Chapter 1

In the Beginning

It was no wonder that her name meant beauty. Belle was always the most sought after and beautiful girl in the village. All of the men wanted her and all of the women envied her, or the attentions she got, one can never be sure. Despite her peculiar habits and somewhat anti-social nature, she was the heart of the town. Mostly, she kept to herself, spending the most time with her father and her books. She was pleasant and polite enough, if you said hello or asked her a question she'd be happy enough to chat. But she wasn't one to go out of her way to make small talk. She was such a strange, beautiful girl. Despite her oddities, the townsfolk simply could not figure out why she hadn't married. Why, she had even turned down Gaston, the most eligible and sought after bachelor in town. He of course made a big scene and Belle made one right back. It was the first time she showed her true spirit to the public eye.

"Go away Gaston! I will never marry you! You are cruel and heartless, the man I marry will be of my choice and you are not my choice!" She slammed the door in his face but Gaston stopped it with his gigantic booted foot. Belle snarled and struggled to push his foot out of the way. She got nowhere fast, as much spirit as she had, Gaston was over 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. There was no way a little thing like her, barely 5 foot 3 in slippers, would be able to budge him.

"Now Belle, how can you say no to such a handsome face? And don't forget about my money, my strength. I can protect you Belle, and you're crazy ass father." Gaston forced the door back open and leaned lazily against the door jam, smirking, thinking he would win.

"My father is not crazy!" Belle screamed as she picked up the broom that was leaning against the wall and then preceded to beat Gaston over the head with bristle side. As much as she was revolted and disgusted by this man, it was simply not in her nature to be so cruel. With shock more than pain, she really didn't hit very hard, Gaston stumbled backwards off the porch steps. He door was slammed shut and everyone nearby heard several clicks as Belle locked the door and slide the deadbolt closed.

After that day, Gaston left her alone. But not because Belle has embarrassed him or beaten him down. Later that day, while her father was working on an invention something went terribly wrong. Maurice had been in the basement workshop all day working on it, and his daughter being who she was decided to bring his down lunch. She was just walking past some new contraption her father had rigged together to keep the house warm, he called it a boiler or something, when she heard a loud pop. She stopped in her tracks and stared at the thing that was making the noise. The pop was followed by a sputtering, a hiss and 2 very loud bangs. Then, without and any further adu, it went up in flames and promptly exploded. Metal shards and burning food went everywhere. Maurice called out to Belle, ran to her. But it was too late. Her neck and face were horrible burnt, some parts more than others, but most of the damage was on the left side.

It took months for her to recover. Most of her skin healed with much scarring. But one part of her would be scarred permanently. Her left shoulder and part of her chest were covered with wavy and upraised scars that looked like a maze on her skin. Patches of damaged tissue climbed up her neck and even resided on her beautiful face. Luckily, fortune decide to favor her that day and left most of her face untouched. The one place where there was scarring was minimal and easily hidden, off to the side of her face by her jaw and her temple, making a crooked 'L' shape. But it was enough to put off Gaston and her other gentleman callers.

Even after her somewhat changed appearance she remained the same, cheerful, kind and warmhearted. Her love of imagination and books prevailed and nothing much changed. Her father eventually overcame his guilt but still forbid her from entering his workshop. Life went on much the same as it always did, except better in Belle's opinion. She had always found her beauty a bit of nuisance, a curse even. She rather thought the accident was a blessing in disguise. She was now left alone to do as she pleased without the pesky interference of those feral wolves called men. Yes, everything was going splendidly well until her father left on a business trip. He was to show his new, and best, invention to a panel of judges, and if they liked it then maybe he would be hired by the king. So he left through the forest on his journey.

Now, the townspeople sometimes spoke of an evil, enchanted castle that was hidden in the depths of the forest. As the legend went, there was a horrible Beast-Prince that lived there. Every so often he would come down and steal away children and young maidens in order to appease his appetites. It was a silly tale used to keep children out of the woods. After all, there were some pretty savage wolves in there among other things. It was not a place for young children. However, when Maurice began his journey neither the old man nor his daughter even thought of the story. To them, late arrivals to the town, it was nothing more than just a story.

