Beauty's Beast- The Light

by Sebrena Merly

  "But she is still a stranger," one of the others said. "You're speaking truth to a stranger!"

  "In case you've forgotten," Yasandre said tiredly, looking up at the leaves high above them, "we have no choice but to speak truth, no matter what the being may be. You just choose to jump around that and play with riddles."

  "But it works," someone replied.

  "Someone lurks," said another.

  Yasandre's eyes rolled. "Your rhyming is, truly, irritating."

  The bushes, the ones from the start of all this, shook and another creature very much like Yasandre--and very different--stepped forth. This one had shorter, more wild, and a deeper and brighter color of hair, all of which stuck up around her head like a lion's mane, only hers was in more of a formal style, of which Bella didn't understand. She, too, had some sort of tribal design all over her body, though hers was sharper and fiercer, in a way. Her nails were of a solid black, and her eyes a little more green than yellow. Instead of normal pupils, however, she had black slits that cut through the vibrant color, and the only scars in sight were small ones on her hands, arms, and ankles.

  This was all becoming too much for Bella.

  "Lylan wasn't trying to finish a rhyme," she told Yasandre, giving Bella a look as if she were some spy. "I believe it's one of the-"

  A howl sounded, far as much as close, one that sent chills down Bella's spine. It sounded a cross between a shriek and a call, some sort of madness that would best be avoided. Whatever it was, it was close.

  And it was only getting closer.

  "What was that?" Bella asked when Yasandre cursed and started shouting to the others in a series of noises and yips she couldn't make sense of.

  The other creature watched her, as if deciding whether to eat her now or later, then looked at Yasandre as the trees began moving and light thuds sounded, as if cats were jumping down onto the forest floor. "We have to go," she said.

  Yasandre looked at Bella, who watched them with wide eyes, unsure of what to do, then back at her. "We have to bring her."

  "What does she matter? Let them have her!"

  "She's a woman!" she hissed. "You know what they'll do with her, and we can't allow that to happen!" She was wrapping her long hair around and around now, hands moving quickly—far too quick for just any human hands. Soon it was in a long braid that she threw over her shoulder. "We have to take her."

  She shook her head, then took a step towards Bella, lips curled in a snarl. "Why don't we just kill her? Then they can't do anything, save finish with the leftovers." Her cruel eyes studied Bella's growing fear as she blinked at her.

  "No!" Yasandre shouted, leaping over in front of the girl, who fell onto her back, watching them with a numb feeling. Bella didn't know whether to get up and run, or to plea for them to leave her be. Instead, she sat there, watching them quietly, the numbness slowly transforming into fear when another howl sounded.

  They were getting closer.

  "Not her," Yasandre continued, walking forward and grabbing the crook of the other woman's arm, seeming not to care that the howls were quite close now, though the other looked completely shaken up, shifting from foot to foot as she studied both of the girls. "Trust me." When the creature shook at her grip, she only tightened it. "Xana, please."

  Xana looked at Bella, as if considering pulling out of Yasandre's grasp and killing her, but then looked back at her, jaw firmly set. "We'll take her to Silina. She'll decide what to do."

  Yasandre looked at her for a long moment, then nodded, letting go of her and going over to Bella and helping her to her feet. "Come with us."

  Bella, who had managed to process the fact that not only had her life just been placed in the hands of someone named Silina, but now her life was possibly being saved by creatures she was sure weren't in any legends she had heard of—and she heard a lot—nodded. Her hands, which were still clutching the bag of coins, tightened, her knuckles whitening, and her feet stumbled after Yasandre, who now had a hold of her arm and was dragging her off into the forest.

  Now not only was Bella in an utterly terrible and dangerous place, but she was leaving the only way of avoiding the possibility of getting lost.

  Her day just couldn't get any worse.

  "This is all a dream," Bella muttered as she was pulled past trees, tripping over roots and tall, dry grass that seemed to reach out at her like fingers. "Either that, or I've finally snapped. Any minute now, I'll wake up in an institution." She felt her eyes widen. "In Oakland."

