*Don't own it*
Please review. That's all I ask. ^ ^
There were people surrounding him, giving him praise. In his hand he held a pair of antlers that had been mounted. He looked up past the crowd and saw a beautiful girl. He pushed past the crowd to get to her when was got closer, she seemed like she didn't want to talk to him at all, but he persisted. He wanted her as his wife, but she kept on walking away from him. Then suddenly he was riding on his horse through the woods. Rage filled his heart as he got closer to his destination. That beast had taken her; he had taken Belle.
Zephirien normally wasn't the type of person to wake up and not know where he was, but coming out of his deep sleep, he thought he heard Vieille making breakfast at the stove. "Ah, Vieille's cooking. It feels like I haven't had her breakfast in forever." He opened his eyes quickly and pulled back the coarse covers. He was ready to get up and taste her great food, but his senses were overloaded with unfamiliar sights and smells. First of all the room wasn't the murky brown of Vieille's cottage, it was pasty white. Light streamed in through the window to his right blinding him momentarily before his eyes could adjust to the room.
Painful memories from the past few months flooded his brain when he sat up slowly, feeling a little dizzy. It was as if he was going through her loss all over again. Loneliness and misery swept over him "Oh God," he whispered. She was really gone. It wasn't a bad dream that he would wake up from. His only friend was really gone.
He shook his head. He didn't want to wollow in depression, so he cleared his thoughts, lowered his feet to the floor, rubbed his face and looked over at the door. "That's right, I was able to get a room for the night." He thought as he closed his eyes. He thought about his memories. Nothing about the village had seemed familiar, but then again, it was dark. Maybe if he saw the village again it would spark memories. "That is if I've visited here before. I'm not even sure if I have or not." Zephirien stood up slowly, walked over to the closet and pulled his clothes out of his small pack and started to dress.
Zephirien paused from pulling his shirt over his head. "Did I dream about something last night?" He thought as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Something about hunting, and a girl." He shook his head and continued to get dressed when he heard pots clanging and smelt smoke.
He hoped everything was okay downstairs, so he quickly made his way out of his rented room, and down the steep stairs to the first floor of the cabin. "Er, James?" he called heard coughing, "In the kitchen, Zeph."Zephirien raised his eyebrows slightly. James didn't seem to forget the nickname he had given to Zephirien, and in a weird kind of way, He liked how it had added a personal touch to his name. He walked through the livingroom to the kitchen area and that's when the smoke hit him.
Through the thick black smoke Zephirien saw James fanning the air with his hand while trying to run pans from the stove to the sink that was being filled with cool water from the pump. He stifled the urge to cough. "What happened?" James was still coughing and trying to get the pots and pans to the now full sink. He hadn't heard the question that Zephirien had called out. James coughed once more before backing away and standing beside Zephirien, both of them were now gazing at the damage. The walls were a little black from smoke, and the floor was covered with water. James had put the flaming toast out with several cups of water and most of it had ended up on the floor.
James was still trying to figure out how it caught fire in the first place when Zephirien repeated his question.
"What happened?"
James blushed. "Well, I don't really rent out my spare room often, and I kinda wanted to make breakfast for you, but-"
"-but it caught on fire?"
"No." James paused and thought about what he had just said, "Well, yes. It caught on fire." He said defeatedly. "I don't know what we're going to eat for breakfast, now. I've ruined the bread."
"What were you trying to make?" "Toast."
Zephirien looked at James in disbelief.
"What?" James put his hands in the air. "Don't look at me like that! Nobody ever taught me how to cook, okay? It's not my fault!."
"How do you eat, then?"
"I either eat dinner with other families, or I buy something from the bakery." James admited.
Zephirien chuckled and walked over to the burnt pots in the sink. James stared at the taller man. He turned his head and looked at James. "You know, I can make really good crepes. If you have eggs, flower, milk, and maybe some fruit I can make some for breakfast." James gathered all of Zephirien's needed ingredients then placed them on the table next to the stove.
"Good." Zephirien started by placing a clean pan on the stove, then opened the door in the bottom of the black box to stoke the fire underneath. He went back to the pan to make sure it was hot enough before mixing the ingredients. James opened the back door of his cottage to air out the house of smoke, then sat at the table
James watched in facination as Zephirien flipped the crepes in silence. Once he had made enough for the two of them to eat, Zephirien filled them with crushed blueberries and sugar.
