REWRITE Creepy Beautiful Love CHP2

Creepy Beautiful Love
By Arecus. Conberma (LiyuConberma)
Chapter 2

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Unable to sleep late as usual due to his building anxiety, Benonic made his way down to the training yard and practised with some early-risers. Once the sun finally rose, he went to the dining hall just as the maids brought in breakfast. Darren and Kaze looked up with friendly greetings and Athena took in his untidy appearance with an understanding smile, but her brother-in-law Rakar simply acted as though the deformed hedgehog wasn’t present.

A knife and fork sat beside his plate, but Benonic very rarely used them. He waited until all the servants were gone before pulling off his glove and pressing his hand down on the food. He had some vague sense of how it tasted as the abnormal mouth in his palm devoured everything, but it wasn’t the same as it would be with a tongue. Sour, spicy and sweet things had the most prominent flavours for him.

Once his biscuit, jam, eggs and potato fritters were nothing but a small mass of grey dust, the light purple hedgehog replaced the glove and sat staring at his teacup. The sudden realisation that he didn’t know when Carrie was expecting him had finally sunk in and he had no idea what to do.

“You certainly seem nervous about the young lady, Benonic.”

He jerked his head up, staring at Rakar in near-shock. The dark brown hedgehog almost never addressed him, and then only out of necessity. This sounded unusually like…smalltalk. Rakar’s crimson eyes had a slight trace of amusement (or maybe mockery) and he sat there with hands folded as though wondering whether Benonic was going to answer. Thankfully he didn’t have to.

“How do you know anything about it?” Kaze asked, suspicious.

“You should have closed the door if you intended no one to overhear the news.”

“Ever heard that it’s considered rude to eavesdrop?” the azure hedgehog asked with an acidic note. He didn’t look very apologetic even when Athena threw him a disapproving glare.

Rakar glanced at him. “I couldn’t very well avoid the knowledge since all of you were so exuberant. My workroom is down the hall, you know.”

“I’m going to move it somewhere else,” Darren muttered into his drink. It was no secret among the brothers that he harboured more than just a little dislike for the regent.

“What was that, Nephew?”

“Nothing, Uncle,” he replied, suddenly the picture of innocence.

Rakar hardly looked convinced, but he returned his attention to Benonic. “Well. How nice that there are some people out there who don’t mind appearances. I’m sure the young lady is very special indeed.”

“She must be,” Athena agreed wholeheartedly.

As the regent continued to stare at him, the young hedgehog’s three-fingered hand crept up, clenching into a fist at his chest. Rakar had touched him only once since they’d met over ten years earlier, and whatever he’d done in those few seconds had…loosened something. After that day strange dreams he could never quite remember haunted him on occasion. At times it took every splinter of self-control Benonic had to keep from attacking or running away from him.

Kaze was still glowering, only now his eyes travelled between his mother and uncle several times. The twelve-year-old prince rose to his feet, wordlessly leaving the breakfast table. With more politeness Darren and Benonic excused themselves too, hurrying to catch up as their brother stalked down the hallways.

“That was a bit of an overreaction,” Darren murmured under his breath as they passed a group of servants.

Kaze looked back at him. “You think I overreacted?! Did you hear the snideness dripping from his words? And the way Mother was so oblivious when he shamelessly insulted Ben was—argh!”

Benonic felt like screaming in frustration too—after all, she was his mother and it bothered him that she always agreed with Rakar—but it wouldn’t have helped. “She isn’t blind. She just doesn’t see it.”

“You’re not the only one who doesn’t like him, Kaze, but you have a serious problem controlling your temper,” Darren commented as they came out into the gardens.

“I do not have a temper issue. Right, Ben?” Kaze turned to him, but before his brother could raise his hands to disagree, he continued as though Benonic had answered. “See? I could teach patience to the hills.”

Darren just rolled his eyes in annoyance. They followed the light purple hedgehog through the gardens as he sifted through the flowers for ones most appropriate to give an acquaintance.

