Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Beast was walking through the Unknown, enjoying the slight breeze of a lovely afternoon, something which fall always brought, before stumbling across two children in his woods, both wearing unfamiliar clothing, nothing which he’s seen before in the Unknown. One was resting against a tree with an upside down teapot resting on his head, for whatever reason. Another, who must be the eldest since they were a bit taller, was sprawled on the ground, with a red cone upon his head and a dark blue cape around his shoulders. Perfect, the Beast thought, more edelwood. Before he’d begun to change the children into new trees, a familiar voice floated on the winds, one which he hadn’t heard in years, “Beast, don’t do it.” the Lantern said, its voice soft in the Beasts head, signaling that the Woodsman was close enough for him to hear the lantern, but far enough to not be here for a good while. “Lantern of mine, why do you stop me from turning these two into edelwood, they would make fine trees and finer fuel.” The Beast asked, questioning why the lantern would prevent such a task, especially since the Woodsman would be running short soon. "Keep one, turn it into a new Beast, change the other into edelwood." A new Beast? How preposterous! But, what would it be like to have an heir, a prince of the Unknown? Someone I can teach to rule? “It seems I’ve caught your attention Beast, you know you don’t have many years left, only another half a century before you cease to exist and turn into an edelwood yourself. You needn’t ask who should become the prince, for you already know who it is.” The Lantern replied, its voice growing stronger the closer the Woodsman got. Quickly, the Beast scooped the eldest into his arms and started turning the other into an edelwood.

“Beast!” a familiar raspy voice cried, the Woodsman had finally made his appearance and spotted what the Beast was doing and hurried over, desperate to save the child from being another victim to the Beast, who’d hidden his heir within the shadows when he first heard the Woodsmans cry. But he was far too late by the time he made it, for the Beast had already covered the child in enough tree bark for nature to do the rest, as the Woodsman watched in terror while the child’s body became another tree for him to chop down. “You were too late Woodsman, another child became an edelwood right in front of you. How does it feel, knowing had you been faster you could’ve saved this child?” The Beast asked, watching the Woodsman’s face become distorted with despair at the mention of not being able to save this child, a painful reminder that he was too late to save his own daughter. Edelwood eagerly grew at the Woodman’s feet, sensing another soul to claim, one who was quickly loosing hope. However, just before the edelwood reached the top of the Woodman’s boots, they stopped growing and a look of determination quickly replaced the one of despair on his face. “Just because I couldn’t save this child Beast, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be ones to save in the future. My precious Anna wouldn’t want me to become edelwood for failing once. She wouldn’t want me to not be there for other children who will get turned into your horrid trees! She would want me to continue saving innocent children from your evil grasp!” The Woodsman proclaimed before throwing the axe at the Beast, who just barely dodged it. “Leave,” the lantern said, “we will talk at a later time.” The Beast fled, the Woodsman still standing in the same spot in front of the new edelwood tree, hacking off the thick branches that grew around his own feet and kept him from moving. The Woodsman wouldn’t follow, for the Beast was, most likely, already too far for him to follow, and such a task would take him hours, hours that he could use to chop down edelwood and make more oil.

Once the Beast reached a clearing near the Mill, did he remove his child from the shadows. He would need to stay near the Mill for the time being so that, once the child woke, the transformation could begin. Only the Woodsman stood in the way of the transformation starting, but could easily be led away from the lantern that he begrudgingly kept fed with oil. For now, the Beast found a regular tree and used his magic to make it stretch and hollow, two moss covered wooden beds on either side. The beds would do for now, until the transformation could take place and they could move to Pottsfield where Enoch would most certainly provide better accommodations for the both of them. Once the Beast was satisfied, did he enter their temporary shelter and lay his child down on one of the wooden beds, summoning another moss layer for a blanket of a sort, no need for the future Prince of the Unknown to catch a cold. As the Beast watched the child burrow into the blanket, it reminded him of how he would sometimes wrap the shadows around himself a little more tighter when winter brought colder winds late at night. The Beast turned and settled onto his own bed on the other side of the hollowed tree, pulling the shadows around himself and had nothing left but to wait for his heir to wake.

Wirt wanted to sleep longer, but the memories of everything that happened after the graveyard wouldn’t leave. Blearily, he opened his eyes and immediately sat up. Where, was he? He wasn’t anywhere he knew, or recognized, unless beyond the wall past the train tracks was a large tree. But then there must be someone else! How else can you explain the fact that he ended up in a tree? Wirt got up from the bed, his movement causing the moss blanket that covered him to shift and reveal that he’d been lying on another moss layer. Taking in his surroundings, Wirt noticed that the “roof” and “floor”looked like they’d just been freshly cut with a chainsaw, something which might’ve make sense to whoever brought him here, but no sense at all to him whatsoever. After brushing any moss which clung to him from the bed (was it a bed? he couldn’t be sure, but it looked like one), he looked around where he’d woken up. The only notable things were not at all interesting, another identical bed directly across from him and an opening to the left, where a chilly breeze flowed in from. Perfect! He could just go out the hole and walk home since he couldn’t be too far from where Greg and him fell. Hope blossomed in his chest as he walked over to the hole and looked out and saw…..

