Chapter 2 – Beauty and the Beast…all disclaimers apply, I do not own Sailor Moon et al.
Unknown to the king, he did have someone watching over him. Selune, goddess of the moon, had seen the whole incident. She also had a fair idea why King Darien had been cursed by the wizard.
Darien had been a fair and just ruler. His tenants adored him, and so had a young woman named Beryl. Beryl has waist long reddish brown hair and deep brown eyes. At the age of 28, the woman is firmly built and has curves in all the right places. She'd seen Darien while he was out on his daily ride around the countryside. He'd tipped an imaginary hat to her and continued on his way while Beryl went head over heels in lust. She'd tried several ways to make Darien fall in love with her, but they all failed. Darien just wasn't interested. His people and his kingdom came first.
A traveling bunch of gypsies had come over from the mainland. Among them was a young wizard named Melvin the Magnificent. Melvin fell in love with Beryl, and vowed to do whatever he could to make her happy. "Although, I don't think my magic will work too well over here, there's not much to focus on."
On the contrary, there was plenty to focus on, and Beryl had him do just that. She focused on making Melvin so jealous of Darien, that he would do anything to get rid of the king. That suited Beryl just fine. If she couldn't have Darien, no one could. Melvin however proved to have just a little bit of backbone and refused to kill Darien. Instead he conjured up a spell.
Darien had deep-ocean blue eyes, ebony black hair, and a firm athletic build. At 6' 2" in height, his trim body was everything most women dream of finding in a man. Add to that a charming if somewhat aloof personality and Melvin knew what he was going to do.
"Don't worry, Beryl, he won't ever hurt you again. I'll make sure he never leaves this island. He had better enjoy his time as a human, as of midnight, he'll never be that form again."
Selune watched as Beryl and Melvin made their plans. She would intercede if it became absolutely necessary. After all, Darien was one of her favorite humans. That night, as Melvin cast his spell upon the unsuspecting ruler, Selune cast a spell of protection on Darien. It came a fraction of a second too late.
When Darien woke up the next morning, he started to rub the sleep out of his eyes when something stopped him. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. They were shaped like claws! He cautiously slipped out of bed and looked in the mirror.
"AAAAHHHH!" He'd been turned into a wolf/dragon. His face, upper torso and arms were those of a silver-coated wolf. His lower torso and legs were similar to a silver dragon. He even had dragon wings on his back!
Kaleb had heard him cry out and burst into the room without knocking. "Your Highness! What—oh my God! Darien is that you?"
Darien turned to his friend and nodded. Kaleb, his face almost as white as his hair, gingerly checked his King over for injuries. When he found nothing, he asked Darien if he knew of anyone who would do this to him.
Darien was still in a state of shock. He couldn't believe anyone would do something like this to another human. And why pick on him? What had he done to deserve this? He looked at Kaleb and asked him to summon the other advisors. He found to his relief that he could still speak like a human even if he did look like a beast.
They made plans to evacuate all the tenants from the island. Everyone would be taken care of financially, Darien had made certain of that. It took over six weeks to get everyone off the island, but Darien figured that if his people were safe, then nothing else mattered. The last thing he had to do was to send the advisors over.
Selune knew that Darien wanted his friends to be safe, and that she had failed to prevent the spell from taking effect. However, as she began her vigil over Darien, she noticed something that she hadn't seen the night the spell was cast. Somehow Beryl had warped the spell to such an extent, that if Selune hadn't put her protective ward over him, Darien's heart would have burst within the first three days.
Selune knew that she didn't have much time. Five years if she was lucky. She had to find the advisors and tell them what she knew.
Just then a soul-shattering scream pierced the night. Selune headed for the moon, and found her worst nightmare. Her daughter, Queen Serenity, was unconscious on the floor of the throne room. Princess Neptune was out cold on the floor beside the Queen. Of Serenity's daughter, Serena, there was no sign.
Princess Uranus ran in and skidded to a halt in front of Selune. "I'm sorry, I tried to stop them, but they got away from me. If we try and go after them, I still might be able to pick up their trail." She swayed and Selune could see that Uranus was bleeding from several wounds. "Don't worry, the princess is alive. I can tell that she's out cold but still alive." With that Uranus passed out on the floor next to Neptune.
Princess Pluto came in and reassured Selune that Serena was alive. "I can't see much else, but she will live through this."
Pluto guarded the Gates of Time and very rarely left them. That the dark haired princess had done so at this time impressed Selune tremendously. Selune thanked the tall young woman and made a silent vow to help Pluto whenever she could. After all, she didn't want to see the young woman's glorious raven hair turn green from standing idle at the gates.
"Pluto, do what you can to find Serena. Let me know immediately if anything goes wrong and what I can do to help."
Pluto nodded and headed for the portal that would lead her back to the Gates of Time. She paused briefly and said, "Tell Queen Serenity that we will get the princess back. Once Uranus and Neptune are healed, we'll search the universe for her if we have to." With that, she stepped through the portal.
