Still in Laurence's PoV

Garbed in my winter coat, I saddled Phillipe, my horse or was it Belle's? I didn't know and I didn't care anymore about it, but after I saddled him, I rode him into the woods first, and then in the forest. I preferred the calm of the woods to that Gaston's horrible advances. I really was in heaven in the woods. As I rode swiftly in the woods, I didn't pay attention to my surroundings, and I didn't see I already got to the middle of a Forest.

It seems to me that I've been in circles around the same spot in the forest for a long while. I had no compass nor anything like that, so I couldn't find my way in the forest and it was snowing heavily, so my horse left visible prints in the snow. Even if my plan were in part, to get lost in the forest and to meet my prince charming, I still had to get Papa. The man was gone long enough, and this started to worry me more and more. "Almost night now." I said to myself out loud and fearing for my dear Papa's life. "My dear Papa?" Even though this man wasn't my real dad, I still thought of him as my Papa, but I didn't know myself how I came to grow attached to this man in such a short time. I thought it was because he took care of me as a daughter when I was sick, laying in bed. If not for him, I wouldn't be so comfortably laying in bed, when I was dizzy and all, so instead of complaining, I was thankful I wasn't in a worse situation than I was now . And if I didn't have such a loving papa, I'd probably be a servant in a rich man or woman's house or even worse, a bastard child in the streets. But, the fates had me in Belle's body and God only knew why. Then as I went deeper about it, and thought to myself while I was riding Phillipe : "Maybe it's the Enchantress who did that to me? But if she did, why did she choose me?" At that time, I couldn't know it was because I was Belle's reincarnation in the 21st century, and that was why she chose me to break the Prince's curse.

Enough wandering around in my thoughts, I needed to concentrate on finding my papa now. "But how?" My horse then neighed. "Phillipe, do you have any idea about where my papa could or might be?" He of course, as a horse couldn't speak, so he neighed again, in the same high-pitched horse sound. He rode me to a palace.

"Are you sure, Phillipe?" I asked my horse, a bit uncertain myself about the place. The palace before me was dark, and no lights in the palace. After a look around the place, I thought to myself : "No lights on, there mustn't be anyone round in there." But Phillipe went further in the palace.

"Phillipe, stop! What are you doing? We're walking straight into the selfish Prince's castle!" But he didn't listen to me and still rode further ahead. "I don't want to go there, please, Phillipe, it's the Prince's enchanted Castle!" My words though, still fell deaf in my horse's ears and he acted his own way despite my not wanting to go further.

But then, I saw hoove prints in the snow and Phillipe, quite an intelligent horse, was following the trail these prints' left. It was probably my papa's horse, and my horse recognized them. Realizing my mistake, I said to Phillipe : "What an intelligent horse you are, Phillipe! I'm sorry I've ever yelled at you. Will you ever forgive me?"

Then again Phillipe didn't seem to mind me, so he continued following these prints, and we came about a Castle. "This is the selfish Prince's castle, I don't want to go in, Phillipe." I wailed, but as much as I didn't want go in, I knew I had to, because my Papa was in there and in Belle's body, I had to meet my Prince the Beast, or was it the Beast my Prince. It wasn't all very clear to me when I opened the Castle's huge and heavy doors and went in, asking :

"Hello, is anybody here? Hello anyone home?"

As total silence greeted my questions, I wandered around the Castle for a bit, not daring to go too fast. Suddenly, while I explored the Castle slowly, I apparently heard some faint noises coming from a corridor. I followed those sounds, knowing I was about to meet Lumiere the Candlelight and Cogsworth the Clock. And indeed, I saw Lumiere and Cogsworth in a dimly-light corridor. I asked Lumiere :

"Where am I?"

"You're in my Master's Castle, young lady?"

"Belle."

"You're in the infamous Beast's Castle, Mademoiselle."

"Cogsworth, what do you mean?" I said, feigning surprise, knowing full well who these 2 meant. However, I still asked them these questions.

"The frightening Beast, I'd suggest for you to get out of this cursed Castle, as much as possible, Mademoiselle."

"I'm not afraid of any Beast or Master!" I roared, and I shouldn't have done that, because just then, some other voice asked roaringly :

"Who's there? Disturbing my peace?" Despite having read the fairytale over and over again and so many times, living it was quite another story for me. When I was reading it, I was terrified of the Beast, and in reality, he was 1 thousand times more scary than in Belle's or my tale. I didn't know who I was now anymore.

"It's me, Belle."

"And what do you want, how dare you come in my Castle? Without any invitation?" He was asking me in his frightening voice. I just stood there in horrified silence, and was unable to answer satisfactorily. After some moments of silence, he asked me again :

"What are doing in my Castle? Uninvited? To mock me right?"

"I eer… err…" I was stuttering and struggling to find my own voice.

