Beasts of Beauty: Chapter One
Beasts of Beauty will be releasing October 19th on Amazon. I hope you enjoy this sneak peek!
Rumor had it that deep within Encana Forest there was a beast so fast and vicious that no one who valued their lives ever got a look at the creature. That was precisely the way Aerona liked it. The hushed rumors kept them out of the woods, and that was all she wanted.
The villagers knew her only as the Beast, and she had no interest in being anything else.
When Aerona first made it to the forest, it took quite a lot of meticulous planning and work to scare off the lumberjacks and hunters without revealing herself fully. If there was ever too much credence to the theory of a monstrous, wolflike beast, she would start spending a lot more time dodging arrows and traps than she wanted to. The Esmean Empire didn’t shy away from employing huntsmen who specialized in killing creatures like her.
But as things stood, she was a rumor, a dark shadow in the trees, or a trick of the light. Enough to scare, not enough to hunt.
Her paws crushed the dead leaves littering the forest floor. A few brown, orange, and red leaves still clung to the branches stretching high up into the canopy. The only greenery left that could be seen were in the evergreens that popped up every once in a while. They were far more common in the northern section of the vast forest that stretched toward the Glacian border, but Aerona didn’t venture that way often.
Aerona was on the southwestern edge of the forest, much closer to the forest’s edge than she normally went. She tried to avoid the southern border since it ran along a well-traveled road. She didn’t want the humans to see her, and she especially didn’t want to see them.
Seeing them was a reminder, and she hated reminders.
But Aerona did not take her responsibility lightly, so when she needed to do her regular sweep through the forest, she did.
As she approached, keeping as light on her paws as a creature of her massive size could, she spotted a flash of bright red on the road. Aerona’s instincts took over, and she crouched low to the ground. Her rough satchel brushed against the dead leaves as she took cover behind a wide maple tree trunk and adjacent bush. She turned, tucking herself against the rough bark to ensure the red streak along her spine was hidden.
The red figure came closer, and Aerona narrowed her eyes, peering through the bush. She nudged the leaves with her muzzle for a better view, and her hot breath made them twitch ever so slightly.
It was a young woman. Her hands brushed the tree trunks as she crossed into the forest, peering around with a sense of wonder and exhilaration in her eyes. She had a bright red cloak wrapped around her shoulders with the hood pulled up, but her golden-brown hair spilled out from under it.
Aerona’s shoulders relaxed, but she didn’t move from her spot. It was just a village girl with too much curiosity and not enough common sense.
A horse whinnied in the distance, and the girl glanced over her shoulder. She said, “Oh calm down, you silly thing. It’s only the forest.”
Aerona blinked and was able to make out a horse and cart with some lumber behind the girl, pulled off on the side of the road. There was no one else. Good. It didn’t seem like there was any damage to the cart, so Aerona doubted the girl was looking for help, not that she would have found any if she was.
“It’s… just the forest. We do this every time. If there was something in the woods, it would have done something to Rotham by now. Probably.” The girl took a shaky step, as if she was trying to convince herself. “See? Nothing to worry about. If the Beast is in these woods, it’s not here. Now, the real question is, are there any roses nearby?”
Roses?
Aerona ground her teeth together, and her claws sank into the ground. There better not be any roses left.
The girl darted forward, letting out a happy cry as she reached for a tiny bush that was nearly crushed between two towering maple trees. Only two bright red flowers bloomed from it, and the girl gently cradled one of them.
The beautiful scarlet flowers sent a fire burning through Aerona’s blood.
The girl cooed over the flowers like one would a favorite pet.
Aerona couldn’t have that. This girl needed to leave before she got too comfortable. Aerona shifted back onto her paws and wove her way through the trees and underbrush.
The girl was too busy staring at the rose and inhaling its scent to see Aerona prowling around. Her paws barely touched the ground as she stayed deathly silent.
Aerona came right up to the edge of the trees, closer than she’d been in years, and caught the attention of the mare with her movement. She bared her fangs and let out a faint snarl, lashing her tail behind her. The mare’s eyes widened for a moment before rearing back, kicking the air, and furiously braying.
