Beauty and The Beast Beyond
A Sequel
Summary: After the events of the movie Belle and the Prince have a child. Little do they know what similar fate befalls him.
Prolog
It was a beautiful summer day, and Prince Beaute was out with the noble sons and daughters in the gardens of his father's castle. Prince Beaute enjoyed the admiration and privileges being the king's son. All the other teen boys admired him and the young ladies seemed to just throw themselves at him.
Life was good, granted though his mother and father seemed strict at times on giving him what they deemed "a well rounded upbringing." They made him do service in the community and as much as they could they tried to instil in him the lesson that beauty was not only skin deep. Why his parents pushed this lesson so harshly on him Prince Beaute did not know.
But he choose to simply act this lesson in front of them. While away with his friends and out of sight of the closer house staff members Prince Beaute was horrid. He picked on others he deemed less attractive and fortunate than he. He consistently used the young noble ladies to his whims and lust. And most of all he showed off to everyone every opportunity he had.
"Prince whatever shall we do today?" Asked one of the sons. The were coming upon the end of the garden and to one of the gates of the castle. On the other side the group was puzzled to see a woman who seemed to be run down from a long journey. Her clothes were threadbare and her body seemed dirty and unclean. A person could not tell when her last bath had been with the stench she carried with her.
"Oh I don't know maybe pick on this rubbish?" Prince Beaute said walking to the gate. He opened the heavy wired gate and took another look at the woman.
"Please young prince please help me. I got lost in the forest and now am hungry and in need of a place to sleep," her voice was rough and cracked. Her eyes worn and aged looked up at him, Prince Beaute decided this was a perfect moment to show off.
"Yeah lady what do you have to offer me if I do? I mean I have everything and I mean everything a person could want. I am flawless you see and I can have any beauty in the land, so tell me what do you offer me?" He boasted to her in front of the crowd.
"My possessions maybe far and few but I have for you the beauty of a single rose my prince," she said as she pulled from her sleeve a dainty rose the petals each beautiful and yet simple. But the stem was crooked a bit.
"Oh foolish hag I have millions of those already. They are by far the fairest in the area. My mother the beautiful queen, tends to them constantly. What good will a rose with a crooked stem do?" He was happy that he could pull that bit of boasting out.
"Please prince does beauty and wealth mean all that much to you? Can you not see beauty in imperfection like this rose? Its petals beautiful but its stem not perfect?" Her words seemed to be more like a prayer to some deity this time.
"No! For perfection is beauty and beauty is perfection. Now leave worthless hag before I have my guards do it for you!" He bellowed.
A flash exploded from the lady. And from behind him Prince Beaute turned as two screams of terror came from his parent's lips.
"What did you do dear?" The Queen shouted at him.
"Did we not raise you better?" The King asked as Prince Beaute. Confused by what his parent's anguish was over Prince Beaute turned around to see not the beggar lady but a lovely golden haired woman clothed in a dress of finest linens. Shocked he gasped and covered his lips.
"That beggar lady she disappeared," he said trying to make sense of the situation. But the golden haired beauty looked at him with disdain and contempt.
"Obviously you did not follow your parents' teachings of kindness and inner beauty Prince, for you are nothing more than a shadow of your father's past self. A self that could not see beauty in imperfection," she said.
"
"My father's past self, what does that mean?" The prince was even more confused over this now.
"Decades ago your father turned me down based off my looks young prince. Now you repeated that action further injury you insulted the small gift and token I offered you. This shall not suffice. I will not let this happen yet again. For now the castle will be brought back into darkness, the staff as they were your parent's will only be images. And you young prince, shall be what you are on the inside, a fearsome loathsome beast," as she said this the daylight faded.
The once beautiful castle regressed to what it had once been. Lovely angelic statues became horrid gargoyles. The plant life withered and curled up. Round towers were reconstructed as angular structures. Any warmth left the surrounding area. Inside the house staff, Cogsworth, Lumiere, Mrs, Potts, Chip, all felt their bodies change into what they had detested so long ago.
The King and Queen Belle found themselves plastered on the wall of the grand hall entrance as nothing more than portraits. Finally, their son the once handsome and beautiful prince felt his body morph into the spitting image of his father's beastly form. The noble daughters screamed in sheer terror and fled. The sons followed them in disgust.
"What have you done to me and my family?" Prince Beaute's now deeper and animalistic voice struggled to get out. His tongue now felt pain from the husks and sharper teeth he now had.
"As said I have cursed you to show others what you actually are. And while your parents and others did not make you this way its best that they feel a need to help you on your journey. I will offer you hope prince like your father. But unlike him it will be harder because you insulted my token as well. As my rose is beauty imperfect you shall need to find the love of an imperfect beauty. This rose which is magical because of its imperfect beauty will be your timer if the last petal and leaf fall before you find your imperfect beauty this shall be permanent," the golden haired angel spoke.
In another flash of light she disappeared leaving the rose floating in front of Prince Beaute.
Time past days turned to months which led to years. All of which brought the nightmare that the castle had thought itself to once escape ever more present. Two petals fell in the span of five years. As they fell Prince Beaute became ever more fearful that this imperfect beauty was never going to come. And if she did come could she love a beast?