The Red Rose Among Thorns

PROLOGUE

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Vale there lived two groups of people, the humans and the faunus. The leader of this kingdom was a human prince named Adam. Adam, like most humans, didn't like the faunus, he called them animals or degenerates and said that they lied, stole, and cheated. One winter evening an old woman came to Prince Adam's castle asking him for shelter. He took one look at the woman's haggard appearance and tiger ears and turned her away. The woman warned him not to be fooled by outward appearances and asked for shelter again this time offering him a rose. When Adam turned her away this time the woman's outward appearance melted away revealing a beautiful enchantress. When he saw what she really looked like Adam tried to apologize but it was already too late. Using her magic the enchantress turned Prince Adam into a monstrous beast and turned his servants into simple objects. Her spell spread out into the kingdom so nobody would remember the prince or the servants. The rose she had tried to give him was secretly magical and would bloom until he was twenty one. Then the petals would begin to drop and when the last petal fell the curse would be permanent. The only way to reverse the curse was for Adam to fall in love with someone and earn their love in return. As the years passed he fell more and more into despair, nobody in the outside world had seen him for years. How was he supposed to find love now? Who could ever learn to love a beast?