Despite what Beau said, he knew the Beast was right. He couldn't stay in the room forever. He'd starve to death. He waited until the wardrobe was silent and then peeked his head out of the room. There was no one in sight in the hallway, aside from a candlestick that looked like it was sleeping, so he carefully treaded through the passages in the castle as he looked for the kitchen, hoping he didn't come across the Beast. He hadn't had anything to eat in hours and was quite famished.

He finally found his way to the food where he saw Mr. Potts talking with the clock.

"So nice to see that you've decided to leave the room, boy," the clock said. "My name is Cora, the official head of the household, appointed by the mistress herself! Delighted to meet you!" She went to shake his hand when the sleeping candlestick jumped in front of her. "And this is Chandelle," she said with a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"En chante, monsieur!" she giggled.

"If there's anything we can do, please let us know!"

"Well, I am pretty hungry," Beau admitted.

"Ah, you hear that, everyone? The lad's hungry! Stoke up the fire, and let's give him a meal!" Mr. Potts said happily.

"Ah, ah, ah, remember what the mistress said!" Cora demanded.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to let the poor boy go hungry!"

"Alright, fine, he can have a glass of water, a little bread, and then—"

"Cora!" Chandelle said. "You're much too harsh! This boy is not our prisoner here in the castle! He is our guest, and we are happy to serve! We must make him feel nice and welcome!" She added under her breath, "Since what he got from the mistress was anything but."

Chandelle escorted Beau to a huge dinner table that stretched further than he ever imagined.

"Please keep quiet!" Cora pleaded. "If the mistress hears, she will throw a huge fit and we'll all be right in the center!"

"Please. What's dinner without some music?" Chandelle winked.

"What?! Not music!" Cora tried to run after her, but was stopped by all the dishes.

Beau took a seat at the table and Chandelle introduced the dishes to him along with all sorts of different foods he had never even thought of trying. His mother would've loved to see all of this! The dishes put on an elaborate show for him and he had to keep telling himself that this wasn't a dream, and inanimate objects were really doing all of this. By the end, he was not only full, but wide awake.

"Okay, well that was fun," Cora said. "Now it's time for bed!"

"I couldn't sleep if I wanted to!" Beau said excitedly. "I want to see everything this enchanted castle has to offer!"

Cora laughed nervously. "Who told you this castle was enchanted?" She pointed an accusing finger at Chandelle. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Beau couldn't believe she was asking that. They had just put on a huge show with kitchen utensils! "I figured it out for myself," he chuckled. "I want to see more of it!"

"Um, do you want a tour?" Chandelle asked.

"Uh, I'm not so sure that's a good idea. We can't have him looking in certain places…like the you-know-where!"

Beau smiled cheekily. Giving his best smile that made Gabriella go nuts, he said to Cora, "Well, why don't you take me around? I'm sure you know everything about this place since you're obviously very intelligent."

Had Cora been in human form, she would've blushed. "Aw, well, alright, a QUICK tour!"

Cora led them on, but Beau wasn't really listening. His curiosity was getting the better of him and he wanted to know what was up with the West Wing. So he silently tiptoed away from them and headed to the stairs.

"Monsieur!"

Dang it.

"What's up there?" Beau asked, trying to appear innocent.

"Nothing!" Cora stammered. "There's nothing in the West Wing at all!"

"Oh, so that's the West Wing," he said as Cora confirmed what he already assumed.

"Nice one," Chandelle said.

"What is she hiding up there away from me?"

"Nothing!" Chandelle said quickly. "The mistress is hiding nothing! I promise!"

"Well, then why is it forbidden?" he asked as he stepped over them, but they blocked his path once more.

"Perhaps we could show you something else, like the tapestries or the paintings?"

"Maybe later."

"What about the gardens outside or uh…the library?"

Beau spun around. "There's a library in here?"

Chandelle noticeably relaxed. "Yes! A huge one with every kind of book you can think of!"

Beau began to follow them, but he could see the library any time. This may be his only chance to really see what this girl was hiding from him. He slowly climbed the stairs and when he reached the end of the hall, he saw a mirror that had been smashed. Perhaps she hated her appearance? Who wouldn't?

He opened the set of doors, heart rate increasing. He knew he wasn't supposed to be here, but he had to know what was such a big secret.

The room was full of all kinds of junk and seriously needed a huge sweeping and a wipe-down. He saw a picture that had been torn, obviously by claws, severing the face. He looked at it and started to lift up one of the fallen parts of the picture. It was a portrait, he knew that much, of a girl who was really pretty. Those eyes seemed to stare straight through him, even though they were not real. Before he could see the whole picture, he caught sight of something in his peripheral vision.

There was a beautiful rose hidden under a glass case. It was glowing and sparkling in a way he had never seen before. He gently took the glass case off, determined to see the rose for all its worth. He reached out to touch it when a shadow overtook him and the glass case was snapped back over top of the flower. Beau's stomach dropped to the floor. He had been caught. Why did he have to be so stupid?

