Inside a cave. In the deepest part of the forest.

Kate\'s unconscious body was being laid on the wooden bed near the iron cage.

Inside the cage was a young man, his lower body is that of a human but her upper body was that of a terrifying monster, with devil horns on his head. His long wavy hair was messy, hanging loose on his back.

The monster was staring at the unconscious woman beside the cage, starstruck by the woman\'s sheer beauty.

It was trying to stick his hand out of the cage to touch the woman but every time he does that a blaze of fire will ignite and gave him excruciating pain. It looks like the cage was sealed by a barrier preventing the monster from getting out of its confinement.

The monster was walking in circles inside the cage, it was restless and ready to pounce at the woman lying on the bed.

Kate suddenly wakes up and looked around her, only to locked eyes with the terrifying-looking monster inside the cage.

Due to fright, the poor girl slipped into darkness again.

The monster looked at the woman in dismay, he can sense that it might be his looks that made the woman faint again. He and his terrible looks, the bane of his existence! And worst of all he was being imprisoned in this cage for a long time which is impossible for him to get out. All his growing up years he was unable to explore the outside world

The monster went to the wooden bed in the corner and lie down on it, closing his eyes in despair, thoroughly disappointed that until now he can\'t get out of this prison wall.

Suddenly, an old man entered the clearing. His long white hair was cascading on his back, he was sporting a white mustache and wearing a flowing brown robe while holding a wooden cane in his right hand.

The old man looked at the cage for a minute or two then shifted his attention to the pretty human girl lying unconsciously on the wooden bed.

He advances towards the cage and peeked at the inside. "A-are you awake boy?"

The monster heard the old man\'s voice which he fondly called grandpa, he\'s the only companion he had in this lonely cave. He rose from the wooden bed and looked at him. "Yes, Grandpa. Is this the woman we\'ve been waiting for?" he asked eagerly.

The old man didn\'t reply, instead, he examined the girl\'s face, lost in deep thoughts.

He was being transported back in time.

...

One of the elders entrusted the boy and the iron cage into his care, he was told that they have to hide in the castle and can only come out to the world after the curse in the boy\'s body will be subdued. Besides, the elder told him that the world will be a better place if another beast would be sealed inside the castle.

When he suggested to the elder that it\'s better to kill the monster boy, the elder replied that the boy was the son of his sister with her lover the demon prince. His sister was a princess of a kingdom who was about to wed the prince of another kingdom. After giving birth, the sister begged her brother to take care of her baby and save him.

The elder can\'t bring himself to kill his sister\'s son, so he ended up instructing his eldest disciple to watch over the boy. To prevent the boy from slaughtering innocent people, he put him in the magical cage surrounded by a deadly barrier and sealed them inside the castle along with other creatures.

But before the elder died, he told him that they will be freed from the castle once the curse is lifted from the boy and he will regain his human form. Once the hideous face of the boy fades away. The deadly barrier will reveal a small opening so that the two of them can safely leave the castle undetected, then after that, the opening will shut off again.

The only one who can lift the curse was a human girl. She can enter the cage unharmed. Only her blood can take away the boy\'s scary appearance. The elder asked him to guide the boy in living a normal life among the mortals after the boy shed away his monster look.

The old man sighed heavily.

It\'s been a century already inside the castle. But in the outside world, it\'s not what it seemed. He had kidnapped several human women that entered the castle and brought to this iron cage and yet no one can pass through the barrier unscathed, that even himself can\'t get in.

In his dream, a girl would come into the castle and enter the cage successfully, she is the one who can bring the boy out of the cage. But the face of the woman is blurry in all his dreams!

So, he brought all human girls into this cave that he can find to try if any of them can enter the barrier successfully. All of them failed.

Looking at the girl, he was thinking she could be the one!

The one girl that he and the boy were waiting for all their life.

"Grandpa, why are you not answering me!" the young man can\'t contain his excitement.

The old man looked at him. "I\'m not sure, the only thing we can do is try..." he replied in an uncertain tone.

