Disclaimer: All characters belong to Gregory Maguire and L. F. Baum. Beauty and the Beast concept belongs to Disney. I'm merely borrowing them. This goes for all following chapters as well, so please excuse me if I don't retype this every time.
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Tale as old as Time
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Once upon a time, in a kingdom faraway, there lived a beautiful princess. She was given all she wanted, and wanted for nothing. He parents gave her everything her heart could ever desire, so that she would be happy when they went on their travels. However, in being so lavished upon she became spoiled and selfish. She saw nothing but outward appearances, and would only do favors if they benefitted her as well.
In the winter of her sixteenth year, an old beggar came knocking on the palace door. The disheveled old man sought shelter from the cold, and in return offered a single rose for the kindness. Galinda, the princess, on the other hand could see no good from helping the beggar, and saw no beauty in the rose he offered. Repulsed by his appearance, she refused him shelter. The beggar warned her to not be deceived by looks, but still she turned him away.
It was then that the old beggar's ugliness vanished, and he turned into a powerful Wizard. Seeing this Galinda pleaded with the Wizard to forgive her. The Wizard, however, had made up his mind for he knew that there was no longer any goodness in the princess's heart. He cast a powerful spell on her, and the entire palace.
The once beautiful princess turned into a horrible beast. Before leaving the Wizard gave her two gifts. The first was the rose, which he told her would bloom until her twenty first birthday. After that day the rose would wither, and die, and when that happened, Galinda would remain a beast forever. There was a way to break the spell however. If Galinda could learn to love another and have that someone fall in love with her in return, despite her ugliness, by the time the rose withered she would once again return to her beautiful self. Ashamed of her new appearance, Galinda shut herself up in the castle with the Wizard's second gift; a magic mirror, her only connection to the world outside.
When winter ended, the King and Queen of the castle returned. They were shocked when they found no one there. But they were even more shocked when a beast claiming to be their daughter showed its face. They shook their heads, and refused to believe the beast's story. There was simply no way their beautiful girl could have turned into such a hideous monster. So they left. Left the castle. Left their belongings. Left her.
Abandoned and forgotten by her own parents, the princess refused to ever leave the castle. If her face was so appalling to even her own parents, surely her curse would never be broken. And the years slipped by.
As the years passed, Galinda lost any glimmer of hope that she would ever return to normal. Her castle fell into disrepair, and the woods around the castle's walls grew wild and dangerous. The only part of the castle that remained as beautiful as it once was, were the gardens, which seemed to grow nothing but roses.
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