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.

“Anton?  Louis?” Beauty couldn’t believe her eyes as she approached the barn.  Her brothers who she always remembered as being big and strong now stood as high as her lower thigh.  “It’s me, Beauty,” she said sounding very unsure of herself.

“Beauty?” Anton said as he looked up at the regal goddess.  Beauty smiled as she approached her two brothers.  She bent down so she could see their faces.  Anton and Louis couldn’t believe their eyes.  This very tall and regal lady was truly their little sister.  “It’s really you!  Papa will be so happy to see you again,” Anton said with a smile.

“The Beast has enchanted you,” Louis managed to say.  Beauty frowned as she looked down at her two small brothers.  Had the Beast truly enchanted her?  What would her sisters think of her monstrous size?  What of her father and his failing health?  Would her gigantic size push him over the edge?

“Now Louie!  We shouldn’t worry Beauty.  We should be celebrating her return.  Go fetch papa but warn him of Beauty’s… return,” Anton said, unsure of what he was going to say.  Louis nodded in understanding.  Anton stopped his brother before he could run off.  “Louie, I am also going to need your help clearing out the barn.  Beauty will need a place to stay,” Anton then tells his brother and Louis just nods, still in shock to see his sister again.

“Anton, you and Louie need not trouble yourselves.  I can sleep under the stars,” Beauty tells her brother.

“Nonsense sister!  You are home and thus need a place to stay.  I don’t think that you can fit in your own bed.  Louie and I will make a place for you in the barn.  The animals can use the fresh night air,” Anton tells his sister.

“Why she’s as big as a cow!” Beauty heard a familiar voice exclaim.

“More like an elephant dear sister,” Marie tells Felicia who stood wide eyed at the sight of their gigantic sister.

“No, methinks a whale,” said the cunning Anna.  The sisters three giggled.

“I don’t know, but the nerve she has showing up in such finery,” Felicia said rather rudely.  Beauty forgot the cattiness of her sisters.

“Those jewels have to be as big as doorknockers!  The nerve to be wearing a crown and she is such a common peasant,” Marie remarks on the tiara adorning Beauty’s thick chestnut hair.  Beauty felt hurt by her sisters’ hateful comments.

“Father’s heart is going to fail at the sight of this…monster,” Anna hissed out.

“Enough of that!” Anton shouted.  Anton and Louis loved their sister and hated how the other sisters treated Beauty.  It was evident that Beauty’s size was going to be the butt of their jokes.  Felicia greedily eyed the pearl necklace Beauty wore near her breasts.  Marie eyed the diamond and ruby broaches that held the pearls in place but it was Anna who spied the ring on Beauty’s finger. 

“How dare her Anton!  She shows up after three years dressed like a wolf in sheepskin!  Beauty has been nothing more but a servant!  She does not deserve such finery!  Don’t get me started on the fact that she is as big as our house!  The Beast has enchanted her,” Felicia ranted on.

“Here we are dressed like peasants!  Doing the work of peasants!” Marie said as she pulled on her muslin skirt.

“Wait till we tell the village of the giant witch,” Anna smugly said.  “They will not take kindly to your beastly prince.”

“Beauty,” Beauty’s heart pounded when she heard a familiar voice say her name.  Whatever malicious things her sisters said to her didn’t matter anymore.  Her father’s voice made her heart skip a beat.  “My you have grown into your given name,” her father said, looking up at her with a smile.  Beauty delicately picked up the old man into her embrace.  At that moment her sisters realized that Beauty was more than just big, she was strong as well.  They watched her with their mouths agape.

“Papa, I missed you so much,” Beauty said as she delicately put him back down on the ground.

“I miss you too dear,” Beauty’s father said kindly.  Beauty stayed bent down so that her father may look her in the eyes as a smile formed on her full pink lips.

“Papa, can’t you see that she is enchanted,” Felicia huffed out.

“Beauty had a lot of growing to do.  She was a child when she…” Beauty’s father couldn’t come up with the words.

“Oh papa, the Beast is not bad.  He is kind.  At first I didn’t like him but then I pitied him and now I consider him my friend,” Beauty said as she sat down on a clearing of ground.  “He has given me gifts that I may give on his behalf,” Beauty said as she put her hand on one of the trunks.  The trunk shrank down small enough so that her father may open it.  Anton and Louis flanked the old man as he opened the trunk full of gold and jewels.  The sisters eyed the contents greedily but remembered the trick the Beast’s magic played on them before.  Felicia’s pearl necklace turned into snakes.  Marie’s feather hat turned into birds and flew away.  Anna’s fine silk gown shriveled to threads.  The sisters knew too well of the Beast’s magic.

