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She'd found the strange world while Jacob was still asleep.

To be fair, Belle was only half alert herself and had truly intended to go from bed to the bathroom to splash water on her face and rouse herself enough to manage through her morning routine until she could have a cup of coffee and truly wake up, but she managed one step through the door before she had to curl her toes and realize that these were not the porcelain bathroom tiles she'd been expecting.

No, instead, it was a gritty type of sand and the temperature around her seemed to bake and boil, as if it wanted to bake her into the earth like the red clay all around her. Wondrously, Belle forgot about the room (though she had the sense to drag a rock to the door and prop it open), and wandered forward to see what she could find.

It was incredible.

She vaguely remembered the island being like this, for a time, but this seemed to go on forever with no borders, not like it had before. Belle dug into the pockets of her cotton pajamas and found a little coin she'd tucked in there (for the coffee she'd been intending to get), and with it she paid for a set of clothes that looked better in this place.

And once that was done, she went to the row of horses, unable to keep herself from such beauties. "Let's see how long it takes Jacob to join us, hmm," she sings to the horse melodically, stroking his flank.

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From:

quileutejacob

The scariest thing in the world to Jacob was waking up without Belle there but it didn't take long to realize that the propped-open door that led to a red desert was probably where she'd headed. He just wished that occasionally his wife would remember to leave a note.

He got dressed and went through, wandering around until he found Belle standing near a row of horses. "Getting an early start on the exploring, Belle? Too early for me."

From:

She bites down on her lower lip as apology bursts forth in the expression on her face, warring with excitement as she leans forward to grasp at his hand with both of hers, tugging him towards the horse with a giddy look on her face. "Look at this," she says, dragging him past the horse and pointing to the endless roads and the mountains. "I think we can actually go out there and explore. Imagine if there was no limit? Think of it, it's like a vacation! We could spend weeks here, doing whatever we liked."

From:

quileutejacob

"I always liked camping," Jacob conceded. "But remind me to take you through the door to La Push where it's cool and there's trees instead of a desert." The desert had some beauty to it but it was different than the beauty he was used to. Tall redwoods were replaced with formidable mountains and the ground was hard and dry. Still, it was beautiful in its own way.

"Think we should saddle up and ride out?"

From:

She's nodding before he's even done talking, eager to head out into the wilderness and to explore everything around them without thinking that there will be restrictions. "We can go to your home after this," she barters, because it's nice to stay at the hotel, but she wouldn't mind a little time around the people who Jacob holds dearest. "It'd be nice to see your family."

From:

quileutejacob

"Not much of it left," he admitted. "You've seen the majority of it between Leah and Bella but there's my dad and my sisters to meet if you want. My sisters are...we're not close. I love them, I guess, but there's a big age difference and I just don't know how to relate to them most of the time."

From:

Belle wraps her arm around Jacob's as they walk, getting close and comfortable. "Well, I'd like to meet them," she insists, because she wants to know everything about his life whether it's good or bad or anywhere in between. She doesn't like to think that it should be anything else. "At some point, when you're ready for it, I'd like you to come to the village and properly meet Papa when he's not just a figment in my mind."

From:

quileutejacob

"I really want that," Jacob said. He always wanted to meet Belle's father and assure him that he would always take care of her to the best of his ability, no matter what.

"I like that we have the option to go back and forth."

From:

"I do, too," Belle agrees, because she'd felt like she was missing things for so long. Now, though, she does have to wonder whether things have the potential to go somewhat sideways because going home means there's a castle and that means there's her friends. And there's also the Beast and Belle has yet to lose her fondness for him. "Come on," she says, trying to pull her mind off it. "How far should we go before nightfall? We'll need supplies, probably, I doubt we'll hit a town."

From:

quileutejacob

"I can probably shift and hunt something," Jacob said, "But we would still need to be able to build a fire and find some kind of shelter. The desert doesn't really help you much with that unless we opt for a cave. Maybe we can just go a little farther and then turn back for the door? We could always come back after we go raid a camping supply store in some other door."

That was the beauty of traveling between the doors. You could find just about anything you needed if you kept looking.

From:

"I wouldn't mind exploring on horseback until the sun sets," Belle admits, thinking about the resources they'd need to stay a bit longer. She thinks it's absolutely possible, but Jacob's right in that it needs a bit more planning. "Maybe we could take the horses out and then next time we come, we'll plan to make camp and stay for later."

From:

quileutejacob

"Works for me. We can at least scout where we might want to stay," he said. The rocks were all different colors, mostly red, and Jacob hadn't realized the desert could be something beautiful. Different than the forests he was used to, sure, but beautiful.

From:

Her gaze turns to the landscape around her, which is so much more fantastic than the things she'd found in her books. The sight she gives is soft and delighted and she can't help a flush of her cheeks. "I suppose I never dreamt we'd ever see places like this. You know I dreamed of seeing the world, but I thought we'd get the island and I thought that, well, so long as I have Jacob, that's okay."

"I'm still a little surprised I get both."

