Chapter One: Fall Is Here!

It was late in the middle of October, somewhere in France. The leaves have fallen down the trees. The last moving birds have flown away to foreign lands to seek the warmth of the hot summer and most of the inhabitants have been preparing for the harvest festival of the year.

Deep in the forest, somewhere outside the village laid an enormous castle. The gardens were shining in yellow, orange colors as fall entered. The gardener was looking over his fellow gardeners were picking the best pumpkins, apples and other goodies from the gardens to have for the big feast.

Inside the huge castle, in the room where the former Maestro Forte was, sat a young, slim man next to a table with a goose feather pen and a sheet of paper, trying to compose the next masterpiece.

He was finally Maestro now, as he wished for, but deep inside, he was feeling a bit wary about it. Maybe he couldn't be as good as Forte was. All he had heard from Forte was that he wasn't such a good musician nor a good conductor.

As much as he knew Forte was mean to him, he probably did have a point. He sighed again and put a hand to his chin as he thought even harder, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think up a single note!

Suddenly, knocking was heard. The man sat up straight in alarm, whipping his head around to the door.

"Come in!" he called.

It was Belle and Lumiere.

"Bonjour, Maestro Fife." Belle said with her gentle voice and smiled sweetly. "I just wanted to say hello."

"Hi, Belle. Hi Lumiere. Sure is a nice day, heh heh!" Fife said with his awkward voice, fiddling around with his feather pen.

"Say, mon ami, how is it going with the new masterpiece? Y'know ye have to be ready for the big concert in two weeks."

"Uh.. uh.. it's great. It's going fine. Heh heh!" Fife answered and scratched the back of his head. He was feeling anxious now, but he couldn't show it to the others. They couldn't know. Not now anyways. It had to wait, and they probably weren't interested to know either.

"That's great to hear. I'll go tell Adam. Au renoir, Fife." Belle said happily walking out of the room with Lumiere close behind.

Fife lightly closed the door after them and went back to the table to think. This was getting very frustrating! He had to come up with at least the beginning of the piece or they would probably choose someone who would make a better conductor than him.

That thought dreaded him the most. All he really wanted was to be accepted and appreciated for his talent and for the one he was and all he had ever learned was that in order to get there, one had to be a good performer at all times.

He sighed and put the pen away. The sheet was blank but it had a title written down which said:

"Fall Concert For Belle And Prince Adam"

"Maybe I can get more inspiration if I take a walk outside. That would help." Fife thought to himself. He rose up from his seat next to the table, put the chair in properly and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him as always.

He passed through the ballrooms, the corridors until he finally came to the huge ports.

He put his hand on the doorknob and walked outside. Belle was right. It certainly was a beautiful day today. The sun was shining and the crows of a raven were heard in the distance.

He strolled around the gardens, greeted the gardener as he passed by.

Chip and Sultan were playing a few meters away. Chip was laughing as he threw a ball for the fluffy dog to catch. Fife stopped in his tracks to watch them for a moment. It looked really fun. He remembered seeing a young girl when he was 12 years old who did the exact same thing as Chip did now.

He took a few steps toward the duo. He cleared his throat in order to catch their attention.

"Ahem. Hi, Chip! How.. are you doing?" Fife asked somewhat shyly. He wasn't very used to talking to anyone, so this made him feel a little awkward.

"Hi, Fife. I'm feeling great. What are you doing here?" Chip asked.

"Um… nothing special.. I'm just walking, that's all." Fife answered.

"Hey, wanna try throwing this ball for Sultan? It's fun!" Chip said, beaming with joy.

"Eheheh. Sure, why not?" the young man replied, gingerly picking up the ball and threw it away as far as he could.

Unfortunately, it landed right in a pumpkin patch and the dog ran over a few pumpkins in the process when he tried to fetch the ball.

Fife swallowed nervously. This was already getting awkward.

He was maybe lost in thought for about thirty seconds, but it was enough for the dog to surprise him.

In a matter of three seconds, Fife fell over and landed straight in a huge pumpkin.

The laughter echoed everywhere. The only few persons who didn't laugh was Sultan and the main master of the gardeners.