  Oakland, supposedly, had an institution for the mentally ill, a place that was set a few miles out of town because its patients were very dangerous, and it wasn't a very pretty place. Apparently the doctors were very persistent in curing everyone, and so performed a series of dangerous experiments on the patients, something Bella didn't agree with.

  But why would they listen to her?

  "She's slowing us down," Xana said anxiously, slowing down to let the both of them catch up. "Can't her lazy feet pick up any faster?"

  As much as Bella wanted to complain, she knew it wasn't the right time, or even the right situation. Even so, complaining about her own speed was nothing when it came to how it was that these women even existed. Not to mention, she ran pretty fast—for a human. That was, until she was compared to the creatures she was running with, who were both inhumanly fast.

  "She's human," Yasandre reminded her, throwing a look over her shoulder at the darkness behind them. "Human feet cannot move all too fast."

  Insulted, Bella forced herself to actually pay attention to everything and even speed up some more. Even though she was sure she would wake up if she took her chances with whatever was after them, her fear was still much too high to let her do less than run for her life. It was human instinct to survive, and that was exactly what she was going to do, even if this all really was just a dream.

  "They're getting closer!" Xana shouted when more howls rose, and crashes sounded just yards behind them.

  "We're almost there!" Yasandre called, suddenly grabbing Bella's shoulders and ushering her forward as if she would be tempted to stop. It took only a few seconds, and then Bella saw why.

  They were heading straight for a cliff.

  "Stop!" Bella shouted, going frigid. The edge was just a few feet away now, and she could make out sharp rocks sticking out from a ground that was much too far to survive falling onto. But, this time, both of the creatures had a hold of her.

  Then they were all going over the edge.

  4

  Bella's arms covered her face, as if that would help anything, and she waited for the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff, that she and the other creatures had dived off of, to pierce straight through her.

  But what she landed on was something that was not to be expected.

  The ground came faster than she thought, as if she had merely tipped over a ledge that couldn't have been higher than five or six feet, and she landed with a stomach-lurching feeling, confused about the incident. When she pulled her arms, which felt bruised and jolted from the impact, from her face, she saw why the fall was so strange.

  She had landed on a patch of grass, which was surrounded by trees, and more of those women watched her from the trees, gazes switching from her to the spot she had fallen from. When she flipped over, all she saw was a ledge none too far from herself.

  Then she stood.

  Her face came level to some horror that she couldn't name. It looked like a wolf, but something else. So human, yet demonic. She opened her mouth, not sure whether she was about to gasp or scream, but Yasandre quickly put her hand over it, firmly digging her fingers into her cheeks and shaking her face.

  No, her eyes seemed to be saying when Bella managed to pull her own eyes from the face of the deformed wolf. They were wide, though showed no fear, as if she had seen worse. She looked concerned, not for herself but the others, as if she couldn't bear the thought of losing them.

  Surprisingly, Bella's eyes didn't immediately turn to t
he animal-like women, but back to the wolf, which still had its head downturned as if staring down from a high place, though its face was hardly a foot from Bella's own. Its eyes were a solid red, with no whites, the pupils tiny pinpoints. Only, one of these eyes had a scar going through it, which made it more of a milky color, and several more scars covered the rest of its face. Its teeth were nearly the size of Bella's fingers, and it was, overall, the size of a horse. A horrible horse, with fur that stuck up every which way, matted down in some places with what looked like sweat, though it easily could have been blood.

  Bella slowly pushed Yasandre's hand away, though she still felt like screaming. The face was unlike anything she had ever seen, with eyes so threatening and carefully studying the scenery it was given. Like it was hunting.

  And that was, exactly, what it was doing.

