[beauty and the beast au]

[angstennou]

Who: Beast!Nephrite, Belle!Ami
What: Ami meets the Beast
When: Around 18th century?
Where: Beast's castle, somewhere in France?


One day, a proud prince called Nephrite and his companions were hunting when a poor-looking woman appeared in the woods. She begged the prince for one of the rabbits they had caught to feed her children, and offered the prince a rose as payment. He laughed at the woman. Why would he want such a puny rose? The woman revealed herself to be a powerful enchantress then, transforming him in a beast to match his inhumane character, and the servants into inanimate objects.

Some time later, a doctor got lost in the woods after visiting a patient in a distant village and ended up in the beast's castle. The beast demanded that she cured his curse, but as it wasn't a medical condition, she couldn't do anything to help him. Angry, the beast locked her up in the castle's dungeon.

Comments

[innerflow]

Her mother hadn't come home. This was doubly alarming when her mother was really the only person Ami had in the village. Most of the villagers found her strange, wanting to follow in the footsteps of a woman doctor, and always reading and studying.

But it wasn't as if she couldn't take care of herself. Ever since Ami was very young, there had been times Mama had to stay out overnight with someone sick, or a woman in childbirth, or even a dying elder. So Ami didn't worry until a full night and day had gone by, without even a message. Mama always sent messengers when she could.

Ami decided to search the nearby woods. And although she'd never realized there was such a place so close to them, she somehow found herself near a castle. It would have been a perfect place to shelter for a day or two if the weather had gotten bad.

"Mama?" she called out into the empty darkness. "Are you in here, mother?"