Chapter 2: A small clearing

He next morning, servants brought Andrea a hearty breakfast, more than she could eat, to her room. She ate it and went downstairs, keeping her notebook with her. She had no idea where the King was, and she wanted to begin experimenting on him immediately.

She needed a lab, and the ingredients. She also needed samples of his skin and claws. And later on, his magic touch to give it a finale.

So Andrea spent half the morning looking for the king. Nobody knew where he was, and most people suspected he was out wooing yet another women. She felt a flash of sympathy for him at that sentence, but seeing some of the women prancing around in their finest, hoping for a glance at the king, she felt a bit annoyed and began rethinking her earlier thoughts. If he was too busy to help her try and find a cure, then maybe he really did only want to wait for the prettiest, sexiest person to marry.

Well, fine. That was his choice. But he shouldn't make her except that he was willing to help her then. It's cruel to lie to someone and get there hopes up like that. For a second, yesterday, she had thought he was actually decent. Apparently she had been wrong.

Fuming, she walked out into the woods, hoping to clear her mind. There were woods near her hometown, in Meldon. She had always loved going in there, and had even built a tree fort/science lab for her experiments when she was ten. Her father had helped her build it, and it was one of her best memories with him.

It had been one of his good days. Andrea hummed to herself as she walked into the woods, reaching a clearing, lost in memory. Back when she had been a child, after her mom left. Her father has had his good days and bad days, sometimes more bad than good. On his good days, he was a bright, smart middle aged man, always willing to help his only child. On his bad days, he was crying for his ex-wife, never even noticing he still had a child. She had often gone over to the neighbors on those days, both for food and company.

The sound of rushing water brought her out of memory lane. Andrea looked up, surprised to find herself in a beautiful clearing, with a small waterfall and a small pond. A circle of grass would make this an incredibly romantic lace for lovers, mostly at night, when the moon came out. Now, in the morning, it was still magical, with the birds swooping around the branches, and a deer drinking from the pond.

And the only thing that ruined the magical picture was the Beast, or the King, sitting near the stream, his head bowed like a beaten animal.

It was amazing. In the legends, animals were too afraid of the Beast to go near him. Did they know, like she did, that he had a human heart beating inside his chest? She recalled last night and sighed. A rotten human heart, perhaps, but still.

"Your majesty." She approached the king, not sure how to treat him. He had been kind enough to her yesterday, but she had been searching for him most of the morning, and she did deserve some kind of explanation. NO one knew where he went. But still, he was the king, and did she have the right to give him the scolding she wanted to?

"How did you find me, Andrea?" He looked up, and she saw that his muzzle was wet. He had been drinking from the stream. She found the thought funny, for some reason.

"I came here mad at you." Andrea replied honestly, somehow sensing it would be best not to lie. "I was mad that you left me with no way to work, and no way to contact you. I can't work without a lab, you know. And I saw all the women here. Do you truly have no intention of marrying any of them? Surly they are not so horrible. Surely-" He shot her a look, and she shut up.

He sighed, like a king forced to bear the world on his back. "They come here with a crown in their mind. I have no intention to marry someone like that. Someday, I will marry, I have to bear sons and daughters, but when that happens, I will marry someone who cares for the person under the crown."

"So you come here to run away from them." She looked around the clearing, inally understanding. "But how did you sneak away from the palace? You're not so easy to miss."

The Beast chuckled, the sound roaring through the trees. "I snuck away. There are many secret passages through the palace, and one of them leads here." He pointed with a claw to a large stone, teller even than him, at the back of the waterfall. "That opens up to a doorway."

"Amazing." Andrea went over to look at it, her mind already whirling at the combination of magic and science, her favorite kind. She ran a hand among the wet stone, trying to figure out how it opened. She could see no hidden panel, no secret button. So magic, then.

"It only opens for the royal family." He stood over her, and she suddenly couldn't breathe, because he was almost pressing her against the stone. Andrea didn't dare move, because even though she wasn't afraid of him, for some reason, her heart couldn't stop pounding. The Beast pressed his hand against the rock, and it slid open with a groan and pa puff of dust and cobwebs. Andrea almost fell inside in her hurry to get away from him.

"Careful!" The Beast caught her as she tipped inside the passageway, his furry paw pushing her back into the light. He let go of her once she was on solid ground again. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Andrea couldn't look him in the eyes, she felt a blush creep up her cheeks. What was wrong with her? "I should go. But I came to say I need a lab in which to work my calculations and create potions. And I should probably have access to the royal library. That should give me more information about the curse."

He knew she was trying to change the subject, but he let it go. "Alright. I will see it done. I will also give you my phone numbe3r, so you will have the ability to contact me anytime you wish."

Andrea took a deep breath, steadying her racing heart. "Thank you. I truly wish to find a cure."

His voice was sad for some reason. "I know. And I have no doubt you will."