Jacob's Fractured Fairy Tale

Perspective of the Beast’s Father

Earth. Birthplace of the human race. My race was content on our planet, but someone wanted to rule the universe. He had made a machine that can still destroy entire planets. Me and my comrades had his forces stopped for the time being. Or so we thought. The enemy leader had slipped our lines, but we didn’t know this until we heard the distant hum of a machine. The machine that had destroyed many planets. We got there just in time. He was setting up his machine in space and he had not visited the planet. But once again, we were mistaken. A deeper secret has surfaced in the past centuries. Our worlds have met before.

Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a beautiful palace, but she was unhappy – she knew she would be queen, but she had to marry a man first. One day, she saw a handsome young man. When she returned to the palace, she told her father all about him. His father was suspicious and said he would have to go to meet him before he approved of him. The next morning, he and a company of his best guards set out to find the man, but there was just one problem; They didn’t know where to find him. They asked many people, but no one knew where to find him. At last, they found an old man who said:

“The man you seek lives on Smoke Mountain; The most dangerous mountain ever!”

All of the guards shivered in fear. Even the king looked worried, but he shook it off. He wanted his daughter to be happy.

Three days later, the princess still had not heard from her father. The queen was about to send out a search party in a few hours.

“He’s probably having a nice time and doesn’t want to leave,” She assured herself. Suddenly, she heard the beating of wings. A raven, black as night smoothly sailed by her room and dropped a scroll on her windowsill. With dread in her heart, she reached over and picked it up. Hands trembling, she picked it up - it said: If you value you and your father’s life, you WILL NOT send out a search party to look for the king. He is in custody and is fine…. For now. As for the guards, they are dead, slain by my pets, the horrible griffin. ONLY you can come and come as soon as possible. If you are not here in 3 days your father will DIE!

That night, after stopping the guards by telling that an army was advancing from the north, ready to attack, she set out by moonlight, taking nothing but a little food. She travelled, day and night to get there. She looked up at the black castle, after nights of traveling, and felt fear run through her.

Back at the palace, a angry mob was demanding to see the princess .All of the men wanted to marry her, but the queen said that the princess was in her room and not to be disturbed. Finally the queen was so fed up, she burst through the door - the princess was not there. On her bed there were two notes. She read the princesses first, then read the other one. The princess was gone.

After hearing the terrible news, every soldier and man who liked the princess set out for the castle. The man who rescued the princess supposedly would become king.

Back at the castle, the Beast had taken the princess hostage, however, he was not in his beast form. He was in the form of a young man. When he had came out to greet her, the princess had fallen into some kind of trance. Though everyone thought he was a cold blooded killer, it really wasn’t his fault – when he turned into his beast form, he just lost control. Once, he was walking by a village, when unexpectedly, he turned into a beast. Before he knew what was happening, he had laid waste to the village, killed the inhabitants and destroyed the buildings. That is why he had built a castle. He had made the walls thick, so when he turned into a beast, he couldn’t break through and kill more people. In many ways, it was his personal prison – his griffins brought him his food. Not 3 nights ago, he had killed 30 soldiers when they had attacked his castle. But now an army was coming to slay him, free the king and destroy his only hope of never becoming a beast again – he had to kiss the princess, but he was afraid that he would lose control and kill her, like so many before. Letting loose a horrible roar, he called all of his wolves, griffins and bears to his command. They would have to be quick if they were to prepare for an attack. Only if it was absolutely necessary would he fight. He had killed so many. On this planet and on his.

Perspective of the Beast

I was originally born on a planet, not in this solar system. Everyone was like me. Like a monster. Life was good, though and our race thrived. But there was a single beast who wanted to rule the world. A civil war broke out and I knew, that it would only be a matter of time before our race would perish. I fought, long and hard. I saw many of my comrades die. While most of our race stayed behind to fight an almost pointless war, a group of beasts and I left and scattered ourselves across the universe. All of our species were extremely skilled scientists, so I built myself a human body to disguise myself, but something went wrong in the process. A radioactive wave was released with enough power to destroy a planet. Luckily, I was in an underground chamber 30 000 feet beneath the earth, so I saved myself from getting killed, and the world from being destroyed. But I suffered the consequences. Now, I am like this and only a kiss can break the horrible truth I call a curse. I do not know for certain, but I have seen the signs, heard the howls at night. Yes , I think the enemy leader is searching for me across the universe. Now I know the truth. The civil war is over, but the wrong side won. I have seen the streaks in the sky that humans call a comet, but I know what they are. Those are shuttles, designed by my race. The humans are very much like our race. Capable of great violence. Now they are coming for me. My griffins, wolves and bears will not be enough to stop them. There are too many of them. I had hoped it would not come to this, but it is almost unavoidable. I will fight.

The queen looked on at the advancing troops with a new desperation – now her husband AND her daughter were missing. It would only be a day before they reached the castle. Almost there, she said to herself.

“Captain,” Said the queen “begin our attack!”

The Beast could hear them coming. With his intensified hearing, he could here the clang of the soldier’s iron armour against the hard ground. With a deafening roar he ordered his small force to attack. They surged forward with roars, snarls and piercing shrieks from the griffins. Within moments, he heard the surprised shouts of the soldiers and a roar of pain from a wolf. With a snarl, he changed himself into a man and ran into one of the castle turrets and surveyed the battle. Things were not going well for his forces.

The remaining soldiers surged forward after destroying all the animals that had attacked them. Now they pressed forward, determined to free the king and the princess. The creature that was holding the king and princess hostage had to be dealt with.

“We must kill the creature that has taken my husband and daughter hostage,” Said the queen “Kill it at all costs!”

Back at the castle, the princess had gotten free and then had freed her father from his cell. She had heard a faint rumbling in her cell, coming from a tower. She and her father ran up and saw the beast entering a large, oval shape. He looked into her eyes one last time and said:

“I can’t stay here. Don’t tell anyone of my presence here ever. You will never see me again. Take this.” He tossed a small, gold chain with words engraved on it. “Goodbye.”

With that he closed the door of the pod and blasted off into space.

“Noooooooo!” screamed the princess. She looked at the little gold chain in her hand. On it, it said the words, They are coming for you.

Suddenly, the princess woke up in her bed. Quietly, she tiptoed over to her parent’s room. Her father was still there. She breathed a sigh of relief. Just a dream, she told herself over and over again. As she climbed back into bed again, her hand touched a small, hard object. It looked like the gold chain from her dream. With trembling hands, she turned it over. On it were the same words that she didn’t understand. They are coming for you? What does that mean? She thought. As she lay there, confused, little did she know that she would never rise to see the next day again….