AUTHOR'S NOTE: As before with my "Familiars of Zero" and "From Across the Throne of Heroes," I am open to suggestions BUT I must make clear a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quo...

Rule 1) While I am open to humanoid beasts they must not have been entirely human prior to becoming a monster, i.e. vampires, werewolves, etc. Essentially, anything that can at least somewhat be civil in their dealings with humans. We're looking for beasts here, creatures that may emulate a human level of sentience but not a true understanding of human concerns or mannerisms. Feel free to offer up anything from any media EXCEPT for those already included amongst the Disney family. After all, Stitch can't get a cameo in every Disney movie as amusing as I'm sure it'd be.

Rule 2) Please include a source material with the name of the beast, preferably with a scene/segment that best displays their strengths, weaknesses, and, if possible, their personality. You would not believe the number of characters out there that share the same name never mind finding an adequate highlight reel amongst entire reams of source material. Such as... well, to use the last beast... The Abyssal Lagiacrus from the game "Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate."

Rule 3) Do try and include the "Beauty" in your suggestions as well for while it's all well and good to supply the "beast" there still must be a beauty to tame them. Also, do feel free to offer your own thoughts/opinions as to why/how such a match-up should occur though please refrain from the ever common "just because" or "awesome." While the latter is certainly a good reason for most, the former is not. The "beauties" are not limited to the Disney Princesses either, any and all female characters under the Disney name (which does include Star Wars and Marvel by the way) are more than welcome, even those of a less than virtuous personality... As before with the beasts though, if the character is one that is so far from mainstream as to be almost forgotten, do include the source material as well.

DISCLAIMER: All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

Beasts of the Beauties

By Corvus no Genmu

"Viscous Mists"

She was an Intruder.

Such was what the residents called her.

She was a Curiosity.

Such was the least he thought of her.

Either way, she was one who did not call the Underground home as he did and instead dwelled in the Aboveground, where Chaotic Dreams held little sway over that which was the Ordered Reality. Yet in her wake there was no sensibility but more rampant chaos that trailed in the shadow of her footsteps.

A sea large as life and twice as salty where once was an empty and lifeless valley. Flowers high and low up in leaves over what did and did not constitute as a weed with said vegetation only egging the debates on with their own remarks. Butterflies and birds caterwauling their ire at she who was not what she claimed to be and was instead what they believed she is.

The rumors were enough to lure him out his den but the actual sight of her drew him like a snap-dragonfly to mince pie.

He had seen her ilk plenty of times. Saw enough of them that the very idea of them drove him to seek refuge deeper than deep. He had escaped them, the ones that he loathed, and took delight in frightening those who bore their image but were not truly them. For they who appeared but were not truly those of the Aboveground smelled of paper and ink but she…

She smelled of flesh and blood.

Just as he.

So he watched as she invaded deeper into his forest, one eye watching where she had been whilst the other gazed to where she would be. She was so young that he felt no true fear of her but he would not take the chance at injury to his pride. He would shiver once and only once for one who bore sharpened steel before taking blood for blood, but a child who bore only what lay inside her Heart?

No.

No, he would not fear nor would he strike.

He saw as the unnatural denizens of the wood crossed her path and tilted his hooded head curiously as she refused to be deterred from her path. He could hear her words and he understood them clearly though he could not fathom the feeling behind them. If she desired for home so much, why did she continue to intrude? This strange waif of an intruder made no sense in her words or in her actions.

Soon, the tiny and the meek became the large and the intimidating as those whom preyed rather than grazed took their turn to face the oddity in their midst. She surprised him again when she ignored them as readily, as easily, as she had the small and the meek. Even the great snatcher, the usurper who presumed itself of similar majesty to him, was readily rebuked with a turned head and a dainty sniff of dismissal.

