There once was a prince whose parents had died. The prince, growing up without their guidance, became very spoiled, and became selfish and unkind. The servants who had raised him began to despair, and longed for him to change back into the sweet child they had once known.
Then one stormy night, an old man came to the door of the castle and asked to see the lord. The prince came, displeased to be summoned. The old man begged the prince to let him stay the night, and offered in exchange a single red rose. The prince scoffed at him, and called for him to be taken away. But at that moment, he turned into a radiant fairy and cast a spell upon the prince for his unkindness. The prince was transformed into a hideous beast, and the entire castle and everyone living in it was also enchanted. The fairy took the rose he had offered as payment and cast it into the castle's garden, where it turned into a thriving rose bush. The fairy told the prince that, in order to break the spell, he must get another to say words of love to him before the last petal of the last rose fell.
Years passed, and the curse took hold of the castle. The walls crumbled and rotted, the prince closed himself off to the world, and the servants began to give up hope of the curse ever being broken. Until one day when a young girl ventured into the castle, and into his life.
The day had already grown dim when the prince heard a knock on the door. He had been about to sit down to the dinner that had been prepared by his servants, but at the knock, he froze. It had been years since anyone had dared to come visit the castle. Who could have possibly come after all this time?
As he was trying to puzzle this out, he heard the front door open. A trembling voice called out, "Hello? Is anyone here?"
Panicking, the prince ran out of the room, quiet as a cat on the pads of his paws. He exited just in time, as he heard the person enter the dining room. A small gasp of delight was heard, and then the voice called again, "Hello? Is anyone going to eat this? I am lost, and would love to be able to have a warm meal."
The prince's curiosity overcame him, and he peeked cautiously around the door of the dining room. Standing in front of the fireplace was a girl. She seemed quite lost, looking around her as if someone was going to jump out at any moment and admit that they had been hiding as a joke. The prince watched her, vaguely interested despite himself. It had been some time since he had seen another human enter the castle. And, besides, she was quite pretty, with her trim form and long hair, fiery orange with a single strand standing up defiantly on the top.
The words of the fairy resounded in his mind, and he remembered the rose bush. It only had a few flowers left. If he was going to get someone to fall in love with him, wasn't this girl probably his last chance? With this thought in the back of his mind, he continued to watch her as she sat down and began to eat. He was fascinated by her boldness. Or perhaps it was just stupidity? He wasn't really sure. Either way, it was certainly entertaining to observe this girl as she ate her fill. When she was done, she got up to explore more of the castle.
The prince trailed a little ways behind her as she poked her head into a few rooms on the first floor of the castle, occasionally calling out to see if she could find any inhabitants. The servants, however, knew their master's dining preferences, and had long since vacated the area where he might be eating. Since the curse had turned him into an ugly beast, he hated being seen by others. Being around others was a painful reminder that he was now as ugly as he had once been handsome.
Eventually, the girl seemed to grow tired of the castle and wandered out into the darkening castle grounds. She wove her way into the garden, with the prince following behind as a silent shadow, observing her curious movements.
Finally, the girl stopped at the enchanted roses. She leaned forward and sniffed a rose, smiling brightly at the smell. Then she reached out and plucked it from the bush.
The prince's heart seized with fear. She was destroying the only thing that could turn him and his servants back to normal! With a roar, he leapt from his place in the shadows and descended upon the frightened girl. "Who are you, and why are you stealing my roses?"
Trembling, she dropped the bloom as if it were a hot coal, staring up at him wide-eyed. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to steal it! I-I mean, I did mean to pick it, but I didn't think…"
"You didn't think taking something that's not yours would be stealing?" the prince roared. He felt a little twinge of guilt at her blatant fear, but ignored it. "How do you plan to repay me for that rose?"
"I-I didn't really think of that...I mean, it's just a flower, I thought…"
The prince loomed over the girl, "You have no idea what harm you may have caused just now, and yet you dare to call it just a flower?"
Trembling, the girl stammered, "I-I'm sorry, I really didn't mean any harm. Please, is there any way I can make it up to you?"
She looked up at him with tearful eyes, and the prince saw his opportunity. Perhaps he could convince her… "Well, I suppose there is one thing," he said slowly.
"Anything, I promise!"
The girl was clearly terrified. Well, who wouldn't be terrified of a hideous beast, the prince thought bitterly. He gathered himself up and used his best imposing voice. "You will stay here with me in this castle, for the rest of your life."
