The Beast’s perspective, a few minutes earlier:

I was putting everything on the line here, I had taken every chance I got at freedom.

No matter the cost, no matter who had to die, and no matter what I would become. Years of torture and abuse by Her parents made it clear that her clan wasn’t my home. Not while that old crone was still trying to ‘’’cure’’’ her and kill me.

Before I was willing to wait, but that fate quest’s reward; That idiot might not fully understand but I could.

If I won, she would no longer be in charge.

If she won…She wouldn’t win.

So I talked.

Used all the skills she was too incompetent to learn.

I overcame my beastly nature to take and finally spoke.

I made my case…a bit too passionately but honestly.

And now, I stand before 2 gods.

“We are one again” the two gods bellowed simultaneously, it was hard to make out their figures from their glowing forms but from their silhouette and voice I could tell they were…both Viola?

No, not quite, the second voice sounds less ghostly and more…normal for lack of a better term.

“But it is too soon, we can’t maintain this form, or its power, for long” they continued.

“Are you Viola and her sister?” I asked.

They froze “N-no. We are…their patron deities!” God or no, it seems the shock of being found out is universal, Who knew.

“We tore a rift in space and time to ask you a few questions and give you a choice” the continued “With the knowledge we gai-always had, we realise that this was a horrible overuse of our power and this will hurt like hell afterwards. So we must be quick”

They started walking towards me, two bodies moving as one, each step sending waves of power that hit me like a strong gust of wind.

“Why do you want to be free?”

I looked at the dumbfounded; what type of question is that?

“Because it is my right.” I declared

They pause their approach “Fair, but not enough”.

“N-not enough?” I queried “What do you mean ‘not enough’?!? I have spent 19 years having less freedom than a slave. I’ve earned my freedom.” I stared these gods down. I more than anyone deserved to be free.

They maintained their distance and pressed farther “You speak as if there was no reason for your confinement, but we can tell there's more to it than that”.

I averted my gaze, only now noticing the black void around us…it started…moving. The earlier silence started to disappear. Replaced by the sound of Nsenene, and a chill started to enter the air

“Why were you confined in the first place?” they asked and my head began to hurt as the void started to transform. The creatures of the night started to join the incessant buzzing. I hated that sound and the pain it hid.

I turned to look at them “What is this? Is this you’re doing?”

“What are you hiding?” they probed, my head aching

“Naa-Nothing” I spat, the pain seeping into my voice

“Then what is that sound?”

“What nois-” Then I heard it.

*Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack*.

A sound I could never forget, never forgive.

*Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack*.

“Get out of our daughter you accursed beast!” A familiar masculine voice demanded in a tone that sounded more mournful than angry.

I felt a bestial rage slowly start to take hold of me as I slowly began to turn.

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*Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack* *Thwack*.

The smell of blood in the air was all too familiar, though the scars were gone I could feel where each hit landed.

There was a brief pause, where the sounds of the wilds regained the night.

“Dear, stop. Let me heal the body before you continue, I won’t give this curse the satisfaction of leaving a mark on our daughter” An equally familiar feminine voice coldly spoke, devoid of the love Winda arrogantly took for granted. Busara, the sadistic healer.

I faced the steel shack I spent every night of the wet months in, blood stains just barely visible from a gap in the wooden door. Hidden by the lack of windows in the day but easy to spot when ‘in use’ at night.

I green glow radiated from the door and heavy tear-filled breathing could be heard,

“Please! Stop! I’ll be good! I promise” With those words my anger, my determination it all left me as an audibly younger version of myself begging for her life. Years of repressed trauma slammed into me.

“I’ll be a good daughter, the best daughter! I’m not a curse! Please stop! Daddy! Momm-”

A loud slap rang out, silencing even the bugs. Even I stepped back out of reflex

Busara: “Don’t. You. Fucking DARE. Call me your mother, you beast.”

Past me had stopped crying, and steps could be heard before the night’s deceitful song returned

“Continue.” Winda’s mother stated simply

Nothing happened for a moment, as the night’s song continued

“I…I don’t think I can’t” our father, Tamu, meekly informed her

“That’s our daughter’s voice…I…I just-”

I was about to make a mistake very soon.