How very curious…

For the first time since she entered his wood, he looked upon her with both eyes at once and was again amazed at her age. A hatchling, a child, and one of distinction for hers were the clothes of one whose soft and silken hands were unblemished by the hardships of life. He smelled her deeply once more and the hood upon the base of his curled tail relaxed and opened to its fullest. Hers was the scent of flesh and blood just as he but she also smelled of daisies and clean waters, warmed beverages and sugared honey.

She had never slain and those whom bore her into the world, they who raised her to be fearless even against the likes of him, were just as innocent.

Still… old habits are hard to break.

Don't do it.

He appeared before her with his full reptilian majesty, chameleon-like head held high upon a serpent's neck and miasmic purple scales gleaming in the waning twilight that perpetuated his forest domain. She was startled by him but not by his appearance but rather the suddenness of it for he had been all but fully invisible to her eyes mere moments ago. As for him, well he was again amused at the sight of her tiny stature, her being all of a single mouthful with room for a second and a smaller third.

His fanged maw opened wide in a voracious yawn perpetuated with a lengthy bit of tongue lolling out and licking hungrily at his chops. His small yet remarkably strong wings flexed lightly upon his back, creating a small gust of hazy amethyst hue that parted to nothingness. His vicious red eyes looked everywhere but directly upon her until they snapped down to where she had been and where she would be for she had done something that he hadn't expected her to do.

She had turned her back on him and was walking away.

She didn't…

She did.

… Now he was insulted as he was curious.

"Where do you think you're going?" He spoke more to himself than to her and yet she answered regardless without turning back.

"I am going home. Straight home!"

She didn't even care to take note that it was he that had spoken rather than some errant bit of animalistic oddity mixed with some contraption of the Slayers.

Curious… What does she carry in Heart to be so flippant in the face of an uncertain death?

Follow her. Discover the Truth of what lies within her Heart.

"Indeed…" He murmured quietly to himself, sparing a moment to wonder just when he was able to speak and rationalize as he once had centuries ago but pushed the matters of the past aside for those of the present. He coughed once to clear his throat and called after her. "Do you even know the way?"

"If I came this way, then I should go back this way." She answered primly.

Sound logic but…

"The forest moves."

She stopped and froze to such perfect stillness that he wondered for a moment if she had been turned to stone by his words. His tongue lashed out and snatched an errant shutterbug, metal and sinew crunching in his fangs as he waited for her to come alive again.

"Wh-What…?"

His hooded head tilted at the abject dejection in her voice and he couldn't help the malicious grin. His pride as an Elder of his kindred had been trampled upon by a hatchling and he would see that she learned respect if nothing else.

"This is the Underground where up is down and left is right. Nothing remains the same though it never seems to change for better or worse. Even walking backwards you are not guaranteed to go to where you have been."

"Then… then I shall never get out?" Her head lowered as her arms came up to wrap herself in a tight embrace.

"Not on your own you won't." He hissed.

She surprised him yet again with actions he had not expected. She started to weep, not loudly as he had seen elders of her kin do nor wailing as those far younger than she are want to do, but he hated it just the same. It did not grate as those others did upon his ears but somewhere else deep within his chest. It was a strange, tightly feeling that he did not care for in the least and he wanted it gone and quickly.

"Stop it."

She sat upon a nearby rock and buried her face in her hands but the horrendously chest wrenching sound was not deafened by her motions and both of his hoods clenched tightly for its continuation. His eyes rolled madly as they sought a means of bringing this to an end whilst his fangs grinded against each other. Finally, he could take no more from his game and called his forfeit with a loud cry of his own.

"Enough!" He approached her with an angry snarl on his muzzle and furious stomp with every step. He stood towering above the hatchling, as was his proper place as Elder. "I said that you could not find your way on your own. I never said anything of my being averse to helping you find it."

She looked up, tears still trailing wetly down her face but her eyes bright with renewed hope as she gaze up at him.

"Re-Really?" She sniffled and dug into her pocket to pull out a small handkerchief. She dried her eyes and blew her nose once in a small but sharp retort. "You'll help me, sir?"

