Hi. :) Uh... I really don't have anything to say. ^.^;
Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, any of its characters, or Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
Prisoner
Chelsea and Gustave rode through the forest as fast as they could, Chelsea closely following the same route her father usually took on his way to Paris. As she prepared to make a left turn when they passed the LaRose family farm, however, Gustave kept trying to go straight.
"Gustave!" Chelsea scolded, frustrated with how uncooperative the horse was being. "We have to go left! That's the way to Paris!"
Gustave just shook his head, and kept trying to go straight.
"Why do you want to go straight?" Chelsea asked, pulling hard against the reins to make him go left. "That isn't the right way!"
Gustave neighed loudly, and with a spurt of sudden energy, began running straight.
"Gustave!" Chelsea screamed, alarmed at the sudden quick movement as she nearly fell off the horse. "Stop! Stop!"
Of course, Gustave didn't listen and kept running until he reaches the large, grassy field with spooky-looking forest on the other side of it.
"Gustave, is this the way that you and Papa went?" Chelsea asked, leaning into the horse's neck.
He neighed and started running again, across the wide field towards the forest.
Once they reached the edge where the field disappeared and the trees started, Gustave began to trot along a thin dirt path covered in roots and rocks. The two travelled along the path until the same fork in the road that Laurent and Gustave had just the day before.
Staring up at the unreadable signs, Chelsea asked the horse, "Which way did you go after this?"
Doubting the horse would understand her, she was surprised when he started walking off to the right.
"I wonder where Papa could be..." Chelsea wondered, looking around for any sign of movement or life.
The sun was starting to set, and the cover of the trees only made it darker. Chelsea was finding it harder and harder to see where she was going and what she was looking at.
Suddenly, the trees seemed to shrink away and a huge wrought-iron gate appeared. Chelsea brought Gustave to a stop, and stared up at the gate and the brick wall that ran off both sides of it.
"Do you think Papa went in here?" she asked to no one in particular. Without hesitating, she jumped off Gustave and walked up to the gate.
It took a while for Chelsea to push the gate open, and when she did, she stared up at the castle set before her in awe. It was magnificent and absolutely gorgeous, despite the eerie haunted feeling it gave off.
"Look at this place, Gustave!" she exclaimed, grabbing the horse's reins and pulling him through the gate with her. "Papa could be inside! Do you think anyone lives there? It doesn't look like it..."
Leading Gustave across the large stone bridge, she didn't pay attention to the fast rushing river that it crossed; Chelsea couldn't take her eyes off the castle. When she reached the large front doors, they pushed open easily. Making sure Gustave was tied tightly to one of the door handles, she walked inside.
The entrance hall was just as grand as the outside of the castle; a huge staircase stood at the end, and a large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling.
"Papa?" Chelsea called softly, looking around the hall. "Papa, are you here?"
No one answered; it was completely silent.
Upstairs in the kitchen, however, it was a totally different story. There was noise everywhere; talking, clanking, bubbling.
"Oh, it really is a sin, what happened to that poor old man, Laurent," Mrs. Yolanda was saying as she supervised some dishes washes themselves.
"Yes, yes it is," said the stove, who was cooking and baking several different things at once.
"And how Taro blames Elliot is just terrible..." Mrs. Yolanda continued, giving a plate that had gotten out of the tub still dirty an evil eye.
"Oui, oui," the stove said, distracted by the three pots he was boiling.
"I just hope-." The teapot was cut off by Taylour hopping into the room.
"Mama! Mama!" he cried, jumping up and down in front of Mrs. Yolanda. "There's a girl in the castle! I saw her! I saw her!"
"Oh, Taylour, there isn't anybody in the castle," Mrs. Yolanda said, chuckling at her son's story. "Now into the tub with you."
She nudged him towards the tub of soapy water.
"But it's true, Mama!" Taylour protested as he tumbled into the tub. "I saw her! I really did!"
"Oh, Taylour, enough with your tall tales!" Mrs. Yolanda scolded.
Suddenly, a feather duster was rushing into the kitchen.
"A girl! A girl!" she exclaimed gleefully. "There's a girl in the castle!"
"See?" Taylour said matter-of-factly, diving into the water.
Just outside the kitchen, Taro and Elliot were standing on a table, arguing.
"What happened to that man is all your fault!" Taro was saying, pacing around his grandson on the table. "I told you not to talk to him, and what do you do? You talk to him!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Elliot said. "But if I hadn't done what I did, the master would have found him and it would have just turned out worse!"
"For him, yes, but not for us!" Taro yelled, jumping like a child throwing a tantrum. "We would have gotten off just fine!"
"That's really selfish, you know!" Elliot said, shocked at himself for being so bold. And to his grandfather, none the least!
"I don—!"
But a voice, a new voice they Elliot and Taro had never heard before, cut across the old clock. All of a sudden, a girl, no older than eighteen, was walking in front of them, calling for someone.
"Papa?" she called, looking around. "Papa?"
Taro looked at Elliot, and putting a finger to his lips, motioned for the candelabrum to follow him. Taro quietly walked off after the girl, making sure he nor Elliot was seen.
"Hello?" she called. "Papa, are you here?"
"Hey!" Elliot whispered, poking his grandfather.
"What?" Taro whispered, annoyed.
"Do you think maybe her father is the old man?" he suggested, looking incredulously at the girl.
"What, no, of course I-."
But Elliot was already hopping off towards the girl.
"Elliot!" Taro called quietly, hoping that the girl wouldn't hear him. "Elliot, come back here this instant!"
The candelabrum ignored his grandfather, and instead hopped quietly past the girl, towards the dungeon door.
