For some reason I can’t stop thinking about the prince in this and that I never gave him a story so…I’m sorry.
Once upon a time there was a prince who put everyone before himself and gave parts of his heart to each and every person he came across. When he was five he had been found in the forest behind the castle, collecting as many flowers as his little hands could hold. He had said they were for his mother; she had not smiled at him that morning, and he knew flowers were her favorite thing.
When he was ten he took on his cousin- his age and half again, for he had seen the older boy send a servant down a corridor in tears. The prince couldn’t bare tears- it didn’t matter to him who they were, he wanted to protect each and every person who had tears in their eyes.
When he was fifteen he buried his mother. His own tears fell then, but he ignored them and went out to help a grieving kingdom, for the queen had been loved by all, not just him.
And when he was twenty, he fell in love and gave every piece of his heart to the girl he was to marry.
And then it all went wrong.
The girl was gone. From his life, at least. He gave up his heart for a change for her to have her own, and while he would never take back that choice, he still…regretted it.
He remembered every line of her face, the colour of her eyes and how her hair looked in sunlight. He remembered her laughter and her voice and her sharp, smart, brilliant mind and sometimes he was so convinced she was still at his side, haunting him, that it started to drive him mad.
He left his title, his kingdom behind; he didn’t have any heart left to give them, and for years he travelled the countryside alone. Sometimes, he wondered if he had a voice anymore. Sometimes, he wondered if the life he left had just been a dream.
Sometimes, he looked into the waters of rivers and lakes, and he didn’t know what was looking back at him. His hair was longer than he could ever have imagined. Then, one day, he saw himself and saw it was no longer hair, but fur that was growing, until he could no longer call himself human.
On a hill above the next village he stumbled across, there lay an old, unloved castle. It was build from stone as black as the midnight sky and looked as haunted as the once-prince was, by memories that had been forgotten and people that could no longer be named.
He took shelter in the castle, and lay claim to it with a roar so loud that every living things, from person to mouse to spider escaped. And there, he brooded for years, alone and forgotten.
Sometimes, he thought he heard voices around him. Of servants and friends that had long ago disappeared. But whenever he looked up, to was to see only a ticking clock and a candlestick on the table where he had left them.
The space where his heart had once been turned bitter with the years. He turned selfish and twisted, until he could no longer remember what it was like to be as human as those in the village. He thought them a different species to himself, and sometimes, to remind them to stay away, would creep down to the shops and take anything he wanted.
They would shout at him then, in words he knew he should have known, but no longer understood. Once, an object was thrown at him, and he saw in it strange markings that he knew formed words, but he could no longer read.
The only languages he understood were the ones of hunger and of hate. Villagers driving him back with flames and pitchforks, the feel of his stomach as it emptied.
Sometimes, he didn’t even understand those.
Time no longer meant anything to the beast. In the light, he roamed the castle, and in darkness, he slept.
Until the day the old woman turned up on his doorstep. Something in the back of his head told him he knew her. Told him that she was the reason he was no like this. But he didn’t understand it, and he did not care.
The woman said something in the strange language the humans used. All he knew was that she did not have the smell of fear around her, that she looked at him with something he used to know as pity.
But her hand touched his fur and
stop. She said. And he understood. Years ago, I took from you the person that had your heart. I saved her life and in return, you gave me your own. That curse can change with every person, and with you, it twisted you until you forgot who you were. It was easier like that, for you could no longer mourn, no longer care, no longer love. But your Princess left my care when her time was up. She had worked off her curse, and now, it is time for yours to end too.
With her words came memories. Of a girl and a wedding and a casket of diamond and ice. And tears fell down the beast’s face, for he remembered everything he had lost.
Make your choice, Prince. The old woman said one word, and I can keep you in this form forever. Forgetting everything human and just being. Or I can make you what you once were. Human, completely, utterly fragile and human.
He stared at her, blinking, his jaw moving without sound.
Then, like sandpaper, one word broke out human he growled. human.
The old woman smiled and nodded, and in a flash of blinding white, he changed.
He was not who he had been. He looked in the mirror and saw a man where there had once been a boy. He saw eyes filled with sorrow and age, a face that was starting to show years.
He went to say something to the woman- was that really how much time had passed- but she was no longer there, the doorway open and empty and showing nothing but the dawning of a new day.
He didn’t know who he was now, this prince that was no longer a prince. He didn’t know what had become of the girl he had once loved. He didn’t know if she had waited for him or forgotten him. But he looked at the doorway and then stepped out of it.
He didn’t know much. But there was time to find out. And he had a princess to find.
