In the Beast's PoV again

Instantly, when I told her to get out of my Castle, I felt my heart wrench. I instantly regretted it too. I shouldn't have sent her out in the cold and unforgiving forest like that. She was garbed in light clothes only, and saddled a horse she called Phillipe. I thought to myself sadly : "since when did I become so cruel?"

But I was a stubborn man or Beast. She disobeyed me and deserved to be punished. But she was going to be the girl who'd break my spell by the evil enchantress. I said to myself in my head. And I sent her away in the freezing cold in the forest! Such an evil and uncompassionate man I was! When I was thinking about myself, I always thought of myself as a man, even though I was a Beast now.

Then, I felt a slight pang of guilt in my heart, I shouldn't have sent her away in such a cold forest with animals and the like. "You deserve to live with them, not amongst humans!" I said to myself. Yes I do deserve to live with them, not in a Castle. Well, the Castle my parents left me when they passed away. My parents passed away when I was very young : at 10, my mum passed from tuberculosis, and my father passed on a few weeks later. I was tended and waited on by the kind Mrs. Potts, my surrogate mother, the only one whom I confided in, the only servant whom I trusted. "Well, you should tell Mrs. Potts about your worries for the girl Belle."

"Ahh, Mrs. Potts, I was looking for you."

"What for, your Highness?"

"Belle."

"You're worried about her deep down, aren't you?"

Even as an "evil" Beast, she saw me right through my pretences. And I couldn't more grateful to her for that. Because it would have been so awkward for me to ask her about Belle, since I threw her out in my uncontrollable temper.

"Yes I am."

"Ask your mirror to show her to you, Sire."

And I did as she told me. Mrs. Potts was an intelligent woman, one of the level-headed and oldest servant of the Castle. I went to the West Wing to grab my mirror, and asked it :

"Mirror, Mirror, show me the girl!"

"Which girl?" asked the mirror playfully. But I wasn't in the mood to play.

"Belle of course! Who else!"

And it showed me Belle. She was struggling with her horse Phillipe. Her horse didn't hear her commands and she almost fell off from it. It wrenched my heart to see her like this. Previously, she was so proud and stubborn, but now she was in need of help. But hard-headed as I was, I wasn't going to save her yet. I had to let taste the bitterness of the cold and the harshness of the forest and all a little bit more. I could be so heartless sometimes. But I couldn't watch her anymore as she fought the strong wind and her hood flew up in the air. "She must be so cold right now", I thought to myself. "And I threw her away! I threw away my only hope to salvation, to become human again!"

Mrs. Potts could see me frowning of worry for her, my beastly forehead frowning and said to me :

"Why don't you go and save her, Master! She's in need of your help!"

"I won't go, she disobeyed me, she deserves to die in the cold."

"But Master, she's only a frail girl, she might warm up to you if you did!"

I thought about that and that was pretty intelligent of Mrs. Potts. Presently, Lumiere just got in and saw us together, watching Belle through my mirror.

"Sire, you're just going to watch her, she could break your spell you know!"

"That's what I told him, but he wouldn't budge Lumiere!"

As they were talking this way about me, I saw Belle being attacked by a pack of wild wolves from behind. I was a Beast yes, but a civilized Beast. Those weren't domesticated animals. I worried for her safety and regretted more deeply about sending her along in the forest. So it was then that I decided to go and get her and her horse back in my Castle. And maybe, just maybe, she would feel gratefulness to me afterwards, well, at least I hoped so!

"Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, I'll go and save her from the wolves." Without another word, I pushed the Castle's heavy doors open, and went outside. I wasn't so cold because I had fur on my body and it was protecting me from the harshness of the cold.

I wandered around the forest for a while before I could find Phillipe's hove prints. I followed them and found Belle struggling to get the wolves off her back. With my beastly hand, I yanked one off her back and one was biting her scarf, I yanked it off from her too with my hand's brute force. And I bit in one's flesh while it was trying to bite her horse's leg. It left in a hurry.

I hoped she'd thank me later on for this because I got hurt too in this. I got bitten by the wolves and stuff. After my fight with the wolves and rescuing her from them, I fell unconscious from my wounds. It stopped hurting me at the very least.

When I was awake again, I was in my Castle, with Belle tending to my wounds. "Thank God Belle's back, she's worried me a great deal!" As I expected, she said to me :

"Thank you, thank you for rescuing me from the wild wolves."

"No problem, but had you not run away…" I left that hanging.

"Had you not thrown me out of your Castle…." She left that hanging.

This girl was not courageous, not afraid of me, and also dared to talk back to me! I played her game a while but I was in disbelief! No one had ever talked to me in this fashion ever! I was going to teach her a lesson in manners! "Calm down, no you won't, you went to rescue her because you cared about her, you won't scare her away again for your own sake." A voice in my head said to me.

"If you hadn't gone to the West Wing, and if you hadn't been so curious… all this wouldn't have happened."

"Yeah, it was partly my fault, I apologize to you, your Highness, for making you save me."

She was apologizing to me now? That girl was hard to figure out! I just said to her :

"No need, we both have wounds, let's just rest until tomorrow and start afresh. I saved you from the wild forest and I locked you in cellar first, you tended to my wounds, so thank you for this."

"No worries, it was my pleasure. Are you better now?"

"Yes Belle. So I just want to know, tomorrow, will you have dinner with me?"

"I'll think about it." Was her playful answer.

"I'll think about it! Why couldn't she be sure about it?" I thought, very disappointed about her answer, but I'll see tomorrow I guess. But as a very impatient man, I couldn't wait till tomorrow. I was going to have dinner with my girl : Belle!

Thanks for reading!