JMJ

FIVE

Supper that evening had been the most disastrous meal Cogsworth had ever had the misfortune to supervise. The Master came down as if a true beast from the depths of the wood had come down to devour the very table he sat at and the servants with it. Sauntering in on all fours and swiping at a young maid turned feather duster (there were a lot of those) with feathers flying about, it was as if a lion had just missed the tail end of a bird.

The Duster let out a cry, and a couple other dusters hurriedly pulled her back to comfort her.

Then the Master paying not the slightest attention to anyone else, crawled into his usual chair almost knocking it over as he did. Steadying it with hands upon the table, he leered down at the empty place before him and shifted that leer with a far more deadly glint toward the kitchen.

"Where is it!?" he growled.

The preparations were in just as bad of a condition in the kitchens as in the dining room however as Cogsworth looked inside; though one did not have to see to know how things came alone. He cringed at the sound of a crashing plate, and with a double-take was at least pleased to see that it had not been a person, but one of the ordinary plates. None of the enchanted plates wanted to be eaten off of as of yet, but few people had much for hands at all much less the capability of using them properly. The chef could be heard booming loudly in anger about food being spilt, and Cogsworth reluctantly returned to face the Master.

"It's … coming, Master. Shortly," said Cogsworth twiddling his hands around each other. "The tray is being set."

He glanced back into the kitchen again.

"It is set as of now. Finally." He turned once more and grinned nervously. Then noticing the manservant turned coat rack, one of the few that had anything that resembled human form and quite tall and nimble despite the change. Motioning to him, he whispered fearfully, "Quick, Alphonse. Help them."

Alphonse bowed in his usual silent way, and did as bidden.

Within the next few moments of no further mishaps, one of the carts came rolling out followed by Alphonse, who after having come downstairs from the Master's bedchambers was a blessing to have. He placed all the dishes onto the table from the cart and with a neat and tidy hand, which at least satisfied the Master if it did not please him. No spills upon the table or, Cogsworth shuddered, the Master himself.

"Now, go away!" growled the Master.

Alphonse bowed low and withdrew, happy to get away.

The Master ate for a moment or two, and no one tried to watch his display of bad manners. He did not try to hold back anymore. Completely had he given in after a few days to his enchantment. If anyone had come into the dining room from the outside world they would have thought that the Beast had never been a man, and no woman would have felt anything for him but loathing and fear, and as much as the servants understood his anger, that it was justifiable, that it could hardly be helped, his pride had been broken so much, but to give in to it so intensely sickened them more than the sight of him would be to anyone else.

The person nearest him was Lumiere who, aside from the fireplace was the only source of light in the area. The Master preferred the house dark. Bright light was forbidden in his presence by strict orders. With this fact in mind, the Master noticing Lumiere more than anyone else would not have changed whether he stood close by or not; though as he stood on a nearby stand against the wall that just made it all the worse.

"What?" the Master demanded, throwing his head toward him.

"Nothing," said Lumiere, a nervous grin appearing on his face at being so pointed out.

"You have to watch me eat?!" the Master growled. "Can't I eat in peace!?"

"Of course, Master," said Lumiere. "I wasn't watching. I was standing on hand in case you needed anything."

"I don't need you staring at me!?" he snarled.

Lumiere looked away and cleared his throat.

"Please, sir, we're only trying to be at your service," wavered Mrs. Potts with an uneasy hesitance.

Approaching timidly Cogsworth agreed. "Yes. We are still your loyal servants ever at you call." He smiled folding his hands together with hope.

"Your every wish is our command," added Lumiere.

"Then I wish for all of you to leave me ALONE!"

The dining room instantly emptied at that final word which came out like the roar of a raging bear. The fire in the fireplace crackled and the Master like that same bear in complete solitude as he wished it.

#

The Master had not come down to supper, but no one dared to go and see if he what held him. Most of the servants did not feel comfortable using the stairs as of yet anyway, though Chip and some of his siblings still liked very much the idea of riding the dog up, not that they wished to use this method to speak to the Master, and as they were children after all, none of the adults recommended it either.