Chelsea, who thought she heard someone talking and something moving, looked around the dark castle. But she couldn't see anything or anyone. Suddenly, however, a wooden door just ahead of her was creaking open, as if somebody was pushing it.
"Hello?" she called out softly, scared. "Who's there?"
Slowly, Chelsea walked towards the open door and poked her head inside. There were no people inside the doorway, which led up a long set of winding stone steps. A gentle light was shining a few steps up, but it quickly disappeared.
Chelsea gasped, and hurried up the stairs after the light.
"Hey!" she called. "Where are you? Come back!"
She soon caught up to the shining light, but there wasn't anybody there; just a candelabrum, whose tallest candle eerily resembled a face.
"That's strange," Chelsea said, gazing around the staircase. "I could have sworn there was somebody up here..."
But before she could ponder over the subject any more, she heard a voice. It was a quiet voice which sounded injured and weak.
"H-Hello?" it was calling. "W-Who's there?"
Chelsea gasped again, and ran up the rest of the stairs, pushing open the door at the top. Behind the door was a large room filled with wooden doors that had small rectangular holes near the bottom covered in metal bars. In one of the rooms a man was pressing his face against the metal bars, his arm hanging out of it.
"Papa!" Chelsea cried, rushing forward towards the man. "Oh, Papa, what happened to you?"
"Chelsea," Laurent rasped, grabbing his daughter's arm. "Chelsea... You need to get out of here! Quickly!"
"Why? I can't leave you here!" Chelsea exclaimed as her father let out a shaking cough. "You're too sick!"
"There's no time to explain! You need to get out of here!" Laurent said, ignoring Chelsea's pleas. "Now!"
"Papa, I-."
But before Chelsea could answer, someone had grabbed the back of her cloak and was pulling her away from her father. They then threw her back on the ground so that she was facing her.
Looking up into the face of the person who had attacked her, Chelsea let a small scream, but quickly covered her mouth.
The Beast glared down at her, anger visible on every feature of his terrifying face.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he snarled.
"I-I was looking for my father," Chelsea stammered, sliding backwards while still facing the Beast, until she hit the wall beside her father's cell. His icy purple eyes sliced at her, and she felt that if she told a lie he would know. "I-I'm sorry."
The Beast didn't say anything, but continued to look down at her.
"P-Please, can you let him go?" Chelsea begged, clasping her hands in front of her as if she were praying. "He's really sick, and... and he could die!"
"I don't care," the Beast growled, turning his back on Chelsea and Laurent. "He should not have trespassed, and neither should you!"
Chelsea bit her lip, thinking. She needed to save her father, before it was too late.
"Take me instead!" she cried, falling forward onto her hands and knees.
"Chelsea, no!" Laurent cried, but his daughter ignored him.
"What?" the Beast asked, turning to face Chelsea again. There was a tiny glint of hope and shock in his eyes, but it was quickly gone before Chelsea could notice it.
"Let my father go, and take me instead," she repeated, lifting her hands off the cold stone ground.
The Beast thought for a moment. If the girl stayed in place of her father then... there could be hope of breaking the spell!
"Fine," he said, swiftly unlocking Laurent's cell door. Before Chelsea could speak to her father, however, the Beast had grabbed Laurent by the back of his shirt and was carrying him out of the tower, towards the front door. Once outside, he roughly threw the old man into an old carriage, slamming the door behind him.
"Take him to the village," he ordered gruffly. The carriage suddenly came to life, and carried Laurent away from the castle, and Chelsea.
Back in the tower, Chelsea had rushed towards the nearest window and was watching the carriage wheel her father away, sobbing.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye..." she said softly when the Beast appeared behind her.
A little guilty, the Beast looked uncomfortably at the floor, but quickly regained himself.
"Come on," he said, grabbing the candelabrum Chelsea had seen on the stairs. "I'll show you to your room."
The brunette nodded meekly, and slowly followed the Beast out of the dungeons and through the castle hallways. She kept having the strangest feeling she was being watched, but blamed it on the creepy gargoyles, statues, and paintings that decorated the castle. They depicted monsters; hideous, vile creatures that stared down at you with malicious and deceitful eyes.
"You can go anywhere you want in the castle," the Beast said, somewhat awkwardly, as they walked on. "Except the West Wing; that is forbidden."
"Why is it-?" Chelsea began, but the Beast cut her off.
"It is forbidden." He said sharply, glaring at her.
"Don't be so mean."
The face on the candelabrum had suddenly started talking, but Chelsea was too busy staring horror-struck at a mural showing a group of half a dozen vicious creatures attacking a human.
"But-." The Beast started angrily.
"Kindness," the candelabrum said, cutting across him. "Be kind to her."
The Beast sighed heavily, and, a bit relunctantly, looked over his shoulder at Chelsea and muttered, "I'm sorry..."
Chelsea looked up, startled.
"O-Oh," she said after realizing it was the Beast who had spoken to her and not anyone else. "Thank you..." She looked silently at her hands and walked on.
They soon reached a pair of grand pale wood doors with elaborate gold decorations winding all around the edges and on the handles. The decorations were of twisting vines with sparkling leaves and roses with sharp, thorny stems.
Chelsea hesitantly grabbed one of the handles and slowly pushed it open. When she turned to look at the Beast, she saw that he had gone.
She looked down the hallway both ways and, after making sure he wasn't around anywhere, ran into the room, closing the door behind her and looking it. She then threw herself onto the large king-sized four-poster bed, and sobbed herself to sleep.
:c
In case you, for some reason, didn't figure it out, the candelabrum talking to the Beast is Elliot. Yeah. ^.^