Beauty watched as Anna pulled out a ruby necklace from the trunk.  Anna eyed it suspiciously.  “It is quite alright Anna.  The Beast feels bad about the trick he played before.  There are no enchantments,” Beauty gently tells her sister.

“I want the ring you wear,” Anna said with greed in her eyes.

“It is not for me to give,” Beauty tells her sister.

“You heard her Anna, besides there are enough precious gems in this chest,” Beauty’s father tells Anna.

“You can’t wear that ring anyway Anna.  It may fit around your waist,” Anton said with a laugh.

Beauty watched on as her family admired their newly given fortune.  She thought of the Beast and of how much thought he put into their gift.  Beauty found a whole new love for her Beast as she let out a sigh.  Anton, Louis and her father looked her way and noticed that at that moment Beauty began to grow just ever so slightly.  Beauty seemed unaware of this as her enchanted garments and accessories grew with her as well as the unopened trunk.  The three men wrote it of as an illusion.  The more Beauty learns to love her Beast the more she and the enchanted castle grows.

Beauty never noticed that she grew but Louis nudged Anton aside.  There was not much known about the Beast except that father guessed him to be a nobleman.  Louis remembered an old tale their mother used to tell them.  Louis pulled Anton into the barn under the guise that they were clearing out the large structure.

“Anton, you remember when mother told us about giants,” Louis asks his brother.

“The old fairytale of the greedy giant prince?  I remember that one.  The giants used to roam the countryside long ago but no one ever figured out what happened to them so the elders concocted the story of the bratty giant prince.  What are you trying to tell me Louis?” Anton asks as he began to clean the cows’ pen.

“What if it was more than a tale?  What if the Beast is the bratty giant prince in disguise?”  Louis said as he began cleaning out the horse stalls.

“Beauty is big but she is not like the giants of old.  According to mother, those giants were big enough to hold a fully grown man in one hand.  Beauty cannot do that,” Anton said.

“You saw her grow when that look of serenity crossed her face.  Beauty herself even admits to caring for the Beast.  Maybe the Beast is the giant prince under a curse of some sort?” Louis said and Anton laughed as they went about their work.

Anton and Louis worked hard at cleaning out the barn.  Despite Beauty’s regal appearance, the barn was the only place large enough for her to fit.  Anton and Louis even made a large bed of straw while her sisters brought her the biggest blankets they could find under their father’s orders of course.  The three sisters refused to help their sister in any way unless their father demanded it.  Beauty drug the trunk into the barn.  Beauty had to duck before entering the barn which only cause laughs from her sisters as they enjoyed seeing her doing something so unladylike. 

Once her family left her be Beauty opened the trunk to find a nightgown and robe as well as dresses fit for everyday wear.  The only regal gown was the one she was wearing.  She took off the tiara and pearls as well as the golden gown and put it away in the bottom of the truck.  She then put on her nightgown.    Beauty felt more comfortable wearing the clothes the Beast provided.  Some of the dresses looked like the type she wore when she worked in her Beast’s beloved rose garden. 

Beauty lay down on the bed of straw.  She reached over and rubbed the horse behind the ears.  She looked at the size of hand next to the animal’s head.  Her hand was the same size as his head.  The horse didn’t seem to care that Beauty was much bigger than him.  Beauty appreciated this after the episode with her sisters declaring her to be the size of a whale.  Their cruelty still hurt Beauty even after all these years.  Now they seemed jealous of her fortune.  What if it was one of them that went to the Beast instead of her?   Surely they could never care for him the way she does?

Beauty fell asleep thinking of her Beast and how much she already missed him.  Again she seemed unaware as her body and clothing began to slightly grow again.  Beauty put the ring on her truck and went fast asleep.  She dreamt of the world around her getting smaller and smaller.  She dreamt that she was holding her father in the palm of her hand.  He stared up at her lovingly.  She stood in the grand ballroom of the Beast’s castle but it wasn’t quite as she remembered it.  The room seemed lively and shining as people Beauty had never known lined the walls.  Even though Beauty didn’t know the faces, they all seemed familiar to her.   Beauty watched as her father stood up on her golden gloved hand and bowed to a presence standing behind her.  Before Beauty could see who it was she woke to the morning light spilling in through the cracks of the barn walls.

