When Will (M)y Life Begin?

[readlliea]

The village was abuzz with seeing a new person, where had she come from? Her dress had a few small tears in it. Poor thing...she looked famished. but the news that had everyone's attention was the screaming of Wolf and the girl's lack of knowlege. Everone stared at her, looks of confusion, surprise, and disbelief there. Even worry glinting in their eyes. What if it was all a trick? From the crowd, a young woman marched out. The noticeable thing about her was the long crimson cloak she wore, the hood resting on her shoulders as her gaze landed upon her.

"You mustn't be from these parts." The woman stated firmly. "Tell me, what is all the fuss about?"

"The wolf! It was there, probably about to eat her!" the old woman said as her wagon came to a halt.

A brow was raised as the woman in red turned her gaze around, watching the frightened and uneasy people. The traps had been set up to try and keep him away from people..had they driven him to another town? It was seeming so...how much destruction had he caused? Did he eat everyone there?

"Huntsman, did you see it?" The woman asked. "And you, are you from a different town? It might explain why you know nothing of the Wolf."

[PendragonXeno94]

"No," the huntsman replied. "All I saw was this lady was trying to make her way here. And the wolf ran off before I could get to him."

"He was helping me out of a trap," Rapunzel replied.

"Wha- Why would he do that? He was about to eat you."

She shook her head. "He wouldn't do that." She turned to the woman with the crimson cloak. "I've lived in a tower all my life. I got sick of waiting for the prince to come back, the witch who raised me never came back with provisions, so I cut my hair off and escaped. I did run into the prince a while back, but I haven't seen him since I came back this way."

"What tower?"

"There's one in the clearing a ways out."

[readlliea]

"Surely a trick on his part. He tried to help me once and all I got for it was him trying to eat my Grandmother and me." The woman replied in a firm, angry voice. "Well Rapunzel, it is terrible to hear such news of your raising. We were under the impression of that Tower being abandoned and with the Wolf having eaten two people, everyone has been keeping out of the forest. Save for the Huntsman and Woodsman."

"The wolf is evil!!! He tried to eat my brothers and I!!" A male voice shouted.

The voice belonged to a pudgy man in a suit, their strawberry blonde hair rested on their head as they held onto their walking stick. Two more men who looked similiar to em were next him. Only difference was attire. One was dressed more like a farmer, and the other was wearing a simple village attire.

"He's right. We're were all in our houses too and he blew them down! He sucked in the wind and made it blow our homes away and then he tried to eat us!" The second said.

"Calm yourselves Pigginton brothers. We are all aware of what hte wolf did." The woman said. "Come rapunzel, I know someone who can tell you more about the Wolf and you'll see just how much danger you were truly in."

[PendragonXeno94]

"Two?" Surely, he wasn't an actual wolf, though she couldn't deny the things that were told to her. Even the three brothers who claimed the wolf blew their houses down and tried to eat them, as crazy as their story sounds, she couldn't help but wonder what could have happened to cause her companion to do that.

Following the woman, she glanced over at the huntsman who followed behind.

"Did you want me to try and go after him, Red?" he asked. "I told you Franz and I can shoot him if we have to."

Rapunzel felt the blood draining from her face as she continued to walk with them.

[readlliea]

"You are more experienced in dealing with....these types of things. Franz may have saved me and my grandmother but, they are less inexperienced in trapping and such..." Red replied as she walked, a pondering expression on her face.

Franz was the woodsman from her tale and while they shared skills with one another, The Huntsman knew how to kill a wild animal. He was the one to trick the evil queen with a pig's heart rather than the Princess's heart. Franz had been brave when he sliced open the wolf with their wood cutting axe but over time, Red saw how that affected him. He was never proud of the fact he had to go to such a extreme and admitted it was pure adrenaline and terror that pushed him through the event. She didn't want to break the poor man further.

"Once we're done with helping Rapunzel understand and even set her up with a place of her own, we'll consult the officals with this. Maybe now they'll take the wolf's threat seriuosly." Red answered finally.

Leading Rapunzel to a old castle, it wasn't used by royalty anymore. Rather it had simply been abandoned in the town's growing stage. Why had that been? Who owned it before? So hard to say but, that wasn't the point. The person who was currently living here was the key to their puzzle. She knocked firmly on the door and waited for someone to answer. There was the sound of something moving around in the old place...now if only they would come to the darn door already...