Nothing.

His hope shattered into a million pieces.

Wherever he was, it wasn’t home.

What he could see were trees, reaching into the inky sky and greeting the stars with their leaves, they were everywhere, surrounding wherever he was and the place he’d woken up from. There was not a chance that he was even remotely anywhere close to home, the trees were too big and there was more than the forest close to his town even had. “Oh no,” Wirt whispered as he stepped back into the strange room, mind already spiraling. “Oh nonononono.” He ran his hands through his hair, hat falling off at some point. His lungs started feeling like someone was grabbing them and squeezing all the air out, making it difficult to breathe. “breathe, Wirt, just breathe. don’t panic, panicking helps no one, especially in a situation like this.” He thought as he sat back down on the moss-wood bed. His hands stopped tugging at his hair and instead wandered to feel the moss that he sat on. “Your fine for now Wirt, you have not a clue where you’re at, nor do you know how you’re even going to get home, just find Greg and- wait, where’s Greg?” he stopped speaking and just tried to focus on the texture of the moss his hand was still touching to prevent himself from falling further into a panic spiral.

Wirt had no way of knowing or telling how long he just sat on the bed, staring at his feet and the floor, just feeling the moss under his fingers. What he does know is that breathing started feeling a little easier, and that the tree faintly smelled somewhat like nuts. Finally, Wirt looked up and noticed a weird shadow that seemed to be, staring at him from the bed opposite of him. The shadow seemed too dark for how little light there was that came from the full moon outside, it was pitch black, like oil, when it should’ve been a dark grey. How had Wirt not noticed it earlier? As he was staring, it kind of felt as if it was staring back, as weird at that sounds. “Erm, shadow thing, you know where we are?” Wirt asked, not expecting an answer.

“That depends, do you refer to the room, the area, or in general?” The shadow responded, causing Wirt to fall off the bed in surprise. He hadn’t expected it to speak. The shadow let out a laugh-like rumbling noise. “Don’t be scared child,” it said, “I mean no harm.” 

“Who- what are you?” Wirt asked, wanting to know more about what the shadow thing that was currently in the tree with him. “Just a wanderer, like yourself. What are you doing here in the Unknown child?” Wirt was confused, the Unknown? Where even was that? Before he could ask the shadow just where exactly this Unknown place was, it spoke again. “From the look of confusion on your face, you must’ve traveled far. Not a soul whom I’ve met hasn’t not known about the Unknown.” It continued, “as for what I am, you will find out at a later time, for my true form is something that not many souls like. However, I can shape-shift into any animal if I wish, which you shall see at a later time.” Wirt was a little less anxious, seeing as the shadow responded while being… considerate? Was that the right word? The shadow did say that its true form was something that wasn’t liked by many, so they were an outcast, like Wirt, he could understand that. They were socially similar, and Wirt had no reason to be scared of it anymore. “Um, if you don’t mind, maybe you could show me your true form?” He hesitantly asked, feeling as the room seemed to get a little colder before returning to normal. “Hmmm, perhaps I can. I wanted to wait until later, but now would be a good time since we will be spending more time with each other soon.” Wirt was about to ask the shadow what it meant by that when the oily shadows receded and exposed what the thing had been hiding. In place of the shadows, there was a creature that had to be double Wirt’s height with three brilliant white alond-shaped eyes that faintly glowed. It was made of darker shadows than the ones that originally hid it, if that was even possible. “I am the Beast,” it said, leaning over Wirt. “And I believe you said your name was Wirt? How peculiar.” It stood back up, chuckling to itself, and its- no the Beasts, face seemed to notice Wirt just staring at it, a million thoughts racing through his head. “Are you alright child?” The Beast asked, Wirt forcing himself to nod. Even though it didn’t have any facial features apart from eyes, the Beast looked not the least bit convinced. “You needn’t fear me,” it said, before giving Wirt his hat back. When the Beast collected his hat, Wirt had no idea, but placed it back on his head. Once he did that, the Beast looked at the opening that Wirt looked out of earlier. “Come now, we have places to be.” The Beast said, its deep baritone voice reverberating around the room as it headed towards the opening. “Right,” Wirt thought. “gotta find Greg and somehow get home.” Wirt hurried to catch up with the Beast, praying to no one in particular that both he and Greg get back home in one piece and alive.

Praying that he wasn’t making a mistake in trusting the Beast.