Author's Note

This author note might get annoying if you read multiple of my fics because I'm going to copy/paste it over all updates for maybe the rest of the month.

I really have been neglecting some of my fanfics for about a year and some even two years. I've decided to try to update as many as I can (or as many as I know people want to see). I'm going to be scheduling fic updates but based on the number of hits on the latest chapter (there is a way to see on fanfiction net a huge discrepancy between unique IP visitors and hits and I will make sure that no one is just continually clicking refresh on fics). Right now I am updating fics that have 75+ hits on the latest chapter. That is 54 fanfics at this present time. Once I finish the updates of all of those (hopefully before the end of the month) I will update my stat list (an Excel document) and start again. Hopefully this will explain my updates until the end of the year (although there may be a handful I write just for fun). Thank you for checking out my work. I appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Love the reviews but I still appreciate every well-intentioned reader. Thank you.

Chapter Thirty-One

31.1

Adam leaned forwards with his head in his hands as he sat at the edge of the bed. It had never been his intention to allow for any of this to happen and he knew he needed to get a lot more information about what could be shared with him and what kind of demons were out there. The only positive – aside from Juliet's birth and the fact that he and Belle were still alive though as animals – was that he had some time before he had to take the crown.

Antoine had been coronated and at least the clock that felt like it was over his head wasn't ticking as strongly, there wasn't such a feeling of pain and death as before. Adam sighed and tried to keep his mind focused but he felt ill. It wasn't his horns or the fur this time but Belle, cowBelle. If she had never met him maybe she would have married someone less extravagant, the son of a bookstore owner or at least someone who she hadn't needed to teach to read.

Somehow he had to change things and get her back to being human. He took a deep breath in and then eased his exhale and inhale, exhale and inhale. He stopped as he saw Maurice pass by with Juliet in his arms. "I'm so sorry," Adam said as he stood up. "Do you want me to take her?"

Maurice stared at him and then back at the baby in his arms, he shook his head and Adam forced himself to take on a human form. He bowed deeply and apologetically as he lifted his head to see Maurice.

"I'm really sorry," Adam apologized. "What happened with Belle, it's my fault…I don't really know how but getting her involved in all of this. I promise you that I'm not going to rest until I have turned her back or exhausted even the whisper of any possibility of turning her back to her regular form."

Maurice stared at him and sighed, "You don't have to look human to be human, I think that I've figured that out but I would like to take Belle back home at least to visit."

Adam's eyes widened and he looked at his father-in-law in horror. Did that mean that Maurice wanted to take Belle back as a cow, the dangers that could come from that were some of the scariest thoughts. "She's not ready to be taken from here. When she's here, she's safe, there are spells."

"Adam," Maurice said with a sigh, "They are not looking for a cow."

Adam shifted wondering if Maurice was okay with the fact that he had just said that in terms of his own daughter. Maurice seemed to have accepted the idea but…"Belle and I have been able to communicate lately. I know that she wants to see Juliet."

"Well let me," Maurice said but Adam managed to take Juliet into his own arms. He saw her blink up at him and he let his body become that of his beastly self. He walked forwards without saying anything and went to the grassy area outside the castle.

"So, Juiet, you know that your parents love you so much," he told her before coming over to Belle. He knelt down on the ground and placed Juliet on his lap before putting his hand to the side of Belle's face, "Hi, my love," he told her and Juliet blinked up at the both of them.

"Juliet?" Belle asked before starting to nuzzle her very gently with her nose. Adam sat down with the baby in his lap and saw Juliet squirm a little as Belle licked her. Adam gazed at the two of them with such love in his eyes but the fear was still there of someone – even someone he trusted like Maurice – pulling his family apart and putting them at risk. "Does she know I'm her mother?"

"I think it's love, isn't it?" Adam asked her before pressing his forehead to hers. "Belle," he whispered softly. "Your dad wants to take you away from here," he said and Belle looked at him in part confusion and part horror.

"What?" she asked as she turned her focus away from their daughter. "He can't do that. I mean, as much as I want to get information, look at me, Adam. I am not doing okay. I'll just have to pick out some more books in the library, it's difficult to do that when I look like this but my father can't take me away from here."

Adam watched Belle patiently and nodded. He agreed with her but this wasn't about whether or not she could convince him of this. Her father. Innately they both could trust him but Adam wasn't sure what good it would do. He took Belle's hands in his paws before shaking his head and transformed so he was looking at her as his human-self, he made sure that Juliet had been okay during the transformation from beast to man.

