Boy and the Beast

In a small village, there lives a young boy with his older sister, both are adopted orphans. Their father is a merchant, and every two weeks, he leaves to purchase his goods that he will sell to the villagers. Their foster father quite loves his two children, even if he is not their real father. The man is single, so he only has his foster children to love and care for, along with whatever little injured creatures the both of them find at the edge of the woods. Every two weeks, he always asks the same thing of his adopted children before he leaves,
"What do you want as a present?"
Every two weeks, they both answer the same; the girl always says,
"It doesn't matter that much, father. I just want something very pretty."
And the boy always says,
"I only want you to come home safe, father."
Well, on this day, the father has decided enough is enough. He can understand and cherishes the selflessness of his adopted son, but he can still want to give his son something nice. The man kneels down in front of his son, who now has to look down at his father, as the man is not going to win any competitions in height. The merchant places one firm and gentle hand on his son's shoulder as he looks at the boy with a soft smile.
"Come now, Pip, surely there is something you want?" The man insists, but the boy just shakes his head.
"No, father, all I want is for you to come home safely." The boy insists, but his sister scoffs at him from behind. The father ignores his daughter's reaction and keeps his focus on Pip.
"Come now, I'm sure you can think of something, my boy." The merchant insists once again with a smile.
The blonde boy thinks for a moment, as he can see that his father isn't going to give up this time. He looks all around with just his eyes from his standpoint, trying to figure out what he could want. When he sees a certain carving in the wood around the doorframe, the blonde smiles a bit and looks back at his father to say,
"I would like a rose, then. No particular color, just a rose."
The brunette father beams as he stands up and pats his son's shoulder, jostling him a bit.
"A rose it is, then. I'm off now."
And with that, the father turns and opens the door, giving a goodbye to his children before leaving the house. The boy smiles before he shouts out in surprise when something hits the back of his head, and turning around, he sees his sister giving a smirk before running away to another room. The boy rubs the back of his hand and looks forlornly back at the door before walking back further into the house.

The brunette merchant sits on his horse buggy now full of his usual items to sell, his chestnut mare pulling the buggy quietly, the only sound is the clopping of horse's hooves and his various items moving about from the gravelly road. It's been two days since he left to get his items, as getting to the town takes about a day each way on a horse-drawn carriage; it's night right now, but the streets are lit with plenty of streetlights. Back in town, he got his daughter a necklace that he's sure she would love, but he has yet to find his son a rose, and the thought is plaguing his mind. His son has never asked for anything, and he would be heartbroken to see his son be dejected the first time he did.
The man sighs and pulls his hand through his short hair, still wondering where he could find a rose. He suddenly blinks and rubs his eyes when everything gets fuzzy, but then realizes that it's only getting foggy. The merchant ignores it at first, he flicks the reigns on the horse to keep her going; after only a few minutes, the fog is so thick he can barely see his hand outstretched at arms length. Soon, though, he sees lights, but his horse snorts and slows down a bit, but continues when the man flicks the reigns once more.
The merchant gapes and pulls the mare's reigns, which makes her whinny a bit and clop her hooves as she is forced to move back a bit. Right in front of the man is a huge mansion, larger than any home he's ever seen. Before the mansion are metal gates with intricate patterns, and the gates are open. Curious, but still cautious, the man jumps off of his seat and walks over to his horse, reassuring her with a stroke on the neck.
With a bit of apprehension, the man walks past the gates and into the opening of the mansion's property. The man looks around in amazement at the lush garden that fills the entryway; there are flowers of every color and hue anyone could ever imagine, and plenty that most people wouldn't have. The merchant smiles brightly as he beholds a large bush of red roses, all fully lush and starting to bloom, making them perfect.
The man walks over to the rose bush, crouches down in front of it, and reaches out, carefully avoiding the thorns. He takes one rose stem in his hand and begins to pull on one of the roses. The man tugs on the stem and swiftly picks the flower. He pulls it to his face and takes a light sniff of the beautiful rose with a smile, reveling in the aroma as beautiful as the rose's look.
