[M] The Beast of Ophela (Holey & Lu321)

On a certain continent, in a certain fantasy world, lived a certain society of elves in a certain kingdom, called Ophela. Though the kingdom of Ophela was ruled by elves, it had strong connections to the Empire, to the point where an Imperial Arcane Knight had been assigned to protect the Royal Family, to include the princess Talia. Though she was past the age at which an Imperial princess would have been married off in some sort of arranged political marriage, the knight, called Günter, was of the impression that the princess had a rebellious streak that caused her to deny all potential suitors to the point where they stopped trying.

The affairs of the royal family weren't his primary concerned... merely protecting them, along with the kingdom. When he heard rumors of a vicious beast that was attacking and killing travelers, his desire was, of course, to personally ride out and return with the beast's head... but unfortunately, his duty prevented him from doing so. Guard duty of any kind, even to a royal family, was dull and boring... he certainly would have preferred some action, such as front line duty on the war front.

With this thought in mind as he made his rounds, he noted that the princess' chamber was empty. With a frown, the knight knew that she was supposed to be in bed. Thankfully, he was familiar with a secret exit reserved for the royal family to evacuate the castle in the worst case situation, and so he immediately head towards the escape tunnel in order to search for her, figuring she was proving herself the rebellious princess he always suspected her to be by sneaking out of the castle at night. However, he figured that, due to her being born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she would be entirely unfamiliar with the dangers of the real world, and protecting her from them definitely fit under the umbrella of his knightly duties.

Days in the life of a princess were utterly boring. A dress fitting here, a lunch with visitors there, and the rest of the long day spent sitting in a uncomfortable throne listening to her parents and their counsel talking about how to best govern their people. Talia had gotten quite good at making up stories to fill her time. If she fell asleep during the meetings, after all, she would be punished.

Although her parents always denyed it, a lot of rumors about her were true. She had turned down over 93 requests to marry her, even though her parents desperately wanted an alliance. If she had any say in it, she would never get married unless it was for love. She knew it was a foolish dream in a world where wars had been started on less, but it kept her going. She doubted that she would last much longer, though, especially after she overheard her parents talking of sending her off to another country. Her mother had scoffed at the idea, but if Talia kept refusing, her mother migh just come around.

Her future seemed like it was never going to turn around. At least, it didn't seem to until villagers started arriving at the castle telling of a beast terrorizing the farmers and travelers nearby. At that moment, she started plotting her escape. Maybe, just maybe she could convince her parents to let her be if she showed that she could handle herself in the world. And what better way to do that than to kill a beast like the knights did in her own imagination?

By the end of the day, she had aquired a sword from the training grounds, enough money to pay for whatever she could need, and enough food to last about a week.She had no set plan, but she knew that she wouldn't come back until she had slain the beast. She had changed into her riding clothes, the only clothes she owned that would not give her away as a princess, before sneaking into the emergency tunnel and starting her adventure.

As he made his way through the escape tunnels, the knight could tell that someone had passed through recently. The dust on the floors had been disturbed by footprints, created by riding boots. The footprints were small in size, but as there wasn't much difference in physical stature between male and female elves, it was impossible to determine whether they had been made by a man or a woman... but given the circumstances, it was safe to say that they could easily have been the princess' riding boots.

What was she thinking? Was she running away from home, perhaps? Having grown up in a palace, it was safe to assume the girl knew nothing of the outside world and its countless dangers. She may have some small degree of combat training, but he couldn't imagine she would have the level of skill of a knight such as himself, as everything he had seen indicated that her education had mostly revolved around making her an appealing bride in order to forge the king's alliances... something she had failed to do for nearly as long as he had been alive.

Eventually he heard the sounds of movement up ahead, and approached with a sigh. Sure enough, he eventually stumbled across the princess herself... dressed in riding clothes, and carrying a sword of all things. "Highness," he said to her as he came closer. "I'm sure you already know what I'm about to ask... so would you mind saving me the effort and answering the obvious question?"

