Hey everyone, just a quick thank-you to those who're taking the time to read this, usually none of my stories do to well so I hope this one gets a little more response than my others; also I have a knack for slow starters...
This is a dark mash-up of fairytales told in a shadowy, modern day era with odd twists, such as demons and demi-gods and the like, I'm not sure where the story's going to go so suggestions and helpful criticisms would be muchly appreciated.
Uh, I wanna change the title to so m'yeah, like help with that to…Anyways, on with the story!!!
Scarlet
Chapter one:
The gentle gold of the early morning sun spilled into the sterile white room, the creamy coloured blinds had been pulled open by a young nurse who was currently stripping a hospital bed clean of its soiled sheets.
The room she attended to was empty and silent of any other person, it was eerie and quiet and she sighed to herself in attempt to break the monotony of her daily routine.
Her thoughts had in turn wondered to the sole occupant of this very bed she was making again, a swell of pity choking her next sigh and she gulped back the burning tingle in the corners of her eyes; never had she seen a woman so empty or a man so broken as the couple that had signed out of the hospital early this morning.
The woman, tall and slim with large, pale teal eyes and orange-blonde hair had exited the hospital with empty arms and a shadow across her face, her husband also rather tall kept his dark gaze to the tiled floor, the hospital staff seemed to move out of their way, avoiding the veil of despair that had draped itself around the shattered couple.
They had lost their child, their first born daughter to unexplainable causes; the woman had woken, screaming in the dead of night, wailing that something was terribly wrong, she feared for her child's life.
She gripped her stricken husbands hand so tightly her knuckles had gone white as they watched the monitor screen, the image of their perfectly healthy baby girl showing on screen before them.
She'd asked the doctor, quietly at first and then screamed at him when he didn't answer straight away as to why her child was not moving, why there was no steady beat of her baby's heart.
"I'm sorry." Was his reply.
They had induced the woman into labor, she had been due to give birth any minute now anyway, and after wards the mid-wife whisked the babe away to clean her and weigh her and jot in the appropriate details.
Time of birth.
Time of death.
There was no cause of death evident after the tests had been finished and clarified, no record of diseases or deformities from the parents or either sides of the families.
No reason at all as to why the child had died so suddenly and close to birth as this one did, nothing to ease the heart-break.
Their child just died, and so had a part of the couple, a little black smudge in their hearts.
"Father?"
The child's voice echoed around the white marble walls and floor in the deserted room.
A deep, guttural rumble reverberated off of the walls before the beast had even opened his maw to respond.
He shifted his massive frame in the large leather chair he sat in, muscles bulging and relaxing as he stood, groaning as he went and towered over the girl. He stretched his oddly small and somewhat misplaced leather wings on his back, they had been squished to the back of the chair, truly for his size it was almost comical that this goliath could take flight; the little wings looked like they'd suit the little girl standing at his cloven feet.
"Yes child? Is there something you wish to ask me?" He whispered gruffly, his baritone voice still managing to echo around the strange pair.
Beast's yellow eyes had caught that curious gleam in his daughters dark green-grey streaked eyes, she had her nose wrinkled in that familiar way.
She hesitated for a second, as if unsure whether this was the wrong or right thing to do but pressed on anyway. "Why are we different?"
The tiny wings sprouting from his chiseled back flinched ever so slightly in surprise and his immense bulk seemed to go taught, he wondered why he was so caught off guard by hat understatement of a question when he knew that, inevitably she would ask him the blatantly obvious.
She is a tiny human girl, her skin as white as the marble that made up the interior of his home, she has large dark eyes and her hair is a golden-orange mess of waves, a green ribbon attempting to bind it all back but failing miserably.
Beast, as he was known, was a chaotic and frightful mix of mortal beasts and animals born into one incredible, immortal being; His head was shaped as that of a lion and though he had a luxurious mane resting upon his broad shoulders it was the silver-grey colour of a wolfs pelt. The silver-grey slowly mottled and darkened, becoming course and representing the torso and thighs of a bison and from his knees to his clovered feet were that of a wild boars; the colour once again reverting to a deep grey-black.
He did have inky, leathered wings, little spines just peeking along the ridges, but they seemed to have little use and he had smooth, black panther's arms ending in five-digit, human hands and sharp, reflexive taloned nails adorning the end of each furred finger.
"Father…?" She prompted, tugging very gently on the long fur on his thighs.
"Argh…" He rumbled, nodding to himself as he sighed, kneeling onto the cold floor and sitting on his haunches, ignoring the groan in his knees.
She took a few steps back to allow him room.
"Scarlet…" He motioned with one clawed hand and she took it, placing her tiny one inside his, "How old are you now?" He asked gently.
"Seven and a half!" She stated proudly, seven was a major milestone for one so young after all.
He grinned a fanged smile, aged lines pulling and deepening along the contours of his face, "Seven." He repeated, chuckling the chuckle of a beast, old and throaty.
He squeezed her hand gently as she smiled back up at him, looking slightly confused and still awaiting the answer to her question.
"It's a long story, dear Scarlet, are you sure you wish to hear it from me?"
Scarlet frowned suddenly, realizing her father was trying to weasel out of the rather difficult situation she'd put him in, this only seemed to vex her stubborn nature though and she stepped up to him and promptly clambered onto his lap and sat, firmly crossing her arms across her skinny chest.
That was all the answer Beast needed, and so he started the story of how he came across the then new born, sounding very tired and old as he went. "Alright…well, it starts off very sad…"