The rest of their time at Aristide's passed without any strange surprises or interruptions. The old man served them a hot stew for dinner, and then played some folk songs on his mandolin, many of which Belle and Maurice recognized and could sing along to. Adam, who hadn't grown up in a village like Belle and Maurice, was saved joining in by playing with Aristide's cat – Diotima, a chartreux cat with green eyes that he could have sworn twinkled gold in certain lights. He wasn't sure if this was a normal eye colour for a cat but decided to shrug it off. It had been many years since he'd seen what a cat looked like after all.
It wasn't until he retired to his room later that night that the prince finally had a chance to contemplate the story Aristide had told them earlier. An enchantress punishes a father for breaking a promise by turning his daughter into an ogre, with true love's kiss as her only way to become human again. A prince gets turned into a Beast as punishment for selfishness and has to win someone's love before his twenty-first birthday to be human again.
There had to be a connection between the stories, he thought. True, he'd never considered the idea that the enchantress went around cursing others, but he supposed it made sense - she was a magical being after all. Come to think of it, it was possible that both he and the girl's spell had been cast by the same enchantress and she'd assigned the same conditions for both of them. It was just a theory, but he had a feeling that Aristide might be able to verify it for him. The fact that he knew a bit about the nature of enchantresses had to mean he'd know something more about his curse - maybe he even knew how to break it!
With this encouraging thought in mind, the prince made his way downstairs, careful not to make too much noise passing Belle and Maurice's room. Aristide was no longer in the dining room, and the mandolin he'd been playing earlier was lying on the table along with their bowls still left out from dinner. This puzzled the prince. He hadn't heard the man come upstairs, had he gone out maybe?
"Meow!" The prince looked down to see Aristide's cat Diotima emerge from under the chair across from him. She gave him a long, piercing stare before she walked through the doorway to his right, leading him down a hallway towards a door at the back of the house. Outside, the prince found Aristide standing out in a meadow, looking up at the night sky as though searching for something.
"Oh hello there boy!" he said as he saw the prince approaching him. "Is something the matter?"
"Good evening Monsieur Aristide," the prince replied. "I was just wondering if I may have a word with you."
"Oh of course!" the old man said with a smile. "You'll have to forgive me, I was merely revelling in an old hobby of mine - stargazing. Call it what you will, divinity, dao, karma; it is my personal belief that all the greater mysteries of the world can be answered in the cosmos. You see those three stars over there?" he said as he pointed up to three stars in the sky, "That's the belt of Orion. He was a great hunter with an ego so huge; he challenged the Gods, claiming he could kill every single animal on Earth. Well, Mother Nature decided to put Orion to the test by sending a giant scorpion to earth to defeat him and boom! One sting to the heel and he was as dead as a door nail! And over there is Andromeda. She was a princess who was sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus for her beauty, and would have been killed if Perseus didn't save her," he pointed to a clump of stars on the left.
"Did Perseus kill Cetus?" the prince asked.
"Of course," Aristide replied. "Although some versions say that he used the severed head of Medusa to turn him into stone. You can see a part of her head there if you look closely."
The prince bit his lip. They'd only started this conversation and he already had a strong urge to change the subject. "Monsieur, you mentioned a story earlier this afternoon about an enchantress," he told him. "Do you know how I can get in contact with one?"
"My dear boy," Aristide replied, looking at him in surprise, "If it's a wish you seek, enchantresses aren't genies. They're cunning as thieves, they are. Remember what I said before? "
"I know. But it's not a spell that I need casting monsieur. It's a spell that needs undoing."
"Undoing you say?" Aristide repeated. "Well that's certainly something I've never heard before. What happened?"
"Well," the young man hesitated for a moment. "For one thing, I'm not exactly a traveller. I'm a prince."
"A prince? Oho, your majesty! I just knew there was something different about you!"
"Yes, yes," he looked back at the house nervously. "But please, don't say anything in front of them. They don't actually know I'm a prince."
"A prince in disguise, even better!"
"Shh!"
"Alright, alright, no need to be snappy!" said Aristide. "So then, you're a prince pretending not to be a prince and...?"
The prince hesitated. He had never told anyone outside the castle about his curse - not even Belle. But he supposed there was no harm in telling the old man his story. He was a hermit who lived alone in the woods after all. The only people he'd share his story with would be travellers who'd treat it with the same skepticism that Belle and her father did. With that thought in mind, he proceeded to tell Aristide about that cold winter's night from ten years ago, excluding any details about Maurice and keeping Belle as his prisoner.
Upstairs, Belle awoke from a nightmare to hear Adam and Aristide's voices outside her window. What was going on? Curiosity got the better of her, and she grabbed her peignoir and made her way downstairs.
"So let me understand this correctly," she heard Aristide say as she tiptoed along the side of the house. "This enchantress came back to break the spell on you, but the rest of your residents are still cursed?"
