Week 9 Story: Beauty and the Beast

Source:Flickr



I was off to work today at the castle. I would have never known that I would somehow become apart of the royal family on this day. The day started out normal. I always admired my little cottage before I headed off. I looked around my small cottage and I just adored it. Form the small window above the kitchen sink, I even love the little squeak on the floorboard when I you step in a certain spot by the bed. I didn’t have much but it was enough for me to get by and honestly, I didn’t want much. I knew that from working at the palace that having a lot of things did not make you a good person. After the king had died and one of his two sons took over everyone has been pushing for him to have an heir to the throne. Then disaster struck both sons had died, and all the advisers had pushed for the uncle to have a child. Everyone calls him Uncle B, but Uncle B took an oath that vowed he would never marry and never father any children. The kingdom was in distress. As I walked through the servant quarters to give the morning tea to the royal family, I overheard a conversation between Uncle B and his mother.

“…. he promised to appear when I called his name.”

“He must come at once! It will save the kingdom, for I refuse to break my oath. A man with a broken oath is no man at all. I will gather the queens.”

I had just finished place the sandwiches down when Uncle B had turned to me and asked me to fetch the young Queens. I hurried off at once and as I reached the door a man appeared out of thin air. Although I was shocked, I hurried to gather the Queens and bring them to the throne room.

“Madams your presence has been requested in the throne room.”

The Queens were very beautiful. They were sisters from another kingdom. There used to be three that were promised to one of the sons, but she had already fallen in love with another and Uncle B let her return home. I followed behind the Queens to the throne room and placed myself in the corner.

I noticed that it was empty until Uncle B emerged. He went on to tell the young queens that they will sire children to his brother in order for the kingdom to survive. It turns out the Queen before them had had a son.

The eldest king went to meet the man first. After some time, she came back, and she was very unhappy. She told her sister to make sure that her eyes were open, or she would foster a blind child and that the man was very unpleasant to look at, but it was important that hers to look at.

The younger sister then went to meet the man. I was very curious to see the man that the older Queen had claimed to be so unsightly. The young Queen returned and had a furlong look on her face and told her sister that her child would be very pale and weak. She told her sister that the color drained from her face when she saw the man and for that her son would be pale.

Uncle B was not happy with the women. He told them that the kingdom needed a King that was whole for the seat or the people would not accept him. That’s when he turned to me. I tried to sink away into the corner and make myself less seen. It was to late, he asked me to sire one of the princes of the kingdom. I was very frightened to see this man the women spoke so horribly about. I stood outside the door to meet him and as I walked in… he was normal. He had a beard and you could tell he didn’t keep up with his appearance, but he was just a man with kind eyes and a cane. I could not fathom why the young Queens could not stand the sight of him. He told me that I would sire the wisest man in the kingdom. I had no qualms with that.



Authors Note: I was a little inspired by Beauty and the Beast as the way the sisters described him. It is nothing like the story at all but that is where my thought process went. I wasn’t particularly into this story but I thought it would be interesting to tell it from the servant point of view since I had re-watched the online version of the story. I tried to show the servants appreciation for the little things and not be stuck on materialistic things.
Bibliography : Youtube

Comments

  1. Hey Dacia! Really great job with the story! The writing was really poetic and also really made for an interesting read. I like how your story was similar to the original story but also added a fun good twist to it. I also like the inspiration of Beauty and the Beast. I never would've expected the connection but it works really well!

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  2. Hi Dacia! This was such a nice story! I always enjoy when people are able to combine two seemingly unrelated stories and find links between them. This worked out very well. The language you used was descriptive and flowed nicely. I can definitely see the inspiration that you took from Beauty and the Beast. I also enjoyed the point of view that you used.

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  3. Dacia, I love how you merged inspirations from myths of different regions to tell an original story of your own here! I think it's great that you chose a first person perspective, it allows the reader to really get into the mind of the character knowing the intimate details of their thoughts and feelings. I thought the part where you said she even enjoyed the squeaking floor was such a sweet little tidbit. It's little quirky elements like these that give a story charm, I think. Which this has plenty of! Other than a little bit of proofreading spelling things, this is perfect!

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  4. Hey Dacia! I like how you used such an easily-overlooked character for the foundation of your story, and having her appreciate smaller details and not be materialistic fits really well with that. I found the grammar/syntax a little bit confusing at times, but I loved the descriptions you wove into the story. I wish it was able to be a bit longer so I could get more details on her thoughts at the very end. Overall, a fun read!

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  5. Hi Dacia!
    I liked that you wove in the some of the elements form Beauty and the Beast. I also liked that you told this story from the viewpoint of the servant that worked for the royal family. Usually these stories are told from the point of the narrator or the male character. I love to see stories that are written from the female or an insignificant character in the original. As always, I think you did a great job with this story!

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