"Y-you're Spanish?" Bella asked, trying not to stare at everyone around them. After all, how did a creature of the North end up Spanish? Especially since the people of Spain hardly ever left their land since they had no need to.
"You must be very confused about all this," Silina said with a gentle smile. "You are taking this rather well, though. It is not me that is of Spanish roots, but this body." When Bella merely frowned, confused, her smile grew. "The person this body belongs to sacrificed herself to let me wander this realm. I, myself, am actually elsewhere."
"I don't understand," Bella said. More than the fact that it didn't make sense, but it was, logically, impossible.
Silina nodded. "I don't expect you to, and I'm sure no one ever will. I am the one who created these creatures, though, and I intend to be sure that they do not undergo extinction, which is exactly what the Fenrir want to happen. If you travel with us, you need to do directly as said, else we will be found by those cursed creatures."
"I don't want to travel with you," Bella managed to say after a moment's hesitation, earning glares and hisses that she flinched at. Silina remained calm, still smiling at her as she added, "I just want to find my father."
"If that is what you want," Silina said, "then it is what you will get." She looked at Xana. "Ready five of your best. It would be unfortunate if the Fenrir found you all again and you weren't ready. We can't risk losing this one."
Xana, though she didn't looked very pleased to do so, bowed her head, lowering herself the slightest bit. "Yes, Mother." Then she straightened and strode past them, travelling over to a group of girls hovering in the trees.
Bella gaped at Silina. "That's your daughter?" She, for some odd reason, had an idea that none of these strange women had any mothers or children. But then, how else would there be so many of them?
"In a way, they all are," she told her, nodding. "I am the one who made them what they are, after all. Though, Xana is the blood of this body." She turned to Yasandre. "Since you are the one with the gift, this girl is your charge, so you should look after her until she reaches her destination."
"What gift?" Bella asked curiously.
She was ignored.
"My feelings are nothing," Yasandre argued. "It was probably just the human in me."
Silina shook her head. "You are gifted, Yasandre, whether you like it or not. By whom, or what, I do not know, but it is clear that your blood is much more powerful than it should be. Always follow your instincts; they've proven correct. Not to mention, if you feel so about this girl, then it means something very important is going to happen."
"But..." Yasandre looked at Bella, who gazed at her with wide eyes, then she looked back at Silina and threw her hands up. "Her? You honestly think she's going to-"
"I do not know what she's going to do," Silina snapped, "but I do know that she needs to stay alive for it to happen, else things will go astray." Her tone lightened, and her expression softened. "We must let what is meant to happen happen."
"What if she's meant to die?" Yasandre asked, no longer seeming happy to be keeping the girl alive. "What then?" Her gaze flickered over to her, filled with some strong emotion, before switching back.
Bella frowned, heart fluttering at the question, head spinning from her confusion, and looked at Silina.
"If she is meant to die, then it will happen," Silina told her, which only made Bella's heart lurch. "You and the others will still escort her. If she dies during, then she dies. You were right, and I will not pressure you about your gift again." She met Yasandre's eyes evenly, not flinching once.
Yasandre considered her for a moment, then nodded. "Alright." Then she quickly added, "I'll hold you to your word."
"What are you talking about?" Bella asked, throwing her hands in the air. She had given up trying to make sense of them, though the talk of her death was quite clear, and she was tired of feeling so misled.
"Let's go," Xana said as she strode up to them, looking at the girl. "You best stay close, and do exactly as we say, if you intend on living."
"Doesn't she need something to protect herself?" someone asked. She looked even younger than Bella, eyes big and smiling, though there was something about her that was obviously dangerous; all that, aside from her wild orange hair and golden eyes.
"It will be your responsibility to protect her until she gets to her destination," Silina informed the creature, who looked pleased to even be acknowledged by her.
"I'm Lylan," she said to Bella, who remembered the name from earlier on. She was the girl who had warned everyone about the wolves. "And I'll have you know that you're in very good hands."