The girl blinked up at him. "What?"
The prince's resolve faltered. What kind of crazy person would agree to this deal? But this was his last hope. He continued, "You must stay with me here in my castle. As my prisoner!" He added the last part hastily, trying to divert her attention away from the absurdness of his request. In reality, he had been alone in the castle for a very long time, particularly since he had banned his servants from looking upon his face. Even if this girl wasn't the one who could break his spell, he sorely desired company. But admitting to that seemed pathetic. Calling her his prisoner was much less desperate, and would perhaps make her understand the severity of what she had done.
To his surprise, the girl looked up at him and nodded. "Yes. I understand that I intruded into your home, and destroyed something valuable. And now I must pay. You may lead me to my cell." Hanging her head, she awaited her fate.
Dumbfounded, the prince protested, "But...aren't you afraid of spending the rest of your life with a hideous beast?"
The girl looked up at him. "No, the way you look doesn't scare me."
The prince's heart squeezed, and he felt hope rising in his chest. Maybe, if she could look past his appearance...he tried to push it down, and said gruffly, "Well, then, I'll lead you to your chambers." Brusquely, he turned around and strode towards the castle.
Behind him, the girl trotted to catch up until she was walking abreast of him, struggling to match his long stride. "What do you mean, chambers?" she asked, clearly puzzled. "I thought you said I was a prisoner."
Not looking at her, the prince growled, "You are my prisoner. I just don't see the need to lock you up in some jail cell when I have so many spare rooms here. I'll put you in one next to mine, and then you'll be more secure than in any cell."
The girl looked up at him with curiosity. "Why? Is your hearing really good? Or maybe your sense of smell? Do you have animal senses?"
Startled, the prince looked down at her. This girl really seemed to have no boundaries. Not that there was any harm in answering her questions. "I do hear and smell better than when...better than a human."
"Oh. So there really isn't any way for me to escape you, is there?" she asked, a bit too brightly for her predicament, the prince thought.
"No, there isn't," he replied simply.
"That's fine. I plan to repay my debt. My father taught me that it's very important to do so."
Ah, she had a father. This might pose a problem. The old man might come looking for her, or she might try to escape back to him at some point. Gruffly, the prince asked, "Do you and your father live near here?"
In a subdued voice, the girl answered, "No, we don't. My father died some time ago, and I've been alone ever since, wandering from place to place. So I suppose it's just as well that I have somewhere to be now."
The prince looked down at her, and was surprised to feel a stab of pity for the girl. He'd never cared much for the feelings and affairs of others before, but for some reason this girl triggered a lot of interest in him. Trying to distract both of them from unpleasant feelings, he gestured down the hallway they were walking along. "Your room is right this way."
She craned around him, obvious interest showing in every line of her body. "Oh, which door is it? Is it that one? There are so many doors here, it's hard to guess! I'll probably get lost all the time."
The prince regarded her, chest stirring with strange emotions. After a moment of silence, he pointed to a door just ahead of them. "It's this one," he responded, and taking the last few steps down the hall, threw the door open.
Peering around him into the dusty room, the girl gasped. The prince shuffled into the room and lit the sconces from the candelabra he'd been using to light their way. Gruffly, he said, "I know it's not much, but I'll get the servants to come clean it up for you, and it will look a little better tomorrow."
"What do you mean? It's wonderful! And look, the bed is so huge!" she gushed. The prince watched her, bemused, as she flitted around the room, taking everything in. She certainly didn't seem to be very distressed by her situation. The prince decided that he should allow her time to settle in, and shuffled back towards the door.
"I'll be heading to my own room for the evening. I'll send some servants to attend to you in the morning."
"Wait! I want to see where your room is!" For someone so small, the girl certainly bounded quickly across the room. Taken aback a bit, the prince gestured behind him to the door across the hall. "Those are my chambers. I'll be right near you, as I said, so I'll know if you try to break our agreement."
The girl nodded. "I understand, of course. Well, good night then. Oh, and thank you for the lovely room."
Unsure of what to say, the prince merely grunted in response and retreated hurriedly across the hallway, nearly slamming his door shut behind him. Once inside, he leaned against the door and sighed. What trouble had he gotten himself into now?
