Dexter shifted uncomfortably as he stood in waiting. He could vaguely make out a lot of shouting from the other room, and suddenly he was very afraid of what might be in store for him. It was getting late, and darker and they were still going.

He decided to sit down on the ground for a while, and he leaned forward slightly, staring at the little patterns in the tiled floor. Anything to keep his mind off what was happening to his brother would suffice.

Finally, the king re entered the room, but he looked dishevelled and had a forming bruise on the side of his face, and his hair was flying out at odd angles. He stormed over to dexter who scrambled to get up to his feet, but to his relief, his father merely said,

"Dexter, I won't be needing to speak with you yet. Your brother just attacked me like a vicious animal! I'm going to your mother to discuss what we will do about it." He explained.

"Now, go! Get out of my sight. You're just as much a disgrace as he is to me." He jabbed.

Dexter didn't waste any time. As his father turned away, dexter rushed to the room from which he had come. A guard stood in his way and explained that it was completely confidential what was going on with Daring.

He growled impatiently but knew he didn't stand a chance against the guards and so he made his way to his room, praying that Daring would somehow end up okay.

XxXxXxX

Raven didn't like having to stay behind every year...or rather every moment of her life.

Her mother was more or less non existent since her sudden imprisonment and her father was...you know...dead...

She wondered what it was like to have a family like that. It had been since she and Rotbart were maybe no older than ten when she had last seen her own mother. She lay in her empty dorm room in a more or less empty school, the only other students around being those of a similar backgrounds.

She stared down at the floor and realised that missing someone isn't such a great thing after all.

A knock on her door brought her out of it for a moment. She raised a brow and wondered who could be bothering her at this time of night.

A hoot of impatience sounded from the other side of the door and then Raven remembered,

"Come in, I'm too lazy to get up." She called.

A chuckle answered her, and her brother walked through the door, his owl Odie on his shoulder, happily breaking the 'no boys in girls rooms' rule. It was his sister. They weren't doing anything wicked...probably.

"Don't tell me your really still pining for that nerd prince..." He commented, almost ignoring the six hundred times he'd gone on a lamenting rampage about Duchess Swan.

Raven pointed that out to him with a decidedly irritated glare and he nervously laughed and shrugged, "Okay, okay, I shouldn't be one to talk. But still," he sat down on her bed and then flopped onto his back to match her position, Odie flying up to sit on the top corner of her four poster.

"It isn't Dexter...well, I'm super worried about him too...his parents would try to have me killed if they knew what was going on between us." She replied, "What I was thinking about right now though is...our non existent parents."

Rotbart looked away and folded his arms across his chest. His father was one of those stereotypical high expectations parents who never praised him more than he criticised him. He had only ever known him for a father though and he missed him so much. The day he'd drowned like the story commands, Rotbart had been there, having disobeyed orders to stay in bed. He used to love coming to the lake to watch his father dance, and the lovely princess who at the time, also had a daughter about his age, who had long since declared her hatred for him

They had initially seen eachother secretly as friends, but that was something Duchess didn't remember apparently. However, one day watched her mother die, earlier on, and then realising finally what her story held for her in the end, she ran screaming from him, knowing that one day he would kill her, like his father just did to hers.

That was the day he fell in love with Duchess, naturally.

And her father went down with his, drowning in the lake, bloodied and destroyed. A faint echo of a song, playing like a whispering ghost on the wind reached his ears; Swan Lake.

"Yeah, I'll never forget losing my father. I never got anything out of him but disappointment though, at least you have pleasant memories." He said. He turned to her and smiled, "Mother was the better of the two..if anyone evil can be called better anyway."

He grasped her hand and closed his eyes remembering those early days, "I guess I miss her too." He admitted, silently.

Raven tackled him and they laughed as they began to wrestle, like old times, "You big lug! You like to act all dark and evil!" She teased him

"Shut up! I AM EVIL! I'll get you for that!" He retorted, poofing her into a literal raven. Raven dove down and they became engaged in an all out magic war, almost completely forgetting the roughness of their past, or the loneliness of the summer.

XxXxXxX

Dexter paced around in his room, concerned about his brother. He hadn't been seen for hours now and no one would tell him what was up. He groaned in exasperation and kicked aside a basket in his room, furiously.

Finally someone came up to his room and knocked at the door. "Your majesty, you must come quickly! Your brother has been murdered by a horrific beast in his dungeon cell!" The maid cried, unable to contain her horror.

Dexter screamed and rushed with her down to meet with his parents. What? This couldn't be possibly happening! What was a beast doing in the dungeons?

His eyes widened as he imagined it, unable to stop thinking about how it might've looked like, or what remained of his brother in the cell...

"Wait? Why was daring in a dungeon cell? Why was a beast even down..." He halted in his running and then nearly slipped clinging to the banister...

"They..they did this on purpose?" He pondered for a moment.

A hand fell on his shoulder and he whipped his head up to see his father who had been making his way to Dexters room to break the news himself. "No, Dexter, we didn't. I'm ashamed that you would assume such a thing." He spoke, his voice wavering and his face in complete and utter shock.

Dexter looked into his eyes very carefully, searching for signs of deception. Those months of studying evil had caused him to become much more adept in the act of picking out an honest accident from a plotted one.

His father didn't give him enough time to examine his face before he began to walk, beckoning him to follow, "Please, come. Your mother and I need to speak with you about what will happen from now on. Your brother was very important to us, but as figures of authority we must make haste and discuss what will become of the beast. We can mourn later."

Dexter narrowed his eyes at the suddenly calm and indifferent tone in his father's voice, and he followed quickly, not speaking of his suspicion. Not speaking at all.

They rounded the corner and passed through the throne room, and into a flight of stairs far down to the dungeons.

The beast was real alright, a horrific combination of several creatures, with horns and tusks and fangs and claws, it roared in pain and terror as some guards whipped and tied it down, the queen was not anywhere to be seen.

"Your mother couldn't bear to see it." The king answered his sons unasked question.

Dexter stared in petrifying horror, as the beast finally settled down, and he got a good look at it.

He gasped silently and covered his mouth as the beast lifted its head to look at him. It's mouth was chained shut, but his eyes bored into his, pleading, and wet with tears. Dexter knew this form of beast...it was THE BEAST... As in, the beast that he, Dexter, was supposed to be!

To be continued