"Yes," Adam nodded.
"Well that's certainly a tricky piece of work isn't it? Did she at least say anything to you before she undid it? No hocus-pocus, abracadabra...?"
"Nothing except: the door is now open; it is simply a matter of finding the courage to walk through."
"Aha, a riddle! Can't say I'd know how to crack that one. Unless..."
"Unless?" Adam said anxiously.
"Well," Aristide scratched his beard for a moment. "I may be wrong, but a door might refer to a journey of sorts. And 'courage' – perhaps she expects you to overcome something. Is there something in your past, maybe? Some sort of chance you were afraid of taking, an opportunity you were afraid of facing?"
A vision of Belle came to the prince's mind, but he refused to say a word. That was just wishful thinking, and besides, he'd already promised himself that he wouldn't involve her in this, not again. "No. There isn't anything," he told him firmly.
"You're certain?" he raised an eyebrow at him quizzically.
"Yes, I'm certain."
Suddenly, Belle let out a shriek as something fuzzy rubbed against the front of her leg - Aristide's cat. Adam and Aristide turned around just in time to see Belle tumble from the bush she'd been hiding behind, the hem of her nightdress snagging on a branch as she fell face first into the grass.
"Mademoiselle!" Aristide exclaimed. "What a pleasant surprise!"
"What are you doing here?" Adam asked angrily.
"I'm sorry," Belle replied as she got to her feet, "I...," But before she could answer she was interrupted by a voice coming from the front of the house.
"Open up, right now! I know you're in there!"
The prince groaned as he recognized the familiar voice: Gaston. "Not again. Here, let me take care of him."
"No!" Artistide exclaimed. "I mean – don't worry about it. My niece is in there, she can distract him."
"Your niece?" Belle and Adam said together. Aristide had never mentioned that someone else was living in the house with him.
"It's alright," Aristide continued, his eyes seeming to glisten a strange shade of gold in the moonlight. "She can handle him. Now go upstairs and get your things. I'll meet you in the stables. Quickly now, come on!"
Adam was very confused, but he gave Belle a shove before they headed back into the house. The sooner they were away from that hunter, the better.
Of one thing Gaston was sure: this was the best beer he'd tasted in a long time, much better than any of the stuff they had back at the tavern. And even more delicious than the beer was the woman serving him, with long, flowing blonde hair, green eyes and a busty body to boot - beauty enough to rival his own wife's. If only she lived in his village, he knew he would marry her in a heartbeat.
"So," she said to him as she sat down at the table across from him, several tankards of beer at the ready, "What brings you to this part of the woods, monsieur...?"
"Gaston," Gaston replied. "Gaston Légume. I'm the best hunter in my village – heck, in this whole province, you know!"
"Really now?" the woman said, lifting an eyebrow as she propped her head up on her hands.
"Darn right!" Gaston replied, flashing her a dashing, debonair smile. "I've killed all kinds of creatures: wolves, bears, deer, bunchaglomps...,"
"You must be very brave to be able to take on so many beasts all by yourself, monsieur."
"What can I say? No one loves a good challenge like Gaston! Let me tell you about the time...,"
Back upstairs, Adam gathered what little items he'd unpacked in his room before he made his way back to the stable. Aristide had already bridled up Magnifique and Philippe, much to his surprise.
"How much do we owe you for the board?" Adam asked as he put his things back into Magnifique's saddlebags.
"No charge, no charge!" Aristide replied. "You answered my riddle correctly, so consider your stay on the house! Just tell me one thing: The old man's daughter back there is a fine specimen, certainly not a girl you come across every other day. Perhaps after you've finished this little side quest for your enchantress, you might invite her to your castle and get to know her a little better?"
The prince wasn't sure if Aristide was being serious or funny. He chose funny and forced himself to laugh. "Princes don't end up with peasants - only in fairy tales. Besides, her heart isn't mine to take."
"Ah, so its denial then, is it?"
"Huh?" he turned around, "No! It's nothing like that!"
"I understand, dear boy, no need to get angry," said Aristide. "Just remember one thing: you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour. And he conquers, who conquers himself."
"I'll consider that," the prince said with a curt nod. "Thank you."
Once Belle and her father arrived in the stables they packed up the rest of their things and said their goodbyes.
"Thank you for everything, Monsieur Aristide," Belle said as she gave the old man a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sorry we have to leave so suddenly. We had a wonderful time."
"Do not worry mademoiselle!" Aristide replied. "I'd rather that you be somewhere safe than be found by that vile man back there. At least he's distracted now, so you have some time to get out. If you take the back way through the woods there's a trail not far off you can use to get to the next village...Les Hermites I believe it's called."
"Thank you so much," said Maurice.
"Au revoir!" Belle called as she and her father mounted Philippe.
"Au revoir mes amis, and good luck on your quest!"