They both sat down at a table in the corner of the kitchen and ate their crepes. James thanked him for the meal and told him that it was delicious before asking him about his accomodations.
"How did you sleep last night? Was the bed comfortable?"
"I slept well, thank you." Zephirien nodded as he took another crepe from the plate and took a bite.
"Good. And hey, don't worry about payment for today. The first night is on me." "Actually," Zephirien said with his mouth slightly full, "I have been meaning to talk to you about that." He swallowed. "I don't have enough money for a room."
"Oh? I'm sure we could work something out." Zephirien nodded in agreement. "Let's see." James thought outloud. "I guess I do need things done around here." Zephirien nodded and looked at the nearly destoyed kitchen. "I also need some work done around the outside of the house, if you're up for it."
"Deal."
"Great." James smiled. "How long do you plan to stay in town, anyways?" He asked casually.
Zephirien looked out the open door that faced what looked to be the back yard of the cabin. "I'm not sure. Maybe a few months."
James smiled. "Well good, but watch out, now. This village can grow on you. I remember when I came here six months ago, I was sure that I was only going to stay a few weeks, but those weeks had turned into months." "I'll take that into consideration." Zephirien smiled.
James sighed and clapped his hands. "Zeph, the breakfast was great. Thank you for that, again, that meal was better than most I've had in months. I'd absolutely love to stay, but I've got to leave for work in a few minutes. Now, if you'd like to come with me to the village and have a look around, you are more than welcome. If you want to stay here and just rest, you are also welcome to that, too." James opened his arms wide, "Whatever you want to do is fine, I just figured if you'd like to look around the village a little, you could."
"I'll go with you."
"Alright," James slid out of his chair and walked into the livingroom. "All I have to do is grab some things, and I'm ready to leave when you are." He said as he jogged up the stairs.
"I'm ready to go."
James jogged back down the stairs after grabbing his bag, "Let's go, then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Z&J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The walk to town was much different than the trip he had made with James to get to the cabin. The sun warmed and illuminated everything in its path, the birds were singing and the bumble bees were hard at work collecting pollen. Zephirien marveled at the stark contrast to his journey the night before which was dark, cool and quiet. He tried to clue in on the landscape to see if it would trigger any memory, but nothing came to him, so he put his memories at the back of his mind so he could pay attention to what James was talking about.
"-and I swore that was the last time I'd ever get a mug stuck on my face. I've tried to stay away from mugs ever since." Zephirien laughed. "So I take it you're a very clumsy person."
James looked him quickly knitting his eyebrows. "I'm not VERY clumsy," He crossed his arms and looked away, "inanimate objects are out to get me, that's all." Zephirien chuckled as he thought about being in the bar the previous night. How James had willingly approached him and offered him, a stranger, into his home without further thought. Zephirien liked James. He seemed like a really nice guy, but was there such thing as 'too nice'? Zephirien eyed the smaller man while they walked. James looked at him and smiled.
"James,"
"Yes?"
"Why did you approach me at the bar?"
James didn't speak for a moment. "Well, you looked like you felt out of place, like you were lost. I thought I'd offer my help if you wanted it." James smiled then looked ahead down the winding dirt road. "Actually, you remind me of a friend of mine who passed away."
Zephirien showed no emotion and glanced at James.
"Who is he?" He asked quietly. James looked up at Zephirien before smiling again.
"Gaston was my best friend. We went everywhere together. I'll admit, now that I look back on it, he was a little bossy," James smiled, "but I was still his right-hand man."
"What happened? You keep using the past tense."
"He passed away." Zephirien's eyes widened slightly as he heard this. "There's a huge chance that people think that I'm dead right now," he thought as he studied the ground. "And, I remind you of him?" Zephirien asked casually trying to sound indifferent.
"Well," James looked at him, "in the face you do, but not in the body build." James looked at Zephirien's right leg. "He didn't have a leg injury, either. I'd say you're about as tall as him, but I don't think his hair was as coarse, and he had worked out and hunted constantly. He had huge muscles" James started smiling again, "He could do anything, shoot anything, or have any girl he wanted. He was very confident and sometimes a little cocky. " He chuckled. "But God forbid you ever go against him or threaten his masculinity." His smile diminished and was replaced with a sigh of regret.
