❝ 𝔐𝔬𝔬𝔫𝔩𝔦𝔱 ℜ𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔢 ❞

"All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream."
_{—Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within a Dream}

⚜

          "You are not trying." A golden metallic face popped into view, its oddly expressive face full of
          indignation. Belle sighed deeply, shoulders falling with equal exasperation.

          "I am trying, that is the problem, Grim," the princess replied, hair falling into her enchanting
          purple eyes, at the moment as downcast as her spirits. They had been at it for hours now and the
          sun was fading back behind the mountains, staining the sky with blackberry purples. Belle's eyes fell
          on her delicate hooves, caked with mud from their travel today. Her dress was a tattered mess. The
          little doe felt as tired and filthy as she was, and her uncompromising instructor would not let up.
          The royally appointed book hovered into view, the leonine shape of her companion's face etched with
          skepticism. Eyes made from chips of actual ruby narrowed.

          "I absolutely will not accept that a mistress powerful enough to summon me, does not have
          a drop of magical talent."

          "Well, perhaps you should start," the Hartlicorne whispered quietly, defeat visible in the arch
          of her delicate body. Her plush tail wilted over the rock she sat on, face held in both small hands, idly
          toeing a rock with her hoof. The animated magical tome snapped the red bookmark pinned between
          his pages aggressively. In only a short two weeks of travel, Belle had learned that Grim's bookmark
          was something like a tail and he used it to express himself. To say he was an odd companion was an
          understatement, but the princess had always been exceptionally good at reading animals and observing
          emotions in others.

          "The first step any magic wielder must learn is to steel their mind," he repeated for the hundredth
          time today. Grim's lips turned up in aristocratic disdain, which Belle had been on the receiving end of since
          she first accidentally summoned him in her mother's lost library. Grim made gentlemanly disgust something
          of an art. He made it clear he didn't find her very impressive. Not that Belle found herself impressive either.

          "I have never been able to do magic. I am a half breed. I did not inherit Mother's ...talents," she said
          quietly, tucking a long piece of golden honey hair behind her large ear. Grim snapped his bookmark again and
          made a growling noise that she took for a grudging sigh. He hovered in the air before her, the strap she used
          to customarily carry him swaying in the evening breeze. The howl of a wolf punctuated the stretching silence.
          Nighttime would be upon them soon.

          "We must find a place to shelter. Come, my mistress," Grim drifted down into Belle's lap and his eyes
          closed. Suddenly, he looked like an ordinary magical tome, if he could ever be called 'ordinary.' One moment
          he was a living, expressive being alive in every discernible way, but when he 'went to sleep' as he called
          it, it was unnerving. Like someone cut his doll strings. Grim told her that it expended magical energy to hover,
          move and speak. But really, Belle suspected - more often than not he was just finicky, grumpy and deemed
          her unworthy of his princely company.

          Belle frowned, pushing her slim hand through an sleek blonde forelock. She held the magical tome to her
          chest with a worried expression. She wished he wouldn't leave her when darkness set over the land. Belle
          barely knew where she was, leaving much of the navigation to her curmudgeonly companion, who as of
          right now, couldn't be bothered with her. She tucked him against her hip, slipping the leather strap over
          her head and setting out.

          Grim said there was a "dwelling" nearby, and that they would shelter there for the night. But he hadn't
          said much else. The princess cut an eastern path, following the thin creek that had guided her all day. Belle
          must have walked for hours, and blackness swallowed the world up so completely she could barely see in
          front of her. Several times she'd tried to wake Grim and ask for help. The stubborn demon didn't budge.

          Belle felt a tell-tale tingle in her nose. It twitched adorably. The doe swore to herself that she would not
          cry. She was on a noble quest. Princesses on noble quests did not cry, she told herself.

