"Beau..."

I looked around, realizing that I was at the foot of the great staircase of the mansion.

"Beau, here..."

The feminine voice drifted through the space again.

"Who? Hello?"

I turned in a circle, carefully trying to pin point the voice.

"Beau."

I turned to almost have a heart attack as I saw her. A woman...

No.. she was the woman who had come to me in my dreams. I had almost forgotten, but looking at her brought the memories back. She floated in the air as a ghostly apparition, her beauty still well defined, even though she was see through.

"Follow me." She turned as she drifted up staircase, taking twists and turns, following a familiar route to my subconscious mind. Before long, we stood in front of the huge doors that housed the cursed rose. She melted into the doors leaving me to push them open. I went in to see her standing next to the large gargoyle on the right.

"Remember us." She said with a soft whisper as she melted into the huge statue leaving me alone.

Then I realized that the room was glowing brighter and brighter in intensity and I turned just in time to see the rose glow bright white before the world imploded to fractured pieces and turn black.

"Beau...up"

"Beau, wake up!"

I felt something poking my side and consciousness flew over and my eyes shot open.

"Beau- Oh, thank God you woke up."

I turned to see Mrs Potts next to me. I looked at her in bleary eyes of sleepiness.

"What time is it?"

"Its already afternoon dear. Two o'clock to be precise."

Oh gods! I had slept the entire morning! I felt something wet on my cheek and lifted my hand to wipe it just to realise that I had drooled in my sleep.

Yuck.

I looked at the the bed to see a big wet spot had formed like a halo where I had rested my head.

Ugh, talk about embarrassment.

I flushed a bright red and tried to avoid Mrs Potts.

"Oh dear, it's fine. Chip used to do it all the time when he was small."

She said with a giggle. Like that was supposed to comfort me!

Gods, take me now.

"Anyway... " She started, looking at me squirm in discomfort.

"You have to go to the forest. There are a few herbs to be collected."

"Huh?"

She looked at Adam who hadn't stirred though our entire conversation.

"He needs medicines prevent infection. He might not be able to die, but catching an infection is a really painful thing." She said nodding at him.

I looked at bandages that wrapped his wounds and I felt something in me squeeze in pain. I nodded at Mrs Potts.

"Ok. Where do you want me to go?"

Mrs Potts got of the bed and jumped onto the trolley and moved to the door.

"Come dear. I'll tell you everything in the kitchen."

I followed her down to the kitchen and was surprised to see Ivan sitting in one of the corner chairs with his head hanging down like a scolded puppy.

"Ivan."

He looked up and his face brightened when he saw me.

"Beau! Where are we going?"

I looked at Mrs Potts in question.

"Beau, Ivan will go with you to the forest. It's not the one that you go through to reach your village but towards the north. There are deadly things that live there and you will need help."

She then removed a slim book from a small collection of recipe books from a small nook in the corner that I hadn't seen before and handed it to me.

"The books contains the pictures and information about the plants you need to pluck. The ones that are ticked, bring those only and only in the quantity mentioned. Don't try and gather more."

"Why?" Ivan asked flipping the pages of the book that he had stolen from me.

"They are rare in nature and neither do they last long. You don't wanna pick them in abundance and have them go extinct."

Ivan simply hummed in reply.

"Will the day be enough to pick them all?" I looked at Mrs Potts in question.

"Should be enough." She replied before placing a small backpack in front of me.

"It has all the tools that you need and some snacks so that you don't go hungry. Now go."

I nodded at her in thanks and lifted the backpack and headed out hearing the tools inside clink at every step I took.

"Beau, wait for me!" Ivan shouted as he scampered to catch me. I laughed at his childish behavior but slowed down until he caught up.

"How is you head?" I asked him.

He touch his head with tentative softness before wincing and said-

"Not so good."

I giggled as the scene came back to me.

"Who knew a pan could be a weapon huh?"

He simply laughed at it. We had entered the forest, snow covering every inch of ground converting the place into something magical.

"Do you know these forests well?" I asked him trying to start a conversation. He nodded in reply.

"My village is further up north. Around a week worth of journey."

I looked at him curiously.

"How is it there?"

He gave a small laugh in melancholy.

"Mountains and the sea. Our village was in between. Up north, the entire year more or less is covered in snow and the sea next to us, a vast expanse of frozen water."

I looked at him in awe. I had never seen the sea. The images what he said was surreal to be even imaginable.

It had been an hour that we had entered the forest. The crisp chirping of the birds and the sound of small animals hiding at our arrival filled the comfortable silence between Ivan and I. My eyes roamed around the underbush of the forest and a plant caught my attention.

"Ivan wait! Give me the book."

I crept forward in excitement. I opened the book, flipping the pages until I found the page I was looking for.

That was it. It was one of the nine herbs that needed to be found and we required only one plant of this herb.

I searched through the tools in the bag till I found a spade. The herb and deep roots and needed to be dug deep to get the plant whole.

Crouching, not caring about the knee length snow I started digging till the roots were shown. Quicky I pulled out the plant and put it in the basket and got up replacing the spade in the bag.

CRACK.

I hadn't even taken a step forward when the ground shook before tilting.

I had not realised due to the snow and the fog, but I was standing on a small protruding cliff below which a huge chasm ran for miles.

"Ivan! Help!" I shouted as I stretched my hand toward him.

"Beau!" He ran forward and caught my hand as the outcrop gave away fully plunging to the bottom of the chasm.

"Pull me up!" I shouted terrified as I white snow flew up due of the impact of the stones.

"Don't let go!" He shouted just as my hand slipped from his grip and I fell.

♥️