Chapter 5
Alana woke up the next morning in her comfortable bed with a throbbing pain in each arm. She looked down and saw her arms were heavily bandaged and her head was also aching. She leaned back on the pillows and thought of yesterday.
She felt very ashamed of her behavior. She had known that she wasn't allowed in the forest, so why had she been so thickheaded? She promised herself not to disobey any of his rules again; she shuddered when she thought of how frightening he had looked when he was angry. She had completely forgotten that there was any aspect of him that was human; he had truly been a beast.
"Good morning!" Her door opened and Joy fluttered in, carrying a tray of food.
"Good morning," Alana replied halfheartedly.
"Master wishes that you stay in bed today," Joy said, setting down the food on Alana's lap.
Alana nodded submissively.
"Oh miss, you should not feel guilty. The zoreh flower has fooled much greater minds than you," the fairy said with an encouraging smile, fluttering next to Alana's bed. "I am sorry about the master's behavior…he has not had human company in a great while, I am afraid he is rather rusty," she said with a small chuckle.
Alana smiled back. Joy's words had comforted her, and she sat up and began to eat.
"I will come back with a book for you to read," Joy said.
"Thank you," Alana said as Joy flew out of the room.
She ate her breakfast, looking out the window. Gray clouds were gathering in the sky, threatening rain. Sure enough, by the time she was done, raindrops began to lightly fall. The doors to her balcony were open, letting the rain in. With a huge effort, Alana put the tray at the edge of her bed and began to get out to go shut them.
"No, no, no, you stay right where you are." Joy suddenly zoomed into the room, shutting the doors. Alana was extremely grateful, and fell back onto the bed.
Joy set down a book on the bed and held out a glass of clear liquid.
"Drink this, it will lessen the pain," she told Alana, putting it into her hands.
Alana took a sip, but quickly spit it back out. It tasted like a bad combination of radishes and grass.
"I am sorry it tastes dreadful, but you must drink it," Joy said.
Alana sighed, but took a deep breath and drank it very quickly. She shoved the glass back into Joy's hands as she spluttered.
"Yuck," she complained as she fell back onto the pillows. Joy looked at her pityingly.
"Here," the fairy said, handing Alana the book and a pen. "I think you will enjoy it," she said with a wink, and then fluttered back out of the room.
Alana looked at the book skeptically. She sat herself up comfortably, and then took the book.
It was a small, plain, red book, with no writing on the outside at all. She furrowed her brows, and cautiously opened it.
"Hello, Alana."
"AH!" She screamed and quickly shut it. Catching her breath, she stared down at it. A book that talks? That drink must have been worse than she thought. Yet she felt very curious. So she slowly opened it again.
"That wasn't very polite," the book said. It had a deep, male voice that resounded throughout the room.
"Sorry," she said, but the book made no apparent response. Then her eye caught the pen lying next to her hand.
"Ohhhh," she said. She picked up the pen and wrote on the blank page, Sorry. I wasn't expecting a talking book.
"Perfectly understandable," the book replied.
So, she wrote, what do people talk with you about?
"Life. And it's problems. I'm excellent at listening," the book replied.
How did you know my name? she wrote.
"I know everything," he said. "Except your feelings, which is why I'm here. I'm sensing you have a lot of confused feelings right about now."
You've got that right, she wrote.
"Tell me about your family," it offered.
Oddly feeling like she could confide in this magical book, Alana wrote, Well, I'm still very sad about my father passing away. Although he did get me into this mess.
"Do you feel resentful about that?"
Yes, I suppose so. And of course, Davina couldn't be sent, as she is the most perfect daughter in the world.
"I'm sensing sarcasm?"
Alana laughed. Yes. It's just that I've always been invisible to both her and my mother. They probably don't even realize I'm gone.
"Have you ever tried to reach out to them?"
I used to, when I was a child. I sort of gave up when I got older.
"Mmhmm, and then your father died. Did they notice you then?"
Not really. Sure, my mother hugged me once, but then she hugged everyone in sight.
"If you could tell your mother anything, what would you tell her?"
Alana paused to think. That I still love her, I guess. She sighed. And that I would like to be a real daughter.
"Now, how do you feel about your situation?"
She paused. Well, I can't say. At first I thought I was alright, but then yesterday I became really frightened.
"Frightened how? Of him?"
Well, I was beginning to discern the more human aspects of Thomas, but yesterday he had been so terrifying. Of course, it had been my fault.
"That flower is highly dangerous and powerful. The greatest king in the world would have done the same as you. But does he still scare you?"
Alana paused for a very long time. Finally, she wrote, Yes.
Sitting in his room, Thomas sighed as he watched the conversation between his book and the girl in his mirror. So he had scared her; he felt ashamed of himself.
"You didn't hold true to your promise," the mirror said in a wheezy voice.
"I know," he growled. He gazed into the mirror at the sight of the beautiful girl, rubbing her arms and writing in the book. He hadn't meant to be so harsh towards her, but to tell the truth, she baffled him. He had not met a single soul in the past five centuries who did not scream at the sight of him. Yet she had taken it so calmly, that he had been given hope. Maybe she was the one, the one who could finally break the curse.
But not if he scared her away. Like Joy always told him, he had to be gentle, kind …
"But I don't know how to be gentle or kind," he muttered to himself, burying his head in his hands… no, not his hands, his paws.
"But if you really got to know him, you would find he is not frightening," he heard the book tell Alana. "He just has not been in human company for a long, long time."
"That's what Joy said," he heard Alana write back. There was a pause. "What is it about this place?" she wrote. "Why is it cursed? How long has he been here?"
The beast groaned, but watched the girl intently. Her brow was furrowed as she wrote. She must be the same age as he… or at least, the same age as he had been, when he had been a man… he knew not whether the curse protected him from aging… he may never know.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you, at least not today," the book replied. The beast let out a sigh of relief.
Yet he had to tell her someday. It wasn't fair to imprison her, yet not tell her what for. But how could he tell her? How could he tell her that he has been alive for five hundred miserable years, pacing this castle, trying to think of a way to break the curse that he so foolishly brought upon himself?
He would tell her. He would tell her everything. Just not today.
