Chapter Seven

The four Head Housekeepers stood by the balcony.

“So, what do you think?” said Love, leaning against the banister and looking down into the entrance hall. White marble statues of various predatory animals lined the walls, in between spiral green shrubbery that was maintained by one of the other Housekeepers.

“Well, I only just met him, but he seems polite. And he has that characteristic stubborn streak of lion-Beasts,” said Amarok.

Love wrinkled her nose. “It’s not nice to stereotype, you know.”

“Stereotyping? You know it’s true; each Beast has certain characteristics by nature. For example, wolf-Beasts may roam alone, or they may have a pack. But they're always loyal,” said Amarok.

Linia groaned.

“And another example, fox-Beasts tend to be fickle and tricky little bastards,” added Maru.

Amarok asked, “Where did Kuma assign Shiv to?”

“Patrol guard, with us,” replied Maru as he picked at his arm hair. “Where he’ll probably stay, unless he shows incredibly cooking prowess.”

"I figured as much. He’s a big guy, and he’ll be back in shape in no time. Though, I’m not quite sure why Kuma would assign a hot-dry-land Beast to the outdoors here up North."

Love laughed, “He can deal with it. He has to. But do you think he’ll cause any trouble like some of those others we picked up?”

The others flinched. Eyes darted towards the corridors and floating stairs.

“Don’t say things like that out loud here,” hissed Linia.

“Well, they’re wasting our time and resources. I’ve always thought we should call them out. Sometimes I just want to rake their faces for complaining incessantly about the conditions here. It’s like they forgot what it’s like to be out there,” said Love. Her eyelids lowered slightly, turning her eyes into amber-sunset slits.

“Yes, but if you call them out, they’ll just get embarrassed and leave the House. We don’t want Kuma to have enemies. As much as I’d wish they would just get the hell out,” mumbled Maru darkly.

“Or, you know, we could just kill them.”

“Love!” exclaimed Amarok with a frown.

“I agree with her. It’d make things a lot easier. They’re immature and selfish cowards,” said Linia.

Maru barked with laughter.

“That’s against our bound morals and it could make Kuma look bad one day,” said Amarok, though he added exasperatedly, “But, you’re a fox-Beast. Your loyalties tie you not to Kuma, but towards some obscure goal, am I right?”

“You could be right, or you could be wrong,” said Love impassively. “That doesn’t matter very much, as long as that goal makes me loyal to Kuma, don’t you agree?”

Before Amarok could respond, Linia said, “You two can have your intellectual sparring later. We need to discuss next week’s meal plans.”

Secret smiles passed between the four Housekeepers.

Chapter Six

As the group approached the glaciers, what appeared to be a piece of snow detached itself from one of the nearer ones and floated towards them. It was an owl, with the lazy amber-eyed gaze of a snowy.

"Saari, it’s us,” called Maru up to the bird.

The snowy owl swooped down and landed on Maru’s rear and turned it’s head around, fixing it’s naturally sarcastic face on Shiv.

"Hi," the owl said with a distinctive, musical feminine voice.

"Hello," Shiv replied, watching the bird curiously.

Linia introduced the two. "Shiv, this is Saari. She’s an owl-Beast, and on the Guard. And this is Shiv, the lion-Beast, and we just collected him from the circus.”

After greeting the owl-Beast, Shiv said, “You have quite a lot of Beasts here, don’t you?”

"It's a zoo in there,” sighed Linia.

The five of them approached one of the glaciers. Saari alit and disappeared into the white sky to resume her guard duties as Maru led the group of them to the side of one of the crystal-blue icy giants.

"So Kuma’s House is a glacier?” said Shiv.

Love laughed as they entered a crevasse, cleverly hidden in a sheath of ice,  in the side of the glacier. “No. This is just a pathway to the House. The House is among these glaciers, but we avoid having to use the front entrance if we can. It’s a bother to get through everything.”

The real entranceway must have a lot of security, then, thought Shiv.

The glacial pathway was wide and tall enough for two elephants to walk side by side in. The sunlight filtered through the thick ice and bathed the tunnel in a blue glow. Shiv knew they were headed underground as the glow dimmed as the pathway slanted downward. And then it became completely dark as the tunnel went into the earth. There, gentle golden lanterns were mounted on the wall every few meters.

