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I know the clothes the girls in the pic are wearing don't exactly fit with the story and the redhead is too short but I thought it was a cute pic that could depict Red, Cindy, and Belle. :P
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The night sky, jet black and dotted with thousands of glittering diamonds, reflected on the ocean's surface, albeit with slight distortions. A cool breeze blew over the waves, filling enough of The Hispaniola's sails to give her a steady pace. On its deck were just a handful of men. Some were mopping the deck while others were securing lines, and a few were just drinking rum and conversing. Sinbad was at the wheel, keeping the ship straight and basking in the starlight.
At the bow, sitting in a circle, were Red, Cindy, and Belle with a lantern in between them. Bigbad wandered the deck, stretching his legs and anxiously awaiting landfall. The wolf had grown increasingly uneasy on the ship and the lack of islands to anchor by to allow him to run only made matters worse. Swimming helped but most of the time the waves were too big even for him to paddle through without risking his life. Red worried for him but as of yet he had not attacked or bit anyone and she was doing well in keeping him calm. His tail always wagged when Hook came to see him and the former captain often tried to spend some time with the huge canine to alleviate some of the beast's stress. Some of the pirates were uneasy around Bigbad and there were whispers of some thinking about skinning him, which stressed Red greatly.
"Red?" Belle asked, catching the young woman's attention.
The redhead blinked rapidly, gathering her senses and returning to the conversation. "Sorry, I'm just worried about Bigbad..."
"He can feel that, you know. The more you worry the more he does as well."
"I know. It's difficult not to when the crew only wants him as a rug..."
"They're just rumors and they wouldn't try anything if Captain Silver didn't order it. Besides, Beast wouldn't let them."
Red felt slightly better hearing that, but only very slightly. "How is Beast, by the way? Is he fighting to get out and stretch his legs?"
Belle smiled. "He is doing just fine. I know our bond is a rather odd one but Beast does not require any exercise to be happy. He is with me always and as long as I don't ignore him completely he is content."
Red had wanted to ask Belle more about her and Beast but had never found the right time to. Considering her current circumstance, she figured that now was better than never. "Can you explain to Cindy and I a bit more of how that works? I just find it difficult to wrap my head around how two completely different people can share one body and yet have different forms, let alone fall in love with one another. I've heard of shapeshifters but I didn't know they had separate selves."
"Some do," Belle said with a shrug. "Usually they are of the same gender, though, and I understand why it's difficult to comprehend. It started when I was in my teens. I was growing up as a normal girl did, helping Mother with the house and sometimes going outside to help Father with the crop and the yard. It was all rather ordinary until puberty hit. I began hearing a masculine voice within my head but it wasn't my conscience. It would talk to me like an entirely different person and I told Mother about it but she didn't fully believe me. It was when I told Father about it that he sat me down one night, as Mother slept, and told me the tale of the Twin Souls.
"Apparently, thousands of years ago a twisted and deranged warlock was trying to create the perfect werewolf. It would be immune to silver, ten times as powerful, with skin as tough as iron, and faster than a horse. He got his wish. A homeless man he had captured and experimented on transformed into the first Beast. What the warlock had not considered was that these two forms shared different souls but were tied together by potent magic. At first the transformation could happen only once. After the homeless man had transformed into the first Beast he was unable to return to his human form. His soul was alive, however, and it is believed that he could still communicate with the Beast. As you can guess, the first Beast attacked the warlock in a fit of fury. It failed, though, and it was destroyed by its one weakness."
"Magic," Red stated, remembering how Artemian's enchanted arrows had been the only ones capable of piercing Beast's hide.
"Yes. The warlock created more shapeshifters and before long there were so many of them that a population of them could be supported. He used them as guardians for his castle until one day he died. Father told me that he was assassinated but he also said that it was possible that his shapeshifters had turned on him. With his hold broken, the shapeshifters fled into the countryside. They soon became a problem and nations rose up against them, sending out huge hunting parties that slaughtered nearly all of them. Obviously some survived but their numbers were few. My father was one the last ones."
Red and Cindy exchanged glances, both of them reflecting on the tale. The latter asked, "Did you ever see your father's...Beast?"