"Rapunzel, while we are waiting. What exactly went on between you and the wolf?" Red asked without looking behind her.

[PendragonXeno94]

"I see." The huntsman walked off, leaving Rapunzel and Red to walk to the abandoned castle.

Rapunzel sighed. "After I left the tower, the wolf found me and I offered to help him find food out in the clearing. The prince I'd been waiting for was there and I left him after I made it clear that I wouldn't take him back. I went back into the woods and the wolf ran after me and he was helping me get back to the village. My dress got caught in a trap and he managed to open it so I could make my way here." She shook her head. "Who exactly did he eat, anyway?"

She could understand the distrust in the wolf as he supposedly destroyed the Piggintons' houses, but what else was there to make them even consider killing him?

[readlliea]

"I told you, he ate my grandmother and me." Red replied, a bit snappy. "We're alive thanks to the woodsman but who knows how many denizens of the wood he's eaten."

A brow was raised at her story. A Prince? Oh dear.

"Wait, you didn't lose sight of the Wolf and the Prince during that time did you? Where's this Prince?" Red questioned. "IF this Prince is from far away, he won't know of the danger he's in by that beast."

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh." Well, the way Red worded it didn't it make it sound like they were eaten. When asked if she lost sight of the wolf and prince, she shrugged. "The wolf ran off before I left the prince. But... the last time I saw him was at the tower. I'm not sure if he left after I did."

The door creaked open. Taking a deep breath, Rapunzel entered and waited for Red to show her the way. Already, she felt as though coming to the village was a mistake. Perhaps she should have gone in the other direction and see if she could have found the cabin that was supposed to be tucked away.

"Come in," a husky voice called, sending shivers down Rapunzel's spine.

[readlliea]

"Great...." Red muttered, not pleased with this news at all.

She was for sure gonna bring this up to those in charge now. If there was a Prince in those woods....how long till he was dead? With the doors open, she gestured for Rapunzel to follow. Walking into the dark and dreary place, one would note that small things moved in the darkness. A candle suddenly flared to life, complete with a face and eyes. They would wave to the pair before bouncing down from the table and leading the way.

"Beast, I hope this isn't a inconvenient time." Red said as they finally came to a stop. "But we have someone....rather obilivious about The Wolf. I was hoping you could explain to her the danger it holds while I tell the...'others' some things."

[PendragonXeno94]

Rapunzel jumped a little from the candle coming to life and bouncing off the table for them to follow. When they finally stopped, she looked upon a tall, ghastly beast who was sitting at is desk, quickly jotting things down in his book. Her eyes widened as she took a step back before Red addressed him.

"It's fine," the beast answered. "But telling the others isn't going to change anything. You know that." Rising from his seat, he staggered over to her and Rapunzel before stopping in front of them. "Surely you know about the wolf. The only way you don't is if you've been locked away or are from somewhere else entirely."

"Well..." Rapunzel began, taking a deep breath before gulping. "I lived in a tower all my life before I decided to cut my own hair and escaping."

The beast trained his beady yellow eyes on her. "I've always thought that tower was abandoned, but things do change when you're... like this." He lost count of how many years he was in this form, and he had yet to find a way to break the curse. "What is your name?"

"Rapunzel."

"Hm." He dipped his head. "Welcome to our village, Rapunzel." He stepped to the side and began to make his way to the door. "Walk with me?"

Hesitating for a moment, Rapunzel finally nodded and followed behind him.

"You don't have to be afraid of me."

The beast's booming but gentle tone cause her to jump somewhat before she cautiously went to his side.

"Now, what do you know about the wolf?"

"I came across him in the woods, and I brought him back to the tower so he could find some proper game before the prince I was waiting for showed up and he gave me some poor ass excuse about why he hadn't come. I left him, and the wolf came back and tried to help me get to the village. I got my dress caught in one of the traps..."

Sighing, the beast only nodded. He could understand the wolf's frustrations as the traps made it difficult for him to hunt as well.

[readlliea]

"Considering how the Wolf is...he may have just gotten us all in trouble." Red retorted before she walked off, disappearing from the castle.

As the two progressed through the castle, there was a bit more light. The darkness fading away to reveal a more normal look. Still it was still rough looking but no longer ruined or abandoned looking. Perhaps due to this area being more used. The candlestick was still following them. However there was the sound of wheels squeaking as a cart came down the hall. Screeching to a halt as a teapot was revealed to be sitting there...one that had eyes and a mouth.

