La Dauphine

Prologue Part 1

You all know the story-they all start the same way really so how could you not...

("Once upon a time...")

The middle's pretty similar too. A handsome prince meets his beautiful princess-whether that princess be a girl growing up in fairy foster care under an assumed name, a girl with the fairest of faces graced with raven black hair and lips a deepest red, or a French peasant girl with a thirst for knowledge and far more than her simple provincial life could offer her.

There is some variation of course. Sometimes it's not a prince and peasant turned princess for example, but a future Sultana and 'street rat' who proved himself to be a true diamond in the rough. There are different challenges each of our heroes must face too, from evil stepmothers to evil witches, to malicious dark fairies and fearsome dragons and so on.

But no matter what happens it always ends the same way.

("And they all lived happily ever after...!")

And that's exactly where this story starts; at the end. With the Beauty who married her Beast and received their Happily Ever After.

Together they united the Great Kingdoms, married in front of their closest friends and ruled together with the people's blessing.

It was a beautiful Happily Ever After, filled with happiness and warmth. So beautiful was this life, that the Beastly King coveted it immensely. He coveted it even more so than his Beloved Queen, to the point of obsession some might say. For he loved his life so much, that with that love came fear. An immense fear that all he'd built and all he cherished might be taken from him in an instant.

It was easy, he knew, for a life to completely change in an instant. This was something he knew all too well.

Beautiful things were often ephemeral; here to enjoy for a time then gone. It was like flowers. The fact that roses only bloom for a time is part of what makes them so lovely; you have to enjoy them while you can because they won't be here forever. Eventually they wither and die.

The King did not want his beautiful life to end. He shuddered at the thought of it all withering away with the wave of a hand. Led by his fear, he was like a dragon with its hoard-willing to protect that which it loved fiercely and without remorse.

If that meant taking care of threats before they could become threats, then so be it.

In the case of rounding all that was evil, wicked and downright villainous and exiling it from his kingdom, you could say he was being reasonable. After all these were not simply potential threats, but known threats. As they say the greatest indicator of future behavior is past behavior, it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened.

Locking up criminals and threats to society was what you did, it was justice. Putting them all on an island...well in some ways you could say it was better than prison or any castle dungeon, better than those people deserved. Afterall, whether it's a prison or a dungeon, all you have are four walls to content yourself with day in and day out. On his isle at least, the people were free to do and live as they pleased.

His isle was a prison yes, but it could be worse, so so much worse. Knowing this, The Beastly King felt nothing but perhaps a sense of pride as he looked out onto across the sea to what he'd created.

Pride but most importantly, a virgining sense of security he desperately craved. But it wasn't enough. He couldn't feel safe, not until the source of what'd caused him years worth of suffering and crushing loneliness was completely contained.