"We'll be back in two days. You know what you're supposed to do for chores, but please will you sit down and relax too?" Lisa asked Sierra. The girl would work herself ragged if she didn't.
"I'll try." Sierra answered as she watched her mother lay a sweater in the suitcase.
"Can you get in my jewelry box and get out my pearl necklace?" Lisa asked as she continued loading up the suitcase.
Sierra got up off the bed and went to the dresser. Opening the jewelry box, she began rummaging through it, when a ring caught her attention off to the box's side. She pulled it out, looked at it briefly, then went back to her search for the necklace. Finding it, she pulled it out, closed the jewelry box, and handed it to her mother. 'Thanks," her mother absently replied and placed it in the suitcase's pocket area.
Sierra opened her other hand and sat down on the bed and looked at the ring. It was inlaid with gold and silver. A ruby cut in the shape of the profile of a snarling silhouette of a panther or leopard was its middle. Diamonds were its eye and teeth. Smaller ones, 3 on each side, framed it. Sierra felt enchanted with it for some reason.
"What are you looking at?" Lisa asked.
"One of your rings. I've never seen this one before." Sierra said watching it glimmer in the light of the room.
"Which one?" Lisa asked coming to Sierra's side. "Oh that one. That one's a one of a kind HERE. It's been in the family for centuries. It's been handed down to each firstborn female since, oh, I can't even remember. Every stone and material on it is real. Some day, I was going to give it to you." Lisa said smiling, and going back to her suitcase. "Go ahead and take it."
"But mom I..."Sierra trailed off in disbelief. She was giving her a priceless piece of jewelry. She couldn't believe it.
"Sierra, take it. Put it on and wear it. It was MEANT for you anyway."
"Mom thank you! I... love it." Sierra said thinking about the cat, the necklace, and the book. She had given her so many gifts in just one day.
"Wear it Sierra." Lisa said taking the ring in one hand and Sierra's hand in the other, then slipped the ring on her finger. "Wear it always. Now go... I'll tell you when were ready to leave. Go back to your book. Go..."
Sierra smiled again, she felt like crying. Her mother always did things to show she loved her, that she needed her. That she was good enough for her. Today had been so terrible. Her father was still upset with her. But despite it she felt joy. She turned to leave, back to her room and book.
She had finished the other Beauty and the Beast story earlier, in a desperate attempt to take her mind off of the day's events. Now she turned her attention to the book in the wooden case. Carefully, she lifted it out realizing that it was an old book, but in prime condition. She checked the spine and cover for an author's name but found none. Inside she was equally perplexed, no names, no publisher, no copyright date, no dedication, nothing.
"That's funny." she whispered to herself with only the calico cat lying asleep as her audience. "Oh well."
She opened it to the first page. The book seemed to be hand written in a calligraphic style- which perplexed her the most so far, until she proceeded to the first line, which was different from any other book she had ever read.
"To the future readers of this most true account contained herein this book's pages, I must say that before you read on that historians and even common people will believe me insane or a liar, but this is the true story of Beauty and the Beast, and where the first tale has sprung..."
"What is this? A study of the myth of Psyche and Cupid?" Sierra asked sarcastically.
"... but just so you, my dear reader, may understand, I will tell this story as it was told to me, as it has been for centuries in our family.
But just so you can actually grasp it and believe me or not, I'll start it with that saying that is commonly used; 'Once upon a time...'"
Sierra read on and on for what seemed hours, stopping only occasionally to get something to drink. This story was vastly different from any other Beauty and the Beast story she had ever read before. For one thing, "the far off land" was ANOTHET PLANET. Finally, she went to sleep thinking and dreaming about a new perspective of the story. That this seemed to be the way it always should have been written. The writer, she noticed as well was extremely detailed about everything. Almost as if it was real.
Her thoughts were turned to a race of people, half feline, half-human, whose beautiful world was slowly dying and so were the people themselves. A place where the fate of the entire species and land stood in the balance and hands of two people- one of them being a human girl named Ara Belle...