• One night, an almost starless night a dark figure stands at the edge of a pond. The pond was covered with a thin blanket of fog. The figure crouched toward the murky water. In the water was a reflection, reflection of a man. The man had a face covered in a brown dog like fur and had fangs protruding from his mouth. The man just stared at his freakish reflection in horror. He moved his hands toward his face to see that they were covered in the same fur as his face, and he had claws.
    “Noooooo” He cries as he gashed his claws through the water. The water was stirred up and you could no longer see the reflection. He ran off into the thick forest on his hands and feet like some kind of beast. Out in the distance in the trees a small cottage was slowly appearing. He was heading straight for it. As he was getting closer you could see that the cottage was built like a log cabin. It looked much run down, old and broken. As soon as he reached the cottage he hides himself away in the cabin. The moon revealed its self from behind a cloud just as he had entered. It was a full moon.
    Outside the cottage it was still. No wind, the leaves on the trees were immobile. It was as if time had stopped. The moon shone brightly upon the forest floor, in patches showing between the leaves. Something rustled the leaves on the ground. Something running, running fast, and soon it was in sight. It was a young girl; you could tell she had been running a while now.
    In the moon light her hair glistened with light. Her hair was a light almost blonde brown. She had a slim figure and a soft smooth look to her skin. Her skin looked like it could have been porcelain it was so smooth. The moonlight enhanced her beauty. She stopped by a tree to rest, but suddenly she collapsed as soon as she reached the tree. She laid there among the fallen leaves.
    “Why does this have to happen to me! Why!” Says the man inside the cottage. He knocked a bowl off a small table in his anger. In a corner of the cottage were a small bed and night stand. A small sink had cabinets and counters surrounding it, in another corner by the table. At the foot of the bed in the wall was a small fire place with a chair, about 5 feet in front of it.
    “Maybe since the moon is hiding again I should go for a walk to calm myself down.” He says pacing back and forth in the cottage trying to calm himself. It didn’t seem to be working well, so he left.
    He opens the door and the crisp air wraps around him as he walks off into the forest. He walked back to the pond he was at earlier, but stayed away from the edge so he wouldn’t have to see his reflection. He didn’t want to see this hideous thing that he has become.
    “I just don’t understand. Why did God give me this hideous form? I can not live among the people and I’ll die all alone in that damn cottage.” He says clenching his fists. He headed back to his cottage the long way, giving himself more time to calm down.
    “I smell a girl near by.” He says to himself confused, he was almost excited. He hadn’t seen anyone in years. He began to follow the sent of what he thought was of a girl.
    He soon found a girl lying in the leaves at the bottom of a tree. Her long hair was flowing over the leaves and the leaves were tangled into her hair. He gently brushed his hand against her pail cheek and she was cold.
    “What is a girl doing laying out here in the forest?” He says quickly checking her pulse, afraid she was dead when he felt how cold she was. “She’s still alive…”He says to himself relieved.” But I have a feeling I should leave her.” He looks around suspiciously like he’s being watched. “I might get into something I don’t want to be involved in.” He says to himself looking at her with longing ness to be with her. He wanted to get to know her and to keep his loneliness away.
    “Now where did that damn girl go? She couldn’t have gotten that far in that dress.” A few men say getting louder as they came closer. He looked in the direction of the men’s voices, they weren’t insight yet.
    “They don’t sound like they are going to help her.” He says looking between the girl and their voices. “I don’t want to be involved, but…” He looked at the girl and finished his thought. “I won’t let a girl be put in danger.” He made his decision to take her, but his decision was made too late. The men appeared, there were 3 of them and they all had guns. They all conveniently seemed to be hunters.
    They stopped and gaped at the hideous form with the girl. “What the hell is that monster!” They say and he turns around in enough time to a bullet that was sent at him. “Don’t shoot we don’t want to hit the girl!” One of the men that seemed to be the leader says. That man pushed the guns of the others down. Dust flew up as the bullets flew into the ground.
