Right... The next chapter will have the beast's name in it, SO THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GIVE ME IDEAS... Moving on... Thank you jorholic73 and TheIronMask for reviewing... My finger is still very sore but its better thank you for asking... Oh yes, thank you The Bad Apple for following an favouriting the story, you made my week :) The rest of my lovely readers... Pls review? PLS? A comment from you drives me to produce chapters faster even with a broken finger :) Also, I like to better myself in my writing skills so... Good, bad I don't mind... Anyway, enjoy...
Beau's pulled his cloak closer to his shivering body. Maybe running out the castle during a blizzard wasn't the best of ideas... But what else could he do... The Beast had tried to kill him...Well not exactly... But that monster was crazy... She was cruel, she was rude and she got so worked up about... of all things a rose...
"Who knew..." he grumbled his teeth chattering from the cold. However, Beau did however feel a tiny twinge of guilt. The beast HAD warned him not to enter the west wing... And he had deliberately entered the west wing... He was in the wrong as much as the Beast was... Maybe he should turn back... At least to apologize... But what good would it do? What did the Beast know of human behavior such as forgiveness, amnesty and most importantly self control... From the looks of it, she didn't...
"What a world..." he grumbled to Philippe who snorted in reply.
Some time later, Beau wiped the snow off his brow, his eyes desperately combing for a familiar sight... It was hopeless however; all he saw were snow-covered trees that all looked painfully alike. There was a nervous whinny from Philippe who proceeded to stop, and then stamp the ground nervously.
"I don' t know boy... Where do you want to go?" Beau asked. The stallion snorted then preceded to continue, trusting his master's judgment...
As the duo trotted forward, Beau stiffened as he heard what seemed like a low wolf's howl...
"Hopefully its alone..." Beau prayed knowing wolves only attacked in packs ...
Looking around nervously, a sinking feeling started to emerge... Among the fauna he noticed what appeared to be bright golden flecks eyeing him hungrily...
"Keep calm... Keep calm... Keep calm,..." Beau muttered, trying in vain to reassure himself, recalling the book he read about savage animals, that they could smell fear and the most dangerous thing he could do at the moment was to bolt...
Patting Philippe's trembling flanks, he tried to edge the nervous stallion forward only to accidently have Philippe breaking into a gallop and if walking into a well planned ambush, a pack of snarling wolves leaped from their various hiding spots.
Philippe reared back in fear as the mangy carnivores snapped at his hooves. Instinctively, he bolted with Beau barely clinging on. The two blundered loudly through the trees, not really knowing where they were going while the wolves followed nimbly, their bright eyes glowing brighter as they anticipated a filling dinner for the first time in months. Snarling, the alpha male signaled for the others to close in on their prey before bravely lunging onto the towering horse. Philippe, feeling the sharp claws of a predator on his back quickly kicked with all his might. He succeeded, not only did he manage to throw off his wolf, but also a screaming Beau.
"Philippe! Beau screamed as he landed with a loud thud into the snow. The horse, hearing his master's calls tried to turn back only to have the long reins get tangled up among sharp branches. Whinnying in fear and panic, Philippe tried to pull free, but his senseless thrashings only succeeded to get the reins more interlocked within the branches. Seeing the trapped horse, the wolves took advantage of it and approached a helpless Philippe, their tongues hanging out in excitement before the bravest of the lot lunged for his meal.
"Thwack!" and the wolf found itself sprawled painfully on the ground. Beau gritted his teeth as he brandished a long tree branch at the other wolves, trying to intimidate them into running away... However, hunger overpowered fear and the wolves bravely advanced... Beau did his best to wrestle off the wolves, however he was clearly outmatched. Everytime he lashed out at one, another would seize the opportunity to attack him. Exhaustion soon caught up with him and he got careless... Finally one of the wolves pounced from behind, pinning Beau down by his cloak. As he tried to undo the infuriating piece of clothing another wolf pounced onto his chest. It's golden eyes gleaming in anticipation as its twisted snout lunged for Beau's throat...
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" and Beau felt the weight of the wolf quickly removed from his chest. Slowly he opened his eyes to see no other than the beast herself standing over him on all fours, her face contorted with fury as she snarled and growled like the wolves that surrounded them.
With a quick flash of snow, she lunged onto the nearest wolf, hurling it into the trees. Not stopping to think, she did the same with the others, ignoring those who latched onto her back grabbing and throwing those she could into the air. However, Beau's watchful eyes soon noticed that she was starting to weaken. Like he was... she was outnumbered... Quickly grabbing the tree branch, he did his best to drive off whatever wolves the beast had missed. Together, working in synch they held off as many as they could.
Finally, by some miracle, the wolves backed off one by one disappearing into the darkness as quickly and mysteriously as they had appeared. Beau heaved a sigh of relief only to back away seconds later as the beast approached him. She staggered clumsily at first, a low animal like grunt escaping her before her green eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed heavily in front of him.
Beau paused before running back to Philippe, shaking his head as he clambered onto the horse.
"This is your chance to be free...Don't don't..." he looked back at the beast's unconscious body. Noticing how the blood from her arm and her back was staining the snow bright crimson in color.
"There is nothing you can do for her... Nothing..." Beau lied to himself. This was a chance of a lifetime and it was literally being handed to him on a silver platter, the chance he was praying for since he was locked up in that ghastly castle... to escape from this god-forsaken nightmare. But the thought of how the beast had came to his rescue lingered at the back of his mind. This monster could have easily watched and let the wolves kill him, to rip him limb from limb before finally devouring him... but still she decided to come to his rescue... Injuring herself... quite badly in the process... The guilt of leaving the beast behind was just too much for Beau to bear, even if she was... beastly...
He sighed, and disembarked Philippe.
"A life for a life..." Beau muttered.
Carefully he approached the stiff body reaching for her arm to check her pulse. There was one... Somewhat relieved, he laid the arm back down. Circling the beast, he pondered how he was going to bring her back to the castle. He couldn't leave her here while he ran back for help at the castle, the wolves might just decide to return and feed on her body... Also, he doubted household objects being able to provide much help in a situation like this... Dragging her was not an option either... Deciding the most efficient way was to load her onto Philippe carry her from there... Beau grimaced as he slid his arms under the beast's body and lifted her up.
"Wooah..." Beau mumbled as he tried to regain his balance. The beast was surprisingly...Light...So light that he almost fell over while carrying her as he had used too much force to lift her. Looking down at the body he cradled, it stunned him how frail and vulnerable the she was ... Despite the disgust Beau felt towards the beast earlier... Upon closer inspection, he discovered she wasn't as terrible as he thought. In fact, there was a certain... he wouldn't say beauty ...but appeal... to her, Beau wasn't sure if it was the large doe shaped eyes or the peaceful, almost innocent expression she carried when unconscious... Either ways there was definitely something there he hadn't noticed before. Gently, Beau lay the unconscious beast onto the nervous Philippe. Grabbing the reins he sighed before reluctantly trudging back to the very place he wanted to escape from...