A minute or so later, Shiv found himself walking on a luxurious carpet instead of hard ice. When he looked back up, Love had stopped in front of an enormous door. The wood was of a curious bright wood. Stained-glass windows stood on both sides of the door.

“Welcome to Kuma’s House!” smiled Love as she nudged the door open with a paw and led him up a short flight of stone stairs.

Shiv stepped into the House, eyes wide with awe. Everything before him was grand but simplistic. A thick crimson carpet with simple sunset-gold patterns covered the entire floor of the grand entrance hall. An enormous floating spiral staircase wound itself all the way up to the ceiling many floors away. At the very top was what appeared to be a miniature sun; the inverted dome-light, which must have been about twenty feet in diameter,  emitted a gentle bluish light that mimicked morning sunlight. Beautiful glassy balconies overlooked the entrance hall, and as Shiv stared up at them, a couple of faces appeared and stared down curiously, reminding Shiv of tree squirrels.

It was so warm that Shiv’s muscles seemed to melt. He hadn’t realized he was so cold and tired until he had reached a comfortable place. Then he self-consciously remembered the state of his own hygiene. 

I really need to wash, he thought as he once again caught a whiff of his own month-old stench.

Just then, something large and white loomed in his peripheral vision. Shiv turned to see an enormous white bear padding silently towards them from one of the side corridors. It was nearly three times the size of Shiv, and its paws were large enough for him to imagine the bear easily decapitating him with one swing. 

Shiv involuntarily drew his ears back.

"Kuma! We’ve retrieved him,” Love called towards the bear. She shifted into her human form again with a barely perceptible sound, like a soft whisper of silk sliding on silk, and wrapped her arms around Kuma’s neck. Her arms did not even reach half way around, and disappeared into the thick ruff around the bear’s neck.

“That’s Kuma!” exclaimed Shiv. He had assumed Kuma was a man, not a bear-Beast.

The enormous white bear fixed his eyes on the lion-Beast. Shiv noticed his eyes were like deep pools, with what looked like tiny flecks of white gold and silver in them. They looked like spheres of the night sky.

Maru and Linia greeted Kuma, who nodded wordlessly at them. Linia slid off Maru’s back and the two stood aside as Kuma returned his gaze to Shiv, who stood there awkwardly in all his stinking glory.

“Shiv, this is Kuma, our Housemaster. And this,” said Love, looking back to Kuma and nodding at Shiv, “is the lion-Beast.”

The lion-Beast? That meant he had been a topic of conversation, by people he did not even know existed, while he was in the goblin circus. The knowledge unnerved him a little, but he pulled it together and shifted into his human form with a crackle of bones.

“Thank you for taking me in,” said Shiv.

The white bear’s eyes flicked as he looked Shiv over. Then he nodded approvingly.
"You be a Guard. You can thank me that way.” Kuma’s slow voice was a bass felt more than heard. His voice seemed to reverberate from deep inside his chest, for his mouth only made vague motions when he spoke.

Shiv assumed being a Guard would be the same as what Saari did, sitting outside on the glacier on the lookout. He cringed inwardly; lion-Beasts were Fair Folk of the savannahs, why would Kuma send him outside into the harsh cold? But he didn’t raise the question. Not yet, anyway...

"Love, take him around. And make sure he gets a bath,” said Kuma. Then he turned, and with a few strides disappeared down another corridor.

As soon as he was gone, Love turned back to Shiv. “Sorry, he is a bit short with words. It’s hard for him to speak.”
“That’s alright,” said Shiv, though a bit puzzled.

"Now, I’ll show you to the bathroom so you can finally wash that stinking grime off yourself,” said Love.

Shiv followed Love up the floating stairs. The polished dark wood spiraled up solidly around the entrance hall, up all twelve floors, and branched off into the glassy balconies at each floor.

“As you can see, there are twelve floors. The first contains the main kitchen, various training and exercise areas, and Housekeeper dormitories. Men on the left, women on the right. There are also a few lounges, but we don’t use them very much. They’re mainly for visitors, and if we want to relax, there are better places to do it,” said Love, pointing as they ascended the stairs.

