"WOD" - Chapter Five
Chapter Five
Walking out of her cottage the following morning, Belle
anticipated the day to be just like every other day. Yesterday was a bit
different with those three peculiar visitors that momentarily derailed her trip
to the bookstore. Then there was Gaston, who did not harass her like he did
every day; in fact, she did not see him at all yesterday. That would have given
her a peace of mind if it had not weighed so heavily on her kind-heartedness. She
hoped that nothing bad happened to him.
“HELP! PLEASE HELP!!!” The voice of a child cried as she
stepped out.
Looking down the steps to her front porch, she saw a boy
– the same boy that was with those two other strangers yesterday. He looked
very worried, verging on tears. Concerned, Belle hurried down the steps and
approached him. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“My mom,” the boy sniffled. “She went to the forest to
find my toy staff, and she didn’t come back! I don’t know where she is!”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Belle pitied. “I’ll help you find
your mother.”
The boy cleansed the snot dripping from his nose with his
sleeve. “You will?”
“Of course I will,” Belle reassured. She went to the
stall at the side of her cottage to fetch a slender and stocky copper Belgian
draft horse, blond in both mane and tail, a white facial stripe on the front,
and black eyes. “This is Philippe, our horse,” she introduced. “My Papa was
supposed to take him to the fair today, but he’s still perfecting his machine. I’m
sure he won’t mind us using Philippe to find your mother.”
“Thank you,” the boy said graciously.
He rode up front of her on the horse, and they galloped
to the dark, mysterious forest on the edge of town. The atmosphere was
foreboding and dark. The weather had changed as well, shifting from a warm
spring to a chilling winter. Belle wanted to turn back, but she was committed
to helping the boy find his mother. Thankfully, the directions that the boy
provided to where he had last seen his mother were very helpful, giving Belle a
bit more security.
That was until they arrived at a secluded area of the
forest and the boy jumped off Philippe all of the sudden. “She’s just past
here!” he told Belle.
Belle was confused. “I thought you said you didn’t know where
she was.”
The boy stopped and turned to look at her with a guilty
expression. “Yeah, I lied…I’m sorry.” He then disappeared past some vegetation.
“Wait!” Belle called to him, demanding some sort of
explanation for his trickery. With no other choice, she dismounted from
Philippe and – after giving him a few gentle pats and strokes on his head –
left to pursue the boy.
The much taller Belle had some difficulty getting through
the same vegetation that the smaller boy was able to. Her skirt had gotten
snagged by one of the branches and ripped when she pulled to get it free. Her
hair did not favor any better as her ribbon was also ensnared by another
branch, undoing her ponytail as she jerked her head forward.
This day certainly turned out more eventful than I
imagined!
After her struggle through the vegetation, she finally
made it clear on the other side…where she found something unlike anything she
had seen before. It was some sort of orb that bore a resemblance to a giant
pearl. She saw the boy run right up to it and disappear behind it.
Belle called to him again, following him to the other
side of the orb.
She found that the rear of the orb had a door that
invited her inside. Looking through the doorway, she was perplexed to see a
much larger interior that deceived the smaller proportions of the orb’s
exterior. There was machinery within – far more advanced than anything even her
father could dream up.
“What…What is this place?” She said with a gasp.
“It’s called a ‘TARDIS’ – short for ‘Time And Relative
Dimension In Space’.”
Belle sharply turned when she heard the kind, angelic
voice of a woman. She saw the woman from yesterday – the young brunette in the
black turtleneck and form-fitting olive-green slacks – standing there in the
room. She held some sort of mechanical tablet. “It’s you,” Belle exclaimed. “You’re
the boy’s mother?”
“No,” the woman said with a hint of regret. “Much as I
would love to be.”
Belle gazed around the bizarre room she was in. “Where is
he? Was he even real?”
She suddenly felt something tug at her skirt again – this
time it was the boy himself, looking up at her with a smile. “Hello,” he waved.
Belle indecisively waved back. “Hello?”
She also noticed the strangely dressed man with the
bowler hat was there, only now it was a purple fedora he was wearing.
“We’re sorry for the deception, Belle,” the woman said.
“We needed to bring you here to my TARDIS to talk.”
Belle frowned. “About what? Who are you people? And how
do you know my name?”
“As far as who we are, we’re travelers from other
dimensions,” the woman explained. “My name’s Rania, the cute lil’ fella who was
my ‘son’ is Craig, and our curly-haired friend in the fedora is Riff.”
“Greetings and salutations, young traveler,” Riff tipped
his bowler hat to Belle.
“As far as how we know you, you’re kinda famous where I
come from,” Rania said. “You’re what the people in my world call a ‘Disney
Princess’.”
Belle’s brow furrowed. “A…princess? I’m not a princess.”
“Not yet, anyway,” Rania smirked. “Which brings me to the
reason why you’re here. There are certain events in your world that haven’t
happened exactly as they should.”
“What sort of events?” Belle inquired.
“Like your father being abducted by the Beast.”
The frown on Belle’s face intensified. “Beast?! What
beast?!”
Rania approached Belle with the tablet she was holding
and gave it to her. There was an image on it that horrified Belle – that of a beast
that did not fit into any specific species of animal. It had the head, beard,
and horns of a buffalo…the arms, claws, and body of a bear… the eyebrows of a gorilla…the jaws and mane of a lion…the
tusks of a wild boar…and the legs, teeth, and tail of a wolf. To Belle, it
resembled the mythical monsters she read about in her books, like a minotaur.
Seeing how frightened she was, Rania quickly stated, “Don’t
be afraid. He may look like a monster, but he has a very kind soul.”
Belle was at a loss for words for a very long moment.
This unsettled Rania, who wondered if this was even a
good idea.
“This…this monster was going to abduct my
father?!” Belle shuddered.
“It’s not…I mean, it is…but…well, you see…” Rania
struggled to come up with a reasonable explanation.
“I have to warn the villagers!” Belle declared as she
headed for the exit.
“Belle! Wait!” Rania called to her. “It’s not what you
think! You and the Beast…you are meant to be together!”
Belle briefly stopped just as she was at the threshold of
the TARDIS entrance, looking back towards Rania with a disgusted look. “I could
never love something like that!” She then made her exit from the TARDIS.
Rania was left devastated by Belle’s words.
Riff didn’t help any by stating the obvious: “Well, that
made everything worse.”
“Thanks for your astute observation, Riff,” Rania
quipped. “You fellas go and stop her any way you can.”
“What’re you going to do?” Craig asked her.
“Something real stupid,” Rania replied before
heading elsewhere in the TARDIS.
Craig and Riff made their way out of the ship, jogging
through the black forest, all while coming up with a plan. “How’re we gonna
convince a human to love an animal?” Craig wondered.
“Maybe we can tie her up and deliver her to the Beast
ourselves?” Riff suggested.
Craig cringed at the idea. “Yeah, I don’t think that
will convince her any better than Rania’s plan did.”
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