The Merchant's Daughter -Chapter 24 (Patreon)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Her family had not seen such vigour within Beauty in so very long. She made arrangements and preparations to return with such eagerness that her father knew there was no delaying her to stay until the entirety of the snow had melted away; she would go when she was entirely prepared which would be in only a day or two’s time. He could not deny his daughter her excitement and happiness.

Dunstan himself decided to go with her at least to the forest’s edge so that he may see her safely and may also go do business in the next city less than a day’s ride from that spot as well.

Before the two knew it, they were standing upon the ground in front of the small opening in the trees where the road met the forest and the forest trail led to the castle.

“Goodbye my darling. You will send word once you know how long a duration your stay shall be?”

“Of course Father. Of course. Hopefully he shall still wish to have me visit for a time,” she exclaimed nervously.

“I am quite certain he shall be obliged and most happy to receive you.”

Dunstan hugged his daughter tightly to him then arranged the fur collar of his cloak a little tighter around him. “You will be safe enough and fine to ride the rest of the way alone?”

“Yes Father. The path is quite easily followed and we both now know the direction I need to head. Should I lose the path, I shall make note of the sun overhead. It but shines only a little out of the clouds and yet it is enough to guide me. I have the majority of the day ahead to make my way. I shall be quite alright.”

Unable to argue or insist further, Dunstan embraced his daughter one last time and bid her farewell.

As Beauty rode her horse through the forest, she began to get anxious. It had been so long since she had last seen Beast and she hoped this reunion would not be terribly awkward –most especially because he was likely not expecting her return at any given moment.

But she did not like feeling anxious and so she let herself instead grow excited for the reunion. She had also brought a few gifts and provisions with her in the saddlebags and she looked forward to giving them to him.

At last, she saw the gate and had to stop herself from kicking the horse to gallop forward towards the front doors of the castle. She looked up with a smile at it as she reined her horse in and took a moment to appreciate the feeling she felt of being back here. It almost felt like coming home again;she felt almost relief as she looked around her.

Beauty dismounted swiftly and decided to bring the horse around to the stable for shelter. She was forced to leave the saddlebags in the stable as well for they were quite heavy to carry on her own and she could easily come again for them after her reunion.

Then with trepidation, she returned to the front doors of the castle and after a huge sigh, she knocked using the large knocker which easily moved now again for her.

Beauty waited; her breaths coming out in heavy puffs in front of her as she breathed nervously in anticipation.

But there was no answer.

She tried yet again and called out for him then waited once more;feeling her anxiousness growing by the second at having to anticipate his arrival.

Just as the pit in her stomach was building into concern, a noise from above startled her and she looked up just in time to watch something flutter down towards her from a second floor window nearby. She hurried over to the fallen object and found it to be a piece of paper. Come inside it read in Beast’s neat script.

Beauty was immediately curious and a bit more anxious at this turn of events. But, she went back to the doors and pushed one open and entered the castle. Then she stood in a moment of indecision on what to do next. She slowly began to remove her gloves, then scarf and then hood.

She then thought she heard a noise. “Beast?” she called out; eyes darting over to her left where she thought she’d heard movement near the corridor.

There was a pause before she heard a reply. His voice was whispering and sounded a little scratchy and she could not see where he was hidden,“Beauty... Forgive me but... I...I must tell you something right away and I do not wish to upset you. Can we forgo formality for a moment?”

“Y-yes of course,” she replied, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes,” he answered quickly, “Well, no... Ehm actually not really. Sorry I mean to say: everything is alright. I will explain shortly. Could you...close your eyes for a moment?” he asked her.

She felt nervous. “Yes but... All is...fine? Are you ill again?”

“Not ill,” he replied.

She took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “Okay. I’m closing my eyes.” She did so rather nervously.

“Please do not peek. I am coming to you to explain myself. Do not open your eyes until I say so.” Beauty nodded to show she understood. She could heart he sound of his footsteps drawing slowly closer and then they stopped what sounded like a very short distance in front of her.

“Beauty,” he began in a soft voice. “I do not know how to begin... I am most happy to see you again but...much as also...happened this past winter.”