Shiv kept glancing down as he walked, for the stairs truly looked like they were supported by nothing. He had assumed they were held up by some sort of unseen contraption from the angle by the door, but now that he was walking on them, he could not figure out what held them up.

“What holds these stairs up?” asked Shiv, stopping and crouching to peer at the step he was on, interrupting Love’s chattering.

“Magic,” responded Love, turning to look back at him.

Shiv snorted at her joke, then realized she was serious.

“You use magic here? Who uses the magic, is it Linia?” exclaimed Shiv. Although Fairyland was a land full of magic, being able to use it was a rare skill to have. Beasts were born with innate magic, which allowed them to shift forms. But for Beasts to be able to command magic beyond that was very rare. The Incendiors were an entire species of wolf-Beasts who had a command over fire, which was what made them so unique.

“Oh, there are a few who use magic here,” said Love matter-of-factly, not answering Shiv’s question. “As I was saying, the second floor contains work areas. The third floor and above are all the library, but because of some strange uncontrollable magic, the spaces there are all jumbled up and may shift from time to time. Weird things happen. Since I’ve been here for so long, I have caught on a few patterns, but I would highly advise you not to venture up there alone. If you want to explore, come get me or another Head Housekeeper. I’ll introduce you to the others later. If you get lost in the library, we might not be able to find you ever again.”

An uneasy feeling formed in the pit of his stomach as he glanced up at the third floor and beyond. Now that he thought about it, there was some sort of distinct feeling about Kuma’s House. Something strange, something off, but he couldn’t name the feeling. It was not necessarily a fearful feeling; he just didn’t know what the feeling was, and that was unnerving.

Love took him to the second floor and walked him to one of the bathrooms. The floor looked to be one seamless slab of pink marble, and giant mirrors lined with tiny lights covered one wall. There were multiple sinks with long shiny faucets and a pile of neatly folded towels. Next to the pile was a wicker basket, which Shiv assumed held dirty towels.

“Hot water faucet, cold water faucet, this is the soap, and here are brushes if you want to brush your claws,” explained Love as she pointed to each corresponding object. She flicked at the hot water tap and steaming water slid out of the faucet in a sparkling clear stream. The polished black tub was so large it could have fit Kuma in it.

“Thanks,” said Shiv, leaning over the tub eagerly, feeling the steam on his face.

Love smiled. “Just make sure you adjust the water so you don’t boil yourself by accident. When you’re done, come back outside and I’ll show you your room.”

As she was leaving the bathroom, a tall young man appeared in the doorway. His shaggy mop of dark hair almost obscured his eyes and ears.

“Is that the lion-Beast?” he asked Love, tilting his head down to look at her.

“Yes, it is. Oh, Shiv,” said Love, turning back to the lion-Beast, “this is Six. Sixth Sun. He’s not dead, either.”
Shiv stared in awe, unable to speak.

Six smiled good-naturedly and touched his own forehead in greeting.

“We’ll leave you alone now. Bathrobes are in that closet. Take your time,” said Love, and then she closed the door behind her.

Chapter Five

The forest had long since ended. Instead of weaving through fragrant trees, Shiv now tread upon dry yellow-green grass. 