Belle shook her head. "No. Father told me that he had grown silent for some time and didn't know if was even still alive. I remember some nights, however, when I would spot my father sneaking out of the house at night. When I asked him about it he told me he was only checking on the livestock, ensuring that there were no wolves patrolling about, but I suspect he used those nights to let his Beast roam free for a little while."
"So you don't know if his Beast was male or female?"
"No, I don't. It doesn't matter because Father told me that night when he recounted the tale of our origin that it was best to leave it a secret and find a man to wed, despite the comfort the Beast could bring. I tried, which is why I had previous dealings with Artemian but I don't need to tell you how those worked out."
Red furrowed her brows in concentration. "So after Beast was discovered you went on the run and that was when you fell in love with him?"
Belle nodded. "I know how it sounds. It's like I fell in love with myself and in a way I suppose you could say I did but Beast is an entirely different being. He has his own thoughts, his own likes, his own urges, and we are as different as you and I. We just share a single body."
"If there was a way, would you want him as a separate person?"
Belle took a few moments to reply as she gave the question some thought. "I do."
Cindy was staring into the lantern's flame when she said, "That's why you came with us."
"What?"
"You want to see if Empress Rhiannon knows of a way to split your two souls into two bodies."
Belle hugged herself, her eyes on the flickering lantern flame. "Yes..."
Red felt a slight pinprick of anger shoot through her body. "So you were just using us to get to the Noyr Empire?"
Belle lifted her gaze and shook her head. "No, of course not! I do want to help you rescue Selvina. I truly do! I only thought that since we were heading in the same direction I wished to initially go that I would tag along. Please do not doubt my loyalty to you. I am not using anyone for anything. I've lived with Beast my whole life. I would only go to Rhiannon with my request after we had rescued Selvina and completed her quest, the one you told me about."
"Do you think she'd help you?"
Belle smiled and nodded. "I do. It is a well-known fact that she can transform into a dragon and her situation may be similar to mine."
Cindy, her eyes still on the flame, asked, "If she hasn't separated from her dragon self what makes you think she can separate you from Beast?"
"I don't know. I only hope that she can offer me some information on how to do so, if she can't do it herself. As an Empress, she can't exactly go off on grand quests for years at a time in search of a way to be rid of her dragon self."
Red shrugged. "From what I've heard of her she probably doesn't want to lose her dragon self. Considering that she governs an entire empire, being able to transform into a dragon must certainly dissuade a large number of rival nation assassins."
"Perhaps," Belle said. "I still think I should seek her out and ask."
Red watched Cindy stare at the flame with incredible interest and focus. "What do you see, Cindy?"
Cindy blinked and looked away. "I...I saw nothing."
"You were watching something. Don't lie to me. What did you see?"
Cindy glanced at Red and Belle and then down at the lantern. "Death."
Icy claws crawled down Red's spine at the mention of the word. "Whose?"
"Many people I don't know. I saw slain soldiers, ruined castles, burning forests, boiling oceans, poisoned lakes and rivers, and just...death, so much death. There was a tall, black mountain with steps carved into its surface that led all the way to the summit. A man in black robes stood there, watching the world die." Cindy swallowed and fixed her bulging grey eyes on Red's sapphire ones. "In his hand there was a piece of parchment and a quill."
Red gasped. "The Writer!"
"The same one Selvina is tasked with stopping?" Belle asked.
"There is only one and he apparently wishes the destruction of all of Faeryum," Cindy replied. "I don't know if what I saw was the future or just my imagination getting the better of me but normally when I see images in flames they are of memories of the past."
"So it's possible this might not happen?"
"I suppose it's possible but the vision was terribly vivid and it left me feeling powerless."
Red glanced up at the sails, wishing they were just a little fuller. "We need to get a damned boat fast. The sooner we rescue Selvina, the sooner we can stop this Writer."
"Why do we not use this one?" Belle asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Captain Silver is a pirate and it's too dangerous for him to be travelling to places like Nyor. The Empress's fleet would most likely sink his ship on site and kill us all before we ever had a chance to explain ourselves. I doubt this ship would even make it to Nyor intact."
"He'd gut you if he heard you talking that way about his ship," Cindy said with a forced smirk.
"He could try... I don't care much for pirates."
"I would have never guessed," was Cindy's dry reply. "They aren't that bad, you know."
