Chapter Text
winds howled louder than the wolves outside. ragged branches slammed against palace walls. violent gusts of the icy blizzard overhead littered the once lush earth with frigid ice and snow.
and yet everyone inside the palace was comfortably warm, tucked away from the bitter cold within it's thick, stone walls. the residents bustled about, the maids cleaning up, the cooks organizing preparations for the next day's breakfast, the majordomo checking in on the supply count, and the king sat calmly on one of the arm chairs by the fire as he read.
all was relaxing, for a while at least. but that peace was soon broken by the sudden slam of a door, the once faint whistles of the wind now as clear as day. the king sprung to his feet, taking his blade and walking to the source of the disruption.
there, before him, sat a frail old man, trembling from near deathly frostbite and sickness. the king made a small face of disgust.
"who are you, and what business do you have coming to my palace," the rosette demanded.
a moment passed before he received an answer. "i am but a poor traveler, your majesty.. i have been out in the storm for far too long.... i fear much longer will cost me my life. i ask but one night of shelter," the beggar rasped, voice coarse with strain and disuse.
the king narrowed his eyes skeptically, huffing, "and what would a beggar such as yourself be able to give me that i don't already have?"
the man before the king paused, reaching into his coat and pulling a single rose. the velvety, crimson petals were a starch contrast to the rest of the pristine palace. "i offer a single rose in return for my stay, your highness."
the king scoffed at this. "a rose? you realize i could grow a hundred of the damned things in my gardens if i so pleased," he spat. "i will not waste my resources on a beggar. leave now, before i have my guards escort you out."
the beggar sighed, shaking his head slowly. "my king. my poor, cold hearted king. that was a mistake." he stood, his appearance melting from that of a beggar to a sorcerer. and a respected one at that. he glared down at the king. "do you have anything to say before i give you your punishment, your highness?"
the king dropped to his knees, completely shell shocked. "forgive me. please! i didn't mean a word i said! you can stay for as long as you would like!" he begged. if there was one thing he feared, it was the wrath of someone more powerful than himself. and the sorcerer? well, it was to be expected that he was more powerful than the king.
"a simple apology does not restore the lack of compassion and kindness in one's heart, your majesty. you've shown just how heartless you are. there is no forgiveness when it comes to something like that." the sorcerer held up the rose, stroking it's petals gingerly. "although.. there may be a solution..."
and in that moment, nothing but pure fear ran through the ruler's veins. his heart seemed to stop, and his breath hitched. he could do nothing except watch as the people around him, one by one, were turned into regular household objects. one by one, the few people the king had grown to call "family" became objects he wouldn't be able to differentiate from the inanimate versions of themselves unless he were to speak to them. and when that was done, it was his turn. only he wasn't turned into a candelabra, or mantle clock. he was turned into something more horrid and utterly disgusting. a beast. a boar beast to be very exact.
the sorcerer did not stop there. to make things all the more difficult for the king, he (although not literally) froze time around the castle to keep it in the wintery season and erased it from history itself. maps, books, villages, cities, everything that had once had memory of this castle would no longer have any sign of it's ever being there. and with those memories of the palace went the memories of it's inhabitants.
to finish his "masterpiece", the sorcerer cast a single spell on the rose he'd been holding. "only if you can learn to love, and earn the love of another before the last petal of this rose falls will the spell be broken." and with that, the sorcerer vanished into thin air.
the king broke down as soon as his only way out of this mess vanished. as the cause of this problem vanished. he let out a strangled cry and took the rose, fleeing to his wing. that night, and the handful of nights that followed, the king stayed silent, sitting by the rose in hopes that this would all have been but a dream.
and every morning... he woke up to the same beastly body.