Dressed in a grand golden ball gown, Beauty ascended the grand staircase to her beloved Beast.  He looks up at the vision as she carefully takes each step.  Her gorgeous chestnut hair pulled back made her look the part of his queen but something about his Beauty was different.  She is smiling but her hazel eyes tells him another story.  His beauty had been crying.

It had only been a few short years since his Beauty has come to live with him.  She had come to pay her father’s debt to him.  When she first came to his castle, Beauty had been a very awkward thin girl of thirteen with only a promise of the true beauty she would blossom into.  She had also come to him dressed in rags on a much underfed steed.  Since her stay in his magical castle, Beauty had grown into a beautiful woman, both inward as well as outward.

Beauty hated the Beast at first.  Then she had learned to feel pity for him.  The Beast made Beauty comfortable in his magical castle.  She wanted for nothing.  The castle catered to her every whim as well as the unseen servants.  Beauty always wore the grandest gowns and had eaten the dishes that rivaled the ambrosia of the gods.  Beauty found that she had grown into the promise she had been guaranteed.  Beauty had become busty and now had curves for days.  Her mousy brown hair had become a shiny chestnut color.  Even her muddy brown eyes became a clear hazel color with hints of green.  Beauty still felt her looks doesn’t rival that of her three sisters.

Beauty still thought of her family often.  She has learned to adore her Beast but her family is where her true heart lies.  Beauty was close to her two brothers Anton and Louis but her sisters were beyond regal for Beauty to even get close to.  Felicia was the oldest and the fairest.  Marie was the stylish one and Anna was the cunning one.  Beauty was the youngest of the girls and the hardest working.  She is still very loyal to her widowed father and cared for the country house the family was forced to live in after father’s ships went missing at sea.

When word came to them that one of the ships had returned the family celebrated.  Father asked Beauty and her sisters what they most desired.  Felicia wished for the grandest set of pearls imaginable.  Marie wanted a hat made from the most exotic feathers.  Anna wanted a gown made of the finest silk but as for Beauty, all she wanted was a red rose.  Her sisters all laughed at her petty request.  Little did Beauty know that that rose would change her fate forever.

“What is troubling you, my belle?” the Beast gruff voice asked her through his sharp tusks.

Beauty blushed at the name the Beast has given her.  His large hand engulfs her small porcelain.  The Beast is careful of his claws as he does this.  Beauty looks up into his very blue and very human eyes, eyes that she has grown to love.  Beauty feels the Beast furry touch along her cheek.  She can’t seem to form the words without breaking her Beast’s heart.

“I miss my family.  I wish to see them if only for a week,” Beauty finally gets up the courage to tell her Beast.  Sadness fills the Beast Aquamarine gaze.

“Belle, I have told you before that you can’t go back.  You are not the same,” the Beast cryptically tells Beauty.  Beauty knew in her heart that she wasn’t the same girl that left the country to live in the strange luxury of the castle. Beauty went from being a homely little girl to a very opulent woman.

“I know I am not that same little girl, Beast.  Can you see it in your heart to let me return if only for a week,” Beauty responds to the Beast.  Beauty saw a tear come from the Beast’s eye and down his tan fur covered cheek.

“Promise that you will marry me upon your return?  If you do not return, I will die of grief and you shall inherit my riches among other things,” the Beast sobbed out.

“I do not wish to inherit your riches Beast.  I shall return after my week in over,” Beauty tells him as she strokes his dark brown mane.   “As for marriage… I cannot make you a promise but I shall return.”

“Oh my belle, just your return will keep this lowly Beast alive.  I give you this ring.  It will transport you back home.  Never let it out of your sight for this is a ring like no other.  Think of me as you return it to your finger and you shall return to me.  I have faith that you will return after the seventh day.  I also give you a truck of gifts for your family and another for gowns which you may wear.  You are not the child that you once were,” the Beast said, managing a smile that only the Beast could behind two protruding tusks.

“Oh Beast, you are so generous,” Beauty said as she hugged the large animal like man.  “I don’t really need the gowns.  My sister Felicia is my size if I remember correctly.  I can borrow from her.”

“Take the gowns anyway, my belle.  You are not the same person anymore,” the Beast said cryptically once more.  Beauty gave her Beast one final embrace before thinking of her home.  She put on the ring and disappeared.

Beauty didn’t appear in the house but in the woods that surround the small country house.  Everything seemed different to her, even the trees surrounding the house.  Then Beauty spotted Anton and Louis feeding two cows and five pigs.  Beauty’s heart pounded loudly at the sight of her home.  Beauty grabbed the two trunks and walked towards the small country house.

Louis looked up when he heard the rustling of leaves.  He tapped on Anton’s shoulder as the two stood still.  They watched as the tree burst open to the sight of a giantess dressed in regal finery pulling two large trunks.  Anton put his hand over Louis’s mouth to prevent a scream.   Anton recognized the giantess as his long lost sister, Beauty.  Beauty now stood taller than the two-story barn.  Her gown showed that she had developed in ways that the brothers never imagined.  Beauty was now a woman.

“It’s Beauty,” Anton whispered to his brother as he uncovered Louis’s mouth.  “And she has grown up.”

Louis just shook his head in disbelief.  Beauty had always been tall for her age but nothing like this.  As Beauty approached her brothers she realized what the Beast had meant.  The house that she once shared with her family, she could scarcely fit.  She was now the size of the two-story thatch roofed house.  How could this be?  The Beast was still big but of average size when father first stumbled upon his castle and later as Beauty had returned to be his prisoner.  How could this be indeed?  Beauty thought to herself.