Part 1

Once upon a time there was a prince. All throughout the land he was known as pitiless, spoiled, but flawless in looks and appearance.

One day, a witch who had heard word of the young royal thought he could not possibly be as flawed of heart as his people said, so the witch decided to give him a test to decide whether he was really worthy of his position as a royal, surrounded by wealth. The witch took on the appearance of a poor hag and went to the palace on a stormy night. She asked the prince for shelter at the palace, and the prince who did not know who the hag truly was, turned her down, and instead of giving her shelter, he laughed at her plea.

The witch then realized what a terrible king he would one day make and how correct the townspeople were. She knew she had to do something, for only she had the power to prevent him from continuing his terrible rein. The witch, angered, showed her true form and did something she had not had to do for many centuries.

She cursed him. She cursed him to lose his beautiful outward appearance and, instead, for him to look just as foul outside as he did inside. She cursed him to be this way until the day he found someone who was so beautiful inside that she could love him-and him her. She cursed him to either have his curse broken this way in exactly the next one hundred years or he will die. This task with his changed appearance seemed impossible due to his terrible personality which was the only thing he could use to get someone to fall for him.

After many, many long years in his beast form with no light in sight, he lost hope.

For who could ever learn to love a beast?