Chapter Text
Prince Steven was turning sixteen and his parents didn’t spare the expense. They , however , couldn't spare their own time and attention.
He invited all his friends: Thomas, Carol, Nicole, Martina, Robin but especially his betrothed, Nanette and her brother Michael.
Then a storm hit, rocking the ramparts with its fury. Wind battered against the buttresses. Lightning lit up the lookout post. Prince Steven feared the walls would tumble in on top of them.
He had allowed the servants to join in on the revelry, giving them the night off where he could . The gardener, Jonathan and William, his brother who was one of the stable boys; the maids, Eleanor and Maxine; his personal valet, Dustin; two of the royal guards, Sir Hopper and Squire Sinclair; Lucas was learning from Jim Hopper and was invited by proxy; and once the head cook, Joyce , had finished baking, she too was invited to join the revelry. Anything to drown out the noise of the world shaking his home apart.
Sometime during the celebration Hopper came to him. “There is a beggar at the back gate, asking for shelter.”
Prince Steven shook his head. “No visitors today. It’s my birthday. The village is close, they can go there.”
Sir Hopper nodded with a faint smile. “I figured you’d say that.” And he went to shoo the beggar away.
Prince Steven went back to the feast, laughing along with Thomas and Martina as they regaled him about the new horse stock that her father had gotten and that Thomas was looking to buy one of them.
Just as he was about to move on to the next group of people to converse with them, when Sir Hopper came up to him again.
“My apologies, your highness,” he said gruffly. “But Madame Byers is saying that the beggar is at her door, begging to be let in from the storm.”
Prince Steven frowned. “It is longer to go to the servant’s entrance than it is to go into town,” he said darkly. “Deny them yet again. Or tell them to seek shelter in the stables, but we will take no one in tonight.”
Sir Hopper bowed and did as he was told.
Prince Steven danced in revelry with Lady Nanette, laughing as he spun her around the Great Hall. Her laughter filled the room as all their friends drank and partied and lived it up as nature around them battered the castle.
Again, Sir Hopper came up to the prince. “Your highness, again the beggar comes asking for entrance to the castle. This time she i s asking for the draw bridge to be lowered.”
This time Prince Steven really thought about it. He shook his head. “No. Whoever this is means ill will and I will not allow harm to come to me or my friends.”
Sir Hopper bowed again and off he went to deliver his message yet again, this time with more force than before.
Suddenly a large bolt of lightning struck filling the room with bright light, the thunder shook the castle, causing the revelers to cower in fear.
When the light subsided and Steve was able to see again there was an old crone bent and gnarled from age. Then she stood and the years fell off her until there stood the most striking of women.
Her tattered robes were now of the finest silk, her hair which was once thin white wisps were now a fiery red, her eyes once glossed over with age now glittered with anger.
“Woe to you Prince Steven!” she cried, her voice echoing in the hall. “Woe to you who deny a stranger refuge from the storm!”
“My parents , the king and queen , are not home,” Prince Steven insisted. “I would not allow anyone but them to enter the castle like this!”
“You are a wicked boy,” the witch snarled. “Your heart is a weak, purpling muscle, barely used.”
“That’s not true,” Prince Steven clapped back. “I love.”
The witch laughed. “I curse you. I curse you that only an act of true and selfless love would redeem you. To see past the ugliness of your soul. And now your face!” She pulled out a hand mirror and shoved it in his face.
He looked into the mirror but all he saw was his face still perfect as it always was. Then his hand started sprouting fur. He shrieked and tried to drop the mirror, but it stayed fast in his grip. His shrieks turned to growls of pain as his body transformed.
His legs and tail were that of a wolf, his torso and arms were that of a lion, his head and neck were that of a wild boar, tusks and all, with horns of a ram growing out of his head. His clothes ripped off of him as he grew at least another foot and twice his mass. The only thing that remained the same were his hazel eyes staring back at him.
He looked up at the witch in shock and pain. “What did you do to me?!”
“Matched your outside with your inside!” the witch cackled. “You have until you turn twenty-one to find someone who would love you as a beast.”
“But I have love,” Prince Steven murmured. “I have true love. Lady Nanette...” he reached out for her but she recoiled and buried her head into the shoulder of Jonathan, the gardener.
The witch’s cackle became a full on belly laugh, nearly doubling over with mirth. “You thought that because you were betrothed that she would love you? You foolish prince.”
Robin grabbed a candlestick and waved it at the witch. “You change him back!”
“You are even more foolish than he,” the witch sneered. “If any of you share affection for this beast, shall be cursed also!”
Prince Steve watched in horror as Ladies Nanette, Carol, and Martina, Lord Thomas, Sir Michael and Jonathan all remained human as the others changed into literal objects. Sir Hopper turned into a battle axe, Squire Lucas a knife. Joyce turned into a tea kettle, Will into a tea cup. Eleanor and Maxine were turned into feather dusters. And finally his valet, Dustin was turned into a clock; obsessed as he was with getting Prince Steven to places on time. Robin turned into a candlestick, the one she was holding combined with her.
“No!” he screamed.
The witch walked up to him and knelt, lifting the mirror to show him his face. “This mirror shows not the reflection of your face but of your heart. On its surface you will only see your heart’s desire. Now it shows how you once were, because that is what you desire most. Your fair looks back again.”
She stood up and faced the changed and unchanged. “All you who hold no affection for this pitiable creature may leave. You are not bound here. But know that if you do, you will lose all memory of this place and its inhabitants. But if you remain, you too will be cursed. Make your choice!”
The unchanged looked around at each other and all the lords and ladies immediately voted for leaving.
