My Son, the Beast

a flash fiction entry

This story is for the Wandering Prompt given in Saved as Draft Episode 51. It is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast as told by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

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First I lost my husband. Then I nearly lost my son. One fairy was our undoing; the other, the harbinger of our greatest joy.

As soon as I was recovered from childbirth, I left my infant son behind in the care of his godmother. I’d have gone earlier if I thought it wise. The same war I departed to had already claimed his father, and I regret that I had not been with him during his passing. Still, the time of our separation yielded us a healthy heir.

When my son was old enough, he joined me on the battlefield. For all the pain brought on by years of seldom reunions, nothing brought me greater joy than watching him become a man firsthand. He was a man any mother would be proud to call her son, and I carried the knowledge that this boy would one day be a king that could defend the honor of his nation.

We ended the war together, he and I.

My son’s godmother had accompanied us to the battlefields, and she returned home with us as well. It was during this victorious journey that, to all our shock, she propositioned my son for marriage.

I waited in quiet horror for his response, wondering all the while whether she’d been grooming him for this moment all his life. Would he eagerly say yes?

He found her proposal as vulgar as I did. I was relieved.

It did not last.

The woman transformed my son into a hideous beast right before my eyes. She told me that breaking the curse required an act of true love performed by a maiden, and that if anyone else learned of his identity, the transformation would be permanent.

I had not even known she was a fairy.

I could not fathom the reason for this curse, and so I was terrified of what else she might do to myself and my son. I could not bring him home with me, for fear there would be talk of his identity. Even should I hide him, how would I ever find a maiden to love him as he was? His heart was worthy, but his countenance would surely repulse any maiden who would otherwise be a suitable match. Twenty years I’d fought for my kingdom, and I’d rather the war had never ended than my small family go through this.

Just as I was despairing to hope, another fairy arrived.

I was not eager to trust her.

This fairy brought promises, but most were vague. She told me she could protect me from the evil fairy who had cursed my son, and she promised that she could orchestrate the undoing of the curse.

I was nearly willing to agree to this when she told her that her plan involved turning all of our servants at the castle to stone.

How could I agree to such a thing? To take from them their lives under the assumption that the curse could be broken, just to protect my son’s identity and thus prolong the curse’s breaking?

I did not give her my answer shortly.

In the end, I felt there was no better option.

I parted ways with my son with a promise that the curse would be broken, despite having doubts myself.

I do not think he believed me.

I wondered for a long time whether I should give up and return to him, so we could at least spend our lives together. His mother would always love him, if no one else.

It seemed an eternity passed during our separation.

Only after I left did this good fairy tell me more of her plan. She told me of a niece born to a mortal king who was targeted by this same evil fairy–this fairy who was seemingly obsessed with becoming queen of a mortal realm. The girl’s mother had been imprisoned for the same crime the evil fairy sought to commit, and this good fairy had rescued the girl before the evil fairy had her killed. A wealthy merchant, father to twelve children, unknowingly welcomed the girl into his family after his own daughter had died, the infants swapped by the good fairy before the nursemaids noticed.

I watched in desperate silence as the good fairy ruined the merchant’s life, all for the sake of bringing the girl to my son.

I wondered at the danger of such a choice when the fairy let the girl meet my son in his true form in their dreams. Certainly she was working against our plan by appearing in those same dreams to warn the girl to not be deceived by appearances.

I thought all was lost when my son allowed the girl to return to her family. She stayed for months, and the men courting her five sisters immediately shifted their attention to her. Her doting brothers begged her to stay longer. Her family was wealthier than ever before thanks to the treasure my son had sent home with her father. What maiden would want to return?

Yet she did return, knowing that my son the beast would otherwise die of a broken heart.

She was nearly too late.

It was her return that saved him.

As he slept, the good fairy and I returned with her father.

The curse on our servants was undone.

The family that raised the girl was brought to us, as well. We told them the truth of the girl’s identity.

Eventually, the girl’s fairy mother was also returned.

My son had already known such hardship. I never would have wished any of this upon him. To see the joy he shared with this girl now and the wisdom they will bring to their rule, I am more than content. My heart is full, and our families will be safe in love forevermore.