"I'm sure the master of this mansion won't mind one little rose missing." The man says mostly to himself.
"And just how do you know that?" A deep harsh, near-inhuman voice asks.
The man jumps visibly and twists around, jumping to his feet and staggering backwards at the sight. There is a large beast as black as the night, the only way the man can see the creature is from the lights illuminating the garden room. The beast is covered in black fur; where a face is, he has a wolfish muzzle and blaring red eyes that glow on their own; between his animal ears is a pair of horns that curl downward around the sides of the beast's muzzle; he is covered in only a pair of breeches; the beast is built with a thin frame, and seems to be only about the man's height, but his ferocious glare makes up in intimidation.
The beast steps forward and grabs the man's wrist that is holding the rose, his claws narrowly scratching the man. The scared merchant cries out in fear and his knees grow weak in his terror and he can barely keep himself up. The beast's eyes turn from the man to the rose and then back at the human. The man is shoved down onto the ground by the beast, and he bites back his startled yelp.
"Why do you take someone's property?" The beast growls out.
"I…I n-need it f-for my son." The merchant stutters out with a shaking terrified voice.
"You have stolen something of mine. In exchange for this rose, I will take your son. You have until the last rose petal has fallen. If he is not here within that time, I will take your life instead." The beast commands with a growl to emphasize his threat.
Before the man can respond, the beast turns around and walks away from him, leaving the man still scared and cowering in fear. Without his real knowledge, the man gets up and walks away from the garden, out past the gates, and climbs up onto his horse buggy. The horse snorts and walks backwards as the gates groan while closing on their own; the man looks down at the rose in his hands, gasping when he sees a petal already fall to the side right behind him.
The man digs out a bag from his pants pocket and places the rose inside it before pulling the drawstrings at the top and then places the string around his arm, to make sure it won't go anywhere. The man grabs the reigns and tugs for the horse to turn, and after a whinny of protest, she turns and then gallops at full speed away. They are soon engulfed in fog once more, but after a bit, the fog dissipates and he finds that he is back on the road to the village.
~*~
Just as the sun begins to kiss the land pink and orange with yellow, the merchant reigns his horse back into a slower trot as he enters his home village. The horse has white foam at the sides of her muzzle as she pants from pure exhaustion at being pushed to run so hard. With a bit of help from a passing friend, the merchant unhitches the mare from the buggy and places her in the stable with water and food, which she begins working on right away; meanwhile, the man asks for his friend to help unload the contents while he checks up on his kids. He has known the man since childhood, and knows he can be fully trusted with the goods.
With the rose inside the bag and the white gold necklace in one hand, the merchant walks up the steps to his front door and reaches out, but wavers. He opens the bag and looks inside, sighing at the sight of the rose still intact, but grimaces that five more petals fell during the time he took to get home. The man's frame begins shaking; he knows that the rose can't last for more than a day at this rate. Taking a deep breath, the brunette merchant gathers his courage, grabs the door handle, and opens it.
Being so early, it shocks the foster father that his son is already wide awake and petting the latest injured grey striped tabby in the middle of the main room. The blonde boy looks up and looks just as surprised as his father at the other's presence, but nonetheless smiles brightly as he picks up the cat and stands up while looking at his father.
"Welcome home, father. You're earlier than usual." Pip says happily as he walks towards the man.
"I was in a bit of a rush." The man forces a smile and light tone, despite the darkness overhanging his head and the beast's words echoing in his head.
"Father's home?!"
Pip gasps and stumbles as he is shoved out of the way while his sister forces herself towards their foster dad and wraps her arms around the man. The man lightly hugs her back, being wary of the delicate rose in the bag in his hand, and reaching his arm out to indicate that he wants Pip in as well. The blonde boy brightens considerably from his dejected stare at his sister as he walks forward and hugs his father with one hand while holding the small cat in the other.
"What did you bring back, father?" The girl asks excitedly, getting straight to her point.
"I got you this."
The father takes the necklace from his hand into his free hand and holds it up to his daughter. The girl gasps in excitement with a face as bright as the midday sun and snatches the necklace greedily before hugging it to her bosom and squealing in delight. The girl rushes away to her room to put on the necklace in front of her mirror. The man looks over to Pip with a smile, seeing the boy is already crouched down petting the cat already.