The girl in red turned on her heel and shot toward her horse, one of the roses in her hand. She caught the reins before the horse could take off, and Aerona’s job was done. The girl was clearly too timid to continue after such an incident.
Aerona slunk back into the shadows. She took one step toward the last rose as she did so, but as the girl’s voice floated through the air, Aerona decided not to risk exposing herself in order to satisfy her desire to destroy the rose.
Winter would kill the flower, and if it didn’t, she could always find the bush later and rip the rose to shreds with her claws then.
Once she was safely back in the copse of the trees, she adjusted the small, awkward bag on her shoulders and set off.
Aerona’s long stride and quick pace made the journey shorter, but not by much. The Encana Forest was deep and covered a large part of Faen—or what used to be Faen. The technicalities of it all in the wake of the Esmean invasion escaped her. Regardless, someone could spend months exploring the forest in its entirety and still not discover all of its secrets. Like the magic path that cut Aerona’s journey to the southern border in half.
Every so often the fur on her neck rose, and the strange, prickling sensation of being watched rushed over her skin. But every time Aerona paused and looked around, sniffing the air to see if someone or something was nearby, she never caught anything out of the ordinary. To be fair, she was downwind, so if there was something dangerous behind her, she wouldn’t be able to locate it through smell.
While her sense of smell wasn’t as developed as other canine or feline-like creatures, it served her well enough to hunt, but it hadn’t saved her from a starving bear taking a swipe at her last fall. Her left shoulder still ached in the cold.
Unfortunately, that bear hadn’t been the first hungry animal that had tried to turn her into their prey, desperate enough for food, they were willing to attack their own predator. They never succeeded.
She hoped her luck wasn’t bad enough for another bear to come after her right before its hibernation. That would be two years in a row.
She paused again anyway, whipping her head behind her. Wait—She blinked, and it was gone. She’d thought for a moment she’d spotted something red, but there was nothing there. She should have ripped up that last rose while she had the chance. Now she was going to be seeing flickers of red any time she walked through the forest for the next week. This wouldn’t be the first time the cursed flower had haunted her in the corner of her eyes everywhere she turned.
Aerona continued on.
After the third time she paused and she still hadn’t shaken the feeling, she decided to chalk the feeling up to having been so close to the forest’s edge and seeing that girl as well as the roses. She was just jittery. Everything was fine.
Even so, Aerona lifted her head and turned in a circle, looking for anything out of the ordinary, listening for anything strange. A squirrel rustled a bush in the distance. A bird called out from its perch. Aerona let out a harsh bark, causing a rabbit to shoot out from its hiding spot and tear off into the forest.
Nothing else startled or moved.
She took a deep breath and kneaded her paws into the dirt. She whispered, not that anyone else could understand her harsh, gravelly voice anyway, “Your name is Aerona. You escaped. It’s been five years. You’re safe.”
And nothing else happened. Aerona was alone, and her mind was her own. Satisfied the sensation was just her own paranoia, she continued on her way.
The trees thickened and the underbrush grew, and Aerona was close to home. The ruins of a stone gate greeted her, with the remains of a rusted, broken gate door scattered on the forest floor.
Aerona paused, as she always did, and took one last look around the forest for anything out of place. Nothing.
She was alone.
When she walked through the stone gate, everything changed.
The forest around her vanished, and a run-down manor greeted her instead. The courtyard was small and unimpressive, and the few statues and fountains that still stood were overgrown with weeds. What little stone could be seen was chipped and discolored. The discussion to clean up the courtyard had come up multiple times, but Aerona always came to the same decision. She had no desire to look at the statues. Half of them were human.
After climbing the small set of steps, she pushed herself up onto her haunches, rising to her full height. Her paws crashed into the doors, forcing them to swing open.
“She’s back!” A tiny, light voice rang out as soon as Aerona dropped back down and lumbered into the large entry hall.
The fairies, who had all been occupied a moment before with their own pursuits, shot into the air. Their voices chattered and overlapped, all high-pitched and musical, and Aerona had no hope of understanding them unless they spoke one at a time. A good number of them hovered in the air around her as she made her way to the middle of the hall.
