A Retelling of "Beauty and the Beast"

Gus

Beauty walked back down to the village to the home and store front of the huntsmen of the village who gave the merchants luxurious furs and delicious meats. Her best friend for all of her life was now an apprentice of the head huntsman and bachelor, Gaston. When she gotten close to the house the other huntsmen started to catcall her. With the look of utmost hatred for the other huntsmen, she opened the door.

"Gus! It's Beauty, want to go down to the forest's edge towards the Lord's castle?" She yelled over the drooling dozen of men behind her.

A young man with bright red hair and deep blue eyes ran out of a bedroom while still tucking in his shirt into his pants. "Good morning Beauty!"

"It's the afternoon, silly." Beauty laughed.

"Oh well." Gus shrugged nonchalantly and swaggered over to her. He suddenly started to walk ridiculously out of the house. Beauty started to laugh very loudly as her lifelong friend gave her some joy in her life full of violent domestic abuse. "What's so funny? I'm just a walk'n to the forest's edge."

Gus walked back over to her and she punched his arm as she tried to stop laughing. She had to lean on his arm to support herself after that fit of laughter. Then Gus took her arm in his and they sauntered over towards the forests edge closest to the mansion on the mountain side.

They sat down beneath an apple tree that hasn't produced fruit in a long time. The shade felt good on the two friends as the late summer day was rather hot. Gus leaned his head on her shoulder and sighed. He had been worked harder than a pack mule for the last few years or so. Now being 20 years old, Gus was becoming a fine huntsman and now have women actually wanting to marry him.

The imagined some of the most beautiful women from the town begging for him to marry them and Gus not knowing what to do made her laugh. Gus smirked down at her, "What's so funny?"
"Oh, just the thought of you being overwhelmed by maidens begging for your hand in marriage because you're now a huntsman." Beauty wrapped an arm around Gus's shoulders and laid her head on his.

The two of them sat like that for a few hours as they talked about their daily lives. Gus didn't have many chores to do, unlike Beauty, since the other 13 huntsmen did all the work before Gus even woke up. That meant that Gus would have to train twice as hard as he always did to make up the labor he missed. He did have good hearty meals every night to give him back his strength for the next day, but the meals always knocked him out so he couldn't wake up in time anyway.