Let me know what you think. It is set up differently then my other stories, but hopefully you still enjoy it. There is still much more to write, but I wanted to know if it is something others feel is worth reading. I hope you are engaged,

T.

Prelude

She followed the path blindly, trusing her memory more then her sight that she would find her way in the evening twilight as she ran from the voices that followed her.

"Get back here you air-headed idiot. Where do you think you are going?" One of the voices hollered. A shiver ran through her spine, if she was caught this time... she did not want to think of what would happen to her.

She continued to run, hearing the dogs howls coming closer.

"The beast will get yooouuuuu!" Screeched a female's voice, further away.

The beast did not scare her, nothing scared her except the inhuman people that she was running from. Her body was a testament to their twisted minds.

"Leave her." The man spit off their porch, speaking to his wife that was still screeching out to the now silent woods. "She will return. There is no place she can go."

"Damn shame to lose her though." The woman called back the dogs that were tracking her.

"She was a good for nothing brat, only thing she was good for was a beating. She would do us a favor if she never returned." The man entered the house, the woman following.

She continued to run until she arrived at the clearing from her memory. She looked around before collapsing on the ground, struggling to get back her breath. It was dark now and as it was still early spring, the cold was setting in.

She pulled her skirt down as far over her legs as she could, trying to keep her body heat, looking around for him, wondering if he would come. Her clothes were thin and too small to cover her body though and soon she was shaking, the chattering of her teeth filling in the silence of the clearing.

She stared at the sky, watching the stars start to appear.

This was were she had seen him, seen the fabled 'beast' that people talked about in this area. They said that he hunted the woods, feasting on animal and people alike, but she knew better.

She remembered back to that day. She had been given a rare chance to roam through the woods without the ever present eyes watching her and she had taken it, enjoying the freedom. She still wondered why they had allowed her to roam that day. She had spent the afternoon hunting for food to eat without any luck, but she did not mind, she was free for those few precious hours.

Of course, as luck would have it she had gotten lost and had stumbled into this exact clearing, freezing when she had seen him across the clearing. She knew immediately that he was the one they called 'the beast'.

She took in the two rabbits he carried in one hand and noted that his entire body was covered in black cloth. He had frozen as well when she had entered the clearing and the silence continued on indefinitely until her stomach had rumbled, echoing through the space between them. He continued to watch her just as she watched him, neither moving as her stomach sounded again.

After the second betrayal of her stomach, he had turned to face her fully and she prepared herself for her immediate death, the only thought coming to mind was how her parents had told her that he had blood red eyes and sharp fangs instead of teeth and his favorite meal was young girls. They had been wrong.

He laid the rabbits down at his feet, never taking his dark eyes off of her. He looked remarkable human, well, except for the scars that criss-crossed his face. He straightened up and took a step forward. She cowered down and waited for his attack but instead he had turned and walked away, stopping to turn once and give her a slow nod before melting into the darkness of the woods.

She had stood there for what seemed like hours, frozen to the spot, partly in fear, partly in curiosity all the while staring at the two rabbits that he had left behind for her. She took a couple of hesitant steps forward and froze again. Why had he left her alive? She scurried a few feet close tot he rabbits, pausing to listen. It could be a trap, but why the anguish in his eyes when he had left? Was he not this monstrous beast, incapable of anything but killing.

She reached down and picked up the rabbits, freezing once more before racing back towards her own slow death. The rabbits would give her a reprieve tonight.

She laid there staring at the stars, remembering as the cold seeped into her bones.

She closed her eyes, the stars highlighted in the back of her eyelids as she waited. Either death or the beast would find her, either way she would be free from the inhuman beings that were now behind her.

Nagano stared down at the slight form of the girl and wondered if she was still alive. He looked carefully at the bruised and battered body that matched his own. he did not want to touch her if he could help it.

Finally though, as a last effort, he knelt and very carefully lowered his head, stopping just above her chest, listening for a breath.

He knelt like that for long moments, but eventually he heard it. She was alive. He rocked back on his feet. Now what to do with her? She was extremely underfed and her clothes were more like rags then actually clothing, barely covering the essential parts of her body.

He was certain that if he left her here she would freeze to death by morning. It was to get below freezing temps tonight. He was also certain that if he woke her she would die of fright and since he would not touch her to carry her, it seemed there was only one solution.

He stood and walked away. It was not his problem, he should just leave. He repeated that phrase over and over as he crossed the clearing, stopping where he had stopped on the fateful evening that he had first seen her.

He stood there repeating it over and over, finally giving into the the fact that he could not leave her to die.

"Sebastian."

"Yes sir?"

"Take her."

"Yes sir." Sebastian, Nagano's butler, who was never far away, stepped out of the shadows and picked up the tiny girl. Although he was an older gentlemen, he was quite strong and as the girl looked to weigh no more then a hundred pounds, he was not worried about Sebastian's health.