From:

quileutejacob

"I want to see the world with you," Jacob said softly, watching her. It was easy to see that Belle was absolutely delighted to be exploring some new world and it was something he would never be able to give her on the island. But here in the hotel? He could give it to her.

"I want to make you happy, Belle. That's all I want."

From:

"You already do," she replies, as though the mere concept of him not doing that already was foreign to her. "I suppose then our lives have to change, though. We got so used to living them on the island and that's not our boundaries anymore. We can do more, be more." The trouble is that after so long of living one way, she's not entirely sure how to change that without shifting her mindset completely and that takes some time.

From:

quileutejacob

"It's definitely going to be an adjustment to realize I can do more than just live in one place," Jacob agreed. "Now, we can go home or go to another world or...yeah. There's just more options and I've got to get used to that."

From:

"I think we might need to figure out some ground rules about...well, everything," she admits, settling into the saddle of the horse. "Like, where do we live?" she suggests, because it seems like they could go anywhere. "And what about the people in our lives who were very, very important to us, once." She means the Beast for her, but she knows there could be others for Jacob that aren't Bella.

From:

quileutejacob

"I don't have anyone anymore," Jacob said. "There's Leah and Bella and that's about it. I don't have a lot of family to speak of back home." That made him wonder about Belle, though, and if there was something she wanted to share with him on that front.

"What about you?"

From:

"No parents?" she asks, a worried look on her face. Maybe in all her thoughts, she'd always though there would be parents to impress. "Well, there's my Papa, obviously, and the village, though their opinions don't matter so much to me. I suppose it's complicated now that the castle is open and I know the Beast is there. I love you and I would never leave you, and I'd never want to, but I suppose a part of my heart will always love him, too."

From:

quileutejacob

That sort of made Jacob uncomfortable but he pushed it down so he could talk about something else. It wouldn't be the first time a girl he loved had loved someone else before him.

"My mom died when I was young, so. Yeah. Not a lot of family. But I'd love to meet your family."

From:

"Maybe we could stay there for a while," Belle suggests. "I'd like to spend some time in France again. I spent so long wanting to be away from the countryside that I've grown fond of it again, oddly. It's as though I miss it, only because I haven't seen it. We could go to Paris," she suggests. "Take Papa and Chip, maybe, and not have to worry about the villagers. And Gaston," she adds, wrinkling her nose.

From:

quileutejacob

Jacob didn't merely wrinkle his nose, he actually growled. He remembered what Belle told him about Gaston and he was not a fan of anyone who couldn't take a hint when a lady didn't want to be with him. He also realized this was a double standard since he'd done the exact same thing to Bella a while back but the important thing was that he'd changed.

"Yeah, no Gaston. I'd love to go to Paris with you and your family, though."

From:

Belle shouldn't be feeling like this, but she shivers when he growls like that, parts of her liking his reaction more than they probably should. "I don't know what people would make of you, as handsome as you are," she praises with a broad grin.

From:

quileutejacob

"I don't know. You live in the past," Jacob said, not really sure how to explain this to Belle, who seemed to embrace his differences with an open heart.

"But my people have always been kind of discriminated against and it was worse back in the past than it is now. I don't know if I'd exactly be...welcomed. People don't tend to like anything that's different from themselves."

From:

"I know that," Belle said, quietly. "I may not look different, but we were outcasts in our own village," she reminds him, keeping the horse's canter at an even pace. "We were called mad and insane, because Papa invented wonderful things and because I liked to read books."

"I would never stand by and let anyone make you feel the same, though," she says, devoted and firm.

From:

quileutejacob

"That's one of the things I love about you," Jacob said. It was crazy the way she could calm him down and ease his fears and he guessed that was why they'd gotten married. A partner did that.

"I think it'd be great to go to France with you. I've got to learn French, though."

From:

"I forgot about your lessons," Belle admits with a sheepish smile, colouring pink in her cheeks for the way he so easily talks about loving her. She loves that, loves him, and it never stops being a magical thing to think that she's found this sort of love. "We should start them again, to make sure you'll be able to get by and be able to go where you like. There's so much to see in Paris, from what I recall of it."

From:

quileutejacob

"I've never been much of a student but I can be motivated to learn," Jacob said, grinning at her. "Being promised breakfast in a foreign country is a pretty decent incentive for learning French, don't you think?"

He thought the French were supposed to be good at the whole food thing. They did invent French toast, right?

From:

"Maybe we should throw you in the deep end and bring you straight to France." She wouldn't leave his side, given that she could never do that, but he would certainly learn very quickly. "Plus, it would give you the benefit of learning the dialect, which is a bit different from the proper language."

From:

quileutejacob

Jacob gave her a skeptical look. "I think you probably have way too much confidence in my ability to learn another language. I mean, I love you, but I am not really into the whole book learning thing."

Then again, being thrown in meant learning hands on more than depending on a book. Maybe it would be better.

From:

"Then maybe we'll teach you the basics so you can get by and I'll take care of the rest," Belle says, given that it might be the best way to go about things. "Either way, I know we'll manage to have a good time in Paris. We'll be with each other."

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