Beast Below

My eyes snapped open and I frantically scanned my surroundings. It was dark, but I could just make out the darker outlines of trees. Was I in the woods? How did I get here? I gasped and looked at my nails, but they were normal girl nails and not the long sharp talons I thought they had transformed into. Did I dream the whole thing up? I pushed myself into a sitting position, my fingers running through something soft like silk. I peered down and realized I was laying on a bed of flower petals. The petals were dark in color, hard to tell in the dark. But they had silver and gold specks splattering the surface. I put one into my pocket, thinking that this could be proof enough of my adventures over the witch’s wall. I stood up and peered around into the darkness. It was lighter than when I first woke up. I looked back down at the bed of petals and wondered who could have done this. Somehow I doubt the evil witch did this. A face with wide brown eyes flashed in my mind, before I shook my head. I had probably dreamt the whole thing then.

I scanned my surroundings again and I thought I saw something move, but when I stared at the spot for a minute, nothing moved. I shrugged it off and started walking, hoping I was going in the right direction. It started to get lighter, and I could see more of my surroundings. The trees here were normal trees, no colorful gem leaves or soft velvety bark. There were no butterflies with purple wings decorated with bright green swirly designs. There weren’t any rainbow colored animal cubs with wings that could fly. It was just a normal forest with trees of rough brown bark and vibrant green leaves. The bushes were green with their normal flowers or berries. The animals didn’t have wings or weren’t the colors of the rainbow, but I still felt at peace here. I finally found a landmark that I recognized. A really old well with a red little roof, ivy growing up it. I adjusted my course and set off towards the town. The sun was almost up now, I could feel it in my bones. My skin seemed to tingle now that I was getting close to town and the sun was coming up.

And who should be the first person that I meet? Camille Glaceau and her little clan of devoted followers. I rolled my eyes and took out the flower petal. The petal was a nice vibrant plum color with gold and silver veins running though it with tiny silvery specks scattered along the surface. It was gorgeous. I started to sweat suddenly and I shook off some cold chills.

“Well, well, well. It looks like little Freya made it out, without a scratched too. What did you find for me?” She held out her hand and I deposited the pretty petal in the palm of her perfectly manicured hand. She leered down at the petal, a sneer on her face. “This is it? A lousy petal that you no doubt painted gold and silver? This didn’t come from the witch’s garden. You lost the bet.” She sneered triumphantly at me. I felt rage boil up inside of me.

“That did come from the witch’s garden. How would I have been able to paint the veins on the inside of the flower gold and silver? That makes absolutely no sense!” I had to suppress another shiver. My skin was tingling all over. I felt... weird. And then it dawned on me. I felt like this in that dream I had. I felt my blood turn to ice. So maybe it wasn’t a dream? Camille was saying something now, sneering at me, but I couldn’t hear anything besides the frantic beating of my heart and the blood rushing through my ears.

“Camille, shut up!” I screamed at her. She stopped surprised, then grew angry. But I was too busy feeling the horror of the possibility of my dream becoming my reality. Her cronies had this “oh damn!” look on their faces as they watched Camille’s face turn from a light pink to a deep scarlet in her anger.

“Shut up? Shut up?! Who the hell do you think you are to tell me to shut up?” She screeched at me. And that was when it happened. I lunged at her, my nails lengthening into deadly talons. My scream of rage transformed into a deafening roar of loathing hatred. She screamed in terror. Her crystal blue eyes went wide with fear. I landed on her and we fell to the ground together. But before I could dig my talons into her soft pink flesh and rip out her throat, I froze. I couldn’t move. I heard a masculine voice yell “MOVE” and then I was being lifted. I growled at whoever had a hold of me, but the sound was cut short as I was thrown over someone's shoulder and that shoulder jammed into my stomach, knocking the breath out of me.

