Beauty and The Beast

It is a small village, deep in the countryside, where our story starts. This particular story is about a certain young girl who lives in this village with her two brothers and elderly father. On the day when our story begins, this girl could be found, wandering through the streets of the village, on her way to buy groceries, with her nose buried in book.

"Good morning, Levy!" A passer by called, and Levy glanced up from her book long enough to smile and wave in reply. Levy McGarden was never seen without a book in hand, and any day when she was usually turned out to be a very odd day indeed. She was a pretty young girl, not particularly beautiful, but certainly very pretty. With her wavy, shoulder length hair in a stunning shade of ocean blue, always held back off her face by her favourite orange headband. Her large eyes were a dark hazel in colour, set in her pale face, and were agreed by many young men in the village to be her most attractive feature.

Levy reached the bakers and stepped inside. "Good morning." She greeted the baker cheerfully. He greeted her back in the same fashion, a friendly smile upon his face, and she made her usual weekly request for bread.

As he went about picking out the freshest loaves, slicing them neatly, and wrapping them up, just for Levy, he absently chatted with her, though he knew she would only be paying the barest minimum of attention. However, she nodded and made agreeing noises in all the right places, so the baker didn't mind much. "There you go." He said finally, holding the bag out to her.

"Thanks." Levy replied happily, smiling cutely. She took her nose out of her book long enough to take the bag and tuck it under one arm. Then, her nose securely back in her book once again, she turned to leave with only an absent wave over her shoulder and a murmured "Bye."

The baker, however, had one last thing to say. "Wait, Levy!" Levy turned, dragging herself out of he book to look at him over her shoulder. "There's some kind of beast roaming the woods at the moment. It doesn't attack the livestock, just people. You live a ways out of the village, so just... be careful, ok? We wouldn't want you getting yourself hurt."

Levy blinked then smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm a strong girl, and I've got my brothers to protect me too!" She added cheerfully, with another cute smile. "Thank you for the warning though. I'll see you next week."

"See you, Levy." The baker replied, and Levy left the shop.

She stopped by the grocers, and the butchers also, and both gave her the same advice. By the time she was heading home, dusk was beginning to fall, and Levy found herself getting just a little jumpy as she made her way through the woods. "It's probably just a rabid dog or something." She muttered to herself, annoyed that she was letting herself get scared by a few rumours. She turned her attention resolutely back to her book, forcing all thoughts of this 'beast' out of her mind.

"Yo! Levy!" Levy's head jerked up at the call, and she smiled. Walking along the path towards her were her brothers. You wouldn't know they were related if you looked at them, but they were still a tight-knit family, and Jet and Droy would happily kill to protect their baby sister from harm. Droy was only an inch taller than Jet, though, with his black hair in a single spike atop his head, it sometimes seemed more than that. Jet, on the other hand, was ginger, and his hair was naturally spiky and somewhat untameable. He would never, ever been seen in public without his hat, which had been a present from his now deceased mother.

"Jet! Droy!" Levy called happily, waving. Her two brothers grinned and quickened their pace until they were stood in front of her. "What are you doing out here?" Levy asked, though she was by no means unhappy about this turn of events.

Jet was the one who answered, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "We were worried about our baby sister, so we came to find her." Levy rolled her eyes, but said nothing as the three of them set off again.