The next few days brought answers to this question. The girl proved to be incorrigible, and seemed to be everywhere in the castle at once. The rooms that had been darkened and unused for years seemed to breathe with a new life as she flitted around from one place to another. The prince himself was almost worn down to the point of exhaustion after just a few days. The girl never seemed to tire, always asking with shining eyes what was behind this door, or what was over there. The only place they did not explore thoroughly was the garden. She seemed leery of it after being chastened over the rose, and did not ask to go there, although the prince caught her more than once looking longingly outside. She never once complained though, and didn't even question the fact that every day, her needs were tended to by people that she never once saw. The prince thought that perhaps she was just too stupid to notice, until one day one of the servants walked past them in a corridor carrying a tray. The girl nodded politely to the invisible holder of the tray, and continued talking brightly to the prince as they headed down the hallway. He was dumbfounded. Who was this girl, that the curse of the castle didn't faze her at all? She'd had no more reaction to his invisible servants than she had to his hideously deformed figure.
Days blended into weeks, weeks into months, and the presence of the girl became like oxygen to the prince. He began to wonder what he had ever done without her bright presence filling every corner of his castle. Everyone seemed to forget that she was supposed to be a prisoner, and the prince himself forgot that he had planned to use her to break the curse. Instead, he simply fell helplessly in love with her. He found himself thinking about her all the time, and going out of his way to do things to make her happy. When he found out she liked books, he arranged one of their daily explorations to go past the castle's vast library. He noticed that she favored sweet things, and made sure that there was a dessert with every meal they had. When the weather began to turn crisp and he noticed her shivering, he dug out one of his mother's furs and placed in on the coat rack so that the girl would find it.
But this wasn't the only change brought about by the colder weather. The enchanted rose bush started to wither.
The prince was aghast. He hadn't expected the rose to die so soon. He had watched over it for years, painstakingly trying every remedy he could find in the castle's library to extend its life, but it appeared that all his efforts had come to nothing. In the end, it wasn't of any use if she didn't love him back. And, even more terrifyingly, as the rose's strength faded, so did the prince's. Each day that wore on saw him weaken a little bit more, as if the rose was trying to sap his strength to stay alive. And all he could do was watch as the petals of the rose bush faded away.
One cold day in winter, the prince went out to the garden and noted that the last rose had lost a petal during the night, and had only a single petal left. He knew that this was the day that the curse would take hold. Truthfully, he had hardly needed to go out to the garden to find out this information. He had awoken so weak that he could barely muster the energy to put on a brave front for the girl. As he stood, staring at the rose bush, only one thought came to his mind.
He had to protect the girl.
He had no delusions about her feelings for him. He knew that, no matter how pure and quaintly vibrant she was, there was no way that she could love him. He did know, however, that she held some fondness for the castle that she had come to lovingly call home in the past months. He also knew that she was much more sensitive than her bubbly exterior would lead one to believe. He had found her one time, sobbing in the courtyard over a small bird's lifeless body. He didn't know how the curse would affect him, and he certainly didn't want her there to witness what his body told him might very well be the end of his days.
He cast about for some way to get her to leave. As he was contemplating what to do, he was startled by a voice at his elbow. He looked down to find the girl looking up at him, uncharacteristic uncertainty in her eyes. "Are you all right?" she asked in an almost tremulous voice.
He'd have to come up with something now, it seemed. "Ah, yes. I'm fine," he answered in a gruff voice. She looked unconvinced, but he ignored that and continued, "Actually, I have something I need you to do for me, though."
Her face brightened a bit. "Oh, you do? What is it? I'd be happy to help you!"
Her energetic response made his heart ache a bit. He ignored it and asked, "Do you see this rose bush?"
Cautiously, she nodded. "Yes, the one that I picked a flower from."
The prince felt a pang at the way he had treated her upon their first meeting, but in a voice that he forced to sound bland, he simply responded, "Yes. As you can see, it is dying. I have tried everything in my power to stop it, but it simply isn't enough. As you know, this rose bush is...important to me. Therefore, I'd like you to go into town and try to find something that can help cure it."
She blinked up at him. "Me?"
He nodded. "Yes."
"But...why me? Why would you trust me to do something so important?"
He laughed bitterly. "Well, you can hardly expect me to be able to go into a human town with this appearance. I'd be lucky if the worst thing that happened to me was people running away screaming."
The girl propped herself up on her tiptoes and gently placed her hand on his cheek. "I don't see why you're so hard on yourself. You just look like yourself. There's nothing to be ashamed of." He stared at her, unable to breathe for a moment. Then she broke the moment by settling back down and propping her hands on her hips. "Well, I know you're not comfortable going into town though, so I guess I'll have to do it for you! As long as you promise to wait here for me to get back, and don't go running around too much by yourself."
