Beast Below

On the outskirts of the village, there is a giant stone wall surrounding a beautiful garden and an old stone cottage. A power-mad sorceress lives there. Legend says that one night a young man went over the wall into the garden. He thought that no one was home, not a single candle was lit in any of the windows. He crept up to a giant rose bush with roses made of gems. The blooms let off such a sweet smell and the colors of the blossoms were so vibrant a rainbow would weep with envy. He fingered a pretty pink one, and plucked it for a girl he was sweet on in the village. Suddenly, the sorceress appeared with a cackle. She wore a long black gown with dark gold designs under the breasts and around the shoulders. She had long curly golden hair and piercing green eyes. She had a look about her that reminded one of a viper. She held onto a wooden staff that was gnarled and twisted with two sharp ends that stood at the head like horns.

Dark magic rolled off of her in waves. She pointed the staff at the young man. Lightning flashed and dark purple light sparkled off the tip of the staff, heading towards the man. In a flash of purple light and the smell of sulfur, the man was never seen again. Some say that the man was transported to a world where there was never any sun and it was nighttime for eternity, with demons roaming every inch of its surface. Other people say that she transformed him into a bug that couldn't fly and squashed him. Either way, he was never seen or heard from again. And no one ever went over her wall... Until now.

See, it was nearing the end of the school year, the high school students were getting restless. Which means they do stupid things. There are endless parties, kids staying out all night, and dares. Which is how I, Freya Moore, ended up crouching at the bottom of the wall, my friends all waiting on the safe side. I can hear them shouting at me, their concern dripping off every word. Even if I couldn't make out what they said. It was like the moment I entered the garden, I entered another world and everything they said came out in a messed up jumble. I stood up and blew my blonde hair out of my brown eyes. I looked around, checking to see if any danger was heading my way. Even if there was danger heading towards me, it's not like I could do anything about it since the wall was eerily smooth on this side and none of the tree's branches extended far enough to be close to the wall.

I guess the witch didn't want anyone to get in and steal something from her garden, then climb right back out. I was royally fucked. See, I was dared by Camille Glaceau to grab something from the witch's garden and bring it back to her. And not only that, it had to be believable that it came from a witch's garden. So an ordinary flower or fruit wouldn't do. It had to be... magical.

So I wandered through the garden, keeping an eye on the cottage. No one was flying towards me with evil intentions written all over, so I guess I was good. It was actually very peaceful in the garden. I smiled as I walked underneath the golden apple trees. Real golden apples. One fell from the tree near me and landed on the ground with a metallic thump. Next I was walking under a grove of trees with multicolored leaves. There were red leaves, blue leaves, purple leaves, pink leaves, yellow leaves, orange leaves, and the normal green leaves.

Zebra stripped butterflies fluttered around the branches. I stopped and watched them. I finally spotted the multicolored flowers that were expertly camouflaged to look like the surrounding leaves. I started forward again, this time getting distracted by the gem flowers.
They were really pretty, but I wanted something else. I felt as if I should find something from the garden that didn't already have part of a legend. Really, anything in here would have been good, but I wanted... something. I wasn't even sure what I wanted, but it felt like my soul was searching for something more.

I could hear a babbling brook somewhere running through the garden somewhere to my left. Which I thought was weird since the only brook we have is on the opposite side of the town. Something small popped up out of the tall red grass to my right, then disappeared again by time I turned my head to see what it was. I kept looking in that spot to see if it would pop out again, but nothing did. I shrugged and kept walking. For being an evil witch's garden, it was really pretty and peaceful. I was actually enjoying being in here. I stopped under a tree that had sparkling gems for leaves. I sat down, leaning against the trunk. The trunk of the tree was soft and warm. I reached around behind me and felt the trunk, it was as soft as velvet.

I turned to inspect the trunk and realized that the bark was thick velvet. I leaned back against the tree and just let the tranquility of the place envelop me. Suddenly, I was engulfed in a bright blue light. My heart started to pound, until I realized that it was just the sun hitting the blue gem leaves above me. I smiled again, feeling as if this place was some sort of dream that I never wanted to wake up from.