Thousands of thoughts ran through her head as she continued through the tunnels, mostly about how she would kill the beast. She hoped that her swiftness would help her, but she was certainly not the strongest or most skilled swordsman. In fact, she prefered longer ranged weapons, although she had no formal training in using them. As far as her father was concerned, a princess only needed to know how to defend herself. Apparently it was considered unladylike to be better at fighting than a prince. She did wish that she had snuck off to the training grounds to practice more often, but there was no use dwelling over it.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind her, she sped up ever so slightly. She had hoped that the guards wouldn't have noticed that she disappeared for another few minutes. Holding her breath as the footsteps drew closer, she continued walking until she heard a voice. Stopping and turning to face the guard, she immediately recognized him. Günter had a decent reputation around the palace, which was an oddity. She never understood it, but most elves disliked humans because they were, well, human. Maybe it was because of their shorter lifespan. Maybe it was because of their constant quest for power. Or maybe they just didn't like them. Again, Talia never understood it.

"I'm going to kill the Beast of Ophela." she said with a shrug, as if telling him she was going on a stroll around the palace gardens. Without a further exclamation, she turned back around and started walking again, hoping he would be shocked enough to leave her alone.

Sir Günter didn't have much personal experience in dealing with the princess, largely due to the restrictions placed upon him by her father, the elf king. It was no secret that they were still attempting to find a suitable prince or king for the princess in order to marry her, but due to her rebellious nature and the fact that she wasn't getting any younger, they hadn't had much luck. As virginity was a requirement for arranged marriages, he was forbidden from ever being alone with her, due both to the racist views of elfs towards humans and Talia's own rebellious behavior. Therefore, this would be the first time he spoke more than a passing greeting to the princess.

As she spoke of killing the Beast of Ophela, he looked at her for a few seconds with an "are you serious?" expression before laughing. "That's a pretty good joke, Highness," he said to her. "Though I'll have to agree that it's probably better to simply kill the creature. I'm not sure why your father wishes to capture it instead... the beast has already killed three of his best knights." He wasn't sure if "knight" was the proper term for the elven warrior elite, but since they wore mythril mail and rode horses, it was definitely the equivalent term... though their armor was admittedly quite a bit lighter than that of the full plate armor worn by the Imperial knights.

As she started to walk away once more, he spoke again. "We really should turn back, Princess Talia," he said. "You're not on your way to some sort of secret rendezvous with a commoner, are you?" Should this be the case, he would have been honor bound to kill the man... a rather distasteful chore that he hoped to avoid ever having to perform. Secret meetings with men of sufficient status was one thing, but for a commoner to get involved with a princess was high treason under Elven law.

"I'm being completely serious. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked him, raising her eyebrow as he laughed. She figured it must have seemed crazy that a princess would want to leave her secure home to find adventure. But she was far from being a normal princess. She could imagine that she also looked ridiculous in her riding outfit, far from the fancy dresses that she usually wore. She really didn't care though.

Hearing Günter ask her to return, she stopped again. "What makes you think that? Do you really think I would go meet someone like this?" she gestured to her outfit, "I meant what I said about killing the beast, and I'm not going back to the palace until I do. Unless you are going to be joining me, I'd suggest you go back to the palace and pretend like none of this ever happened. After all, the King would have you hung if he knew you were with me alone."

She brushed her hair out of her face, holding her head high and trying to make sure he knew that she was not joking at all. She knew the punishments for being alone with royalty, and his race wasn't working for him in this instance. Her father would have hated anyone being alone with his daughter, but a human? That was out of the question. She had often wondered if she could ever get away with sneaking into town on a festival night, but she had never tried it before. After all, the commoners involved would probably be killed, and she didn't have the stomach or the conscience to do that to anyone.

The knight continued to regard the princess with a look of disbelief. Even as a joke, the idea of her trying to fight the beast of Ophala by herself was ridiculous... but if the completely inexperienced princess seriously thought she could handle it where warrior elites with multiple lifetimes of combat experience had failed? With a sigh, he listened to the rest of her words and shook his head.

