Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle with his older brother and their parents. The young prince had everything that his heart desired. He was a very clever boy who loved nothing more than reading any book he could and conducting all sorts of experiments. He loved being around everyone, watching what they wear doing and learning everything he could from them, expectantly his parents and older brother who he looked up to more than anyone. They were very happy for quite some time, but those good times were not to last.
When the young prince was but eight years old his parents were in a tragic accident on their way home from a foreign land. The King and Queen died along with a number of their servants and soldiers who had gone along with them. It was now up to the princes to take care of the castle and the remaining staff there. The young prince's older brother took great strides to keep things running smoothly in their home; try as he might though the castle fell onto hard times.
Both brothers grieved for all that they lost in their own ways. The young prince locked himself away with his once much loved books and experiments, trying with all his might to shut his heart out and distract his mind. He grew cold to all those around him, building a wall around himself which no one could penetrate. Everyone in the castle could see the changes from the happy curious boy that they all knew. He became hard, distant, selfish , and unkind. Though everyone wished to, none knew how to help the young prince.
His brother wanted more then anyone for his brother to be back to how he used to be and tried giving him anything he wanted in hopes that it would help, but help it did not. The older brother too, started to send more and more time away within his own study alone. He had failed to keep his parents safe, he had failed to help his little brother, and he was failing to keep the castle going. He closed himself off from others as well, burying himself in his work.
As the years went by things only grew worse within the castle. The older brother rarely left his study; talking to no one except the captain of the guards and the chief of staff, so absorbed was he with his work. It was the younger brother though that most considered worse off. He was now a young man at the age of fifteen, but his attitude was no better than that of when he was eight, in fact he had only grown worse. He had succeeded in closing off his heart and often went around the castle in a deep sulk, snapping at anyone who dared to get in his way or try to deter him when he was in the midst of an experiment. He was rude to all and everyone had grown to be truly wary of him, scared of what he had become.
One cold stormy night there was a loud knock at the door. Unfortunately for the person on the other side, it was the young prince who went to open the door. Now normally the prince would not have bothered with something so appallingly mundane as to answering a knock at the door, but as it happens that knock had startled him from where he had been in the next room over conducting an experiment by the fire and causing him to mess said experiment up. With his experiment now ruined, and in a truly bad mood, the prince stomped over to the doors and threw them open with a loud slam.
On the other side of the door stood an old woman holding out a single rose. She offered the young prince the rose in return for shelter for the night. Sneering at the rose and repulsed by the woman's haggard appearance the prince turned his nose up at her and turned her away; but she warned him though not be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. Utterly bored with all this and only growing more annoyed by the second, the prince once again dismissed the woman. Ready to be done with all this nonsense he started to close the door on her, Only it was then that her appearance changed, the old woman's haggard appearance melting away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize, to explain that he had been too distracted to notice who she really was, but it was too late. For the enchantress had seen that there was no love in his heart. As punishment she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell over the castle and all who lived within.
Ashamed of his monstrous form and his inability to see what had been right in front of him, the beast concealed himself inside of his castle, a magic mirror his only window to the outside world. The rose was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his twenty-fifth year. If he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.
The prince tried everything he could think of to dispel the curse; doing more experiments than he could count on himself, the rose, and the others; reading every book in the house to try to learn something, anything that could help but alas it was all for not. As the years passed he eventually gave up trying and fell into deep despair, losing all hope. For who could ever learn to love a beast?