          Her long hair trailed behind her bathed in silver from the blessed moonlight which showed mercy on her and
          peeked its bright head through a dense bank of storm clouds. Despite her naivety and lack of magical talent,
          the Hartlicorne moved like an enchanted creature, her hooves always finding their way in the dark, ferns
          brushing her ankles and seeming to move out of the way for her, as if they knew what and who she was. Tree
          limbs seemed to bow in deference to her at her slightest touch, swaying from her path. She stretched her
          elegant neck and flicked her velvet ears back. Her nose twitched as she scented the air. Moonlight caught in
          the jeweled facet of her eyes and illuminated them from within.

          Belle thought she smelled something, but as a purely prey creature it was not her strong suit. Those long ears
          flicked and swiveled. She did not have the powerful sense of a predator, but she had excellent hearing with the
          long, soft oversized ears she'd been mocked for throughout childhood, so unlike the sharp, small ears of a Licorne.

          There it was again. It was a soft sound. It reverberated through the air, like someone striking a silver bell. She
          followed it, drawn to it for some strange reason. It tinkled again, closer now. The delicate doe slipped through
          a thick patch of evergreens and broke the clearing. Without realizing it, she was moving without a sound, eyes
          fixed to the eerie sight before her.

          There in the clearing, a deeply red fox bowed its head, lapping at the creek. Around its neck a glowing purple
          gem dangled, clinking every now and then against the smooth stone. That was the sound. The sound of the
          gem against river rock. The fox was larger than any other fox she'd seen, but not alarmingly so. It suddenly
          stopped drinking, and its luminous green eyes snapped open. It pinned her with a stare so intensely human
          that it startled Belle. Shook from her reverie, her slender hooves slipped on the slick stone, and without warning
          she fell, hard against the ground. Wind knocked solidly from her lungs, the princess struggled to breathe,
          blinking up at the moon, stunned.

          When she sat up again, the fox was closer now. He, without knowing, she knew it was a he. He sat directly
          at her side, tail curled around the front of his legs. He looked neither scared nor surprised, as if he'd been...waiting
          for her somehow. Belle got to her hooves. The fox had captured the princess with that deep emerald gaze. The
          book slung on her hip remained dormant as the fox turned, seemingly urging the doe to follow.

          And follow she did. Through brambles and thickets, across the creek and through a patch of forest so dark she
          would have lost her way if not for the glowing purple gem, swaying in the pitch black, luring her closer and closer.
          And then, like in a dream the blonde found herself standing in the massive foyer of what looked to be a worn but
          opulent manor of some sort. From the walls to the dusty marble, everything was done in hues of black & faded purple.

          The fox looked back at Belle, now thoroughly within its lair. For that was what it was. Not a single soul haunted the
          depths of this manor, Belle was certain of it. A breeze from nowhere ruffled her long curling blonde locks. Water
          dripped rhythmically from her tattered silk dress, pooling on the floor. The creature circled around her, full of
          vulpine grace, those sharp chips of glowing emerald watching her every move. As if it were waiting for something.
          Belle took a step back, one then another. The back of her thighs brushed against something hard. A large sitting
          chair beside a dead fireplace, not graced with warmth but spidery webs stretching over its black, yawning mouth.
          The fox moved forward, and Belle felt her knees buckle under the pressure of its gaze. The purple jewel dangling
          from its throat swayed back and forth in a hypnotizing rhythm. The doe's soft strawberry lips parted around a sigh.

          Her body suddenly felt so heavy, she could scarcely move her slender arms. She felt, rather than saw wet
          silk pulled from her body, her dress pooling at her hooves in a heap, leaving her bare, shivering. Her long hair
          flowed freely over her breasts, knees pinned together with virginal shyness.

          "W-What is..." What is happening to me? she thought, but could not speak, her lips trembled, the
          syllables hanging from the tip of her tongue. A whisper of satin pressed against her fur, and a black dress slithered
          up her arms, brushing over her soft cream fur. A dark ribbon slipped beneath her hair, tying it off at her delicate
          nape. The fox never took his eyes off of her, weaving a net of magic around the princess, layering her in not only
          dry silk clothes, but also magic. Like looping slim gold chains around her neck, he plied the doe that had wandered
          into his forest with magic until she was finally collapsed into the chair awaiting her.