“Are you ready for this?” Kaze wondered.

“Sort of,” Benonic gestured honestly. “I don’t know what to expect.”

“Well, maybe she doesn’t either,” the blue-furred prince said. “Don’t worry, though. If she could stand still and talk to you for more than one minute like yesterday, then she’s not scared of you at all.”

The words were a little comforting, but still not enough to settle the mayflies flapping about somewhere inside. He plucked some fern fronds as Kaze continued.

“When it comes to courting a lady, you have to take things smoothly, woo her and show off your skills. Got it?” He demonstrated the way Benonic should walk and held out his hand in a gentlemanlike way to Darren, acting as though his younger brother was Carrie.

“Since when do you know anything about courting?” Darren asked, arching his brow in suspicion as Kaze’s hand continued to hang there in front of him invitingly.

“…Shut up,” he muttered, crossing his arms with a sudden pout. The truth was that Kaze was completely fooling around. His experience with the opposite sex was embarrassingly limited.

Darren leaned close to Benonic’s side, “Here’s a suggestion: never ask Kaze for advice on romance.”

“I’m right here, you know.”

“That’s why I didn’t bother whispering,” Darren said with a smirk that Kaze returned with a scowl. “Anyway, the most important thing to remember is to be yourself around her. She has to know the real you, not the one you might pretend to be. If she can’t accept you beneath the mask, then it’s her loss—not yours. You don’t want to be trapped in a relationship built on lies.”

This advice seemed to make a much better impact on Benonic and his circumstances. It sounded a bit like Darren’s words from the day before.

A short time later Athena came out and surveyed his selections. She tried to convince him to pick a few more suggestive flowers, but he insisted he wanted to choose them himself. Once he was content with the bouquet, she reached out to touch it and closed her eyes. A green glow travelled from her hands to the plants, making them shimmer. When she stepped away, her motherly smile made him grin back.

“That will keep them from wilting for at least a week, plus they’ll sparkle in daylight and glow a little at night. Now go take a bath, dear. You’re still sweaty from all that exercise this morning.”

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Benonic found Carrie’s shop again with little effort, though it looked quite different from the front. Each block in the district was a row of connected buildings, most with two or three stories. A chandler and perfumery were on either side, their identifiable signs of a candle and a shapely bottle hardly considered special, but hers caught the eye with its peculiar symbol. On the wall someone had painted a six-pointed star surrounded by tiny objects—windchimes, a mandolin, an open book, a necklace with a ruby pendant, and a comb. Above it was the store’s official name, which was strange since inns and taverns were the only places that ever did such a thing.

Just standing outside made his heart pound, strangely. Taking a deep breath and hiding the flowers behind his back, Benonic mustered his courage before stepping through the open door of Onliest Unique. Voices were coming from the corner. He slid behind a stack of fur-lined saddles to keep from interrupting her while she was doing business. A white and peach possum stood there, lightly stroking a bolt of blue and black paisley as Carrie showed her all the fabrics she had.

“This one is from Cliffhorn. A family of weavers in the capital specialises in this particular design. See how fine and light it is?”

The possum reluctantly let her hand sag. “No, I… I think I’ll just get one of those trinkets.”

Carrie paused, then took out a pair of scissors and cut a length of the paisley material. Benonic watched her fold it neatly and place it in the woman’s hands.

“I want you to do me a favour. My shop is very new and I don’t get much business yet. Make this into a shawl for your daughter, and when everyone admires it, tell them where it came from. I should pay you for this service, but I hope you would do it for me—just this once.”

The shocked look on the possum’s face was enough to nearly make Benonic chuckle, but he did his best to stay silent. Even though the other woman tried to protest, Carrie firmly insisted, and a minute later her customer left holding the little bundle to her chest. The rabbit’s ears twitched, making her earrings bounce, and she located her visitor half-hidden among the merchandise. He inclined his head toward the door and she gave a shy shrug.

