Flowers for a Grimm

The Beast Within

“Are you in trouble with the Queen again?” Corporal Cyan Blue asked as he looked back at his visitor. He was trying to make a joke, but apparently his quest was not in the laughing mood.

Asher Charming merely glared at the man. “We don’t get many visitors this far west.” Blue shifted his gaze back to where he was going.

He checked all of the boarded windows as he went. They were expecting a blizzard to blow in from the west and it was always best to be prepared before it happened. Cyan grunted as he tried to work the locking mechanism on one of the murder windows. The thing was rusted in place and more than likely hadn’t been engaged in years. “Blast weather witches,” Cyan grumbled. Always trying to do something fancy. 

Asher sighed. He slapped the man’s clumsy hands away from the window. With a twist of his hands he engaged the lock and secured the window.

“Yes well I did help.” Cyan pointed out before turning back to his escort duties. Asher didn’t bother hiding his snort of disdain. 

The corporal had been taken completely by surprise at the troop of knights that had woken him up at the first rays of the sun. Cyan was not an early riser, much to the horror of his wife who thought that all good deeds were best done before the sun rose. Since he had taken over the tenure of the Western Tower he hadn’t seen another soul. Well he had seen his share of trolls and the other border patrol guards, but that was it. That had been nearly 3 years ago. He only had one more year left on his tour and that was close to his retirement. So it was good news all around. 

Though this inspection had him spooked. The Queen was not a forgiving woman and if he were found lacking in his performance there was no telling what evil she would call down on him. 

Knight Charming unnerved him. His father had been Little Boy Blue when Asher was cursed. Cyan had grown up hearing the stories. Everyone had, but to be standing within striking distance of the man was another thing. He wasn’t sure if he should be scared or bow down and beg for forgiveness.   

“How many breaches have there been in the last three months?” Asher asked looking over the lip of the battlement.

Cyan scratched at his beard. He was sure there was some gravy lodged in there. It was always a pain getting it out. “At least twenty. We don’t usually have that many over here in the west but lately they’ve gotten bolder.” He scratched at his beard some more. “Got a raven from the eastern tower about three months ago about a troll breech. Something’s got them all riled up. Can’t figure out what that is.” It was the most Cyan had spoken.

“We left the eastern tower four months ago.” Asher was sore that he had missed some action. 

Asher looked back at the man. If it were up to him he would have retired him ten years ago, but the queen didn’t ask him about her hiring practices.

The news Blue delivered was surprising. Asher was finishing up his tour of the Glass Mountain towers and the West Tower was his last and the news he had picked up from all of them was that troll attacks were on the rise. That was never a good thing, and it was making Asher’s job a lot harder. He hated being up in the Mountains. It made his skin itch.  

The Glass Mountains were not a hospitable place for anyone. The jagged perks were treacherous to navigate through for the most seasoned of mountaineers, but top that with freezing wind, slick snow and thunder crows to took something difficult and made it near impossible. That’s why tours on the towers were four years. No one wanted to make that trek up and down the mountains several times. 

For Asher it was torture trying to keep his dual nature at bay. Wolves loved the freedom to the Glass Mountains offered and his beast was rearing to burst out of his skin and run under the pale of the moon.  

The chilled night turned to a frosty day as the entire mountain range was illuminated. Blue could clearly see the look of shock on the troll’s face. Blue took the momentary distraction to drive the hilt of his sword deep into the monster’s belly. The troll grunted once and fell over as the light faded. 

“Blue run for it!” Blue looked up as one of the privates came pounding across the clearing towards him. The man looked terrified and he wasn’t the only one running. Every solider was hauling tail like their lives were going to get shortchanged if they didn’t break the land speed record. The private grabbed Blue around the collar and snatched him up. “Move damn you!” Spittle flew from the man’s mouth as she half dragged half pushed Blue out in front of him. 

“What’s the matter!” He got his answer in the form our a ear shattering howl that caused the very trees to shrink in on themselves. 

Blue glanced back and almost lost his will to live. The remaining trolls were being scattered to the wind by what Blue could only describe later to his wife as a hound forged in the pits of hell itself.  

The beast’s coat was so dark Blue was sure it inspired the color black. Darkness warped around the thing as it made short work of the trolls. Green blood splattered the snow and rock like gruesome confetti. 

Blue recovered from his shock quickly and took off after the retreating privates. If they were running from that thing he was following them. He didn’t need to be told twice that the beast didn’t distinguish between friend ad foe when the dinner bell rang.

He was six months from retirement. He didn’t need to aggravation. Surprisingly the fear of ending up as heartburn for a monster got him back to the lookout tower in one piece and hardly huffing and puffing. 

“What the hell was that?” he asked once everyone was watered and not looking like death flash frozen. 

“That was Asher in a bad mood.” Private Bell answered. 

Blue regarded him with wide eyes, “That thing out there making a tossed salad out of trolls was General Charming?” Of course he had heard the stories about Asher’s curse. Everyone did. It wasn’t every day the fairy godmother cursed a citizen, and sure he heard the tales of the early days of the monster Asher had become after he was released into the world post-curse. Hearing was one thing, Actually being within spitting distance of the thing was an entirely different matter. An experience Blue was not ever keen to repeat.  

If he went the whole of his life without ever seeing that again he would walk into the Summerlands a happy and content man.

“Its been a few years since he’s changed out of the moon cycle. That troll picked the wrong person to spit on.” Troll spit was toxic and corrosive. Damned hard to get off once it struck skin. If not treated quickly the poison was fatal. 

Dragon hide was the only thing impervious to the stuff, but dragons weren’t just sitting around offering up their skins to make coats and boots. 

“Is he going to be ok out there?” He knew it was a stupid question before the private turned a raised eyebrow in his direction. 

“Better he stay out there and not be alright than to run up in here and we not be ok. Asher is loyal till it hurts, but that monster out there owes loyal to no one but carnage. We will fetch him in the morning.” Blue couldn’t argue with that logic even if it went against all of his training to leave a man behind.

His wife would march into the Summerlands and drag him back by the toenails if he died on the job. 

Since the company had to stay over to wait for the general to return back to a friendlier form they took up all the extra rooms in the tower. Blue didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he could kick them out and tell them to hit the bricks. They were at least a good day’s march to the nearest sliver of civilization and that was a Tinker colony. 

Tinkers were best avoided on a good day. Blue offered to take the first watch and none argued with his generosity. He grabbed a cup of coffee before heading up to the observation deck. 

He was greeted with a keening howl. The hairs still left on his head rose up in protest. It took everything in him to keep his feet planted. The flight instinct kicked up hard in his chest. He didn’t wish that sort of existence on anyone. He was damned glad that Godmother had hightailed it out of the kingdom after the Troll Wars. 

He leaned against the tower wall and kept a weathered eye on the horizon.