La Bella y la Bestia

A Journey to the Past

Lovino brought Isabella to the library and showed her leather-bound hardcover book with golden embroidery, and silver latch decorated with rubies. Taking off the silver latch and putting the book on a stand revealed a map of the Earth that glowed with unearthly light but was still comforting to the Spaniard. "It's incredible! Where did you get this?" Isabella frantically asked.

"Another of the Enchantress's 'gifts'," Lovino bitterly said. "In reality, it was her cruelest curse since it can only be used once and the world has no place for a creature like me but it might for you." Lovino gently took her hand and placed it on the page and put is own claw on top and said, "Think of where you want to go and then feel it in your heart."

Isabella thought of the one place she had always wanted to see again and felt the magic seep through her skin causing her fingers to tingle as it crawled down her spine in a sort of gentle, comforting way and like that they were on there way.

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The bells of night sounding in the air from the cathedrals nearby, the city fast asleep, the stars shining like millions of diamonds across a blanket of the finest midnight-blue velvet was what greeted them from the dark, cold cottage room where rustic wood flooring laid beneath their feet and rickety paneling that was close to coming apart. There were very little furnishings aside from a large but molted bed that haphazardly thrown aside, a little baby's crib with a pink carnation rattle sitting on its pillow, a little bed for a toddler that looked neglected for many years, and a dusty desk that has long gone unused.

"Where did you take us?" Lovino asked, looking outside.

"Madrid," Isabella answered looking around at the empty, old house.

"I love Madrid. So, what do you want to see first? Parque de Templo de Debod, Puerta Del Sol?" Lovino asked before seeing her expression. "What? Too touristy?

"No. It's not that. It's just it looks so much smaller than what I imagined," Isabella said as she noticed the carnation rattle that assumed was once hers.

Isabella:

This is the Madrid of my childhood
These were the borders of my life
In this crumbling, dusty cottage
Where a scholar loved his wife

Easy to remember, harder to move on
Knowing the Madrid of my childhood is gone

She sat on the bed, ignoring the dust and mold that had taken residence there. "What happened to your mother?" Lovino asked in a sad voice since he too lost his.

Isabella looked down before in tone that told of grief she said, "That was the one story, Papi or Alva could never tell and I never asked."

Lovino look around before seeing a dirty white mask with its mouth and nose shaped like a bird's beak. "A doctor's mask?" He asked and Isabella walked over to the metal face covering, before getting a horrible realization. "Plague."

*Flashback*

People were rushing and forcing their clothing into anything that would hold them, except for Antonio Fernandez who had tears in his eyes as the doctor told him that they had to leave right now or the plague will get him and his children like Maria. 

His wife lay on their bed her face a deathly pale with black spots covering her cheeks and her bright red hair spread around the pillows. "P-please my love. Leave or it will get them too," Maria said, motioning to the tiny baby in her crib and her brother who was playing with his blocks on the floor. 

"Si, amore," the professor said with a heavy heart, as he stared into his wife's sapphire-blue eyes. He grabbed his son's arm who had been screaming for his mother and his daughter who was screaming and crying as the carnation rattle fell from her tiny hands as they fled the death mark that had infected their once happy home.

*Flashback ends*

Isabella felt her legs give out as she fell to the floor grasping the baby rattle and began to cry to herself.

"I'm so sorry, Isabella," Lovino said, trying to comfort her even though he had always been worse at it than his younger brother. She sobbed bit more as the tears on her cheeks flooded from her eyes. 

"I-I want to go home," she finally managed out in between breaths.

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Meanwhile in the village, Rasym was trailing behind Sadik who didn't seem the least bit guilty about leaving Alvarez to wither freeze to death or be mauled by wolves and when he brought this up to the bigger man,  he was rebuffed quickly. They walked into the tavern and there sat Alvarez with a glower that looked like it was trying to kill the two men and the pale-haired witch from the forest when another man said, "Sadik, Alvarez said you had tried to kill him."

Rasym looked up at the other, who quickly said, "Why would I ever try to kill you? We actually just returned from finding you."

"You left me to die in the woods," Alvarez sneered. "Natalya can even vouch for me."

To this Sadik laughed at as the tavern's atmosphere continued to become thicker. "You would put your trust into a crazy, old hag?" Sadik asked, before turning to the woman and saying, "No offense," to which the pale-haired spinster just glared with hatred prevalent in her eyes.

Rasym looked over to see Alvarez gaze was fixated on him, which caused him to fidget from the harshness of his eyes. "Senhor Rasym, you saw him tie me to that tree, did you not?" 

Rasym didn't immediately respond for he caught Sadik's eyes on him as he walked over to the smaller male. "Why yes, Rasym? Why would I, your closest friend, try to murder the brother of the woman I love?"

The smaller male awkwardly replied with, "I guess from a certain point-" before he felt Sadik grab his arm and his grip threatening to squeeze the veins in his body. "N-no," he finally managed.

Alvarez this whole time was seething and stomped over to Sadik and tried to take swing at the man before his fist was stopped by the latter of the two men who with a smirk, said, "Alvarez, you are clearly unwell and need help." At this point, three other men grabbed Alvarez by his arms before knocking him out with Alvarez's last thoughts being of his little sister.