“She couldn’t afford much. I wanted to make her daughter’s birthday special, and who knows? Maybe it will help business.” Carrie looked at him, brightening at once. “I’m so glad to see you again, Ben. I wasn’t sure when you’d be coming. It was silly of me not to pick a time.”

The two of them shared a few moments of silence as each tried to think of something to say. Benonic suddenly remembered his hands were still behind his back and nearly jerked forward to offer the flowers. Carrie beamed at the gift, happily accepting them.

“Thank you! Oh, they’re lovely! And they smell so swee—a lavender?”

Benonic’s eyes went wide and he cringed. How had his mother managed to sneak that in there?! He hadn’t let her take them and didn’t set them down…except during his bath. Even if he hadn’t been uttering more than little sounds of embarrassment, she understood by his flushing cheeks that it was a mistake of some kind. Her smile widened in a timid way that said it was alright.

Relief washed over him and at the same time Benonic felt warmth seeping through his chest as the mayflies in his stomach transformed into dragonflies. Again, what was wrong with him?!

“I know the perfect place for these.”

She took the flowers over to a fluted, ceramic vase and spent a minute or two arranging them. Once Carrie was finally satisfied, she stood back to admire her flowers, unconsciously stepping close to the one who had given them. He could have leaned against her shoulder, but the last thing he wanted to do was frighten her, so he shifted away instead.

“Oh, let me get something and we’ll go, okay?”

He waited as she rushed up a set of stairs in the back, then came running down again with a large covered basket looped over her arm. She hurried to the door and locked it, then beckoned him out the back way. Her excitement was catching, and soon he was following after her with a springing step.

People passed on either side of them, some turning to watch with curious gazes, but Carrie didn’t notice any of it. She had started a stream of chatter ever since they left the alley, continuing as they reached the outer wall of Briny Bay and passed through the gate. Benonic listened as she talked about her interest in curiosities and antiques from other places and how she wanted to find a way to provide them for those who would ordinarily never be able to afford such things.

They left the road with its current of travellers headed to and from the small city behind, taking a direct path for the nearby forest. Climbing a hill that was only three times higher than the city wall, they reached an outcropping that overlooked the bay and also gave a clear view of the castle about three miles west. Sunlight glinted off the blue saltwater and ships speckled the waves.

Carrie sat down, dangling her feet over the edge. Her guest joined her. After a little while she turned to him again, looking somewhat sheepish.

“I’m sorry. I talk too much and I know you can’t, so I…I’ve been trying to fill the silence. It’s unfair to keep talking about me and never ask you about yourself. Do you live nearby?”

He gestured to the castle, but she thought he meant Cosium Town.

“I’ve never seen anyone with hair like yours. It’s nice! Does that trait run in your family?”

The Assassin self-consciously reached up to feel the turquoise and black bangs hanging down beside his face. He didn’t want to bring up the Royal family. Knowing he was connected to them might either scare her away or make her more eager to spend time with him for a different reason. Reaching into the inside pocket of his uniform, Benonic pulled out a booklet of loose paper scraps and the stub of a charcoal pencil.

I don’t know. I’m adopted, he wrote.

She didn’t seem sure whether to pursue the topic or not since it was hard to tell how he felt. That mask made it difficult to understand his facial expressions. Once again her nervousness grew and she looked around for some way to change the subject. Carrie pulled out the basket, uncovering a pie.

“I’ve been saving the pears for a while, so I’m glad I was finally able to do something special with them,” she said proudly, setting a slice on a plate and offering it to him. Benonic automatically  accepted it, staring down with an expression of pure dread. The dragonflies in his stomach turned into sparrows flapping madly to get out.

She expected him to eat. In front of her. With his mouth.

His ears wilted and he averted his eyes from her and the pie. That response suddenly made the cream-yellow rabbit aware that she’d failed to notice something that ought to have been obvious.

