Beauty and the Beast - A Retelling

I

She was a beauty of no equal;

The most beautiful thing about her was her innocent ignorance of how beautiful she actually was.

When she walked, she walked with the grace of the Gods.

When she spoke, she spoke with the kindness of her heart.

Evil, she had never known.

Her father's princess, her mother's pride.

Yet, she never had any luck winning friends.

Some were terrified of her beauty.

Others envied her, from the core of their beings.

She grew up lonely, but bravely wore a smile to her lips.

Humans would have her not, so she retreated to poetry.

Hours, she could spend, hidden from the world in the library.

But the walls of her home would suffocate her being. She craved to be free, she craved something she did not know she needed.

She dreamt of far away lands.

Often, she prayed for someone to rescue her.

If only she knew, both God and the Devil listen to prayers.

As fate would have it, a Beast raised his eyes towards her window as she absent mindedly painted the setting sun.

Her lips were slightly parted, drawing in soft breaths. Her hair cascaded down to her shoulders, waltzing with the wind. Her flowing white dress glowed in the soft rays, and she seemed not to belong to this world.

The Beast fell speechless. Beauty he had seen everywhere, but none like her.

Women he had known so many, but never this innocent.

She was grown, and yet her face revealed she had never known love.

Like a delicate flower, hidden from mortal sight, she continued painting as though her beauty was any less than that of the setting sun.

Beast had never known love, he did not want to either.

Yet, as though overcome by madness, he climbed with all his beastly might.

Beauty dropped her brush, startled by this strange creature.

Fear, she felt for the first time.

Her canvas collapsed, the colours staining her dress.

She stared, bewildered at the Beast just as he stared back at her, in awe.

She moved her lips as though to ask who he was, and yet, she seemed to be at a loss for words.

The poetess fell short of words.

Beast sensed her fear, he did not move.

"Who are you?" Her voice was as gentle as a whisper.

"I have come to love you, for eternity," Beast promised.

Beauty did not speak. Beast sensed the last of the sun rays fading and so, descended from the balcony.

Beauty watched him walk away, her heart sinking.

She picked up her fallen canvas and the brush, strolling back into her room, as though lost in a dream.

Love.

She had never known. She lay awake, wondering what if felt like to be loved, and loved for eternity.

Fairytales, she had heard of as a child, where the Princess found her Prince and they lived happily ever after.

But a beast?