Some years ago in a not far off place there was a man by the name of William Adamsburg. He was a prince and also the owner of a castle-factory that made amazing chocolates and unique roses. William was world renowned for his amazing candies and chocolates as well as the strange and wonderful roses that he made. Because he was so renowned and a prince, many women wanted to marry him for his fortune and the prestige. Even though William wanted to be married, he had a bit of a problem that couldn't seem to be rectified.
He was haughty. Narcissistically so and he made sure everyone knew it. He never went a day without checking the mirror to see if his hair was in place and making sure he didn't have any red blotches from the sun. He had a pretty bad case of heliophobia, or fear of the sun, and so he made sure that he used the paleness of his skin as a beauty accessory, even claiming that if he were able to go into the sunlight, it would reflect off of his skin.
Many women threw themselves at William and there was a woman by the name of Sureda that William would never forget. What he didn't know was the Sureda was an enchantress. She knew that he was capable of taking care of any woman he chose but his selfishness made it impossible to get close to him. So, before she jumped to conclusions, she decided to test out the theory and turned herself into an old hag. That night, she went to the castle-factory and knocked on the door.
Since most of the staff was gone and William was just turning down all the lights, he went to the door himself (which was highly unusual for him) and opened it. Sureda, in her disguise, held out a slightly wilted rose, offering it to the prince asking for a night of stay. The prince haughtily turned her away and she then asked for just a sample of this amazing chocolates as food to go. He refused her again and Sureda knew he was not good.
She turned herself back into her normal beautiful self and then placed a curse upon the prince.
"You must find someone who will look past your hideous appearance and your narcissism before your twenty-fifth birthday or you will stay like this forever. And after the years, you will become what you truly are: a beast."
The prince laughed at her and shut the door in her face. He wondered why people like her didn't just go off and die alone when he felt a wave of pain go through him. Heat spread like fire through his veins and he cried out in pain, falling to the floor. His servant ran to him but has stopped because he was no longer a prince anymore. When William stood back up, he looked at his hands and saw that they were large and covered in white fur as thick as could be. Running to the mirror that was in the hallway of the castle-factory, he looked upon, not his beautiful pale face, but the white face of an animal he couldn't even name. He smashed the mirror in horror and went into a deep depression.
After six months or so, he got tired of hiding in the corridors of his own castle-factory and ordered all the nonessential staff to be fired except those who made his creations and two of his trusted companions. Genevieve, the head maid, was left to care for the castle's cleaning and Ian, William's trusted friend and confidant.
Besides his beloved workers, William could only bear to let the two of them see his new hideous appearance. Ian had seen the transformation and was readily acceptable of his prince but Genevieve had to get used to it. After a while though, his sneaking about was almost like second nature to her and it was common to see her talking to what looked like either herself or the wall, when she was really talking to William, who was around the corner.
The years came and went and soon, the year of William's twenty-fifth birthday was nigh and he had yet to find himself a wife. Ian suggested that he find a new way of finding one, though it would be harder for her to love William now. Since he only had Genevieve and Ian to speak with, William had gone slightly mad and eccentric, which had actually boosted his sales of both roses and chocolates due to his wacky ideas that somehow turned into goldmines that no other candy maker or florist could ever dream of making. The creations were astounding and everyone in the world loved his work. But if he didn't get a bride soon, all of it would be for naught, for his mind would slowly turn into a beast and he would forget his legacy.
With Ian's suggestion of a new way to find a bride, William quickly developed a plan that would surely help him find a bride but the question still remained: who could ever learn to love a beast?