The Prince's Cure

When it all began (The Past)

The Chef ran through the night, clutching the son of the assassinated King... But that's not where our story begins.

For years ago when Jacob Grazheart was first appointed as King of a small country at the very tip of the Italian boot. A woman of poise and beauty had offered her hand to him in hopes of becoming Queen. However, the king knew this and refused, saying he wanted to marry for love and the prosperity of the country. The woman promised he would come around soon.

Years had passed and through every year and every month the woman would come willingly giving her hand, only to be turned down every time. Throughout, that same time King Jacob had met a maiden, named Rose Loving, from the village nearby who was kind to everyone and treated him not only as the king, but also a person.

When the woman found out about this she was furious and tried to get the King to see reason. Only the King would not hear of it. The night before the wedding the woman had tried again to make the King see differently. Jacob had told the woman to leave and never come back, for he would never marry her in any lifetime.

"You will regret this one day," the woman had said before leaving the castle, however; not for good.

The day of the wedding was going smoothly so far for everyone in the kingdom was happy especially the King and his new Queen. Only the woman that the King feared and had sent from the castle the night before hoping to have seen the last of her.

When the festivities were in full swing the woman had showed up wondering who had taken her King from her. To say that the King and Queen were surprised is true enough, for the King had told his bride all about the woman and her proposals along with what all she had said last night.

"I told you to never come back," said the King standing from his throne to protect his new bride.

"I came to see the woman you chose over me," the woman said standing in front of the newly weds.

"Well you have, now leave like I told you to do before and never come back," the King had said.

"I will, but remember this as a little parting gift from me to you," said the woman with a wicked smile.

"What is it," asked the Queen standing behind her King.

"The royal son whose first breathe is his mother's last. Shall be doomed to become a beast at night until their sixteenth birthday and then cursed to become one both day and night. Until a maiden of beauty and a fair heart can love with blind eyes. However, the curse shall be lifted if the King marries right with his next wife," and with that the woman was gone. The King and Queen didn't think anything of it, for no one knew that the woman was capable of magic especially enough to put a curse of such force on the new couple.

A few months had past since that day and the Queen came to bare an heir to the throne. The royal family was overjoyed with the news. However, a few months after conception the Queen became very ill. The King feared for his wife and unborn child and didn't want anyone to know for the woman's haunting words from his wedding day had come back to him.

Both King Jacob and Queen Rose agreed to only the doctor and one other soul should know what had happened in case she did breathe her last while bringing the child into this world. They decided to tell the chef for not only was he the royal cook, he was also a trustworthy friend to both the King and Queen. The King had the chef promise to take the child away if both of them were to leave the earth before the child took the throne. Chef Leo had promised to do so and raise the child as his own if both the King and Queen had passed before then.

The time came for the Queen to give birth, the king wouldn't leave his ill wife while she delivered and both her and the child were fine. However, Queen Rose didn't survive the birth of their son, Adelric, and that night he turned into a beast for the first time of many. Two years had passed since the birth of the Prince and the death of the Queen. The woman had returned with the same proposal as before the King wed.

"The answer is still and always will be no. Now leave and never return that way I can raise my son ALONE in peace." Said the King turning his back to the woman.

"If I can't have you than no one else will either. Your son will also never live to see another day, let alone the maiden who can end his curse," the woman yelled throwing a knife at the King's back.

The King had know that this would happen one day after his wife's passing and had informed a guard that if he was ever killed in any way, before the child took the throne, to run and inform the royal chef, for the chef would know what to do after that. Chef Leo had told the guard to not worry about the child and go help in the hunt for the killer.

Eighteen years had passed after King Jacob was killed and Chef Leo had run with Prince Adelric. Adelric had grown up as the child of a butcher named Ace not knowing that he was really the lost Prince of the Italian speaking country of Taruses. Chef Leo had went to great lengths to keep him hidden from the one who killed his father and had given Adelric his curse, the he left the country for America. Adelric had learned very little about his country from school and all about his curse from Leo. For he knew that on the sixteenth birthday he would become home schooled for his last years of school and hope for his maiden to find and break the curse laid upon him.

His sixteenth birthday had come and gone with no sign of his beautiful maiden. Adelric started to loose hope of her ever coming for him. Chef Leo had seen this and knew it was time he knew the whole truth about everything, but in order to do so he needed to hire help for the shop. That way he could tell and teach Adelric everything he knew and to keep a closer eye on him.