Part Five

A great and terrible beast raged. Standing before a smoking, dark moat he threw back his head and roared to the moon.

“Calm yourself,” said a voice from the air.

He turned and looked at a pale outline. It had once been a soldier of his, but now it was only a faint shadow like the rest of his army.

“How can you bear it?” he snarled. “How can you accept this?”

“I do not remember. None of us remember.”

“You were once great soldiers!” the beast growled. “You were once strong men!”

The outline rippled.

“We only remember the curse,” it said. “We only know that we are here to guard and serve you.”

The beast roared.

“Memory is my torture,” he said. “I wish for your blissful ignorance.”

“There is nothing we can do—”

“I know that!”

“We must live here for eternity, our hearts bound like the red roses to the earth.”

“You think I do not remember this?”

“If one of us tries to leave, then he shall die,” continued the outline. “The castle must always carry a thousand lives.”

The beast turned and swiped at the outline, but his claws fell through the shape like water. He looked at his paws and roared, disgusted with what he had become.

“I wish to die! I would kill myself if I knew how.”

“To do that you must give your life to another,” said the outline.

“You leave and then I can give my life to you.”

“But my only wish is to serve you.”

The beast howled.

“Go and be a man again!” he shouted.

“I do not remember how.”

The beast paced before the moat, his shaggy head bowed to the ground. He did not know how long he had been imprisoned in the castle. Perhaps it had been five seasons; perhaps it had been twenty. He saw a mound of snow and he clawed it.

“I am sentenced to be this way for eternity,” he growled.

“We share in your curse.”

“I pity you all.”