This was too much for the young conductor. Without further ado, he ran away. Away from the laughing crowd. Away from the embarrassment.

When he again found himself inside the thick, comforting walls of the castle, he regained the peace yet again. While it indeed was fun to play fetch and take strolls, it was too embarrassing to fail.

Failure has always been a hard pill to swallow. It hit hard, but nowhere as hard as when Forte mocked him and chided him for his incapable nature. For him, he would always be the fool while Forte himself was the "master" as he put it so specifically.

He wanted to be as good as Forte, if not better. But he didn't want to be as mean as he was. He didn't want to cause more trouble than he had already done.

He sighed and leaned against the wall.

Just then, Belle passed by the corner. She stopped in her tracks when she saw how dirty Fife's clothes and hair were. He looked like a mess.

"Fife, what happened?" Belle asked in a concerned voice, worried that someone had messed around with him.

"Uh..uh…" Fife struggled to say something, but blushed furiously. He lost his speech for a few seconds but said:

"I saw Chip playing fetch with Sultan and he let me try too…. And I messed up. I threw it too far and I guess I got scared by the dog… and I fell on a pumpkin…."

"I see. It wasn't your fault. Accidents happen." Belle said softly, looking at him sympathetically.

Fife blushed again. Belle was always so pretty and sweet.

"But… I..uh.. I feel fine, really." he mumbled in a bashful tone. "I guess I have to work on my music piece, though."

"I think you should have a moment to rest." Belle replied softly. "You need to save your strength for tonight. I know you work very hard, but please don't overdo it."

"As you wish, Belle." the conductor said, bowing his head respectfully.

If Belle or the prince asked him to do something. He obliged immediately. He couldn't argue there. And he did want to obey Belle's orders as she cared for her people in the castle and their wellbeing.

He quietly made his way back to his room. He gently closed the door behind him.

When he went to bed, he put on his nightshirt and shifted the curtains, so it was darker inside the room. It helped him sleep better whenever he needed to take a nap.

As he laid down in bed, he couldn't stop thinking of the concert he was about to write. But he mostly thought about what Angelique would think. Secretly, the concert was dedicated to her as a way of saying thank you for introducing him to the others and that he was given a second chance to redeem himself.

He needed to do this perfectly. He had to.

With these thoughts in his head, he slowly but surely drifted off to sleep.

At the same time in another part of the castle….

Angelique was quietly humming in a cheerful tune as she prepared the decorations for the harvest festival. It was one of the greatest times for decorating, next to Christmas and Easter. But for a professional like her, it was no match no matter the season nor the time of year. She was confident in what she was doing and she wanted to make out the best of the celebrations.

She couldn't help but wonder what Fife was doing right now. He was probably busy composing the new concert that was going to be his next greatest masterpiece.

She did like him though, despite the history he had with Forte, she could forgive him. She knew what it was like to be forgotten and ignored for several years.

She picked up an orange ribbon and put it on a table next to the vase. It was perfect.

"You've done very well, Mrs Angelique." a shy voice said.

Angelique turned around and saw a tiny little girl who stood next to her.

"Why thank you, young lady. It's what I do." she answered in her confident manner.

The girl giggled. She looked to be like 4 or 5 years old, and she seemed to be younger than Chip. She was an orphan who Belle had taken into the castle after she was found near the Black Woods.

"Now, if you excuse me, I have got work to do. Now, go now." Angelique said gently but firmly.

The girl obeyed immediately. Angelique seemed to be very tough, so it was best not to argue with her.

As she continued to work, almost all the staff in the castle were working eagerly on the preparations for the festival.

Belle beamed with pride as she saw them work. It was so fun to see and she had even participated in doing some preparations herself.

She always wanted to help her friends and be there for them.

She was strolling around the castle. She went to the library and picked up a story book. She was going to use it to teach the orphan girl how to read. She needed someone to help her.

But was the little girl going to be used to the way they lived in the castle? And how did she get into the Black Forest to begin with? Where did she come from?

Questions came up, but could they be answered? And who could answer them?