* * *
After leaving the princely Beast in his study, Jane floated on air like those kids did in the movie E.T. when the alien used its ability to make their bikes fly. In reality, both her tires were on the ground, but her heart soared, thinking she had found the princely boy now grown into a handsome man. She peddled back towards the Tasty Dwarf Bakery and had yet to leave the Beast's estate, when she heard a song. It was Saah'Mee, the song the fairies in the forest sang to her to comfort her when young Jane became lost and afraid. Adult Jane braked and then dismounted from her bike and followed the enchanting Saah'Mee, hoping to come upon the fairies she had met long ago. She came upon the wall she passed when she first rode into the estate and noticed an old rusted gate with an equally rusted large padlock. Jane pulled on the padlock, and it held firmly in place by design and by the corrosion of time, and unless she wanted to break in, she wasn't getting in. She turned to head back to her bike when she nearly stepped on a tiny yellow rose. Jane didn't remember it being there when she walked up to the gate. She knelt down to it and could have sworn it was the exact same tiny rose she nearly stepped on outside the castle.
"Hello there. You're so cute, I could pick you, but don't worry I won't," Jane said and then thought it would be funny to ask it, "Aren't you the little rose from before? You look just like..."
The tiny yellow rose nodded its head or one would say unopened bud as if answering her.
"I am in the World of Grimm, so I guess anything's possible," Jane spoke in a carefree tone which spawned from her lovestruck heart. She had never felt so high on life and had never been so enthralled by the possibility of love. It was such a great feeling.
The rose lowered its head and stalk, and then it inched toward her like a worm. The roots of the plant were still underground, so the rose inched forward and then dragged the rest of its body forward, leaving a trail in the dirt. Jane straightened as the tiny yellow rose inched past her to the gate and then vined its way up to the padlock. The tiny rose didn't lift its entire body out of the dirt and climbed up with it roots and all. No, it magically grew up the rusted gate bars as dozens of tiny yellow open buds sprung up from the vine as it went. The main bud was twice as big as the other buds, and when the main bud reached the padlock, it maneuvered several of its thorns within the keyhole and picked it open with a bit of added magic. The padlock fell to the ground, and the gate opened in as the fairy song grew louder and more welcoming. Jane turned her attention to the padlock as the yellow rose crawled unharmed from it as its elongated thorny vine shrunk until the rose returned to its previous stature of a flower on a tiny stalk.
Kneeling again to it, Jane told the flower, "You're so cute." She put a finger out toward it to pet it, then paused, and asked, "You don't bite, do you?"
The rose inched over to her finger and rubbed up against it like a cat rubs up against someone's leg. Jane scratched the back of the bud gently with her nail as if scratching the back of a cat's ear. Jane would have knelt there all day petting the delightful creature, but the rose perked up as if it heard something, and then it disappeared into the ground like a mole down its hole. Jane straightened and stared at the tiny tunnel, missing what would have been an interesting pet, but maybe it was more than just a plant-cat, plant mole, plant-..? She didn't know what she should call it and decided to go back to the gate the tiny yellow rose unlocked for her.
The gate opened to an over grown path and led to what looked like the start of a maze made out of rows of hedges that were ten feet tall. Jane went no farther than the opening of the gate. It had been locked for a reason, and she didn't have permission to be wandering the estate. Her actions could upset the Beast, and she didn't want to upset him, she wanted... she wanted him to... Her mind drifted, and she allowed herself to venture through her imagination for a few moments before she brought herself back to reality or at least the reality of the World of Grimm.
The fairy song increased its hold on her. Jane twirled the silver flower ring on her little finger as she stared at the enticing maze ahead of her, drawn in by the song and the feelings it educed. She took a step to go in, but drew the foot back out. Jane wasn't sure if she should enter as a tug-of-war began in her mind. She considered how the Beast would react if she traipsed around his property like some thief breaking into things she shouldn't, and she also considered how hard the tiny yellow rose worked to open the padlock for her. Jane could discover a horrible secret about the Beast or maybe she could discover something that would lead her to breaking his curse. Jane felt like she stood there with her arms stretched out as uncertainty pulled her in one direction and then the other. She might have stood there all day being stretched out by her indecision if the call to her soul hadn't bided her forward.
The fairy song grew louder, inviting her to hurry as if some urgent matter needed her immediate attention. Jane took a step forward and glanced back as if expecting some sort of alarm to go off. None did, so she took a few more steps forward, then walked to the first fork, and stood there, trying to decide which way to go. If the size of the front wall was any indication, the maze was very large. Maybe an eighth of a mile by a eighth of a mile. Jane thought she needed a way to keep track of which paths she tried so she wouldn't get lost, and she started to go back to the bike to grab the clipboard and quill, when she saw the light of one of the fairies in the distance and immediately with excited joy followed that path. The fairy flew faster, and Jane chased after the tiny winged person. Jane laughed as if she was young Jane again playing lightning tag as she raced after the fairy.
"Don't go too fast or I'll lose you," she yelled after the fairy and then laughed again. "Wait up!"
The path ended in the middle of the maze and into a square section with only the entrance she came in. This area of the maze was different from the rest of the maze. Vibrant green hedges and grass paths made up the maze she transversed through to get there, but this square section appeared to have been neglected for years. A closer inspection also told Jane this place had once been a beautiful garden. The remains of flowering plants in brittle-brown and death-black filled the entire area and dampened her joyous mood. Jane looked all around for the fairy, wondering why the tiny winged person brought her here, but she didn't see her or him anywhere. She still heard the fairy song, but couldn't tell which direction it came from. Jane headed back when a sensation she couldn't describe swept over her. The sensation became stronger as bits of it came to light; its warmth and its familiarity she understood, but the core essence of it eluded her. Jane turned around and faced the garden, twirling the silver ring on her left pinkie again as the sensation drew her back to the dead garden. The song the fairies sung faded till there was only one voice singing the enchanted melody, and once the song fell to this one voice, the happy feelings the melody invoked in Jane's soul became ones of sadness and abandonment. Jane wanted to reach out to this person or creature, wrap her arms around them, and let them know they weren't alone. Her heart cried for them and she knew at that moment, she had to help them. No matter the cost, she had to help them.
Jane continued to search with her eyes, and she couldn't see anything within the garden but carcasses of dead flowers and vines. She knew something had to be there and once her heart joined in on the search, Jane caught a glimpse of something. In the midst of the garden, a large clear curtain with shimmers of rainbow draped over something large. Jane wasn't sure how she knew it was a magical curtain that hid something from the rest of the world, but she did know that whatever was under it, was the creature or person she wanted to help.
The enchanting sad melody lifted from the curtain and floated around the garden with a voice so sweet it nearly brought tears to her eyes. The single voice sang of a past she... yes, the voice was diffidently a she, and she sang of a past she longed to return to.
Beauty And The Beast: The Classic Fantasy Fairy Tale With A Twist Page 41
