Spilling Ink: The beautiful beast

Eyes like diamonds

Teeth like pearls

Skin like satin

Hair that curls

Make him gentle, make him fine, if he be all this…make him mine

And from the spell made by the young queen’s brew came a boy with thin limbs and features off skew. The queen gasped as she saw the hideous sight, trying hard not to deplore him. Trying, with all her might. She put him in room, dark colored with little light and kept the boy hidden for 20 years, out of sight.

Only the queen knew of the beast behind the door. She would hold him and bring him gifts from her kingdom’s store. The boy grew in that room never seeing his own face. He grew to be playful, wise and full of grace.

The boy, now a man, asked why he need stay behind the walls. The queen said he was so beautiful the world would be appalled. They would look at him and see their own ugliness within. They would hate themselves by hating him and see their own sins. The man asked why he had never seen his own reflection. The queen said this was for his own protection.

The man said why, what harm could it do. The queen said the man would become like others, vain and untrue. You will love yourself only with your eyes, and that is wrong said the queen, tis better to love with your heart which feels rather than sees beauty. The man was content with the answer and said he would stay in the unlit room for his own safety.

He told the queen she must be very beautiful indeed. The queen smiled but felt ashamed and full of greed. She had made the man to suit her own ideals and when he turned out to be different she locked him away. On her thrown of gold she sat high with pride, while her subjects suffered night and day.

The queen cried in her room, why am I like this? She cried on her bed and with her whole heart made a wish. Make me more like the man, humble and pure. If there be a way from these evils, let me find the cure.

The day after that the queen went to the man and said, “to you there is something I must tell.” I made you from a brew; I made you from a spell and when the spell went wrong I banished you to hell. The man seemed puzzled for he lived joyfully. How can this be hell, when you have done so much for me?

“I would have loved you more, if the spell went as it should. I would have given you all of me, and more if I could.”

The man asked do you love me now with your heart? The queen said yes, for you are kind, gentle, loving and smart. The man asked the queen to give the man some light. So he may for once, gaze upon the queen’s sight. The queen lit a candle and stepped into the glow. Upon seeing her beauty the man bowed his head low. My queen, he said, to me your heart has been fair. You have shown me love, mercy and that you care.

The queen realized that there had been a change in her. And from this feeling something began to stir. The queen took the man outside and proclaimed:

“I am in love and things will no longer be the same.”

She was kinder to subjects; her people were amazed. All across the lands, the people gave her praise. For she was different, her heart was now true. Now longer drenched in vanity, away her problems flew.

On the day the man and she wed, she was happy, of this you can be sure. For she loved him and he loved her.