Beautiful: A Faery Tale

The Curse of Beauty

Prince Guy came thrashing through the trees, but he had arrived minutes too late. All that was left of Vienna was the little mirror she had so loved to carry around, which was now lying on the ground at the very edge of the cliff.

He sank to his knees, crying out as sobs wracked through his body, "No! My Vienna! My beautiful Vienna!"

The celebration stopped abruptly. They had not noticed the Prince's arrival, but they sure noticed now, his grief tainting the air around him. Now that the initial excitement had worn off, they were sad for Prince Guy's loss, but they felt no guilt or remorse for having caused it.

Oh, but they couldn't take such a beautiful man being in pain. The red head cautiously walked over to him and knelt beside him. He was too grief ridden to notice her at first, but when she reached out to awkwardly pat his arm, he flinched from her touch and jumped to his feet.

Wiping furiously at his eyes, he pounced on her "Don't you ever touch me again, you rotten hideous creature!" before turning his rage on the rest of them, who had been watching in silence, "All of you! Don't even come near me or my kingdom again! Do you hear me?!"

They gasped, shocked. They had never seen him behave or speak like this before. Maybe he was still under her spell.

Tentative, the beautiful peasant girl stepped away from the mob, trying to reason with him,

"But Prince Guy...We saved your life. That retchid little witch had you under her evil spell. You--" she began, only for him to cut her off.

"SPELL? SPELL?!" he boomed, "Why on earth would you think that?"

An older woman stepped forward to explain, "Why, my prince, simply because no creature as grotesque as she could land a man as rich and as beautiful as you."

"Grotesque?" he spat angrily, 'She was--is-- the most beautiful woman I know. Far more beautiful than any of you could ever be."

Gasps filled the space around them.

"But certainly not more beautiful than I!"  said the beautiful peasant girl, "For I am the fairest of them all."

He stared at her in disbelief.

"Fairest of them all?! That title belonged to Vienna, and she is dead! You are the ugliest of them all!" he said cruelly.

"Liar! Blasphemer!" she yelled at him.

"Do you dare call your future king a liar?! I can tell you that I dare not lie to you! To any of you! Ugly is as ugly does, and you've all done a really ugly thing! So why should you not be called what you are?!"  he answered.

"But prince Guy! You know not what you say! You must be still under her spell!" said the red head, anxiously.

"Oh my dear, I know exactly what I say! Especially when I say that Vienna was the most beautiful maiden I've ever laid eyes upon, inside and out, and that is why I chose her over you grotesque, cruel, wenches! You want to talk about spells and witches? Well I'll show you a spell. No, spells are for witches, and I'm no witch. How about a curse for you all, eh? You're welcome back into my kingdom. In fact, I'll even lay out a welcome mat for you all. But mark my words---all of your children from this generation on will be as beautiful as you all are on the outside, and just as ugly on the inside. They will bring you nothing but pain and strife until the day you die. From this moment on, you will all age drastically and be as hideous on the outside as you are on the inside. Vienna will hunt you all until the end of time, as will I when I die. And why? All because you want to be beautiful? Because you were jealous of the only truly beautiful person left in this kingdom? And the most tragic thing of all is that after all this, you still do not see the error of your ways! You all disgust me!" he declared loudly, before turning around and walking silently  back to his castle.

They all screamed. But,  screaming was all they could do about it. The curse had been set. They had already began aging, and their children would be beautiful.

 THE END

No princesses were harmed in the making of this story.