It also happened that the meeting that Cogsworth had called for never happened as Cogsworth himself seemed to his disappeared for some days after he had overseen that one meal. Someone said that they saw him rough it out down the steps to the servants' quarters, but all agreed to let him be as well.

"What do we do with the food then, Maman?" asked Chip.

"They can't give it to anyone else," said one of his siblings. "Not even the pigs can eat it. The groundskeepers say so."

Some of the others such as the chef and a few pots, pans, and platters discussed this very situation, and it became quite loud from time to time.

The Potts children all huddled round their mother on one of the far shelves in a shadowed corner. But they still had been overheard, for one of the plates said before Mrs. Potts could answer her children, "Yes, the pigs! That brings up another matter altogether. We'll run out of meat before long too. Someone will have to order new animals."

Mrs. Potts sighed.

"What if they turn into something before they can be cooked?" asked a Pepper Shaker.

"Oh, don't say such things!" gasped the Salt Shaker.

"No, no, no. Maybe that would be a good thing," said a Sauce Pan.

"What are you talking about?" growled Chef Honoré.

"If it is only the Castle that is cursed, perhaps if we leave we shall be turned back to normal!" said the Sauce Pan.

"I very much doubt that," said a serving Fork.

The Pepper Shaker heartily agreed. "That would be too easy."

"It's hard enough," muttered the Sauce Pan.

"Monsieur Seau went out with some of the others to close and lock the gate already," the Pepper Shaker retorted.

"He was only trying to be helpful," said the Salt Shaker quietly.

Chef Honoré glowered. "False hope isn't helpful!"

"But what about the supper?" asked a Tray.

"Well, besides the fact that supper is not at all up to standard!" boomed Chef Honoré, which was the truth for the chef and his fellow cooks tried very hard to use truly inanimate objects to do most of the cooking, but it was becoming more and more apparent that this was near impossible in most cases even though it was quite understandable why no one as of yet wanted to use themselves. The exception was the chef himself who had to use himself from the beginning as the real oven could not be found. He had, alas, perhaps become one with the oven, which had stood there originally.

"Well, the Master may come later yet," said the Salt Shaker.

"Everything's already cold or near being over-cooked," said Chef Honoré, "and I know the Master's delicate, majestic palate. If anything else he knows what good food is. The taste of what atrocities we have been making since this disaster started, it's small wonder why the Master hasn't eaten much!"

"I'm sure it has little to do with the cooking," said Mrs. Potts softly.

A couple of her eldest children nodded; though one could no longer tell who the eldest was, for all looked now near exactly the same.

"It doesn't help!" declared Honoré.

"Perhaps someone should take his dinner up to him," offered the Salt Shaker.

The only thing most everyone could see as a result of such an idea, including the Salt Shaker herself was a pile of gravy, would be pork and vegetable stew spilling all over the staircase and a tumbling and crashing of whomever attempted this feat. Nevertheless Eloi who had been resting in a corner of the kitchen drove up now and offered, "I'll try it … if someone comes with me."

"I shall go with you," said Mrs. Potts resolutely.

No one argued over the matter, and it did not take long before everything had been set on the Cart with Mrs. Potts not far behind.

The children seemed to be getting the hang of their new bodies much faster than most adults were. The youngest Potts child took a few springing bounds after his mother and ahead of her onto the cart using a stool as a step to the top of Eloi.

"Are you sure you can manage the stairs?" asked Mrs. Potts before they set off.

"I think I can crawl up, if I can manage to keep my wheels sidewise to keep from rolling backwards," said the Cart.

"I still say no one's been beyond the walls," muttered the Sauce Pan after Eloi had left. "Someone should try."

"The one-man carriage has," said the Pepper Shaker. "He took a few with him to send the letters that Monsieur Cogsworth wanted sent. They didn't turn back to normal."

"And as Monsieur L'Épice said," said the serving Fork pointing a sharp end toward the Pepper Shaker. "It would be too easy. If what Monsieur Lumiere said is true than how could that vile creature give us such a loop hole."