The man's happiness dies as he remembers the beast's words once more, looking down to the rose inside the bag, his face paling at the sight of another two petals fallen already. The father places his hand on his son's head and tells him in a dejected tone to follow him as he walks to the main room. The man sits down on their couch and waits for his son to join him; once the boy is sitting on the couch cat-free, the man pulls out the rose.
"Pip…what I'm about to tell you is completely true." The man begins as he hands over the rose that is now a shadow of its former beauty with so many petals lost.
"I would never not believe you, father." Pip replies as he marvels at the rose.
Pip's foster father takes a deep breath and sighs it out before looking at his adopted son. The boy smiles reassuringly at his foster father and waits for whatever the man is going to tell him. It takes a bit for the man to gather more of his courage, but once he begins his tale, it seems to just flow out of its own accord. He tells of the predicament he was in about forgetting to get a rose until the last minute, stumbling upon the mansion, going inside to the garden, picking the rose, describing the beast in all the details he could find words for, and finally the threat of the beast.
Once he is finished, the man looks over at his son sadly. The blonde is only staring at the ground quietly, contemplating on the story. He cannot believe that his father would make this up for many reasons, the biggest being that his father has little to no imagination, and could never fabricate the beast he described. The blonde then stares at the rose, his blue eyes growing wide as one little petal from the red rose falls down to the ground without any reason to. That was another nail in the coffin to finish this mystery for the blonde.
"I'll go." The two little words are barely a whisper, but the man hears them.
"You can't, Pip, that thing will kill you." The man says.
"We can't be sure about that. Besides, I can't let you die. I couldn't do that to my sister." Pip stands up with the rose still in his hand.
The man reaches out to grab his foster son's arm, but flinches back as the boy jerks his arm forward.
"You can't change my mind, father. I'm going." The boy says sternly, in a tone that leaves no room for argument.
Before the man can argue, Pip bolts out of the room and to the door, leaving it wide open in his rush. As the man calls out for his son, he calls his name frantically, but they fall on deaf ears as he squints into the brightness outside that has grown in only about an hour. The man's panic rises as he hears the mare's cry before the sound of hooves hitting the pavement harshly and swiftly. The father watches as his adopted son rides away from the town to his plausible doom, and in one swoop, the realization that the boy's fate with the beast is entirely his fault drags him to the ground in sorrow. He continues watching the now-empty area while muttering frantic apologies into the light wind.
~*~
The blonde boy tugs on the reigns and mutters for the horse to calm down after he is sure that the village is far enough behind. The boy stokes the chestnut mare's neck and mutters praise to the hose, although his mind is far off. He is looking around while the mare walks down a cobblestone trail; it has just hit him that he has no idea how to get to this mansion his father was talking about. Just as this thought strikes him, he sees that there is a bit of a fog growing around him. Just as the night before, the very tired mare snorts at the unnatural fog, but continues at her rider's edging.
Pip gapes much like his father had as his blue eyes take in the large mansion once the fog clears. With some edging, Pip gets the horse to go to the gate, which is closed this time. The horse cries and rears up before moving back as the gates groan and creak open by pulling inward; it amazes Pip that the gates open on their own. Nervously, Pip edges for the hose to keep going, and gets her to walk inside to the open garden before the mansion; Pip is shocked and breathless at the sight of the vibrant colors of the flowers.
The blonde climbs down from his horse and keeps the reign in one hand while the red rose, now significantly reduced in petals. With the horse calmed down, but still exhausted, she follows the human as he walks to the large door and stays still with ears flattened on her skull. The boy releases her reign as he reaches out and, after inspecting the look of it, grasps the snarling brass wolf door knocker and knocks with it three times, hearing the echoes. The boy waits for a few minutes, wondering what he will see, shaking at what his imagination has come up with from his father's description of the beast.
