Chapter 7 - Speaking His Mind

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 "Can you believe the nerve of that guy!?" Asher ranted as he paced back and forth in Theo's room. "He actually told me to sleep in the stables. The stables! It's not like I deserve a cot at least. Noooo, let's make the hardworking servant sleep with the horses!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean it." Theo sat on her bed, watching the angry man as he puffed his chest angrily. "If you want, you can use my bed?"

Asher paused, glancing at the soft quilts and goose down pillows. For a split second he seriously considered accepting her offer, then shook that thought from his mind knowing how inappropriate that would be. "I can't. It's your room. You don't need to give up your bed for me."

Theo sucked in her lip and shrugged. "What if we shared?"

The servant let out something between a snort and a chuckle. "As if that would happen. Do you know how bad that would look?"

"Why don't you see how soft the bed is before you decide?"

The servant once again paused in consideration. The bed certainly did look much softer than anything that he'd ever slept on. He was curious about how fluffy those pillows were too. Eventually his curiosity got the better of him and he slunk up to the side of the bed and slowly sat, quickly sinking into the layers of quilts.

Amazed by the softness, he turned and started stroking the silk cloth wondrously. "It is rather comfortable, isn't it?" 

"Indeed." Theo nodded, leaning in close to the distracted man.

Suddenly the servant leapt to his feet, causing the woman to lose her balance and faceplant the bed right where he had been sitting. "This is ridiculous. This castle is huge!" Asher barked, returning to his tantrum. "There are plenty of rooms, so sharing shouldn't be necessary! I'm going to find my own room and that's that!"

Spinning on his heel, the servant exited, leaving a frustrated Theo behind as he trudged down the halls.

Due to the sheer size of each room, he had quite a distance to walk as he poked his head in to see what lay beyond. Each guest room looked like it held some sort of theme. One room was full of crystals, with glass statuettes adorning a white stone fireplace and two sparkling chandeliers hanging above. Another room was full of red tapestries and rugs.

Both of these felt too regal for his taste, so he continued looking, feeling as though he were house shopping since each room was roughly the size of his grandparents' live-in bakery.

He eventually stumbled upon a room full of mounted animals with a moose head hung above a mantle, a bearskin rug on the floor, and various dear antlers decorating the walls. The blankets on the bed were actually layers of furs and the wallpaper was decorated with wood print.

It reminded him a little too much of the tavern where Cas and his gang liked to hang out, so he backed out and prepared to hunt down another room before hearing a frustrated noise from a few doors down. Curious, he followed it thinking that it couldn't be anything too dangerous considering who lived here.

The closer he got, the more certain he became that it was the beast and eventually he began to identify individual grunts that closely resembled swear words.

He came to a large door, larger than the other guest rooms, and put his ear to the wood where he could clearly hear a string of curses whispered angrily. There was also the sound of something scraping across the floor and things getting ripped up, so he concluded that the creature was destroying the furniture again.

Irritation had the servant banging on the door with all his might.

What reason did that beast have to be so irritated? Asher was the one who was told to sleep in the stables! The Prince was the one who had been rude and stormed off without any proper words with Theo. What right did he have to be annoyed right now?

There was silence, which Asher quickly broke by knocking on the door again only for it to fly open, catching the servant by surprise as he stopped himself from punching the monster in his chest.

He was wearing something new now, but it was not much better than his previous outfit as it was tattered even worse than before.

The creature glared. "What do you think you're doing?"

An angry Asher wagged a finger in the beast's face, ready to give him a peace of his mind as he slipped passed the seven foot tall, cloven hooved creature and continued his rant from earlier. It was like all his frustration bubbled up as soon as he saw the monster's face. "What am I doing? Well in case you didn't notice, I'm doing everything!" He turned and pinned the beast with an annoyed glare of his own.

"Do you know how hard it is to convince women to follow a virtual stranger into the woods, to meet another stranger who may or may not be the Prince? Especially when the Prince looks like...YOU!" He gestured. "Yet you dare to treat me like I'm a nuisance and treat every girl I've brought with less decorum than a pig in a suit?"

The Prince's nose wrinkled. "A servant should know his place!"

"You're right, and it seems that place may very well be with a different master, because this one is rude as hell!" Asher scoffed, then regretted his words as fear of getting fired immediately followed.

It wasn't like he had any other job offers from rich princes to fall back on. Why did he say that?

Luckily the beast seemed less angry and more shocked by the servant's words as he furrowed his brow and said, "You wouldn't leave. No one would turn down a job at my castle."

Shocked but unwilling to show it, Asher tried to play it cool and did his best to react calmly. "And what if they did? Who would want to work for someone that treats them like a pest? I've had plenty of jobs before this one, and not a single one of those bosses treated me half as bad as you. Even the priest that got me scorned from the village had treated me better!"

The Prince stared, thinking over his response and it was at this point that Asher realized how ridiculous the two looked.

