When I got back to the castle all I had time for was to rest and eat before I went on my next mission. Saix said he was sorry for the rush but apparently time was of essence here, and that he would also be accompanying me. My next mission was to travel to a beasts castle and capture the heart of a girl named Belle, and to corrupt, and wipe the memory of the beast that cared for her there. I had been so busy I had barely talked to or seen any of the others, Ashtcher, Rix, Renxsuke, and I hadn't seen Rhys in ages. I had no idea what she was up to. We bid our farewells to whoever was around and left.
The dark portal gave us entrance to the inside of the beasts castle in the foyer. There were three columns built on either side of the long red carpet that led to the staircase that sat in front of us. The stairs were simple but grand. At the middle of the stairs there were a set of double doors leading somewhere and then two more sets of stairs. One set going left and then the other right. And on the foyer before the stairs over to the far right, sort of hidden behind the columns was another door that looked slightly open but I could see an amount of light shining through the small crease at the bottom of the door.
"I'll go have a look around to see what I can find," Saix said. "If you find anything the darkness will lead you to me."
I nodded and he vanished. I decided to go look in the room that that was slightly open. It had peaked my curiosity the most and just before my fingertips could touch the doorknob of this mysterious room I heard a voice.
"Who's there?" The motion of my hand stopped as I slightly turned my head around but saw no one there. "What are you doing here? You are not allowed here. Leave at once!"
It was a very annoying type of voice. The kind
of voice that left a sort of ringing or ticking in my ear. The voice was very high strung and whiny, supported with a British accent. I then looked over to the set of stairs and saw an object sitting on the stairs. It looked like a clock. When did that get there. Then the clocked hopped down from stair to stair until it hit the floor and hopped its way over to me. There was the sound of clanking as he moved.
"What the..." I said as I bent down towards him.
"You should not be here, girl," he said again. "Normally I wouldn't expose myself like this but it is not safe for a young girl like yourself to be here."
I pretty much ignored what he said and poked the glass that encased the pendulum going back and forth.
"Aghh!" He yelled. "Don't do that. Why must everyone do that?"
"Oh! Another guest!" I heard another voice then. It wasn't annoying like the clock, but it was cheerful and happy, supported with a French accent. This chipper being was a candle stick and slid down the rail of the stairs and slid over to us.
"Bah!" the clocked yelled. "Lumiere! What are you doing here?! You shouldn't be here!"
"You must say that to a lot of people don't you?" I interjected to the clock.
The candlestick who I knew now was called Lumiere started to chuckle and put his arm around the clock and pulled him closer, squeezing him. "Oh Cogsworth, when will you ever learn to be kinder! Welcoming. How could this girl mean us any harm?"
"Well we shouldn't be taking any chances now should we, Lumiere? Or have you forgotten what happened when the master opened the door to just anyone? We ended up like this!"
"Oh my friend and have you forgotten what happened when we opened the door to a lovely young girl? The master has more of a sweet disposition." Lumiere then looked back to me and smiled and shook his head. "Where are my manors? Bonjour mademoiselle, I am Lumiere," he said lastly and took my hand and kissed it. "And this uptight bucket of bolts and gears is, Cogsworth."
"Excuse me!" Cogsworth shrieked. "Excuse me if you find following the rules and believing in safety and order is uptight!"
"Of course not my old rusty friend, but it wouldn't kill you to loosen up."
As Cogsworth went on a rant again and scolding Lumiere trying to be the adult or wise one, Lumiere sat there smiling, taking it all lightly, finding it humorous. Something tells me that they do this a lot. I didn't have time to sit here and listen to them bicker. I needed to get searching. So as Cogsworth continued yelling, I decided to walk away to the dimly lit room. When I opened the door and looked around, I saw a simple table off to the side, a nice rug in front of the fire place and a simple cushioned chair. All this room looked like was a simple small study, or a room to relax in.
"Hey! No snooping!" Cogsworth yelled and ran towards me. "No. no, no!"
"Don't be such a stick in the mud," Lumiere said. "The girl is just curious."
"And look where curiosity got us last time, Lumiere!"
"And that was a very good place."
I needed to get move on, on my search, but I'd have to get out of the sight of these two. Otherwise I'll be here longer than needed, and I don't have the patience for that.
"Not everything has a good result, Lumiere! We got lucky that Belle didn't have harmful intentions."
"Belle?" I asked.
"Yes, Belle," Lumiere answered. "She is the beautiful reason that the master has a sweet disposition, well for her..."
"Is she here....now?"
"Why she is-"
"Lumiere!" Cogsworth scolded in caution.
"I'm here to see her...She's and old friend of mine. Even though she was a few years older, I played with her as a child."
"Well see there Cogsworth, she is a friend of Belle. Do you think someone who meant to do harm would even know she was here? They would be after the master." Lumiere explained.
"Well I suppose...." Cogsworth grumbled.
"Come this was way, Mademoiselle. Belle is in the east wing."
Lumiere started to lead me up the stairs and up the set of stairs to the right while Cogsworth lagged behind mumbling and grumbling. When we reached the top of the stairs that circled around, we came up to a smalll hallway or entryway that had armored knights lined up along the walls. With another set of stairs waiting for us. As we walked along I swear I thought I heard the movement of metal. I peeked around my shoulder and saw that the head of the armor had moved. Was everything in this castle enchanted?