    “Oh crap!” he says as he runs off with the girl. He was on his way back to his cottage.
    “We can hit two birds with one stone, since it has the girl too.” The leader says charging off after him and the girl. The other two men follow not far behind him.
    “What am I doing?” He stops feeling like an idiot. “I can’t lead them to my home.” He thinks to himself as he heads off a different way to his cottage to throw them off. It was the extremely long way to his cottage that he almost never went on. He also made false trails along the way to throw them off even more. Then he takes a round about route back to his cottage and the hunters he believed they gave up or left since they didn’t find him.
    He arrived back at his cottage exhausted from running with a girl in his arms. He sets her down on the bed and realizes that his hideous form was gone. He covers the girl with the blankets and finally sees all her beauty that was hidden in the dark. Her hair was now mangled with leaves, but her skin like porcelain was still the same. He brushes the back of his hand against her cheek, she was still so cold. “She’s so beautiful, but she’s ice cold. I may not die all alone after all but…” He pauses, “I can’t jump to conclusions.” He says to himself shaking his head. He sits in the chair in front of the fireplace. Slowly he drifts to sleep watching the fire slowly burn to embers and dreaming of the beauty he had found.
    The girl begins to regain consciousness slowly as the dawn turns to morning. She sits up weakly and looks around the cottage. “Where am I? Did one of those guys get me?” She says quietly to herself. Soon looking around the cottage her eyes fell upon the man in the chair. She got up swiftly and quietly walked over to him. He was a handsome young man about her age, he had a strong build and looked very kind. Yet something about him was hidden, but she couldn’t figure out what.
    He woke up as she was examining him. “Hello there” he says a little surprised to find someone looking at him. Startled she backed up too fast and fell. He got up out of the chair, to help her up and he says “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He offers her his hand looking a little hurt. She didn’t take his hand.
    “Don’t touch me!” she says taking no help and pushing his hand away. She looked as frightened as if she had just seen a ghost. “Who are you? And how did I get here?” She asks trying to sound demanding, but not having any success.
    “Ok” He sighs and starts again, “I found you out cold on the leaves and heard others after a girl. So I thought it was you and these people didn’t sound nice to me. So I decided to take you to my cottage.” He says hoping she’ll understand. Then after a while of sitting in silence he asks her, “What were you doing out in this forest anyway? This is no place for a girl to be running around in. It’s dangerous.” He says in an eerie way.
    “Well those men were after me, and I thank you for saving me. I ran from the village I lived in because they were trying to kidnap me and used me for their own personal enjoy meant.” She pauses as her voice starts to waver and she was shaking a little thinking about it. She snapped out of that and continued, “I had no other choice but to run into the forest and I guess I got so tired that I collapsed by the tree I was going to rest at. That’s my story.”
    He offers her his hand again and this time she took it warily and he helped her up. “So what’s your name?” He says as she sits herself down on the bed.
    “My name is Miki and you are?” She says in a much calmer voice than before.
    “My name is Bagino. It’s nice to meet you.” He replies with a gorgeous smile.
    “Why don’t you live in the village?” She asks curious of why he would want to live out here. He went very quiet and didn’t answer for a minute.
    “I have my reasons. Would you like something to eat?” He asks her quickly changing the subject. Miki was getting suspicious and she looked like she felt insecure.
    Miki’s stomach growls and she puts her hand on her stomach. “Sure, I’m kind of hungry after running yesterday.” She says gratefully.
    He made some eggs on a pan in the fire. While they were cooking he went out and found some fruits to eat. He came back with some apples, pears, and peaches. He then took out a knife and cut some of everything up and put them into separate bowls. He went to check the eggs and they were done. He took out plates and silverware out of the cupboards and split the eggs onto the two plates. He set them down on the table in the corner and noticed the broken bowl from the other day.
    “Here is yours.” He says as he shows her to the spot that was farthest from the broken bowl. She sat down at her spot and started eating. He began to clean up the broken bowl hoping she wouldn’t notice. She was too hungry to notice him with the broken bowl. After he finished with the bowl he brought over the fruit and placed it in the middle of the table. He began to eat with her and it was very quiet, they didn’t seem to know what to say.
