Hey, guys! Thanks for the reviews last chapter. I'm really, REALLY ecstatic that you guys enjoyed last chapter. I'm super excited for this story so it makes me happy to know that you guys are as well. It was also super fun to read your guys' predictions on who is going to be who. You guys will find out if your predictions are right in time. Thanks again to DarkQueenofDuels for agreeing to be my beta, it always helps to have another pair of eyes to catch any mistakes. Also, I just want to apologize for how long it has taken to get this chapter up. When I first started the chapter, I assumed it would be a pretty quick write since I have the large majority of the story mapped out already. However, wording was a big struggle for me in this chapter, especially since most of the chapter was setting everything up. Anyhoo, enough rambling from me! Enjoy the next chapter.
The girl hummed quietly as she plucked the strings of her guitar. Her long legs dangled carelessly over the side of the tree branch she was sitting on. She strummed a wrong chord and she frowned.
"Damn," she cursed under her breath. "That wasn't right either." She continued to pluck at the strings and each chord was incorrect. She sighed in frustration and ran a hand through her curly, ebony colored hair. Damn, I knew I should have written it down, she mentally scolded herself. Her self-reprimanding was cut short when she heard the low drone of the clock tower from the town square. Damn! Way to go, Alissa, you're late again! She gently positioned her guitar on her back before swinging down from the tree branch. She smoothed down the front of her light blue dress and ran her hand through her curls to shake loose any branches that might have ended up in her hair from her climb. Once she made sure she looked presentable, she grabbed her knapsack and headed hastily into the town square.
Alissa and her family had moved to the small town of Draakhaven six years earlier when Alissa was fourteen and her younger brother, Ben, was only ten. The Todd family was originally from a town called Vibria Creek, a small town two towns to the South of Draakhaven, but settled into the slightly larger town of Draakhaven when their patriarch, Joshua, decided to relocate his rapidly growing business to a larger town.
Joshua was a handsome man, with a strong jaw, neatly cut, dark, and curly locks, and piercing green eyes. He was strong and kind, but above all, he was a gifted musician. In addition to his passion for music, he also had a deep love for adventure. His wife, Abigail, was a beautiful woman with long, brunette hair, and shared his kind soul and affinity for adventure. Following their marriage, the couple spent several years travelling and exploring the world. They settled down in Vibria Creek for a short time when they discovered Abigail was pregnant. Once both Alissa and Ben were old enough to travel, the family continued their adventures.
Unfortunately, at the age of six, Ben developed breathing problems that made heavy travel difficult. The family was forced to stop their adventuring and settle down in Vibria Creek permanently. Despite the family's love for adventure, it wasn't too difficult for the family to settle into the small town life. The town was right along the coast, so even if they couldn't travel to distant lands like they used to, the neighboring islands were just a short boat ride away. Shortly after settling in the town, Joshua and Abigail opened up a music shop that sold various hand made instruments and had a large library of sheet music. The music ranged from classics by well-known composers to original songs that Joshua had composed himself. The small shop flourished and soon Joshua decided to move his family and his growing business to the larger town of Draakhaven.
It hadn't been too much of a challenge for the family to settle into living in the new town. Ben was a carefree child and could find a new adventure in almost anything. The various different shops and the many fields around the town were enough to keep the young boy satisfied with the otherwise boring town.
Unfortunately, Alissa hadn't adjusted to the provincial life so easily. Even though Draakhaven was larger than Vibria Creek, she still missed the days where her and her family would travel and explore many exotic cultures and places. She longed to go back to the days when she could sail the sea and visit so many sites that most people would never get to see in their lifetime. The only thing that made living in Draakhaven worthwhile was her best friend Alister Allaway.
The Todd family met the Allaway family when they moved into the farmhouse next door. Claire Allaway was an attractive young widow who had lost her husband Michael in a war. She was left alone to raise her two sons. Mikey, their youngest, was a year older than Ben and had reddish brown hair that framed his face and fell past his ears and light gray eyes. Alister, the elder, was a year older than Alissa and had maroon colored hair that flipped at the ends and darker gray eyes than his younger brother. It didn't take long for the two families to grow close and soon the two families were practically one big family.
A couple years after the Todd family moved to Draakhaven, Alister tragically lost his brother and mother to illness. Now without a family, Alister moved in with Alissa and her family. Even though his family's deaths were tragic, the tragedy brought him and Alissa even closer together. She was thankful for Alister. She didn't fit in at Draakhaven from the beginning. She wasn't like everyone else she was too wild. Despite that, Alister still accepted her and befriended her. She was thankful that he was such a big part of her life. Without him, living in Draakhaven would have killed her.
It was already mid afternoon and the small town of Draakhaven was still alive with people carrying out their daily routines. Smooth cobblestone lined the roads of the small town. Brick houses with cobbled chimneys lined the streets, each house serving as a shop on the bottom story and a home on the top. A tall, stone clock tower stood in the middle of the town with large walls protruding from either side of it, surrounding the whole town and separating it from the lush woods.
Every day is exactly the same, she thought negatively as she made her way through the crowds of people. How can these people be okay with doing the same thing everyday? Where is their sense of adventure? The smell of fresh bread pulled her out of her thoughts and she spotted Rafael, the baker, walking towards his cart with a tray of bread.
"Good afternoon, Alissa," the muscular blond howled in greeting as he passed.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Almar."
"Where are you off to?"
"Oh, the bookshop. I actually just finished this great book about a curse and a King and a-."
"That's nice," he responded, clearly uninterested as he called for his assistant over his shoulder. "Valon! I need the rest of the baguettes! Hurry up!"
