Ciarto Chronicles 3

On the balcony of a ruined castle, a huge monstrous beast collapsed onto the floor. Extreme weakness overcame the burdened creature. A young lady sat beside where the beast lay, caressing his face.

“You came back for me,” said Beast. “I thought you never will.”

“Of course I will, Beast,” replied Beauty. “I’m here and I’ll never leave you again.”

“You don’t have to. But at least I can get to see you one last time…”

“Don’t say that,” said Beauty, her sadness overwhelming the smoothness of her voice. “You’ll be fine. You’ll just need to…”

“No, Beauty… I’m so glad that I met you…”

After one last breath, the Beast closed his eyes and rested his head back onto the floor with a cushioned thud. Beauty flung her arms around the now lifeless creature with her eyes overflowing with tears. She shook the body in attempts that it will come back to life but to no avail.

“Beast… I… I love you…”

Light and black smoke emerged from the Beast’s body. Beauty was taken aback by the sudden turn of events. The smoke covered the entirety of the body and swirled upwards; the light flashed from within the smoke.

After a while, the light diminished and the smoke dissipated. A masculine human figure emerged from the smoke and walked towards Beauty.

“Beauty, it’s me! Beast!” said the man. “Our undying love for each other lifted the curse inflicted upon me by the enchantress. Now, we can be together…”

“But… but…”

“There’s no need to be frightened, Beauty. Now we can live our lives to the fullest until the day we die!”

“It’s not that… It’s just…”

“What is it, my love?”

“I admit. I loved you while you were a hideous beast but my yearning for love has changed. You see, Beast… After encountering the beast… I had changed…”

“I don’t understand.”

“I love you more in your beast form! I’m a zoophile now! I don’t love humans anymore! I want bestial love!”

Beast became aghast at what Beauty had just said. Tears fell from his eyes. He turned around and faced the cloudy sky.

“ENCHANTRESS!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “Turn me back into a beast! I beg of you! I don’t want to become human anymore! Please! I summon you, Enchantress!”

Meanwhile, two people were standing under the shade of the ruined roof just near the balcony where all the commotion was happening. They stood there, concealing themselves in the shadow, watching the Beauty and the Beast act all their misery.

“Umm… Ralian,” asked one of the two. “Why are we here again?”

“We’re supposed to find a relic in this castle,” replied the second one. “According to my father’s records, the relic should be somewhere around here in the top floor.”

“So… what are those two doing?”

“For crying out loud, Lorel, I don’t know what the hell is going on with those two. I’m just here for the relic. I’m very sorry if I got really distracted.”

“Apology accepted,” she replied with a sigh. “Just make sure that next time, I don’t get to see something like this again while on the job.”

“I really can’t assure you that.”

“Right… Let’s get this over with…”