    When they had finished Bagino took the plates and bowls and put them into the sink to wash later. Miki stands up and says “Thank you that was very good. Well I should probably be heading back to the village.” She starts to walk toward the door. Bagino looked sad and hurt at the same time, like his heart was breaking. Even though he knew this time would come eventually anyway. Before she reached the door she turned around with a smile on her face and says “You should come back to the village with me.
    “No. I’d rather not go there.” He says as his sadness melted away to cold.
    “Why not? Tell me.” She pleads, “You can’t be happy out here all alone.”
    “I’m not, I wouldn’t choose this life if I had a choice!” He yells at nothing but his horrible life.
    She was scared of him now, he was really loud. She was backing slowly to the door. “WH…What do you mean if you had a choice? You do, you can come back with me.” She says gaining a little more confidence now.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to yell. Go ahead and leave if that’s what you want.” He says upset about yelling at her and seeing her so scared. He went and sat in the chair where she found him earlier. She pulls her chair up next to him and sits with there with him, her hands in her lap.
    “You should leave, I shouldn’t have gotten you involved with me.” He says as he stands up, surprisingly looking like a beaten dog.
    “No” She grabs his arm, “I’m not leaving until you will come back with me, or tell me why you’re not going to come with me.” She says with a defiant look.
    “Fine do what you will, but I will not tell you.” He walks out the door a bit angry.
    She stares at the door with a clueless expression on her face. Then she went to lie on the bed and maybe sleep. “Now what am I to do? I want to know him, he’s really kind but so lonely. If I leave it’ll hurt him more. I’m I in love with him?” She lies on the bed looking up at the ceiling thinking.

    “I don’t want her to leave. I’m finally not lonely. I have someone to talk to, but now that I have her I don’t want her to run away, when she sees what I really am.” He thinks as he walks through random places in the forest. “I love her for being so kind and I can feel that she sees through the person I pretend to be. What will come of this? I don’t know.” He continues thinking of her as he heads back to the cottage.
    As he reaches the cottage the stars have just begun to come out. As he walks in he finds Miki asleep on the bed. He starts the fire up again when he sees her shivering, then covers her with the blankets. As he covers her she woke up. “What are you doing?” She asks stretching and getting out of the bed.
    “You were shivering so I started the fire back up and covered you up.” He says going to sit in the chair in front of the fire.
    She pulls him up saying, “Come on a walk with me. Please.” She gives him the cute puppy eyes.
    “No. It’s cold and it’s to dark. Plus I just got back.” He says grumpily watching the fire, avoiding looking at her. He knew what she was doing.
    “Please.” She begs with the puppy face again making sure he sees it this time. He didn’t budge at all, he sat there ignoring her.
    She walks to the door and says snottily “Fine then I’ll go all by myself…” She puts emphasis on the words at the end. “And if the hunter’s find me you’ll feel really guilty.” She opens the door slowly.
    At that last remark he got up to go with her. “Okay, I’ll come, but lets not be long” He says following her. She had a smile of victory on her face as they left.
    They walked to the pond Bagnio was at a few days before. The pond was calm but still murky until Miki and Bagino walked by. All the frogs started jumping in and disturbing the calm water.
    “Wow I never knew a forest could be so beautiful” Miki says with sparkles in her eyes. She starts to dance around with her dress flowing in the wind. As she took her next step she slipped and started to fall towards the pond.
    “Miki!” Bagino yells as he dashes forward. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Are you okay?” He asks her very worried.
    “I’m fine.” She says as her heart beats rapidly. She looks up at him, and they moved closer and closer. Then right before their lips touched the moon came out. It wasn’t a full moon but the moon alone was enough.
    He pushed Miki away and she landed about ten feet away. “Ahhhh” Bagino screams and puts his hands on his head like he was in pain. She gets up carefully and goes over to him cautiously. She put her hand on his hunched over back, worried.
