Chapter 7: Dreams

The next morning Mr B. awoke rather late. He wasn't feeling too well and decided that as soon as he was ready he would head into town to buy some medicine.

So he slowly crawled out of his bed and sat on the side for a moment, with his face buried in his hands as he tried to wake up properly, and the fact that his head was now aching didn't make the process any easier.

Gradually he left his bed and went to boil the kettle for his warm bath. He had now become more independent and was able to take care of himself in a way he never thought possible. A few years ago the idea of living in a small house, without any servants in sight would have seemed like a joke, which should never be told.

Now here he was, a new man, who felt like he was capable of anything.

He now entered his washroom and filled the bath up with the heated water. He then undressed and lowered himself into the bath slowly, easing himself into the water.

He closed his eyes, which felt rather heavy from being ill, and tried to relax.

However, he soon fell into a deep sleep as he let his head hang lazily over the top end of the bath where he was sitting.

Laughter came from somewhere in the distance, as he stood in the middle of a grassy field.

"Come and find me." A young girl called.

"Where are you?" he called.

"Over here." She called happily.

He saw a flash of blue run past him behind a nearby tree.

"I'm coming." He called

He ran towards the tree and saw it approaching him at a rapid rate.

Almost there. He thought happily.

As he rounded the tree he expected to see a happy girl giggling with happiness, but instead he saw a man holding onto her with his hands covering her mouth.

"Belle is mine." Whispered the man evilly.

Mr B. woke up spluttering and coughing water. He wiped his face and tried to think why he had been dreaming about these two people, who he'd never seen before in his life. But the painful headache that he was suffering from interrupted his thoughts.

"I better get to town." He groaned, trying not to slip on the floor below as he departed from the bathtub.

He stumbled over to the hand basin, which was situated, on the other side of the room.

He stared into the foggy mirror and said to no one in particular, "Why do I always have the same dream all the time? It means nothing to me and yet, it seems like it is trying to tell me something."

He shook his head trying to rid the thought from his already aching mind. He tried to dress as fast as his body could manage. When he finally was ready to leave he called for Philippe who was out in the grassy fields grazing. Finally the obedient horse galloped up to where he was waiting.

"Philippe we have to go to town again. I'm feeling horrible today." He told the horse as he climbed onto it's back, feeling the energy he had left drain from his body.

The horse rode off with Mr B. resting on his back lazily.

It wasn't long before he reached town. Which was good, as he wanted to cure his illness as soon as possible.

He stopped Philippe outside the hut of the local doctor, who was more of a spiritual leader, who believed in the path of natural healing. But he did have a few medicines for the simple headache.

He entered the little hut, which sat so dangerously on the side of road. The doctor was nowhere to be seen, so he called out wanting medicine quick.

The little old man popped out from behind a curtain and walked towards Mr B. as if he expected to see him.

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses, I got ya medicine for ya." He grumbled, handing the medicine towards him.

"Oh... thankyou…how did…" started Mr B. but was cut off halfway.

"Oh I know a lot about you sir. More then you know about yourself." He interrupted mysteriously.

"I find that hard to believe." He replied annoyed that the doctor thought this.

"Oh my boy. You have a long way to go before you really discover your true self." The old man said grinning.

"What do you mean?" young Mr B. asked.

"Well for instance, do you honestly think you belong in that little shack you call home?" the old man replied, raising his eyebrows.

"Um…well yes actually I do. What is so wrong about that?" Asked the man growing annoyed with the old man's questions, when all he wanted to do was go home, take his medicine and go to sleep.

"Nothing, if you are willing to completely block your past from your mind. If you keep going the way you're going, you'll be fine." The old man said reassuringly with a menacing grin playing around his mouth.

"What do you mean block my past from my mind? I am Mr B. and I travelled all the way from a faraway land to settle here and live the remainder of my life in peace." He said angrily, trying to hold his temper for the first time in ages.

"Where is this faraway land you claim to have travelled from?" the old man said sitting down, looking as if he already knew the answer to that question.

"Why are you asking me? You obviously know everything about me so far. Why don't you tell me?" he said calming down a bit.

"Because it's you that needs to figure that one out." The old man said a lot more seriously.

Mr B. gave the man a look, which said 'huh'. The man however asked him to leave, as he was quite busy.

As Mr B. went to climb on his horse he heard the man say to him from behind, "The dream will help you my boy."

As he went to turn around however he noticed that the hut was closed and the man was gone.

Time to go home.

However just as he began to ride away on Philippe he realised that his headache was completely gone and he felt much better then before.

"Well isn't that strange? Come on Philippe lets go to the drinking lodge before we go home." He told the horse and steered towards the other end of the road.

He jumped off Philippe energetically and entered the lodge, where he used to spend most of his time when he first arrived in this small town.

The noise, which he had heard from within the lodge outside, ceased when he entered and all eyes turned to him.

Why did I come here? I should've just gone home.

But it was too late to back out now. He would just order a quick drink and be on his way.

"Ah…young Mr B. you've decided to grace us with your presence once more." A drunken man laughed as he took another swig of his beer.

He made his way over to a vacant counter and sat down on a stool waiting to be served.

"The usual Mr B.?" asked the bartender before bursting into a fit of laughter with the rest of the drunken men.

Mr B. had spent an awful lot of time getting drunk with the other men in this place, when he had first arrived in this town, and since he hadn't returned for quite a while, he had become an outcast in this area.

"Just a beer will do thankyou sir." he replied ignoring their snide remarks.

"Righto." The bartender replied as he turned to prepare Mr B.'s drink.

After he was served his beer he overheard a conversation coming from a group of men who were sitting in the far corner of the room.

"Yeah I saw him. He was the most gruesome thing I ever saw. His teeth were sharp fangs, he was ten feet tall, his eyes were blue and he was covered in fur all over." One man said enthusiastically.

"He apparently captured a young girl and she was never seen again." Another voice said mysteriously

"Yes I think that Gaston fellow ended up killing him, although he to was never seen again." The first voice stated.

"Who was the girl anyway?" asked a different voice.

"She was the daughter of a crazy inventor. She went by the name of Belle."

Mr B.'s ears pricked up at the mention of Belle's name. That was the same name as the girl in his dream. But there was obviously more than one girl who went by the name of Belle.

So the prince gulped down the rest of his beer, payed the bill and left.

A few hours later the prince was in the fields building a new shelter for Philippe. He had forgotten all about the previous events from the day, and was now just enjoying the fresh air.

Suddenly Philippe came running wildly towards him.

"Philippe what's wrong." He asked grabbing the reigns and trying to calm the horse down.

But as he stared up into the sky he noticed that a rather large storm was brewing. So he jumped on Philippe and rode back to the cabin.

He placed Philippe under his shade at the front of his cabin and started to board up his windows and door. After he'd finished that task, he suddenly became drowsy and wandered off to bed.

He found himself dreaming the same dream again, except something else was different. He saw himself running towards the same tree from a bird's eye view. But the strange thing was it looked nothing like him, it was more of a wild animal, the same animal that the men in the bar had described. But wait it wasn't possible. He wasn't a wild animal. Was he?

He suddenly woke up to a loud banging on the door. He got up in a hurry, scurried to the door and pried it open thinking that Philippe was in trouble.

However when he opened the door, he saw a sight that he felt he'd seen once before.

A/N: Well how am I doing? I know you're probably still wondering about who the evil guy is from the first 5 chapters. And you're probably confused as to why the prince has no idea who he is. But all will reveal itself later on.

P.S. I know that the prince's new name 'Mr B'. may sound a little strange to some of you. But it's my own personal choice and he won't be known as that for long.

Tidus' girl Candy