Story Week 9: Beauty and the Beast

(Beauty and the Beast)

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess in a small village.  One day there was a great magical storm that swept across the land, taking the princess with it and depositing her up in a tower of an old abandoned castle.  The princess was scared because she couldn't find a way out of the tower.  A mysterious handsome young man appeared in her tower bringing her food, drink, and beautiful new clothes.  He told her he would help her escape the tower, if only she would agree to marry him because it was obviously fate that had brought them together.  She was so sad and missed her family so much, but something just didn't seem right so she refused and said she'd rather live in the tower.

Every day the handsome stranger would visit the princess in her tower, bringing her gifts of more clothes, jewelry, food, everything she could imagine.  Every day he said he would help her escape the tower if only she would marry him.  And every day she refused, growing sadder by the day but knowing something just didn't feel right.

One day, the princess saw another young man walking by her castle tower while hunting.  She tried to yell for him and wave at him to get his attention, but she was too high up and he didn't notice her.  So she threw her original clothes out the window.  The young hunter saw the clothes, looked up and saw the princess in her tower.  He realized this must have been the princess that went missing in that crazy storm months ago.  He took the clothes back to her family to see if it was indeed her and her family was overjoyed to know she was still alive.

Her brother, the prince, followed the hunter to the castle to rescue his sister.  They hid and watched to see what was happening all day before deciding how to approach the tower.  They saw the handsome stranger leave the tower as night fell and saw him turn into a hideous beast.  The prince fired an arrow, hitting the beast.  The beast roared and fled into the woods surrounding the castle.  The hunter and prince found a way into the tower, rescued the princess, and returned her home to her family showering the hunter with many riches for helping return the princess home.

The princess was still sad though, because she had grown fond of her handsome visitor.  She was happy to be home, but even returned to her family, she was still lonely.  A few nights later the handsome stranger appeared at her window in her family's castle.  The princess was overjoyed to see her visitor.  He told the princess how he had missed her and asked once again if she would marry him.  She finally realized that she had fallen in love with the handsome stranger and accepted.  As the pair was about to leave the castle, her brother burst in telling her she couldn't go with the stranger as he was a hideous monster, not the man he appeared to be.  The princess said she didn't care, she had fallen in love with the stranger during his visits and was going to marry him anyway.  At that time a magical wind came blowing through, swirling around the stranger.  It picked him up, turned him into the beast, and then back into the man again.  The stranger told the princess "Thank you for saving me!  I had been cursed by a witch, to turn into a beast every night.  The curse would only be broken if a woman fell truly in love with me.  By falling in love with me and agreeing to marry me, you have broken the spell."  And the couple lived happily ever after.

Author's note:  I took the story "The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away" from the Chinese fairy tales as the basis for my story, but changed it into a form of Beauty and the Beast by Disney.  The story is mostly similar to the Chinese version, but I made the maiden into a princess and the visitor turning into a beast at night instead of an ogre in disguise.  I let her the daily visitor have a happy ending like Beauty and the Beast, where he was cursed but could be saved, instead of an ogre that was run off at the end of the original story.

Bibliography:  The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away.  Weblink.