Authors Note: Here's the third chapter. To Rose Emeraldfay: Thank you for your review. I couldn't help but giggle at it. Yay Cogsworth gets pudding! Hehe.
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Lumiere awoke the next morning and frowned in confusion. Something was not right. The cheerful morning sunshine was streaming in through the window. That was the problem. There was too much sunshine. He had slept late! It was true he always did sleep a little bit later then he should, but this was extremely late. He should have been up hours ago! Why hadn't Cogsworth come and woke him up? The bossy head of the house never let anyone sleep this late. Not when there was work to be done. Lumiere jumped to his feet.
It was then that he noticed that the morning light was not the only thing wrong. Everything was so large! The bed stretched on before him like a plateau. The bed posts rose up like pillars, and the door seemed much farther away than it had last night. He blinked, wondering if he was dreaming. When the scene remained the same he took a cautious hop forward. Hop? His eyes darted downward. Where his feet should have been there was only a round base. He jerked his hands in front of him, but they too were gone. Candles were in their place. "Sacre bleu!" Lumiere's eyes widened as he continued to stare at his hands turned candles. He remained like that for several moments before collapsing weakly back on the bed. His humanity, that precious gift that he had been reveling in yesterday, was gone. His head swirled with thoughts. How had this happened? Was the spell back in place? Had the spell being broken only been a dream? Was this a dream?
Only the sizzling smell of smoke brought him to his senses. Sometime after his realization his flames had come alight and had now set the bedspread on fire. He sprung up, shoving his two smaller candles together to extinguish them. Frantically he began to use them and his base to try to beat out the fire. Much to his relief he was able to put out the fire. The blanket now had an ugly black spot but no real damage was done. He swept what used to be one of his hands across his face and let out a deep breath. That fire proved that he wasn't dreaming. It was too real. The arrival of Belle, Gaston's attack on the castle, the spell being broken, all of that could not have been a dream. That left only one other option. Lumiere looked back down at himself. If he was a candelabra, then the others…
He rushed to the end of the bed. Grabbing a bed post, he slid down it. It was surprising how easily he remembered how to control this body. But then again he had been in this form for ten years before the spell was broken, and he had only been human again for a few months. When he came to the door he paused for a second. It was closed, which was to be expected. After the spell had been broken no one had to worry about being able to reach door handles. Luckily, Lumiere, even in his candle form, was tall, and it only took him one good leap to pull the handle down and open the door. He was grateful the door didn't have a door knob.
He moved into the hall, fully expecting to hear shouts of exclamation and see furniture rushing about in confusion. All was quiet, however. The hall was empty. "Strange," Lumiere murmured to himself. It was extremely rare for the castle to be this quiet. He was starting to get very worried when he heard it. Giggling and laughter. It wasn't quite the sound he was expecting but at least it was noise. His room was on the second floor and the laughter seemed to be coming from below. He hopped over to the railing and peered down. What he saw put both confusion and fear into his heart. A group of young maids were talking and laughing to each other, obviously slacking from their work. That didn't bother him though. He was, after all, Lumiere, not Cogsworth. What bothered him was that they were human. Human! How could they be human and he…
He stood there, his normally clever and active mind unable to think a single thought. He was staring at the girls but not really seeing them. He later found it amazing that he even heard the footsteps, but he did. Someone was coming! He panicked, his eyes darting around. They spotted a chair and a table standing side by side. Hurriedly he scrambled up onto the chair and hopped onto the table, barely having time to pose as a normal candle before another maid passed by. He remained perfectly still until he was sure she had gone by. He then sagged in relief. He found himself confused by his own fear. Why had he panicked at the thought of someone seeing him? He had been the first to adapt when the transformation had taken place. But now was different. They were human and he was…not. He closed his eyes, his body ready to go stock still and lifeless at the slightest sound of the maid returning. By this time he should be serving the Master and Mistress their breakfast. They would be wondering where he was. Well, staying hidden wouldn't help solve anything. He must go down and tell them.