It seemed to take him forever to crawl out of the muddy riverbank in the middle of the wilderness. After his fall from the castle he'd been carried down the wide river a long way and now he was lost. Lost, bleeding and quite certain that he'd broken some of his ribs and his leg. Half blinded by grime and the blood running down his face he crawled forward, groaning and cursing as the world began to slide out of focus. Eventually he succumbed to the blackness that subdued his pain. Broken, bleeding, filthy and half-dead; that was how a passing peddler woman found Gaston on a cool spring night...
...
Gaston woke to an unpleasant jostling sensation and the sound of hoof-beats, he opened one eye and looked around him, he was in a wagon of some kind, laying on a bed of blankets. A small, square window to his right allowed him enough light to see his surroundings. All around him was a collection of wares so varying in nature that he had to wonder how on earth anyone could have amassed such an array of items. Books written in different languages at one end, an ornate tea set, delicate porcelain dolls, strange and extravagant looking robes with patterns of golden fish and flowers, there was even a solid gold Arabian oil lamp! Perched on a shelf, near a set of colored glass figures was a blue parrot, it glowered ill-temperedly at him and fluffed up its feathers when Gaston caught its eye.
A few moments later the wagon came to a stop, a colorful headscarf flashed passed the window and the door to the back of the wagon opened. The figure appeared female but her head and face were covered by her green scarf. She wore a very clean, white tunic trimmed with dark blue at her wide, elbow-length sleeves. Around her waist was a pale yellow sash and her legs were clad in tan breeches tucked into shiny black riding boots.
"You're awake, good," she said climbing into the wagon. Her voice was rich and deep for a woman, smooth and velvety, it was perhaps the loveliest voice Gaston had ever heard and he was soothed by her warm tones. "How was it that you were injured?" she asked him, moving closer so that he was able to see what little of her face was not covered by her scarf. Her skin was too fair for her to have been a gypsy but there was a distinct golden tone to it, and her amber eyes had a subtle tilt to them that suggested mixed ancestry.
"I...I fell, I was trying to kill a beast," he replied.
The woman studied him for a moment but did not question him further. "You've been asleep for four days, your injuries were very bad. Twice I thought you would die, but it seems that you're a strong one. Now tell me, what is your name and where do you live?" she asked.
"I'm Gaston Grosvenor, I'm from the town of Bergeron," he replied. A sharp pain in his side caused him to grimace, "How bad, exactly, are my injuries?"
"You've broken a few ribs, you hurt your leg but it isn't broken and should heal quickly...and you have a terrible wound on your face," she added a bit hesitantly, "It will likely scar,"
Gaston lurched forward, only to fall back with a yelp of pain. The woman steadied him, "Don't do that! You'll make it all worse!" she cried.
"A mirror! Get me a mirror! I need to see what happened to my face!" he demanded.
The woman's eyes widened in mild shock and she reached over to take a small hand mirror off of a nearby shelf for him.
Gaston seized the mirror and looked at his reflection. The right side of his face was alright, a few small scratches on the cheek but nothing drastic, the left side was a different story. A long, jagged line ran down his cheek and chin, dragging the corner of his mouth down a in a permanent frown. At his cheek bone the injury branched making it an uneven "Y" shape around his eye. It had been stitched up as well as the woman could have managed, but the skin was still red and puckered. He cringed and set down the mirror. There went his good looks...
"You are fortunate to have your life," said the woman, "Be grateful and don't grieve for this,"
Gaston glowered at her, "Just who are you anyway?"
"My name is Lia," the woman replied, "I will take you to the nearest town and find you a place to stay so that you may recover," she said.
"Can't you just take me back to my town?" asked Gaston,
"That is a week's journey at best, and with you injured it will take me even longer," said Lia. "And then it will be another two weeks for me to get to the next town, it's more than a three week delay in my schedule,"
"So?"
"So, I have already sold wares in Bergeron this month, and made barely enough for a week supply of food for myself and my horse, I cannot expect to make more money from that town so soon after my last visit, and I cannot afford to miss my next stop in Rouen. I am not the only peddler who runs this route and if I miss a stop someone else will have already taken it, and then I am out of money. Turning around now and then turning back around will cost too much. You can get off at the next stop in five days, or you can circle my route with me for the next four months until I come back around to Bergeron,"
Lia's tone left no room for negotiation, Gaston would have to chose. Get off at Rouen and hope he could heal up and find a way back to Bergeron on his own, or wait it out a full four months and stick with Lia until she returned to the little village...
...
Hello I'm back, for now, I've been doing a lot of traveling over the past year and I nearly forgot about this site. But I have a little spare time on my hands and I thought I'd return to Beauty and the Beast, since this is where I posted my first Fan Fic. It feels like it's been forever, I may finish my other Fan Fics, I may not. But enough of that, I'm writing another Fic about Gaston. Why? Because I really liked writing about him last time, he has a lot of potential to be a very interesting character.
This fic is completely separate from my first one so you don't have to go back and read that one to enjoy this one. I don't know, as of yet, if I'm going to redeem Gaston in this one. It's still up in the air and could go either way. It will depend on how I feel the fic will work best. In the meantime, I'd love your comments and critiques.
Cheers
~Enos
