Flying was overwhelming. The wind was deafening, and she was swaying in the sky dangerously as if she could fall at any moment.
When he finally did release her, she screamed, expecting a long fall. She stopped short and hit the ground much sooner than she thought. She crumpled onto the ground in a pile, but before she was even able to identify which way was up and which way was down she was yanked up by her wrist and was dragged forward.
Her feet struggled to find footing, only making it a few failed strides until she hit her shins on something hard. The only thing that stopped her from falling to her face was the King Beast who still had a solid grip on her arm. It was stairs that had caught her shins, and she struggled to find the rythym of them as every step she tried to take led her to stumble again. He must have grown impatient with her clumsiness, beacause he lifted her and carried her, all her weight pulling against her arm.
Fear kept her from crying out in pain, fear and her mind reeling trying to figure out what was happening. It was overwhelming.
The beast was breathing quickly and he let out a small growl with every exhale. Doors were opened dramatically and slammed behind them stairs were descended until finally she was thrown down.
"Welcome to your new home." He said with an emotionless voice and he slammed the door with his exit.
She couldn't move until she heard him ascend the stairs out of ear shot and her hands blindly explored the small area around her looking for anything else that might jump out at her and attack her.
content with the area she carved out for herself she tucked her knees to her chest and she listened. Something was dripping from somewhere, and there was a general damp smell about the place. There were no open windows. The air would not be so stagnant and heavy if there were. The floor was solid stone and she couldn't help but smile a small pitiful smile. She had made it to a castle, just not the one her father had always pictured.
-The Beast-
The king of beasts stalked up the stairs still fuming, but he had calmed down enough that a pit began to form in his stomach that he recognized as guilt and regret. He went towards the dinning hall looking for Vandy to figure out... he didn't even know what.
"Back so soon?" Vandy asked as soon as he entered the doors. He was absent mindedly polishing the silverware in preparation for dinner. He did not want to tell him about Belle. Shame ate at him as he stared ruefully into the distance his mind running down the different options they had but all paths led no where. He shouldn't have taken her.
It was a moment of silence before, Vandy looked up at him, his hands stopping their work.
"What?" Vandy asked and the Beast briefly considered whether or not he could keep a human in the dungeon without Vandy knowing.
"What?" He asked again, more desperately.
"Vandy, I-"
"He's done it again Vandy!" Polly yelled bursting through the doors that led to the kitchen. When she saw the beast standing next to Vandy she marched over waving a wooden spoon in her hand, wielding it like a weapon.
"You have got a lot of explaining to do! How could you- Why on earth- What were you thinking?!" She asked finally but before he could respond she continued on, now pacing back and forth.
"Have you no self control? Have you lost your mind? This whole situation is bad enough, but now? NOW?" She asked, her voice growing louder as she spoke.
"What is happening?!" Vandy asked loudly, drowning out the old angry woman.
They both turned to him and he looked away miserably, not able to meet their eyes. "We have a guest. In the dungeon."
Vandy's mouth dropped open in shock and Polly smacked him on the arm violently with her wooden spoon.
"A woman guest, who arrived being dragged about and shoved by his majesty here!" She said her hands on her hips.
Vandy shook his head trying to wrap his mind around the moment, "There's a woman? Here? You brought a woman here?" he asked incredulously
"Aren't you listening Vandy? He kidnapped her, practically dragged her kicking and screaming into the castle and he wasn't too gentle about it either." She whacked him again with her spoon, "Treating a woman like that! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"
The beast found himself lower than he thought possible, now that his sudden temper had worn off and he looked at the situation with a cool head and he wanted to crawl into a hole.
"He probably even stole into her room in the middle of the night and took her straight from her bed."
That he could defend himself on, "No, she was in the forest."
"Oh, so you think just because you're king of the forest you can just kidnap unsuspecting women and take them for your own? You've got another thing coming because-"
"She was sent out there by the humans to look for the king of the beasts." He said matter of factly and that at least seemed to calm Polly down enough that he wasn't in fear of another attack.
"Oh." She said quietly, her brow creased.
"There's a woman in our dungeon?!" Vandy asked suddenly, his mind having finally caught up to the conversation.
"Yes dear, we've already been over that!" Polly said with an eye roll.
"No the abducting thing is perfectly reasonable, but why did you take her to the dungeon? We have nearly a dozen vacant guest rooms!"
"It didn't occur to me." The beast said stiffly.
"I should hope you did not have abducting a woman all planned out!" Polly said.
Vandy put his hand on Polly's arm, calming her down, "I understand why she was in the forest, but why did you bring her here?"
"I clearly haven't thought this through that well." The beast said losing patience with this conversation.
"No, clearly not, but something had to have changed! There's been a young woman in that forest every blood moon for the past 6 years and the most you've ever done is chase them out of the forest. Now, after dozens of women, there is now one sitting in our dungeons. What changed?"
Polly had a knack for getting to the heart of things, but he didn't have an answer for her, he wasn't even sure he could answer that question himself. The brief image of a beautiful young woman standing him down in a dark clearing flew into his mind as if by magic, talking to him easily, not turning her head away in disgust. A beautiful name, Belle floated in his head and that thought quickly replaced by how she must have seen him feral and vicious.
His hopes were nothing but poison that drove him to act beastly it was an unescapable cycle that he now had lost control of and now someone else was suffering.
"Vandy, I would like you to check on our guest. When you are done find me and report to me."
"You want me to go to the dungeon to check on the girl? The dungeon?" Vandy asked. "You must have lost your mind."
The beast sighed deeply, "Just do what I ask. Please." he said wheeling around and exiting leaving Vandy and Polly alone to scheme together on how to save the girl from his clutches. He was exhausted, but he turned away from his rooms and moved towards the west wing.
He stopped at the base of the stairs, frozen. The west wing had been left alone for years. It was a scar, just a record of an old wound that was too painful for him to completely was no reason he should have taken Belle out of the forest to his castle, in fact, there was every reason to do the exact opposite thing.
If there was a reason behind his actions it was somewhere up in the west wing, and that knowledge made him ascend the stairs for the first time in years.