Though disgusted with the very idea to placating the likes of a hatchling, much less one of the same kin as the Slayers, he nodded. His eyes roved the landscape, refusing to look down upon the curiosity that was this invasive hatchling.

"I am not named "sir" Curious Little Thing. I am Elder Chameleos of Viscous Mists."

"Oh!" She hurried to her feet and performed a hasty curtsy, "My name is Alice."

He snorted, hazy purple smoke shooting out from his flared nostrils. He had no idea of the motions of Slayers and their kin but he felt it was right to assume that hers was meant to be respectful. "Come along then, Curious Alice."

He turned and started down the most open pathway in the forest, head held high and not once looking back to see if she was following. He heard her footsteps clearly enough for that and couldn't repress the vindictive smile when her head her stumble to match his larger pace. A smile that turned into a startled grimace that brought a brief but noticeable pause to his steps when he felt her hand grasp the tip of his curled tail.

"We'll have to find your way around the Queen's. Few places here aren't hers but I happen to possess a few of my own ways about here." He explained, one eye looking forward and the other rolling about the shadows of the wood. He could have sworn that he had heard something…

"Queen? But I've never met any queen…" Both eyes rolled to stare back down at the Curious Alice. Was it madness or imagination that made him hear actual disappointment in her voice?

"Be glad that you haven't." He told her, eyes still roaming for a source to that strange sense of familiarity. "The only thing shorter than her temper is her mate and that is a stretch."

"Oh but you must! You simply must!" cackled a familiarly unwelcome voice from the canopy above as a striped feline made his presence known by appearing on the scene one stripe at a time. "She'll be mad about you, simply mad!"

Chameleos eyes snapped to the Cat with such speed it was a marvel that the sound barrier hadn't broken. No, there was the crackling boom now, deep in the Elder's throat as he glared angrily upon the feline. A sound that choked itself deep in his lengthy throat upon Alice's happy exclamation.

"Oh Cheshire Cat, it's you!"

Chameleos turned eyes and head together towards His Curiosity. When precisely did he begin deeming her as such he did not know though it hadn't been before the Cat's arrival. "You know him?"

Alice looked surprised by the question and looked nervously back and forth between cat and monster. "Well, he was kind enough to show me the way before…"

Chameleos doubted that such things as "kind" and "the Cat" were used in the same sentence by anyone before. Well, save perhaps for those that included the words "is not" or any other such variation. Both of his eyes rolled to the Cat, disbelief evident in the reptilian orbs.

"Regardless of acquaintance, I thought we were in agreement, Cat. You do not trespass on My Ways and I don't interfere with your playing strings."

"Oh but this way is hardly yours, Jabberwock." The Cat eyes glimmering madly, grinned down at the pair below. "This is the wild wood after all."

Red eyes narrowed as thick, purple mists flowed between fanged jaws. "That title is an insult and you know it, Cat! I am no denizen of the Underground and I am to be treated as such just as she!"

"Oh yes, yes indeed she should, ought she?" The Cat's eyes gleamed upon Alice and the smile beneath the feline orbs stretched wider. "So! You want to see the Queen do you?"

Alice opened her mouth to reply but was firmly interrupted by Chamelos' stamping his forefoot hard upon the ground. "No she most certainly does not. She is in need of Her Way and not the Queen's Way."

"Oh but…" Alice started as both reptilian and feline eyes turned towards her. "I really haven't met a queen before."

"See, Jabberwock? Would hardly be fair for us to have met the Queen and her to not have delighted in the same company!" The Cat giggled merrily to himself as though he had said something outrageously hilarious.

Frankly, Chameleos thought him to be hilariously outrageous and in severe need of a good beheading but that was neither here nor there. He glared first at the Cat before allowing one eye to swirl and stare down at His Little Curiosity.

"Are you sure of this, Curious Alice? Where the Queen's way lies is not a place of reason as can be found here in this wild wood. If you think the Cat here is pleasant company then you will certainly not think the same of the Queen."

