Mirabelle's Beast: A Fairy Tale Retelling by Leslie Crowne

Author:Leslie Crowne [Crowne, Leslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Royal Turtle Media LLC
Published: 2023-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Bernard

Mirabelle weighed next to nothing, but I was worried about her slipping off. I walked slowly at first, feeling her grabbing onto my coat, which caused it to bunch up against my chest.

“Grab hold of the fur on my mane,” I suggested. She did, and I heard her gasp. Something hit my leg, and I turned my head back.

“The cane fell. I’m sorry.”

She was covered in snow now and shivering. “We’ll come back for it later.” I hated leaving the thing, but I wanted to get her back to the manor as soon as possible. “Hold on, Mirabelle.”

I felt her small hands clutching my fur, and I started to run. The snow was wet and cold on my paws, but the rest of me was warm, except for my nose. My breath huffed out in batches of fog, and I soon got into a rhythm. I slipped a little once, stumbled over a rock or two, but all in all, we were making good progress.

Until we rounded a curve in the path, and came upon the pack of wolves we’d heard earlier. It was too late to hope they hadn’t seen us, as all five heads came up at once to look in our direction. They’d killed a deer at the edge of the trees along the path and were taking turns ripping it up and eating. I heard Mirabelle’s voice, low and trembling.

“Oh, no…”

I answered in a sotto voice. “Be still. I’m going to give them a wide berth.”

Two of the wolves were growling in warning, and all of them stared at us. Yellow eyes followed my every move, and the brindle-gray hair on their backs stood. The largest wolf, darker than the others, took a step closer to us, away from the kill.

Slowly, I moved sideways off the path, never taking my eyes from them. The snow kept coming down, and I had to blink to see clearly. It was still daylight, and the whiteness caused a kind of glare as well. But the wolf kept coming, skulking low to the ground, followed by one, then two of his companions.

This wasn’t good.

Fear and anger boiled up inside me, accompanied by the overpowering desire to keep Mirabelle safe at all costs. If they lunged, she would be toppled and possibly attacked. I had to take charge if they were not going to let us pass peacefully.

I took another cautious step sideways, now several feet from the path and their kill. The wolves continued to growl, stalking us. When one of the wolves came from the other side to block the direction I was trying to go, I knew what I had to do.

“Mirabelle,” I said softly. “You need to dismount, slowly. Then stand behind me.”

“I… I…”

“Now.”

There was no mistaking the urgency in my tone. She slipped from my back, and I rose to my full height, emitting my fiercest roar and baring my teeth and claws to the wolves.

A few of them crouched and stepped back, whimpering. But the largest one increased the volume of his warning, adding a snarl for good measure.

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