'YOU!' the Beast roared at the hapless Leon, who stood and stared at her in horror and fear at seeing the ferocious look on her face, worse than he had seen so far from her.
Her fangs were bared and she was breathing heavily through her nostrils in anger while her arms remained firmly wrapped around the rose.
'Beast, I..' Leon began to explain, but she was not interested in what he had to say and then roared again,
'WHY DID YOU COME HERE WHEN I TOLD YOU NOT TO AND TOUCH MY ROSE?'
Leon hadn't even laid a finger on it, but she was too angry and enraged to care or give him a chance to explain.
All she cared about was that he disobeyed her by going into the West Wing when she had made it very clear not to and nearly touching the very thing that reminded her of her plight and the time she was running out of.
If he had done so, he could have altered everything and sealed her fate right there.
Leon wasn't to know that but she didn't realise, for she was too caught up in her rage and it was about to be released on him.
'DON'T YOU REALISE WHAT YOU COULD'VE DONE?' the Beast roared, as she came towards Leon, who was backing away from her, in an attempt to avoid any physical retaliation from her, 'DO YOU?'
'If you would just listen to me, I can explain!' Leon said, 'I didn't mean any harm!'
He then had to duck, as the Beast started violently throwing furniture at him, having a terrible aim as it hit everything except Leon.
Leon's only defence to block the blows and broken debris was to hold a single chair against him, but even that wasn't enough to protect him, as it too was broken, clawed to shreds by the Beast.
'Get out,' she said, getting dangerously closer to him, as he felt her foul breath against his face.
'Please, I'm sorry,' said Leon.
'GETTTTTTTTTTTTT OUTTTTTTTTTTTT!' the Beast said, letting out the most terrible roar which echoed across the whole wing and possibly the whole castle.
For Leon, that was the final straw. He no longer cared that he made a promise to stay here forever.
He was not going to put up with being yelled and growled at by the Beast any longer and to be on the receiving end of her uncontrollable temper and lack of self-control.
His only option now was to flee the castle and never come back and he didn't care if he had to deal with the consequences if he did so, the Beast's violent behaviour and temper was a good enough reason.
As the Beast's roars echoed around him, Leon ran out of the West Wing's doors, down the staircase, not noticing the servants as they came out of their rooms and saw him running, wondering what had happened.
He grabbed his cape which he had left on the bannister and was about to go out the door, only to be stopped by Remy, as he wanted to know why he was leaving.
'Kid, where are you going?' he said, 'Cogsie and Lumsie are looking for you and they're pretty steamed that you ditched them during their boring tour, even though they had been too busy arguing to notice!'
'They're not the only ones,' Leon said, 'and I'm sorry Remy, but I'm leaving! I can't stay here any longer, promise or not!'
'What? You can't be serious!' said Remy, 'You can't leave kid, I mean, things may be bad around here but that surely can't make you flee now, especially since you promised you wouldn't! As Georgie tells me enough times before, you can't make a promise you don't intend to keep!
You don't want the mistress to go absolutely ballistic, do you?'
'She already has!' said Leon, 'and that's why I'm leaving, because I went into the West Wing and nearly touched her rose.
She caught me and nearly tried to kill me in her terrible rage and anger! I'm not putting up with that horrible temper of hers anymore!'
'But kid..' Remy said, but Leon had already gone out the door, the bitter cold air stinging his cheeks as he dashed across the bridge, opened the gates and found Sabine, who was still where he had left her, waiting patiently for him.
She whinnied in confusion and worry at why Leon was there and what had happened to him when he hadn't come back for hours.
'We're going, Sabine,' he said as he mounted her, flicking the reins to make her move, 'we're leaving this terrible place and going far away from it as possible!'
The two entered the forest, without knowing where they wanted to go or the danger they were about to be in, as a wolf's howl could be heard nearby.
The Beast was left in her room in the aftermath of her explosive outburst at Leon, as the broken remains of the furniture she threw at him lay scattered around her, as she reflected on what she had done.
She regretted it as the terrified face of Leon holding the flimsy chair to protect himself from her rage came in her mind.
'What have I done?' she said, realising that her temper had yet again reared its ugly head and could have most likely driven Leon away.
Yes, he shouldn't have been in the West Wing or have gone near her rose, but it didn't mean that he deserved to have furniture thrown at him, since his only crime was to enter a forbidden place out of curiosity and without knowing what damage he could have done.
'Why did I do it?' she said, 'why did I lose my temper AGAIN?''
She then picked up the mirror, to see when Leon had got to, hoping that the best case scenario would be that he would be in his bedroom for the night, safe and sound (with some wounded pride as well.)
But before she could say anything, the mirror suddenly glowed by itself and showed her a reflection of a beast that wasn't her, staring back at her and scowling.
She had never seen this beast before in her life, but as she looked closer, she saw two very familiar sapphire blue eyes, the same shade as hers.
The eyes that had been gentle, warm and comforting and looked at her with love, adoration, understanding and kindness, which were in the reflection of the terrible beast, much like the one she was now.