The prince studied her carefully. What did she mean by that? Had she noticed that he had been growing weaker? He had tried so hard to hide it from her, but she always seemed oddly perceptive when it came to him. Well, he supposed that just happened when you lived with another person.
In answer to her, the prince nodded and said, "Yes, I promise. Now please, you must go quickly. I am worried the rose will die soon."
"Right away! I'll go get my things and head out to find help! You can count on me!" She scurried off towards the castle, bustling with excitement at being given an important task. Chuckling, the prince sat down on a bench and watched her go, loving every line of her figure. He was satisfied that the task he had given her was vague enough to take her some time to complete. By the time she found a cure for the rose bush, whatever had taken place with the curse would already be long done. Besides, once she got back into a town with other humans, she'd likely forget him anyway. She'd settle down into the normal life she should have been leading, and then she'd be truly happy.
Satisfied with his arrangement for the girl's future, he laid down on the bench, watching the last petal through bleary eyes. He felt satisfied. He had taken care of the thing that was most important to him. He allowed his eyes to shut, and felt his body let go, as if it had given him permission to rest from the curse at last.
Suddenly, the solemn calm of the air around him was shattered by a scream. He fought to open his heavy eyes again, and saw the girl running towards him. He struggled to sit up, but only succeeded in falling off the bench in his weakened state. The girl reached him, and dropped to her knees in the dirt next to him, throwing her arms around his head. He asked faintly, "Why aren't you gone? You're supposed to be leaving, stupid girl."
She lifted his head gently and shifted her legs so that they were positioned underneath him, offering them as a pillow. She protested, "How was I supposed to leave without saying goodbye to you? And then I come out here and you're lying down, not even breathing! I knew you were sick lately, but I didn't think it was this bad! What's happening to you? And why won't you talk to me about it?" Tears began to drip down her face as she cradled his head.
Stunned, he stared up at her, not able to summon the words to explain.
A chuckle came from above them. "I can answer that, young lady."
His hackles rose, and the prince looked up to see the source of the voice.
It was the fairy. He looked as if he hadn't aged at all since the day he had placed the curse on the castle. The prince growled deep in his throat, trying his best to sit up. "Leave her alone," he managed to grind out, although he couldn't summon enough strength to really move. The girl held him tighter in her grip, and he sensed fear through her hold.
The fairy chuckled. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not here for her. I'm here to collect on the little spell I cast on you all those years ago. It looks like the last rose is about to die, so your time has run out."
The prince gasped, "What do you mean, collect?"
"Oh, so you don't remember the terms of the spell?" The fairy clicked his tongue, his crafty smile belying his words. "Such a shame. Well, allow me to remind you. Since you have failed to break the spell, I am now entitled to your life in exchange."
The girl's arms became almost suffocating around him. "What? No, you can't! How could you do such a thing to him?"
Although her voice trembled, the prince noted with a mixture of exasperation and pride that the girl was still as vocal as ever about her opinions. "Shut up," he managed to gasp at her. It wouldn't do if she drew the wrath of the clearly mad fairy. There was no telling what might happen to her.
The fairy, however, just laughed. "How do you think fairies live such a long time? Now stand aside girl, I have a debt to collect," he crowed.
Defiantly, the girl screamed at the fairy, "I won't! You can't take him! I won't let you do anything to him, I love him!"
The prince and the fairy both froze, but it was the fairy who found his voice first. "What was that you said?" he demanded.
She barrelled on, "I said I love him, and you can't have him!"
At her words, the prince's body had begun to feel strange. He recognized the feeling from the time, years ago, when he had been cursed. His body began to burn, and then ache, and then he felt his bones and skin shift, and he cried out with the pain. The girls' attention snapped back to him, and she looked down at him in horror. "What's wrong? What's going on?" She glared at the fairy through tear-filled eyes and demanded, "What did you do to him?"
The fairy screamed back at her, "I didn't do anything, you idiot! You're the one who ruined everything! You weren't supposed to tell him that you love him! Now all of this scheming was for nothing! I thought I had found easy prey by locating a prince, since they're always so selfish. But you had to go and ruin it! This isn't interesting at all!" In a puff of smoke, the fairy vanished.
