Ok AkaDeca I heard your plea.
Chapter 10: thoughts.
Adam sat in his room quietly, after the disaster at dinner he was slowly coming to grips with who his new master might be. He leaned back and spread his arms out on the blue silk sheets, so far he had a head ache. So things in this castle came to life? Was his bed alive?
"Well are you?" he said poking at the sheets.
"Am I what?"
Adam yelped as he scrambled off the bed "You are alive!"
"Not the bed you ninny!"
Adam looked around for the source of the voice and was startled when a large wardrobe in the corner of the room began to move forward.
"It is I! Madame de la Grande Bouche!" The Wardrobe proudly stated with a flourish of swinging dresser doors.
"Er...Who?" Adam asked confused, his heart pounding as he stepped back. He wasn't so comfortable with such a large furnishing thrusting about with...well life.
"Madame de la Grande Bouche!" She cried affronted. "The castle's authority over fashion!"
"Um..." Adam was thankfully rescued by a knock at his door.
"Who is it?" He called nervously, praying to God it wasn't his new Mistress.
"Mrs. Potts, dear." He heard from outside the door.
Mrs. Potts?
The door opened and a breakfast cart came rolling in.
"I thought you might like a spot of tea. Its good for after dinner digestion." The voice came from the most adorable little pot that Adam had ever seen. Made from porcine and painted with golden trim, Adam watched as she poured a cup of steaming tea for him.
Adam was amazed at the fact that he was listening to a talking tea set.
"But you...ah...but...I-"
He backed up and bumped into the wardrobe.
"Oof. Careful Handsome!"
Adam backed up again and sat on his bed. "Im sorry this is just impossible- I had a hard time believing that the candle sticks and the dusters were alive but...now...this is just impossible."
The wardrobe waddled over to his bed and leaned her 'shoulder' on bed, popping other end up and Adam into the air.
"I know it is, but here we are! The impossible."
Adam heard a third voice pipe up. "Told ya he was good looking, mama, didn't I?"
It was a child's voice no older than maybe 7. Adams attention was drawn back to the tea pot as she poured cream and sugar into a small tea cup.
"All right, now, Chip. That'll do. The young man needs his tea. "
The little tea cup turned on his cart and jumped down. Hopping over to the edge of his bed.
"Slowly, now. Don't spill!"
Adam who actually really could use a cup of tea to settle his stomach leaned down to pick up the tea.
"Thank you." Adam whispered. He looked at the little tea cup curiously, it had gold trim maching the pot and a little chip in the top rim that was cracked down to the bottom. Probably from him jumping around to much like his mother had warned him not to. He was about to take a sip of tea when the cup piped up again.
"Wanna see me do a trick?"
The little cup took a big breath, then puffed out his cheeks and blew bubbles out the top of the rim.
"Chip!" Mrs. Potts exclaimed admonishingly. "That's no way we treat our guests!"
"Its alright Mrs...Erm. Mrs. Potts. Im not really a guest." He turned back to the little tea cup, who was obviously a little child. "That was a really neat trick, Chip? Was it? I was impressed."
Chip smiled and jumped for joy at impressing his new found friend and spilled a bit of hot tea on Adams fingers. Adam cringed but he didn't say anything as he placed the little cup back down on the floor.
Mrs. potts cleared her throat a little.
"I know your situation might seem bleak now but you will learn to love it here."
Adam sighed. "But I've lost my father, my dreams, everything. All to be a slave for a little Beast."
"Cheer up, child. It'll turn out all right in the end. You'll see."
Adam was about to ask how when a authoritative voice came busting into the room.
"And what pray tell is going on here?"
Mrs. Potts looked up startled.
"Oops! Look at me, jabbering on, when there's a list of chores to get done. Chip!"
Chip followed his mother and hopped back onto the cart.
"Bye!" he called back to Adam as he rolled out of the room.
Adam stood and looked down to see a little clock who was now waddling in. He faintly remembered seeing the clock at dinner following his new mistress in and out.
"Monsieur I am Cogsworth. I am the Princess butler. I keep a watchful eye on the castle's servants, making sure that everything is running to The Mistresses liking. Im am here to give you further instructions concerning your new jobs."
"Alright."
"As the Princess said at dinner your new duties will be to join her for SUPERVISED walk each day around noon, preferably in the gardens, then you shall Accompany the Mistress to dinner each night. What you do with the rest of your time is neither here nor there. Do we understand each other?"
"Yes."
"Now if are to be living here you must understand that-"
"Cogsworth there you are I have been looking everywhere for you!"
The clock rolled its eyes before it turned to a candlestick rushing into his room. "Oh Lumiere what is it now?"
"Can I not just seek you out my old friend? We have not seen each other in ages!"
"I just saw you 5 minutes ago in the hallway!"
"Like I said, ages!"
The Clock frowned as he was pushed aside. "Now that we had gotten the reunion out of the way let me talk to the newest member of our household. Monsieur Adam how are you liking everything? Good yes? I was so busy at dinner that I didn't really get to know you! And I said to my self, Lumiere that is no way to treat a new friend!"
"Ah, ah, ahem. Lumiere I have everything under control. You need to leave." He said pushing the candle towards the door."
"Oh but Cogsworth have a heart, the poor your man must need a friend!" Lumiere said leaning his full weight on the clock.
"You are not going to be that friend." Cogsworth huffed as he tried to push the candle further out the door.
"Oh Cogsworth If you are jelious, don't be, Lumiere can be a friend to all!"
"No. No. No Im sure the young man is tired and wishes to go to bed."
The one sided fight between the two made Adam smile, lightening his mood.
"Oh, I couldn't possibly go to bed now. It's my first time in an enchanted castle." Adam said winking at the candle.