He was short by most standards and yet here he was backtalking a creature that looked like it had walked straight out of the gates of hell.

He refused to back down though, because it looked like he was getting somewhere as the creature's shoulders slumped and he turned away, muttering something.

"What?"

"...Sorry."

Asher's eyes grew wide as he heard a word he never thought would be uttered by the arrogant creature. He almost asked him to repeat it but was interrupted as the monster continued.

"I don't...I never had to deal with servants directly before."

The Prince's tone was low, but not dangerously low. More like an ashamed tone, as though he were unwilling to admit those words.

"Servants are people, your majesty. We may not need to be treated like royalty, but treating us like human beings would be a good start."

The beast's frown deepened as he began to walk towards one of the windows where the blizzard whipped hazardously outside. Asher waited and when he didn't say anything, he decided to continue the conversation.

"What were you even doing in here anyways? Why are you always tearing things up when I find you?"

The beast flexed his claws thoughtfully. "How would you feel if you were suddenly turned into a beast like this? Into something everyone feared and then trapped all alone in your home?"

Asher thought about it. "I'd probably enjoy it to be honest." He started to pace the room, finally taking in the decorations and having a miniature heart attack when he realized he had stormed in on the Prince's personal bedroom.

There were two fireplaces in here. One on either end of the room which was large enough to be a ballroom. There were lavish rugs on the floor, with marble statues of demons all about and gargoyle busts. The wood on the four poster bed was almost black, with blood red curtains shrouding the mattress.

A few paintings adorned the walls. One had the King and Queen, another had a bright eyed boy smiling happily with a puppy in his hands. Asher assumed it was the Prince from when he was younger.

The beast grunted. "Of course you wouldn't understand."

"Really?" Asher returned his attention to the Prince. "I've lived my life virtually invisible. My room doubles as a storage closet and almost every night I have to move the brooms and mops out of the way so I can lay down. The fanciest thing I've eaten was moldy cheese and all anyone has to say to me is...Well....Nothing. Honestly living all alone wouldn't be much different. Though...I may miss my grandparents from time to time." He turned towards the creature who was now watching him from the corner. "Yet here you are in a castle that lights its own fires and creates its own food. Or so you say." He muttered, realizing he hadn't actually seen that bit yet. "You complain that you're all alone, then drive away anyone who comes near you. Make up your mind already!"

The beast began stomping up to him, mouth open and prepared to spew some form of threat, but when he was right in Asher's face, he failed to utter a single word and ultimately chose to glare some more.

"What are you even doing anyways?" The servant asked. "You changed your clothes just to tear them apart?"

The creature glanced down at himself, then blushed. Or at least it looked like a blush. After a moment he raised a clawed hand. "You try dressing yourself when you have these for hands."

Asher tilted his head. "But you were able to get dressed before with no problem."

"Yes, and this also remained in one piece before I tried to adjust the damn collar."

"You...You tore your clothes up trying to adjust them?"

"What of it? It's not like being a monster is easy!" The creature stormed over to the nearest fireplace. "Yes, the castle provides every thing I need, but when I have to use anything, be it books or utensils, it's impossible!"

Asher's mind started speculating on a number of other things he could be having problems with. Those claws did not look easy to navigate. What if he got an itchy nose? He'd most likely lop it off by accident.

Suddenly he was feeling more sympathetic, but not enough to sleep in the stables as he puffed out his chest. "Well, that does sound rough, but you still have a servant to assist with things like that you know."

"I thought you said you'd prefer another master?"

"Depends. Are you going to stop being an ass?" Asher's heart was pounding from tossing a swear word at the creature. Showing such disrespect to a noble would normally get him beheaded, but he had already said it so now all he could do was pray he hadn't overstepped his bounds.

The Prince audibly inhaled, but then he seemed to give in and nodded. "Fine. You're right. I'll stop."

It seemed like a half baked agreement. The guy was most likely going to go back to his usual attitude once the spell was broken and he no longer had to rely on a single servant. That was fine with Asher though as he stepped closer and reached up.

The beast jerked back. "What are you doing?"

Asher paused. "I'm adjusting your collar. Isn't that what you wanted done in the first place?"

The creature didn't say anything and lowered its claws, allowing the servant to do just as he planned. Unfortunately the tattered clothes still looked god awful in their current state, but at least the collar was straight.

"So...Don't the clothes repair themselves too?" Asher asked.

"Only when I'm not wearing them."

"Ah. Yes, that is frustrating." He backed away. "Well, if you need help adjusting your collar or holding a book, just let me know. I'll be down the hall because I'm picking a decent room whether you like it or not."

Quickly he scurried out before the monster could react to his sudden declaration.

Honestly, what had gotten into him? Asher did have a tendency to backtalk, which was how he lost so many of his prior jobs, but why couldn't he control himself in front of the damn Prince?

He'd be lucky if he still had this job come morning. 

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