Beauty And The Beast

Chapter Three: Complications

Maurice looked unsurely around him at the pouring rain. He had been riding for hours through the drenched wet forest. He looked at his poor horse Philip, who kept pulling the cart through the rain. When Maurice heard wolves howling in the distance, he started to panic, and looked around for any where to shelter from the pouring rain. He spotted at small pathway, hidden in the depths of the trees. He nodded, and cued Philip in that direction. Philip seemed very unsure, but hastily trotted towards the path. As Maurice walked deeper and deeper into the small trail like pathway, the rain seemed to slow and slow and slow, until it stopped altogether. Maurice noticed that it seemed to be snowy. In the middle of June. That was impossible! "Why is it snowing? Why is there snow? It's the middle of June, and there's snow! Think of that!" Maurice told himself. Maurice and Philip, kept going, and Philip started sniffing. "What is it ole boy?" Asked Maurice, who, other than the snow, didn't notice anything odd. Philip continued to sniff, and Maurice flicked the reins, so Philip would go faster. What neither Maurice nor Philip saw, was a huge white wolf, walking on the rocks beside them, watching them, hiding, and following them. The wolf finally appeared out of the brush, and howled to its pack. Maurice saw the wolf, as did Philip, and the two instantly froze. "Uh oh...." Maurice whispered, as wolves started coming out of every direction, howling, and barking at them. Maurice slapped the reins so hard, Philip got the message, that he needed to run as fast as his legs would carry him. "Run Philip! Run!" Maurice screamed, as the wolves nipped at the heels of the cart. The only thing Maurice could do, was throw baggage at them , and scream at Philip to go faster. The wolves jumped on the back of the cart, and Maurice was forced to untie  Philip, as fast as he could, and jump off the cart. A wolf jumped behind Philip, and snapped at his hooves, then jumping up for the tail, the wolf bit down hard on the rope, setting Philip free to run. Maurice leaped off the cart, leaving the cart sideways, and destroyed. The wolves were obviously faster than Maurice was, so scrambling onto a huge mound of snow he momentarily escaped them. The wolves leaped around Maurice, cornering him. "Help!" Maurice shrieked, but it was no use, as the wolves would kill him and eat him in seconds. He slid down the mound of snow, where Philip, caught him on his back. Maurice grabbed Philips mane and they raced through the path very, very quickly, the wolves growing farther and farther away with each step. "Philip, thank you, you just saved my life!" Exclaimed a breathless Maurice. As they reached a labyrinth at the end of the path, the mist floated back the other way, and revealed a huge, dark blue almost black castle. Maurice stared at it in awe, and went to the other side of the path, that led to a fork in the path. One path, led to the castle, and stables, the other, led to a labyrinth, and gardens, rivers, and bridges, the next, led through the forest a different way. "Well well, Philip. I believe we better put you in the stables,  and go speak to the inhabitants of this castle, see if they can help us."
Philip nickered, and then trotted down the path to the castle. Maurice tied Philip up to a large railing, then walked into the castle. The floors, polished and clean made the house seem even more gorgeous. "Hello is anyone here? I'm just sheltering from the storm." He called. All that happened, were his echoes, bouncing off the walls. "Just going to warm down, near the fire." He mumbled, taking his overcoat off, and putting it onto a coat hanger. He went next to the fire, and warmed himself. He walked up the huge marble staircase, that split into two, and then went around the castle, leading to other doors. Maurice chose the left one, which swirled around the towers. He climbed what seemed like an endless amount of stairs. He finally stopped at a dining table, which had two spots set up. One at the very end, and one on the left side beside it. The bread, the meat, the soup, the drinks, and the salad looked so appetizing, he found himself sitting down, on the smaller chair on the left, beside the one on the end, that looked too grand to belong to him. With that, he picked up the soup spoon, and tried some of the meat soup. "Hmmm, that's delicious, I think that's Beef Barley." He told himself, as he had three more spoonfuls of it. After having a good taste of the food,he sat back in his chair and studied his surroundings. "My complements to the chef." He said to know one in particular. It seemed very odd, to have so much in the castle, roaring log fires, nothing dusty, food so good it could be served to Greek gods. The only thing that seemed untended to, was the west and east wing, the prison, the labyrinth and the overgrown garden. All of a sudden, a teacup, slid over to him on the table. It had antique eyes and mouth painted on. It had a small chip on the rim. It bowed to Maurice. "Mom said not to say anything to you, because you might be scary." The teacup whispered, tipping its Handel, to a still teapot, that also had antique painted on features. Maurice stared, frozen, a talking teacup? Impossible! "Oh ok," he said, pretending to be calm. Seconds later, he let out a squeal, and leaped from his chair. He raced down the marble staircase, mumbled "thank you, thank you, but I must be going now" grabbed his coat, and raced out the door. He ran to Philip, who was happily chewing on hay, and jumped on his back. He was just about to run past the labyrinth, when he noticed a white rose garden, and remembered Belles request, "Oh, I'll just pick a quick rose, and then we'll be on our way." He told Philip. They galloped towards the garden where Maurice grabbed a rode, ripped it free from the branches and started to trot out of the garden, when Philip sniffed, and then bucked Maurice off. Philip raced to a hidden part of the garden, where he could watch poor Maurice. "Philip! Come back right now!" All of a sudden, Maurice was stunned to silence as a huge shadow started to loom over him. As soon as Philip saw this, he raced back through the woods towards the village. Maurice on the other hand, was held captive at that moment..

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Authors note: Hi again, and thank you for reading chapter three! The next chapter, Chapter Four Gaston (Again) will be one of the shortest chapters in this book. Sorry. And no, for once, Belle is not going to have to persuade Gaston that she's not going to marry him! Yes, we can start really getting into the book now! Thanks, Bye!

-Majestic Wolf 5002 🌹