"Enchanted?!" The clock turned back to adam very quickly letting the candle stick fall to the floor. "Who said anything about the castle being enchanted?"
He coughed nervously.
He turned to Lumiere who had just gotten up and was dusting himself off. "It was you, wasn't it!" He scolded under his breath.
"I, um, figured it out for myself."
Cogsworth threw nasty a look at Lumiere who in turn sniffed his nose in the air, a smile playing at his lips.
" Actually if you say I can do what ever I please when I'm not doing my duties, I'd like to look around, if that's all right." Adam asked hesitantly, unsure how much freedom he actually had.
Lumiere clapped his flames excitedly. "Oh! Would you like a tour?"
"Wait a second, wait a second. I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Cogsworth whispered confidentially, to Lumiere. "We can't let him go poking around in certain places, if you know what I mean."
"If its to much trouble you don't have to do it. I was just interested in learning about the building around me and well you seem like such a scholarly fellow, Perhaps you could take me? I'm sure you know everything there is to know about the castle." Adam smiled innocently, as he inflated the clocks ego. It wasn't to hard since he had to do it to with Gaston a time or two.
Cogsworth sputtered flattered. "Well, actually, ah yes, I do." He glanced toward a window and looked back to Adam. "Would you be interested in holding off tour of until the morning? It is quite late and you wouldn't be able to see the full grandeur of the palace."
"Well like I said I couldn't possibly go to bed now."
"He does seem wide awake." The wardrobe said returning to her corner of her room, "And like some people I need my beauty sleep! Just shut the door when you leave and be quiet when you return."
Adam looked to Cogsworth. "Well maybe just a tour of the inside then, and we can do out side tomorrow."
"Well then, That seems reasonable, I know just where to start!" He said turning on his little legs excitedly at the prospect of giving not one tour, but two.
Adam looked to Lumiere who smiled in return and followed the clock.
Turn after turn Adam was astounded at how large his new home was. Although aged, it seemed like a place you could house a army comfortably. So how had his new master come to live here? Was she a sorcerer that had found the place abandoned and made it her home? The star kept calling her a princess, but Adam could not recall a royal house hold living anywhere near here. Maybe she was princess to beasts. But then why wouldn't she have other creatures serving her instead of fine house hold items?
"As you can see, the pseudo facade was stripped away to reveal a minimalist rococo design. Note the unusual inverted vaulted ceilings. This is yet another example of the neo-classic baroque period, and as I always say, if it's not baroque, don't fix it! Ha ha ha. Now then, where was I? Ah yes, Now, if I may draw your attention to the flying buttresses above the- Monsieur?"
The clock turned back to the group and found that he was one boy short. Frantically his eyes scanned back down the hallway to see the boy standing in front of a grand stair case.
"Monsieur! He cried in panic as he and Lumiere ran up to him and jumped in front of his feet blocking any progress that he might have been made up the stairs.
"What's up there?"
"Where? Up there? Nothing. Absolutely nothing of interest at all in the West Wing. Dusty, dull, very boring."
"So that's the West Wing. Where my new master lives. Tell me is she always in such a ... Mood?" He asked remembering her snarling teeth at dinner.
The clock and the candle glanced at each other.
"The Mistress has her reasons." Lumiere said kindly.
"I wonder what She's hiding up there. Magic?"
"Hiding? The Princess is hiding nothing!" The clock said in her defense.
Adam nodded, but didn't believe a word that they where saying.
"Perhaps monsieur would like to see something else. We have exquisite tapestries dating all the way back to..."
Adam shook his head and frowned slightly. "Maybe later." He said folding his arms in disappointment. His mind spun and burned with curiosity. The beast girl had to be magic. It was the only explanation for everything that he had seen. He wanted to know.
Lumiere looked at Cogsworth, at a loss for the young mans sudden change in mood. "Maybe you would be interested in seeing the Portrait hall, or the library perhaps?"
Adams head snapped up with incredible interest.
"You have a library?"
Lumiere chuckled. "Oh yes! Indeed! one of the best in the world!" He said making a grand gesture.
"With books"! Cogsworth said trying to be helpful in getting the boys mind off of the West Wing.
"Gads of books!"
"Mountains of books!"
"Forests of books!
"Cascades-"
"-of books!"
"Swamps of books!"
"More books than you'll ever be able to read in a lifetime! Books on every subject ever studied, by every author who ever set pen to paper..."
Lumiere and Cogsworth begin marching off, and Adam began to follow. He was over the moon to hear that they had books. Maybe this whole situation would turn out for the better. He could give him self a education, like he had planned on doing in the first place. He could possibly teach himself the hows and whys of the world. And with his new found knowledge he could travel! He could go to every corner of the earth and...and...Nothing.
He wouldn't be able to leave. He was a slave now.
A slave to a beast.
Adam stopped in his tracks as the chattering tour guides put distance between them.
He suddenly didn't feel like reading.
He slowly turned and walked back down the hall to the east, specifically ignoring the West Wing, and kept walking. Heavy thoughts clouded his mind and rained sadness down to his heart. He.. he didn't know what to do.
He turned down a corridor that cut across a dance hall of some kind and stopped to look out a large glass window the night sky had fallen but Adam could see flashes in the distance, off the side of the mountains. Looks like they where going to get a storm. Great, weather to mach his mood. Perfect
He watched as small droplets of rain start to speckle the window. He sighed and leaned his forehead against the cool glass. What was he going to do.
He thought about catching up with Cogsworth and Lumiere. He didn't want to be rude, after all he was the one who had talked them into giving him a tour. But his heart was no longer in it. Spotting one of the duster maids. He politely asked her to find Cogsworth and to let him know that he had decided to go to bed.
Having made his decision to turn in, he rounded a corner caught a glimpse of a furry tail disappearing behind a door.
A reminder that he was probably being watched.