"What do you think you're doing?" the Beast growled. She sounded angrier than he had ever heard.

"It's not what you think."

"Do you realize what might've happened had you touched this?!"

"I didn't mean to hurt anything!"

"I told you that this place was forbidden!"

"I'm sorry!"

"Get out now! JUST GET OUT!" She started throwing any object she could find and Beau had to duck several times to avoid the raining furniture.

He turned and ran before he got killed by either the falling objects or the Beast herself. He grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around himself, preparing to face the snow.

"Wait, monsieur!" Chandelle cried as he ran down the steps. "Please don't leave!"

"Promise or not, I am not staying here!"

Beau was not one to break promises, but this was it. He was not going to live a life away from his home and family to be treated like an infectious disease and verbally abused by a creature. He just had to get out. He couldn't stay here any longer.

He found Phoenix still obediently waiting for him and took off, leaving the castle as fast as he could, trying to get back to his mother.

The girl's heart broke. This was all her fault. If she could just learn to control her temper, things would go a lot smoother. She picked up the mirror again, and said, "Show me the boy."

She watched as he galloped through the storm. She noticed wolves start to approach him, but he didn't see them yet. Even if he was experienced in fighting, there was no way he was going to be able to stop them all. She ran out into the storm to go find him. Maybe this was the way she could make up for everything that had happened so far.

Phoenix became restless in the storm and the unmarked path. She stopped, trying to figure out her surroundings when he heard growling. He saw to his horror that there was pack of wolves looking at him hungrily.

"Come on, girl!" he urged. Phoenix took off and for all Beau knew, he could've been heading right back to the castle. But he kept going, his only thought being to get away from the wolves. They nipped at his heels, trying to throw him off his horse, but he held onto the reigns tightly. Phoenix was going faster than she ever had before.

They kept galloping through the forest when they were cornered by the wolves. Phoenix started bucking up and down in fright, which caused Beau to fall off the poor horse, making all of his hair fall out of the blue ribbon. Phoenix's reigns got stuck fast on the tree and she tried to fight off as many wolves as she could with her hooves.

Beau grabbed a branch and went to his horse's aid. A wolf hopped onto her back, but Beau smacked it off her.

"Are you okay, girl?" he said to his horse as he tried to get the hair out of his eyes. The wolves, now bigger in number, advanced on him. He armed himself, but one of the wolves grabbed the stick, completely breaking it in two. Beau kicked one wolf with his heel, but that just made it even angrier. It leapt at him and latched onto his cloak. Another wolf prepared to jump on him while he couldn't get away, but Beau kicked it once more. The rest of the wolves advanced again and seeing as he couldn't get his cloak loose from the wolf's hold, he just closed his eyes and waited to be mauled.

But the mauling never came. He opened his eyes to find the Beast picking up one of the wolves and roaring in its face in a terrifying manner. She threw the wolf away, and stood next to Beau.

He couldn't believe this as really happening? This Beast, who seemed like she hated him, was saving him from these wolves? She had come after him? How did she even find him? The wolves all leapt onto the Beast at once and she tried her hardest to shake them off. He noticed her get covered in various scratches and bites and was covered in blood.

She managed to knock one wolf against a tree, killing it, and the others ran away frightened for their lives.

The Beast turned to Beau, red blood dripping from her wounds and tainting the white snow. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the ground. Beau turned to Phoenix and prepared to mount her, but he found that he couldn't. After all, she did just save his life. And she would die out here if he didn't get her taken care of.

Making his decision, he had Phoenix take the girl back to the castle. He managed to get her out of consciousness long enough to crash down onto the huge chair in front of the fire.

He and Mr. Potts prepared a bowl of hot water, and Beau dipped a rag into it. He looked up to find the Beast licking her wounds.

"Don't do that. You'll only make it worse," he said tenderly. "Look, just hold still, please!"

He touched her wound with the rag and she responded to the pain by growling loudly in his face. "That hurts!" she screamed.

"Well, if you would just hold still, maybe it wouldn't hurt as much!" Beau screamed back.

"If you hadn't run away, none of us would be here, and I wouldn't be so cut up that I look like I took a shower in broken glass!"

"Well, if you hadn't yelled and screamed at me, maybe I wouldn't have run away!"

"Oh, yeah?" She paused for a second, thinking of a good retort. "Well, you weren't supposed to be in the West Wing!"

"Well you should learn to control that horrid temper of yours!"

She sank back in the chair, unable to answer.

"Now, please just hold still. I'm not going to lie, but this may hurt a little."

He touched the rag to her scratches and she winced in pain but did not move.

"Look, I wanted to say…thank you," Beau said. "For what you did back there. Saving me and all."

She looked back at him. Did he just thank her? No one ever thanked her. Not in years. She tried to remember her manners and answered, "Um, you're welcome."

Beau looked at her and could tell that she was finally starting to bring down her walls.