In some new place on some new face I've never seen
I might find where I belong someday
And there may even be another dream for me
Waiting there somewhere along the way
Who knows where I go from here?
So many voices, only one things's clear
There's nothing to lose, nothing to fear
The past is gone, I must move on from here
- Where do I go from here, Pocahontas 2
Chapter 6: One step closer
Rhoswen had been in the villa for almost a week, by then, she'd befriended the four slaves that dwelled within.
Now, Rhoswen and the Beast saw each other only for a short time each day and during the evening when they dined together. As they dined, the Beast lit only one candle at Rhoswen's part of the table while he himself ate in the shadows so that she would not have to look upon his monstrous visage.
However one day, Rhoswen brought up the subject on slaves and how she felt about it. This lead to a heated argument between her and the Beast. The servants listened in and feared it would escalate into something terrible, yet it didn't.
Frustrated, Rhoswen storms off into the garden.
The Beast watched her go, then stares at his huge grotesque hands, the sharp claws, and buries his head in his left paw.
In the meantime, Rhoswen was far too incensed to notice that she was going off the garden trail and into the woods. But after a few minutes of sulking, she soon saw that almost nothing looked familiar. She looked up at the sun which was just close to setting.
The longer she stayed out here, the more risk she ran of being spotted by Roman patrols or worse.
"Of course it might help if I knew which direction I came from." she remarked wryly.
While she walked, in the deepening gloom there was a rush movement out of the corner of her eye. It didn't take long for her to understand that she's being stalked by a pack of wolves.
Their growling become more menacing as they signal each other, getting excited. Then they emerged and began to circle her. With sharp snarls and a blur of motion they attack. One makes a running jump at her. Rhoswen hit it with a sharp branch in her fear. She sprints, trying to escape, but one of the wolves pulled at her skirt. She tears away, but goes sprawling in time to see four lunging toward her. The nearest one leaps at her throat.
Rhoswen closed her eyes, bracing herself for the final blow. But it never came, instead a resounding roar met her ears. She opened her eyes to see the Beast in a protective stance staring down the wolves fearlessly.
One tears into his arm, and the others focus their attack on that spot. He clawed it away sending it into a boulder, finishing it.
The others finally retreat as the Beasts swipes at them. When they're gone, he and Rhoswen stare each other down.
Her eyes trailed to where the wolves' had bitten them in time to see few drops of red blood drop onto the shadowed grass.
"You're hurt!"
The Beast turned from her, "It's nothing, leave me be. We must return to the villa."
He started towards the right direction, Rhoswen had to run to catch up. When they were nearly there she gasped, "Please give me your paw - er, hand."
The Beast pulled away. "No, it is the claw of a monster."
"But it's bleeding and you don't want it to become infected do you?"
"There we are," Rhoswen said as she finished dabbing the muscular, furry arm with a towel dipper in warm water.
They were back in the villa in the main hall before a fireplace where Rhoswen was treating the Beast's injury.
"Also I-I wanted to thank you for saving my life, even when I had so foolishly endangered myself." She added.
"You also could've chosen to ignore my wounds and offer help, instead you tried to help heal and dress them."
"I was just doing as the parable of the Good Samaritan -" Rhoswen stopped herself. She still did not know the Beast's views on the Christians.
"What Samaritan?"
"It was a parable, an example told in a story if you will." Rhoswen explained, "I know you only wish to be referred to as the Beast yet I still do not know yours."
A soft rumble was heard within the Beast's throat yet he said nothing.
"It's Marius," Luther whispered out of the corner of his mouth as he handed her some clean bandages.
Rhoswen raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "Marius…" she whispered the name as if testing it.
The Beast looked at her in near surprise - from the look on his face he'd never expected her to learn his name.
"Is that your name?" Rhoswen asked curiously.
He sighed in near defeat, "Yes."
With the slave's help, she dressed the Beast's arm but when she was finished she was greatly confused. This time the Beast no longer seemed horrid or foul.
"Why do you stay? Even when he's sometimes awful to you?" She'd asked Prospera and the others, the argument was still a little fresh in her mind.
Prospera shook her head, "Not so much as other men would've been - the other Roman men with money don't take too kindly to potential slaves that already have children."
She said this while looking sadly at her son Colin, who was sweeping a little distance away.
"With us looking this way, we've no other sanctuary." added Gilford, "If we left and people were to see us we'd suffer a much worse fate."
"Also there's no guarantee that our families live anymore." Luther chimed in.
"The Master is not as uncouth as he seems," Prospera insisted, "You see, my son and I were shipped here to Rome as slaves. At the auction, there were much more cruel candidates: some wanted to buy only me others wished to purchase only Colin. But then one buyer offered a hefty sum for us both; my son and I were both bought by the Master so we would not be separated. That is the cause of my unwavering loyalty to him."
Prospera's story left Rhoswen stunned and frankly, curious.
"Poor creature," Rhoswen thought, "How he must suffer looking as he does."
To be continued…
