The carriage bumped and jostled along the roughened path out of the northern region into the more wild lands of the West. The driver was a quiet, burly fellow commissioned by an unknown messenger to take her to the castle of the beast. They'd been traveling since noon and it was well past dusk by the time they even breached the mountains of the wolves' home territory. There was no name given to this town and if you were lost within the boundless forests you had little chance of rescue.
The driver had stopped occasionally at inns located sparsely along the way for Relena's sake but did little to make the journey comfortable. Relena sighed miserably as she gazed out the dusty window into the dark skies, scraggly branches and towering trees. She missed her home considerably more and more the further they went but she resigned not to cry. Thinking back to the stories she was told of the beast, she shivered and pulled her hood tighter around her. She would manage, that she would. She would make sure no more harm came to innocent people and she would do her best to see that he, it, whatever it was, did not become unhappy with her.
Anxiety swelled within her as she envisioned piercing fangs, bloodthirsty eyes and hungry growls. She clenched her eyes shut and willed away her foolishness.
'Stop it, you idiot. You have no choice,' Relena reminded herself harshly. She wondered what her fiercely protective, oftentimes overbearing, brother would say when he returned home and learned of her fate. She never appreciated him babying her before but at that moment she desperately wished for him to find her and let her know he'd keep her safe as he had always done since their parents died.
Relena couldn't help the sob and the tears that followed as she hugged herself and leaned her head against the window. In all her life she had never felt so alone.