  Its nose twitched, clearly telling him that something was off about that cliff. It was Bella he smelled the most, who gave off a sweet smell of fear and farm and forest. If her scent went that way, then she had to have jumped the cliff, but there was no way a simple human could survive such heights. Not even his kind would have been able to walk away unharmed.

  Bella wanted to step back, and tried to, but Yasandre grabbed her wrist and shook her head quickly. If she tried to take a step back, she could risk making noise; especially with human feet like hers. Then they would be discovered.

  When Bella looked back at the wolf, who was still looking around suspiciously, she saw a couple more wolves join the area behind him, all watching him as if waiting for orders of some sort, as if prepared to give their lives testing the false cliff. Then they were joined with a few more.

  And a few more after that.

  Yasandre slowly stepped forward, up next to Bella, fingers curled like claws as she put her face level with the wolf's, almost like she recognized it, and also like it would bring her pure pleasure to kill him right on the spot. But Xana, who had been standing just off to the side, put an arm in front of her, shaking her head when she was glared at.

  Don't, her eyes said. But they said nothing more. She wouldn't stop Yasandre if she decided to be a fool and attack.

  Bella wasn't so keen on dying.

  Who will find my father then? she asked herself. Even if this was just a dream, which was also still doubtful, she still wanted to find her father. No one else would ever realize, since he rarely left the shop. They would only realize when she didn't show, and then they would assume she ran away, possibly bringing her father with her. Then he will be lost forever.

  There were brief thoughts of Jared, of what he or his father may do in response to her disappearance, but these were only slight, seeming as to how they weren't all that important when compared to the recent events.

  Bella's hand came up and landed on Yasandre's shoulder, gently tugging at it, silently telling her her own thoughts. She couldn't do that, not without getting people killed. And Bella was sure to be killed, since the only thing she had to protect herself was a knife that wouldn't work, and money she knew couldn't even buy her own life.

  "Are they out there?" one of the wolves asked, much to Bella's amazement. He didn't open his mouth to say this, but merely watched the wolf that was standing just inches from Yasandre, the sort of mind-talk that the women had, though his could actually be heard as if spoken aloud.

  "I believe they are," the leader, as Bella presumed, responded, voice rough and gravelly; though, his voice was also light and flowing, filled with an unfamiliar accent. He turned his head to look at the other wolves. "Their scent goes this way. The only way they could have survived is if they climbed down. But another scent mingles with theirs—a human; female."

  Bella shivered at the thought of him being able to state exactly what she was, freezing when he looked back their way again. It almost looked like he was staring straight at her, his eyes gazing over hers. But then he seemed to look directly at Yasandre, as if he could sense her there as well.

  Yasandre, in response to this, stiffened; fists and jaws clenching.

  He continued to look over the clearing. "There is no possibility that the human could climb down something so steep as this, and so flat, at the speed of the Natives." His eyes were harsh, squinting slightly; suspicious. "And, from the way they disappeared, it seemed more like they dived. So...there should be bodies down there."

  "But there aren't?" one of them asked, earning a snarl.

  "Obviously not," he hissed. "Otherwise we would be on our way. Perhaps you would like to jump down there yourself and look for them." When there was no reply, he turned back around with a huff through his flaring nostrils. "I didn't think so." Then he turned around and started for the trees. "For now, we go back. If we pick up another trail, we'll follow it." He raced off, the others following him one by one.

  When they were all gone and out of sight, Bella finally took a deep, shuddering breath. "What were those things?" It was the first slightly calm thing she was able to say in hours, though she was still shivering as if cold. If anything, it was much too warm.

  "Fenris," a voice said behind her. It was calm and cool, as if there was nothing in the world that needed worrying. It was sleek, like ice, yet warm, and laced a lilting accent much like the wolf's, yet completely different.

  Bella gradually remembered where she was and what creatures held her company, and slowly turned in her spot until she was facing the one who had spoken.

  She had golden skin, unmarked, with hair as black as the night, all shining under the light of the moon like she was bathing in it. Her eyes looked almost completely black, the pupils nearly overriding her bright green eyes. Her nails were like the others, only hers was the color of silver, and barely overrode her fingertips.

