"WOOHOOHOO-WHO GOES THERE?"

The sound rang out heavily across the dark and dreary castle; where two people sat, upright and alarmed, as it echoed down the barely-lit staircase and hit their faces hard with the sheer force. The prisoner - a short and portly man with the moustache that gave him the air of a scientist, or architect - quickly cowered back into the furthest corner of his cell, his eyes widened with terror. He pulled his knees up to his chest and sought comfort in the embrace as his arms tightly wrapped around them.

"Father!" The visitor sat before the bars with a hefty brown cloak and hood which made her look like a sack of sunken burlap - but as her delicate hands escaped the folds and took her hood back, her natural radiance made all else dull in comparison, belied only by the concern she now offered.

"Father, what's wrong?"

"Belle, you need to-"

The old man's words came out stammered and cowardly, but he did not get far in persuading his daughter to get out whilst she could. IF she could.

Following the ring of yelling came a sudden, heavy silence. The walls were thick, and could probably take a fair beating if ever it came down to it - but the same old walls began to echo, like a game of tennis, an unexpected sound.

Boing. Boing.

Each movement came more audibly than the last; Belle and her father could do nought but remain in place, unaware of what the being now proceeding down the stairs might say if he saw them together.

The noise stopped. There was a brief silence, and within it, Belle had already raised herself a little straighter as if to speak, only before she could-

"Sayyyyy - you two look mighty unfamili-iliar. What're ya doin' in my castle?"

The voice was oddly friendly, and it's warmth tarnished the ferocity believed to have been present not a few moments earlier. Belle furrowed her brow with fearful curiosity, and straightened her back up once more, lightly clearing her throat with a modicum of courage. "P-Please...my father, he- he's sick. He can't stay here, please-"

"Gee, I'd like to help you guys out, but uh - heh - can't just let my prisoners roam free now, can l?" The voice chuckled without a care, and a burst of frustration formed on Belle's face as she quickly sought the nearby torch. Forcefully she took it in hand.

"Come into the light!"

With a wave of her hand, the burning ember before her now faced the mysterious figure shrouded in darkness.

"AGHHHHHHH!"

Belle held her hand to her mouth in a gasp; taken by surprise, she felt her heart race as she tried to calm herself down. In front of her hovered a pair of orange arms with black-stripes - in its hands was a small pink piglet that shook with fright before the burning light, cowering behind its small hands. A chuckle followed from behind it. "Heh, sorry piglet ol' pal - just wanted to test the water."

The creature brought its arms in and gently rested the frightened creature onto the floor, whereby it swiftly ran off between the unknown voice's legs, which slowly stepped forward into the young woman's vision where she encountered more stripes and colour. Slowly her eyes casted a little further up, and the being stood before her appeared to only be the same height as herself.

The figure had the face of a tiger, but the ferocity of a tiger itself was nowhere near apparent - instead, an odd cuteness nestled within its fur; its delicate whiskers and bright eyes gave her an air of comfort as she studied its face. "Who...Who are you?"

Another chuckle. "The name's Tigger; T-I-double guh-rrrrr - that spells Tigger!" The tiger's arms brought themselves into a jig along with his legs, closely followed by a soft bounce on his long, stripy tail, which stiffened at first and moved him up and down like a spring.

Belle could do nought but blink as she continued to look over the bouncy being before her - he acknowledged her gaze with his own, tilted in curiosity, before chuckling again. "You're, uh, wondering why I'mma looking this way, huh? Welp, it all started when this boy called Christopher Robin..."

Belle could barely hear him. Her eyes fixated on the walking, talking beast in front of her, who almost certainly would have surely been providing her with an extensive, emotional backstory - but it all flew over her head. Her pupils dilated as they scanned him over.

"...and so, when the last petal falls," Tigger's voice began to break a little, thinking of emotions that taunted him nearly every day but which the presence of two new people now made the hurt more vocal. "Every one of us'll-"

There came a sound, just as blood-curdling as the roar of the castle's apparent master, and the very existence of it sent shivers down the spine of everything both real and animated. Even Tigger, now without the comfort of his piglet-y friend to hide behind, found himself cowering as he looked upon the source.

"NAWWWWWWWWWWHHHHH!~3"

Belle quickly threw her arms around the colourful beast, raising him up in a bear-hug and spinning him around, jumping a little herself, before running over to the cell where her father continued to sit, becoming increasingly curious and worried for Belle's sudden outburst. "Belle, what are you-?!"

"Oh father can we keep him? Look at him, he's so adorable, he's like one of the animals from my books, he..."

The list went on - it was impressive, to Maurice, just how many reasons the beast was so appealing to her - and had Belle noticed how much she was moving she would have seen Tigger flying about aimlessly in her arms, his tongue flapping out loosely in every direction she took him. But eventually, Maurice put his hands out and quickly calmed her. "A-Alright, alright, w-we'll - well - I guess we'll take him with us."

"Oh, thank you father - thank you." Belle giggled happily as she jumped a little more - before any more could be said, her legs careered her down the long, cold staircase with Tigger in her arms. He yelled out for someone - anyone - to hear him, and to come to his aid, but it seemed that no-one appeared willing, not that Belle in her reckless youth saw any living beings on her way down.

Soft tapping rang out behind her, lost in the rush down the stairs - Maurice had evidently moved from his corner. "B-Belle?" He paused, before calling out again- "BELLE?" Nothing answered him, except-

"It's all hopeless."

Maurice jumped and quickly looked around his cell - there was no-one else there, but the voice was so clear to him that he believed it must have come from another being close-by. The voice continued. "Your daughter has given in to the Master's adorableness - a spell she may never return from."

Maurice looked around helplessly, and in defeat from finding no-one, slowly slumped against the cell bars, staring out of the lone small window ahead of him, gazing at the moon. "How can she be saved?"

"The same the rest of us can." The voice trailed up to a sizeable, standing chandelier with two protruding arms, each holding candles - the body of the chandelier was golden-white, and at the top of the middle section held another candle, atop a well-crafted figure of a rabbit whose ears held it up. It's face was furious. "If Tigger vowed to never stop bouncing, then the curse upon us all would be lifted."

"Heh, well, some ya win, some ya lose I guess."

Tigger chuckled with a wink towards us - his audience; the readers; the purveyors and reviewers of this story - as Belle, lost in her own little world, propelled out of the heavy castle doors and onto Philippe, her trusty steed, with Tigger bouncing along beside her - hand-in-hand - as they rode off and bounced happily away back into the dark thorny woods.

-Fin(?)-