Mrs Potts and I were almost at the kitchen when we heard a shriek of outrage.

We looked at each other in concern and I ran down to the kitchen lifting Mrs Potts just to see Lady Duster fly out of the kitchen. She took one look at Mrs Potts and busted to tears as she almost knocked down Mrs Potts in her haste.

"Mrs Potts!" she cried.

"Dear Abigail, what happened?" Mrs Potts fretted worriedly over Abigail.

"That man he plucked my feathers and touched me all over!"

Man?

I went into the kitchen, leaving Mrs Potts to console Abigail, to see Ivan wide awake stirring up a furry of trouble leaving a wake of chaos behind him.

He sneaked behind the cook and with one of the feathers he had plucked out, from Abigail I presume, tickled one of the cooks many arms causing the cook to give an undignified giggle and throw the spatula that he had in his hand.

Ivan on the other hand had tears rolling down his face as he clutched his belly, shaking with laughter.

Done with that, he started to edge towards the shelf where all the cups were kept, making weird noises, trying to see if they were alive.

I turned to the other side of the kitchen and gasped and the horrendous things done there. The napkins tried to struggle their way out of the knots that tied them all together while the forks tried to remove their interlocking heads.

"Good gracious!" Mrs Potts said in a shocked voice when she entered the kitchen.

"Chip!" she shouted in alarm and hurried as soon as she could when she saw him placed on top of the cutlery pyramid that Ivan had made of the cups.

"Ivan! What are you doing for gods sake?"I asked in exasperation as I started to herd him out.

"Oh, hello Beau. Nice to see you." He replied, distracted as he tried to evade my hands.

"Stop it. They might get injured."

"But, they are so fascinating. Can I play with them some more? Please?"

He tried sidestepping me and succeeded, moving to the quivering goblets in the rack.

BANG!

I stood in shock as I saw Ivan fall on the ground.

"Good riddance." Said the cook holding the pan he had just used to knock Ivan out.

I looked at the cook in new found respect and at the pan with fear.

"Hehe. Look John, he looks scared." The cook said to no one in particular till the reply came.

"We werent in the military for nothing."

Yep, as you guessed. It was the pan. John the pan.

Blah.

I frowned as I fetched some ice and applied to Ivans head and hoped that there wasnt any permanent injury. We already had enough of sick people as it was.

So, who was gonna carry him?

***

Me!

It had to be me. They were the ones that had come up with the brilliant idea of knocking him out and I had to carry him up the stairs.

Plopping him on his bed for the second time in the day, I sat next to him, exhausted.

I looked at him. He struck me odd. Now that I remembered, when we had entered the house, Ivan had looked at Mr Clok like it was totally normal to be invited by an animated home knickknack. Then why had he freaked out with Mrs. Potts?

I groaned as I rubbed my aching head as I turned to leave.

Out the door, my legs automatically took me to his room.

Opening the door, I looked to see him struggling to get out of the bed.

"Oh no, you dont. I said as I walked over to him."

"But, I'm bored! he gave me his best pleading eyes."

Oh! How I hated them. Defeated, I helped him sit up.

"So, where had you been?" he looked at me, pouting. "I had to eat breakfast all alone."

I laughed at the pitiful face that he made.

"I was at the kitchen and then, Mrs Potts showed me around, to explore, the mansion; and then we came to the kitchen to see Ivan messing around. So, the cook knocked him out with John the Pan."

"Ha-ha. That useless old man. He was a terror during his prime. What did Ivan do to him?"

I stared at him mesmerised at the sound of his laughter totally missing his question.

"Eh?" I blinked at him.

He gave a small snort and repeated.

"Oh, Ivan was messing with all the people. He tickled the cook and plucked Abigails feathers and made a huge mess in the kitchen."

Adam shook his head before answering.

"I dont know why, but I dont like that guy. Anyway, what else did you see today?"

The dreaded question. I looked at him as I debated whether to tell him truth or not before giving into the former option. Tell him the truth.

"I saw the portrait of your family."

The smile on his face slowly melted.

"How old were you in it?" I quietly asked him afraid to upset him more than I already had done.

He remained silent for so long that I feared that he wouldn't answer.

Just as I had started to internally panic he replied.

"I was sixteen..."

I kept my silence waiting for him to continue. He picked up the mirror that I hadn't even noticed from the bedside and started to fiddle with it.

"It wasn't... easy I suppose, to live a royal life. And more so ever for a child with no guidance. The only people who cared, all ended up with me now, while the others sided with me only for the power I would possess one day and the remaining hated me for the family I was born to. For all of this, they were absent, always busy in the affairs of the kingdom."

He looked at me with sudden desperation in his eyes.

"It wasn't that they were bad parents. They were good."

He sighed looking like he couldn't even convince himself of his own words.

"One has to grow up early with a life style like that and learn earlier whom to trust and whom not to and I didn't learn it soon enough."

He had a faraway look in his eyes. The look that held a story of love, hate and then surrender to acceptance.

I had a feeling that I knew who he was talking about.

"Anna."

He looked at me with despondent blue eyes.

"Anna." He gave out a sigh.

"I would have given her the world if she had asked. I was so much in love with her but atlas, all I was but a toy for her whimsical thoughts."

My heart stung at his words of sad reminiscence; betrayal apparent in every word.

"Elena's wrath, at that moment was all consuming and in her haste she cursed me such that I would remain to be a beast forever. When she came back to her senses, she realised her fault but a curse can never be taken back. Just altered. So she added a part to the spell."

Part to the spell?

"The judge shall be the flower, the drop of blood devoured;

The power it shall deliver, the curse broken with a tear."