The door squeaks a bit as it is pulled open from the inside, and instead of a man-sized wolf-like beast, the boy looks down and flinches when he sees a little ring-tailed lemur. The little animal stands up straight from its crouch as it looks up at the human, and what makes Pip nearly fall over in shock is when the little creature opens its mouth and asks,
"Who are you?"
After taking a few moments to get over it, the blonde boy crouches down to get more eye-level with the lemur, seeing a flick of its tail.
"I'm Pip. I'm here to return this." Pip raises his hand and shows the lemur the rose, which now is struggling to retain its look.
"Oh, you must be here for the master. Come, come in. Your horse will be taken to the stables, do not fret." The lemur grasps the blonde's free hand and pulls him into the mansion.
Before he can even say another word, the lemur rushes away on both hands and feet up a flight of stairs that has another on the other side, which makes the two in a circle to the upstairs, right over a hole that goes farther into the mansion. The blonde turns around and gasps before taking a step back, flinching at the echo of his shoes, at the sight that the door is already closed. Hearing a clicking noise on the hard marble floor that must be upstairs, the boy hesitantly turns around, his eyes widening and the rose falling to the ground at the sight before him.
A beast, indeed, stands at the top of the indoor balcony of the upstairs, and it looks just as his father described; although the beast is much skinnier than his father said, but in panic and in the night, it would be hard to make out details like that. Although instead of blood-dripping fangs and a hunched position with sharp claws as thick as his forearm, the beast is standing perfectly straight, with a calm demeanor and his arms showing claws more like a tiger's.
The beast's red eyes stare calmly at the human blonde and flick to the rose on the ground before going right back to the human. The boy watches as the beast turns to the side, revealing a black tail like a wolf's and digitigrade clawed feet that clack on the ground. The beast walks down the stairs, his claws clacking and echoing on the hard floor in the dead silent mansion, and soon enough, the black beast is standing right in front of the blonde boy.
Instead of addressing him straightaway, the beast crouches down and picks up the rose, and Pip notices despite his fear, that the beast holds the rose in his clawed and furred hands as if he was holding a newborn child. The beast looks at the human once more and flicks the rose to stand up in one hand.
"You are that man's son? You look nothing like him." The beast states with a furrowed brow.
"He is my adoptive father. My real parents died when I was a child." The blonde boy states with a shaking voice.
The back of the beast's muzzle twitches down in a frown, but he nods and glances at the rose, which seems to have stopped losing its petals.
"I am surprised you're already here. Either way, tell me your name." The beast orders as he looks over to the human, who is not a head shorter than him.
"It's rude to ask for a name before giving your own." Pip says as if a reaction, but flinches as he seems to realize what he just said. The boy looks pleadingly and terrified up to the beast, beginning to shake when he sees the horned man-wolf raise his brown in surprise while keeping an otherwise blank face, but his brow lowers as he nods.
"You are right. I am Damien Thorn, master of this mansion you stand in. Now what is your name?"
"Pip Pirrup." The blonde answers, still a little shaken.
"That is an odd name." Damien comments while tilting his head to the side.
"Pip is short for Philip. It was my real father's name."
The beast nods once and takes a step back, making his claws click on the hard marble floor. He turns around and begins walking to the opening under the archway of the semi-circle of stairs. Pip stays put until the beast orders, in a blank voice, to follow him. The blonde boy then follows the horned beast warily; although a good portion of his fear has subsided because of the beast's very expressionless and emotionless stature, he can't be sure that it's not just a front.
The blonde is lead down a long hallway with a few doors on each side, and astonishingly, he sees quite a few animals walking around; there is a wide variety of them as well, from housecats to chimpanzees. The animals that he passes stare at the human for a drawn-out moment, but then go right back to whatever they were doing. Just as the human is about to ask where he is being led, the beast stops in front of a large more decorated door and pulls it open.
Damien walks inside first, and then waits by the door for Pip to enter as well. The blonde gapes at the room once he walks inside; it is a large dining room with a long table that could serve at least a third of the townspeople of his village. There is a large chandelier directly over the middle of the table, casting glimmering specks of light all around while illuminating the room. The odd thing is that there is already fresh food on the table, but only to one side, and not much of it, perhaps for one or two people.