The wide flatlands was dotted with crops of tall, bristly reeds. The surroundings reminded Shiv of the plains he used to live in, before his clan was evicted. As he gazed around with a sad nostalgia, he noticed the horizon growing brighter. The sun was rising.
“Almost there,” said Linia, as the group took a break at a small meadow spring. Little flowers dotted the edge of the ice-cold pool. Shiv smiled in response. He was literally itching for a good wash; he knew Love, Linia and Maru were keeping a polite distance from him to avoid his horrific stench and his fleas. Now that he was far from the grimy circus, he finally noticed the extent of his own foul odor, and privately thanked his rescuers for not pointing it out. He’d thought about taking a dip into the small ponds they stopped by on their breaks, but he didn’t want to muck up the water with his filth. Hours passed as they continued on their travel, and as they did, the air became cooler and cooler. Heavy clouds rolled across the sun, and soon, it began to snow. “Ah, good. Now we’re really almost there,” said Love. She snapped at a few large snowflakes as they drifted down gently. “Linia, why didn’t you bring something warm to wear? You must be freezing,” Shiv said, suddenly wondering why Linia was only wearing a white summer dress when the three of them came from the snowy lands of Nivaciel. “Doesn’t really bother me that much. The cold only bothers those who can be hurt by it,” she said, although she was covered in goosebumps. What is she? thought Shiv as he pondered her statement. The grassy plains, no longer flat but rippling with gentle hills, faded from a dry yellow-green to a soft white as the snow drifted—and then piled—with increasing density. Copses of coniferous trees sprouted up like snow-covered giants among the landscape. After another few hours, the four were slowed to a trudge in nearly a foot of snow. Thankfully, Shiv’s luscious mane provided his head, neck, shoulders with cozy warmth. He knew how silly he must have looked, with his mane all puffed up like a golden dandelion, but it kept his head warm from the seeping cold. “You should take a roll,” said Love mildly. Shiv knew she only suggested it because the fleas that inhabited his body would be numb with cold, and hopefully rolling around would either shake them loose or further freeze them off his body. “Alright, good idea,” said Shiv, and promptly rolled onto his side and flailed shamelessly in the snow. The only warning Shiv got was a twitch of Love’s tail, before five hundred pounds of wolf and fox pounced on him. Shiv swung one of his sledgehammer-like paws at Love, knocking her into the air, and she disappeared as she landed in an explosion of snow. Shiv leapt back with a snarl of surprise, then noticed Maru’s playful posture. The ex-Prince of the Incendior’s just initiated a play-fight with me! thought Shiv as he realized that he was not really getting attacked. Maru barked with laughter at Shiv’s bemused expression, and Linia, who had jumped off Maru’s back, rolled her eyes. “You didn’t expect that at all, did you?” Maru grinned toothily. “No... you are a prince, after all,” said Shiv. “That doesn’t mean he can’t play.” Love emerged from the snow, shaking the snow off her scarlet coat. Shiv glanced at her, then exploded forward with a roar, expecting to land on the small fox. But Love streaked away with unexpected speed, carving through the snow. He chased her as Maru rolled in the snow, laughing. After spending a few more minutes rolling and chasing each other through the snow, Linia sighed. “Let’s get going and not loiter here for too long. Indwellers tend not to attack us if they know we’re with Kuma, but they still could.” "Are you saying once the Indwellers know you belong to Kuma, they don’t attack?" Shiv asked curiously as Maru shook the snow off his coat. Linia scaled nimbly up the side of his leg and secured herself on his enormous shoulders again. “Maybe,” said Love vaguely, tail twitching. Shiv sighed as they began traveling northward again. “How many things are you going to hide from me?” "Many things. But if you choose to stay around with Kuma, then maybe we could tell you eventually.” "What do you mean, if I choose to stay? Joining Kuma’s Housekeeping isn’t mandatory?" Shiv asked incredulously. Linia said, "No, you can leave after the first two weeks, but most people choose to stay. Conditions with Kuma are much preferable to living in the hell hole Fairyland has become.” After another couple hours or so, the sky had become a deep red-violet with the sunset, and the snowfall ceased. The copses of trees had expanded into woods and forests, tall dark evergreens topped in white. Hills of snow undulated into the distant horizon. Shiv squinted. Large, sparkling structures seemed to glitter a few miles ahead of them. “What are those?” “Glaciers. When we finally get into the House, you can take your nice long bath,” said Love, emphasizing “long”. A bath! Shiv smiled endogenously at the thought of not just splashing hot water on himself and scrubbing the grime away from his skin, but soaking in a pool of steaming, crystal-clear water. “Yes, you’re going need one,” said Linia darkly, glancing over her shoulder and wrinkling her nose.

Chapter Four

Maru and Shiv tasted the air for the boar scent, leaving Love and Linia by the water. It felt wonderful to be roaming through the wilderness again. Two wolf-Beasts moved like shadows, sliding smoothly around trees and bushes, and their enormous paws made no sound.