A slightly deeper, but still ridiculously high voice said, “Alright! That’s enough. Don’t crowd her!”
Aerona turned to the male fairy shooing away the others. “Thank you, Helio.”
Helio was no taller than the palm of a human hand. He had a bright face with a few wrinkles. While handsome, he had the look of a man who carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. It took an awful lot of stress for a fairy to develop wrinkles on their normally smooth, glowing, fair skin. While they lived about forty years longer than humans, even in their old age, wrinkles weren’t common, and Helio was only sixty years old.
Considering he was king—or as close to one as they had–of the fairies, Aerona wasn’t surprised. She imagined there were few things as awful as being thrust into leading a people that had been forced into hiding for over a decade. And that had been only days after his own wife, and queen of the fairies, had died.
As the majority of the crowd backed off, one of them shot through. She paused to give her father, Helio, a quick hug before coming to a grinding halt in front of Aerona. The female fairy was one of the youngest of the fairies at fourteen, and the closest thing to a princess. Like all the others, she was ethereally beautiful and didn’t care much for distinctions of class status.
“Ilima—” Helio started, but was cut off.
“So, did you see anything out there? Come on, we’re all waiting!” Ilima said, pushing her windswept, light brown hair out of her face and ignoring Helio’s sigh.
“Wouldn’t you all rather see what I brought back?” Aerona asked. Fairies clumped together in groups, listening intently as one repeated her words. Her low, rough voice was not easily understood by their ears. Despite living with them for four years, only a handful of the fairies were able to decipher it.
“You brought something back?” A male fairy, Cirro, shot out of the crowd, pulling the female fairy holding his hand with him. When Genevieve wrung her hand out, he winced and said, “Sorry, Gen.”
Genevieve pushed her hair out of her face and flashed her husband a smile. “I know better than to come between you and your plants.”
“What is it?” Ilima shot around Aerona’s head; her butterfly-like wings sent tiny gusts of wind into Aerona’s red eyes.
Aerona lowered her head and wriggled her shoulders as Ilima and Gen grabbed the strap of the bag and pulled it off. Once the bag hit the floor, the fairies all crowded around it as Cirro dove inside.
An excited screech erupted from inside, and Cirro tore back out with both arms wrapped around the stem. The flower petals stretched above his head. Each started out narrow and white before shifting into wide, pink petals.
The fairies exploded into whispers. Helio wove around them and paused by Aerona’s head. “I can’t believe you were able to find a trumpet lily.”
Aerona straightened back up. “I was surprised as well. I thought I had found them all, but it was there, and my traps were empty. I wanted to bring back something even if it wasn’t practical.”
Helio shook his head. His bright purple shirt crinkled under his folded arms. “Well, I imagine that’s the last flower you’re going to see outside the castle until spring.”
Aerona nodded. The roses didn’t count, and there was no point in bringing it up. It would only make the fairies sad.
“Father! Can we go ahead and plant it now?” Ilima asked, darting around Cirro, who kept his arms wrapped tightly around the trumpet lily as the other fairies admired its petals.
“We might as well, we won’t get a moment’s peace until we do.” Helio sighed, but the smile pulling at his lips betrayed him.
Aerona huffed in agreement, and she followed behind the fairies as they flew into the old ballroom. While the room was mostly intact, there was an unfortunate section of the wall that had been damaged in a storm and… by other means, so now there was a hole leading to the gardens.
The fairies’ magic could fix it, but Aerona had told them not to bother. It was easier to get out to the garden, and a lot less fumbling around with doorknobs for all of them.
By the time Aerona and Helio made it to the huge garden, the majority of the fairies crowded around one of the few empty spots in the dirt. The garden was untouched by the changing of seasons, thanks to the fairies’ magic. It took a lot of time, energy, and magic to maintain, but it made the fairies happy.
Since they never ventured out into the forest anymore, the garden was all they had left to care for.
Everyone fell silent as nine fairies took their place on the ground, landing in a circle. Cirro flew lower until he could gently lay the trumpet lily down in front of the other fairies.
The ten fairies, all experts in their craft, joined hands.