Pip starts a bit as the beast lays a hand on his shoulder; Pip can feel that the bottom is padded like a paw; snapping him out of his thoughts enough to look up at the muzzled beast. The beast meets Pip's startled and still fearing blue eyes with emotionless red eyes, and from here, Pip can see that the pupils are narrow like a cat's. He also remembers what his real father told him once, "the eyes are the window to the soul"; Damien's eyes seem to be boarded up and reinforced with solid steel and brick walls. The beast then turns his head, leaving Pip to look at the brown-red horn that curls down by his muzzle.
"I assume you must have many questions and people think better on a full stomach. I've been listening to your stomach growl for at least five minutes." The beast says as he walks towards the table, keeping his padded hand on the blonde's shoulder and towing him along. The blonde blushes lightly, he didn't think that it was that noticeable.
Pip nods mostly to himself as he is led to the table, just now noticing that it seems to be made of very fine cherry wood. Damien releases Pip's shoulder next to one of the chairs before seating himself at the head of the table. As Pip sits down to the beast's right, he notices that there is not just meat on the table; there is a slab of ham in the center surrounded by various fruits and vegetables, along with some honey-glazed bread rolls, and a goblet of what smells to be berry wine. The blonde waits a moment, unsure what to do, but begins hesitantly placing food on his plate at the beast's request.
The beast remains silent and refrains from eating while Pip slowly eats his fill, acutely aware of the red eyes that seem to be boring into the side of his head. The boy washes down his food with a bit of the wine, the bit of alcohol burns his throat a bit as it goes down his throat. Once the beast is sure that the boy is finally finished, he laces his clawed fingers together on the table with the rose down below his hands, the bud pointing towards the inside of the table.
"Tell me why that man stole from me, I am curious." Damien requests in a somber tone.
Pip takes a moment to remember what exactly had happened, and then recounts what happened a couple days ago, when his father insisted on getting him something and how he requested a rose, along with his foster father's excuse that he couldn't find any roses in the town and didn't want to go home empty-handed. A silence pervades the air once the boy finishes his story, growing fidgety under the heavy gaze of the beast, but forcing himself to stay still.
"It sounds like this is all his fault, for several reasons." The demon points out, and although Pip doesn't like it, he does agree that it does seem that way. "Which is why I do not understand why you left in his stead."
"You said that you would kill him." Pip accuses with a somewhat shaking tone.
"I said I would take his life, you interpreted that as killing him. I would've held him prisoner, which is the punishment for anyone who is a thief, correct?" The beast corrects, tilting his head when he finishes the question.
Pip remains silent for a moment, a little surprised that the beast is not as terribly bloodthirsty as he looks. But there is just one question that has been bugging him for a while,
"Why demand a life in exchange for a rose?"
"Stealing is stealing, whether it is a diamond or a rose." The beast picks up the rose and twirls it between his padded fingers.
"Then are you to keep me as a prisoner?" Pip questions a bit harsher than he expected.
"I'll allow you to move freely about my mansion, you shall have your own room, but you will not be able to leave." Damien explains calmly, apparently the harsh question didn't faze him.
The blonde stays quiet and looks down at the table, surprised at the generosity of the beast; the situation seems grim, but this beast is more humane than most humans Pip has met before. There is one more question plaguing the human now,
"Why are you being so nice?"
Pip starts at a sudden noise, looking up, he sees that the beast has a smile on his muzzle, revealing sharp teeth, and it takes the human a moment to realize that Damien is chuckling. The human also notices that the beast's red eyes seem brighter as he chuckles.
"I assume you thought I would be a heartless tyrant, killing everything and anything." The beast resumes chuckling once done talking.
The blonde blushes a bit, the beast hit the nail on the head, and the beast seems to realize this, as he starts laughing; a dark, rough sound like a wolf choking on its barks. The beast calms down after a moment and ceases his laughing, but retains his smile, which only enhances his intimidating look somewhat with the exposure of fangs.
