The Dreamer and the Hunter - A Beauty and the Beast Story

Father and Daughter

As she rushed home Belle hiked up the skirt of her dress, making it easier to run. When she arrived at the little cottage she immediately made her way down to the cellar which served as her father's workshop. Upon opening the door a thick cloud of smoke blew into her face. She coughed and fanned it away, trying to see through the haze. "Papa?" she called.

When the smoke cleared a little she found her father, goggles atop his head, apron splattered in grease, grumbling at the side of his latest invention, a woodcutting machine. Tools were scattered all over the counter top, some on the floor, and sketches of different machine designs covered the walls.

"How on earth did that happen?!" Maurice spluttered, giving the machine a hard kick and instantly regretting it.

"Are you alright Papa?" Belle asked, coming to join him by the machine.

"Oh," he grumbled. "I'm just about to give up on this old hunk of junk!"

She giggled. "You always say that."

"I mean it this time! I'll never get this bone-headed contraption to work!"

"Yes you will," she assured him as she always did. "And you'll win first prize at the fair."

"Oh, I don't know," he said, rubbing a hand through his sparse white hair. "The way things are going it'll never be done in time."

"Sure it will! The fair's still a long while away. Then you can show off your brilliant invention to everyone and once you win you'll be well on your way to becoming a world-famous inventor!"

A smile was beginning to tug at her father's lips with her encouragement. "You really think so?"

She gave him a warm smile. "I always have."

"Aww gee - what would I ever do without you?" Maurice took her hand and squeezed it. Her mother had always been the same, it was her encouragements which kept him going. Then he straightened up and faced the machine again. "Well then, what are we waitin' for? Hand me that tightening tool on the bench there will you?"

Belle passed him the tool while he knelt down to adjust the machine's gears. "Oh, wrong one my dear. The other one - oh, never mind. Ha, look at you, you should be the one working on this machine."

Belle smiled. "Well I have learned a thing or two over the years."

Maurice chuckled. "So, did you have a good time in town today?"

"I got a new book," Belle answered cheerfully. Then her face fell. "Papa?"

"Yes dear?"

She paused before posing her question. "Do you think I'm odd?"

Maurice lifted his head, his eyes enlarged behind the lenses of his goggles. "My daughter, odd? Ha! Where did you ever get an idea like that?"

"Oh, you know, people talk."

"Who's been talking? Well whoever they are I'd like to go teach them a lesson about what happens when they talk about my daughter–"

Belle couldn't help but laugh a little. "Thank you Papa.  It's just I'm not really sure I fit in here." But that was just it, did she really fit in anywhere? Everywhere they had lived over the years she had always been different, stood out, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"My dear Belle, this is a small village, and small-minded. But you, you are so ahead of your time. Perhaps you are different, but I would not call it odd. I would say it is for the better."

Belle couldn't help but smile. "Thank you Papa. Still, I am a little lonely. There's no one I can really talk to - well there's Père Robert, but I mean someone more my age."

"Hmm. How about that Gaston?" suggested Maurice. "He seems like a nice young man. And handsome too I might add."

Belle scoffed. "Oh he's handsome alright, and rude and conceited and - oh Papa he's not for me. Not as a friend and certainly not as anything else." As much as she hated to admit it, she knew Gaston had his eye on her, he didn't exactly hide the fact. He was always trying to get her attention, like he had done today, and she tried her best to avoid him. Also, she didn't think they were that close in age.

"Is he though? I mean we haven't been here for very long, you don't know him very well."

"Perhaps, but I can tell even if I don't know him very well."

"Now Belle that doesn't sound like you. You're always saying not to judge people by their first impressions, they can be misleading. What did your mother always say? 'Don't judge a book by its cover'".

Belle smiled at the mention and memory of her mother. And as much as she hated to admit it, her father was right, as he most often was. "Alright you do have a point Papa," she admitted. "I won't be so quick to judge."

"That's my girl!"

But she also wouldn't go out of her way to get to know Gaston.

(Aww, I love Belle and Maurice! Such a nice father-daughter relationship :) Oh and remember how I said before I wasn't sure if I pictured this as the animation or the live action? Well I'm really picturing it as the live action now, as you can probably tell! ;) Luke and Emma! Thanks for reading!)