          Belle blinked, trying to orient herself, but it was of no use. She felt warm, and the magic that encircled
          her emanated feelings of safety and comfort. The large fox moved toward the princess. Belle blinked.
          One tail? No, there were two tails, three. Four. Four tails. How had she not seen them in the forest?

          She felt his weight on her lap. Those bright green eyes bored into hers, and Belle could almost taste
          the pure loneliness in them. Stay with me, stay, a whispery voice breathed against her neck,
          like a ghostly figure leaning over her. She felt the fox's paw between her breasts, the purple jewel
          glowing, its light reflected in Belle's own brilliant amethyst eyes. I am alone. Stay with me. It is
          dangerous out there. Stay. Stay.

          Do you know? Know...know...know... the same whisper soft voice fell off, echoing in the hollow
          of her mind. Belle felt shelled out, empty, except for the warmth of magic and that voice. Do you
          know where they are? Do you know...

          "K-Know...what?" Belle spoke, almost inaudibly. Her fingers curled into silky red fur. Two tails
          wrapped tightly around her wrist. She felt his head against her hand.

          Do you know where they are? The other shards of my jewel? Do you know...know....

          Belle tried to swallow and failed. She tried to speak and failed, too. A tear rolled down her cheek, the
          light of the purple gem catching and refracting its dark light. She couldn't speak. She couldn't tell the
          creature that it was suffocating her with his magic. The fragile doe knew nothing about the purple gem
          or missing shards. Belle's heart gave a terrifying shudder and momentarily stopped. Her lips moved
          but no words came out.

          "You are killing her," a voice ripped through the airless dark, and suddenly Grim's bright red eyes
          were glowing as he hovered in the air above her, magic swirling around him, slicing through the tight
          cocoon of illusion. The princess took her first, shaking breath in what felt like a lifetime. Belle choked
          and sputtered.

          "I see I let this go on too long. I only thought to teach my mistress a lesson..." Grim's tail flicked in
          the air, the fox bared its teeth at the airborne tome, possessively curling its tails around Belle's wrists.

          "She feels like magic, but she is not. She can not withstand your power. I assure you, she is very
          mortal, and your illusions almost killed her, fox."

          Belle coughed, and put a shaking hand to her throat. It was raw and she could barely speak. She didn't
          know how to tell Grim, but she didn't think the fox meant any true harm. Those green eyes entered her
          vision as the red fox looked back at her with mournful eyes. And then, with a silvery clink of that purple
          gem...he was gone...

          Belle was alone. Grim had settled on a dusty table beside her. She was bare except for a blanket draped
          over her that looked curiously like a man's cloak. Her wet clothes manifested by the fireplace, which lit
          the room with roaring orange embers. But all signs of the fox and his glowing green eyes and purple
          collar were disappeared. Like ghosts.

          "You may sleep. You are quite safe now, mistress," Grim whispered, sounding for once as old as
          he truly must have been. Belle's eyes felt heavy. The illusion magic had stolen her strength, and with
          the warm crackle of the fire keeping the chill away, sleep was soon to claim her. Grim's voice droned
          softly beside her, and she was unsure if perhaps she had dreamed the whole thing...

          "The lord of the manor will watch over you until morning's light, princess..."






Art by: Desubox :: Writing by: Belletrist :: Gift: from the wonderful Max_Sutari
COMMENTS HELP ENCOURAGE ME TO WRITE I READ EVERY SINGLE ONE ♡
IMITATION IS -NOT- A FORM OF FLATTERY. PLEASE DO NOT IMITATE ME.
✧ YOU MAY NOT USE BELLE OR ANY ART FOR RP. DO NOT REUPLOAD. ✧