"You came here of your own will, despite knowing you may never see your family again. You came here because you wanted to protect someone when it was not even your fault to begin with. I cannot, in good conscious, treat you badly for being selfless." The beast holds up his hand with the rose in front of his muzzle, "You even brought this back to me."
"And I am to assume that returning the rose doesn't mean that anything changes about my position." Pip guesses, frowning at the nod from the beast.
Damien stands up from his seat and walks away from the table, beckoning for the human to follow. The blonde stands up from his seat, glances at the food still at the table, but then after a grunt of impatience from the beast, walks away from the table and follows him out of the room. Once again, Pip walks around following the beast as if he was a little lost dog; this time, they backtrack down a hallway they came from and turn to a staircase. They ascend the stairs, the only sound is Damien's claws clacking with each step, and the most Pip can see is the beast's black tail and large digitigrade feet. The thought that the beast could probably move just as easily on his hands and feet as he does on just feet enters Pip's mind.
The human is led down another hallway once upstairs, and then he stops when the beast does right in front of a door. Damien opens the door and steps back, motioning for the human to enter without him. The blonde enters the room and gapes at the sheer size of it, the one room is as large as half of his house back home, complete with dark blue carpeting. The room is decorated with a large bed as big as his old room, complete with a royal blue canopy draping over the top and down a bit of the sides of the poles; there is a large wardrobe on the wall next to it; on the opposite side of the bed is a door. Damien moves inside and points at the door inside the room.
"That is a private bathroom. I'll have a servant bring you spare clothes." Seeing that the boy is still in shock from the room, the beast turns and walks out, closing the door behind himself.
The beast walks down the hallway, steadily gaining speed before he begins to run full-out and then gets down onto his front hands and runs on his fours, getting faster than before. The beast rushes into an open room, gets up onto his back legs and slams the door behind himself. Damien pants a bit as he leans against the door and places his paw-like hands over his eyes, careful to not let his arms hit his horns.
"This is too hard…I…It must be him…just as that witch told me…I can't fuck this up, I won't stay like this, I won't!" The beast rants to himself, tightening his grip around his own fur, feeling his own claws beginning to dig into his skin.
Damien takes in a long shaky breath, exhales it out, and then repeats. He does this a few times to get his nerves under control and try to remove the fireball of nervousness that has grown in his gut. Damien releases his grip around his own fur and lowers his hands down to his sides, taking in another shaky breath and sighs it out. He continues to steady his breathing while the knot in his stomach loosens, and he stares at his room.
The entirety of the beast's room is destroyed; claw marks decorate the wall, tore up the carpet, destroyed the canopy of the bed, but left the actual bed intact, and reduced the wardrobe to almost nothing. The sorry state of his room does not affect the beast, as he has been making this damage for a long time, and he can tell the fresh claw marks from the older ones. Damien takes a few shaking steps as he walks forward into his room, angling towards the bed. He gracelessly falls onto it and digs his claws into the mattress before reaching out and groping for his pillow, once he finds it, he pulls it back to his muzzle and bites down while digging his claws into it.
The beast wakes a few hours later, his muzzled head resting on the pillow and his hands right in front of his head. He pushes himself up and shakes his head before yawning widely, showing off his sharp teeth. Damien gets up from his bed, still groggy after his unexpected nap, but feeling much less stressed. The beast walks to his own private bathroom and splashes his face with some water from his sink before drying off his fur with a towel before relieving himself and then walking back to his room. He then walks out of his room and is a little surprised to see one of his feline servants sitting and waiting for him right outside of his doorway.
"You have slept the entire day away, master. It is dark already, and the boy fell asleep a couple hours ago." The cat informs him, twitching its tail around before standing.
"Thank you." Damien nods once and the cat walks away to its other duties.
The wolf-like beast walks down the hallway, mentally cursing his claws for being so loud on the hard marble floors. Other than the clicking of his claws, the beast walks down in silence, his mind buzzing with thoughts as if it was full of a stirred-up hornet's nest. Sometime in his thoughts, the beast ends up walking directly to where he wanted without realizing it, but nonetheless smiles a bit. Damien reaches out and opens the door quietly, and steps inside even quieter, moving as lithe as a cat, despite his wolfish look.
