She forced herself to take a nap until Polly came for the evening meal and found Belle sleep in her bed.
"You must be exhausted dear!" Polly came in and noisily set the tray down on the table in the center of the room.
"Yes, I think I could sleep all day and all night!" Belle said, yawning for good measure.
"I don't blame you. I heard that you went through quite the ordeal earlier."
"With the Beast? I think he just had a bad day."
"He needs to learn better manners. I was hoping that having a guest would polish him up a little more."
"I'm not his guest Polly." she said, and she wasn't. A guest was not usually expecting a rescue party.
Polly moved towards her and sat on the bed next to her. "You could be our guest. Please don't let his brutishness trap you in this room. He will behave better."
Belle smiled weakly, he wouldn't get the chance to try again. "Ok Polly, I'll try."
"Well, I'll leave you to it then. Dinner is on the table, and I guess you have no need for anyone to turn your covers down."
"No. I can manage it Polly thank you very much." Belle said.
Belle promised her a fun day tomorrow and they said their goodnights. Belle ate slowly waiting for the castle to go to sleep.
When the world around her was still as a picture, she left her room, gabbing a decorative rapier off the wall before she left to use as a guiding stick. She had to get outside, then once she was outside she could follow the outer wall that led to the gate. If Polly's story was right, and this forest was a town long before it was a forest there will be a road that will lead somewhere. All she had to do was follow pavement stones which would to take her out of the forest eventually. She hoped.
Once she was out of the forest, she was no longer a liability. She was no longer at fault for countless deaths. She'll make it home and call the search party back and hope they don't drag her back out to the forest.
When she reached the gate, she pressed the rapier into the ground meeting hard cobblestone. She said a silent prayer, hoping that she wouldn't just be eaten immediately, and she left through the gate. Leaving was like jumping off a boat to float off into the ocean, but she was determined. Death loomed ahead of her at every step, but she didn't care.
What fear she had begun to fade with every passing step as she realized that she didn't have a death wish. She was desperate for control and desperate to out run the guilt she was feeling.