    “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” She asks worried as she leans forward to see Bagino’s face.
    Fur begins to grow on his face and arms. “Get away don’t look at me!” He screams in a strange voice moving away from her.
    “Why what’s wrong” She says getting scared and frantic. His claws and fangs begin to protrude from his finger tips and lips. She gasped backing away as he stands up to look at her with sad eyes. Now he was almost two times taller than her. “What are you!” She screams in horror.
    “This is why I live alone.” He says in tears as they pour down his fur covered face. He hated that he had just hurt her and it really wasn’t something he could control. “I’m sorry I scared you, I’ll be leaving now.” He says with the face on his fur dampened now from the tears. He heads back toward his cottage.
    “I can’t believe he’s that monster, but I still love him. I can see past all that.” She thinks to herself with a blank stare as Bagino walked off. “Wait Bagino I mmm….” She yells getting muffled by a large hand, as she had started to go after Bagino.
    Bagino turns to see what she wants before never seeing her again. He finds the hunters covering her mouth and holding her tight so she can’t get away. “We’ve finally caught her. Now it’s your turn.” He yells toward Bagino. They hit Miki on the back of the neck knocking her out for the time being.
    “Miki!” he yells in a deep wolf like voice. He ran toward them with a crazed madness in his eyes and anger filling him up.
    “So you can talk beast” The hunter says pulling out a strange sword. It was a silver sword. It didn’t matter Bagino was too much in a rage to even think of stopping. He just kept racing toward them.
    Bagino finally got close enough to attack and he deeply cut the hunter’s arm with his claw. “Ahhh” The hunter fell to his knees and dropped his sword screaming in pain. Then Bagino left no time for him to do anything and attacked again. He carved into the hunter’s back until there was nothing but shreds of his body left. He looked toward the other two by Miki. They took off in a frantic dash pushing each other out of the way, because of fear. They completely forgot about Miki they were so scared.
    Bagino washed his bloody claws off in the pond then went over to Miki. He pushed her blonde hair out of her face with the back of his furry hand. “Miki you’re safe now and free. I’ll take care of you until you awaken then you can go home with no fear.” He says as he picks her up off the ground and took her to his cottage.
    He got back to the cottage and set her in bed. Before he, himself collapsed into his chair to sleep he kissed her on the forehead. He got to the chair and passed out from exhaustion.
    Bagino woke up at noon to find Miki still out. He was back to normal with no fur or fangs again. He pulled a chair up next to the bed and waited for her to wake. An hour went by and she finally woke up. “Bagino what happened last night?” She asked sleepily.
    Bagino had a happy ting to his voice as he says “Well the hunters caught you and knocked you out and came after me. I killed one and the others ran away like the cowards they were.”
    “So th-that thing was you?” She says a little nervously. She waited for his answer.
    “Yes, but the only reason I killed that hunter is because he hurt you.” Bagino says moving closer to Miki. “And I wanted to know what you were trying to say to me before they caught you.” He says quickly a little embarrassed.
    As soon as he says that Miki blushes. “Umm… well I said that I….I love you.” She says throwing herself onto Bagino, knocking him over with the chair. She begins to cry and says, “I couldn’t stand not seeing you again, even if you were that beast.” She sobs.
    Bagino holds her tightly and strokes her hair and says, “I love you too” He kisses her on the head and sits up with her in his lap. She kisses him on the lips, tears still pouring down her cheeks. He kissed her back with passion, then something inside him broke with a “snap.” “Did you hear that?” He asks Miki.
    “Yeah what was that?” She asks confused.
    A ghost like figure appeared before them that looked exactly like Bagino as the beast. It says “Your curse has broken because of her.” he points to Miki then continues, “Now I can be free as well as you are free. May you be happy the rest of your years.” It disappeared through the wall.
    The rest of their years were filled with happiness, and lovingness. They lived in the little cottage all alone with each other. It was so peaceful in the woods and they were happy. When they died they died together holding each other smiling