The first time Aerona had seen them use magic, it had been quite a surprise that the fairies didn’t need any incantations. Until she’d met the fairies, she hadn’t realized there was any other way to do magic. While she couldn’t feel magic the way they could, she picked up on the slight change in the air, a faint hum of power, as they worked.
The lily’s stem grew and sank into the ground, and life returned to the flower; roots rippled out, digging into the dirt. The lily shot back up into the air as more flowers, stems, and leaves joined it, forming a perfect and healthy plant.
Once the last of the magic faded, and the new lilies were bright and alive, the fairies cheered. Helio was dragged into talking with his people over the best way to reorganize their garden to best highlight all their plants, and Aerona started to back away. They were celebrating life and growth. Not exactly her area of expertise.
As she lumbered through the lush garden, a tiny weight crashed onto her neck.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten! You haven’t told us what you saw today!” Ilima said.
Whenever Aerona left the manor, Ilima did not rest until she had heard everything Aerona could manage to say about her relentlessly uneventful trips. Ilima, and most of the fairies, didn’t have the stomach to listen to Aerona talk about hunting, so all Aerona could do was talk about how little she saw.
But today was different, and Aerona had still not quite shaken the feeling of being watched. Humans had once been a common sight in the forest. Long before Aerona had first come to the manor, huntsmen of various shades, lumberjacks, travelers and the like were seen often close to the edges of the forest.
When Aerona had arrived, Helio had told her that was just how things were, but a beast of her size wasn’t going to go unnoticed for forever. And when Aerona had spotted a few humans straying deeper into the forest and far too close to the manor for her comfort, it was far too dangerous to let them continue, so she made sure the rumors started.
Aerona’s ears twitched as she continued walking. She lowered her voice. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of everyone. It was bad enough all my traps were empty, winter’s coming soon, but… When I went to the edge of the forest, a young woman was poking around. I scared her horse enough that she had to turn back, but you know having anyone come into the forest is far too close for comfort. I can’t shake the feeling something is wrong.”
“You are far too panicky, far more than any of us. I bet you gave that girl a heart attack!” Ilima sighed as though she was Aerona’s elder rather than the reverse. “What harm was she doing?”
Aerona ground her teeth together. Maybe if the girl hadn’t found the roses, Aerona wouldn’t have scared her away, but there was no point in wondering about “what if’s.”
“And what do you think will happen if she decides there’s nothing to fear? She’ll return and go farther and farther, until one day she stumbles across me or—stars forbid—stumbles across the manor?” Aerona growled. “No, it’s far better to nip it in the bud. That’s how we stay safe.”
A soft rustling sounded nearby.
Aerona glanced behind her. All the fairies were busy and in the air. Ilima’s grip on her fur tightened. Aerona narrowed her eyes and scanned the area, and she caught sight of a pesky bright red cloak.
How had she managed to follow Aerona without getting caught?
Apparently Aerona hadn’t scared her well enough, and now everything that she had worked so hard to protect was going to be ruined… unless she did something about it.
“Aerona—” Ilima whispered, but Aerona ignored her as she dropped into a prowl and circled her way through the garden. She needed to get the jump on the girl.
Aerona’s claws sank into the ground, as the young woman crouched behind a bush, running her hands over the delicate flowers. If the girl had only seen Aerona, maybe she could let her go, but she was in the garden. She must have seen the fairies, and that was knowledge Aerona could not forgive.
She curled her muscles in, and was ready to pounce when Ilima’s hands jerked her head back and she said, “Stop!”
The young woman jumped with a startled yelp at the sound of Ilima’s voice. Aerona stumbled back as Ilima continued pulling on her neck. All the color left the young woman’s face, and she shot out of the garden faster than lightning.
Aerona whipped her head around, sending Ilima into the air as the other fairies swarmed around her. Helio darted past Ilima as she flapped her wings and regained her balance, asking, “What was that? Was that a human?”
“Yes, a girl, she was at the edge of the forest. I thought I scared her off, but she must have tracked me,” Aerona snarled, cursing herself for not being more careful. She should have taken a different route, looped around a few times to be safe. She’d known something had been off, but instead of listening to her instincts, she’d blamed it on her own paranoia. “Get out of the way, I can still catch her.”