“Oh my… I’m so sorry! I didn’t think at all…” She glanced around, wondering what to do next. Then abruptly Carrie turned her back on him, taking up the slice of pie she’d set aside for herself. “It’s alright. I won’t look at you until you’re done eating and have your mask back on. Is that okay?”

Reassured by her sensitivity and genuine desire to make him comfortable, Benonic took off his glove and ate the pie as quickly as he could. He shivered a little, tasting the soft sweetness of the pears and something else…cinnamon? He dumped the ashy leavings on the grass, looking back over his shoulder. Carrie ate hers more slowly, focusing on the hazy blue horizon of the ocean.

The glove was barely back on his hand when the wind changed and he detected a musky, wild scent from the trees behind them. Both knives slipped from their sheaths a split-second later and he flung himself in front of Carrie just as a huge bear charged out with a roar! Benonic practically roared back, eyes flaming red as he prepared to defend her.

“Stop!” she screamed.

The huge animal pulled back, though one paw was still raised to strike. Benonic continued standing there, coiled like a spring ready to fly. But he stared as Carrie rushed forward and threw her arms around the bear.

“Ursa, it’s alright! This is Ben. He wasn’t going to hurt me, I promise. I’m sure he was scared you were going to attack us.”

The bear gave a heavy snort as though she doubted he had good intentions. Carrie looked back at him.

“Ben, this is my Mystical. We’ve been partners for almost four months and I’m still getting used to the bond. I thought she was farther away, otherwise I would have warned you about her.” The rabbit gave her friend a firm pat, then asked, “Where’s Little Ursa?”

Benonic heard a shuffle farther back in the trees and noticed a pair of black eyes peering at him from behind a pile of large stones. Ursa—the mother, that is—gave him a threatening glare and lumbered back into the shade to rejoin her cub. A guilty expression covered Carrie’s face.

“I… I’m afraid today has been a disaster. I should have realised you wouldn’t want to eat in front of anyone, and Ursa nearly killed you… I understand if you don’t come back.”

The Assassin shook his head, signing, only to remember belatedly that the gestures meant nothing to her. He scrambled for his paper and pencil, scribbling so fast that the words were almost illegible when he thrust the paper at her.

No, I enjoyed this! I would like to see you again!

“You…you would?” she asked, looking up from his message.

He nodded.

“Then would you like to come by the shop tomorrow evening? We can take a walk through the city and watch the sun go down. If you want.”

Benonic looked into her face, noting the way she let her hair fall forward to cover her strange eye and the scars whenever she felt unsure or flustered. Impulsively he took her hand, holding it gently between both of his. The lonely hedgehog gazed at her with tenderness that made a blush begin to rise in her cheeks, then he gave a soft nod.

A growl rumbled in the back of Ursa’s throat. She wasn’t about to trust that one.

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Benonic described their time together to Athena, but she wasn’t satisfied and kept asking questions about Carrie’s tone and how she acted when this or that happened. He finally slunk away, determined to avoid his mother until her enthusiasm subsided—only to find himself cornered by the child-like curiosity of his younger brothers.

“So did you kiss her?” Kaze asked immediately.

Darren shoved him. “It’s the first time they actually did anything together. He wouldn’t take off his mask this soon and you know it.”

It was true, and Benonic hated to admit how ashamed he felt about the idea that someday he would have to show her his bare face. The fourth day after he saved her brought that fear to the forefront.

Carrie took him to the second story of her shop, which had been converted into living quarters. Much of it was stacked high with more things to sell downstairs, but there was still plenty of room. Dinner had just finished (once more with them facing away from one another during the meal) and she started telling him silly stories she’d collected while visiting other countries. The atmosphere was so laid back and they were so comfortable with each other that she leaned forward against the table, smiling.

The Assassin glanced away, heat creeping into his face. Then he felt a touch on the side of his mask. Benonic reacted instantly, grabbing her wrist and uttering a growl as his eyes turned red. But a moment later he recognised her and let go at once, hunching down in the seat and staring fixedly at his hands. He was too afraid to see the fear.

