AN: I'm a bad, BAD Siren! I should have been writing and updating this a long time ago! I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting! I'll try to be better about it! Luckily, I have today and tomorrow off from school, so I can get caught up on all my stories. Thank you all for your support and understanding. I love you guys! :) So without further ado, here's the next chapter of Beauty and the Beast. Enjoy!
Chapter 4
A short time later there came a knock on her door. Elizabeta sniffed, wiped her eyes, and moved to open the door. "Who is it?" She asked. She opened the door and saw no one there. "Show yourself!" She demanded.
"Down here." A gruff voice said from below. Elizabeta looked down to see a beer stein staring up at her.
"What the hell?!" Elizabeta shrieked, and kicked the beer stein down the hall. When she heard the sound of stone hitting stone and a loud grunt, she immediately rushed out and picked the stein up. "Oh, crap. I'm so sorry! I just- I was- And then you- Talking- And I-"
"Apology accepted." The beer stein said curtly. It hopped down from her hand and into her room. "I came to see if you were thirsty."
"Oh. That's very kind of you, but I'm not really-"
"It's beer." The stein said.
"In that case, I could use a drink. Especially after the day I've had." She said.
"That's what I thought you'd say. Feliciano! Get in here!" The stein yelled. Immediately, a small blur darted into the room and landed on Elizabeta's lap. Looking down, Elizabeta saw a teacup with an odd curly handle bouncing in her hand.
"Ciao!" The teacup greeted before spiraling into a whirlwind of words. "I'm Feliciano! You can call me Feli! Wow, you're such a pretty lady! I like pretty ladies. I also like Ludwig. I know he can be a real big scary meanie-pants sometimes, but whenever I'm in trouble he always saves me. What's your name? Do you like pasta? I like pasta! But I haven't been able to have any since-"
"Feli!" The beer stein scolded. "Calm yourself!"
The teacup stopped its bouncing and looked at the beer stein with a pout. "Aww, but Ludwig! She's so pretty! And she smells nice! And-" The teacup stopped mid-sentence upon feeling Elizabeta start to shake. Looking up, he realized that she was laughing.
"S-Sorry!" She gasped, clutching her sides. "I just realized that I've become my father! I've gone mad!" She chortled and chuckled until tears began to fall from her eyes. She soon stopped laughing and started crying. "I've gone mad. I've gone absolutely bonkers. I'm crazy." She whispered.
"You are, like, so not crazy!" A voice from behind her protested. Elizabeta slowly turned around to see her wardrobe watching her.
"I'm not? Sure. Sure I'm not crazy. I'm just supposed to believe that furniture and objects here can talk?" She asked incredulously.
"Well, yeah. It's, like, not that hard to understand." The wardrobe replied.
"Maybe for you, Feliks, but she isn't a talking wardrobe." The beer stein reasoned.
The wardrobe gasped. "Why- I never- I'll have you know that I am totally not just a talking wardrobe. I am a fashion designing, hair styling, pony breeding, singing, dancing, country-flying, hair-flipping, 'talking wardrobe'."
Elizabeta cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but I still have some questions." She said. "If I'm not crazy and you're all real, then how did this happen?" She asked.
"That is a question for the master." The beer stein said. "If you are that curious, you can ask him at dinner."
At the beer stein's mention of dinner, the wardrobe squealed and flung open its drawers. "Ooh! I've got the perfect thing for you to wear! I'm thinking that green is, like, so totally your color. It would totally be matching with your eyes!"
Elizabeta smiled sadly and shook her head. "That's very kind, but… I'm not going to dinner."
"What? But you, like, have to! The master said-"
"If the 'master' is so keen on having dinner with me, then he should have asked me like a gentleman would, not like a general ordering his men to the battlefield. I may be a prisoner here, but that doesn't mean that I'll stand to be ordered around like some slave." Elizabeta said.
"He won't like hearing that." The beer stein warned.
"So be it." Elizabeta shrugged. "But enough about that; if I'm going to be here for awhile, I might as well get to know everyone. What are your names again?" She asked.
"I am Ludwig," The beer stein said. "This is Feli-" He nodded towards the teacup that was still resting in Elizabeta's hand, "And-"
"And I'm Feliks!" The wardrobe cut in, much to Ludwig's irritation. "And you and I are, like, totally going to be the best girlfriends forever!"
"Ludwig, Feli, and Feliks; got it." Elizabeta made a mental note of their names. "I'm Elizabeta. Wait, Feliks? Isn't that a guy's name?" She asked.
"Feliks is a guy," Ludwig said. "Even though he doesn't act like it."
Feliks merely stuck his tongue out at Ludwig and turned away as much as he could, given his enormous width.
"Oh. Well. That's more than a little awkward." Elizabeta muttered. "I think you're a very, uh, pretty…. guy, Feliks." She said, hoping to make the wardrobe feel better. It seemed to work, as he turned back around and smiled at her.
"I, like, so totally knew there was a reason why I was liking you!" He said.
