The Light Of The Beast

1.

The cold winds of the snowstorm stiffened Wirt's joints, urging him to just rest. Find somewhere warm. But he couldn't. Even his little brother's frog, whom Wirt held close to himself, was lying still, too cold to move. It would have been so much easier if the wind was just a tad louder. If it could only block out his subconscious asking how he could have let his younger brother believe that any of this was any fault of his. Asking who he was to give up hope and wish the same upon Greg. Wirt hadn't woken up long ago and had no way of knowing how long Greg had been gone, although the drastic weather change and his waking up in an entirely different area from where he had fallen asleep indicated that it had been some hours. If Wirt knew his step-brother, he knew that his curiosity could lead him into the depths of any area that man has never seen before.
Wirt's thoughts were broken off by a sudden small screaming presumably coming from a distant figure. He couldn't make out what it was, only that it was small, round, and flying straight toward him. He stood still and squinted, trying to make the figure out. Almost as soon as he had stopped- THUMP- it crashed into his face and fell to the snow at his feet.

"Huh?" Wirt looked down, holding his head as though to stop it from spinning. A small blue blur evolved into a companion, Beatrice. She was repeating "Greg..." over and over.
"Beatrice..."
She looked up and, upon noticing who she had flown into, flew up in level to a few inches above Wirt's head, still gasping. After an exchange of words and sounds being incoherently strung together in an attempt to tell each other what had been going on, the two had finally figured out that they were both looking for little Greg. They set off together in the snowstorm, walking, or, in Beatrice's case, flying as hard as they could.

"I thought it was this way..." Beatrice said, sounding unsure. She couldn't be blamed for her confusion, though, as Wirt squinted his eyes just to see black, and darker shades in place of trees. Just when Wirt's panic started to deepen, a light shone around so he could once again see the brown-red trees all around him, and the snow-covered ground. Sat atop of the snow was-
"A lantern" Beatrice spoke softly, hovering just above Wirt's ear. Taking a closer look at the lantern, he decided out loud that it must have been the Woodsman's. He picked the lantern up and suddenly the two of them noticed branches strewn along the ground, red contrasting white. The two moved further, eyes still stuck to the ground. Wirt shifted his eyes up slightly to see a round figure about the size of a child.
"Greg!" Wirt ran over to his younger brother. Edelwood branches seemed to hold him down. His eyes were sunken, but he stilled smiled as he shakily looked to his older brother and said
 "Wirt. I did it - I beat the beast." He coughed, and out came Autumn leaves. Solemn appeared in both Beatrice's face and her voice when she said "Oh geez, the leaves are even growing inside of him." 
Greg assured her that, no, he had just been eating leaves. 
"I'm sorry, Wirt" He said.
At that tears started out of Wirt's eyes, no matter how hard he tried to push them back.
"No, no. Greg," Wirt sniffled. "it's my fault we all ended up here. E-everything's been my fault. I should've been more-"
"No," Greg interrupted, "I mean my rock facts rock."
"What?" Greg and Beatrice said in unison.
"I stole it, Wirt. I stole it from Mrs. Daniels' garden. I'm a stealer," he held his pet rock in the air, waving it around as if to show it speaking, "and that's a rock fact."
"What? No. Greg, that doesn't matter."
"It does matter," Greg coughed. "You have to return it for me, okay?"
"No! You can give it to her yourself. C'mon. We gotta get Jason Funderburker home, right?"
Jason Funderburker, the newly named frog, croaked.
"Jason Funderburker! The perfect frog name." Still smiling, Greg hung his head and closed his eyes.

"Greg.. Greg?"
"Let's get him out of this, come on!"

Wirt proceeded to pull at the branches that hugged his brother while Beatrice reassured him. Just then, a thump, and Wirt picked up the light to see what was going on. The Woodsman and his axe were on the ground and a tall shadow with burning bright eyes stalked beside him. The Beast.

"Give me my lantern." The shadow's voice was deep, slow and demanding.
"Your lantern?" Wirt puzzled, looking to the ground at the Woodsman.
"No way, we need this thing" Beatrice asserted.
"Yeah, I'm keeping this. I have to get Greg home."
"Your brother is too weak to go home." The Shadow calmly pointed out. "He will soon become part of my forest."
"I won't let that happen!" Wirt squeaked.
"Perhaps we better make a deal" The Beast retorted.
"A deal?"
The Woodsman groaned.
"I can put his spirit in the lantern." The Figure went on. "As long as the flame stays lit he will live on inside."
Wirt looked behind his shoulder to Greg lying on the ground, blue and covered in branches.
"Take on the task as Lantern Bearer... or watch your brother perish."
Wirt looked to the lantern in his hand, thinking.
"Come here." The Beast demanded.
Wirt exhaled, closing his eyes.
"Okay." Eyes still closed, he walked forward. He opened his eyes suddenly. "Wait. That's dumb"
"What?"
"That's dumb. I'm not just gonna wander around the woods for the rest of my life."
"I'm trying to help you." The Beast's voice had gone deeper, more raspy.
"You're not trying to help me. Y-you just have some weird obsession with keeping this lantern lit. It's almost like your soul is in this lantern." Wirt couldn't believe what had just come out of his own mouth.

The Woodsman gasped from the ground. The Beast's body twisted in the most unnatural way, like half-solidified smoke. All went dark around him, and even the lantern seemed to dim slightly. Wirt was in shock at this discovery, and terrified.

"Are you ready to see true darkness?" Said The Beast, his voice seeming to echo all around.

Wirt looked into The Beast's blinding eyes. He squinted. He'd found his targets weakness.

"Are y-" Coming out a squeak, Wirt cleared his throat. "Are you?" He opened the lantern's door and inhaled.

"Don't! Don't" The Beast yelled out. His voice had returned to normal now, except it was laced with fear.

Wirt stared into the Beast's eyes. It was like staring directly into the void. The cold, heartless void. Mustering all of his courage, Wirt blew out the flame and, it seemed, blew out The Beast's life as its body twisted and twirled and a cloud of ink rushed into the lantern. With a gasp, Wirt dropped the lantern. Glass smashed, and a searing pain, causing him to also drop to the ground, rushed through his entire body like icy old water. Almost as soon as the flame had died out, a greater light illuminated the area. Coming from... his eyes? And then the pain stopped. Groaning, he opened his eyes which still ached. There was no definitive evidence that The Beast had gone for good. It hadn't, in fact. Instincts told Wirt that it still lived. He turned round to his younger brother, still trapped in edelwood. Wirt's eyes shone, feeling warmer and making his head throb. Only intuition told him that he himself had become The Beast. And intuition was correct.