Beauty dressed in her simple peasant type dress with her wavy chestnut hair braided back.  She even put on an apron with simple flat shoes.  Beauty looked in the mirror that had been in her trunk.  It was the magic mirror from her sleeping chambers in the Beast castle.  The frame of the mirror is made of pure gold, roses and rubies accented the piece.  The mirror was strangely out of place in a barn with stalls and hayloft.  The mirror only reflected the truth and Beauty still couldn’t believe the face starring back at her every time she glanced at herself in it.  Little did Beauty know that the mirror never lied and the pretty face looking back at her was her own true face.

Beauty hit the frame of the barn’s double doors as she exited the barn completely unaware of the small amount of growth she experience the night before from thinking about her Beast.  Even Anton was unaware that his sister seemed a small amount bigger today as he greeted her with a smile.

“I see that you have more sensible garments today Beauty,” Anton said as he looked up at his sister.  He did his best not to show his amazement at his sister’s size.

“Oh yes, you know I am more comfortable in this sort of dress than a ball gown,” Beauty said as she bent down to meet her brother’s eyes.

“I have made a fire for you Beauty.  That is if you can still cook for us.  Felicia, Marie and Anna can’t even boil water.  Usually Louis or I end up doing all the cooking after working in the fields.  Besides we miss your delicious meals,” Anton tells Beauty unsure if her size would be a hindrance.  Beauty understood her brother’s words when he asked if she could still cook.  Beauty knew that the fire wasn’t the kitchen hearth but an open fire close by.

“I would love to.  Do you have the ingredients where I can get to them?” Beauty said with a smile.

“Everything is set up on the wagon.  Pots and pan and enough eggs to feed … an army,” Anton said as he was about ready to slip out the word giant.

“Great, I’ll do the best I can.  Maybe after breakfast I can help you and Louis out in the field?” Beauty said.  She wanted to keep busy on her week’s stay with her dear ones.  She planned on spending all of her time with her father and brothers and maybe, just maybe she can get a little closer to her sisters?

Beauty sat down in the grass outside the open kitchen doors so that she may dine with her family.  Anton, Louis and her father took their plated food and decided to dine outside on the bench near Beauty.  The three men understood that Beauty felt out of place because of her great size and they didn’t want her to feel out of place in her own home.  The sisters talk among themselves as they looked out the doors at the sight.

“Look at all that food,” Felicia commented on the wagon full of dishes in front of Beauty.  The wagon was now Beauty’s dinner table instead of the great gilded table in the dining hall of the Beast’s castle.

“She will eat us out of house and home within a week’s time,” Anna said in a low voice and the other two sisters laughed.  Beauty’s father knew his three older daughters were no angels.  He only blamed himself for their bratty behavior.  The three sisters spent a good majority of their lives wanting for nothing whereas Beauty had to learn misfortune at a young age.  Before Maurice lost his fortune as a merchant his Beauty was always the gentlest of all his children.

“I will have enough of that Felicia and Anna,” Maurice scolds his daughters.  The three sisters stood up straight in their chairs and held back the laughter trying to escape.

“We have harvested the wheat and now we must plow the field,” Anton tells Beauty.

“Poor Nellie is not feeling so well today.  Guess we are going to have to wait till tomorrow brother,” Louis said as he hung his head low.  Louis dreaded plowing the fields and hoped to be done with it today but with the horse feeling under the weather, it appeared to be for not.

Beauty looked down at the plow on the edge of the field.  She had an idea that would please both her brothers.  She grabbed the reigns attached to it and slightly pulled realizing she had more than enough strength to pull the contraption.

“Perhaps I may take Nellie’s place?” Beauty tells her brothers.  “The plow is not that hard for me to move,” Beauty then said as she yanked the plow again.

Anton and Louis’s eyes widened as they realized Beauty’s size has also made her as strong as a horse if not stronger.  Beauty tied the reigns around her waist while Louis smiled as he hopped onto the back of the plow.  Anton joined him and Beauty began to pull.  The three siblings laughed as the field was plowed in record time due to Beauty’s great size and strength.

Felicia, Marie and Anna peeked over the sheets at the commotion coming from the field.  Maurice smiled at the sight of his daughter pulling the heavy plow.  The sisters gave their father a dirty look.

“Wolf in sheepskin, indeed,” Marie mumbled.

“Look at her doing a man’s work,” Felicia huffed.

“More like a horse’s work dear sister,” Anna said coyly and the other two sisters laughed.  Anna noticed that Beauty wasn’t wearing the ring she coveted so much.  The wheels in the petite Anna’s head were turning.  She wanted that ring; no she felt she deserved that ring.  “It would make a fine bracelet,” Anna whispered to herself as she quickly walked away from her distracted sister and father to the barn.