Busara: “Do you think I enjoy doing this?!? I’ve given up the ability to smile just to make sure my daughter, Our daughter can survive this barbaric treatment. Don’t you forget, this is all for her sake. We can’t let that curse have her”

Our father let out a deep sigh“Yeah…your right, it’s just-”

And I made a mistake ”Dad? If I woke up Winda would you be nice again?”

I closed my eyes, knowing what was coming.

In three loud steps, Winda’s father approached my younger self.

And the screaming began.

The bugs still sang, only briefly pausing with each consecutive *Thwack*,

Each one harder than the last,

Each one cemented the fact I have no family.

I quickly turned with desperation dominating my being, I want this to stop! I can’t relive this again!

“Please Viola, end this test!” I begged. But as I turned to the gods I was instead met with my 6-year-old body,

Tied to a chair, Bloodied and bleeding, Covered in bruises and bumps, barely alive

I vividly remember this. It was the first month after I learned how to force a transformation.

Winda was so Happy she could finally use her Hyana. But instead of her gaining a beast form, I was finally set free for the first time.

I looked around the blood-stained hut, it was just me and my younger self.

I kneeled down to my 1 and a bit metre body. I was still breathing, but barely.

If I remember correctly the cane finally broke on my body and they left to get “a bigger stick”.

But they wouldn’t come back in time. I would soon pass out from the fear and the pain.

“I’ll be a good girl, I’ll be a good girl, I’ll be a good girl, I’ll be a good girl.” I could hear my younger self muttering.

I couldn’t bare looking at myself and stood up to leave“It won’t matter” I interrupted mournfully as I walked to the door “They won’t see you anything other than a monster stealing Winda’s life or whatever”

I reached for the door but before I touched it she spoke

“What, but I’m supposed to become her friend.”

I turned and found myself in my Prison, in Winda’s mind.

“We watch her play and learn and have fun and eat and-” my younger self continued to list off all the things we saw while in Winda’s mind while I watched myself look at everything through her eyes, listen to everything through her ears.

I watched as a younger version of myself ran around my fleshy mind Prison, the walls covered in pictures carved and drawn directly onto them, all of them poorly made, but all of them depicting me and Winda…being friends.

I had forgotten this. More and more pictures were added as I continued rambling about an impossible friendship; one of us in a boat, one of us playing Omupiira.

Why would I forget this?

A sudden migraine overtook me as everything came out of focus and then back again.

I was in front of a 9-year-old version of myself. She was tied up, unharmed and appeared to be looking directly at me.

“Who are you?” she asked, fear in her voice. I turned to look behind me, the room had more stains, the smell of Iron dominating. But there was no one behind me, we were alone.

“You don’t look like mom or dad’s hyenas…you're fur, it’s white… like me.” A tinge of hope was in her voice and I was sure she could see me.

Beast:” I…can… you see and hear me?” I could barely keep steady, if she could hear and see me, then maybe

9-year-old Beast:” Yes? Is that a good thing?”

Hope surged through me “Yes! Yes, it is!” I rushed to her- my side “If I can get you out we can leave this accursed family” She looked at me tearing at my words and finally smiling at the chance at freedom. I looked at the robes, searching for an angle to cut them safely.

She was crying and wailing in joy “Thank you, Thank you Thank you!”

The robes tied in such a way to maximise pain and minimise the chance of escape and thanks to Winda’s dad’s medical experience, he knew just how hard to try to achieve both goals without leaving any permanent damage “Don’t worry, we’re getting you out of here and escaping to the city-No a new city all together!”

she just kept happy crying and babbling; we were changing my shitty fate. There! A spot where I could cut cleanly! I moved a claw to the gap and ... .and... .passed through…doing absolutely nothing to the rope.

“I can’t touch it.” she froze at my declaration

“Wa…but… I thought” the meaning of her tears began to change. I… remember this day.

“The city…you said you could save me, that you would save me” That Giant Albino Fisidamu… it was me.

*Bam* the door was swung open, slamming into the wall, as Wanda’s mother appeared

“WHO WERE YOU TALKING TO YOU CURSED BEAST!” she furiously demanded while wielding a Rungu in her right hand.

The crying turned to screaming as the club flew and struck my younger self on the head, creating a sickening crunch to ring out as my surroundings went pitch black.

a sickening crunch to ring out as my surroundings went pitch black.