"Let me make one thing clear," he said to her. "If you try to fight the beast by yourself... you will die. Very, very quickly, in fact. Every single one of the knights that had attempted to capture this beast is vastly superior to you in martial training and combat experience. And if I let you go... well, then your death would be on my hands." It would be easy to simply pick her up and carry her back to the palace... but unfortunately, he was forbidden to lay hands on the princess, even to save her from her own foolishness.

"You're right in that the attire doesn't suit you, though," he remarked, as he much preferred the way she looked in her pretty princess dresses. "But neither is it suitable for combat." With a sigh, he thought for a moment. In truth, he really desired to put an end to the Beast of Ophala... and he was one of the few knights in the kingdom with the power and skill to do so, if only he weren't stuck babysitting royals all the time.

"Tell you what," he said. "I'll pretend like I didn't catch up to you until you had already attracted the attention of the beast... and I'll handle the combat. If you want to help... I suggest keeping that sword sheathed at all times and supporting me with your royal Elven magic instead, while staying as far from the beast as possible. You can handle that much at least, right?" He knew that Ophalan nobility, like that of most Elven kingdoms, had a strong affinity for sorcery, though he knew not whether Talia herself was practiced in it.

"You don't know that for certain. No one even knows what is attacking in the first place except those who are dead. For all I know, it could be a lion trying to protect its cubs." She knew it was highly unlikely that a beast that caused so much destruction would be just another wild animal, but she wanted to make a point. No one truely knew anything about the beast, and most of what was being said about it were most likely tales spun in a pub.

Hearing his offer, it was her turn to be surprised. She had not expected him to agree to come, knowing that if they were caught he would be killed, but she understood what he was saying. She didn't like the idea of him doing all the work, but she figured that they would work out the details while they were traveling.

"Well, come on then. Its only a matter of time before someone else realizes I'm gone." She said, giving him a small smile before continuing down the tunnel. It was only a matter of minutes before she saw the exit, a hidden door that opened in the middle of a dense wood outside the palace. The spot was chosen for its ability to hide anything coming through it, which was a good thing in their situation.

Chuckling at the words of the princess, the knight remarked, "I do know for certain, as I've met some of the beast's victims. Every single one of them was more trained, experienced, and better equipped than you are. The wounds on the bodies that have been found were not caused by a mere lion... but a much larger, more fearsome beast, such as a manticore or griffon... possibly a wyvern." Whatever it was, he suspected the king knew.... hence why he had ordered the capture of the beast rather than its death.

It seemed the princess was surprised that he agreed to come, but it wasn't as if he had many options. If he didn't deal with the beast, it would only continue to claim victims, and he preferred to keep the death toll as low as possible. "Someone already realized you're gone," he said with a chuckle, "And he's standing right next to you." He continued to make his way out of the escape passage, and once they finally found themselves outside, he looked up at the night sky.

"Looks like we're pretty far from town," he remarked. "Would have preferred to get you some better equipment, more suitable for beast hunting... but I suppose the fewer people that see us, the better our chances." Glancing over to the princess, he said, "Do you know where we are?" He had a rough idea where the beast's lair was after studying the location where its victims had been found torn and mangled, but without knowing his current location, he had no clue which direction to head.

Rolling her eyes at his clever comment, she was sure that this was going to be a long walk. "Someone else. I've already been caught once, and I doubt any of the other guards will be as eager as you to join me." She was curious at why he had decided to make a joke at this moment, but dismissed the thought. She knew better than to read into a person to much.

"We are about a mile to the east of the main traveling road, and a half mile from the city walls. I was studying the maps my father had, and I'm pretty sure we should be heading north-west if we want to be successful in our hunt." She said, looking up at the stars. She had taught herself lots of thing over the years, and one of them had been astronomy. "That means we should be heading this way." She then turned and started walking deeper into the forest, her confidence not wavering.