“Yes it has and I am so terribly sorry that I could not—”

“No apology is necessary,” he told her gently; keeping his voice still rather soft. “However I must...tell you something very important. I am not sure how to effectively say this so I will begin by asking if you have noticed my voice has become less husky than it once was?”

“Well, yes actually,” she murmured, “It was hard to tell with you whispering but now that you’ve raised your voice to a more normal level I can...note the change indeed. And yet I simply thought I had recalled your voice wrong...”

He did not reply for a moment. “Beauty... I shall be incredibly and quickly honest with you now,” he began, “I am much changed since we last saw one another. It is hard to explain why in any detail as I am not entirely sure of it all myself but I must attempt to explain a little before it is you lay your eyes upon me.”

“Is it that you grew a winter coat?” she responded, “N-not that I mean to say it is...anything terribly wrong and if that is the case, you should not be ashamed. A thicker amount of hair is nothing to be...shy about. I certainly understand.”

He let out a short, soft laugh which had lost its gravelly quality and she had to remind herself not to open her eyes. “Heavens no! I do wish that were the case! We would have quite the laugh... It is...quite the opposite in actuality. Beauty, I am going to take your hands now; do not be too alarmed alright?”

“Alright.”

Slowly and gently she felt her hands go into his palms before he withdrew some and simply held her hands within his curled fingers around hers.“You...have no fur upon your paws,” she remarked slowly; realizing it as he’d moved her hands into the second position.

“No; nor do I have claws.” He sighed audibly then spoke again, “I cannot stand this. I... I wish for you to see me but I do not want you to be...frightened of me Beauty. As I say, I am much changed. You... You will not recognize me from the one you once knew. I wish I could try to make you understand to prepare you but... I do not know how.”

“Then let me look upon you and I promise not to be alarmed,” she told him gently; a small smile issuing from her lips.

He took another deep breath. “Recall what I said,” he murmured, “I have considerably less hair...”

She giggled a little.

“What?”

“I am trying not to imagine what you look like and yet I cannot help it. I am sorry but the imagery is a little amusing. Forgive me.”

“You are forgiven,” he chuckled, “If you can forgive me for not being able to prepare you better for the sight of me,” he added on a little more soberly.

“Of course. May I then open my eyes?”

There was a pause. Finally, he acquiesced. “Yes.”

Beauty’s eyes opened slowly and she blinked them into focus. She was somewhat startled to find not an animal’s visage staring back at her but that of a man’s. She blinked a few more times in disbelief of her senses.

Yet, the face did not change before her. It was a man’s, no doubt, but it bore many resemblances to her Beast’s face. This face seemed thinner –yet with the lack of a furry mane of hair, it was likely around the same shape as before. The skin was pale but smooth. Instead of the tan coloured mane, hair of a similar shade grew from his head and framed the face she saw staring back at her. His lips’ shape seemed much the same as Beast’s and the nose above them was wide bridged and long. But it was the eyes looking back into hers that startled her most of all. For they were the same golden hue and the same familiar shape as Beast’s had been. “Wh-wh—”

His brows drew together slowly in concern. “Beauty I do not wish to frighten you,” the man spoke softly.

“B-east?” she uttered in a very soft tone filled with surprise and skepticism.

“Yes,” he murmured.

She realized this man stood the same height and had relatively the same girth as Beast had once had as he was wearing an outfit she recalled and it appeared to fit him still quite well.

“H-how is this...possible? How is it...you? What has...happened?” she murmured in disbelief though she made no movement to back away or withdraw her hands from his.

He took this as an encouraging sign. “I wish I knew more of the particulars myself,” he confessed gently to her, “but I shall tell you all I know. Perhaps we... Would you care to...sit down with me in our drawing room?”

His voice still sounded so gentle and tentative as though he were still not trying to frighten her by speaking normally. She appreciated it for her own nerves were still a little on edge.

“Yes,” she managed to reply.

He bowed his head a little as he had so often done in the past and it sent a shiver up her spine to recognize her Beast once again in that gesture within this form of a man now. He let go gently of one of her hands and led her to their favourite place and allowed her to take her familiar seat near his before he slowly sat down as well.

“I shall tell you all that I know,” he repeated, “I will start from the beginning of when you departed from here to return to ask the boon of your father.”