"Was I insulted or praised?" The Cat asked himself to whom he replied, "Neither and both I think."

As always, Chameleos ignored the Cat's inane prattling, "If are sure then I will leave you here and never will you find me again. Do you understand? You will have to find your own way from here on out."

She had gone to see the Queen.

Foolish Curious Little Thing…

You should not have done that.

She walked to her doom, dancing to the Cat's infernal tune the entire way.

Should have listened to me, she ought to have… I am Elder so thus, I know more than she does. The World has fewer Mysteries left unseen by me.

You could have stopped her.

Yet here he was, meandering his way through towering hedges of dismal white, shameful black, and in some circumstances; mundane green. He stood upright upon his hind legs, wings flapping for proper balance before he crashed back down to all fours. Nothing.

What actions might I have undertaken to persuade her to Reason in a land without such a thing?

You have words to Speak. Why didn't you?

Where were the denizens of this portion of the Underground? Sure the creatures that bore not enough sense to speak and little wit to reason did not dare to tread here but there were those that seemed to have plenty of both. Where were they in this maddening maze? Not that Chameleos truly cared for them, those who stunk of paper and ink, bitter teas and infuriating spices.

He was looking for one such as he.

What words could I have offered for her to heed me? Moreover, why should I care for the wellbeing of a Slayer?

She is no Slayer.

She who was a child of the Slayers, the hunters of his kindred, but one whose hands were clean and whose scent reeked of such innocence that he thought impossible in a hatchling of the Slayers. He turned sharply, eyes whirling in his head with flaring nostrils. He could hear the Queen angry like he had never before. What could have possibly—

… No.

She is Princess.

There—far and a ways behind him—His Curious Alice was there and she was running with the entirety of the Queen's Cards of Four Suits in hot pursuit. The red-faced Queen was shoving her way to the head of the Pack and she screamed with fury in her earth trembling voice. Yet Curious Little Alice was somehow ahead of them all

Impossible…

Search your own Heart. You know it to be true. She is First of the Seven.

"OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

This can't be happening…

And you let her go to her death.

And in reply, he gave a roar of his own. "NO!"

He turned sharply about, both eyes focusing together not upon His Curious Alice but on the advancing armies behind her. He stood upright, forelegs dangling and wings flapping as he took in a deep breath to roar—

"Chamelos!"

He choked. Acrid poisons burst out in thin streams from flared nostrils and clenched teeth as he fell back to all fours. His wings hung limply at his sides, his eyes listless, and his jaw slackening with disbelief.

She…

How long has it been since he had heard his name spoken by another?

She is calling for me.

How long was it since he was glad of it?

In the end, does it matter?

She had called for him.

She had Spoken to him.

Shouldn't you answer her in kind?

"Alice!"

He was aloft, small wings beating viscous mists of amethyst hues. His suckered toes reached out and grasped ahold of His Little Curiosity as the world around them started to tremble and shake. In the Aboveground, where Order Ruled Absolute, the poisons of Chameleos would decay vegetation and drive those that breathed it to the brink of madness but here in the Underground…

Such was no longer the case.

Here, the plants—nay, the very Underground itself, trembled with a sudden burst of growth as flowers became trees, grass exploded into bushes, and lifeless dirt beneath became an emerald sea of fresh grass. The maddened denizens, both furiously mad and madly furious, tripped and tumbled, and in one case rolled hollering head over tiny feet, but lived regardless. The poisonous mists of Chameleos were coursing through their lungs and with every exhaling gasp they became less than what they were and more of what they could be.

In the Aboveground, it would be a long time in the waiting for the effects to wear away if the victim was not immediately welcomed into Death's embrace.

In the Underground, it was a moment in time.

Thankfully, Time just happened to be on the side of an Elder Dragon and his Young Princess.

Chameleos hugged His Curious Alice tight to his chest with one arm whilst the other had suckered toes clutching tightly upon the trunk of the newly risen tree. Surrounding the pair was an ethereal field of clouds that were every conceivable color but for those that any cloud ought to naturally be. From ballistic blue to yelping yellow to generous greens, such was the bared backs of the Underground's clouds.