Zephirien refused to push the smaller man any further, so he looked forward and kept walking. He remembered looking in the mirror and seeing something like that image; hair slicked back into a ponytail, large muscles, a cocky grin adorning his own face as he gazed at himself. He didn't remember James, though. He took another quick glance at James before looking at the side of the road. Being around James wasn't triggering any memories, either, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.
They walked out from the shadow of the trees into the large circle of main shops. He saw several other buildings outside of the circle sitting here and there behind the central stores. There were only a few people who walked through the street and some who were standing in front of the shops talking with their friends.
"I work over there." James pointed to a building on the other side of the circle. "It's the village wood shop. If you need me, I'll be in there. Just ask for me and I'm sure they'll let you in the back." With that, James walked off.
Zephirien decided to start at the shop to the left of him. As he came around to the front of the shop, he walked past the windows and slowed his pace as he glanced inside. It appeared to be a hardware store. Zephirien opened the door and walked inside looking at the different items that lined the walls and shelves. The elderly owner looked up from behind his counter and smiled warmly. "Welcome to my shop, if there's anything you need assistance with, please don't hesitate to ask."
"Thank you," Zephirien said as he looked towards the counter, "I'm just looking."
"That's fine, if you need anything, just ask."
There were all sorts of tools for farming and keeping livestock. Zephirien often asked questions, glancing at the shop keeper as he did so, but he sensed that the owner was getting slightly annoyed by his questions since he was only looking and not buying. Zephirien left the shop without a word and started towards the next shop when he saw a couple of rockingchairs occupied by two elderly ladies. They glanced his way for a moment before returning back to whatever juicy gossip they were sharing with eachother. He passed by tall windows and tried to peer in, but was unable to see inside, so he continued to the door. He passed by the first woman who was rocking slowly in her chair. He nodded and made a small greeting to both of them before entering the shop.
It had seemed that he had walked into a book store. His eyes went from the rows and rows of books to the young gentleman behind the counter to the left of the store. Light streamed in through tall windows that lined both sides of the long shop. Zephirien took another glance at the shop keeper. He was obviously younger and shorter than Zephirien, and he had brown hair and eyes and was currently organizing stacks of books. He looked up and gave practically the same welcome the other elderly gentleman gave. "Hi, My name is Kelvin, if you need any assistance, I'll be here at the desk."
Zephirien nodded, "Thanks."
He felt as though he were breaking a spell with his heavy books thumping loudly on the hardwood floor. Not knowing he wasn't alone, As he was shocked when he passed by a group of three girls who looked up abruptly as soon as they saw him and giggled. Not finding the fact that he was the object of their attention very appealing, he soon found himself leaving the shop to cross the road to the next shop which looked to be a bakery. Zephirien casually walked across the road, cane in hand, to the shop that had baskets of bread and rolls in front.
Then the wonderful scent hit him.
His mouth watered and his stomach growled as he looked at the treats that sat just on the other side of the window.
Meanwhile, the girls from the book shop had peered out of the door of the book shop to watch the stranger walk into the bakery. When they saw him disappear into the shop, they decided to follow him.
Once he had entered the shop, he looked at the baskets full of pasteries, loaves of regular, braided bread and bagels. He pulled out a few coins from his pocket and paid for a small strawberry filled pastery. He backed out through the open door, pastery in hand and turned around almost instantly running into the three girls who had followed him from the bookstore.
"Hello, what's your name?" The brunett in the middle of the other two blondes giggled. The blondes smiled and waited for Zephirien to answer.
He looked away with indifference. Maybe these girls would take a hint and just leave. "I just wanted to look around town alone. I'm not interested in company."
He could see that he currently held the attention of the ladies on the porch across the street. They had stopped rocking and both whispered to eachother while keeping their eyes locked on the spectacle. "No doubt planning my wedding." he thought bitterly and sighed. His attention was brought back down to the girls who were talking to him. He hadn't paid attention to what they were saying.
"Aw, are you shy?" One of the blondes teased as the other blonde suddenly grabbed his arm and he froze. She looked up at him and smiled it made him want to squirm out of her grasp but he stifled the urge and was about to ask that she let go before he suddenly heard heavy footsteps behind him.
"Excuse me, what are you doing to my girlfriend?" Zephirien turned his head slowly.