“And do what with her?” Helio’s face darkened. “We will not let you hurt someone, Aerona, not for our sake!”
She didn’t have time for this argument. The girl was getting away.
“She cannot be allowed to go around and tell everyone you’re here! When I catch her, I’ll imprison her. Now, move!” Aerona lunged forward, and most of the fairies scattered. Helio and Ilima continued to hover in her way, unflappable despite the fact they were face to face with her fangs and hot breath.
“We don’t even know if she saw us!” Ilima’s eyes watered as she clasped her hands together, concern etching over her beautiful features. “Please, Aerona, see reason!”
Aerona was the only one being reasonable.
She tried to move forward again, but Gen and Cirro flew in front of her chest, trying to push her back. Gen said, “Please, stop! She’s too far gone. You won’t be able to catch her by now.”
Their small hands did nothing to stop her. Gen and Cirro broke apart from the force, spinning through the air, and Aerona buried the dark twinge in her stomach that surfaced at the sight. Aerona said, “You know that’s not true. You’re just trying to stall, but we all know I’m fast enough.”
“You cannot catch her and imprison her for the crime of curiosity! You know this isn’t right.” Helio flew right in front of her face, holding his arms out as if it would make a difference, and his tone was the same he used when he had to assert himself as Ilima’s father. But he wasn’t Aerona’s father.
Aerona stepped forward so close, her breath knocked Helio back in the air. “I do not concern myself with matters of morality, only with matters of survival.”
She ducked underneath him and ran past them. They couldn’t stop her even if they wanted to, and they would see the truth in her words… eventually. Her paws scraped across the stone courtyard as she flew through the gate and back into the forest.
She narrowed her eyes. The girl had gotten quite a head start, but it didn’t take long for Aerona to find her footprints and tear after her.
Her paws kicked up leaves as she ran, weaving her way through the trees despite her large form. Her fur scraped the sides of trees as she made tight turns, and her lungs burned.
A flash of red in the distance darted between the tall, thick trees every so often and grew closer as Aerona ran. She kept pushing herself to close the gap, despite her desperate need for air.
The young woman was fast and had a head start, but Aerona was faster. The young woman never stood a chance.
She glanced over her shoulder; her golden-brown hair whipped around her face. Aerona bared her teeth and put on a burst of speed.
The gap closed.
The woman let out a scream. Aerona snagged the edge of her red cloak in her teeth.
And it slid right through.
Aerona’s feet fell out from under her, and her muzzle slammed into the ground. Leaves flew into the air as pain blurred her vision as she rolled and skidded across the forest floor.
What had happened? She’d had the cloak in between her teeth. Her fangs were more than sharp enough to pierce fabric. There was a strange, slick taste on her tongue.
Magic?
The young woman shot off again. The edge of the forest was in the distance. No…
Aerona climbed to her feet and tore after her again. She could not be allowed to escape.
The cloak whipped through the air, and the young woman clutched the fabric tighter, glancing over her shoulder. Her mouth parted, and her eyes widened in the perfect expression of terror. Good. She should be afraid. Aerona snarled, and the girl snapped her gaze back ahead.
She was right on the young woman’s heels, ready to close her jaw around the cloak again, but the cloak fluttered out of reach as the woman crossed the edge of the forest. Aerona came to a grinding halt, kicking up dirt and leaves as she scrambled back so she didn’t cross the border.
The young woman didn’t look back as she climbed into the seat of her cart and spurred her anxious horse to motion. She fumbled for something in the seat of her cart, and a small flicker of silver flashed in the light, but the girl was alone, and her cart was rolling well out of sight.
Aerona slunk back into the shadows of the forest, fighting against her rolling stomach and heavy heart. Her mouth fell open as she panted for air, but she couldn’t get enough. Her legs trembled.
The young woman had gotten away, and this was not going to end well.
If Aerona was going to survive, if the fairies were going to survive…
She had failed. Aerona’s large legs gave out underneath her, and she sank her claws into the dirt, trying to fight the water rising in her bright red, inhuman eyes. She had one job, and she’d failed.
You can pre-order Beasts of Beauty on Amazon here. Thank you so much for reading, and I’ll see you next time!