Such was the stuff of Dreams he supposed.

Eyes rolling every which way but down at the child hugging the base of his great neck, Chameleos murmured, "You may let go now. Where we are, none can follow."

"Are you sure?" She hugged his neck tighter, face pressed hard against his scales and he swallowed reflexively. He wasn't comfortable with contact of any sort and yet here he was embracing, and being embraced in kind, a hatchling child of his longtime enemies.

One eye rolled down towards her as he slowly held her out to the world that surrounded them. "See for yourself. We are at the teetering edge of the Above and the Under."

Her gasp did not surprise him but her smile of delight and wonder brought a familiar sense of foreboding. The suckered toes of his hand clung to the back of her dress as his curled tail tested the solidity of the cloudbank. Finding hardier ground than that of the earth below, he cautiously fell down to the rainbow hued clouds with gently flapping wings. He set down the Young Princess and stood back, taking in the sights for himself. It was strange, being so close to the World that he had left behind after so many ages having come and gone in the twinkling of an eye.

His whirling eyes roamed about in his head as he murmured to himself, "I suppose this is where we must part ways once more."

"What?" She turned to him, baby blue eyes looking high above into his own though they refused to linger long upon her. "But—How am I to find my way home without you?"

He shook his head. "You must find your own way back just as I must do the same. You must exit this land as you had entered it but do not fret. Here is where you are closest to finding Your Way, Princess."

"Princess?" She twiddled with her fingers, looking surprised and anxious at his words as she recalled the tales she had read of dragons and royal heiresses, "I'm not a princess…"

He shook his head. "You are not "a princess." You are First of the Seven but you are Princess nonetheless. You are young, incredibly so, but here, closer to the Real and on the precarious edge of the Dream, I see it now the Light shining from your Heart."

His eyes came back to her reluctantly and with sorrow clear in their reptilian orbs.

"What I had done is beyond forgiveness. I let you heed the words of the treacherous Cat, knowing that you would be put at risk of the Queen. Thus I owe you a boon, Princess and though it is but a token of the sum, here on the precipice I offer you the means of finding Your Way. Yet… there is more that I can, that I must offer to you."

Chameleos knelt down on his forelegs, his long nasal horn falling gently upon Alice's shoulder.

"Ask what you shall have of my wits. Call when you have need of my strength. At your word, I will defend that which is most precious to you and protect you with everything that I am. At your command, I shall destroy all that you abhor and lay waste to those who stand against you. For my Heart lies in your hands, and my Power is now yours. My name is Chameleos of Viscous Mists and I am yours to infinity and beyond."

Alice shook her head, hands still anxiously twiddling her fingers. "I don't understand."

He arose to his full stature, wings flexing upon his back as the cloudbank started drifting higher beneath their feet. "When the Dreaming is over and the Reality starts to settle in, remember those words for this is the last you may hear from me for countless years to come or perhaps by tomorrow's morning. For what manner of beast am I to question the tangled skeins of Fate or the puzzling games of Destiny?"

His eyes rolled comically in his head, delighting a small, confused smile on the face of the young girl standing before him.

"Until then, this is goodbye." He sighed, his misted breath billowing outwards and combining with the rainbow hued clouds rising up into his Curious Alice's face.

"Goodbye?" She murmured.

He flapped his wings in a powerful gust and was unsurprised to find her gone with the passing of clouds.

He sighed once more and relaxed back onto his haunches. One eye roamed skyward whilst the other fell earthward. To stay in the Dream or to wake to the Reality, which was the better choice? Down here was eternity and up there was an assured death. Yet she was up there, awake and alive and he? He was down here, asleep and dead to the World.

Is it that hard of a decision to make?

No. It isn't…

And so he awoke from the Dream.

He merely had to let it all go…

Until the next turn of the page...

North Wind