"Great." he thought. Behind him stood obviously one of the girls' boyfriends. And he wasn't small, either. Zephirien sighed in exaspiration. "Whatever." He mumbled as he shrugged out of their grasp and started towards the wood shop. He had walked about five feet before the man laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. Zephirien heard one of the girls gasp. He turned around obviously irritated and stared at the man.
"What?" "You did the wrong thing messing with my girl. You'd better leave this town before you find yourself wishing you never came here."
Zephirien glared at the bigger man. "I don't take too kindly to threats. Especially when it's just over a misunderstanding. You should have a good long talk with your girlfriend who approached me and flirted with me. Maybe it's because you're a lousy boyfriend." "What did you just say to me?" "That's enough, Trent." Zephirien looked to his right to see a man around his age. He wore a disapproving expression and had his arms crossed, bow slung around his shoulder. "Save your energy for Tournament Week, okay?" The young man who Zephirien supposed to be Trent looked like he was about to yell at the man standing off to the side, but he bit his tongue and glared at Zephirien before turning on his heels and leaving. The man approached him slowly giving Zephirien a good chance to look at him. He was a little shorter than Zephirien but was more built. He looked like he had just come back from hunting, he had a quiver of arrows on his back, and in his right hand he held a bow. "Sorry about Trent, he's a little over enthusiastic about who's on top in this town."
"It's fine. I guess that explains the temper." Putting his bow in his left hand, he held out his right and smiled. "I'm Alex. I'm the owner of the tavern here in Hanley Page." Zephirien shook his hand. "Zephirien. I'm renting a room from James." He pointed at the wood shop that was behind him. "Oh, yeah? It's about time ol' Lefou rented out that room. He's been advertising for months."
"Lefou?"
Alex raised his eyebrows. "Oh, you didn't know? People used to call him that before he moved here. He told us he wanted to be called by his real name, so we've called him James ever since." He laughed, "Sometimes we refer to him as Lefou when he's not around, it suits him so well. He really is a clutz. I mean, have you seen him do anything?" Zephirien smiled a little. "Yeah, he tried to cook me breakfast this morning."
Alex pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's where the smoke was coming from. How bad was it?" Zephirien chuckled. "Small fire. Not too bad, but it was nice that he offered to make me breakfast for my first nights stay. So, you've gotta give him credit for that."
Alex nodded his head then looked over his shoulder. "I've got to get back to the tavern. Well, it was nice to meet you, Zephirien. If anybody else gives you trouble, just tell them that they can take it up with me."
"Appreciate it." They nodded goodbye, and Zephirien ate his pastery as he made his way to the wood shop.
~~~~~~~~Z&J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zephirien approached the wood shop. He pushed open the door and looked around the dusty interior. Wooden furniture was stacked in random places along the wall, and wooden toys were set on shelves in the window display. Zephirien heard loud banging in the back. "Hello? James?"
"Coming!" Zephirien continued to look at the toys in the window display. He heard a loud thump and a quick "I'm okay."
Zephirien walked over and looked behind the counter to see James starting to pick himself up. He could tell that James had been hard at work. Wood chips were everywhere on his clothes and in his hair and his worker's apron was tied securely around his waste.
"Hey, Zeph. How did it go?"
Zephirien looked at James bewildered. "Wai- Wha- Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." He smiled.
Zephirien decided not to tell James about the confrontation. It was already over, and there was no use in worrying the young man, so he responded with a quick, "Okay." before looking at the puppet once more.
"I made that."
"Really? All by yourself? You did a really good job." Zephirien leaned in closer to the puppet, hardly believing someone as clumsy as James could make something so detailed.
"Well, I had a little help from Griegory."
"Your boss?"
"Yeah."
Zephirien nodded.
"Want to take an early lunch?" James asked looking up from behind the counter. "My treat." He said with a smile. Zepherien looked up at James and he caught Zephirien smile a little before responding with a quiet "Sure."
~~~~~~~~~~~Z&J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zephirien noticed that there were still a few people in the bakery, but walking in with James made it much more tolerable. James walked ahead and spoke quietly with the baker before motioning to a few chairs in the corner where there weren't many people. The back wall was lined with rows of packaged bread and the left side of the store's wall consisted of a wall of windows. James sat down and motioned for Zephirien to sit down right across from him.
"So," he turned back to James, "I hear there's some sort of tournament."
