Chapter 29
The next day found Jewel looking down from the top of a set of stairs, watching Beast and Belle feed the birds in the snow. Belle walked behind a tree as birds suddenly covered Beast. He moved and they all flew off. Beast smiled and was hit in the face by a snowball, making Jewel laugh.
Beast smirked as he ran his paws over the snow, gathering it all up in a giant snowball and hefting it up over his head. Belle threw another snowball at him, making him drop the big ball on top of himself. As he dusted the snow off, he felt two balls hit him. One from Belle, the other from Jewel. He smirked again and made a smaller snowball to throw at Jewel. She ducked and ran trying to find cover as he kept throwing them at her, giggling all the way.
"So that's how he wants to play, huh?" Jewel said. She gathered up a bunch of snow to make a snow fort. She made a snowball and gave a sly smile. She jumped up from behind the fort and was pelted by snowballs.
"Belle! I thought you were on my side!" Jewel laughed as she missed Belle with her ball.
"I'm sorry, but you thought wrong." Belle said, throwing another snowball at Jewel, and missing as she ducked behind her fort.
"Bugger. Two against one." Jewel said. Then she heard a plop next to her. It was Lumiere.
"Do you require assistance Bijou?" he asked. Jewel looked from him to a patio with closed doors. An idea came to her.
"I believe I do. But you have to trust me, savvy?" she asked
"Oui!" Lumiere said, saluting. "Whatever you need, I will help!" Jewel's smile turned into a smirk.
"I was hoping you'd say that." she said, she picked him up around his "waist" and bolted for the door. She saw Belle and Beast throw snowballs at her and she batted them away with Lumiere.
"This is not what I meant!" Lumiere said, spitting out snow.
"Sorry!" Jewel said, batting more snowballs away as she reached the doors. She pulled them open and slammed them shut, hearing the balls hit the glass.
"Phew! That was close." Jewel said
"That was an outrage! Why use me for such a task?" Lumiere said, crossing his arms.
"I'm sorry. I needed some way to defend myself and you-" Jewel never finished that sentence. She noticed what room she came in. It had walls with instruments hanging up, along with a few bookcases for music. There were small chairs and music stands in front of them and a small, but bright chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Jewel walked up to the large bass and ran her hand over the smooth wood.
"I found it." she whispered
"Does the mademoiselle have a liking of music?" Lumiere asked, hopping up next to her.
"It's more than liking. My mother taught me how to play the flute because that is what refined women could play. When she died, playing the flute on the streets didn't make enough money." Jewel noticed a violin and quickly moved to it. "So a friend taught me how to play this. I made enough to live, but not by much."
"Whatever happened to your violin?" Lumiere asked
"I sold it." Jewel sighed. "I had to so I could barter passage to Singapore." She slowly lifted up the instrument from its spot.
"Would you care to play it for me?" Lumiere asked
"I would but I don't have a bow." she said. One seemed to appear right in front of her face. She looked to see the coat-stand holding it.
"Th- Thanks." She said. She held the violin the right way and pressed the bow against the strings.
"What was that song?" She whispered. She let the bow slide across the instrument, making a strange sliding noise, but the noise picked up like it was supposed to happen. It was like watching a paper drifting in the wind. Up and down, and all around. While playing, she started taking a few steps forward. They were sudden when lifted, and sweeping when lowered, going along with the music. Then a bunch of coat-stands came into the room and picked up their own instruments to accompany the girl.
"Think you guys could keep up with this?" She asked. She slowed down for a moment then sped up quickly, moving along with it, she seemed to put her heart into the song. When her accompanists started to join and get the beat, she started to move out of the room quickly, the others having to run and play. That was a hard task for them, considering they weren't human. As she played, the castle seemed to echo and throb with the tune. She saw one of the most perfect things in front of her as she played the fast tune: Mrs. Potts' cart.
Perfect! Jewel thought as the music stopped when she jumped up on it. Right after, she picked right up and the cart moved forward at a continuous pace of it's own, so the others would catch up. Another stopping point came and Jewel did a brave thing and stood up on the moving cart. It kept rolling as she kept playing and at the end when she played the last scores, the cart jumped down the stairs and rolled to a stop in the main hall. There was something of a chorus of applause that came, which made Jewel snap out of her music world and realize where she was. She also realized she had an audience. Standing in the great hall, was everyone in the castle she knew. Mrs. Potts, Chip, the Featherduster, Cogsworth, Belle, and even the beast were there, smiling at her.
"Quite a remarkable show." Cogsworth said
"Se magnifique!" The featherduster said, spinning around.
"That was lovely Jewel." Mrs. Potts said
"Yeah! That was good!" Chip said, bouncing up and down.
"You did a really good job Jewel." Belle said. Beast held her close.
"Yes. That was beautiful." Beast said, talking in honesty with a smile on his face.
"Thanks." Jewel said, hopping off the cart, bowing to all her fans. "Now, if I may, I must depart." She walked down the hallway to her room, when suddenly in unison all the suits of armor fell forward into a bow.
"Wow." was all she could say. She looked at them all, shocked that even the suits enjoyed the music.
"Uh, thank you all...?" she said as she carefully walked by them. Her pace quickened into a sprint before she reached the end of the hall, still nervous about the suits. She pulled her door open and slammed it shut, leaning on it.
"Bugger." she said. She put the violin and bow on her bed and looked at it, before picking up her scythe in the corner and placing it next to the instrument. She looked at them with one question in mind: Should she keep them or not? She spent the rest of that afternoon pacing, the one question spinning around in her head, tying her mind in a knot. She needed a... a.. a machete for this... uh... intellectual thicket.
For the song that Jewel played, here's a link.
www(DOT)youtube(DOT)com/watch?v(EQUALMARK)OXanHvrjQO0