"Her room is just up these stairs," Lumiere said.
"How did this all happen?" I asked. "How did you and all of these other objects come to life?
"Oh no no my dear, Cogsworth and I, and any other talking object here....well we used to be human. We did not just simply come to life, like some of these other objects, like the knights."
"Human?...What happened?"
"Well if we must tell this story I suppose I should," Cogsworth said. "Lumiere would just tell it all wrong." Lumiere crossed his arms and rolled his eyes then we continued up the steps as Cogsworth told the story.
"It started on stormy evening the master, our prince, was doing what he did best, being a prince. Then there was a knock at the castle doors. The master opened the door to an elderly old woman, she asked for a place to stay for the night from the horrible storm, and she would give him a rose in return. But because the prince lacked kindness and compassion, frightened by her appearance he turned her away. The woman then revealed herself as a beautiful enchantress. When he saw how beautiful she was, he tried to apologize and beg for forgiveness.
But the enchantress could see that there was no beauty in his heart, so she punished him by turning him into a monstrous beast to match the ugliness in his heart. And all who lived here would be cursed as well. But the only way to lift the curse was by his 21st birthday that if he could find someone to love and she loved him in return despite his appearance, then the spell will be broken. But if not then the master and all of us will stay like this forever."
"What about the rose?" I asked.
"The rose is a clock. As each petal falls it tells how much time he has left. And if the last petal falls and he has not found true love...then its over."
"So, Belle hasn't broken it?"
"Well these things take time," Lumiere said. "We may have come a long way but it is the master who must learn compassion, sacrifice, selflessness, and above all to control his temper."
"I see, so he's a spoiled angry prince, who was self centered and believed in the appearance of things, and how things should look, otherwise he'd ignore it. A brat then. Perhaps he should be cursed forever."
"What?!" Cogsworth said.
"Well its sad that you all would get the guff of his ways and his consequences...but perhaps that's the only way he'll truly learn is that being selfless and unkind is what brought him his fate. Or maybe the way he was raised... Maybe it would be a better lesson than just earning love of another of the opposite gender. Anyone with a kind and pure heart could learn to love a beast. It didn't have to be Belle, it could have been anyone. Even you guys, love comes in different ways. But its harder for a beast to learn from himself and love what he already has. So maybe its best."
"What?!" Cogsworth yelled. "Don't you give that enchantress any ideas."
"I'm just saying."
We had finally reached Belle's room. Lumiere knocked and then I heard a voice answer. Her voice chimed softly like a bell.
"Come in," she said. We came in and the wardrobe by her bed lit up happily.
"Oh! A new visitor! I love guests!" she jumped up and down."
"Hello, Lumiere, Cogsworth," she smiled. "What brings you here?"
"Hello Belle," Cogsworth said. "Well we have brought you an old friend, someone you used to know as a child?"
She stared at me in question as she was scanning my face. So I decided to put on the best acting face I could. She had milk chocolate brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that was held by a blue bow. And she wore a long sleeve blue dress with a white apron tied around it with blue ballerina like shoes to match.
"Belle, don't you remember me?" I said to her as I went and sat on her bed next to her. "It's me, Ayame. We used to play together as children."
"Hmmm, your name does sound familiar..."
"It's amazing how much older you look."
She smiled, "Would you guys mind giving us some time to catch up? You know? To have some girl talk?"
"Oh I love girl talk!" the wardrobe said.
"Of course Mademoiselle," Lumiere said as he started to leave.
"Oh girl talk, do not want to be around for that nonsense," Cogsworth said as he followed after Lumiere, closing the door behind him.
Belle then got up from her bed to look out the window. "So, Ayame, is it? Who are you, exactly?" I smiled. So I guess the brunette is pretty smart.
"What!?" the wardrobe exclaimed. "You mean you don't know her?"
"No I don't, I never had any childhood friends. But I have heard your name before....I think...from Sora and RIku I think. You're like them right? Which means you have one of those keys."
"I suppose you can say that...but I am specifically here to see you...and then the beast. And they were here?"
"Yes, and they'll be coming back soon, they told me. And Really? What for?"
"Its something very important for our cause.."
Then there was a small tap at the door.
"Come in," Belle said. A teapot and tea cup then appeared, they hopped in the room with smiles.
"I hear from Cogsworth and Lumiere that we have a guest!" The voice was the sound of an older woman, with a purple lid to her white teapot body.
"Hiya Belle!" The teacup had the voice of a small boy with a chip on the side of him at the top in the rim of the cup.
"Mrs. Potts, Chip! Hi!" Belle smiled.
"Would you and your guest like some tea?" Mrs. Potts asked.
"No, thank you. Ayame."
"No...thank you I'm fine."
I then heard a voice in my head. It was Saix. He was communicating with me through my mind using the power of the darkness.
"Ayame. I have found the beast in the west wing. And I sense you've found Belle. Come take care of the beast first, getting her will be a piece of cake. But you may have some company on the way. Sora and Riku are here. They're in the way. Take care of them."
"Alright, I'm on my way."
And with no other word to Belle, or the other enchanted items in the room, I left. They called after me with questions but I kept going. I had something more important things to take care of first, but she didn't need to worry. I'd be back for her soon enough.