Days past and the time upon which her father was to return came and went. Belle had had a veritable feast prepared. She had bought ham and turkey from the butcher and prepared many vegetables. She even made a small cake. But it was all for naught. A week past, then a month. No word or sign of her father. Belle made a hasty decision. She gathered some things she considered essentials and provisions of course, and set out to make the journey. Unfortunately, it had to be made on foot as her father has taken Philippe, the horse. But that couldn't be helped. She was hardy enough after all, certainly capable of taking a walk in the woods. But, just to be safe, she had tucked her fathers old flintlock pistol into her sash and a small hunting knife into one of her boots. She didn't really think she'd need them, but she was nothing if not prepared and certainly sensible enough consider the possibility that she might need to defend herself.

So, off she went into the forest. From the outside it seemed quite friendly, full of cute fuzzy woodland creatures and the like. But as she went further into the wood she realized how smart she was to have brought something to protect herself. The deeper she went into the trees the darker it got, the denser the trees grew together. But there were no friendly woodland creatures here. Leaves didn't even grow on the trees. They were all black, twisted and dead. The ground was bare except for jagged stones leading toward rock ledges that loomed over Belle, the dark nooks and alcoves threatening her with the possibility of what lay beyond their entrances. She shivered, pulled her cloak tighter and trudged on.

The small trickles of light that had filtered through the dark, twisted branches of the trees had faded from her sight. It was completely black now and Belle was completely alone in this foreign and unfriendly place. Or so she thought. As she moved to unhitch the lantern she had tied to her skirts, she felt someone or something staring at her. She slowly turned and scrutinized the landscape around her and of course saw nothing. She returned to her lantern, pulled a matchbox out of her pack and lit it. The light only illuminated a small area but it was better than no light at all. Belle held it aloft and continued on. She didn't have the time or the resources to stop for the night, and this part of the forest didn't exactly look very comfy cozy. So, Belle continued on through the forest.

As she walked, the trees seemed to be thinning out around her to the point where there were only a few small trees scattered around her. She had reached the end of the forest and stretched out before her was a dirt road lined with tall lanterns. Belle heaved a sigh a relief, the forest hadn't been the most pleasant place to take a walk through, that was for sure. Just as she was putting out the flame on her lantern and tying it back to her skirt, she heard a rustling behind her. Slowly, she turned around reaching for her pistol as she did so. A few bats burst out of the trees and flew off into the night sky. A wolf howled, heartbroken and lonely, as wolves always sound. Belle shuddered and rubbed her arms before turning back around and walking up the dirt road. She kept her hand on the gun. There was something about that woods...something not quite right.

Walking along the road, Belle's eyelids began to droop. Her steps grew heavier and her pace slower. She had been walking all day and night without even a sign of her father. She was not only tired, but upset and discouraged as well. She yawned, her mouth opening wide. 'Respectable' women would have moved a hand to cover the yawn but Belle didn't have the energy and regardless, she didn't really give a rats ass if someone saw her yawning.

On the horizon, Belle could see the break of day. Red and orange light started to trickle down the road and one by one, the lanterns winked out. Belle was too tired to realize how strange it was that the lights went out all by themselves. Later on when she looked back at that night, she could see how weird it was. But at this moment, she was so bone tired, that she simply could not think about anything else. All she knew was that she had to keep walking. A woman alone was a very easy target and in this world, their were many bad characters that would have little to no qualms about raping her, killing her, and robbing her; not necessarily in that order. She couldn't even see what was in front of her anymore. It was as if the images in front of her stopped at her eyes and didn't transmit to her brain. That was why she didn't she the small building until she was right on top of it.

It was quite as small as it had seemed from a distance. There only appeared to be one floor, but it sprawled out for quite aways, making a long rectangle. It was surrounded by a grassy fenced in field where several horses were grazing. Belle didn't even think before she pushed open the door and stepped into the stable. The smell of hay and manure assaulted her senses, but in the state that she was, half asleep, it never reached her brain. She walked down the aisle, aware that she was looking for something, but not sure what. She stopped in front of a stall at what seemed like random and found herself nose to nose with a plain, light brown horse with a shaggy mane.

"Philippe!" She cried, flinging her arms around the horse's neck and using up the last of her energy. Tears streamed down her face. Finally, she had found something familiar. Her mind didn't even register what this really meant. She couldn't think about anything else besides laying down in the ha and sleeping forever. So that was exactly what she did. Almost too conveniently, there was a pile of hay next to Philippe's stall, which was conveniently located at the very end of the aisle. Everything was a little bit too convenient, like someone had known Belle would come and need a place to lie down and sleep. But she was too tired to put that much together. What she could put together was that while hay was not very soft, it made a pretty good mattress and her cloak made a pretty good blanket. Belle made herself comfortable in the hay pile and forgot about the world.