"Speaking of destination," Yasandre said, "is it where I think it is?" When Silina nodded, she grimaced. "I thought so. I had heard rumors of a man, human, being held there, but I wasn't sure if he was the same one she was looking for.”
"You will not go further than the outskirts," Silina informed the girls. She looked at Bella. "You will have to go on your own at some point."
She nodded, already accustomed to being abandoned. After all, that was what Mudo had done with her. Even if he was just trying to find safety. "Alright." Though, it did scare her that not even these creatures would set foot in the place her father was possibly being kept. But it wasn't just her safety she had to worry about. Who knew how much longer her father would live.
That was, if he wasn't dead already.
Stop that, she snapped at herself. He's not dead. Don't think such things.
"What is your name, child?" Silina asked, gently laying a hand on her shoulder.
She met her eyes, which studied hers carefully, and said, "Bella." Only, she didn't pronounce it as she normally did, which was the way most people announced her as, but as the way it was meant to be; the way it would always be.
"Bella," Silina said in her tainted Spanish accent, that small smile lingering again. "Welcome to the land of the unknown."
* * *
They had left right away. There was not much else to do, and everyone was anxious to get Bella to her destination, which was supposedly very dangerous.
"If it's where I think it is," one of the women said, who looked to be the eldest of the group, so she was possibly in her mid-twenties; none of the creatures Bella had seen in the clearing had looked older than this, "then there's hardly a chance she'll be able to survive, let alone any other capable human." She said it to one of the others, as if Bella wasn't standing just mere feet away from them, and her eyes were lit with excitement as if the thought brought her pleasure. "I've heard that it's quite impossible for anyone to survive such a place."
"I heard that she was going to the mountains," another said, clear on the other side of the two, peering over at them. It was amazing that she could hear them since they were talking just below normal volume, and she was probably twenty feet away. "You know, where the Iceling lives?"
"Hush, all of you," Xana said, and they obediently did so. "You are all being utterly incorrigible. She is going to neither of these places—and the mountains are so much further than where we're going!" She shook her head, as if pitying them. "You clearly didn't listen earlier."
"Where are we going then?" the eldest, as it seemed, asked.
"We are going to the Light," Yasandre said from her spot ahead of them, not bothering to turn around and look their way as she spoke. Her head was tilted, as if listening for something as she walked. "We are going to the house of the demon."
Bella didn't like the sound of that. Especially when the girls began murmuring to each other, two of them giggling and giving her looks that said she was done for. The word "demon" unsettled Bella. All the stories she had heard about them were bad, and there were many different kinds of them. All were dangerous, of course, but some more than others.
She just hoped this demon wouldn't be the worst of them.
"What's the Light?" she found herself asking Lylan, who had been plenty nice to her throughout their quiet journey. They had been walking nearly a
n hour now, and she hadn't heard a peep from the child.
"It's a place where the Fae linger," she explained, which made Bella's blood run cold.
Bella stopped in her tracks, suddenly not so brave, and this caused one of the creatures to slam into her back with a snarl, and she fell onto her hands and knees from the impact. One thought kept running through her mind as she stared down at the backs of her hands, drawing in slow, heavy breaths. Not only did these strange people exist, but the Fae as well.
And they were heading straight for them.
"I can't breathe," Bella gasped, sucking in shallow breaths, holding a hand to her chest. "I can't do this."
"She's panicking," Lylan remarked, as if she found this amusing as much as upsetting. "Perhaps we should just go back."
"She doesn't belong with us," one of the others said tiredly.
"We already made it this far," another complained.
"Maybe we should just kill her," another remarked.
Bella's breathing hitched.
