Chapter 1
Look there he goes that boy is strange no question. Dazed and distracted, can't you tell? Never part of any crowd. Cuz his heads up on some cloud. No denying he's a funny boy that Danielle.
It was just another normal day for Daniel Howell. Otherwise known as Danielle. For some reason my whole village had gotten off on calling the boy the female version of my name. I couldn't help being so pretty and slightly feminine and it probably didn't help that I liked to keep my naturally curly hair a little bit longer than the rest of the male population. Well, except for Gaston. For some reason that nasty brute thought that because everyone else called me Danielle and that I was slightly feminine looking that I must be a female and that we must get and have lots of children, despite my constant telling him that I was in fact male, straight, and had no intentions of marrying of him. I suspect he thinks I like him because one time I accidentally winked at him and him being a stupid male thought it meant that I was in love with him and wanted to have all the babies. Not that I could have babies because I can't... Because I'm a man... With man parts... Plus, I've never been attracted to a man in my life... Well, there was that one time but I'm not going to give you any details.
Anyway I was reading a book. When that stupid head came up to me and had the gall to ask me to marry him. "So, what do you say Danielle? You, me, a big white wedding?" I was tempted to push the fucker down and whip out my man bits and say, "Dude stop I'm not a girl I can't marry you." But instead all I did was say no. So, he whipped up this whole song and dance. (See the song Me).
"For the last time. Gaston, I'm not a female, and if I was I still wouldn't be interested in marrying you. So, you could kindly leave me alone and..." I tried to tell him before I was rudely interrupted.
"I never take no for an answer, Danielle."
"My name's not Danielle. It's Daniel." He wasn't listening to me so I decided to stomp off and go see my father. He was off on an important journey, to show off some of his new inventions at some convention. I had spent the previous night helping him pack because his journey was going to be long.
"Ahh there you are, Daniel. I was wondering if you were coming back to wish me luck," my father laughed. He was a short jolly man. Which comparing him to myself made him seem much more like a dwarf than he actually was. But he really was just slightly shorter than average height.
"You think I would let you leave without saying goodbye?" I asked my father before leaning down about to wrap my arms around my father. I was going to miss him but I knew he would be fine. He was taking our horse, Phillipe. I trusted Phillipe to get my father there safely.
Dan's Father's POV (Maurice)
I let Daniel help me up onto Phillipe and waved goodbye. I worried about my son sometimes. He would never tell me what was wrong, but I knew how cruel our village was too him. Calling my son a female's name. I wanted what was best for my son and that's why I was going on this journey. I need to get us out of this small-minded town. I was going to go try to sell my inventions. So, that I could get enough money to buy us a new house in a new town. I needed to, not only for myself, but mostly for Dan. He'd been through enough without the constant teasing.
I'd only been to the convention one other time and it had been a while. I was sure it was the way we were going but Phillipe kept insisting that I was going the wrong way. I just figured that he was just scared and homesick and wanted to go home. But, I was sure it was this way. I was confident. But, suddenly it was getting dark, very, dark. I didn't think we had been on the road that long. Apparently we had.
That's when I heard the wolves howling. They sounded close. Close enough to be... Phillipe jumped almost throwing me off. He started running as fast as he could. I didn't know where we were going. But, it seemed neither did Phillipe.
It seemed like only moments had passed since the wolves when we arrived at a large gate. Phillipe stopped as quickly as he could almost throwing me off. What I mean by almost is he bucked and somehow by some strange twist of fate I didn't fall. I tried to settle him and make him push forward but he refused. Instead of pushing further I decided to get off the large animal and push through on my on. I tied Phillipe to the gate loosely. So, if I ended up in trouble he could run for help. I pushed the gate and it opened slowly creaking along the way. I slipped in and walked up the long path leading up to a... large castle. Large wasn't even the right adjective. It was enormous. I wasn't even sure if I should touch the door knocker but decided against it when I realized how cold I was. I sneezed into my arm before reaching up for the door knocker. As soon as I lifted it, the door opened as if someone was on the other side awaiting my arrival. Much to my surprise there was no one on the other side.
I walked in tentatively. Still, unsure of whether or not I should be there. I picked up a small, lighted, three pronged candlestick holding it up letting it light my way. It seemed to wriggle in my hand but I ignored that and kept walking. The castle didn't seem very used but I figured it had to be lived in because of the lit candlestick. Unless somehow the candlestick lit itself but that would preposterous.
The corridor was long and cold. I could feel myself shivering. I tried wrapping my jacket around me closer but it wasn't helping. That's when I came to a room there was a large fireplace with a large chair sitting in front of it. There was a fire in the fireplace which I was thankful for. I set the candlestick down on a table and walked over to the chair and pushed it a little bit closer to the fire. I rubbed my hands slowly basking in the warmth. "Would you like a cup of tea?" I heard a voice ask. I nodded eagerly. Not looking at who or what was serving me. I looked over and saw a small rolling cart with a teapot and a small chipped teacup that was already filled with the light brown steaming liquid. "Sugar or cream?" I heard the voice ask. This time I looked for the source of the voice, but there was no person in sight. All I saw was the teapot, the tea cup, and the cart among some other things in the room. "I'm not sure why people like cream in their tea. Personally I like mine plain..." The voice seemed to be coming from the... teapot. I shook my head, that couldn't be right. Teapots couldn't talk. Then again teapots didn't have faces and didn't move either but here this one was doing all of those things. I jumped a tiny bit. When I realized who and what was talking.
"You... You can talk?" I asked trembling a bit.
"Of, course we can, sweetheart." the teapot said matter of factly as if it was something that was just... normal. Which of course it's not. Oh well, I better get used to it because it seemed I be staying here a while. I was having a right nice chat with the teapot whilst drinking my cup of tea when a large black haired... beast. Came roaring in.
"Visitors are not allowed here," the beast's voice was rough, loud, and scared me like nothing else.
"I'm sorry sir he looked cold and..." the candlestick that I was holding earlier said trying to defend me.
"Enough!" the beast growled.
"I-I'll j-just..." I tried to stutter out.
"No, now that you're here you must never leave. Take him to the tower."
"B-but I have a son. Just please let me..."
"No," and with that I was taken up to the tower and I was locked up in some sort of a cage. At least the beast was courteous enough to let me keep a blanket. I didn't want to admit it but I knew I was sick and didn't have much longer. Hopefully I had tied Phillipe up too tight so he could go get Daniel. Daniel would come hopefully. He would be able to convince the beast to let me go.
A/N Helloooo lovelies. Thanks for reading! I have lots more chapters planned and a few more stories much like this one. Imaginary llama shaped cookies for people who review and favorite. Love ya'll lots.