"Belle, my love, you are always going to have my heart," he promised her, "and if you really don't want to go then tell me and I'll stop him but allowing you to spend some time with your father might allow us to know what is going on outside of our isolation. I don't have the energy to be human for a long enough period to go there but you, you can slip into the background and nobody would hurt you as long a-"

"The butcher," Belle said stubbornly and Adam nodded.

"Maybe," he replied. "Still your father would never allow that to happen. I know that Gaston killed my brother and my father. I know that Antoine is….he's too cowardly to want the throne and so is giving me these years because he knows that I'll be a better king than him but Gaston wants the throne and you know the village."

Belle looked to him and pressed her forehead against his as he held Juliet carefully. "Adam, if you really want to go then please ask me as yourself."

Adam stared at her. What was she talking about? This form was as much himself as the beastly version was. He allowed himself to turn into the beast and wrapped a protective arm around Juliet. "If I could allow you to have my power to make that change then I would have and I'm still searching to see if that is an option. I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go until it's absolutely necessary but if I give Maurice this then maybe he will agree to a future plan and he's your father."

"Adam," Belle said slowly, "There's no spell to change the abilities with a person but there is a way of shifting knowledge from person to person but I kept that one to myself because -"

Adam looked at her confused that she even knew a spell like that. He saw the pain in her eyes, usually with spells and hexes and curses you had to give up something to have the power to change the effect and she hadn't told him. If it was to keep her safe then he would give her anything.

"You told me that you never wanted me to forget you and for you to forget me," she replied and Adam nodded slowly. That was something that he had voiced his opinion against multiple times but he could see here how it might work. Still, there was also the need to share that intimacy of yourself, your darkest and most unbearable memories.

"Is it permanent?" he asked her and Belle shook her head. He looked away. Was his ability to change from beast to man and back again really in his head instead of a physical ability. He didn't know this sorceress stuff, that's what Belle had been told to learn and not himself.

"In the library on the fourth shelf nearest the window where we saw that bird," she told him, "If you go to the ninety-seventh page then you should be able to begin reading about it," she said and Adam laughed, bringing Juliet to his shoulder.

"Your intellect truly is at a level that is not met by most," he said as he kissed the top of her head and held Juliet close. He knew that if Belle was telling him the truth that he would become a beast – hopefully not a vicious beast – and he would have to be restrained and placed into a cage so that he didn't get violent and strike out. He wouldn't know of his life with Belle or of his daughter but it would mean that Belle wouldn't get hurt as she transformed from princess to cow-girl.

"If I do this then you can go with your father?" he asked and Belle looked at him and nodded. She didn't want this. She was only eighty-percent sure that the reverse would work but fortunately Adam had people around him who loved and cared for him even as a beast. He would never be put to death.

31.2

With help from some of their closest friends, the spell was read and over the course of the following two days all the equipment for the spell to be performed was gathered and Adam had placed himself in one of the cells in the dungeon. He trusted those around him to make sure he was safe as he gave up one of the most important things to him, his mind.

"So," Adam said as he looked at the bowl he was holding which had different herbs in it and which was glowing a strange purple color, "I'm to drink this and then," he looked at Belle in cow form outside of his cell, "You are to drink it and I will be in my truest form without my memories."

"Adam," Belle whispered, "You don't have to go through with it."

Adam looked across at her before lifting the bowl and started to drink until it was half gone, he then slid the bowl over to Belle. She looked at him concerned but there didn't seem to be any change, he was still sitting with his tail to the side of him instead of moving around on four paws.

She lapped up the liquid and then closed her eyes. As she visualized her human form, she managed to almost step into it in the same way that Adam had mentioned that. She looked at her hands first of all and then her attention shifted to what was most important.

"Adam?" she asked as she opened her eyes expecting to see Adam in his beast form curled up and whining like a sad puppy but instead he was on the ground in human form. Nobody had been expecting this.

"A—Adam?" she asked as she looked at the man on the ground with just black pants and a loose white shirt on. He slowly sat up and stood up, reminding her of how it had been on the night that he had died and then transformed for the second time in his life. However as he looked at her, it showed he had no idea what was going on.

Her heart pounded heavily for him but they had agreed for her to just rush out of there to do the plan. That plan that they had come up with though. It was for when he turned to a beast who knew nothing, not a human.

End of Chapter Thirty-One

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Thirty

KathyMesser