(On Hold) The Tale Of Beauty And Her Beast (gxg)

Chapter 1

In a small village, situated in a valley, far from the main colonies of civilisation, there was one girl in particular who stood out from the other town folk. Everyone there had a passion, using that to contribute to the survival of their close-knit community, each providing an essential item required for living, working together like bees in a hive to keep everyone fed, hydrated, sheltered and warm. But not her.

Despite the tradition of the children taking up the mantle of their parents’ craft once they were deemed of age, no matter how much she tried to follow in her father’s footsteps as a merchant, trading goods with other outlying villages, she just couldn’t find any enjoyment in it, often becoming slightly depressed when she had to work for particularly long lengths of time.

Unlike the others, she earned her stay because she was simply a kind soul, always finding ways to help those who needed it, even going out of her way to ensure those problems wouldn’t arise again. She was a very intelligent and resourceful young woman in the making, often creating things or having her head buried deep within a book.

She was a bit of an outcast, but undeniably pretty; she had a reasonably thin figure, a healthy amount of fat upon her bones, her legs long and muscular from the active walking she often found herself doing to pass the time. She had medium length brown hair, reaching just past her shoulders; and the brightest blue eyes like a million sapphires all shining in unison to create a beautiful design; having a soft jaw, yet well defined cheek bones, she was a perfect mix of imperfection, being beautiful even in her least liked qualities.

It was a known fact that all the men stared and gawked, as she passed them in the square, their eyes glassed over with possibilities of what could be, though what also would never happen, swirling behind them.

This neglected attention being thrown at her made the other town’s women jealous because none of it was being given to them. No matter how much they themselves fawned over the muscular men, sweaty from a long day of manual labour and narcissistically yet futilely showing off to the one person that wasn't even interested back, they were never noticed over her.

Pity for them all, male and female alike, however, since she had absolutely zero interest back. In fact, it was quite the opposite, as she found herself fantasizing, way too often, over the fictional characters in her books who she looked up to, and the female ones at that. For that reason entirely, she had no friends, not that it bothered her much since the only friend she needed was her loyal horse Philippe, whom she often lent to her father when he went on journeys to places particularly further afield.

In complete opposition to the other villagers, she lived for adventure, often escaping in her books, them being the closest thing to a quest she could experience, unable to personally venture past the orchards a few fields over, due to her father’s fear of what lurked in the dark and foreboding forests, overgrown with the harshest thorns and vines. He had often gone past there on his journeys between towns but never dared to travel far in, only sticking to the worn-down dirt path, completely deterred from exploring any deeper, with the cold and heavy atmosphere, dripping with bad omens, never failing to send menacing chills ricocheting through his bones whenever he strayed too far from the track.

It was getting closer to that time of year again, when the frost would soon coat the land, in an icy embrace, making the roads too treacherous to travel, too dangerous for supply wagons incase they slipped, plunging down the tree line to an unsalvageable depth, hidden by the suffocating shadows of the forest.

Belle's father, for that was the girl’s name, knew that this would be his last run for the season, making this trip more important than ever, to acquire the necessary goods to last them through winter. Although knowing how much his daughter disliked the family trade, he made the decision of letting her stay at home cooped up with her new book, rather than forcing her to come along, like he often had to do.

Chiming 7 times, the clock tower awoke the town, preparing them for an average day of work as the day started afresh. Belle arose, knowing her father would be leaving for several days to make his last trades before the winter, and extremely grateful he had allowed her to stay back, as he did on occasion. She would spend her time reading, having only recently had a new book put in her possession by a kind old woman, who had been wandering from town to town, looking for a prime spot to settle. She was a weaver, as one could imagine a kind old woman like herself to be, creating wonderful clothes and blankets for any who asked.

Unfortunately for her, there was already many people capable of that task in their little community, so it would have been highly impractical for her to stay since she would have little to offer the towns folk that they didn’t already have. Consequently, she was ushered away, kindly told to find somewhere else to stay, since she was only an extra mouth and a welcoming face.

Despite this, Belle being the very caring person she is, provided her a bed to sleep in and some warm food for her belly, even managing to wrangle some supplies for her journey further north. As a token of appreciation for her act of kindness greater than anyone else’s attempts within the town, the woman gave her a book.

Now this wasn’t just any book. It was a book of myths and legends, if you believe in those things; the ones almost completely lost in the seas of time, now only known by few. Some were good. Some were bad. But they had all left Belle hooked in an instant. She had just reached the chapter named ‘The cursed royal’, and from the title alone, she was really excited to read it. This book would be how she’d be spending her time while her father was away, and she would surely enjoy every second of it while she could, reading up thrilling stories of creatures both pure and evil.

Bidding her father farewell, and wishing him a safe and easy journey, she watched as he steered Philippe and the cart further and further away. He turned in his seat one last time, waving goodbye, before facing forwards and continuing off into the warm horizon.

As she returned back into her little house thinking of how she hopes for him to bring back a new book for her to read, little does she know that nothing will go as planned and her life as she knows it will change for good...