True Beauty

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Letting out a sigh, Axel nodded sadly as April took his hands. "Playing in the snow one lat time together is the least I can do before I take you to the castle. If the fond memories of today help ease the pain while you're gone, then it would be worth it. The commissions can wait."

He let her lead him outside to the stables to get June and Olof. "What will we tell them if they ask?"
 
"We'll tell them the truth." She answered. "Tell them exactly what happened to you and every word the beast said. But please, don't mention that it was a beast, but instead a mere man. One with power. That way they will see it as no different than if I would have been forced to marry Rupert." April suggested.

To know that their relative was forced into the care of another man would be hard enough on them, but not completely unreasonable to save Axel's life. But if they knew it was a beast, they might try to stop it, maybe even try to make all four of them leave their one and only home to escape the monster. April wasn't sure if she believed that the being her cousin had met was a beast, but if it was true then she wanted to keep it from her brother at all cost.
 
Once June and Olof were in sight, Axel drew a silent deep breath and walked up to them. "Guys, I have to tell you something," he began. "I bought the presents you asked for because I made more than enough money, but I couldn't get April's rose. Last night, I got caught in the snowstorm and I was able to find a castle. I was fed and provided a room, but when I was ready to leave in the morning, I saw that there was a rose bush and I took one rose. The master of the castle was furious and demanded my life in payment for taking something he valued most. I told him that it was for April and he wants her to go in my place in order for my life to be spared. So, I'll be taking April in the morning to the castle."

He held back fresh tears as he finished his tale.
 
June listened in disbelief on the tale, and confused she turned to look at April.

"You can't be serious." Olof said, almost growling out the words. His hand had turned into a fist, and he wished there was someone to hit, but there was no way he would take out his rage on any of his relatives. "Please, tell me this is a joke." He begged.

"It's not." April told him. "I've already told Axel that I will do it, even though he refused me at first. We can't let him get killed."

"But we were just able to get out of Rupert's proposal." June said sounding devastated.

"So should your brother be sent back to die then?" April answered her. June became silent and looked saddened at her brother. Of course she didn't want to loose him.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" June asked April one last time.

"I am." She answered. Her cousin couldn't hold back her tears any longer and embraced April so that she wouldn't be able to see her tears when her face was buried in her cousins brown hair. "Please, don't be sad. Let's stop working for the day and make some good memories together before I have to leave in the morning." April told her sister while brushing her hair with her hand.

"Let's do that." June agreed.
"Let's do that." Olof echoed after her.
 
"Come on. Let's go enjoy the snow."

Axel had just walked out of the stables when he piled up a handful of snow and sculpted it into a ball and threw it at April's arm. "I got you!" he laughed.

He ran into the clearing and stumbled a little as he tried to avoid incoming snowballs.
 
"Hey, that's cheating. We haven't even started yet." April laughed and ran after him. When she noticed the other two didn't move at all she turned around with a bright smile and a snowball in hand. "Common guys, let's go." She said as she threw the snowball at them.

"Hey." Her brother exclaimed with a small laughter in his voice. "I will take revenge for that one." He said as he started to run after her, while she was already off to get back on Axel.

June shook her head slightly. "Kids these days." She snickered before joining into the fight. Snowballs were flying everywhere and they soon forgot about what next day would have in store for them.

"Take this." April said at some point as she threw snowball after snowball towards her cousin Axel, but got rudely interrupted by her brother whom finally got his revenge by hitting her back with one.

"Hey." She exclaimed.
"That's the game sis." He laughed as he shrugged his shoulders. At the same time, June was trying to sneak up on her brother to try to get him with a couple of snowballs.
 
Axel threw two snowballs that hit Olof in the face. "That's for getting April!" he said with a huge smile.

He kept throwing snowballs blindly at everyone and laughing. "You can't get me!" he shouted before tripping over a branch covered in snow. "No!"

Laying on his back, he covered his face with his arms. "I don't deserve to be hit by snowballs!"
 
All of the other three looked at the man lying down on the ground. With one glance on each other and one grin in unison they had all silently agreed. Axel was mercilessly bombarded with snowballs from three different directions for almost fifteen seconds.

"I think he's dead enough now." Olof joked with a laugh.

April walked up to her cousin and laid down on her back beside him, then she started to move her legs and arms making a snow angel. "And now you have an angel to lead you to heavens gate." She said with a teasing smile as she finished it. "Don't start a war you can't win cousin." She giggled.
 