"Oh, hush up and let me take a look at her," Yasandre said, landing beside Bella and grabbing her face. She peered into her eyes, which seemed to have gone empty with the fears of what could happen to her if she ventured into the land they were so close to, and grabbed her face, slapping at it gently. "You need to get a hold of yourself. I know this is all too much, and what I ask is a lot, but you need to get a hold of yourself right now and accept the fact that everything you have ever heard probably exists right here in these very woods."
Imagination spiked once more, and Bella's heart rate increased, her breaths coming faster and shorter now. Her fear mingled along with it all. Amazing, one part of her said. The other merely screamed, Impossible!
"I'll handle it," Xana's voice said. Before any reaction could occur, there was a sharp stinging on Bella's face, and she stumbled back with a gasp.
"Was that necessary?" Yasandre asked her wearily.
Xana shrugged. "Personally, I don't care." Then she looked at Bella. "Are you ready to continue? Or are you too much of a scared little girl to do more than run back home?" She said it sardonically as much as seriously, as if it was a question she had once heard herself, and she stared intently at Bella, almost as if she expected the girl to spin on her heels and take off.
Not only did this insult her, but it infuriated her as well, giving her a boost of the confidence she needed as Johnathon's face flooded her vision and she peered back into Xana's face.
"I want to keep going." Her voice was flat, no fear or uncertainty lacing it, but a sort of determination she didn't know she had.
Xana nodded, giving her a strange smile, almost like she respected her. "Well then. Let's go." She turned around and walked away.
As Lylan helped pull her to her feet, and they started walking again, Bella asked, "Exactly, what demon is it that dwells in the place we're going to?"
Lylan frowned, then shrugged. "I can't say, exactly, but I've heard that he is rather dangerous—and attractive." She grinned. "I would love to meet him, but my kind are not allowed there."
Bella ignored the girl's strange admiration—as she imagined, her kind of attractive was most likely very unusual—and narrowed her eyes. "Why not?"
"It's a pact of ours; with the Fae." She peeked over at her as she walked, hands brushing against plants. "You know, technically we're a part of them; the Fae." When Bella glanced at her with wide eyes, she nodded, lips pursed. "There are many different kinds, not just a single one. The Fenrir are a form of them, but there are also many different Fenrir. Just as there are many of our own kind."
Bella thought back to all the women she saw in the clearing and the trees, and gaped. "The world must be bigger than I thought."
"The world is bigger than everyone believes it to be," Yasandre said, again without looking their way. She kept her back firmly to them, as if it was more important to keep her eyes forward. Of course, it was, but Bella thought it was more like it was her the creature was avoiding looking at. "But then, it is smaller than some think. It is just all the realms everyone has forgotten, and all these realms are a part of this world."
"And that is where we come from," Lylan said, as if it made perfect sense, but Yasandre was shaking her head.
"We all come from a variety of places, but it is the realms that we've been driven to." This time she looked at them. "The first of our kind—not what we are, but from what we come from—first lived here, on this realm." She made a disgusted expression. "Of course, all this realm manages to do is disappoint." Then she turned and went back to her solemn silence.
The thought of these realms, whatever they may be, was absolutely ludicrous to Bella. How could so many places exist in one? It was-
Impossible? a voice in the back of her mind asked. Look around you. You may as well say the whole of existence is impossible. After all, nothing was supposed to be. So why would this be?
"What, exactly, are you?" Bella asked Lylan.
She smiled. "A child of the moon." Then, before Bella could ask her what she meant by that, she said, "You know, I heard that this demon, the one you're going to see, was cursed by a witch. Maybe even more than one."
"Cursed?" Bella asked curiously.
"That's what I said, isn't it? Anyways, he supposedly angered a very powerful witch, and so she cursed him." She shrugged. "It all happened before I came to be."
"What is this curse?" she pressed.
She shrugged again. "I can't really say. I hear he's half Fenrir, though. Oh! I also heard he was born human."
Thoughtful, Bella looked at Yasandre. "I heard she was human."
