Beauty made the Beast

Clunk!

The sound of a small log being split in two can be heard as a young man swings down his axe. After cutting a few more logs he wipes the sweat from his forehead.

"Getting faster by the day," Wes says as he admires his hard work, a large pile of chopped wood laying before him. Despite the cool air his body was scorching hot from the hours spent chopping down trees and cutting them into small logs. After putting all the logs into a cart he heads over to his medium sized barn and gets his horse.

Hooking the horse up to the cart Wes heads off to a nearby town to go sell it. Entering the town he's greeted by some shop owners and his parents who live in the town. A couple years ago him and his family had worked hard making him his own cabin and barn in the woods so he could do the work he loved best and enjoy the solitude of the quiet forest. Last year when he turned seventeen he finally moved into there.

With winter coming up he's been very busy with woodcutting since he's the main provider of fire wood now. As he's helping move some logs into someone's home he sees a glimpse of something bright red walking into an inn. No one in town had anything like that. His curiosity getting the best of him, he heads over to the inn as soon as he finishes helping the man.

"I don't have any money, can you just spare a room for one night?" He hears a young woman plea as he approaches the inn. Opening the door he sees a young lady who looks to be his age, with long glowing red hair that shimmers like a rose petal in the sunlight.

"I'm sorry, but winter is coming soon and I can't afford to give rooms out for free," The owner replies. The lady lets out a sigh as she takes a step back from the counter. The owner sees Wes and waves, "Good evening Wes,"

"Hey," He says as he walks over to the counter. Walking past the lady he sees her face. Her brown eyes somehow seemingly completely unique. Though the town has been lucky enough to not get frequent ruffians like other towns, they get their fair share of Qanas soldiers passing through, but she doesn't look like one of them. Wes gets a weird feeling in his chest he's never felt before as he turns away from her and steps in front of the counter, "...H-how much wood you buying today?" He asks as he tries to shake the feeling off.

"Whatever ten coins can get me," They reply as they pull out a bag full of coins. Wes glances behind him to see the lady about to walk out.

"Wait," Wes says, getting her attention, "Uh...I'll give you the logs for a, fifth, of the price if you give her a room for the night," The owner and lady look at him with surprised faces.

"Deal,"

The lady stands and watches the two as they carry logs to a room behind the counter. After they're done the man gives Wes a mere two coins, but to him it was worth it.

"Thank you," The lady says with a nervous smile, "Uh..."

"Wes, the name's Wes," He replies, unable to stop himself from smiling, "And, you're welcome, um..."

"Scarlett,"

"Scarlett, of course you'd have such a beautiful name," He starts to blush when he realizes what he just said, "Uh, I gotta go finish selling my fire wood, enjoy your stay here," He says quickly heading out of the inn Scarlett left the town the next day but not before Wes could find her and the two talked a bit and waved good-bye.

Wes would spend the next couple of weeks unable to get her out of his head, and to his surprise she came to the town again. This time she stayed a couple days since she had some money. Wes spent all his free time with her, showing her the town or just talking. The next time she visited she came to his cabin and later that year they had a daughter.

Named Daisy after her blossoming smile, Scarlett and Wes would visit his parents and spend lots of time with them to get help raising her. Scarlett never talked about her family for some reason and would speak vaguely, Wes connecting the dots, her's was dead. Ever since they had Daisy, Wes propose to her almost every day only to be rejected every time. Shortly after Daisy turned one, Scarlett took off again, leaving Wes confused, angry, heartbroken, and leaving Daisy without a mother.

To his joy she came back, but she would only stay for a a couple weeks or months before taking off for just as long. Town soon got word from a travelling soldier that many men in high ranking positions were getting killed by an unknown assailant. People were fearing that it was the Reaper and that the Sealed was now attacking Qanas.

Tragedy would strike the town when Daisy was twelve.

"I'm heading into town to get some stuff," Daisy says as she puts on her orange winter coat.

"You sure you have enough on? You can take my coat if you need to,"

"Dad, I'm perfectly fine with just this one. Do you need anything?"

"Just some deer meat if they have any,"

"Okie-doke, I'll be back by sunset," And with that Daisy heads out for the town. Wes sat down by the chimney, the warm fire making the cabin nice and cozy. Like he has everyday, he glances at his dresser where a ring lay, the ring he uses to propose to Scarlett every day she's there. As he's reminiscing about the first time he saw her there's a sudden banging on the door.

Wes quickly heads to the door and opens it up, Scarlett jumping into his arms.

"Help!" She screams as she holds him tight, "Someone is-!" Her plea for help is cut off as a red surge stabs into her from behind. Wes is utterly shocked and his breath is lost. He quickly holds her tightly to stop her body from falling to the ground.

"Scarlett? Scarlett?!" He cries as he struggles to keep the strength to hold her up, his body shaking. He looks up to a see a figure in a black cloak, a hoodie covering their face.

"You, you bastard!" He cries out. He lays her body down and grabs his axe before charging at them, "I'll kill you!" He roars as he readies for a swing. The figure raises and arm toward themselves than lashes it out toward them, a bottle flying at him. It explodes midair, the dark red liquid inside of it splashing onto him. Some of it flying into his eyes he stops and quickly wipes as much of it as he can.

He starts to feel light headed as everything seems to be tinted a similar shade of red, his vision very blurry. From what little he can see the person seems to be completely gone. His whole body starts to feel weak as his legs struggle to support him. He soon falls to the ground, dropping his axe. A sudden burning sensation feels his body as he screams in agony. His limbs feel like they're being torn apart as they stretch out and grow in size. His shirt soon starts to tear open as his body outgrows it.

His bones feel like they're breaking as his fingers start growing claws and fur erupts from his body. With one last howl of pain Wes is left on the ground weak and breathless. Too his surprise, his body seemingly recovers from the pain quickly and he's able to rise to his feet. He looks around, everything seeming a bit, smaller. The person is nowhere in sight. He looks at himself and sees the light brown fur covering him and his claws. He stands there completely at a loss for words as he turns his hand, closes his fingers, trying to grasp some sort of understanding of what just happened.

Scarlett!

He quickly turns around and runs over to her motionless body.

"Scarlett, Scarlett!" He cries with a much deeper and growl-like voice. He hugs her body closely as tears soon start going down his face. Her body than starts to face into dust, his arms soon holding onto nothing but thin air. He's left sitting there in the front door of his cabin, no sign of her to be seen. He hears scream from behind.

He turns to see Daisy, looking at him in horror. He starts to get up but she quickly turns around and takes off.

The town starts to have rumors of a beast living near them, that killed Wes. After that encounter, Daisy started travelling, trying to find her mother. Wes tried to find help from the townsfolk, but found only swords, and pitchforks pointed at him. As the years passed, the isolation started taking a toll on him, becoming an ill-tempered creature that hoped to one day find the person responsible for killing his love and turning him into whatever he is. Despite the town's rumors and dangers to him, Wes sometimes goes there at night to leave firewood. He spends months out travelling Qanas, hoping to one day find the killer.