"The Master ever falling in love is bad enough for our case," the Salt Shaker sighed. "But for someone to love him, especially now …"

"Perhaps the enchantress was really a fairy, and her tricks or only tricks as cruel as they are, and it's easier to reverse the curse than it looks," said the Sauce Pan not giving up just yet.

"It's hopeless!" groaned Chef Honoré, and his groan caused the fire from the oven to steam through the burners.

Closest to the Oven, the Salt and Pepper Shakers leapt away and nearly knocked over a Bottle who had been trying to stay out of the conversation.

"What did Lumiere say?"

Everyone stopped and looked up, or rather down, for this weary sigh of a voice had come from Cogsworth.

"Monsieur Cogsworth!" said the Salt Shaker. "We thought you were downstairs."

"And what reason would I have for going downstairs?" asked Cogsworth rather sad more than cross. "It's not as if I'd have much use for climbing into bed once I'd' have managed it. Come, come, answer my question." His face was still creased with a mental exhaustion. Wherever he had been previous to this, he must have been thinking deeply about their situation. He spoke now quite calmly without a tense backdrop to his conversation even if a melancholy tone did haunt his voice in its place. "What did Lumiere say about the curse?"

A small interval of silence ensued. Then after a moment or two the Bottle cleared his voice, "He said there was one way to end the curse."

"Did she say it herself?" asked Cogsworth and shook his head. "Never mind. What is it?"

"That the curse would only be lifted if some young lady were to fall in love with the Master," Chef Honoré said in a strait forward manner.

"And the Master with her, of course," added the Pepper Shaker.

Cogsworth frowned, or at least his already grim face became grimmer, and another silence fell upon the company. It lasted shorter than the first had but felt far more oppressive. Closing his eyes with a most heavy and mournful sigh Cogsworth said, "So much for making affairs any better," he moaned.

"But at least there's some hope," offered the Salt Shaker.

"It's just another mockery upon us," muttered Cogsworth. "To add to the million already present in this wretched castle." He held up his hand. "I have no strength left to express my grief about this whole business."

"Then please don't strain yourself!" grumbled Chef Honoré. "Or go back into whatever gloomy hole you've crawled out of. We all know the circumstances! We don't need you to tell us how hopeless it is for any woman in her right mind to even stand in the same room with any one of us now, much less fall in love with the Master!"

"She did not actually say that the woman had to be sane, did she?" asked the Sauce Pan innocently.

"Why would the Master fall in love with a madwoman?" asked the Salt Shaker.

"Does he have to fall in love with her?" asked the Plate which had spoken earlier. "I don't remember whether that was part of it or not. Just that there was a time limit. He has to relive his whole life of twenty and the last petal falls on his twenty-first year of becoming the beast at his birthday. Wasn't it so? And—"

"Of course it is that the Master must love the girl back!" snapped Cogsworth. "Just to make it all the more ironic! He never loved anyone as a human, why should he love anyone as a beast?! Having such a remedy for the curse is just another way to torment us! It would be better if there were no solution at all, which for our own sanity we should treat as such anyway! In fact, I command it!"

"Lumiere seems to think it could happen," said the Salt Shaker.

"Yes, well, Lumiere would think pigs could fly if there was an optimistic motive for it," sniffed Cogsworth who had not completely forgotten the events that led to his fight with Lumiere. "In the best interest of the Master it should not be spoken of ever again if I ever have a word to command about anything ever again! No one could fall in love with the Master. He was hardly a lovable sort of person to begin with. Even then if someone had decided to marry the Master it would have been no doubt for his power and wealth and perhaps his handsome looks, and I'm sure just to make it all the harder the curse means true love: deep, heart-wrenching, and passionate love like in the play and the romantic novel such as our dear Monsieur DuPont's finest!" Here he rolled his hand around to bring further emphasis to this sarcastic bit. "And even if he was a lovable person and one could see past his wretched present form, who would come here? We've just all but condemned the castle. It's not as if we can go and kidnap Monique and hope she forgives us and decides that the Master is not so bad a character after all and the Master likewise. Or how about the princess of Prussia for that matter. And didn't someone say something about a time limit? A million years won't change a thing, and we'll all be just as we are now! Then what's the point?!"