Damien walks into the room and closes the door gently and quietly, a light smile on his muzzle. The beast walks forward and crosses the length of the room in a few strides, happy that his claws are muted in the carpeting. Damien smiles a bit as he lowers himself down onto the bed with the blonde human fast asleep on it, he lowers himself down slowly to make sure he doesn't disturb the boy.
Once he's finally down onto the bed, the beast moves himself closer and drapes one arm over the boy. The beast stiffens as the human boy reaches out and wraps his arms around the furred body while pressing his body against the beast as well. After a moment, the beast relaxes and places one hand under the boy's head and racks his fingers through the blonde hair, being wary of his claws so he doesn't harm Pip. Even after his nap, Damien fights to keep his red eyes open, being so comfortable with another warm body pressed against him.
Damien waits a couple hours, enjoying the time with Pip, even if the human isn't aware of what is happening. After the two hours, Damien releases the human and crawls out of the bed, and just as quietly as he was getting in, he sneaks out of the room and closes the door; he is entirely unaware of the pair of blue eyes that watched him leave. The beast walks away from the room and down the stairs, to the kitchen and after rousing a couple of the lemurs from their sleep, helps them make a snack for himself and them.
The day thereafter was spent by the human looking around the mansion and the various gardens and helping to take care of the mare; as it turns out, the entire outside, front and back, is one large garden. There are many kinds of flowers with many colors that he never thought he'd see, such as blue roses. The blonde is so engrossed in examining the flowers, he doesn't notice the pair of watchful eyes, but does notice a few of the cats around the garden to make sure that he doesn't cause any damage to the garden.
The human spends the majority of his days out in the garden, the third day, he found Damien meticulously tending to the blue rosebush. The look of such caring that the beast has for the roses is like a parent watching over their child. When Damien looks up, the boy flinches, but calms down when he sees that he beast's look hasn't changed, and he looks back down and reaches out to the rosebush. Pip's eyes widen when he sees Damien pick one of the flowers.
The beast stands up with the blue rose in one hand, holding it by the bottom of the medium-length stem and uses the claws on his other hand to strip the stem of the thorns, and then he bends the stem around to a curl. Damien looks over to Pip and pulls back a bit of his hair, places the hooked stem around the boy's ear, and places the blonde hair back over it, his smile still there the whole time.
"Blue roses are the hardest to grow. They require constant attention, care...and love. I think that this fits you more than a red rose." Damien states with his muzzle smile.
The blonde blushes a bit as he looks at the beast's eyes, they now seem to still be full of care and compassion, aimed towards the blonde. Pip smiles back, a little nervously, but it only makes Damien's smile widen, and neither seem to care that he hasn't moved his hand from the side of the human's face.
Right after that display of open care, the two only grew closer with each passing day. The human almost never took off the rose he was given, and it never withered no matter how much time passed. The nightly sneaking into Pip's room continued every night, and every night Pip would pretend to be asleep while cuddling up to the large furry beast. And every night the two would be left with a longing hole in their hearts, to the point where it was nearly unbearable for the beast to leave; yet he left anyway, because the fear of having his affections discovered and not returned was a prospect that chilled him to the bone for many reasons.
In what seemed to be a blink of an eye, summer is blown away into fall, and while the flowers begin to wither, the trees in the garden and outside of the concrete walls have their leaves change into vibrant shades to make up for the loss of color from the withering flowers. It seems as though there will be color in all of the seasons at this mansion. Sometime during the middle of fall, the beast and the human see a strange mist set in directly outside of the mansion gates. It seems to confuse Pip, but the beast immediately orders for the blonde to get back inside before walking towards the gates.
Pip walks back towards the front of the mansion and does go inside; although he wants to go through one of the secrete doors to the outside, the ringtail lemur butler prevents him from doing so, telling him that Damien will take care of it. Outside, the beast steps back as his ears twitch and point forward at the sound of horse's hooves clopping on the hard gravel road outside the gates. Damien crouches down a bit and haunches his shoulders while placing one foot further back and curling his clawed fingers while his fur bristles up, giving him an overall menacing appearance.
