Finding Beauty in the Beast

Chapter 1

An old woman and man walked quietly out from under the canopy's covering the market square and stopped at the edge of a large crowd. The old man peered over the tops of their heads just enough to see someone in the stocks covered in rotten food. He frowned and pulled the woman away from the scene.

"Beast!" Someone yelled and threw something at the man in the stocks.

The old woman stopped and looked again.

"Monster!" A woman holding her children back yelled.

"Bart claims he saw him in the woods acting like an animal." Someone says close to the woman.

"Aye, says he was practicing witchcraft...dancing around with furs and such." Someone else grunted.

"I heard he was an animal and changed into a man!" Someone exclaimed.

The old man stopped as well and the old woman looked at him. He shook his head but the woman looked away.

"We'll come back." The old man whispered and pulled her from the square.

The crowd continued to grow and the man in question kept his head low and eyes closed. His shaggy brown hair was matted with blood and rotten food. His skin was smudged with food and mud. They had made him wear ripped brown pants since they found him naked in the woods. His bear feet sunk into the dirt in between the stones that made the platform underneath him. His wrists hurt but the wood surrounding them was more bearable than the silver chains around his ankles that burned his skin slightly. This would be over soon though. They could only keep him in this for a day and then they would have to let him go and kick him out of the village. He took a deep breath and smelt something different. Something that stood out amongst the rotting food and unclean villagers. He looked up to see an elder couple leaving the square. He didn't know what the smell was, but it wasn't completely human.

The old man and woman gathered everything they had bought onto a cart which was attached to two beautiful brown horses. The man helped the woman up and they left the village without even drawing attention from the villagers. The rode deep into the woods and up the mountain pass until they reached the old, forgotten castle they called home. They emptied the cart into the pantry and walked around the castle taking care of other things. They always went into the village for supplies when the mistress changed. They couldn't grow anything up here and had to seek other places to find produce. The man walked back inside from the back with the familiar long black coat in hand. He handed it to the woman and she took it upstairs to the room it belonged in. She met the man back down in the entryway.

"We need to see that man." She says looking in the direction of the village.

"It's just village nonsense." He groans.

"But what if it isn't Elias?" She asks touching his arm. "She's getting worse...we need to help her."

"Fine." Elias shakes his head.

They leave the castle again and go back into the village only now it's getting dark. They leave their cart in the normal place and get a few strange looks from the villagers they cross.

"I thought they only came here during the day." A woman said to a man quietly.

He shrugged. "Maybe they forgot something."

Most of the villagers didn't care about the old man and woman. Most of them had already forgotten where they came from or the family they served in the mountains. They walked through the narrow streets and found the market square dimly lit with a single torch and empty of people except the man in the stock. Elias stopped at the edge while the woman walked up to him. He opened his eyes and looked at her, snapping his head up before she even made a sound.

"Where do you come from stranger?" she asks him.

"South. In the prairie lands."He says watching her with interest.

"Are you what they say you are?"

He doesn't say anything but glances back at Elias.

"Do...do you change into...an animal?" She asks again glancing around.

"Who are you to ask?" He scowls.

"Please." She sighs.

Elias walks forward. "Are you cursed?"

"Elias..." She hisses.

The man scoffs. "Cursed? No."

"Let's leave...this fool can do nothing for us." Elias says pulling at the woman.

"Stop." She says to him and looks back at the man. "Just answer me."

He glared at her and Elias.

"Do you change?" She asks again.

"Yes." He bites out.

She lets out a sigh of relief. "Please, can you help us?" She cups his face gently which startles him. "We...know someone who changes."

He shakes his face, making her let go. "Who?"

"We look after her, we're all she has left." She whispers looking down as if remembering.

"When you are free, come to the castle." Elias says pulling her away.

"What castle?" He asks.

The voices of people and encroaching torchlight causes Elias to shake his head. "Ask the baker."

Before the man can ask anything else, they hurry out of the square and he's left in momentary silence before two guards walk out of an alley. He puts his head back down and thinks out what the old woman said. Elias and the woman leave the village and head back to the castle in the cover of darkness. The castle is dark when they arrive and the woman touches Elias's arm.

"She isn't back yet." She frowns.

"She'll be fine."

Early the next morning they both awaken at the sound of the large door opening and closing. The woman hurries down the stairs and finds the mistress stumbling into the large sitting room. She walks in quietly behind her as she falls in front of the fireplace. She's bare, shivering, and covered in dirt, leaves and possibly blood. She passes out as soon as she's on the ground. Elias walks in with a large blanket. He covers her and scoops her up before taking her upstairs to her room. He sets her on the bed and stokes the already blazing fire in the fireplace in her room before leaving her to rest.

"Go back to bed Cora." Elias says to the woman as he shuts the mistress's bedroom door. "It will be awhile before she wakes."

Cora frowns and looks sad. "I hope he comes here."

"As do I...but all we can do now is wait." Elias says and leads her away.