"Oh Master, quickly! THe young master is hurt!" the teapot cried, worry in her voice before the cart somehow turned round and rocketed down the hall.

If the two followed, they would find a young man sitting there on the floor. Taking deep breathes in the attempt to stay calm. Their short brown hair looked messy and their eyes were closed at the moment. He wore a solider's uniform but a cloth one, clearly not a knight nor the member of the army. But a simple town guardsman. What would draw the most attention beside the smell of blood was the iron beartrap that was still around his ankle or was it his ankle? For what was in the beartrap was....a literal bear's hind paw.

"Master Yohan, the Master should be coming. Madam Tea is fast on her cart." A feather duster urged.

"Well I can't be of much use here if we can't get those holes." a bucket of boiling water remarked.

Opening his eyes revealed the green eyes that they had. Although there was something off to their appearance the closer one got. What looked to be fur was growing in random areas on him, their left side of their face seemed to be covered in it as a round ear flicked. Parts of some sort of 'fur coat' rested on his right shoulder and could be seen wraped around them before trailing off. They looked rather strange in all truth...like a combination of a man and a bear.

"Pray tell why would you take the young master out there when we ALL know what is happening?" A talking clock demanded to know as he stared at one of the objects who had been with Yohan.

[PendragonXeno94]

The beast hurried down the hall.

"Who's Yohan?" asked Rapunzel.

"He's a friend," the beast answered as he ran. "He's like a brother to me."

Once they reached Yohan, Rapunzel could see that his foot was caught in one of the traps... though she looked at it curiously upon seeing that it looked like the hind paw of a bear. As she got closer, she could see that one of his ears was rounder and fur was sprouting in some places. She went to grab a piece of his cloak off his shoulder as she thought it was peeling off.

"It's alright, Rapunzel," the beast said as he knelt next to Yohan. "That's just his bearskin." With that, he snapped the trap open and in half in one fell swoop. tossing the trap to the side, he glared at Yohan. "What were you doing out there? You know the villagers have been putting more traps out because of the wolf."

Rapunzel sat on her knees as she took some rags from the cart and put them in the bucket of water. "Hold still," she said, gently pressing the rag to Yohan's ankle.

[readlliea]

The small section she touched did indeed pull up, causing a sound to leave Yohan as he shuddered. Although with the trap removed, he grabbed at one of the thicker areas of the fur and pulled. Sure enough, the strange changes faded away as he pulled what looked to be the hide of a massive bear off, and he thrust it to the side. The effort seemingly taking some energy out of him as he took unsteady breathes.

"I went out...with Sterling, a run to the market was what it was suppose to be. I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye at the forest edge and I went to investigate...probably that damn devil.." Yohan admitted as he grimaced. "Like normal I ended up getting lured into what the bearskin wanted."

A surprised look was on his face as Rapunzel seemed to set to work on helping out. Though a pained hiss of air left him as he restrained himself from grabbing at his ankle as she tried to help. The bucket moved itself closer to Rapunzel, giving her easier access to it.

"Who...Whose this?" Yohan forced out.

[PendragonXeno94]

"You've got to stop wearing the bearskin," the beast told Yohan. "It's going to get you killed someday."

Rapunzel began to wipe the blood off Yohan's ankle and glanced down at the bucket, which had brought itself closer to her so she could have easier access. She even saw that Yohan's changes faded when he pulled the bearskin off.

The beast placed a massive paw on Rapunzel's shoulder. "This is Rapunzel. She just came from the clearing."

As much as she didn't like seeing someone in pain, she continued to cleanse Yohan's wound before grabbing some bandages and worked to wrap it around his ankle. "I've lived in the tower all my life," she added.

[readlliea]

"If it was that easy, I would've done it a long while again." Yohan replied as he gave a sigh. "Feels like it gets harder and harder..."

In all honesty, it did. The curse that made it possible for the bearskin to literally turn him into a bear, it fused with his body. Tore apart his mind to replace it with the feral power of a beast...quite literally. With the kind of magic that did that, it was often with things that would slowly change the person afflicted. In all honesty, he found it hard to just leave the bearskin whenever he did leave. For now, he was able to feel at ease with shoving it into a bag. But..how long would that last?

"Well..this is a poor first impression for you on my part. I'm Yohan." Yohan greeted, trying to ignore the pain. "Tower? That abandoned one that everyone said had no way in or was cursed?"