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Maurice shuddered; the woods were starting to look ghoulish in the quickly diminishing sunlight. Aghast, he grabbed Philippe's reins and tried to direct the nervous stallion towards the safer looking option out of the two fog covered pathways. At first, the trudge was a silent one but without warning, Philippe suddenly reared up, smashing both the cart and Maurice against a large tree.

The impact of the crash suddenly sent thousands of black bats darting out the tree, screeching loudly, clawing and biting as they surrounded their intruders. This proved all too much for poor Philippe and the stallion bolted violently, crashing though both trees and nettles alike to escape the bats and whatever other horrors that lay waiting for them... However, his master didn't have the opportunity to brace himself as Philippe did and soon found himself struggling to maneuver the cart.

"Slow down boy! Slow down! Slow! Arrrghhh!" Maurice bellowed as one random kick from Philippe sent him catapulting off the cart and tumbling painfully down a steep path...

"Aghh..." the old man moaned, his back throbbing with unpleasant pain. Looking up, he searched the area for his horse... Nothing...

"Philippe!" he called out worriedly but to no avail... His mode of transportation was gone... He was alone, vulnerable and in great danger...Maurice swore heavily as he pulled himself up.

"This is bad..." he thought warily trying to make out what seemed to be multiple shadows darting in and out of the dark trees. Out of the blue, a wolf's howl echoed from among the fog followed by more. Chills ran down Maurice's spine. Knowing he'd be a sitting duck should he continue lingering in these mysterious woods, he grabbed his hat and ran for his life...

As he picked up his pace, there was a loud snarl, followed by more howls. Through his peripheral vision, Maurice could see the outline of what seemed like a large wolf closing in on him. Swallowing his fear, he willed his legs to run faster. Loud thuds sounded behind him followed by more vicious snarls.

"Faster!" Maurice thought, his muscles burning with pain, his senses flooded with panic as he clawed past branches and nettles. However, effort did not translate to success and Maurice's stamina soon crumbled, his legs giving away and he found himself painfully thrown down another steep path.

Barely conscious now, Maurice craned his neck only to gasp in amazement. Before him a large, gothic iron gate, behind it an immense castle, so high the top tower touched the bottom of the impending storm clouds. Looking back, he could clearly see the wolves now, six, seven of them, their fangs bared, yipping with excitement as they bounded down the path. Quickly, Maurice pulled himself up. Between being torn apart by ravenous wolves or be faced with new terrors within the castle? He choose the castle...

With a burst of strength, Maurice forcefully wrenched open the gates and threw himself in. With a hearty kick, he slammed the rusty gates shut and to his delight knocking over a couple of mangy wolves in the process. Dusting the dirt off his breeches, a trembling Maurice made his way to the large wooden doors... Shakily, he knocked loudly before gasping in shock as if by magic, the door swung open by itself...

"Hello? Is someone, is someone there?" Maurice called out uncertainly as he slowly made his way inside the castle, disturbed that there was not a soul in sight to greet him.

"Hello?" he tried again cautiously walking through the impressively long hallway... Something was amiss... How could the doors have opened by themselves? There had to be someone around unless...

"Oh Pish posh... There's no such thing as magic!" Maurice reprimanded himself before stopping short when he heard... voices?

Grabbing a nearby candlestick, he tried to locate the source of these noises to no avail.

"Hello? I didn't to intrude? I just got lost in the woods and I was just hoping to find some shelter for the night..." Maurice called out.

"Of course, monsieur, you are welcome here!" came a cheerful voice.

"Who said that?!" Maurice panicked, brandishing the candlestick wildly to defend himself from the mysterious voice but he couldn't see anything despite the light. It wasn't until he felt a light tapping on his shoulder than did Maurice turn to look straight at the candlestick.

He quivered... the candlestick was staring back...

"Hello!" it said brightly.

"Aghh!" Maurice yelped fearfully before instinctively releasing his grip on the candlestick causing it to land on the ground with a loud "CLINK!"

"Ow..." it said simply before quickly resuming a standing position like nothing had happened.

"How..."

"Well now you've done it, Lumiere! Splendid! Just peachy!" and from behind the candlestick waddled out a small clock, its face twisted into an annoyed frown. Maurice was lost for words...

"Incredible..." Maurice thought. How was this accomplished? How could inanimate objects talk or even more so, walk? It was not possibly! Giving into his inquisitive nature, Maurice eagerly picked the clock up, fascinated by how it kicked and bellowed in response.

"How does this work?" he muttered to himself shaking and prodding at the protesting clock before finally fingering with the clock's pendulum. But enough was enough, and the clock struck back obviously annoyed by Maurice's antics.

"Sir, close that at once! Do you mind?" it sneered angrily slamming its casing onto Maurice's finger.

Maurice starred at the fuming clock and laughing candlestick... They seemed so real... so alive!

"Maybe treating them like inventions isn't right..." he thought before kneeling down and placing the clock down next to the grinning candlestick.

"I beg your pardon... It's just that I've never seen... aah... Ahhh... AHH CHOO!'

The sneeze was so violent that it knocked the clock off his feet. Literally...

The candlestick or Lumiere as the clock had called him immediately shook his head.

"You are soaked to the bone monsieur! Come! Warm yourself by the fire!" he offered gently before guiding Maurice to a large, extravagantly decorated room while the clock protested loudly to little success.

Within minutes, Maurice found himself comfortably tucked up on an extremely comfortable armchair, wrapped in a thick snug blanket offered by a coat rack and lay his feet comfortably on a yipping but incredibly adorable footstool... He sighed contentedly before gasping in surprise as a tea tray pulled up beside him.

"How about a nice spot of tea, sir? It'll warm you up in no time." A smiling teapot offered generously so of course, Maurice accepted graciously. He lifted the teacup to his nose, savoring the sweet aroma before opening his mouth to take a sip.

"Hehe! His moustache tickles mama!"

Maurice nearly dropped the cup.

"Why hello there!" he chuckled when he noticed that the tea cup was not surprisingly alive as well...

"Hello! My name is Chip!" Chip declared gleefully.

Before Maurice could answer back the clock ran up to the center of the room and whistled loudly, stopping everyone in their tracks.

"Alright! This has gone far enough! If you know who finds out we will all be..."

"Oh lighten up Cogsworth! He only wants shelter from the woods! Have a heart!" Lumiere cajoled.

Cogsworth twitched.

"Alright fine! But PLEASE keep it down!"

"Keep it down? Mon ami, this is a joyous occasion! He is our first guest in years! We should be celebrating!"

"Ooooh... Sounds exciting... Am I invited?" came a sneer from the door.

Followed by a violent gush of wind that blew out every single source of candle light in the room, replacing it with cold sinister darkness. Everything single object froze.

"Uh oh..." Chip trembled.