The Mermaid and the Beast: Prologue

The Mermaid and the Beast

Prologue
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We grew up listening to fairy tales--a man who helped a lady turn straw into gold, a witch tricked children into coming inside her candy house, a glass slipper that changed a miserable woman's life forever. As for as I was concerned, I didn't think that anyone would invent new fairy tales. I mean, we hear them all the time, through many different versions and adaptations and they're all beginning to sound boring.
But when I got a really bad fever and my great-aunt came to visit me, I begin to think I was wrong.
"Hi, Aunt Julie."
"Hey, honey," greeted my great-aunt, coming in through my door. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm sweating like a pig, I get thirsty all the time and I can't even get up to open the window!"
Great-Aunt Julie went around my bed and opened the window for me.
"It's a nice breeze out today," said my great-aunt. "It'll cool you down for a little down." She went back around my bed and pulled up a chair to sit down next to me. "Did you take your medication?"
"About two and a half hours ago," I spoke. "I don't think it's made any progress."
"You have to have patience when it comes to healing, dear. Sometimes, it doesn't heal overnight, but I know you're going to get better and I happened to know a cure."
"Come on, Aunt Julie," I groaned. "Not another fairy tale."
"Yes, it is. But it is a tale that you would not believe." Aunt Julie pulled up a old and almost worn out composition book.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's a fairy tale among all fairy tales, because I have been writing it since I was your age."
She seems so enthusiast about wanting to share her story that she wrote for a long time. I'm not sure if it may worth listening to, but...what the heck. Anything to take my mind of that fever for a while.
Aunt Julie opened her book and begin her story. I stopped talking to rest my voice and I begin to listen.

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It all began with a horrifying hurricane. A 12 year-old prince was celebrating his birthday down at sea with his mother and father, who is a gracious king and queen from a kingdom in the middle of the land. The crew had tried their hardest to keep the sea from sinking but it was no use. The storm was proven to be too powerful for the ship that the winds has taken the ship into the rocks, causing it to sink.
The crew and the royal family managed to hop into the lifeboats on time, but they unable to find the prince in a roaring storm.
The prince was knocked unconscious and fell into the raging waters. The prince slowly gains consciousness to discover that he is underwater but he is unable to swim and lost his strength because of the currents. He is about to accept his fate but then something comes toward him. He was trying to figure out what is it as it gets closer and closer, but he lost sight and begin to drown.
He was surrounded in darkness and believes that he is near death's door but then a voice is heard from the distance and it becomes louder and clearer. Finally, he opens his eyes and sees a young girl with long brown hair and blue eyes trying to wake him up.
"Who--who are you?" asked the young prince.
"I cannot tell you my name," spoke the girl. "But I am glad that you are alive."
"You saved me?"
The girl nodded. The prince slowly gets up and discovers that the girl is a mermaid. Her tail shines her mixture of aqua, teal and purple scales, which is one of the most beautiful things that the prince has ever seen.
Suddenly, they hear people calling out the prince's name. In fear, the young mermaid turns away and immediately jumped into the shore. The prince struggled to keep up his balance to catch her, but he is still to weak from the trauma he underwent.
The crew was glad that they found him alive, but the prince never founded himself joy when he wanted to know the mermaid's name. He has never told anyone about the mermaid for fearing that if someone had knowledge of her existence, then someone would track her down and do harm to her. But little did he know that he is being watched by a sea witch, who craves for the young mermaid's beauty and the prince's heart.
As the kingdom grieve for the death of their beloved king and queen, the sea witch, disguised as an old blind woman, comes near the prince and gives him a rose. The prince almost touched the rose when suddenly, he receives a vision from the mermaid, from the moment that she saved his life and her scales shined by the sun. The scales revealed that the rose is ridden with a curse. As of result, the prince pushes the woman and demands for her arrest. The woman relieved herself as a beautiful woman with long black hair with pale skin and dark green eyes that shows her evil from within. Now filled with rage and anger from not receiving the prince's blessing, she utters a chant that creates a curse inside the prince's body. The curse painfully turns the prince into a monster.
The kingdom searched all over the land to search for the witch who cursed the prince, but she escaped successfully and was never seen since.
In land and sea, the mermaid and the beast only known each other for a short time, never knowing their names. Even as the beast he wanted to search for the mermaid and ask for her name, but he never left his castle because of his monstrous form.
Years passed by, they grew up to be adults, never attempt to leave their home to the outer surface, but one day, they will have to as their fate to meet again gets closer.
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To Be Continued...