The Dark Beast's Love

By the time I felt safe enough to exit my hiding place, the sun was already high in the sky. I walked as carefully as I could but ended up running the last distance once my eyes spotted the familiarity of home not too far away. Almost immediately as I reached the centre, someone grabbed my hand and I almost stabbed them with one of my arrows in response. The person flinched, but their expression was too concentrated on my face to even notice the archery set that hung on my back.

"Miss Liliana?" I recognised her as the baker's wife. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Just as I was about to respond, someone else grabbed my arm and turned me around.

"She's here!" The tall man yelled over the crowd and dragged me to the middle, I was far too stunned to even comprehend what was happening.

"What?" I tried to get some answers, but my words were drowned out by the crowd.

"Liliana!" The sound of my father's voice caught my attention and I found him pushing through the crowd.

When he reached me, he pulled me into a tight hug, the scent of smoke and wood surrounding me and somehow welcoming me to safety. Behind him, I saw Varius in his proudest stance, eyes narrowing as they scanned me and lips pressed to a thin line. Still, behind that mask of anger that I sensed directed towards me, I saw his concern.

"We were so worried," My father said as he took my face in his hands to examine me. "We couldn't find you and the beast hadn't left anything behind and..."

"Wait," I interrupted him as I processed the words. "It didn't kill anyone?"

My father nodded and I felt an overwhelming emotion wash over me.

Since that first night many years ago, the beast had always remained a mystery, but its pattern was clear, it appears during the full moon and always takes one. During months when more than one dies, it is usually due to people being in its way or perhaps someone trying to try their luck and leave town, but even if no resistance is provided, we always end with one corpse, and the beast always made sure that the corpse would be found the next morning. So what did it mean now that everyone's alive?

"We thought that it had taken you," My father replied. "We thought you were this month's victim."

"But I wasn't," I replied before craning my neck to look over the crowd. "I'm safe, father. I'm alive."

Around me, people started to murmur.

"This is a miracle," A woman yelled over the crowd.

"Perhaps the Gods have finally answered our prayers!" Another one said.

Despite the murmurs around us, my father's eyes still rested on me with a determination I hadn't seen in him for a long time. After my mother's brutal murder, my father lost all hope in life. He still worked with the rest of the village's lumberjack and earned enough money for us to keep our house and have food on the table (with the addition of my secret hunts and Varius' salary of course), but he never longed for anything else. It had been like watching an unsettling machine at first, a creature only moving to do its duties but nothing more, and I had hated the emptiness in my father's eyes. However, seeing an emotion after so many years of nothing was almost more unsettling than warming, and my stomach did some flips as if to anticipate that something bad was going to happen.

"Let's go home," Varius said when he finally approached us. "Let her rest."

My father agreed and led me to our home, away from the people and the shouts of this month's miracle.

Did they know? Did they know that the beast was here tonight, that it had laid its eyes upon me and chased me into the woods? Did they know that someone was supposed to die today, but for the first time ever, another got away? I looked back at the crowd, some people had started crying, overwhelmed with hope as they wondered if this was the end to a terrible era while others shouted out warnings, saying that this could be the calm before the storm, that the beast would return the next month to slaughter them all without any mercy. The thought of facing the beast again made me shiver, and it was some kind of relief seeing the familiarity of the small building we called home.

My father ushered me to bed and it wasn't until this point that I realised how worn out I was by the sleepless night, how my legs ached from my escape and my heart still barely had recovered after the rush of adrenaline that kept me alive.

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The sight of my bed almost had me groaning in longing for something soft and warm, and I was unconscious moments before my head even hit the pillow, those golden eyes a mere afterthought in the back of my mind.

*****

When I woke up again the sun was way past midday and I realised before even comprehending anything else that I had left Nathan.

The thought of him being alone in the woods caused me to fly out of my bed, a decision I regretted as soon as the dizziness hit me and caused me to stumble back again. My second attempt was much more successful, and I quickly took my gear and my cloak before rushing out, walking straight into my brother in the process.

"Someone was in a hurry," My brother commented, brow raised in a silent question.

"I remembered that I errand to run," I lied instinctively. "Tell father that I'll be back for supper."

Turns out that it wasn't necessary, because I ran into my father as I reached the door.

"Father," I exclaimed, horrified. "I am so sorry."

"Why are you running?" My father's tone was harsh. "It is not appropriate."

I was so taken aback by his comment that I forgot that I had a place to be for a second. My father never commented about my un-ladylike behaviour, not when mother was around and certainly not after her death. It was not that he didn't mind, all parents would have loved to have a daughter like Viola Searthe from around the corner; graceful, kind, elegant and soft in every way, but my father had never taken the energy to correct me for wanting or being more than just a wallflower, until today.

"Father?" That was all I managed to get out as I stared at him.

"We'll talk about it later," My father said dismissively. "I'm glad that you're awake. We have a guest."

It wasn't until then that I noticed the stranger standing behind my father, a boy I recognised, but never had been able to get the name of. He was tall and brunette, probably some years older than myself but his boyish figure made him look a lot younger in comparison to the rest of the boys his age. He studied me from my head and down, and I got the sudden urge to wrap my cloak around me a little tighter.

"Liliana, this is Mr Hector Wallaby, son of the town messenger," My father introduced and Hector gave me a courteous nod.

"I'm glad to meet you, Mr Hector," I greeted, disguising all my scepticism to pure curiosity. "For what do we have the honour?"

"Liliana," My father said it in a way that indicated that it meant more than he was letting on, but I couldn't figure out what exactly he was referring to until he continued. "Mr Wallaby is the man I have chosen for you to marry." I suddenly forgot how to breathe.

"What?... Father?... This is outrageous!" I blurted out the word in disbelief, trying to remain on my feet as my head wouldn't stop spinning. "I can't marry him."

"You can and you will," My father said, tone determined. "It's about time that you act like the lady you were born to be, and Mr Wallaby is the perfect gentleman for that transition. He can offer you things I never could. He can keep you safe."

I looked back at the wispy boy who only looked uncomfortable by the developing conflict. Despite his length, I was pretty sure that even I could take him down a million times over before he ever managed to even get in a decent punch on a rag doll, much less a real threat. I was afraid that I'd break him by only giving him a too-harsh glare, I wasn't going to survive a life with him.

"You can't do this," I pleaded to my father. "I can do better, I can be better, just don't marry me off to him or anyone else without my consent, please."

"Your consent is irrelevant when all you do is run around town like an errand boy," I was taken back by my father's response. "You shall marry him, and the wedding shall take place one month and two weeks from this day, and that is my final decision."

The wood creaked under my feet and before I'd even realised what my body was doing, I was out the door and into the woods.