Blind and the Beast

Back in the Forest Again

-The Beast-

He stalked through the trees silently, frustrated at the quiet night. He needed a distraction to pull his mind away from the castle away from her.

She had cast her spell on him earlier when he came across her in the gardens. He could not stop his curious mind that had endless thoughts and questions about the woman in his castle. There were more pressing matters to spend his thoughts on, but he could not control his mind that just kept circling back to her

Polly was right when she blamed his self-control. Even now far from the castle sulking in the late hours of night his every spare thought moved to the small glimpses of her that he had seen. He was so deluded and crazy that he could even smell her scent out here in the forest. She smelled like honey, and he found himself following the phantom scent daydreaming of a world where they had met under different circumstances.

He was not daydreaming anymore. He knew she was in the forest. There was no longer faint traces of her scent, it was strong now and there were clear tracks leading deeper into the heart of the forest. She was running from him and she didn't know where she was going.

The Beast ran silently through the forest to catch up with her, fearing the worst in the dark monster infested forest. If she was dead- the horrific thought stopped him. He would kill Birch. What was he thinking, letting all his spies leave when they were needed the most?

When he saw her, he could finally breathe. Not only was she alive, but she was not hurt or being eaten, she was slowly shambling along using an antique rapier as a walking stick.

He barely stopped himself from storming over and demanding what in the actual hell she thought was doing out here. The last time he acted on his first instinct, he abducted her and put them both in this mess, so he forced himself to think his next actions through.

She was just trying to get away from him, he realized, and suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to help her flee. He watched her struggle along the path in the dark. Could he let her go? Could he keep the monsters around them at bay and let her go home?

Before he even figured out his course of action, he felt himself shift. Horns retracted and claws shrank, and he became human for the second time in a while.

Polly had made it a point that he did not know what she wanted. Finally, he would rectify that. Whatever she wanted, he was going to help her. It would bring some semblance of meaning into his life.

-Belle-

The last thing you want to do when you first meet someone is to scream bloody murder in their face.

She had not even heard the man behind her and when she stumbled over a rock and a mysterious hand kept her upright, she screamed, ripped herself out of his grasp, and threw herself on the ground in the process.

She scrambled back and held the rapier out towards the man.

"Get back!" She yelled.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you." He rushed, "May I help you up?" He asked and Belle crawled away from him a few inches just to feel safer.

"No. You may not." She said, feeling safer on the ground. "What do you want?"

"I uh- I just saw you walking around, and I wanted to make sure that you were alright. This is not a safe place to be wandering around at night."

Belle let out a strained manic laugh. She had been playing over in her mind over and over again the horrific things that could happen in a forest. He might have gotten the jump on her, but she was not an idiot.