"Yeah, there's different tournaments held on each of tournament week. It's a big deal, here. Almost all of the men compete. " James sighed.
"Are you going to compete?" James laughed.
"Yeah, I'm pretty okay with a bow and arrow. The archery tournament is pretty much the only one I compete in, but all the other tournaments I don't compete in. I'm not as strong, and most of the men can be pretty competitive."
"What are the other competitions?" Zephirien questioned.
"There's hunting, archery, wrestling, weight lifting, and the horse race. There's one tournament for each day." James said as the baker brought out two plates and set them on the small round table. Zephirien looked at the bread and looked at James. "Looks good, what is it?" "Braided almond bread. It tastes really good."
Zephirien tore off a piece and popped it in his mouth. His eyes closed as he chewed slowly. "Yeah," he mumbled with his mouth full, "this is pretty good." He swallowed and leaned forward to take another piece into his mouth. He suddenly stopped chewing and looked out the window to see someone walking beside the window. Zephirien sat up in his chair and watched him enter the bakery.
The elderly gentleman walked hunched over to the counter to order what he wanted from the baker. He had a few tufts of white hair, a white scraggly beard, and small glasses perched on his long nose. Everything about the elderly gentleman seemed really familiar. James looked at Zephirien perplexed until he followed his line of sight to where the elderly gentleman stood ordering his food.
"Oh, that's Mr. Epstein. He owns the book store here in our town." Zephirien tore his eyes away from the elderly man to James to resume their quiet snack only to find James calling the old man to their table.
"Mr. Epstein!"
"Hello, James. Who's your friend?" Zephirien looked up at the elder a little surprised at how he had moved over to their table so fast. The man's eyes grew a little bigger once he got a good look at who he was standing beside. "Er-" "Mr. Epstein, this is Zephirien, he's renting out my spare bedroom for a few months. Zeph, this is Mr. Allen Epstein." James introduced the two.
"It's nice to meet you, Zephirien. My, that's quite a name you have there."
Zephirien looked into his eyes before explaining. "I was named after the West." Mr. Epstein smiled.
"So, you live here?" Zephirien questioned.
"No, I live in the next country over." Zephirien raised his eyebrows as the elder clarified, "My town is just inside my country, and Hanley Page is just a few days travel outside of the border. So its not that bad of a distance to travel every once in a while." Zephirien nodded his head in comprehension. "So you own two book stores?"
"Yes, I do own two shops, but I let Kelvin manage this shop for me since traveling can be such a burden on an old clunker like me." He chuckled.
"So what made you make the trip this time?"
"I'm here for Tournament Week. When I was your age, I used to compete in the tournaments. Now I just watch, but it's definitely worth seeing the competition." Zephirien smiled. "When is it being held?"
"It's next week. There's plenty of time to register, Zephirien, if you're interested in competing." The elderly gentleman put a soft hand on his shoulder.
"Why don't you eat with us, Mr. Epstein?" James piped up.
"Aw, I wouldn't want to bother you two with my company, I was just about to run over to see how Kelvin is holding down the fort." He smiled and patted James's shoulder, "See you boys later."
"James, I think I'm going to register for the archery and hunting tournament." Zephirien said as he munched on his almond bread.
James smiled. "Go for it."
My thanks to my reviewers:
girltechcoyote
Serenity74
blackrising
(A/N:) I await your reviews. I swear to you loyal readers, I read each of your reviews, and I tried my VERY HARDEST to keep everyone in character and to incorporate each of your ideas. I don't think you guys will realize HOW HARD I worked on this chapter. I really hope it showed.
I actually think that you'll see Zephirien act more in character in the next chapter, but I think I'm getting better. I hope you approve. If you don't, PLEASE tell me where I went wrong, and I will edit this chapter to better suit Gaston's personality.
I know you guys think he's out of character, but personally, I think if you've lost your memories and sustained a serious leg injury to where you can't be physical like you once were, and your physical appearance changed so drastically, SURE pride can go straight to hell. But that's my opinion. I really don't think he'd be all high and mighty anymore... _
I do think that he still has pride, but definitely not as much as he did. Anyways, I had to stop this chapter in such a weird place. It was getting SO LONG. O_O
Chapter five won't take as long, I promise.
Oh, Please review. Even if it's criticism, I don't mind. Just review. It makes me write faster, and it makes me happy. ^ ^
~Caroline~
