Ophelia and Dante left the castle by horse, wanting to avoid drawing attention to themselves with a carriage. Ophelia rode with Dante since she wasn’t skilled at riding a horse.
Ophelia took their outing as a chance for her to see more of the Hastings land. To familiarise herself with what could be her forever ho.
As they got further away from the castle, they didn’t co across many hos.
Dante rode to what appeared to be a deserted area with many trees and fields.
"It is a good place to settle down," Ophelia noticed.
"She picked where she wouldn’t be disturbed. Sotis, I have to keep an eye on her since she tends to kill anyone who gets too close to her ho. She doesn’t want to be killed because of her crafts. She is innocent otherwise. We will walk from here," Dante said, stopping the horse.
Dante slid off the horse and readied himself to catch Ophelia.
Ophelia followed suit in getting off the horse and jumped down into Dante’s arms. "Will she be angry that you have brought a visitor?"
Dante set Ophelia on the ground and replied, "She might be upset I didn’t give her any notice, but she will get over it. She doesn’t like to admit it, but she likes the company."
Ophelia looked around as Dante tied the horse to a tree. "I hope that is true. If I choose to live where there isn’t anyone around for a good distance, it is because I don’t want company. You must protect if she isn’t in the mood for visitors."
"She will not harm you, but I will be your knight in shining armour. It is this way," Dante said, holding out his hand for Ophelia to take.
Ophelia accepted Dante’s hand and walked beside him. "How did your family find her, and did they not harm her because they learned from their mistake?"
"I don’t know how they found her, and it would have been silly to kill her when she could be the only one to help us. There was soone who thought to kill her because she couldn’t give us the answer, but my father stopped it," said Dante.
"Your father was wise. If I were this stranger and heard you had not learned from your mistake, I would have turned you into a pig and then roasted you for dinner. What?" Ophelia asked, feigning innocence. "You were cursed because soone in your family killed a woman he betrayed. If you hadn’t learned from the first ti, you deserve to be eaten."
"Not by , of course," Ophelia said, disgusted by the thought of eating a person. "By a wild animal. Though I suppose it would be more evil to feed you to the rest of your family. Why did you let go of my hand?" She questioned, noticing Dante stepped away from her.
"Because your thoughts scare ," Dante confessed.
"I wouldn’t truly do it. I am not so evil," Ophelia replied.
"So evil? Then there is so evil in you. I learn more about you every day, and so of it scares ," said Dante.
"I scare you? Need I remind you of the reason we are here? Mr Beast," Ophelia teased Dante.
Dante sighed. "Part of regrets telling you of my curse."
"That part of you must stop. If you hadn’t told and I found a beast running around the castle, who knows what might have happened? There is soone ahead," Ophelia said, watching as a woman gathered flowers in the distance.
"It is her. Wait here," Dante said, walking ahead of Ophelia. "Ester."
"I knew I sensed soone was coming to bother . Didn’t we agree to leave each other alone?"
Ester, the woman in the fields, looked up to see who had co along with Dante.
"Who did you bring to my ho?" Ester asked, eyeing the woman behind Dante. "I hope you aren’t coming here to fool around in my garden."
"She is my wife, and these are wild flowers. It is not a garden," said Dante.
"I have been taking care of them to decorate my ho; therefore, it is my garden. Shouldn’t you be dead by now? You look very much alive to ," Ester said, poking Dante with a stick. "If you ca here for to kill you, I won’t do it. It doesn’t matter how many tis you ask."
"I have never asked you to kill ," Dante said, following Ester as she started to walk to her ho. Dante motioned for Ophelia to follow.
"Then, it must have been one of the ones before you. You, Hastings n, all look alike. What have you co to trouble with? Try to turn your wife into a beast because she thinks it will be romantic? I told you that I don’t have the power to curse anyone, so go," Ester said, flicking her hand to chase away Dante.
"We’ve co here to speak about breaking the curse. My wife knows-"
"Then I will only speak to her, so why don’t you go on your rry way and pick more flowers? My ho needs so beauty," Ester said, turning around to shove a basket in Dante’s arms. "Only the yellow ones. If you bring any of the white, I’ll get rid of your pretty little wife."
"I know you don’t an that, Ester. Why must you try to be so cruel when you enjoy my company? Be nice to her since she’s only trying to help . Ophelia, you can co speak to her," Dante said, remaining by Ester’s side as Ophelia ca forward.
"Hello. I am Ophelia Hastings," Ophelia said, extending her hand to Ester.
"Ester," Ester returned the greeting. "My flowers, Dante. They aren’t going to pick themselves."
Ophelia lowered her hand and gave Dante one last look before he walked away.
"His mother, are you fond of her? Are you close?" Ester asked, eyeing Ophelia from head to toe.
"No, we are not close- Oh," Ophelia gasped, startled by Ester touching her face. "Is there sothing wrong with my face?"
Ester turned Ophelia’s face left and right until she got a good look at her. She moved her hands from Ophelia’s face once she saw enough.
"Do you not care for your life?" Ester asked, hitting Ophelia’s leg with her stick.
"I do. Am I in danger?" Ophelia asked, starting to feel wary of Ester.
"It cannot be that you care for your life. The longer you stay at his side, the more likely you are to die. The beast will kill, but if you want to escape your fate, run while you have a chance," Ester advised Ophelia.
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