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"Shush!" Axel stuck his tongue at April. "I'm not dead! You guys cheated because I didn't have a chance to get back up."

He brought himself up and brushed the snow off his backside. Silently, he began to roll a large ball of snow and walked with it. "I could use some help," he said.
 
"I don't remember you ever setting any rules though." June told him while her hands kept forming a snowball, though at the moment it didn't seem like she would be throwing it on anyone.

April ran up to him first and started to help him roll the lower part of the snowman's body. Olof started to roll the middle part and June took her snowball and started to roll it to the size of a head snowman's head. While the other's finished their bigger parts, June ran into the house and got a carrot, then on her way back she broke off a few branches from a couple of trees. She was back just in time for them to put the snowman together.

"You forgot the rocks." Olof complained and got a slap in the back of his head in return. "Go dig up some rocks yourself if it's so important." She told him.

April laughed. "Let's just carve the eyes and mouth." April proposed and took one of the snowman's branches which was meant to be an arm and started to carve a couple of eyes and then a happy mouth. "Done." She said as she put the arm back where it belonged.
 
"That is one happy snowman," said Axel. He took the carrot from June's hand and pushed it in between its eyes and mouth. "Now he's much happier now that he has a nose."

He let out a small laugh.

"I wish our parents were here to see this," he said with a bit of nostalgia. April and Olof came to live with Axel, June, and their parents since their own parents were killed in a terrible accident when they were on their way back from Munich after selling the finest silks and goods and were ready to celebrate their new found wealth. Just in the past year, Axel's father succumbed to an illness and his mother eventually lost the will to live. Sighing heavily, Axel just poked his fingers in the snowman's chest, making three pushed in buttons.
 
June laid her arms around her brother's shoulders. "They're probably looking down on us right now with a bright smile." She told him. "So... Where's my Sweet Berlin bread? Don't you dare tell me you forgot about it or else you'll be very cold tonight."

"Can you only think with your stomach?" Olof laughed.

"Hey, I wanted to be nice and share it with everyone." She said, acting as if his comment had offended her for a second.
 
"They are looking down," answered Axel. "I know that."

He chuckled. "I have it, don't worry. And Olof, I got you the boots that you asked for."
 
Olof stuck out his tongue at his cousin. "Great that you said that after the snow already slipped into my shoes." He said rolling his eyes. "I have an ocean of melted snow in here." He pointed at his right foot.

"I bet the sea life died of the poison your foot extracts." June teased him before letting go of Axel.
 
Axel smirked. "Oh, Olof, you always have a knack for scaring everything away with those smelly feet of yours."

He laughed and turned around. "Let's go inside. I can give you guys your presents."
 
They all went inside together and June started to make the hot chocolate once they came inside. Olof went to change his drenched socks, and April sat down by the fire, waiting for everyone to be done with what they were doing.

Once everyone came back they shared the sweet bread Axel had bought in Berlin, and the hot chocolate June had made.

"This bread is delicious. It's well worth its reputation." June said after having taken her first bite.
 
A smile played on Axel's lips. "And it's worth the price."

Axel reached over and pulled out a pair of boots. "Here are your boots, Olof."

Then he picked up the yellow rose on the side table and handed it to April. He looked at her rose with remorse and regret.
 
Olof took the boots and tried them on immediately. A perfect match. April took the rose and carefully moved her fingers over the petals. "I want you to have it." She then said. "So that you'll have something to help remembering me. Cherish it as if it was me, and keep it alive for as long as you can. Once dead, hang it over the fireplace, and remember the times we shared together when you see it. For then it will symbolize a past that can never return, but that can still be enjoyed in our minds."

April reached out her hand to give the rose back to her cousin, hoping he would oblige with her wish. "All I wish to bring with me when I'm leaving is a lock of everyone's hair that I can put in my mother's medallion. That way we will all forever be connected even though the distance is forcing us apart."
 
Axel nodded as he took the rose back. "I'll keep it alive as long as possible," he whispered. He held the rose close to his heart. Looking up at April, he said, "We will miss you so much..."
 
She nodded, tears starting to fill her eyes but she refused to let them out. "I will miss you too." She whispered.

"Maybe... You don't have to go." Olof mumbled. "We could leave, move somewhere were no one knows us. somewhere he won't look after Axel." He tried to argue.

"And if he does find us?" April asked. "This is our home. We can't just leave it. And even if we could, there will never be a guarantee that he won't find us. We will have to live in constant fear if we run."
 
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