Carrie sat there, startled, but she knew it wasn’t right of her to have done such a thing without warning. He was so nervous all the time that she ought to have known better.

“Ben, I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to. I just thought… I suppose I really didn’t think. I’m sorry.”

He apologised for his actions too, but the rabbit assured him there was no need for forgiveness since he’d done nothing wrong. They spent several minutes each trying to shoulder the blame, finally laughing at themselves and one another.

That evening when he tried to write a message, her hand covered the slip of paper to stop him.

“Why don’t you teach me how to understand you so that we can have a normal conversation?”

It was completely surprising that she would express an interest in learning sign language, especially since so many people considered it a cheap, inelegant way to communicate. But he started showing her simple signs, trying his best to remember the way he was taught long ago.

Several days later Carrie surprised him by revealing a signing book she’d bought from a school where they taught it. He wondered how she’d gotten it so fast, but she insisted with a wink that revealing her sources could compromise her business. Still, he knew it had to have been expensive, so Benonic slipped money into her coin purse, a few at a time so that she wouldn’t notice.

Her grasp of the language grew quickly, mostly because she was only expected to understand rather than copy him. The hedgehog had to be ca reful to make all his words slow and clear, especially since his right hand made the signs look different from those in the book. They were able to have short, simple conversations within two weeks without resorting to writing.

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Some nights later they were lying on the flat rooftop of her shop, staring at the night sky. A partly-shielded lantern was beside them so that she could see if Benonic wanted to talk. He finally asked about her family, wondering if perhaps she was an orphan since she lived alone. But Carrie’s expression turned sour. Seeing he’d breached a topic she found painful, he tried to rescind the question, but she touched his arm lightly in protest.

“No, I… I need to talk about it. I’ve been holding it inside for months. You’re the first one who’s asked.”

They lay there on the rooftop, gazing up at the stars that hung high above like a frozen sea of diamonds. She thought for a time before speaking again, the memories pulling her away from the present…

Hers was a successful merchant family in the great western trading city of Mithral. She and her four siblings were the children of palomino rabbits—Remistian and Avaleen Landora—whose first love was money, second was trading, and third was each other. She’d never questioned it as a child even though it always felt there was something wrong with their priorities. Soon enough they began to be hers as well.

Her two older brothers were Remi and Layton and she had a younger one named Graham, or Gray. That left her the only girl, and as such she often found herself the centre of attention. Her elder siblings had their own niches in the family business, though Gray tended to be shoved into the accounting books. He was always so quiet that it was easy to forget about him.

Remistian started taking her along with him on trips. Carrie discovered it was because of her beauty, which had blossomed young and was very helpful in distracting his customers so that they were more likely to pay attention to her than the intricacies of their business deals. Avaleen did everything she could to accentuate Carrie’s brilliant red hair, face and shapely curves. There were times when she pranced proudly in front of the mirror wearing the latest fashions with strings of gems braided into her hair or jeweled combs or gold-threaded hairnets. She’d felt like a princess.

It was on these trips to foreign lands that she began collecting her oddities… a jewelry box made from a sea turtle’s shell, fans with pictures painted in utmost detail, a beaded basket woven into the design of peacock feathers, flowers made of pure glass, and all the jewelry—she had enough to wear something different every day of the year!

Carrie didn’t pay much attention to anyone who wasn’t important in her family’s eyes. That’s the way it was. They encouraged her to spend time with ‘her own kind’, which was how she got involved with the son of another merchant. He was a perfect gentleman, though he did act impatient frequently when she couldn’t meet him or if she was late. It hadn’t seemed like a very grave fault at the time, and she’d never considered him controlling even though he was. They were almost always seen together.

Here she paused, throat squeezing shut. “And then…this happened.”

She gestured to the right side of her face, actually reaching up to touch the eye itself. Benonic had suspected since the beginning that it was fake, and now he knew for certain. She didn’t explain. The light purple hedgehog assumed she wasn’t ready to tell him, so he made no comment.

