Title: 踊り子星/Odoriko Hoshi/Star Dancer

Author: 私の 秘密愛/高橋三知子 Watashi no Himitsu Ai My Secret Love/Takahashi Michiko

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the ふるば characters. All I own is Shaloub Annelise and the plot

Warning: My computer is not very good and every time I try to slip any Japanese in, it shows as the Hiragana/Kanji forms. In order to add the Romaji form, I h a v e t o w r i t e t h e w o r d s l i k e t h i s. So if there isn't a Romaji form for the Japanese word, ignore it.

Author's Note: I love Shaloub Annelise so much that I've decided to use her again in this story and I'm also writing an normal fiction on her in this story, she doesn't have that secret (winks). I thought it would be better if she was normal. This story is a remake of "Beauty and the Beast", just in ふるば form. (Lise Icali's ふるば Challenge) I'm trying to make it like Beauty and the Beast without breaking away from the ふるば characters' personalities…

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Chapter One: 獣の 殿閣/Kemono no Denkaku/Beast's Palace

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I've always been scared of the large palace on the hill's top not too far from our home. Papa said he knew who used to live there…a monstrous being who tortured the town. He also had a son and now, only his son lives there since they killed his father…

"蛙の子は蛙。Kaeronokohakaero. Like father, like son," Papa used to say. "That boy's probably a 天魔/tenma/demon just like his father…"

That was years ago, though… My papa's an amazing man, but something I wonder why couldn't he use his brain a little more…

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I dismounted my horse, ready to ride as fast as I could. I knew the 獣/kemono/beast had my papa… There was no doubt about it. It was definitely something Papa would do…get himself involved in a mess like this… He did too many dangerous things for his old age!

I couldn't help but to hate the kemono's son, especially after what Papa said about how the kemono had treated the village. He angered me just by simply thinking of him. I knew it was unreasonable to judge him without meeting him, but…

What if worse came to worse and I went there for no reason wasn't there? Into the palace? Or worse, what if Papa was…?

I didn't even dare to think of it as I walked to the old iron gate through the heavy fog. It seemed as if the fog was secreting from the palace! It made the palace entirely invisible, yet then again, the gate wasn't that close to the palace…

I scratched my nose and felt a surge of pain thinking of Papa. He always said that when your nose itches, it means someone was thinking of you… Was Papa thinking of me?

I chuckled to myself as I went into deeper thoughts. I wonder how strong the kemono's son is compared to his father… If the kemono died right after his son was born, I can't imagine how his son got much training!

My hand wandered to the back of my neck, rubbing it as a nervous habit. I noticed that I was performing my annoying habit; so to prevent myself from continuing it I forced myself to open the gate by kicking it as hard as I could. I was a legend in my country, anyways – a famous warrior!

I forced my hands into the folds of my long skirt which I hated so much and longer to wear pants like the other men and boys of the era. However, I had one advantage to the latest fashion. With the long skirts and the corsets, there were many places to hide knives and swords, which I carried plenty. Within the folds of the right side of my skirt, there was my famous sword, 劇毒/Gekidoku/Deadly Poison, named by my enemies… My allies called my sword 星/Hoshi/Star, however, and me 踊り子/Odoriko/Dancer…

I walked slowly to down the path that the gate opened to and prayed as I walked that I would lead me to the main entrance to I could fight the kemono's son.

All I could see around me were small bits of grass that had grown through cracks in the stone and many broken part of numerous items scattered across the ground. Half of them, I could not name what they had former been.

Finally, the grand stairs came into view. I climbed them slowly to find myself in front of the one door I never wanted to be in front of – the kemono's palace door… I slowly reached up and cautiously knocked. No reply…

I slowly turned the handle of the door and pushed open the heavy door, peaking in my head. It was dark and mystifying. The mystery of the palace grabbed me and pulled me in. 犬も歩けば棒にあたる/Inu mo arukeba bou ni ataru/A dog wandering about will be hit by a stick… I kept it mind.

"Oi, there is a girl here!" a small gray rat said, sneaking out of a corner.

"Oh, hello," I sighed, musing whether he was the kemono's son or not. "ウエイト/Ueito/Wait… You just spoke!"

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Hahaha! I (heart) Annelise! She's so cool. I debating whether I'll have Honda Tohru in this story at all, so when you read this, can you tell me whether you think so or not. Also, how do you like my proverbs? My favorites are 七転び八起き (Nana korobi ya oki/Fall seven times, get up eight.), 残り物には福がある (Nokori-mono ni wa fuku ga aru/Good things come to those who wait.), and 朱に交われば赤くなる (Shu ni majiwareba akaku naru/The hand of a man who handles vermilion will become red.)

-TAKAHASHI OUT!

(NEW)
I have two comments to two people:

wow - Thanks so much! Yes, I'm Japanese. I have Kiersten the thank for helping me with English (Kiku-kun - xXstardusted)!

TMH - Funny, I've gotten a lot of compliments on this story... My friends said that her best story got some bad reviews. Why? Because the person who reviewed it was jealous! Don't worry, I'm deleting you review!

I'm not mad at TMH, I'm just surprised at how rude people can be! I read a horrible story the other day, but instead of calling it the "most pretentious story I've ever read.", I named what I did like and what they could fix politely.