PRINCESS BEAST Read Free Page B

fear.
    "Rune, you must tell me the truth about what happened tonight, in case a hunting party . . . if we have to leave now," Beauty stammers.
    Rune lifts her face, and Beauty's heart wants to break in half.  "Oh, Mommy, it's Hans.  I loved him, and I thought he loved me too, but tonight . . ." Rune blubbers and burrows into Beauty's chest. 
    Beauty doesn't know much about Hans other than the fact that he's a hedgehog from waist up and a human from waist down.  For this reason alone, assuming he's under a curse, she has forbidden Rune to go near him. 
    Rune sniffles and says, "I should have been a good daughter and not disobeyed you.  I didn't know it was Hans' playing the wonderful bagpipe music that first drew me into Vagary Vale."
    Beauty holds Rune closer, swallows the terror lodged in her throat and asks, "Did you take a life tonight?"
    "No, but I wish I was dead," Rune bawls.
    "The blood--it's not yours?"
    "I barely scratched him.  Don't worry.  No one will hunt for us.  Hans never wants to lay eyes on me again.  He's gone off to marry his pah-pah-princess!"  Rune wails. 
    Beauty rocks her anew and exhales with relief.  Her heartbeat slows, moisture returns to her mouth, and she nuzzles Rune's ear.  Eventually, Rune's sobs diminish to hiccups.
    "The first warm morning last June, I climbed to the top of Hesitation Hill to pick wild violets," she says.  "You know the sunny spot where a giant blue spruce fell?"
    Beauty nods.
    "In the beam of sunlight, dew sparkled like diamonds on everything: leaves, rocks, grass, spider webs, violets.  I imagined I was in a fairy grotto.  I never felt  so . . . so aware.  Then I heard music; oh, it filled up my chest, my ears, my head with . . . I don't know . . . longing?  I followed the sound to a black oak beside the stream flowing through Vagary Vale.  The music stopped and a voice called:
Hello down there.  Can you sing?
  Well, you know me, Mom.  I broke right into my Walking Through The Woods song."
    Beauty strokes Rune's back. "One of my favorites."
    "Hans liked it, too.  I mean he liked my voice.  He jumped from the tree, and I knew he must be Hans the Hedgehog, that I should leave at once because you said to stay away from him.  Mom, he wasn't scary.  His tiny black eyes twinkled.  His short spines bristled, and his pink tongue hung out the side of his mouth while he danced from one human leg to the other in red leather shoes.  He sounded funny and cute, as if his voice came straight out of his pointed little nose.  He said: “Wow, you're the foice I'fe been waiting for. What clarity, what pitch, what folume!"  Rune resonates through her ample nasal passages, and Beauty stifles a laugh.
    "He dug into his breeches and brought out a bunch of paper. He said,  “I'fe fritten scores and endured the frustration of nefer joining melodies with lyrics. I can play the pipes and imagine the words or I can sing the words and imagine the music mut nefer hear a whole composition.  Always half of one, half of fanother.  Have you ever heard such an intense metaphor?" Rune gravely asks.
    By now, Beauty's chest is heaving with silent guffaws. 
    "I know," Rune pats Beauty's back.  "It's so moving."
    Beauty dabs her eyes and says, "Go on, dear, and tell me more."
     "Well, Hans said: “Forgive me, I was overcome my the meauty of your foice sufficient to forget my manners.  I'm Hans the Hedgehog.”  The morning flew by under the black oak with Hans playing his pipes and me singing his songs.  He asked if I'd come again the next day, and I said I would.  And because I was forbidden to go, it seemed all the more exciting.  I'm sorry, Mom, but that's the truth."
    Beauty knits her brow.  "I want you to be honest with me, but I do wish you could have been truthful sooner."
    "Creechy, I was too confused. I didn't know who I was or what I thought.  I wondered about my place in the universe; what is my destiny?  During those weeks Hans and I met, I was happy