The scars were so deep that even healing could not disguise them. The fur wouldn’t grow back and the torn skin was left looking almost raw. Her eye had been damaged so badly that there was no hope of ever seeing with it again, and the healers had to remove it entirely.

But ‘what cannot be cured must be endured’ as her grandmother used to say. It never made sense to her before when everything came so easily through coin or cleverness.

Then the boy she had spent so much time with…changed. He no longer wanted to be seen with her in public, but he still demanded she stay with him. Her suspicions that he was really after her inheritance grew. He turned violent when she blamed him for her scars and Carrie decided she wanted nothing to do with him any longer.

When she told her parents, their reaction bewildered her. Avaleen’s advice was to ignore it and stay with him anyway since no one would ever accept a scarred wench for a wife. She ought to be grateful he was still interested.

For the first time in her life Carrie exploded. All the little collections of anger, confusion, dejection and longing for love during the years she was raised came surging out in a single minute—a firestorm of accusations and insults that sent her parents into a rage.

Remistian disinherited her on the spot.

Left with little choice, she rushed to her room and packed everything in it. That very night she boarded a vessel with all her trunks, not once looking back at the city as they sailed away.

The voyage itself was more eye-opening than she ever expected. Speaking with ordinary folks was only ever done when she needed something from them, but now that she was one of them, it was foolish to avoid conversation. They found her foreign trinkets fascinating, all of the women wishing they could afford such things. Her vision of Onliest Unique was born on that trip.

With what she had learned watching her parents at work, Carrie sold all her elegant clothes to get enough money to rent the shop, then piece by piece, her jewelry found its way to new owners. She already had some connections with other merchants so that it was easier to find the supplies she wanted, and she’d learned to bargain by watching the best merchants.

So here she was, enjoying herself with a small business made for the people she had looked down upon for much of her life…and spending time with the sort of person she never would have made eye-contact with a year earlier.

Carrie’s words slowed to a stop. She looked at Benonic, a tear on her cheek glinting in the lamplight. “Thank you for listening.”

He stroked her hand—just a brief touch—to let her know he understood. Sometimes simply having a person willing to sit still and listen was the most helpful of all. Personal experience taught him that. But he did have a question or two.

“How did you get your Mystical here?”

The rabbit bit her lip. “Ah… Ursa and her cub followed me to the docks and wouldn’t let me board the ship without taking them along. The captain was nervous having a couple bears on his ship but he also had his own Mystical, so he understood how I felt. In the end he asked me to pay for their passage and that was that. They did not enjoy saltwater fish, though.”

Ursa also did not enjoy seeing Carrie with Benonic. Every time they went for a walk through the woods, the bears would shadow them. Little Ursa romped along behind, favouring one foot just slightly, but its mother kept to the trees, uttering suspicious growls.

One day Benonic had a few strips of jerky, tempting the little one close. After the bear was done, licking its chops and sniffing for more, he brought out a knotted rope to play tug-o-war. Carrie joined in, ganging up on him so that he had to exert a bit more strength. After watching them pull back and forth for a few minutes, Ursa came out of the trees and took hold too. Benonic was yanked off his feet and landed in a heap, making Carrie cheer in victory along with Little Ursa. The large Mystical didn’t look boastful, but there was a touch of humour in her eyes. Perhaps he could win her good will, if not her affection.

As time went on, the rabbit found herself seeing him differently. He looked possibly around twelve, but the more time she spent with him, the easier it was to see him as more mature. When she finally asked his age, it was only half-surprising to find out he was twenty-three—six years older than herself.

It became a common sight for the residents of Briny Bay to see Carrie and Benonic walking beside one another in the evenings. They exchanged whispers, not sure what to think. Surely the shy, red-haired rabbit couldn’t imagine anything more than friendship with an Assassin like that…could she?

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To be continued...