"Uh...Belle?" The voice called a second her name a second time.
Belle had heard Henry the first time, but she was too caught up in the moment to answer. "Hmmm?" she hummed in response, eyes still trained on the floating globe not six feet away.
"What are you staring at?" came the curious voice, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of the boy's dark hair between the stacks.
She licked her lips and considered the answer. "Some hovering ball, I think?"
Henry rounded the shelves and stepped in front of her. "Oh, it's—"
She dared a few steps forward and caught his arm, pulling him gently but firmly back. Her eyes were still locked with the... the thing. "It keeps moving. It's like it's chasing me, is it a spirit?"
The small chuckle was the last thing she expected, and Belle took the chance of looking away to regard the boy. "It does. Look, there, it floated forward again. Is that its restraint?"
Before she could protest, he side-stepped her and marched right up to the thing, grabbing onto the dangling piece of red, something like a ribbon that hung from the ball like a tail. "This," Henry started, his voice informative, "is a balloon."
She took a half step back as he neared, a rational part of her brain reminding her that Henry obviously wouldn't be carrying it around if it was truly dangerous. "Balloon?"
"Yeah," he said, matter-of-fact, as he held out the end. "They're made of like a plastic thing, I think? Anyway, they're filled with air, which makes them hang around on the ground, or they have helium inside. Like this one. And it makes them float. Except this one must be kind of old."
She took the offered ribbon, studying the tiny ridges up and down it and discovering where it was knotted around a little piece at the bottom of the balloon. "How long do they live?"
Another little chuckle, but it was kind, and Henry gave her an impish smile. "They don't exactly live. Helium is a gas, but it's lighter than air, so it makes it float. But it doesn't last forever, so in a couple of days it sinks. Sometimes they last longer. Game of Thorns has a bunch in the shop, I could show you."
"Thank you, maybe… some other time," she answered vaguely, hoping to get back to the balloon at hand. "Helium, you said it's a gas. It's an element, isn't it?"
He cocked his head. "You know about elements?"
"I'm learning," she admitted. "Snow, she gave me a stack of books to read. She called them textbooks. Anyway, I remembered reading about the elements. There are so many of them."
"Yeah," Henry sighed, leaning against the bookcase as she pulled the balloon closer to eye level. "There's too many of them."
She glanced away from the balloon long enough to arch an eyebrow in his direction. "You're not into science, I take it."
"Let's just say, I wouldn't be too sad to go back to the Enchanted Forest before I have to memorize all those things." He scuffed at the floor.
Belle offered a small nod before she tugged at the ribbon and watched the balloon sway. "It seems so life-like."
"Probably the wind currents or something blowing it around."
"Can I keep it?" she asked, giving the ribbon another little tug and laughing softly as it bobbed and wove in the air.
Henry shrugged. "Why not?"
She gave her own shrugged and gave the ribbon another little tug, smiling against as it seemed to bounce in place. Why not, indeed.