“There,” whispered Maru.

And there was a faint delicious scent of boar. Shiv began to salivate uncontrollably, and thick ropes of drool hung down from his jaws. He hoped Maru wasn’t watching.

The two separated slightly to cover more ground and eventually came upon a large boar digging vigorously into the ground with husky grunts. Shiv hunched closer to the ground, tail twitching.

Immediately Maru trotted into the shadows. Shiv stayed close to the ground, recognizing the basic hunting strategy. Maru would circle around the boar, keeping out of the light breeze, and then frighten the boar towards Shiv, who would take it down.

And as Shiv watched, the boar lifted its head, as if sensing something.

With eerie silence, Maru leaped out of trees opposite Shiv with his jaws wide open. The boar squealed and  bolted instinctively away from the enormous wolf-Beast, straight towards Shiv, and Maru’s teeth snapped audibly shut on air.

Shiv waited until the boar was nearly on top of him before leaping upwards at an angle. His claws tore into the boar’s fleshy shoulders, and he twisted his body and slammed the terrified animal to the ground with an earth-shaking thud. He crushed its throat between his jaws, and when the boar finally ceased to struggle, Maru nodded, impressed.

“Great teamwork, and extraordinary strength for one who’s lived on circus food for so long,” he said.

Shiv smiled. “I am hungry.”

The two of them dragged the heavy carcass back to the pond. Love smelled the food before they reached the campsite and helped them drag the boar back to Linia, who had already prepared a small fire to cook herself some meat.

“About time. I thought the boar got you,” said Linia with a small smirk at Maru. She pulled a pearly dagger out from somewhere within the folds of her white summer dress and began skinning the boar. Love was already tearing into the carcass.

“You better hurry before they eat the whole thing,” said Maru.

The Beasts fell to the boar, and Shiv thought he had never eaten anything finer.

When the four had finished their meal, they quickly washed up in the pool, took one last drink, and continued on their way.

Chapter Three

The fresh forest air cleared Shiv's lungs. He had been accustomed to the smell of dung and old sweat from being in the circus, and was now just beginning to realize just how much he reeked. He was also surprised that the others hadn’t mentioned his stench, considering how Maru and Love were both canine-Beasts with an exceptional sense of smell.

While the group travelled, Maru and Love pestered Shiv with questions, such as where he came from, what he thought about Lady Vindemia's rule, what he thought about Indwellers from Nightmare, his experiences being in the circus.

So Shiv told them of his life in the Typhon Plains, how he hunted with his clan brothers in the moonlight, the annual gatherings with neighboring Lion-Beast prides and the beautiful maidens. And then there was the massacre of the royal family, and it only took a week for Vindemia’s new government to ban all clans from meeting with one another unless they asked for permission from Vindemia herself. Of course she denied them permission, and soon Monster settlement pioneers had forced the entire clan from the plains.

“What do you think of Vindemia?” Shiv asked Linia, curious.

Linia shrugged. "I'm not from Fairyland, nor do I remember what life was like before I came here. I think her methods of diplomacy are ineffective.”

“You aren’t from Fairyland? Where are you from?” Shiv asked.

Linia did not reply.

"She won’t answer questions about her past,” said Maru.

“Oh,” said Shiv, “then how did you meet her?”

Maru smiled and told his story.

He had been at a secret war meeting. He and Fjöllís Sandur, a distinguished wolf-Beast commander, were already present along with several other veterans. Among them were: Fenr’r, the first wolf-Beast to travel cross-dimensionally, which was a dangerous and unknown sort of magic; Sixth Sun, a descendant of the great wolf-bear who first learned that Beasts had dual forms; and Naskapi, Prince of the Iron Wolves.

In the middle of their meeting, they were suddenly ambushed by an overwhelming number of Indwellers. For every wolf-Beast, there were five or more Indwellers. The location of the meeting had been known among those in attendance, and Maru knew that someone had betrayed the secret.