"Answer me! Or I'll get you out of my Castle!" My Beast or my Prince was threatening me.

"Sire, I am here to try and find my papa, who's gone to a fair in the day and didn't come home for the night, have you perhaps seen him? And no, I didn't come to make fun of you! "

"Seen him? I don't think so, or if you're talking about an old white-haired man?"

"Yes him! So you've seen him?"

"You're to call me your Highness, or Sire."

"Yes Sire, your Highness. What have you done to him? Let me see him now!"

I demanded of the Beast. I knew I was playing with fire, but I didn't care anything more than to find my dear and perhaps already dead papa. "What if I were too late for him?" I was thinking as I frowned, anticipating the worst for my papa, who wasn't really my dad, but since he took care of me like his own daughter, I considered him as my dad. But the story said my Beast or my Prince just put him in a cell, and gave him no foods nor anything else.

"You have some courage, Miss Belle or is it foolishness?" My Prince in my Beast's body asked.

"No, I want to see him please!" I begged him. After I pleaded with him, he said :

"This way, young Miss Belle."

I had no other choice other than follow him and I soon found myself climbing some stairs and going down the cellars. Although I was freaking out inside, I was trying to be as calm as possible on the outside. His face was always in the dark while I walked down the stairs, he never showed me his monstrous face. Had I seen it, I'd perhaps fainted there and there, and wouldn't have the courage to follow him down the cellars, where my good Papa was locked up. Out of the blue, he stopped and told me, raising his candle :

"Go in there, and see if it's not your Father."

And indeed it was. Seeing my papa so weak, I wanted to go to him, but since his cell was locked, my Beast had to unlock it with his keys. As he did so, I rushed in my papa Maurice's cellar :

"Oh Papa! I finally found you!" He was telling me in coarse whispers :

"Belle, go now, don't let the Beast lock you too, like he did to me!"

"No Papa, you go."

"Nobody's going anywhere. This cell will be your place to stay."

"No please your Highness! Let me take his place, let him go!"

At this, my Beast or was it my Prince wavered and asked me :

"Really? You'd stay in his place?"

"Yes! Let my Papa go, please!"

"Belle, no, listen to me! You're still young, don't sacrifice yourself for me." My Papa Maurice was telling me, but I refused to listen to him and told the Beast :

"I'll be taking his place in the cell, lock me in and let him out, please, Sire."

"No, I'm old and lived my life, please let my Belle go!" My Papa was now screaming at the top of his lungs, but my Beast the prince said :

"Your daughter has decided, now I'm letting you out, go." Then I whistled, calling my Papa's horse, and he rode safely back home in our cottage.

"You must promise me to stay here forever, My Lady Belle." Having never been called "My Lady" before, this was a novelty to me.

"My Lady?"

"Yes, you are this Castle's Lady now, if you need anything, ask my servants."

Although I shouldn't be confused because I've read the fairy tale so many times that I memorized every line of it by heart, however I was still surprised by his tone of voice. "How terrifying he had been when I asked him about Maurice!" But now, he was almost polite to me.

"Why? I thought I was your prisoner!" Forgetting to call him "Sire" or "Your Highness" again. However, this time he didn't correct me, instead he told me :

"You can go back to your cellar if you want, I'm not stopping you. Or you can have a comfortable room in the Castle for yourself, your choice."

"Fine, your Highness or Sire?" I asked hesitantly, not knowing which he preferred.

"Since you are my Castle's Lady now, Belle, you should me call me 'Master.' And you can go anywhere you wish in the Castle, except for the West Wing!"

But in defiant spirits and besides, I was a girl from the 21st century, so not used to these titles, I called him:

"M'sieur, what's in the West Wing?"

"M'Sieur and there's nothing special there?"

"Yes M'Sieur, that's what I called every man that back in my small village. If there really were nothing in the West Wing, then why can't go there?"

"Because I said so. Now go prepare yourself in your room while my cooks are making your dinner."

I could see I was beginning to irritate him and really to try to refrain myself from calling him "dude", since I didn't know how he'd react to that.

"I'm expecting your for dinner at 7 sharp, Belle."

I neither agreed or disagreed to it, but interiorly, I was concluding this to myself : "The Prince is way worse than that Gaston! Are all men in the Dark Ages that way? How did Belle manage to fall in love with him? And how did he fall for Belle? Hum, I meant me in Belle's body!" This was all so confusing to me as I undressed myself to take some rest. A bit later, Cogsworth came in and told me I had an hour before dinner, a dinner I wasn't going to because of that Prince's prideful attitude towards me. "He dared to demand me to dinner and not ask me out to dinner!" After some musing, I calmed down a bit and told myself out loud when all the servants left me alone : "Don't forget, you're in the Middle-Ages when men dominated women and to top it all, he's a real prince. In a Beast's form." I argued with myself during this one hour.

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