His words triggered something in the prince's memory. He knew that he was forgetting something important about those words. Something in his mind screamed at him that he was forgetting something important, forgetting who he was. What was he supposed to remember about this man? About himself? Panting, he struggled to sit up, but instead was thrown back down from the pain with a cry. The girl's worried face bent over him, and she wailed, "Are you all right? Please, say something to me! What can I do?"
He opened his mouth to reassure her, but all that came out was a cry of pain. He gritted his teeth against the pain, and squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn't have to watch the turmoil on the girl's face.
Eventually, the pain stopped. He opened his eyes slowly, and the girl's shocked face filled his vision. She asked in a whisper, "What happened?"
Reaching up, the prince felt his face. Smooth skin met his fingers, not the rugged fur he had grown accustomed to. He locked eyes with the girl, and whispered, "Am I human again?"
She nodded, clearly shocked.
He realized that all his energy had returned, and that realization brought the awareness that he was still laying on the girl's lap. Embarrassed, he squirmed out of her hold and sat up, facing her, yet afraid to look directly at her face. "I guess you're probably confused by all this," he said.
"Yes, I am! I want to know what's going on!"
The hurt in her voice made him look at her, and to his dismay he saw that tears were still trickling down her cheeks. Timidly, he reached out and wiped them away as he began to speak. "Well, as the fairy said...I'm a prince. He came here in disguise years ago, asking for shelter in exchange for a rose, and...well, I turned him away. Then he transformed, and cursed me and the rest of the castle. He said that if I didn't receive words of love from someone by the time the last petal fell…well, you saw what he was trying to do. And then...you came along, and I thought maybe you would break the spell, so I came up with a reason to keep you here. But then I…I fell in love with you, and I just wanted you to be happy. So I tried to send you away so that you wouldn't see all of that…" Lamely, he waved around at the garden, trying to indicate the scene with the fairy.
The girl burst out, "How could you try to do that to me?"
Ashamed, the prince hung his head. "I know. I'm sorry that I imprisoned you here. I understand if you want to leave."
Exasperated, she protested, "No, that's not what I meant. Why would you try to send me away?"
Confused, the prince responded, "I just wanted to protect you!"
"I don't need you to make decisions for me! Didn't you hear me tell the fairy? I love you! I want to be with you! Stop trying to push me away!" the girl cried.
Looking up, the prince saw her passionate face, and couldn't help himself. He reached out and yanked her into his chest, cradling her there, reveling in the feeling of holding her. He bent his face down and mumbled into her hair, "Do you really love me?"
The girl mumbled angrily, "Of course I do. Wasn't that what broke the curse?"
He laughed. She had a point there. "Well, I love you, too. So can we start over? I want you to stay here with me. Please."
He felt the smile in her voice as she replied, "Yes, of course. Forever."
Unnoticed by the two of them, the rose bush shone, as bloom after bloom grew on it.
This time, it was a bit easier to extract himself from the story. He supposed it had something to do with the fact that he had started to remember himself at the end. He opened his eyes, hoping to see the girl that he loved in this world cradled on his chest…
...and found that, as usual, he was holding a duck.
He dropped his head down over her with a heavy sigh, ignoring her concerned quacks. He had known that this story would be a long shot, since he had been the one transforming into a human during the story. It had been a last-ditch attempt to make the transformation route work, and it obviously had failed.
His thoughts swirled around in his head. Was this his fault because his control over the characters wasn't good enough? He couldn't even control himself well enough to stay in character until the end of the story.
But the thing that bothered him the most was the fact that he had recognized the fairy. He'd had the same feeling the last time he had attempted to write a story for Ahiru, about a month prior. He'd felt that the king in that story had seemed familiar, but he had written off the feeling as his lack of control over his writing. But now...there was something that just wasn't right. He knew that he recognized the fairy.
Ahiru, apparently tired of being ignored, nipped his nose sharply.
Fakir yanked his head up, crying out in pain. "Ah! You idiot, that hurt!" he protested, holding one hand over his nose. She glared back at him, unapologetic. He sighed. Even when she couldn't talk, he couldn't win against her. "All right, I'm sorry. I was feeling sorry for myself, when you're the one who…" He shook his shoulders, trying to physically shake off the feeling of failure. "At any rate, it's night time. Should we have dinner? Or are you tired?" Ahiru quacked at him, and fluttered off towards the kitchen. He began following her, when memory struck him and he realized who it was that he had been seeing in his stories.
It was unmistakable. Drosselmeyer.