Lylan nodded. "Yes, she was, but then Silina turned her into one of us. She can do that, you know, but only a female can be a child of the moon. Though, the wolves are of her kind." Her lips curled in distaste. "Whether we like it or not, the Fenrir are of us as well. Though entirely different, they have the blood of the moon."
Bella was curious about those wolves, but found that she was much more interested in the thought of a human becoming that of the Fae. "So, she was normal once?"
"Yasandre? Yes, she was; we've already discussed this. Silina turned her, as can be done, but only since she was a female. Although, she has always been gifted.”
Bella hesitated, then looked at the small girl. “Who is Vita?”
She grinned. “It is not a whom, but a what; a sort of existence. A deity, really; very much like Silina.” When Bella blinked, she explained, “Your kind know it as Life. It's more than just an existence, but it's not quite a person, you understand?” When Bella nodded, though she still wasn't sure, Lylan nodded in satisfaction. “It is she that gifts us all with rare blessings; like if you have a dream and it suddenly came true?”
Blinking again, Bella narrowed her eyes. “So, if Life is not quite an existence, yet not all physical...” She shook her head, only growing furthermore confused. “What, exactly, is it?”
She grinned. “No one will ever completely understand. Life thrives; among us all, it survives off of everything we are and everything around us. But, it always possesses that of a human body, preferably female, as to keep in better contact with us. There's no telling how she changes her form and how she chooses them, but it is rumored to be so.” She looked around, then leaned closer as they walked. “It is also said that she saves certain ones from death, and they surface in some unknown, endless cave.” Then, she shrugged, as if no longer interested in the topic. “She gifted Yasandre with tuition; a special sort of inner voice that's always right. She just looks at something and knows what needs to be done, but not on demand.”
"And she had a life before all this?" Bella asked, referring to the creature.
Lylan's eyes drifted over to Yasandre, then flickered back to Bella. "Yes, but I don't know that much. And what I do isn't very pretty."
"But you know enough?"
She hesitated.
"It's best to leave stories alone," Xana said, having had snuck up behind the both of them, giving Ly
lan a look that told her to back off; and she did, lowering her eyes to the ground. "Stories should only be told by those best to do the telling."
Bella gestured to Lylan. "I see nothing wrong with her."
"But it is not her story," Xana said to her, lips curling. "And it would be best not to pry." With that, she raced for a tree, climbing its trunk quickly and landing somewhere in the branches. The others watched her, but more in weariness than admiration, like they were simply observing to make sure she didn't jump down and slit their throats.
Bella, impressed, looked at Lylan. "She doesn't like me, does she?"
Lylan pursed her lips. "It's not you, per say. She has never liked humans very much, or strangers." She gazed around to make sure they were enclosed in their own space, and then lowered her voice. "Apparently, she and Yasandre have a history." She seemed to think a moment, then said, "Also, Yasandre had a different name before."
"What sort of history?" Bella asked, hardly interested in names.
Lylan made a face. "You ask a lot of questions."
Bella's eyebrows raised, and she said, "You don't seem to have a problem answering them."
A smile played around her mouth, and she shrugged. "What can I say? I'm nosy. At least I get the facts, though; not like others usually do."
"So...this history?"
"Xana had a brother-"
Bella held up her hands, cutting her off, and almost rolled to a stop, but knew that would only draw attention, and so continued with her strolling. "I thought only girls could be-"
"Now hold on," Lylan complained. "I never said he was one of us. Silina's body isn't her true one, so it had a boy before it was taken over. When Silina came forth after a year or two, she decided to raise the boy as gratitude for the sacrifice, and she was also pregnant with Xana at the time, so she had her as well."
"So, she had a brother," Bella mused. "What does this have to do with Yasandre?"
Lylan grinned. "This is where things get interesting. He fell in love with the human—with Yasandre. Xana didn't like this, since humans were not to be trusted, even though he was a human. He was the only human she trusted, since he was her brother."
Beauty's Beast- The Light Page 6
