Time passed, and Belle grew into the town beauty. These new townspeople treated her and her father with not a little suspicion however. Something about her just seemed odd, they decided. Perhaps it was the magnificent jewel hanging around her neck while she and her father lived in poverty. Perhaps it was her penchant for reading and her father’s eccentric ways and curiosity. There was one place she was especially curious about though, the forest north of her town. Some of her old books said that there might be an ancient palace there, surrounded by thorns…
She kept inquiring about it, asking all the townspeople what they knew, driving them nearly crazy with questions, until she had exhausted all that they knew, which was nothing. No one had traveled there in years, they said. No one could tell her why, either. There was just a lack of interest regarding it that pervaded the town, and coupled with that lack of interest was a general consensus that no one would travel there, because no one cared to. But these answers weren’t good enough for her. She had to know.
So one sunny day, after months of research and preparation, she set off on horseback, to solve the mystery of the forest. She told only her father where she was going, and as she journeyed onward, she couldn’t help but feel strange, as though the forest itself was watching her. At first she thought that maybe it was wild animals, but then she noticed that there weren’t any animals in this forest. So strange, she thought. And the further she went, the more the sunny skies turned cold and chill, until there was ice on the ground and her horse had to go slowly through snow drifts. Very abnormal for midsummer. But her heart compelled her forward even while something inside her urged her to turn back.
Finally, after days of journeying through this forest, her body was icy, her clothes were torn from being snagged on brambles and thorns, and she was starving, having run out of food a few days before. Half dead from exhaustion, she finally came upon a beautiful old palace, surrounded by roses. Dismounting from her horse, she knocked on the front door, and then collapsed on the front steps.
As she lay there unconscious, the door slowly creaked open, and something brought her inside. Hours passed, and finally Belle’s eyes fluttered open and she realised that she was in the grand palace, which was not in a state of disrepair, as Belle expected it would be after hundreds of years of neglect. All around her was magnificent furniture, great paintings, and curiously enough - a single rose, with only a few petals left. She realised that someone had taken great care of her, bandaging her wounds and nursing her back to health. But who could that person be? She heard the door creak open, and turned her head to find - a hideous beast!
She screamed in fear, only to scream louder as he began to speak to her in low, soothing tones to try and calm her down. Who was this beast that could speak?? But she soon realised that this was the person who had taken such gentle and compassionate care of her, and that though he looked frightening, he was very kindhearted. His selfless care of her was evidence of his loving nature. They began having long, intellectual conversations throughout the day as she recovered, growing closer together. One day he noticed the great jewel around her neck, and his huge eyes were clouded in confusion.
“I think I used to have a jewel like that once.” he said. But more than that, he would not say.
However, back in the town, her father grew worried as his daughter didn’t return, finally reaching out to the townspeople for help. And this was unfortunate, for you see, as Belle and the Beast’s love for each other grew, the spell surrounding his castle began to fade. The icy snow drifts had long since melted, and the town was not so far away as it once was. Where before the townspeople regarded the forest with indifference, now they began to remember ancient tales of a hideous beast. This, coupled with the worried babblings of Belle’s father, stirred up a violent mix of fear and hatred in their hearts, and they set out to destroy this beast.
They reached the forest easily, and hacked their way through the thicket of thorns. They ransacked the palace, looting what they could. Hearing the signs of the angry mob, the Beast made Belle promise to hide herself away, giving her the rose and asking her to take care of it for him. Finally, they came upon him. He was mighty and powerful, but even he could not take on a mob, nor did he wish to hurt any of them. They inflicted a great many fatal wounds upon him, and then they retreated to their town, satisfied that they were safe. Brokenhearted, Belle crept out of her hiding place with the rose and wept over the Beast’s dead body.
Cradling his head in her arms, the jewel around her neck touched the Beast’s forehead as she wished he was still alive. The jewel, imbued with the spirit of her dead mother, began to glow with a divine light, engulfing them both in its brilliance. When the light faded, Belle realised that she was no longer holding a beast in her arms, but a handsome prince, and the rose had transformed into a beautiful sorceress. The sorceress explained that their selfless love for each other had broken the curse that had disfigured his form for so long, while the jewel around her neck had brought him back to life.
The End
Author’s Note: I’ve finally reached the finale! I had a lot of fun tying these different stones into different parts of the class Beauty and the Beast tale. I liked having echoes of the past in this story, such as a town but the townspeople are different, or Belle being nursed back to health by the Beast instead of her mother. I also liked having little hints throughout the stories that point to these stones actually being the same gem. For example, I wrote that the Beast vaguely mentioned that he might have had the same stone that Belle was wearing, meaning the Cintamani and Syamantaka were the same, and finally finishing it off with the Cintamani also being the Nagaratna and saving the Beast’s life. I liked to think of it as the Sorceress orchestrating events to come full circle. I also had the Sorceress appear from the rose as a connection to another Indian myth, where Uloopi is transformed into a vine and Arjuna uses a magical ruby to restore her to her true form. I also wanted to emphasize that the Beast truly had changed from his selfish ways, when he lovingly took care of a stranger that just appeared on his doorstep, and nursed her back to life, and wouldn’t even defend himself against the townspeople. All in all, I had a lot of fun writing this storybook, and I hope you all enjoyed reading through it!
Image Source: Uloopi: The Naga Princess who Fell in Love with Arjuna
Sources:
Author: Devdutt Pattanaik
Author: Amar Chitra Katha
Author: Unknown
Author: W. D. Monro
The Penguin Book of Classical Indian Love Stories and Lyrics
Author: Ruskin Bond