Quest. Some quest. Adam thought as they rode out from the house. It felt as though he were leaving with even more questions than before. How was he supposed to break the spell? If the enchantress was expecting him to complete a journey, what was he meant to find at the end of it?
It wasn't until they were out in the woods that he noticed exactly how bright Perseus's constellation looked against the night sky.
Gaston had lost track of how many beers he'd drank by this point. The woman, what was her name again? Diane? Danielle? Kept asking him questions which he answered with ease, even long after LeFou had fallen asleep in the chair beside him. No one was a better smooth talker than Gaston, that was for sure. He was just recounting the story of his recent defeat of the Beast and the jealous man who had kidnapped his wife when the woman suddenly interrupted him.
"Hang on a moment. You'd actually kill this man to get your fiancée back?"
Kill. Had he said that right? He couldn't even remember. This fact amused him and he started to laugh. "Well only if necessary," he told her. "But you need to understand...its fate that the girl and I be together. I'd do anything to make her mine."
"Wouldn't it be easier to get to know a few girls back in your village and marry one of them?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Easier, yes," he replied, "But not better! I'm the best man in town so that means I deserve the best! I'm not about to give up just because some guy thinks he can outsmart me. That's why I killed the beast in the first place, you know. Belle liked that monster more than me, so I had to stop him."
"I see," she said, her eyes shimmering gold for a moment. "You are truly an obstinate man, Monsieur Gaston."
Gaston didn't know what "obstinate" meant exactly, but he was so drunk by this point she might have called him a cold-blooded killer and he still would have taken it as a compliment. "Darn right," he said confidently. "And one thing I know for sure, no one wins like Gas...," his eyes rolled back in his head, "...ton."
The young woman continued to stare meditatively at Gaston as he lay snoring with his cheek pressed against the table. There was a popping noise as the tankards disappeared and Aristide walked back into the dining room.
"Goodness, that was a close one," he said as he gave Gaston a poke on the cheek to ensure he was asleep. "With the way he was looking at you, Diotima, I think he might have started making moves on you if the interview went any longer."
"I wasn't too worried," Diotima said as she leaned back in her chair. "He'd drunk close to four dozen glasses after all. I knew it wouldn't be much longer before the potion started to kick in."
"So then, he's really to be your next victim, is he?" Aristide said as he took a seat beside her.
"Certainly," she replied. "He's ruthless and prideful, a living descendant of Orion if I've ever seen one myself. It's a miracle that that ego hasn't destroyed him already."
"I see. Then what are you planning to do with him?"
"I have a few scenarios I mean to explore first. I admit that I was surprised when I heard you tell them that story about the girl of all things. It's been so long now, I'd almost forgotten about her. How is the poor child doing by the way?"
"Well she's not much of a child anymore," Aristide replied. "Last I heard, her parents locked her in a tower to await someone to rescue her. So far they haven't had much success."
"Hmm...," Diotima said as she put a hand on her cheek, "Another option for my list perhaps."
"What about the prince?" asked Aristide.
"What of him?"
"Well," the old man paused, "It's not that I don't agree with your decision to reverse his transformation, Diotima, but I've spoken with him, and it seems that he will not even open his eyes to the idea that the girl may actually have feelings for him. Don't you think it would be easier if you changed him back into a Beast, so she may at least recognize him and he may explain what he needs to break the spell?"
"He would not tell her either way," Diotima said, shaking her head. "In his heart he knows what he must do; it is only fear that is holding him back now. Besides, I could not keep him in that form any longer than he could have forced the girl to stay with him. It is a terrible thing to deprive a man of the joys of what makes him human, Aristide - the prince of all people knows that. As a Beast, he was obligated to break the spell to earn back that freedom, but as a man anything he does during his journey is done by his will alone. That is a gift more powerful than anything I can give him with simple magic."
"Your compassion for these humans continues to befuddle me, Diotima," Aristide said. "And yet it also makes you such a wonderful partner to work with. If you have faith that the princè will find the courage to break the curse on his own terms, then so do I."
Diotima smiled. "Thank you for helping me with this, Aristide."
"Anytime my dear. I wish you good luck on your journey."
With that, they both shook hands and disappeared in a flash of white light.
When Gaston woke the next morning, the house was completely empty, and the blonde woman was a fuzzy memory in the back of his mind. He felt quite angry with himself. He never fainted from drinking, and he hated to think that somewhere out there was a woman remembering him as a weakling who couldn't even stomach enough beer before passing out. What's more, Belle and her father could be anywhere by this point!
"LeFou!" he shouted to his lackey, who was dozing in the chair beside him.
"Five more minutes...," LeFou groaned.
"LEFOU!" He shouted again, kicking his chair backwards. LeFou woke with a start.
"Whoa, what?"
"Go get André," he told him. "We have a wife to find."