Immediately, Maru had howled for retreat. Of course, there was no retreat. Only escape. Maru had run into the forest alongside Sandur before the young warrior succumbed to wounds too mangling for even a wolf-Beast’s natural rapid regeneration to cure. He buried the young warrior himself and continued to run until he was eventually captured by Vindemia’s troops, by then a broken Prince. There he was informed that everyone else at the meeting had been captured and executed.

“The reason why I am here and not dead is because Linia appeared at my cell the day before my execution. She just took all the bars out of the cell and let me out, and Love found us a few days later while we were hiding out in the woods,” said Maru.

Love continued, “And when I found them, I just took them back to Kuma. In exchanged for safety, he accepted their service as Housekeepers. That was about twenty years ago, and now we’re here.”

The four of them soon arrived at a small clear pond to rest. The pond was surrounded with rippling green grass.

"How far is Kuma’s House?” asked Shiv, bending down to lap from the pool.

“It’s in Nivaciel,” said Love. She flicked drops of water away from her scarlet snout.

“Nivaciel!” Shiv exclaimed. “That far!”

But it made sense. Nivaciel was a vast land of snow far North, and Lady Vindemia was currently concentrating her forces on using up Fairyland’s resources. She would not bring large amounts of troops into Nivaciel, anyway; Lady Vindemia and her Indwellers came from scorched wastelands of ‘Fntzm, and they would not know how to navigate through the snow and ice.

Maru, who had briefly disappeared to scout, returned and asked Shiv, “Are you hungry?”

"Yes, I am! I haven’t had a hunt ever since I joined the circus," said Shiv excitedly, looking up at once. His atrophied muscles ached with disuse.

"Alright,” said Maru, waggling his eyebrows, “then you come with me and we’ll go hunting. I caught boar scent while scouting around here, is that alright?” asked Maru.

“Having lived on dry biscuit treats and stray rats all year, even a small rabbit would be wonderful,” said Shiv.

“Wild boar it is,” said Maru.

“Thanks,” called Love lazily as she sprawled out on the soft grass by the pond. Maru and Shiv trotted into the trees.

Chapter Two

“Who is your companion?” asked Shiv.

Linia glanced at Love.

“You can tell him,” said Love with a shrug of her slender shoulders.

“I don’t know...” Linia narrowed her eyes and slid her gaze back to Shiv, who was beginning to feel left out and uncomfortable with this ambiguous exchange.

Love shrugged again. “If he tries anything, we can just kill him.”

Linia turned back to the even more uncomfortable Shiv. “Well, our companion, we call him Maru. He’s a fire wolf.”

Shiv made the connection instantly. “Prince Imaruheim Aganju of the Incendiors? Impossible!”
When the traditional Fairyland royalty was brutally massacred by Lady Vindemia almost fifty years ago, the Fair Folk immediately rose up against her. Fairyland had been peaceful for thousands and thousands of years, and the attack took all the land by surprise. Almost nothing could have held back the rage of the people of Fairyland, and a rebellion was born almost immediately.

Unfortunately, the plans for resistance were exposed by a turncoat, and all involved clan leaders were hunted and executed. Prince Imaruheim Aganju had been one of those announced to have been captured and killed.

“Apparently it’s not impossible, because he’s with us,” said Linia dryly.

Before Shiv could respond to her, Love said, “No, that’s good that he thinks Maru’s dead. That means the secret is well kept. Shiv, did you ever serve with him?”

Shiv shook his head. “No. I was with the lion-Beast prides in the Typhon Plains and never went near the Incendior’s volcanoes. I have a few friends who’ve gone exploring and run into a few Incendiors before, and they all say they’re rather pleasant folks.”

Love nodded thoughtfully. “And what became of your pride?”

“I don’t know. We had to leave our ancestral lands by Vindemia’s laws, and after that, most of us separated ways to avoid being captured by either her armies or bands of Indwellers. I only got caught last year because I wasn’t being careful,” said Shiv.

He felt a pang of loss as he spoke. He thought of his clan brothers, and the clear nights when they would hunt together by the light of the stars and wind-carried scents, and wondered if he would ever be able to hunt like that again. Probably not until Lady Vindemia was taken off the throne. And Shiv found it quite hard to imagine that it would be any time soon.

