Chapter 4: The Woods and the Castle
Maurice and Philippe traveled through the lovely countryside of France throughout the day as they continued to the fair. Soon they crossed over a bridge and entered the woods. They walked for a few hours until everything around them in the forest grew darker.
"We should be there by now," Maurice said to himself as an owl hooted above, "Maybe we missed a turn? I guess I should have taken the… wait a minute!"
He stopped in front of a signpost that stood at the fork in the road. However, the words on the sign were all worn away and scratched out, making it impossible to tell where the fair was. Philippe was about to turn to the left until the middle-aged man pulled back on the reins, and said looking at the right, "Let's go this way!"
The horse looked at the direction on the right, it was dark, spooky, and uninviting as fog appeared. The path on the left, however, was bright, sunny, clear and safe with the birds chirping. Philippe was about to walk towards the left path until Maurice pulled on the reins, "Come on Philippe, it's a short cut! We'll be there in no time."
Philippe hesitantly went on the right path and looked up cautiously at the sky. The leafless tree branches covered him and his master, as red leaves blew up in the wind in the air. As the two continued through the darkness, a silhouette of a wolf rushed beside them on a hill. The Belgian draft horse stopped in his tracks and became frightened; he lifted up his head and snorted in fear when he heard the sound of howling!
"This can't be right!" Maurice exclaimed looking at the map. "Where have you taken us Philippe? We'd better turn around." The middle-aged man had the horse back up, but the howling of the wolves scared him more.
"Whoa! Whoa, boy! Oh! Ah, oh dear!" Maurice cried nervously as he tried to calm his horse down. Philippe whinnied in fear as he backed up too far and accidentally bumped the cart into a hollow tree, causing a swarm of bats to fly out!
Seeing the bats, Philippe began to panic and galloped away from the bats and the howling, but Maurice held on attempting to calm down his horse.
"Whoa!" he cried, grabbing the reins, "Whoa, boy!" Maurice managed to halt Philippe before they could go over the edge of a deep cliff! "Back up! Back up! Back up!" the man cried. Philippe's large hooves managed to keep a steady stance from falling and immediately backed up. "Good boy, good boy! That's it!" At the same time, the howling grew louder and louder, making the horse whinny in fear!
"Steady! Steady!" Maurice commanded, "No! No! Philippe, no!"
Philippe immediately reared up in fear, releasing a terrified neigh and accidentally threw off Maurice! The lantern was smashed to the ground and the flames went out. The horse ran away with the cart in tow as two wolves began to chase him.
The middle-aged man regained his senses from being thrown off. He lifted up his cloak and looked up, and softly called for the horse, but Philippe had disappeared in the dark forest! Maurice got up to his feet and placed his hat back on. As he dusted himself, he gasped from hearing the sound of growling. He looked over and saw a trio of wolves baring their sharp teeth and their yellow eyes glowing in the dark.
Maurice gasped and began to run away, and the wolves started to pursue him! The middle-aged ran through the woods, pushing branches out of the way and looked back to see the wolves running across a fallen tree trunk. Then Maurice tripped over a root and stumbled down a small hill. He looked up to see a tall iron gate in front of him with lighting flashing. The middle-aged man, without wasting a moment, immediately ran towards the gate while the wolves were gaining on him!
He reached the gate, shook the bars and called, "Help! Is someone there? Help!"
As he shook the bars, the gate opened and Maurice fell forwards landing on the pavement. Seeing the wolves getting close, the man used his foot and slammed the gates closed before they could pounce on him. Before he could crawl away, one of the wolves grabbed him by his foot with its' teeth and attempted to drag him towards them! But Maurice managed to break away from them and staggered up to his feet, dropping his hat.
As Maurice took a slow few steps forward, he turned around to see where the path led to and he gasped. In front of him was a dark and mysterious castle! Lighting flashed in the sky and soon it began to rain, and the man hurried towards the main entry door!
When he arrived at the doors of the castle, Maurice looked back behind him and he knocked on the doors loudly and caused one of them to open. The man peered inside and looked in to see an empty foyer with two staircases winding down to the center. It was dark and empty and not a single soul was in sight.
Maurice quietly closed the door and nervously walked inside and gently called, "Hello?" he called again, "Hello?"
"Poor fellow must have lost his way in the woods," a voice with a strong French accent whispered.
"Keep quiet! Maybe he'll go away!" another voice whispered.
"Is someone there?" Maurice called, noticing the voices.
At a nearby table, there was a brown clock and a golden-lit candelabra with three arms staying completely still as statues. Little did Maurice know, that these objects were actually alive!
"Not a word, Lumiere," whispered the clock. "Not one word!"
"I-I don't mean to intrude, but I've lost my horse… and… and I need a place to stay for the night."
Lumiere the candelabra grew sympathetic for the poor man turned to his companion and said, "Oh, Cogsworth, have a heart."
Cogsworth, the clock shushed the candelabra, and placed his hands over his mouth. Then Lumiere used one of his candles to create a flame and burn the clock's hand! Cogsworth yelped in pain as he started to blow on his hand to cool it off, Lumiere spoke up, "Of course, monsieur, you are welcome here."
"Who said that?" Maurice asked, picking up the candelabra and looked around.
"Over here!" Lumiere said as he tapped the man's shoulder, causing Maurice to turn around.
"Where?" he said, looking underneath the candelabra. In order to get Maurice to notice him, Lumiere tapped on the man's head and managed to get equal eye contact saying, "Allo!"
"Oh!" Maurice gasped in shock and dropped Lumiere. The candelabra landed on the floor as his flames went out. The middle-aged man continued to watch and took a few steps forward and looked down as Lumiere managed to get up by himself, and the man said with amazement, "Incredible!"