Alissa rolled her eyes and continued her fast paced walk to the bookshop. Aside from her home and their family music shop, the bookshop was the only place in town where she felt like she actually fit in. As she walked, she picked up on several townspeople gossiping about her.
"That girl is strange, no question," a group of middle-aged housewives spoke amongst themselves.
"She's never part of any crowd," an older woman pointed out. "She's always by herself reading books or playing that instrument of hers."
"She always has her head stuck in some cloud," the blacksmith grunted to his assistant.
"No denying she's a funny girl, that Alissa," a group of gossiping old women conversed as they moved from shop to shop.
Ugh, this is ridiculous, Alissa growled as she heard the never-ending gossip. What the hell is wrong with this people? Do they think I can't hear them?
A small group of schoolgirls passed her and giggled to each other.
"She's so peculiar," one of them giggled.
"I wonder if she's feeling well?" another one added.
"My parents would throw me out if I acted like her. She's much too wild," a third girl said primly.
Alissa clenched her fists tightly and exhaled through her nose. It took all of her will not to snap at them in frustration.
"She always has that dreamy, far-off look on her face," an aristocratic man mumbled.
"You're right, if she isn't playing that instrument of hers, her nose is stuck in some book," his friend replied in agreement.
"She's so strange, but special," a young man replied almost pityingly. "It's such a shame that she doesn't fit in."
"She's quite the funny girl, but very beautiful."
"A beauty, but a funny girl."
Somebody get me out of this town, Alissa thought in frustration. She clenched her fists in frustration. Every single day she heard the townspeople mumble the words "strange", "odd", "peculiar", or "funny." She had half a mind to turn around and snap at them all to shut up like she used to when she was younger, but instead she forced herself to hold her tongue. An outburst like that would only earn her more disrespect and make her even more of an outcast. She only kept her temper in check to respect her parents and protect their reputations. She absolutely cherished and respected both of her parents. She, Ben, and Alister, who had practically become a Todd himself, were all devastated when disease killed Joshua, and less than six months later, a broken heart killed Abigail as well. The town could say whatever she wished about her, she could take it, but Alissa would never forgive herself if she tarnished her parent's reputation because she couldn't control her temper. Besides, all it would accomplish would be more gossiping and the townspeople marching up to their farmhouse to complain to Alister about how he needed to control his "wild" and "undisciplined" friend. She didn't want to put him through their nonsense simply because he was the only one they could complain to now.
"Pft, beauty," she mocked, catching sight of her reflection in one of the shop windows. "What a joke." She supposed she wasn't awful looking, but she wouldn't call herself beautiful. Although she was slender with nice, lean muscles, she was tall for a girl, towering over even some of the men in the village. Her hair was always unmanageably curly. No, she wasn't beautiful. To be beautiful, you had to have perfectly tanned skin and be graceful like her mother. She wouldn't even consider herself sweet looking. No, she was too tall and her face too angular for that. Ben was sweet looking. Due to being sick a lot as a child, Ben hadn't grown much. He was slender with tar black hair and large blue eyes. Even at sixteen, his eyes still held some sort of innocence.
What frustrated Alissa the most was that even though she couldn't see the beauty in herself that the town saw, for everyone else, her beauty was all they saw. They made no efforts to look beyond her appearance and try to get to know her. It was frustrating that she'd never accept her for who she was.
She sighed and stared out past the walls and caught sight of the lush woods. The leaves were ablaze with colors of red, orange, and gold. A small smile appeared on her lips as she brushed a stray curl behind her ear. One day I'm going to get out of this stupid, provincial town and I'm never going to come back.
Alright, there is the next chapter. I had originally planned make this chapter super long, but I decided pacing wise that splitting it into two would be better.
First, it took me a while to decide what Rafael's and Alister's last names should be since they were never given one in the anime. After looking up origins of their names, I decided to go with a Scottish last name for Alister and a Hebrew last name for Rafael because those were the origins for their first names, although I believe Rafael's first name also has Germanic origins, but hey I'm just going with the Hebrew. Also, random fact cause I found this really interesting, Alister's name means defender of mankind. See what writers of the show did there? Anyway, I found that really smart and it amused me.
Second, the town names, Draakhaven and Vibria Creek came to me after several hours of thinking. Okay, maybe not several hours, but it took a while. I wanted something dragon like since the kingdom itself is called Draconia. So, after researching for a while I came up with Draakhaven for the main town and Vibria Creek for the neighboring town that Alissa and her family were originally from. The word draak is dragon in Dutch and a Vibria is actually a female Catalan dragon (dragons from Catalonia). Ya see what I did there?
Third, just to clear things up a little, this story doesn't take place in France like the actual Beauty and the Beast fairytale does. This story takes place in a fantasy "world" of sorts. I mean, there's still real countries like Germany, Scotland, Denmark, and all other countries since I use a lot of them for name origins, but Draconia is like its own separate country where things like dragons and magic exist and what not. I just wanted to make sure that was clear since I'm using names with tons of different origins.
And lastly, this has nothing to do with ACIM, but if any of you read the TACOM saga, I have a poll on my profile pertaining to whether or not I should turn the trilogy into a series. Since I'm obsessed with writing Selissa, I kind of want to do one more story in the saga, which focuses on them as parents and the hardships that come with it. If that's something you guys would be interested in seeing, go on and vote. The next thing I will be updating will be A Step Too Far, which is my collab story with DarkQueenofDuels that can be found on our collab account Sakura and Alissa. Anyhoo, enough of the self-promo. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Review, critique, ask questions, whatever you want. Talk to you guys soon!
