He shakes his head, growling under his breath.

"What? It would solve the problem here, wouldn't it? And then marriages would never fail and friends would never have to fall out and everyone could love everyone else, I think that would be a much happier world."

"Do you love everyone you've ever met?" he asks, still growling a little.

"I try! I'm very friendly."

"I can tell," he snorts.

"Aww, I'm sorry if I upset you. It's not possible after all anyway, right? So it doesn't matter." Pet pet pet scritch scritch hopeful smile.

He rolls his eyes and lays his head in her lap again.

"How long've you been stuck here? Are me and Belle the only people who've found you? You must've been so lonesome."

"I was," he says. "For a hundred and fifty years."

"Oh, oh you poor thing," and he gets a hug.

Pet pet pet. "What do you want to do when you get out?"

"I don't know," he says. "Leave this forest, I think, for a while. Beyond that..." He shrugs.

"If it's me - and really I don't think she looks as interested as you said, diving straight for the books when there was a lonely person who needed affection, but maybe I'm wrong, so if - if it's me I could introduce you to all my friends - does the cat thing go away when the curse breaks? It must, mustn't it. That's almost a pity with you so soft." She idly rubs his belly like he really is just a giant cat.

"Oh, there are a lot of them - I was in the forest with some of my oldest friends visiting from Albion, I lived there until I was twelve and they aren't so far away that I can never see them. I'm the only bilingual one in the party, I hope they aren't unable to find any help, I hope they aren't lost for too long," she says. "But I make friends with everyone I can, so the only thing they've all got in common is that they're willing to make friends."

"Why did you leave, when you were twelve?"

"For Father's work," says Chelise. "He does -" She waves vaguely. "Something to do with ships, and needed to live here. Well, not here, but in Lutetia."

"And so what brought you and your friends into the Witchwood?"

"Well, my brother moved to L'arbe, and when my friends came to visit some of them wanted to see him too, so we all went, and L'arbe is just on the edge of the wood, and - and I don't live around here, I didn't know it would catch fire or that it would turn us around so, we thought we might find berries or something, my brother didn't warn us," sighs Chelise.

"It does not usually catch fire," offers the Beast.

"I hope my friends are okay," sighs Chelise.

"Why does the curse turn most everyone away from the castle so that you were alone for so long? Wouldn't it be easier to find someone to fall in love with if there were many choices?" asks Chelise.

"I don't think many people could fall in love with me at all," he says. "I think the curse only shows me those who can."