Soon, the three of them entered a small clearing in the woods. Moonlight streamed through the leaves, leaving pale mottled patterns in the forest floor.

“Linia!” a loud voice exclaimed, startling Shiv. A tall and lanky figure emerged from the shadows and walked towards Linia with his arms wide open.

Linia punched the young man in the chest and turned away.

“No ‘hello’? You left me for an entire hour,” complained the young man, clutching his chest.

Is that the Prince? thought Shiv puzzledly.

"No,” Linia said, pointedly looking at Shiv. “We have arrived with the package, so behave yourself.”

Package? thought Shiv with some puzzlement.

The young man instantly composed himself, as if just noticing Shiv, and smiled good-naturedly. “A pleasure to meet you, lion-Beast. I am Maru,” he said, holding out his hand.
Shiv swirled upwards into his human form with the crackling of reforming bones, and took Maru’s hand. “It is an honor to meet you, Prince Imaruheim Aganju. I humbly present myself as Shiv of the Plains Lions.”

It was Maru’s turn to blink, and he spun around. “You told him!”

Linia shrugged. “He’s all right.”

“I trust her,” called Love, who had wandered off to the side and was busy examining lichen on a tree trunk.

“You can trust me, Prince. I believe my own clan has been scattered by Lady Vindemia’s troops, and as one of the Fair Folk I have no desire to turn my own compatriots over to that tyranness,” said Shiv, eager to befriend the prince. He could hardly believe it; standing before him was a prince, and a supposedly-dead rebellion leader at that!

Maru looked at him in the eye, then said, “I apologize for my rudeness. A lot of my friends died because of one traitor, so it’s hard for me to trust strangers. And you can speak to me casually. I’m not the Prince of the Incendior Wolves anymore, because the clan no longer exists. And even if I was, you don’t have to speak to me that way.”

Shiv nodded with a slight warm glow of surprise. The Prince was nothing like the pompous, high-minded individual Shiv had assumed him to be, even though he knew Incendiors were known to be pleasant.

“Alright, let’s get going before Kuma wonders what was keeping us and sends out the entire House,” said Linia.

"Yes, we should go. We have a long way of travel,” said Love, falling into her Beast form— a large slender scarlet-orange fox. Her ears, paws and the tips of her snout and tail were the deepest black, like pitch or ink, and she moved with catlike grace.

Meanwhile, Maru dropped onto all fours, shifting into his Beast-form by the time he hit the ground. He was a formidable creature, an enormous black wolf with irises like scalding coal: an imposing image of a fire prince.

Maru crouched low to allow Linia to climb onto his back.
“Alright, we are all set to go,” Maru barked, and set off into the trees. Shiv fell into his Beast form once again and followed his rescuers.

Chapter One

Shiv had been trapped in his lion Beast-form for nearly an entire year. His cage was so small that he couldn’t even turn a full circle, and worse, was positioned next to a cage full of fat sleeping ostriches. He fantasized for the day when the goblins would forget to clip in the locks.

Unfortunately, the goblins were very meticulous about their cage-locking procedures, not wanting to lose a single one of their valuable performers. So Shiv was stuck in his own cage, only dreaming of wonderful things to eat— though he had developed a method of catching stray rats, saving his biscuits to use as bait. Scrawny rodents couldn’t compare to full-sized ostriches, but they were still better than dry old meat and biscuits.

The emaciated Beast set his head on his paws, staring shamelessly at the feathery sleeping ostriches in the cage beside him. They were so close he could reach out and touch one with his paw.

Shiv had been captured by a band of goblins while exploring new territories, alone. It was quite embarrassing, really— a powerful Beast, a lion-Beast no less— captured by a group of puny goblins!

Fortunately for him, the goblins assumed he was a regular animal, rather than a Beast. Otherwise, he’d probably be dead, or else wishing he was. Goblins, like all the other barbaric Indwellers Lady Vindemia had let into the country since she took over Fairyland, had a sadistic fondness for humiliating and torturing the original Fair Folk. Thus, Shiv had remained in his Beast-form ever since his capture, and hoped the goblins wouldn’t be too curious about why a lion had been found so far from the savannahs of the lion-Beasts.