Beauty nodded her head slowly and he then went on with his narrative:

“I noticed a change in weather occur about a week later and I grew concerned that you should make it back here safely. I told myself for the days following that you had not...perished or met a horrible fate. I knew you and your father to be sensible and would not have attempted to travel in such a terrible fit of weather that blew ice and freezing cold across everything around. So I waited.

I started to notice soon enough that when I groomed, I was losing fur at quite a rapid succession. I hoped I was not suffering this malady over my extreme worry for you but it seemed the only explanation I had at the time. I grew into further concern when much of my coat did not grow back. I began to feel weaker and recalling your remedy for my previous illness I sought my roses. But they were gone; I’d forgotten.

I watched as the pads of my paws grew softer skin and soon my claws actually fell off. I had no explanation and I was admittedly scared of what was happening. Yet despite all of this I began to see that my paws with their softer skin on the palms and lacking any fur now and no claws truly had become hands. Likewise I now had feet.

My ears seemed to grow smaller as they shed their fur; as though they also shed the skin and cartilage bit by bit overnight. Yet I found no evidence of this; only the shed fur upon the blankets and pillows I lay myself upon at night. As my mane of hair was lost, I noticed thinner, softer hair growing out in its place until I had the head of hair you see now.” He gestured with a bit of a sheepish smile.

She found herself smiling a little as well at this.

“Slowly but surely, I came to realize that I was transforming into the shape of a man. I still have very little explanation for it on how or why but alas here I am; changed.

Are you... Have I frightened you Beauty?”

She let out a soft, nervous scoff. “Don’t be absurd,” she replied gently. “I am not frightened. I am curious and a slight bit nervous as well but I am not afraid...”

His expression lightened. “Good. I am...glad of it.”

“And...you have no reason for why this has happened to you?” she murmured.

“There are bits and pieces in my mind; some of which I believe I have dreamed about and others that seem too real to be dreams. I seem to recall portraits in the castle though we now have none. Though it sometimes alarms me still to catch sight of myself in a reflection, somehow this...this visage seems...comfortable; familiar. I think, although I cannot be entirely certain,that I may have had this shape once before; long before I awoke in this castle as I told you I had done with no memory. Yet I have no solid proof of that;only a feeling.” He shook his head; obviously shy and confused by the whole matter.

“What else do you recall?” she asked him.

“The name Enree or...or something like that.”

“Henry?” she offered.

“Perhaps that may be it, yes.”

“Was that your name?”

“Well...no,” he told her slowly. “It does not feel right. I do not think that was actually my name at any point. It just feels...familiar and distant as this face does to me. I have dreamt of laughter and that word; that name coming up. But I don’t... It does not feel to me to be my actual name.

And yet I have thought of myself as Beast for so long that...perhaps I am only convincing myself otherwise out of comfort.

I tried looking the word up but all I could find in any context when I actually was not even looking for it was one book which called the master of their household Henri as his title as it means just that; ‘ruler of the household’.”

“That is most interesting. I was not aware of that,” Beauty murmured.

“It was of a foreign land to the far north east I believe –if I recall correctly...” he murmured.

“Anyhow, I... I do not have much more to go upon for any of this. I apologize for not being able to provide more of an explanation.”

She smiled. “You needn’t apologize. It is not as though you have no explanation to provide due to some purpose of your own or motivation to hide it from me.”

He nodded his head a little in acknowledgement of that truth.

“So...”

She gave a short laugh. “So?”

He laughed a little nervously. “Well, what now then?”

“I... I don’t know!” she admitted then began to laugh softly feeling both nervous and incredulous that she was sitting here with him in this situation and having this conversation. It seemed surreal and yet she knew very well this was no dream of hers.

“Well, can I...offer you some tea or...or refreshments after your long journey?”

“I think I should like that very much. Thank you, Beast. Er—”

He smiled warmly. “It is quite alright to call me that still. I know no other title.”

She tilted her head a little in acknowledgement of that. “Very well.”

He stood and offered his hand. “This is...proper decorum, yes?”

At that she had to laugh before taking his hand and letting him lead her to the dining room for tea.