Elizabeta smiled and let out the mental breath she had been holding. Bullet dodged, she congratulated herself. She noticed Ludwig was looking rather uncomfortable. "What's the matter, Ludwig?" She asked.
"If you aren't going to dinner, then it's up to me to tell the master." Ludwig explained hesitantly."He won't be happy. Not at all."
Elizabeta felt a pang of guilt at the sight of Ludwig's nervous expression. "I'm sorry, Ludwig. But I can't bear to be in the same room as him." She said remorsefully.
"You should give the master a chance," Feliciano piped in. It was then that Elizabeta realized that the apparently chatty teacup had been fairly silent up to that point.
She regarded him curiously. "Why do you say that, Feli?" She asked.
"I think he just doesn't know how to react to a person being in the castle. Especially a girl." Everyone in the room was silent, amazed at Feliciano's apparent moment of logical thinking. However, that moment was soon over, as he began to prattle on. "I like girls. Not as much as I like Ludwig, but I like girls. Pretty ones. I think-" He was cut off by an irritated-looking Ludwig.
"I think we're done here, Feli. Let's go inform the master of the change in dinner plans." Elizabeta noticed the slight shudder that ran through Ludwig as he thought of the anger he was sure to face.
Feliciano quieted and nodded, hopping after Ludwig with one last "See you later, Elle!" as the door shut behind them.
"Elle?" Elizabeta wondered out loud.
"Looks like Feli has given you a nickname," Feliks said. "He only does that for people he really likes. So that mean's pretty much, like, everyone in the castle has a nickname."
Elizabeta smiled. "He's cute. I can tell that he and Ludwig really like each other. Even if Ludwig is kind of harsh on him sometimes," She added. "So," She said, turning to Feliks. "Now what?"
"Now," Feliks said "We wait for the master."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Well, I'd imagine that once he learns you've decided to play hooky from dinner, he'll be, like, totally pissed. He's definitely gonna come by and yell." Feliks warned.
Elizabeta huffed. "Sounds like he's got a real temper."
"You have no idea." Feliks said with a small chuckle. "But believe me when I say that despite his unsightly exterior and rather grumpy interior, the master's actually a pretty good guy." At Elizabeta's questioning stare, he corrected himself. "Okay, so that, like, totally came out differently than I meant it to. What I mean is that the master has been feeling hopeless and lonely for too long. He doesn't know what to do with himself. He's used to being shut off from the world because of his… aesthetic challenges."
"That's sad," Elizabeta said. "I guess in a way, I can empathize with him. I've always been sort of lonely, too. I was never really a part of the town I lived in. They saw me as an odd character. I never really fit in. But just because I wasn't accepted didn't mean that I went around being cruel and fierce to everyone else." She argued.
"Yeah, but you weren't, like, a giant beast that everyone took one look at and shunned without giving you a chance." Feliks argued.
"True." Elizabeta said, then sighed. "Maybe I will give him a chance. I'll go down to dinner." She said.
"Like, good for you!" Feliks exclaimed. "But I'd hurry before-"
Suddenly, from somewhere else in the castle, a giant roar could be heard before what sounded like a herd of rhinos charged towards Elizabeta's room. The doors nearly burst out of their frame as the Beast pounded on them.
"Why didn't you come down? I thought I told you to come to dinner!" The Beast demanded from the other side of the doors.
Her decision to attend dinner flew from her mind as the Beast's words filled her with rage. "Well," She said, crossing to the doors and speaking through them to the individual on the other side, "I had just changed my mind and decided to attend dinner after all, but now, with the way you've been speaking to me, I don't think I will."
The pounding on her door stopped for a moment as the Beast processed her words. Then he spoke from the other side of the doors. "Will you please change your mind again?" He asked her gruffly. The words sounded as though they were difficult to get out, and he seemed to be saying them through his teeth, as though it was immensely difficult for him to swallow his pride and talk to her calmly.
"No, thank you." Elizabeta said. She knew she was being unreasonable, but at the moment, she didn't care.
This stirred the anger in the Beast once again. "Fine. If you won't eat with me, then you won't eat at all." And with that, Elizabeta heard his thundering footsteps fade away.
AN: Fourth Chapter DONE! What do you all think of the Poland Wardrobe? ;D R&R and stay tuned!
Chapter 5 Preview: "Elle" gets into some trouble in the West Wing, and a series of events bring our two protagonists closer together. Meanwhile, Arthur tries to find help in the village-
Matthew: Ahem. *Tries to get StorySiren's attention*
AN: -in order to rescue Elizabeta from the Beast's clutches.
Matthew: Excuse me.
AN: Who are you?
Matthew: I'm Matthew. And... um... well... I hate to bother you, but you forgot to mention that I'm introduced in the next chapter.
AN: And you are...?
Matthew: Never mind. *Sighs*
AN: Stay tuned for the next chapter of Beauty and the Beast, coming soon! (But seriously, who is this guy?)