No one gave him a reason for the point, but it was about this point in Cogsworth's ranting that he noticed that no one was paying the slightest bit of attention to him any longer, and were instead engaging themselves in further conversation without him.

"Fine, don't listen to me," muttered Cogsworth. "In fact why we pretend there is anything left of hierarchy in the ranks of servitude anyway in this place is beyond me."

"Because you ordered it so the other day, Monsieur Cogsworth," said the Salt Shaker and she smiled.

Cogsworth sighed. He envied anyone who could bring a smile upon his or her face, but he shook his head leaving the kitchen again without any real destination in mind.

"Well, we can safely say that the captain's jumped ship," said the Pepper Shaker.

"But where will we find hope?" asked the Tray. "Any of us, after a while."

Here one of the older Potts children spoke out with a boy's voice of about fifteen years, "We can't give up hope till the ship is surely down!"

The Salt Shaker smiled. "Mon cher."

#

"Master?"

Mrs. Potts knocked on the door with the side of her body.

"What if he opens to door really fast?" whispered Chip, leaning close into his mother's side.

Stiffening, Eloi moved away a bit, but nothing happened.

"Go back a little, Eloi," whispered Mrs. Potts. "Let me knock again."

Eloi did with care, and Mrs. Potts after her second round of knocking just as lightly as before, called out cheerily as she could, "Master, we've brought supper for you. It'll get cold, sir."

Still no answer. Shuffling sounds came from inside. At least the Master had not gone out again.

"You have to keep up your strength, Master," said Mrs. Potts. "At least have a cup of tea."

"What's the point?" the voice of the Master returned at last almost inaudible through the door.

For the first time since the curse had happened, he spoke without yelling. That at least would have been encouraging regardless of what he actually said in that quieter tone.

"Oh, Master," said Mrs. Potts. "You must try to keep going."

"Why?" asked the Master like a lost and lonely child, Mrs. Potts thought, and her heart went out to him. "My life is over anyway."

"Where there's a will there's always a way, Master Adam," Mrs. Potts said, her voice strengthening now as she tried to soothe the poor overgrown child through the door. "Where's there's life there's always hope. Those saying aren't made up just for nothing, Master. They live on for a reason."

Chip looked up at the door inquisitively as he listened for an answer, and biting his lip Eloi glanced up at Mrs. Potts hoping she was helping.

"Don't call me that," grumbled the Master.

"Excuse me, Master?" asked Mrs. Potts.

"Adam,' said the Master. "I'm not even human anymore. Don't ever call me Adam again."

Mrs. Potts let out a sad sigh.

"Please, Master, please eat," she said. "We're all so worried about you."

"Why should you be?" demanded the Master.

"Because you're our master," said Mrs. Potts. "Our physical bodies don't change that for any of us. The curse can be broken. Have faith, Master, do try. You still have a chance, but only if you try. Your mother and father would die a second time to know how miserable you are. "

"They would die just looking at me," muttered the Master.

Mrs. Potts frowned realizing she had made a mistake bringing Robert and Estelle into this. "That's beside the point."

"You can love, Master, we know you can!" cried Chip.

Normally the child would have been reprimanded for such an outburst, and even still Mrs. Potts gave him a disapproving glance, but everything had become so unorthodox of late, what could be said against the poor little child trying to help in this desperate situation.

"We'll leave it outside the door if you wish, Master," said Eloi.

"Fine," said the Master.

"Will you promise to eat it, sir?" asked Mrs. Potts.

There was a pause. "I'll eat it," the Master growled.


NOTE: Like I said at the beginning I did change the rules a little bit from the movie, but they were so confusing in the movie I thought that it wouldn't matter if I used a little artistic license here for it. (shrug)

Hope everyone's liking the story so far ^-^