Belle
The dream keeps coming. In it a woman appears on the other side of a bridge. She’s wearing a non-descript dress, but her face is shining and her whole body is surrounded by light. She holds her hand out to me and I know we’ll be together soon. I’ve waited for her for so long.
The teacher
She pulled her fur-lined cloak closer, closer to keep out the blasts of cold air. As she trudged through the snowy forest, she thought, “Just ugh, ugh. I can’t believe as the snows are beginning, I have to travel through the forest again, back to that castle and back to the people who think of me as an ‘enchantress.’” And yet, this was her greatest joy. She went where the company sent her, and happily so. It was the only thing worth doing. Indeed, it was the only point.
When I heard Cogsworth let someone into the castle, my ears pricked up. Even though the castle now has the policy of allowing any and all visitors to stay as long as they need, in practice, not much has changed since the spell was broken. Even though all are welcome, the truth is visitors are few and far between because the castle is so isolated, deep in the forest, and far away from roads and towns.
So I was excited for a visitor and a dash of something new. What surprised me most after the spell was broken, was how quickly everyone fell back into their normal lives. They almost completely forgot about our battle, their liberation and the magic of it all. Besides a few jokes and innuendos based on the objects people had been turned into (“Does that make your clock tick?”), no one seemed to think about what had happened. Indeed, as someone who continued to marvel over our story, I’d started to think of myself as a bit of an addict, not of some drug, but of drama. Because while I wouldn’t wish that situation on us again, I did miss the sense of purpose I had and the intensity of it all. I love my prince and everyone here, but life now doesn’t feel that much different from the provincial life I left behind.
As I came down the stairs to greet our guest, I caught my first glimpse of her and froze. This was the woman from my dreams. As she spun out of her cloak, I saw her morph into an old Asian woman with long, straight grey hair and black diamond eyes. Then as she turned to look at me, she shifted again into a very tall and thin figure that seemed to be lit from within, as if her skin was a container of light instead of bones, tissue and blood.
As I gazed down at her from the staircase landing, she flipped back to her original form, ran up the stairs in magnificent leaps and stood right in front of me. She scrutinized me closely and laughed, while down in the foyer, she simultaneously handed her cloak to Cogsworth, who was clearly not seeing what I was seeing!
Mrs. Potts broke the moment when she entered the foyer, offering our guest tea and sandwiches before the fire. The lady smiled and spoke to Mrs. Potts, but I couldn’t hear a word she said. It was like her voice was traveling through gelatin and all I could hear was a rumbling reminiscent of some other time and place.
That night at dinner, she sat across from me and I could see flames all around her. I kept my amazement quiet because I could tell that no one else was seeing this. And as I had that thought, she looked right at me, smiled and winked.
The next day I purposely ran into her while she was out in the frozen gardens giving seeds to our little bird friends. She asked me to go on a stroll and I felt a wave of excitement. She said she was my teacher from previous lives and she was here to get me so we could continue our journey together. I explained that while I did have some inexplicable fondness for her, I had just moved there recently and had no interest in moving on. I planned to spend the rest of my life with the prince.
After letting me babble on a bit about my planned future, she stopped under a large oak tree and stood in front of me. She placed her hand on my chest and said, “Shhhh.” I felt warm butter melt from the top of my head, through my shoulders, down my arms and trunk, through my hips and down my legs, to my toes.
I began to cry and said, “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“You know who I am. As to why, it’s our time again.”
Snorting and crying I said, “It’s just I thought I’d be here a while.”
“Yes, I sympathize with you. Initially it’s hard to let go of the idea of how your life is going to go, even if deep inside you want something else. Part of dropping that idea is realizing where power and love really reside for you. For instance, you thought you were fighting towards a normal, happy life—an HEA with the prince. But what really had power for you in your saga, where the real love was—was in saving your father’s life and fighting for the transformation of all the beings in the castle. The HEA is nice sounding, but it doesn’t have any power, any juice, or as you think of it, any drama. Once the struggle was over, you were bored in short order. Even though your mind is fighting me on this, you know it’s true, and you know that you are the one who pulled me here. You are the one who is ready to go on a new journey.”
I know what she’s saying is true, but the idea of leaving my prince feels bad. I mean, we just got started, and I don’t want to hurt his feelings. She said he will find someone new—and sooner than I’d like, frankly—and that this new woman will be more appropriate for him anyway. He needs to stabilize in this new way of loving, and even though he loves me, it’s harder with me around because my energy is so strong and transformative.
So here I am. Ready to set out on a new journey on the shortest day of the year. Most people think I am crazy to leave the castle with this lady, because for them it would be crazy! But I’m different. I’ve always known it, and everyone else has too (they even used to sing about it). What makes me tick is experiences in light, not the regular experiences that work for most people. So through everyone’s tears and protests, I’m setting out with her. The morning is cold, but I feel bright and sharp, and golden warm being next to my teacher.
Enlightenment Fan Fiction 