Something pounced in the bushes to the left of me, and I eyed the red leafy bush suspiciously. But nothing else seemed to stir, so I closed my eyes. But the moment that I closed them, I got this uncomfortable feeling that someone or something was watching me. I popped my eyes back open and scanned my surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Well... too out of ordinary in a witch's garden. But I got up anyway and continued on. Inside the wall of the garden, it seemed like the garden stretched on forever. I couldn't even see the witch's cottage. Standing on the outside of the wall, it seemed like the edge of the wall was only a few hundred feet from the cottage but standing inside the wall it seemed like I was standing in a vast forest of strange and beautiful trees and plants with no sight of the cottage anywhere. I stopped suddenly, one foot in the process of stepping forward. I listened intently to the sounds around me. Hearing nothing, I continued forward. A few paces forward and I was stopping again. Listening, I heard the sound faintly to my left. I crept towards the sound quietly.

I crouched behind a deep purple bush that bore bright pink fruit. Quietly leaning forward, I moved a few branches and peered through them. I gasped when my mind finally caught up to what I saw. There, entangled in some sort of thorny vine was a small violet colored fox cub. Not only was the fox cub violet colored, but it had deep purple and black patterned butterfly wings. Fuzzy little feelers stuck out the top of it's head in between it's ears. The fox cub whimpered in pain and mewled again. It tried to pry itself from the vines, but the thorns entangled the fox cub and clung to it, making escape impossible for the small thing. I stood up and pushed through the bush. The fox heard me and looked up, tiny ears flattening against it's skull.

It gave out a pathetic little growl, but the fox was too scared to really put effort into it. I shushed and murmured softly, trying to sooth the poor thing. It whimpered and made to flee, but fell into a tangled heap and yelped in pain. I crouched and grabbed onto the vine, only to rip my hand back and yelp in pain. I had pricked my thumb on a thorn, blood welled up into a bubble on the tip of my thumb. I sucked on the wound, then went back to grabbing the vine, this time more cautious. After a few minutes, I got one vine off of the cub and quickly worked to extract the rest.

Finally, the last vine fell from the cub. The cub jumped to it's feet in a burst of speed and scampered off into the undergrowth. I smiled and left the small cluster of bushes to continue my exploration of the garden. Soon, I heard a small whimper from behind me. I turned to find the small fox cub following me, hesitant in it's steps. It looked up at me with wide bright blue eyes. I felt my heart melt at the fear that was in those tiny little eyes. It whimpered at me again, setting back on it's haunches like it wanted me to pick it up. I smiled and walked slowly towards it, not wanting to frighten it. It got down on all fours again and cowered down a bit. I chuckled lightly and picked up the small creature. I cuddled the cub against my chest. The cub then nudged it's tiny head against my chin and licked the side of my face. I giggled. The cub's wings fluttered, brushing softly across my arms like silk. Suddenly the cub stiffened in my arms and trembled. It whimpered and tried to flee, the wings fluttering madly. I let go, and the cub dropped a few inches before fluttering away. A wind picked up and the weather dropped drastically. I rubbed my arms, trying to chase away the goosebumps that were rapidly rising along my skin.

The birds stopped chirping and there was no sounds besides the fast beating of my heart. The sun disappeared and it seemed like a darkness had settled down onto the garden. A twig snapped somewhere and my heart stopped. I stepped back, looking around frantically. A cold cackle floated in on the wind, surrounding me. I turned around, fear closing in on me. Another cackle sounded and I whirled with a gasp. Standing behind me was the Sorceress Leanza. She smiled coldly at me, her grey blue eyes were like ice and chilled me to the core.

"Looks like we have a trespasser and we don't like trespassers, do we?" She was talking to someone, and I saw a shadow out of the corner of my eye, but I was to scared to move my eyes off of the woman standing before me. "We will have to punish her. Pity, such beauty." She withdrew something from her dress' sleeve and I heard a gasp. I started to turn towards the sound, but stopped when I saw her raise her staff. A bright, swirling purple light emitted from the tip of her staff. It swirled menacingly before it zoomed towards me and hit me in the chest. I thought I was gonna die. It felt like my insides were melting and boiling. My bones felt as if someone was taking a grater to them and shredding them. My skin crawled and bubbled. I cried out in horror as my nails elongated into deadly sharp talons. I heard a crack like thunder and screamed as the pain in my back grew. I fell to the ground, withering and screaming in pain. The world started to get fuzzy around the edges. My throat was sore and my voice became hoarse. I screamed again, but my scream became a roar. My head fell to the side. The last thing I remember seeing was a boy with dark brown hair with glasses. The deep brown eyes behind those glasses were wide in terror... and guilt?

Then the world went black.