I heard Camille and her cronies screaming, and I knew that those screams would wake up the entire county. And here I was being kidnapped by someone, and my body felt like it was made up of pure bones and no muscle. Suddenly, green and blue swirly lights began floating around my kidnapper and I, a strange pressure building up. With an abrupt pop, it felt like we were falling forward at a fast pace. And then, we were still. My kidnapper deposited me on the ground gently, and I got a good look at his face. If I wasn’t so speechless, I probably would have screamed “you!” at him. It was the boy from my dream. That was when my world shattered. It wasn’t a dream. I had been cursed by the witch last night, my nails had turn into giant talons, and I was turned into some sort of beast. I still couldn’t move, and my eyes watched the boy move around me in a giant circle, muttering things. I felt as if suddenly I was being closed into a box.

I felt as if I was being trapped, limited in my freedom and something snapped inside of me. I screamed as I was suddenly able to move my limbs again and I jumped up. The pain was so great, like an explosion in my skin that brought me back to my knees. My skin was tingling like thousands of electrical currents were running up and down my body. Bones cracked and lengthened. Scales poured onto my skin like liquid. My shoulders itched as the skin stretched and ripped, giant wings pushed their way through. My throat was sore from screaming, and I felt like this torture would never end. I felt blood pour down my face as something pushed it’s way out of my forehead. My body forced me onto my hands and knees, keeping me in that position as feathers started to sprout. Some parts of my body had large scale-like armor forming instead of scales and feathers. Something pushed it’s way out of my back side and I twisted my head to try to see past the wings and feathers to see a long scaly tail with barbs on the end whipping back and forth in anger.

Anger blinded my vision and I reared up on my hind legs and let out a ear-splitting roar that made the birds in the trees nearby take to the sky. I saw the boy watching me out of the corner of my eye and lunged towards him. I was less than five feet from him when I was flung back so suddenly that I landed on my side. Hot fresh anger raged through me, and I jumped onto my claws , digging the sharp talons into the soft brown dirt. I ripped up a clump of the earth and flung it to the side. I turned around, the anger giving me tons of energy, and bounded towards the town. But a few feet and I was being flung back again. I roared in anger again. Why was this happening to me? Was this some sort of dream? Something moved out of the corner of my eye, a doe. She was watching me with wide liquid brown eyes. I was upon her in seconds, my sharp teeth ripping into her soft tender throat. Her terrified scream died abruptly. I took my anger, pain, and confusion out on that helpless doe, tearing into tender flesh and ripping it to shreds.

I heard the boy walking around on the outside of my imprisonment. I avoided his gaze, knowing that I would see guilt there. Why was he guilty? Why did he think he needed to be guilty? It was Leanza who cursed me, not him. Still, I was angry at him. He obviously has magic, he should be able to lift this curse on me but nooo. He has to imprison me in a fucking box! Anger rushed through me again. I spun towards him and bared my teeth at him. I’m sure it was a horrible sight with blood and gore dripping from my teeth and muzzle, but the boy didn’t even flinch. He just stared back at me with those deep brown eyes.

“I’m sorry. The reason you’re like this that is my fault. It’s all my fault.” I heard him whisper to me. He hung his head, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. He looked back up at me and dropped his hand. “I spoke to Leanza about your curse. I asked her about the details.” He stopped again, unsure of what to say.

“The sun high in the sky, a beast by and by. The moon high in the sky, human to the seeing eye.” He spoke only two lines, but it felt as if a chain had taken me by the throat and tethered me to this, this body. I cried out in anguish, crouching to the ground. I lunged at the barriers again, trying to find a weak spot so I can be free. Again and again I lunged at the barriers, but again and again I was flung back. Anger built up, and I felt like I was going to burst. “I am going to try to fix it.” He promised me. “I am going to make this all better. I am going to expand this garden for you, let you wander for more than a few feet. I will make sure that no one gets harmed... again. I will find a way to lift this curse off of you, even if it kills me.” He muttered a few words and I felt the walls of my prison expand. I got up and walked away from the boy. I found myself by a small creek that led into a tiny spring. I laid down, staring at my reflection in the water. Who was this demon staring back at me?