❀ Beauty and the Beast ↠

↞13↠

I dragged her through the woods and up and down countless hills but she never complained. I didn't need to look back to check that she was still there as I could hear her footsteps as she attempted to keep up but she managed. I had to wonder, was she incredibly brave or incredibly foolish coming all this way with me and me alone. She had seen what I was and I had even harmed her yet she seemed unfazed by my monstrous nature and followed me as if I was some innocent, harmless lost puppy. I could kill her, tear her apart - not that I would ever dream of such a thing - but I could and she knew that yet she still willingly vanished into the forest with me. Once we reached a large wall, overgrown with ivy, I stopped and turned to see her rushing over - slightly out of breath. I laughed mentally, a warrior such as Freya would not be tired from such a walk yet those dresses looked less than functional to the activity. "A wall?" She asked with an amused smile. I rolled my eyes and reached into the ivy, unlatching a rusted lock and pushing open a creaky, rotting door. With a reassuring glance to Freya, she stepped past me into the garden, her hair brushing against my arm as she passed. The small garden was nothing too special, overgrown and wild without the tender care that it needed but I kept to my promise - Thor would never find her here if that's what she so wished. The apple tree was meant to be the jewel of the garden. The way I would have planned it myself I would be drinking in the aromas of the late summer blooms, soothed by the waterfall between the two ponds and sinking my teeth into the delicate skin of home grown organic apples. After a long day of resentment and fear this was the perfect place to be alone however, the neglected tree was in no state to be the jewel of anything. The bark had a sort of creeping mildew and the leaves were curled in an unhealthy way. It bore apples of sort, some even with a pink blush, but they all bore deep brown spots. I frowned at the state of the garden, the gardeners made all this look so simple but no matter what I ever did to the plants they never seemed to bloom properly. Their petals always drooped or brandished ugly imperfections. A small pond surrounded the tree, a few fish survived but nothing too impressive as the pond was far too overgrown in algae. "What's happened to this place?" Freya asked me, turning to look at me. I sighed and took a withered flower lightly in my hand sadly caressing its petals. 

"I'm afraid, I am to gardening what an infant is to tidying, I see what's there but I don't have the slightest idea what to do with it," She smiled and shook her head. Freya made her way to the pond, knelt down into the dirt which shocked me and took as much water as she could manage in her hands before carefully hurrying over to kneel by my side and drop the water into the plant pot where my flower was stemming from. Once all the water had soaked into the small patch of soil, she stood, bending to push the plant out of the shade of the wall and into the sun. I watched her work as she completed the most basic of tasks yet she seemed so sure that she knew what she was doing. Once the plant was fully encased in sunlight she stood, sighed and brushed off her hands and her dress with a smile. "That's all it takes?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. She nodded but assured me that I would have to trim back the ivy that had gone wild and clear out the algae from the pond but other than that it was a pretty basic task. She was extraordinary! I admired everything about her, from the way the breeze blew her hair to the soft sound to her voice like touching a silk sheet. To me she looked like some kind of sprite - inhuman and perfect. But what really made me fall for her was the way she put herself into everything that she faced. Not only the war but showing her interest in the literature that no one else respected and taking straight to reviving the garden that I had come to claim as my own the second that she saw how damaged it was. I hung on her every word and she always knew just what to say even though that little voice inside my head told me that it wasn't true. I had never dreamt in a million years that I could ever fall in love - even before I found out the truth about my parentage. Contrary to my belief, falling in love was the easy part; it was admitting to myself that it happened that's the hard part. I'd had these very efficient defences for so long yet she didn't even notice them. I guess they were meant for others and she had her own door. I could ask why, but I could never admit to her. The fact that she was here in the first place felt like a blessing that I didn't deserve to receive, even if I hide these emotions. How could she ever love a monster. In the time it had taken me to finally accept my growing feelings for the woman, Freya had moved to take a seat on the weathered stone slab beside the pond. I walked over and sat beside her in silence, closing my eyes and appreciating the sun but no matter how hard I tried, I could not warm - a constant reminder of what I was. "Thank you for showing me this place," She uttered with a sigh. "I don't think that I could have endured another mindless conversation," I chuckled to myself before smiling. 

"It's no matter," I assured her. "Besides, this place would have only continued to rot under my hand - It needed a woman's touch," I told her which she seemed to appreciate. After a quiet moment, which I cursed for once as it gave me more time to think about my current emotions which is rather stressful when you have never experienced nor anticipated these emotions before, I felt a small pressure on my arm where Freya had rested her head amost, the poor girl was dropping off. "You shouldn't you know," I told her nervously but she just sighed and asked sarcastically if I was going to burn her again. Usually a comment like that would make me guilty but it amused me because I knew that I would never dream of hurting her. We stayed there for a while, I was pretty sure that she fell asleep but I dared not move to check for fear of disturbing her.