Gaston was on his feet almost before she had finished speaking. He snatched up his gun from by the door and threw it open without even asking first who it was. "Well?"
"Gastoncomequickgetchergun-"
"Mondieulouisisbleedingeverywhere-"
"Wewerejustoutsidewhen-"
"Hold it!" he shouted over them. "If you all talk at once I can't even hear you." He pointed to the fellow with the biggest gun. "You. What happened?"
"Don't know what it was… they're saying wolves… something attacked Louis and about half my sheep and God knows what else tonight. Maybe it's that Beast again… are you sure you killed it?"
Gaston resisted the urge to look back to Belle. "Positive. Well… whatever's out there tonight, we'll take care of it, too. It can keep the Beast company down in Hell!"
The men outside cheered. Lefou tugged on Gaston's pant leg. "They're saying there's a lot of them, whatever it is," he said quietly. "I think you should bring the bow, too. Just to be safe. And maybe your dog."
Gaston ducked back inside to equip himself more fully, and found his wife and dog on their feet. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked the two of them.
"I'm coming with you, Gaston."
If he were in a better mood he would have laughed. "Are you crazy?"
"I'm not staying alone in here if some wild animals are on a rampage!" Belle realized she sounded hysterical and tried to reason with him instead. "You're all going to be together – it's safer."
"No!" As he stuffed arrows into his quiver he explained, "Go get the gun down from over the bed… you know how to fire it… and wait by the window. Rameau will let you know if anything's outside that shouldn't be."
Belle watched the dog growling and pacing and tossing his head. "You're not taking him with you? He thinks you're taking him with you."
"If it's the wolves again, it's beyond him. Where do you think that limp came from? I'm leaving. Wish me luck."
"Wait- but-"
The door slammed.
The Beast was growling about having his hair pulled.
"You have only yourself to blame, you know that," Mrs. Potts pointed out. "If you hadn't knocked over all that furniture the mirror would never have broken, and then you could find out everything from a distance."
"I know." The Beast's voice was soft, almost defeated. He closed his eyes as they fussed with his bangs, and asked quietly, "So what should I tell her?"
"Don't tell her anything, sir," Mrs. Potts advised. "Just let her see that you're all right... ask her how things are going with her... and if she says she is married, wish her the best of luck and leave. Now, if somehow Lumiere was wrong..."
"If that monster forced her, somehow..." the Beast was starting to growl.
"Stay calm, would you!" Mrs. Potts stepped back to look him over.
"I will." He got himself under control again and added, "I'll have the carriage stop far outside the village, and I'll sneak in the rest of the way alone. At night. The less I am seen, the better."
Lumiere huffed from behind them, "Enough with the sounding hopeless! Please! Can we not just change him back now?"
"Oh, I think that would be rash." Mrs. Potts adjusted his bandage and helped him put his coat over it. "You're better, Master, but not that much better... It would be silly to tempt fate."
"Fate has not been kind to me," he agreed. "Well, how do I look? I mean- don't answer that."
"You look just as you did when she fell in love with you," Mrs. Potts said with a warm smile. "Now go."
The Beast got into the carriage and headed for town.
Gaston was in his element.
"Lefou, Martin, and Luc with me. The rest of you: get everyone inside, lock up whatever animals are outdoors. Don't travel alone. Torches, flames, dogs, do whatever you can to chase the beasts towards the old barn behind Luc's house. We're going to set a trap."
He and his friends herded some sheep into the barn and tied them there. They left the door open and climbed up into the hayloft.
They waited there. Lefou eventually started to fidget. "I'm not sure I like this. What if they come up here?"
"Shut up - they can't get up here," Gaston hissed. "We'll shoot them through the trap doors and never even have to get close. What's that noise - that clicking? Lefou, what are you- stop it!"
Lefou had been playing with his flint and finally managed to spark a flame. "There - that's better. Not half as scary when you can see-"
Gaston picked him up by the neck and shook him, which made Lefou kick wildly. Glowing hay scattered and Gaston snarled to his friends to smother the fire. "We have to see in the dark," he reminded them, "And we can't if there's a flame in our eyes."
Just then, they heard a growling, squealing disturbance in the barn below them. They strained to see down into the blackness.
Wolves. A bunch of them . Gaston's eyes locked on a target first and he put an arrow through its shoulder. The wolf yelped and jumped into the air. He was nowhere near high enough to snap at the men leaning down from the loft, but Lefou flinched anyway, knocking Martin's gun from his hand. Martin scrambled after it, overbalanced, and fell down out of the loft. Lefou made a grab for him, missed his hand by a mile and fell down too.
Luc shouted "Allons, Gaston, we have to help them!" and jumped, a long hunting knife in each hand. Gaston weighed his options quickly: jump down into danger now, or stay where it was safe and be trapped, alone in the loft, wolves prowling below him...
Unappealing. Not to mention he simply couldn't be outshone by Luc, who was at least seventy-five years old...
Gaston blew hastily at the embers in the hay, wanting to light things up a little, and then drew his knife and dropped down to the battle below.
He landed on one knee, blew his hair out of his eyes, and instantly something rank and furry barrelled into him. This was not a problem - he had been wrestling dogs of this size since he was six years old. Gaston stuck his knife in his teeth, where it helped keep the wolf's jaws from closing over his face, and fought for a top position where he could use his weight to hold it down while he slugged it in the nose and then stabbed it til it was still.
He stood, scrambled up onto a crate and drew his bow. He took two perfect shots before a scream from Martin distracted him. He turned and managed to make out a real mess - blood, wolf, person, wolf, blood-
He saw at once that he would not be able to get a clear shot - he'd be as likely to hit his friend as the animal - so he looked looked elsewhere for a target and found wolves that he could be more certain of killing. He wished Martin would be quiet - the screams were interfering with his ability to concentrate. (And they made it completely impossible for him to hear what crept up behind him...)
It was Lefou who ended up coming to help the injured man. He had picked up an axe that was far too big for him, and swung it two-handed at the wolf's back. It let go of Martin and rounded on him instead, but before anything disastrous happened, a large snarling pair of jaws snapped shut on the wolf's throat and dragged it to the ground.
Lefou squinted to make it out by the light of the small (but growing) fire in the hayloft. "Rameau? What are you doing here, where's Belle?"
"Forget the dog," Martin ordered, taking up the axe for himself and giving Lefou a more reasonable-sized knife instead. "Luc needs help, come on."
"Sure, let's go!" Forgetting was Lefou's specialty.
TBC.
Aright, the Beast will soon be thoroughly in the picture. And Gaston will not escape this fight unscathed. Happy?