Cogsworth jumped off from the table and hopped over to the candelabra and was entirely not happy about this.
"Well, now you've done it, Lumiere." The clock said, expressing his frustration. "Splendid, just peachy!"
Just then, Maurice reached over and picked up Cogsworth, making the clock scream.
"How is this accomplished?" the middle-aged man said, as he began to examine the clock.
"Put me down at once!" Cogsworth demanded, until Maurice used one of his fingers and tickled the clock's feet, making him giggle. "Stop that! Hee-hee-hee! Stop that, I say!"
Then, Maurice turned Cogsworth upside down and shook him, making the wheels inside him clink. Seeing this, made Lumiere laugh. The middle-aged man began to wind Cogsworth's clock hands, making him scream in pain. Then Maurice turned the clock forward, opened his door and began to finger the pendulum.
"Sir, close that at once!" Cogsworth snapped, closing the door on Maurice's finger. "Do you mind?"
Maurice immediately pulled back his finger and shook out the pain and said, "I-I beg your pardon? It's… It's just that I've never seen a clock that…" Then Maurice felt a sneeze coming, and let out a big "AAAA-CHOOO!" onto Cogsworth's face! The clock used his clock hands as windshield wipers to clear off the sneeze. The middle-aged man took out his handkerchief and blew his nose, as the rain managed to give him a cold.
"Oh, you are soaked to the bone, monsieur," said Lumiere and began to guide the man to another room in the castle. "Come, warm yourself by the fire."
"Thank you," said Maurice as he followed the candelabra. Little did anyone know, an enormous, hairy creature was watching them from the top of the stairs and saw what was occurring in the foyer; the figure grumbled and stealthily made his way down.
"No, no, no!" Cogsworth protested, as he pulled on Maurice's cape attempting to stop him. "You know what the master will do if he finds him here. I demand that you stop right there!" The man's cape managed to break free, and the clock began to tumble down a small set of stairs that led to a living room with a majestic fireplace. Maurice had already sat down in an elegant large chair.
"Oh, no, no! Not the master's chair!" Cogsworth cried. Suddenly a red footstool that barked like a dog zoomed past the clock, and caused him to spin around. Cogsworth grew overwhelmed and covered his eyes and said, "I'm not seeing this! I am not seeing this!"
"Well, hello there, boy," Maurice said, reaching his hand over to kindly pet the footstool. The footstool dog panted happily and placed himself underneath the man's feet and rested there. Then a coat rack appeared and gave the man a blanket.
"Oh, what service!" the middle-aged man said, complimenting the diligent work of the servants. The coat rack saluted to him in response. Meanwhile, Cogsworth just had enough with this!
"All right! This has gone far enough!" Cogsworth yelled. "I'm in charge here…" Then, he gets run over by a speeding cart and it halted next to Maurice. On top of the teacart, was a white teapot with a purple lid with wavy edges and gold lining, and the base also had gold lining with a pale, alternating pink and blue patterned leaves. There was also a little teacup with a chip on the rim with the same colors as his mother.
"How would you like a nice spot of tea, sir? It'll warm you up in no time," the teapot, known as Mrs. Potts said kindly as she poured some tea from her spout and into the teacup.
"No!" Cogsworth said, lying on the floor and got up yelling, "No tea! No tea!"
Maurice took the teacup to his lips and began to sip. The teacup he was holding came to life and began to laugh.
"His mustache tickles, Mama!" Chip said.
"Oh!" the man noticed the little teacup and held him in his palm. "Hello!"
Suddenly, the doors to the living room flew opened and a gust of wind came, extinguishing the fire in the fireplace. The whole room went completely dark. Mrs. Potts began to quiver with fear and Chip hid behind her, saying nervously, "Uh-oh!"
Maurice clutched his blanket around his shoulders and began to grow frightened as a looming shadow appeared in the room. The shadow belonged to a figure in the doorway, which was a beast. The Beast had the head structure and horns of a buffalo; the arms, claws and body of a bear; the eyebrows of a gorilla over his blue eyes; the jaws and mane of a lion; the tusks of a wild boar and the legs, teeth, and tail of a wolf. He wore a pair of black breeches and a dark purple cape. He entered the room on all four legs like an animal and gave a growl.
"There's a stranger here," the Beast said, with a gruff voice.
"Master, allow me to explain," Lumiere said nervously, attempting to calm him down. "The gentleman was lost in the woods. He was cold and wet, so…"
The candelabra received a roar from the Beast, making his flames go out! Cogsworth, poking his head out from underneath a rug, said, "Master, I'd like to take this moment to say, I was against this from the start," he pointed to Lumiere. "It was all his fault, I tried to stop them. Would this listen to me? No, no…" the monster roared at the clock, making him dive underneath the rug!
Maurice looked around until he came face to face with the Beast himself, causing the middle-aged man to jump out of the chair.
"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" the Beast demanded, causing the man to back away in fear.
Maurice stammered, "I… I… I was lost in the woods and…"
"You are not welcome here!" the Beast cuts him off with a yell.
"I… I'm… I'm sorry," the man said, his blood turning into ice.
"What are you staring at?" the Beast shouted, rising to his legs.
"Noth-noth-nothing!"
"So, you've come to stare at the Beast, have you?!"
Before Maurice could attempt to escape from the room, the Beast immediately blocked the poor man.
"Please, I meant no harm!" the man said. "I just needed a place to stay…"
"I'll give you a place to stay!" The Beast growled, grabbing poor Maurice by the cloak.
"No, no, please! No! No!" Maurice begged as he was dragged out of the room and the door is slammed shut. The living room gets purged into darkness leaving Lumiere, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts and Chip alone, bowing their heads in sorrow.