"They're pirates, Cindy. Of course they're bad."
"Jack told me that Hook used to be one for a little while. Do you not care for him?"
Red sighed. "He changed his ways. He's a different man now."
"I don't believe that," Belle said. "I may know a thing or two about being different people and though Hook's profession changed he is still the same man. Captain Silver, though a pirate, doesn't seem like a horrible person. He's just made some bad decisions in life."
Red reflected on her words for a few moments. She had seen several pirates whenever she visited Tortug and knew them as heavy drinkers, brawlers, rapers and downright criminals. Peter Pan, to her, was the true meaning of a pirate. He stole whatever he wished and claimed it for himself, be it gold, ships, or women. He had done nothing but increase her hate for the seaborne felons. Though Captain Silver had treated her fairly and had been considerate enough to allow Bigbad on his ship she had no love for him or his crew. The sooner she was off his ship, the better.
"Have you always been able to see images in flames?" Belle asked Cindy, making Red veer her thoughts away from cutthroats and brigands.
Cindy nodded. "Back in Kenmard I would sell matches to help feed my step-father's bad habits. On cold nights when I had made very few sales I would sometimes find an alley to sleep in instead of going home and dealing with his rage. He didn't like it when I didn't sell any; it meant less vodka for him and thus more beatings for me. So as I slept in the alleys I would sometimes light matches to keep me warm on cold nights. It did not take long before I saw images in them. They would keep me company and bring me joy, something I had very little of. My step-brothers and step-father were horrible people and made my life unbearable but there in the alleys, all alone with my matches, I found comfort and happiness. The flames didn't feed me, though, and had I not run into Red and Selvina, I would probably have starved to death by now. I owe them my lives."
Cindy offered Red a sincere smile, which she was more than happy to return. "I can't speak for Selvina but I don't regret it for a second."
Belle chuckled lightly. "What a glorious trio of orphans we make. Is Selvina the only one in our group with any parents?"
Red gave it some thought. Jack's father had died a few years ago. Red's own parents were long dead. Cindy's mother was deceased and Belle's parents were also gone from the world of the living. Hook had been an orphan from an early age and she didn't know about Sinbad. He never spoke of his parents. "Bigbad might have been kidnapped from his parents so he might still have some somewhere but I think you're right. Sinbad might not be an orphan but as far as I know Selvina is the only one with any live parents we know about."
"It's a rather dismal thought, really..."
Cindy smiled and the lantern's flame grew larger and glowed brighter. "No, it's not. In a way, she's our parent. We are all here together because of her. Red and Bigbad brought her to Tortug, where they met Hook and Sinbad, and eventually Jack. When they reached Kenmard it was she who was adamant about taking me on board with them. We then found you in Frenis and because she was kidnapped by Pan you decided to come help us. Without Selvina, we would not be here. We would be....well, I don't know. I'd probably be dead..."
"I'd be terrorizing Grandmother with Bigbad and making a living off capturing petty highwaymen and thieves." added Red.
"I'd probably be fleeing somewhere with Artemian close behind me," said Belle. "My life would be much the same as it has always been."
Bigbad approached the girls and plopped down between Red and Belle, resting his huge muzzle on the redhead's lap. He yawned, licked his lips, and then closed his eyes, falling asleep immediately. Red scratched behind his ear with one hand and gave his thick neck a hug. "Bigbad might be happier, though. He doesn't like ships."
"No," Cindy started, "I think he's more anxious about Selvina. He misses her."
"Yeah," Red said with a smile, eyeing her most loyal companion fondly. "He misses scaring her whenever she rides him." She gave the wolf a kiss on the head and rested her cheek atop of it. "I miss her too, Bigbad."
"We all miss her."
Belle nodded in agreement. "But we'll get her back, I'm sure of it."
"If Pan hasn't done anything to her by now..." Red muttered grimly. She held hope that he hadn't but with every day that passed with Selvina still in his grasp a bit of hope slipped away. She devoted her life to finding Pan in order to rescue Selvina but if she found him without her she'd then do everything in her power to kill him. She might die in the process but she would give Pan the fight of his life. Selvina deserved as much.
She deserved much more, but it was the best Red could do.
"Hang in there," she whispered, her thoughts on the blonde with the heart of gold.