The horse hooves slow down as the mist begins to dissipate, and in its stead, a figure of a horse now walking forward with a man perched on its back appears. Damien's posture stiffens before he relaxes a bit and straightens his stance while his fur lowers back down. The man jumps off of the horse and walks towards the still closed gates, Damien's ears twitch as he hears and sees the man cock a shotgun.
"I finally found you, you wretched monster. For three months I've been searching for you, ever since my son left." The man says.
Damien realizes that the man is Pip's adopted father after a moment, and he can tell that the last few months have not been kind to the man. The man appears in a ragged state, with unkempt hair and only half-buttoned shirt and he has stubble growing around his chin, neck, and most of his entire lower face. The beast keeps his posture calm and stiff enough to be ready to attack at a moment's notice.
"Pip left of his own will; he selflessly came here because of your blunders." Damien argues with a hardened tone.
"I realize that…and I will regret it for the rest of my days. That is exactly why I'm here." The merchant replies with a strange hint of madness in his voice.
Damien takes a step back as the man raises his gun and takes it in both hands, pointing it at the beast.
"And what do you think this will solve? Killing me will not bring your son back to you." Damien can see the man's hands shaking through the gun.
"I don't give a damn; I want justice for you taking his life."
A gunshot pierces the air, the horses cry at the loud noise, the man's horse bolts; the beast staggers backwards while placing his hands on his chest; Pip and the servants start at the gunshot and then the front doors to the mansion open and every animal servant runs, or flies for the birds, rushes out of the building and through the gates to attack the man; and Damien falls down onto his knees and then his side while keeping his hands over his shot wound. The blonde human runs out of the mansion while a cry of anguish rips out of his throat when he sees Damien on the ground; not noticing as the flower falls.
The many animal servants slowly move back through or over the gates and then over to their fallen master as Pip falls onto his knees next to the beast. The boy hesitantly places his hands out onto the beast's shoulder, his body tensing up as tears sting and flow over his eyes. The animal servants begin to cry, wail, and keen mournfully as Pip buries his face in the black fur of the beast's shoulder and wraps his arms over his face as he cries.
"Damien, don't die. You can't die! I love you!" The blonde boy continues to cry heavily.
The blonde flinches a bit when he feels the side of the beast move up and hears him take a deep breath, just as the animals all grow deathly silent in an instant. Pip lifts his head up from the beast's body and gasps while placing his hands over his mouth at what he sees. The beast's body is glowing brightly, and so are the bodies of all the servants. In one moment, the brightness is too much and Pip is forced to place his hands over his still wet eyes; when he lowers them he gasps and nearly falls over from the shock.
As the light fades, it does not leave a black, furred, horned, clawed, wolf-like man lying on the ground; it leaves a human. A shirtless teen human with lightly tanned skin, marred by a large red pentagram on his back, and a black bar going down his arm from the shoulder; he has black hair that ends just above his jaw; the breeches are still the only clothes on the human. Pip is ignorant of the other humans standing around in awe at their human forms returned to them; the blonde is too focused on the beast-turned-human.
A light groan comes from the human on the ground and he turns over a bit, exposing that the black bar on his arm is what seems to be a cross, one that is also down the middle of the black-haired boy's chest and disappears under the pants. Pip stares in wordless shock at the human's face as the boy uses his arms to push himself upright, staring back at Pip with bright red eyes, eyes that now have round pupils. After a moment, the now-human dares a glance down at his body, his body shaking a bit as the weight of the situation comes down onto him. Damien looks back up to Pip with the shock clearly evident on his handsome face; the rest of the humans quietly walk back into the mansion to give the two privacy.
"You love me.…" Damien says nearly breathlessly.
"Damien?..." The blonde asks in the same shocked tone.
"Yes, it's me." Damien nods as a smile grows on his face.
The black-haired boy moves closer to the blonde, reaches out and places his hand on Pip's cheek, cupping it, which makes the blonde blush. Damien moves closer as Pip tenses up; so many questions buzzing in his head, but he soon forgets everything when Damien kisses him.