My Candle in the Darkness ~ A Beauty and the Beast fanfiction

Chapter VIII

I woke up with the sound of hooves hitting the ground. I opened my eyes and realised I was sitting on a very large horse.

Eloïse whinnied when she sensed I had woken up and gave me a side-glance, turning her head a little. She was so big!

I looked down to see what I looked like now and cursed fate for its terrible sense of humour.

I was a quill.

I grabbed Eloïse's reins and yelped in surprise at how heavy they were. I just managed to lift them up and I crawled back towards the saddle. I sat down on the cantle and looked at the button on the reins. It vaguely reflected me and I could see what I really looked like.

I was a quill made of the feather of a peacock. My body was all kinds of green tones and my arms consisted of two thicker and longer barbs. My legs were two thicker feather shafts at the bottom of the feather and my feet consisted of two parts of a nib. When I put my feet together, they two parts joined and formed a complete nib.

I had but one eye: a brown circle with a smaller blue circle in the centre. In the centre of that blue circle was a black spot, which I guessed was my pupil.

I realised I remembered everything again. I could actually hear and see the people in the ballroom when I thought about it. I remembered spending my entire childhood in a lonely castle, no friends to support me.

And my parents - they were the most disappointing of everything. They were strict and didn't spend much time with me. Both had died before the curse.

I remembered how desperate I was when I visited the Prince's castle. I wanted him to like me more than anything. I wanted to prove I could handle things myself, for everyone in Estouteville talked about how their Duchess couldn't rule the area properly. My plan was to marry the Prince and get everyone to like me, even though I was horrible to them in return.

Eléontine wasn't a nice person, I got that now. But I also realised that I had changed. I was Alex now, a better person than Eléontine and I was planning on keeping that name till the end of my days.

I looked up to see we had already arrived at the gates of the castle. Eloïse must have carried me all the way here while I was out.

I sighed. I had done it. There was no way back now. I would look like this forever.

We entered the castle grounds and I felt nervous all of the sudden. What would the others think of me? Would they be angry with me for runnning away? Would Cogsworth have told them everything?

Eloïse stopped in front of the stables and I hopped off her back. I walked over the half wall of Eloïse's stable, towards the saddle pouch. I grabbed a small hand mirror I had brought with me and looked at my reflection more closely.

To my surprise, it didn't show me as a quill at all. It showed me as Duchess Eléontine. I sighed and put the mirror back. This was my curse - knowing what I had done in my past and then be forever reminded of it when I look into the mirror.

Eloïse pushed me softly with her muzzle, causing me to almost fall off the wall.

"Woah, girl," I told her. "I'm not as large and strong anymore. You'll have to be careful with me."

She looked at me and whinnied, pointing with her nose at the saddle.

"I'm sorry, it's too heavy for me," I said. "I'll ask Belle to do it." I jumped down from the wall and my knees immediately forsake me, causing me to fall to the ground. I tried to stand up, but still couldn't shift my weight to my feet properly. The two shafts that were supposed to be my legs weren't strong enough to support my entire weight. I probably had to practise with that.