  "I am Silina," she said, in an accent that was gradually beginning to sound familiar to Bella, though there was still that mix of the unfamiliar accent like the wolf's. "Those were one of the upmost dangerous forms of Fenrir." She looked at Yasandre and Xana. "I was going to ask how they managed to follow you and get so close..." She turned back to Bella. "But I saw your guest."

  "She was lost in the woods," Yasandre told her.

  She nodded. "As most are, yet you decided to bring her here." She tilted her head. "I understand that you do not like to kill humans-"

  "It is highly unnecessary," Yasandre said.

  Nerves filled the air, and there was a ripple through the crowd, all of which were a variety of the same creature. All in all, their eyes and nails were like an animal's, and they crouched in many different positions. They all watched them anxiously, switching their gazes from Bella to Yasandre and Silina, as if it was the worst thing in the world to interrupt Silina, who Bella was guessing was their leader of a sort.

  "I understand your view on that," Silina said, as if Yasandre hadn't committed such a crime the others seemed to think she had. "But what makes this one different? Why do you bring her here?"

  "She's female," she replied, though it was obvious it was more than just that. "The Fenrir would've taken her."

  Bella swallowed, wondering what, exactly, she meant by “taken”.

  "But there have been many others, and you ignore them," Silina argued gently. "You're keeping something from me, Yasandre."

  Shifting on her toes, Bella patiently began deciding if she should make a run for it now. Obviously Silina was just as fine with killing her as Xana and the others were. Not to mention, all the others of their kind were giving her looks that reminded her of the townspeople when they tried one of her pies.

  Was it possible that they not only killed people but ate them as well?

  She swallowed again. She had to make a decision fast. But it wasn't like she would make it very far. They were, quite clearly, much faster than she was, and they knew how to fight, most likely. Not only that, but there was a pretty big chance that they knew the forest well.

  Only a few hours on her quest, and she was already going to die.

  "I had this…intuition," Yasandre murmured. This
caused several murmurs and looks of admiration, along with wide eyes and gapes, as if she had just performed some impossible trick, and they looked at Bella as if she was more of a trophy than a meal, which made her feel only a tiny bit better.

  Xana snorted, seemingly the exact opposite of everyone else. "Oh, please. You're going to use that as an excuse?"

  Silina ignored her as if she hadn't spoken, smiling slightly at Yasandre and sharing the look with Bella. "Did you really?"

  "Yes," Yasandre grumbled, as if embarrassed of saying anything at all, crossing her arms and pursing her lips. "But what does that matter?"

  "Obviously it matters if you're following it," Silina told her. "There is a reason your gift activated; a reason Vita has gifted you with such things.” Bella blinked at the strange name, tilting her head at the way it rolled off of her tongue in another accent; very much as if she was speaking a word of some foreign language instead, and Bella wondered if, perhaps, she was. “There is something this girl is meant to do." Then she looked at Bella, who still wasn't all too sure what was going on. "What are you doing so far in these woods all on your own, child? Why are you here?"

  She stuttered when all eyes turned to her suddenly, as if she was about to give some inspiring speech that would lead some grand revolution. It definitely wasn't something she thought she could do. She even found the idea ridiculous. But she was just a little upset that all she could tell them was, "I'm looking for my father."

  It wasn't like she was going to war.

  "Mmm," Silina said, eyes drooped shut. "Your voice is that of English roots, maybe with a little Greek and French, but there's something stronger. Spanish, is it?" When Bella nodded silently, she smiled, gesturing to herself. "This form holds a great amount of that as well. Beautiful culture. You should feel lucky. Though, I've always admired the Greeks."

  Bella thought that over, considering correcting her and letting her know that she didn't hold any ancestry of Greece, but decided to let it slide. It was just a minor mistake. Though, her reference to the Spanish caught her attention.