"Then try it now! I can\'t wait to get out of this cage! I\'ve been waiting for a long time to get out!" the young man said excitedly.

The old man sighed. "Hold a second..." he said.

He just can\'t push the girl into the cage. He needs to do some testing...

The girl has long hair, he lifted a few locks of hair and hold them firmly in his hand then he pushes the hair into the cage touching the barrier in the process.

"...ZINNNGG..."

The sound and smell of hair burning filled the air.

The old man shut off his eyes in disappointment. This is not good! If he continues doing this, the girl will burn into ashes the moment her skin touches the barrier.

He looked at the young man. "I\'m so sorry, Agran, you can\'t get out of the cage, not yet. The girl\'s hair was burnt. If we force her she will turn to ashes the moment her skin will come into contact with the barrier," he said sadly.

Agran was pacing inside the cage restlessly. "No, Grandpa, you just can\'t give up! I\'ve been waiting for a long time to get out of this cage!" he cried.

"I know son. Me too, I wanted to leave this place but unless the right girl will come along we can never get out alive from this castle!" The old man said dejectedly.

Agran looked at the woman\'s hands. "Please try again, Grandpa! Used her fingers to poke the barrier!" he suggested refusing to give up.

The old man\'s eyes widened. "Huh? You want me to burn her?"

"Not really, just try with her fingertips!" Agran said urgently.

The old man took a deep breath. "Are you out of your mind? Her hair was burning, we both know what does it mean... if we continue she will die!" he argued.

"I\'m not saying you will kill her, just the tip of her finger, she won\'t easily die with just a small burn! Just do it, Grandpa!" he begged.

"Alright," the old man said but when he was about to do it, he was instantly reminded of the first woman that had her whole armed badly burned and he can\'t do anything to help her. His magical skill failed him, he wasn\'t able to make the wound heal. The woman was screaming in pain all day and all night long. Unable to bear the woman\'s painful screaming and crying, he finally put the woman to rest in peace.

So in every woman that comes after her, he was careful and just burned their hair.

He looked at the young man. "Agran, I\'m sorry, I won\'t do it," he said in a hesitant voice.

A flash of disappointment marred Agran\'s face.

The old man looked at the woman for a few seconds and have a change of heart. "Alright, I\'ll do it!"

The look of excitement was back on Agra\'s face instantly.

The old man lifted the woman\'s index finger and poked it straight to the barrier.

The smell of burnt flesh filled the air in no time...

"AAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!" and an earsplitting scream shattered the silence of the cave. Kate opened her eyes the moment she felt an extremely painful burning sensation in her fingertips and was worried to death upon seeing her fingertips burning and falling into the ground.

The old man dropped Kate\'s finger and able to catch the scorched flesh about two inches and attached it back to her index finger, he covered the woman\'s burnt finger with his palms and work his magic on her.

It was a futile attempt on his part but he did it out of impulse, maybe he just wanted to wipe the pain away from the woman\'s eyes and to atone on his past mistakes.

Kate fell unconscious again due to the pain and horror of seeing her burned fingertip falling into the ground.

A few minutes later.

The old man was done healing the woman\'s finger, he wasn\'t expecting that she will heal quickly. But when he let go of her finger, his eyes widened in shock, he was astonished to discover that her index finger was intact and the burned flesh was nowhere to be seen as if nothing happens at all.

"What is this? Did my magic work this time or the girl\'s body has a self-healing ability?" he murmured in shock.

Agran saw the frown appearing on his grandfather\'s forehead. "Grandpa, what is it?"

"Son, the woman\'s finger was healing on its own, look!" he said and lifted the finger for his charge to see.

Agran\'s face broke into an animated smile. "Grandpa, quick, throw the girl\'s body into the cage! And I will do the rest!" he said excitedly.

The old man looked at the young man\'s face in shock. "W-what!?"

"Just do it... now!" Agran shouted convincingly for he can almost smell freedom in the air.