The Beauty in the Beast

“Sire...She tried to take a powder...bit the necks of two of our men and massacred half of the ship!” Her body was forced to her knees, a steady and forceful hand keeping her put as her eyes were slow to rise to the man in power of all others on this land; his reputation holding horrific details of ends met at his homicidal fingertips. But as she looked to him, emerging from the shadow of a stygian throne outlined in pure silver, she would find him to look at her with the same astonishment returned to him. He was not a man of wicked appearance or unkind malice worn on lips plagued with leprosy. He was actually horribly striking with imposing emerald eyes balancing somewhere between emerald and icy cerulean yet wore hair as black as the night surrounding them, while the curve of his sharp features had kept his piqued interest in her direction. “She is of no threat and you have all wasted my time...she is nothing but a...a woman.” His eyes would flicker to her state of disarray; finding an intrigue in this disheveled beauty as she held an allure that was unrivaled to what he had come to note before-as those he would call to his own bed were women of made up of attraction embellished by powders and pastes; yet she needed only those blazing eyes to take his interest. “We would agree under most circumstances, my Lord…” Another knight spoke as he moved from beside her back, showcasing a wound forced to be endured by the sign of her bite left in his skin. “However, she is not a simple chit...she is one forsaken by the sun and cursed by the full moon-” The King, a man of wavering morality held beneath his sable crown would now approach her, using his eyes alone to learn the details of her physique, finding nothing incriminating to vouch for his claim. Just as she had heard fables of him, of the accusation made of her character, he had ascertained some in regard to her. “It is not possible! They were all killed thousands of moons ago...and if not-” “I saw her mutation myself, m’lord!” A third knight spoke. “Before we managed to catch her, she became the beast and...I saw many good men die at the end of her teeth-” The king would now take his cold fingers to her jaw, where dried blood now sat as evidence of this profession as she would not break her eyes from this man. “If what you say is true...Then what am I to do with her?” The men looked at each other with astonishment. “Try her...Execute her...She has taken lives of your best men-” “If they were my ‘best’ they would be HERE...Instead, they failed. I am not convinced of your...tales of this…’chit’...however...time will tell…” The king now looked to the mark left by her teeth. “Until you find a transition of your own or I have grown tired of her...I will keep her-” “You will not sentence her?!” “Have I spoken in reverse? Has my dialect been affected in the presence of such stupidity?” The men silenced around the royal without so much as a sharp inhale or pattering pulse having been heard in the silent space. “If she is to be my pet, I suppose she HAS a name?” A hand would make its way to the back of her head by one of the knights. “Give the Lord your name, girl!” “I know of only one Lord and you are certainly not him.” The King would smile to her objection of acquiescence as the same knight who struck her the first time moved to do it once more. The monarch would capture the hand of this abusive banneret. “Leave us.” He ordered, his eyes remaining on this fragile young woman who held words as wicked as his past transgressions now echoing back to him at her mere presence; as if God himself, or even the devil, had sent such a hellfire to him. He had yet to be rivaled by a single woman in his entire twenty five years due to the sole purpose of fear-but she was no stranger to death as she knew it in place of love in her adolescence, knowing the call of loss as her hymn to existence. “I could have your tongue removed for speaking against me.” “I am well aware of your methods.” “And it does not frighten you?” But as he would walk around her, taking in the details of her stained clothing but also the quickening rise of her racing heartbeat betraying her attempts to remain intact with her noble strength. “Everyone is to meet an end. If it is at your hand or that of a guillotine, it makes no note of a difference.” “Then why is it you fled if you believe this way?” “Even if I know my end is imminent, it does not mean I wish for it.” “Is this for family? A man to obey? A child you bore? A village you were torn from and long to return?” At the mention of such things, she would need to repress tears as she refused to allow him to witness such weakness. “I have naught.” “Yet without a husband, a child-much a purpose, you exist as a conflagration; a feminine enigma. Yet if you value your life uncut as you claim...prove this existence of a cursed moon to me. For as you have heard of me, I have marveled in the legend of you…” Yet she would not speak, she would keep her eyes to the stone floor at her knees, remaining in place long enough to see the dried blood before her. “I will spare your life…” His fingers now took hold of her hair, gliding his fingers over her darkened locks until he circled her fully once again. “If you prove trustworthy, I may even allow you a purpose all your own with the safety of my men...possibly even my chambers if you-” Without the weight of the guard’s fingers on her shoulders and with her eyes having assessed the scene as he was focused on ‘assessing’ her, she moved to her feet rather quickly and towards the door. It opened immediately to her force as she would stumble down the steps of cracked stone and kiss the ground of dirt of grass now a victim to her weight. “After her!” He would order at her back as she would bring her eyes forward, unaware of how each pair of gazes set throughout this courtyard were brought to her; merchants, castle residents, and even the king’s personal concubine, she cared only for an escape. But each wall would prove impenetrable as she was cornered once more. As her hands came to the cold rock beneath her fingertips, the nails holding embedded dirt would grow into claws and her eyes would flash in a blazed orange complimented by the natural pigment of her mocha gaze to appear more glistening in rival to the moon. The knights who happened to bring her to this corner came to regret their decision as her lips parted from a growth of teeth still wearing the blood of lives of those they once knew now shown to them in this crimson smear. However, there was a figure within the crowd who saw that even if she were to manage to abscond successfully, it would only be a matter of time until she would be found once again as this isle was not for those without knowledge of its predators in the form of man, beast, and monsters that were nameless but equally as dangerous as her form if made full. She would bring her fingers to a whistle set around her neck, forcing the men at their knees to the sound while the powder of a violet flower would bring her into a state of incapacitation while residual wolfsbane would embed itself into her dress. The woman whose fingers now wore blood from the growth of her nails would awaken with a wall of cold iron bars as her new residence. Straw used by previous inhabitants was left flattened and broken as she would have only a beam of light in an otherwise pitch black space cursing her to a darkness she was abandoned within. Within moments of her eyes coming open to adjust to her surroundings however would come the echo of steps that rose her to the soles of her own as she found a second set of shackles now keeping her feet from racing into taking flight once again. “I suppose you have proven this state of legend true, haven’t you...pup?” This name he had given her was one that left him with a smirk made of his full lips as her eyes sharpened to him in hatred. “It is for that reason you will not find your death tonight unless it is at the action of your own hand-and that would be deeply ill advised since you are the last of your kind...an ancient bloodline should be nurtured and adored not ceased…” “Whatever it is you wish from me, I will not give it-” He smiled widely. “There is nothing you can give me...however...your life is quite valuable to others; more in honesty-your death. You are more precious than rubies and more sought after than treasure itself...which is why you shall rest now for tomorrow you shall fight for your life-” She would spit in his direction, leaving her saliva a splotch on his cheek as he would wipe her away with two fingers before moving slowly to the bars. “You should be thankful, you ungrateful girl! I have shown you mercy-” “Mercy?! Mercy would have been to kill me...something you will come to regret, I vow it.” “We shall see...pup-” “I am not some helpless ‘pup’-I am a wolf, I assure you. Continue to provoke me, you asinine dolt, and it is something you will come to know first hand.” She would speak against him, her fingers wrapping around the frigid chill of the metal as he contested her on the free side of the bars. “I sure hope you try...for you go to the highest bidder by the rise of the moonlight...and they will not be as kind as I have been. Bask in your confines now for you are subjected to whatever they please, pet...It is quite a shame, too...I had such wicked plans for us.” She shuddered at his words as his eyes would glaze to her lips for just a moment before she would be left in the darkness, just the same as so many events prior to now; only now, this would prove to be her last night if his words would reign true.