Once upon a time in Ventralli

Beastly Mask

Once upon a time there was a very clever and nice girl named Isabella who lived on the outsides of Rintiero with her father. She had lost her Yakimian mother when she was very small, but had inherited her taste for knowledge. She read every book she could found, with any kind of topic, but stories with adventure and magic were her weakness.

She liked to represent scenes narrated in the books she read and every Ventrallan who saw her paintings was amazed by her talent.

Her father made the most beautiful wood furnitures of all Ventralli. Its details were impressive, with intricate designs that everyone who saw them couldn't help but buying them.

One day, her father went to gather wood from the forest. He was going to make a big job, so he needed something special. He could be too meticulous and Isabella knew it. But he was already taking too long to return. So she took her horse and went to look out for him, following his trail.

She found his horse on the shore of the Langstone River and the only thing he could have done was crossing to the other side. Surely he would have gone to explore the Northern EldridgeForest, looking for better wood.

Isabella got someone to take her to the other side of the river, into the darkness of the forest. Her father couldn't have gone too far without his horse.

She walked and walked for hours, trying to find some indication of the path that had followed his father. She found broken branches, shrubs cutted of, and those tracks led her to a clearing, a castle rising in its center. Why was a castle in the middle of the woods?, Isabella asked herself.

She curiouslyapproached, the stained glass windows left her breathless by their beauty. She knocked the huge door, a little intimidated by its size, but no one answered. She tried a second time and then entered the fortress.

She walked down a long red carpet with gold designs attracting the attention of the girl. When she entered in a large room, she found his father's coat. He had to be in there.

She desperatelyran through the halls, screaming, calling him until she faintly heard his answer. She followed his voice down the stairs, to what looked like a dungeon and found the man locked in a cell. He warned that she shouldn't be there, he begged to flee before he found her. Isabella didn't know who he was or what frightened so much to his father. Although she soon discovered it.

A roar sounded behind her and the girl turned to meet a huge man with a grotesque mask that looked like a beast. His expression behind that mask only combined with it. He was angry, he hated intruders.

Isabella overcame her initial fear and begged him to release her father. The beast growled first and then seemed to reconsider it. He proposed a deal to the young girl: the freedom of her father in exchange for hers. The girl couldn't refuse, she loved her father and would do anything to save him, despite the protests of the man.

She stayed to work in the castle and the beast kept his word, freeing her father. She cried for days, while busy washing, cleaning and sorting.

The castle was empty, or at least she hadn't seen anyone in it. She hardly saw the beast and he was always treating her badly. One day he shouted her so much that she couldn't take it anymore and tried to flee. But the forest itself seemed to be against her. The tree branches scratched her face and arms, the roots made her fall. She felt that the forest kept attacking her and stood curled up on the floor, covering her face, until she felt arms lifting her.

The beast took her back to the safety of the castle and in a cryptic and bitter tone told her that she was now part of his curse.

He healed each of her wounds and his kindness showed her a new side of the man. Isabella started to see him more often, to spend time with him. She began to see the man behind the beastly mask.

A beautiful evening, he took her to a large room and the girl was shocked to find the most enormous library she had ever seen. Even bigger than the Yakim libraries.

Since then, they read a story together every dayand Isabella was enjoying very much. She began to feel like she was at home.

But she terriblymissed her father, she felt an empitiness in her heart that nothing nor nobody could fill. So observing her sadness, the beast pitied and relieved her of the deal.

This time, the forest not held her and she promised to return, but the beast wasn't convinced at all. He knew this would be the last time he would see her.

She found her father destroyed in the house, who started crying when saw his daughter safely. But it was too late. He had denounced the beast and the guards went straight to the castle to end his life.

She ran and went back to the other side of the river. Arriving at the castle, she found everything destroyed, the beautiful colors of the glasses broken on the floor. She went up to the highest tower and found the man with the beastly mask lying down on the floor, barely breathing. She threw herself on him, pleading for he to be okay, but he didn't open his eyes. The girl cried and cried for the loss of the man who had started to love, her tears falling on his face as she kissed his lips very gently.

Suddenly, his eyelashes began to move and the mask fell from his face. He was a very handsome young man, probably one or two years older than her, with tanned skin and high cheekbones. He opened his eyes and looked at her with so much love that she began to cry again with emotion.

The boy told her that he was the king of Yakim, who had been cursed with a dark magic and only true love would destroy the darkness. The castle disappeared and they were alone in the woods. They walked to the Langstone River, just in front of the borderline between Ventralli and Yakim. Whatever the future holds, they knew they would face it together, happily ever after.

Note: I write in Spanish. I made my best to translated it but it's not going to be perfect. It's so easy to read another language, but to write... not so much. You can ask anyone lol. But if you want to read the original in Spanish, it's on my profile. Thanks for being awesome and reading my story!