Shiv turned his eyes from the ostriches towards the slightly-open tent flap. A thin strip of white moonlight slashed across the ground, and Shiv thought of how the moon made rippling pathways on the ponds of the Plains where he came from— at least, before the Indwellers forced Shiv’s entire clan from their ancestral lands. The ponds were probably completely drained by now, and if not drained, then littered with so much trash that it would be too soiled to use.

Suddenly, the strip of moonlight flickered, as if something had passed it.

Shiv froze in an instant, ears perked and nostrils flared. The hair on the back of his neck prickled as he stared into the darkness, listening for movement.

All he heard were soft animal snores, and all he smelled were animal droppings.

After a few minutes, he settled down again. It had been quick, and for a fleeting moment Shiv thought the passing silhouette was very tall. Perhaps it was only a nocturnal animal passing by the tent from the outside.

Then, a voice whispered out of the darkness, “Found him. Here he is.”

Shiv jumped violently away from the voice— or at least, as far as he could get in his tiny cage. A young woman, with hair the color of autumn leaves, loomed out of the darkness. Or, at least, she was something with the semblance of a human woman. Human beings could not sneak up on a Beast without their musty scents or clumsy movements giving themselves away first. Shiv hadn’t even heard anyone enter the tent.

The young woman moved silently around the cage, then took the rusty lock in her hands and began fiddling with it with delicate fingers.

Shiv bent his enormous head towards her and inhaled. She smelled of green pine needles and resinous sunset-gold bark covered with amber globules of sap, and a faint earthy scent of canines.

“You are a Beast,” said Shiv in a low voice.

“Yes, I am,” smiled the young woman, looking up. Her eyes were a liquid tangerine color.

Another figure, a younger girl, materialized from the darkness, startling Shiv again. This one wore no shoes.

“Love! How long does it take for you to undo a lock?” said the girl exasperatedly. She grasped the lock, twisted it off with one deft movement, and tossed it on the ground.

“Oh, thanks,” said Love.

“Come on,” muttered the girl, walking towards the back of the tent. She was careful not to cross the moonbeam, to minimize visibility. Love eased the cage door open, and Shiv cautiously stepped out.

“Now, come with us. We’ll get you out of here,” Love said, crouching by the back of the tent as her friend cut the canvas with a pearly dagger.

Shiv followed them as they slipped out of the tent— and just like that, he was free. Suddenly he felt light as a feather, joyful enough to roar, strong enough to tear down the entire tent. No more circus goblins, no more whips, no more dry crumbly biscuits and old stale meat!

The two girls darted lightly across the dirt road and into the trees, leaving faint puffs of dust drifting where they stepped. Shiv padded after them quietly, and soon the thick canopy of leaves cut away the moonlight, shrouding him in darkness. He inhaled, taking in the rich green scent of the forest.

The younger girl said, “I’m Linia, and this is Love, the fox-Beast. We’re taking you back to our Housemaster.”

Shiv stopped in his tracks, heart jolting.

“Housemaster? I’m not leaving the circus to be a slave!”

"Feel free to return to your luxurious circus life at any time,” said Love in a lazy, sarcastic voice.

Linia barked with laughter. “Slaves? We’re not slaves. We’re butlers. We’re the Housekeepers, Kuma is our Housemaster. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a superior, is there? We are Fair Folk, not Indwellers.”

Shiv relaxed, though his heart still pounded from the fright. He was prepared to fight off the two women if necessary, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he would be able to do it without risking severe. Fox-Beasts were notorious amongst the Beasts, as what they lacked in brute strength, they made up for in their trickery and speed. And he didn’t even know what Linia was. Not to mention that he was malnutritioned and weak, and both of them looked healthy.

Well, as long as he wasn’t headed into a different branch of slavery, he was content.

Love sighed. “Let’s get going, shall we? We don’t want to keep our companion waiting.”

“There are more of you?” Shiv asked as he padded beside Linia, who moved gracefully through the shadows. “Why did so many people come just to get me?”

“Oh, there’s just one more. Four Housekeepers in total come out to get you. It’s not safe to travel alone. Times are dangerous, as I’m sure you know.”