Beauty and the Beast

Escape

Three days passed, and the imprisoned girl had spent most of her time in the room, planning ways to escaped. She had hoped that her father would have been back by now with soldiers, but if had gotten lost again, Tara would have to do her own escaping, and it would be that very evening that she would do it!

Herre Tekappe had told her that the wardrobe in her room was filled with women's clothes, cleaned and pressed. Tara wondered who they could have possibly belonged to; maybe the Beast had kidnapped other young damsels before. One cream colored skirt and a silk white blouse caught her eye. It was elegant but not flashy. Just perfect. Tara would have to look her very best if she wanted this plan to work. As the brown skinned villager hurriedly dressed, she suddenly realized something. That winter morning was her 2oth birthday.  This was the day that she should have been spending with her father, going for a nice carriage ride through the snow, not cooped up in some forgotten old castle. Tara took a deep breath and shook the sad thoughts away. No matter. She would have to celebrate some other time. Taking one more look in the mirror, fixing her plaited braids and slipping on her boots, the beautiful villager headed down the winding corridor to the one place that she knew the Beast would most likely be; the study. There were several studies in the castle, as the kind Ms. Tekappe had told her, but his favorite one was the one upstairs near the west wing.

Once she had arrived to the secluded room, the young woman's hand hovered over the doorknob for a moment, hesitantly; maybe he wasn't even in there. Maybe he was still in bed, or downstairs in the kitchen; come to think of it she hadn't seen or heard any signs of him since that day they'd met. As she leaned on the door, listening, all of the sudden it was pulled back, causing Tara to fall clumsily unto the tassled rug.

"Can I help you?" Loki asked, politely, a look of slight amusement on his face. Tara's face stung with embarrassment as she scrambled to stand upright, smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt. So much for charming him! She thought. 

"Um, I just came to borrow some more firewood. I've used all the stock in my room, and it's really cold in there. May I?"

"Help yourself." The tall, blue skinned man closed the door behind her, and picked up the book he had been reading in his Victorian armchair. As he sat,  Tara stood silently watching him. She leaned in closely, peering at him from one side, then she moved to his left, as if she were examining a patient. Loki did his best to ignore her, but finally, he look up to glare into her questioning brown eyes.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, his voice sounding more curious than angry.

"That's strange."

"What?"

"I don't see any fangs," the pretty girl declared, "in all the stories, frost giants have these long, gnarled teeth, but yours look perfectly normal. And your nails aren't curled or mangled either."

The raven haired frost giant scoffed, rolling his eyes.  "Don't believe everything you read," he murmured, turning back to his book.

"What are you reading?" Tara peered over the prince's shoulder to see the page of poetry that he was perusing.  "A book of Shakespearean poetry? I never would have figured you to be the poetic type."

The blue skinned man smirked. "I'd have you know that I've studied all of Shakespeare's most famous works."

"Really?" the pretty villager challenged, a glint of mischief in her deep brown eyes, "Then, you wouldn't mind a little wager then?" 

Loki closed the book, leaning forward with interest. "What kind of wager?"

"Well," she began, "if you've studied Shakespeare, then you should have all of his sonnets memorized, right? So here's the deal, I pick one of them from your book, completely at random, and you have to recite it verbatim, with no mistakes. However, if you skip or forget so much a s a single verse, then......." Tara paced, thinking. "Then you have to give me a personal tour of the castle."