She then realised who the beast in the mirror was and heard what Irena had said to her earlier, as she stared at it,
You've become the mirror image of your father.
That beast was indeed her father- what he had been in the past he had hid away from her and she was seeing it for the first time and what she had truly become, just like he was.
'Papa,' she whispered, touching the mirror.
What she had done to Leon made her no better than her father's beastly self and she didn't want to be like that. She had to find the boy as the mirror hadn't shown her where he was, but she had a bad feeling that it wasn't his room that he went to.
The Beast raced down the stairs, to the door where she was met by the servants, who had heard her latest outburst at the poor boy and wanted an explanation for her actions.
But she didn't have time for worn-out lectures about proper behaviour and how to be the human princess she no longer was. She needed to know where Leon was.
'Where is he?' she said, not wanting to lose her temper again, 'Where's the boy?'
No one said anything, for they were no wiser than the Beast was. The only one that truly knew was Remy, since he had been the last person to see Leon before he left.
'Uh, well, he, uh..' he said nervously, afraid of her reaction if he was to tell her where he was.
'Where is the boy, Remy?' the Beast said, 'Tell me!'
Once again, Remy's inability to keep a secret, the Beast intimidating him and his big mouth came through and he said,
'He did a runner and left the castle!' as everyone gasped and stared at Lumiere and Cogsworth, who had guilty looks on their faces, having been too engrossed in their argument to not have noticed that Leon had wandered away from them.
'How did this happen?' the Beast said, 'Why did he run away from the castle, when he promised that he wouldn't? I just thought that he'll be in his room!'
'Oh, I don't know, maybe your huge TEMPER TANTRUM and telling him to GET OUT had something to do with it?' said Remy, 'We all heard it you know!'
'Why didn't you stop him?' the Beast said.
'Don't you think I tried?' said Remy, defensively, 'He just shot out of there and I can tell you, he's gonna be in danger out there!'
'Then, I'm going after him!' the Beast said. As much as she hated Leon, she couldn't let him freeze to death in the cold night, with the snow on the ground or even worse, be killed by wolves, who would no doubt be out, hungry and looking for food.
She knew this all too well when she had gone hunting at night and had a close encounter with one.
As if confirming her fears, a lone wolf howl could be heard in the forest, which made her open the door and was about to dash across the bridge, only to be stopped by Mrs Potts.
'You're not going out there! Not on your life!' she said, sternly, 'You'll catch your death of cold or be seriously injured or killed by those savage wolves! You remember what happened last time..'
'I have to, Nana,' the Beast said, 'I did this to him and I can't let him freeze out there to be tucker for the wolves. I have to save him, even though he disobeyed me.'
Before Mrs Potts could say anything more, she was out the door at lightning speed, full of adrenalin, like when she was heading out to hunt.
With her cape flying behind her, she burst out the gates and into the forest, sniffing out for any scent that Leon may have left and noticed some horseshoe prints, which could be a vital clue to his whereabouts and followed them, hoping that she wasn't too late.
Unaware that the Beast was out looking for him by following Sabine's prints, Leon was in the middle of the forest on the same path that had led him to the castle only in his haste to leave, hadn't thought about where he had wanted to go.
But he was certain that he never wanted to return to the place that was his prison and to be on the receiving end of the Beast's horrible temper and to have her lay his life out for him, as the villagers had done.
Yes, he shouldn't have gone into the West Wing, invaded her private space and nearly touching her property, the magic rose she seemed to treasure so much.
But if she had just given him a chance to explain and had shown self-control by dealing with it calmly instead of going into a violent outburst and throwing heavy, broken objects at him in a childish manner, then he wouldn't be in the cold, dark forest, not sure what to do now.
She's never going to control her temper; Leon bitterly thought to himself, as he and Sabine trotted along, looking out for any familiar trees or bushes they may have passed before. If she was to find out that he had left the castle and its grounds, the consequences would not be pleasant, if the West Wing fight was anything to go by.
But facing the Beast's wrath again if he saw her was soon the least of his worries, when all of a sudden, Sabine stopped in her tracks and was whinnying nervously, very unlike her and Leon immediately knew something was wrong, if she was acting like this.
'Sabine, what's gotten into you, girl?' he said, 'What's wrong?'
Sabine whinnied again and tilted her head forward as she heard loud growling from behind the trees and glowing, gold pairs of eyes and sharp teeth soon emerged from the darkness as the same wolves that had attacked Madeleine and Sabine appeared.
Three others followed behind, all with ferocious, hungry looks on their faces as they eyed the meal that had gotten away from them, with some new fresh meat on top of it.
They had been denied their meal before and they were determined that this time, it would not get away from them.
'Sabine,' said Leon, uneasy at seeing the wolves approach them, 'these wolves seem to know you. Did they try to attack you and Mama when you first came here?'
Sabine whinnied as if to say yes and she snorted and stomped her hooves on the ground to scare the wolves away but it only seemed to encourage them, as they got even closer.
