Chapter Text
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a prince.
Though he grew up surrounded by everything his heart could desire, tragedy struck early on. The boy’s father, a very hands-on ruler, was often away on long excursions and one day… he simply didn’t return.
The prince, next in line to the throne, stepped up to fill his father’s footsteps at a young age. Determined to do better than his father, he grew to be strong and prideful, only showing any hint of softness around his mother and his two younger sisters. Things seemed to be looking up as he prepared himself to officially take the throne.
But then, one fateful night, an old lady made her way to the castle’s doorstep. She asked to stay the night, but the prince, seeing no reason to let a stranger into his home, turned her away. She asked again, and this time offered for payment a single red rose. The prince ordered his guards to close the door in her face.
But no sooner had the doors closed that they blew open again, nearly flying off their hinges. Outside stood no longer an old lady, for she had revealed her true form - a beautiful sorceress. Enraged by the prince’s dismissal, she declared his heart devoid of love and as punishment she cursed him with the appearance of a monstrous beast and cast upon his castle and all who lived there a powerful spell. Then, she vanished into thin air, leaving only behind the red rose.
Ashamed of the misfortune he’d brought upon his people, the prince isolated himself in his castle. As days and weeks turned into months and years, he and his servants were forgotten, for the sorceress had erased all memory of them from the minds of the people who had known them. The only thing he had left to give him any glimmer of hope was the rose, now enchanted to cruelly count down. If, before the last petal withered and fell on his eighteenth birthday, the prince could learn to love someone and gain their love in return, the spell would break. If not, he would be cursed to remain a beast for all eternity.
But as years passed and petals fell, that hope grew dimmer and dimmer, for who could ever learn to love a beast?