Jonathan looked at his mother and Will and then back at Lady Nanette. He shook his head. “I will remain with my family. I may not owe Prince Steven anything, but I love my family and I will not choose to forget them.”
The witch nodded.
“But Jonathan!” Lady Nanette cried, grabbing onto his arm. “You have to come with me! We could live happily ever after, if only you would come with me.”
Jonathan turned into a tea cup, just like Will.
Lady Nanette had to dive to keep the cup from shattering on the floor. She then place d Jonathan carefully next to Will and Joyce on the floor. “I’m sorry, Jonathan, but I cannot stay. I have a little sister to take care of, I’m sure you understand.”
Lord Thomas, and Ladies Carol and Martina hovered at the door, waiting for Lady Nanette and Sir Michael.
Lady Nanette tugged on Sir Michael’s arm, but he stood fast, glaring at the floor.
“Come Michael,” she said firmly, stomping her foot. “Father will be most displeased if you do not come home.”
Michael snorted and rolled his eyes. “He won’t remember me to reprimand me, Nan. I may not have any love lost for Prince Steven, but to leave him to his fate would be cruelty and I won’t do it.”
“You are far more noble than he,” the witch murmured. “I will grant you a boon for your sacrifice. Your sister will leave this place and remember you. She will know you willing ly gave yourself to help Prince Steven and how brave you were, but nothing else.”
Michael thought about it for a moment and then nodded. He closed his eyes as he transformed. When he opened his eyes he was a wardrobe and deep down he knew why.
Lady Nanette nodded to him and then turned without a word, she reached the group waiting for her and then turned back. She saw the people turned to objects huddle around Steve and she shook her head. She was sad at her loss, but felt that if they stood with the prince, perhaps they had gotten what they deserved.
She hurried after the other ladies as Lord Thomas led them away.
The witch turned back to Prince Steven , a deep purple rose appearing in her hand. “Guard this well, your highness. For each petal is a month of your sentence. Once the last petal falls on the eve of your twenty-first birthday, you will remain a beast forever.”
“And them? What about them?” Prince Steven growled , waving at his loyal servants. “What will happen to them?”
“I am not cruel,” the witch murmured. “If you fail they will go free and you will be attended by invisible servants for the rest of your days. After all, a curse is no good if you die of hunger and thirst. Goodbye, Prince Steven. And pray that someone remembers this place for you to break your curse.”
She cackled as she began to spin. Faster and faster she went, light bouncing off of her onto the castle around her, out onto the grounds, all the way to the castle gate.
Prince Steve bounded on all fours to the window to look out.
“Nooooooooo!” he screamed. “You have doomed me! Doomed us all!”
And just like that, another crack of lightning , and she was gone.
Robin bounced over to him and put one of the arms of the candlestick against his side. “We’ll find someone. Perhaps, Lady Nanette will find a way.”
Prince Steven shook his head. “No one will be able to get through the thorns.”
“Thorns?” Dustin cried. “What thorns?”
Prince Steven stepped back from the window to let everyone through to see what the witch had done.
“My gardens!” Jonathan wailed. “My beautiful gardens! What has she done to them?!”
All along the castle wall were row upon row of rose bushes. Of every color and shape and size.
Red, black, pink, yellow, white, orange, all but green , which roses don’t come in , and purple like the rose in Prince Steven’s hand dotted the landscape.
“And this is why I stayed,” Sir Michael said from the center of the hall. He had not moved to the window like the others. He had no doubt what he would have seen.
Will hopped over to him and looked up at his best friend. “Why? Why did you stay?”
“She was cruel,” Sir Michael muttered and Prince Steven could almost imagine his fist clenched in rage. “Far too cruel.”
“What do you mean, dear?” Joyce asked, joining her youngest son in front of the now wardrobe. “Because of what she did to us?”
“That’s part of it,” he said bitterly. “But no, why would she come here on the prince’s birthday, knowing that the king and queen were away? Because the whole kingdom knew. They had gotten caught in a storm and were forced to make land for repairs and could not make it in time for their son’s birthday. This was told a week ago.”
The servants began to rumble to themselves.
“Even if there were other adults watching over him, there is no way the prince would let in anyone without his parents’ permission,” Sir Michael continued. “But come she did.”
“That’s right,” Sir Hopper growled. “Even Prince Steven noted that the distance from the back gate to the servants’ and merchant entrance was farther than it would be to just walk into town for shelter. And then again , from there to the front gate. She knew he would not let her in.”
“Then there was her telling him he was a beast for not wanting a stranger who would dare this storm to call at the gate thrice,” Sir Michael spat. “The prince is known for generosity. His own servants danced in attendance and he hired people so they could have the night off. All but Joyce and her cake making skills, but everything else was taken care of so everyone could come.”
Lady Robin came up to him and then looked back at the window that Prince Steven stared out in resignation.
“The forgetting spell on the nobles,” she said solemnly, “the turning of the rest of us into literal objects, the thorns at the gate. She ensured that no one would ever free Prince Steven.”
“I think she knew of Nan’s betrayal,” he finished, the wardrobe bowed , as if it was hanging its head. “Of her love for the garden Jonathan. I don’t know what she intends to do, but it is not good.”
They all stood in silence at that proclamation as the storm continued to batter the castle.
“I wonder who she’s getting revenge on,” Dustin muttered darkly. “The Prince or their majesties who forget they have a son at all.”
“I don’t think it matters,” Sir Lucas said. “She has secured her victory as assuredly as if God himself hath deemed it so. But I don’t care, come five years on, I won’t leave. She will have to drag me kicking and screaming from Prince Steven’s side.”
Everyone nodded. “Agreed.”