Determined to protect her master, she fought the wolves, using her powerful legs, with Leon still on her, as he held on to her reins for dear life, hoping that he wouldn't be thrown off right in front of the wolves.
She had managed to kick one wolf away as it yipped and darted into the bush but having done so, she had thrown off a screaming Leon as well, as he landed on the ground, right in the middle of the circling wolves as they looked at him so hungrily, the meal they wanted so badly, ready to lunge at him.
Leon quickly got up and stood in front of Sabine to protect her as she kept kicking, thrashing and fighting the wolves but it wasn't long before they proved to be too much for a powerful horse like her.
She whinnied in panic and fear, getting her reins tangled in a tree branch jutting out, as she thrashed violently, struggling to get free.
'Sabine, calm down!' Leon said, stroking her and trying to untangle the reins but they were firmly knotted within the branch, which made the poor horse struggle even more. Unable to escape, the two soon had their backs against the wall as the hungry wolves surrounded them.
For a self-educated, intelligent boy, Leon had no idea how to deal with dangerous animals since he wasn't a hunter and had no experience with them. He thought to himself, what would Jean-Luc do in this situation?
He had almost wished that he had come with him, since he would know how to deal with them, but he wasn't and Leon had to think of something fast before he was wolf tucker.
Having no pistol or any hunting gear like Jean-Luc did, Leon could only find a huge stick to use as a weapon to fight the wolves and to protect himself and Sabine. It seemed to work, as he whacked two wolves away, sending them back into the darkness, yipping in pain and hunger.
In his movements, he felt his ponytail coming loose, as strands of hair fell down into his face.
But a stick soon proved to be no match for the remaining wolves and man and horse were at their mercy, ready to strike and feast on their meal in their vulnerable state, certain that it would not escape this time.
Then, Leon heard a familiar roar and felt two paws pin him down on the ground, as the Beast, having found him with the wolves, arched over him as she growled and snarled at them.
He never thought that he would be glad to see her, especially after the fight they had, but that didn't matter now, as she was focused on saving his life, despite her loathing of him.
If any of the boys were to see Leon being saved from vicious wolves by a girl, even if she was a beast, he would never hear the end of it, as they would see him as pathetic by getting a woman to fight his battles for him. Leon was just grateful that they weren't and the beast that he loathed was risking her life to save him.
The Beast, still full of adrenalin, lunged towards the wolves that were still there, pouncing on and kicking them away using her powerful legs. She used her arms to pick them up, as they growled at her, but she threw them like they were discarded dolls in the air, joining the other one behind the bush to also be denied their meal.
But the sole remaining wolf was stronger than the others and was not to be deterred by a beast.
The Beast lunged towards it, but her adrenalin had worn off and was easy pickings for the wolf as it leapt up and overpowered her, as she struggled against it. It then used its long claws to tear three deep marks into her right arm, making her roar in pain and rip her shirt sleeve.
With the wound draining her strength, the Beast managed to shake the wolf off, as it slunk away, growling at the loss of the meal and going hungry again.
She grimaced in pain, as she held her paw against the wound while Leon watched her stagger along for a few minutes before she lost consciousness and collapsed on the ground.
For Leon, this provided the perfect opportunity to leave her and escape while the wolves were gone.
'Come on, Sabine, let's go,' he said to the horse as he untangled her reins from the tree branch, 'let's get out of here while we still can, before the wolves decide to come back and finish us off.'
Sabine, however, had other ideas, as she tilted her head towards the Beast, who was still lying motionless on the ground, using her instincts when she saw that someone was in danger and needed help like the Beast did and she couldn't fathom that Leon, who was usually so kind-hearted, would abandon her in her state.
'Sabine, what are you doing?' Leon said, as the horse walked over to the Beast without hesitation, being brave and tough again and gently nudged her.
She whinnied to Leon as if to say, 'You can't just leave her out there, especially since she saved your life! She's injured and needs our help!'
Leon knew she was right. He couldn't leave the Beast in the cold, especially in her condition. He needed to bring her back to the castle so she could get treated for her injury and the servants would be devastated if he didn't.
He was too kind for that sort of thing and he mentally kicked himself for nearly doing it.
After all, she HAD just saved his life and got hurt on his account, so that he wouldn't be eaten by vicious wolves. It was only fair that he returned the favour.
'Oh, Sabine, you and your instincts, but you're right, let's get her to the castle. I only hope she's not hurt too bad,' Leon said, as he went over to the Beast's side. Remembering what he had read in a first aid book, he checked that she was still alive and was relieved when he felt her pulse on her neck.
He then picked up the torn shirt sleeve and wrapped it around the wound to prevent any bleeding and infection and gently picked her up, as she moaned slightly against him.
Luckily, she had a slender build and wasn't too heavy to carry, as he put her on Sabine's back and they soon followed the trail that Sabine had unwittingly but cleverly made, so that they could find their way back to the castle easily.