Anna found the ring sitting on top of the trunk.  She reached up to find that the ring was way out of her grasp.  Nellie whinnied behind her.  The poor old nag had not been in the best of health lately.  Anna glared at the horse as she grabbed a hoe.  Anna smiled when she realized the hoe was sufficient enough for her to get the ring.  Anna smiled when the bracelet sized ring fell into her hand.  Anna than put her prize in the pocket of her apron so that Beauty and the others may never know.

Anna admired the ring that belonged to her giant little sister.  Two roses encrusted in rubies and emeralds accented the gold ring.  Inside the ring words were engraved in a foreign tongue that Anna didn’t understand but to Beauty’s eyes it always said, ‘For my one true friend.  May our friendship bloom.’  Anna eyes only made out gibberish. 

Anna thought about what she could do with the ring.  Surely she couldn’t wear it as a bracelet as she originally planned.  A part of her didn’t want to see her sister angry.  Seeing Beauty plow the field this afternoon made Anna think twice.  Beauty was much stronger than even the healthiest work horse as she plowed the field in half the time it took poor old Nellie.

Anna sat by the stream of the creek with the ring on her lap.  She admired the size of the jewels that were bigger than any the king owned.  Anna, just like her younger brother Louis remembered that tale of the lost giant kingdom.  It was a bedtime story that their mother used to tell them when they were children.  Anna missed her mother who passed away when she was only seven.  Just like her sisters, Anna blamed Beauty for the death of their mother.

Anna remembered the day Beauty was born.  Anna had always been small but clever.  Beauty on the other hand was born a healthy size, bigger than most babies which Anna felt caused the death of their beloved mother.  Anna envied her younger sister as she grew up.  Beauty had always been tall for her age whereas Anna always endured comments about her compact size.  Beauty was even taller than Anna the day she runaway to the Beast castle despite the major age difference between the two sisters.  Father loved her sister so much that he refused to let her go.  Beauty had always been father’s favorite too and this thought infuriated Anna.

“I will make sure you never return to your precious Beast,” Anna mumbled to herself as she started digging a hole under the great willow.  Anna wrapped the ring up in her apron and buried the cursed bauble.

Beauty laughed with her brothers as they returned to the house.  Beauty barely broke a sweat as she plowed the field.

“Louie and I would draw you bath dear sister but we don’t have a wash basin large enough,” Anton said and quickly regretted his words.  He didn’t want his sister to feel any more uncomfortable with her size than she already is.  Beauty picked up on this and just smiled.

“It is quite alright Anton.  I shall go bathe in the lake once night falls.  I am learning to cope with my… situation,” Beauty hesitated to say.

“Speaking of your situation Beauty, are you wearing a shoe with a heel?  You seem a little taller than you did yesterday,” Louis pointed out as he did notice his sister’s new size.  Beauty lifted up the skirt of her long dress to reveal her flat shoes. 

“This is nonsense Louie, Beauty is still young and growing.  Remember that summer you went through a growth spurt?  The servants couldn’t keep the food on the table fast enough,” Anton said with a laugh.  “Beauty is no taller today than she was yesterday.”

“I don’t feel any taller,” Beauty said truthfully but Beauty was unaware of the magic that surrounded her.  Every time she felt love for her Beast the bigger she became.  Beauty didn’t think much of her Beast as she focused on her family.

“Big as the house!  Did you see her doing the job of a horse?” Marie tells Felicia as she stands in front of the mirror admiring the emerald necklace from the chest of treasures the Beast had given the family. 

Marie and Felicia were unaware of Beauty standing just outside the open window of the two story house.  Beauty stood eye level with the second floor windows of the family home and she could easily hear the hurtful words.  She peeked into the window to see Felicia and Marie trying on the jewels and primping their hair.

“She is only making a fool of herself dear sister,” Felicia tells Marie as she turns away from her reflection.  “We need new gowns,” Felicia said, changing the subject as she made a haughty pose.  Marie laughed but Beauty was disgusted by her sisters’ behavior.  Her sisters haven’t changed in the three years she has been gone.  This made Beauty sad.  She missed her Beast and just as she missed him, she grew ever so slightly.  Her eyes were still level with the window but her view changed so slight that she was completely unaware as she held her head low and went to the barn.

Anna thought the ring felt heavier as she dropped the apron into the hole.  Anna thought nothing of it as she covered up the deep hole.  She needed to do something with it.  Anna thought about running away from home but unlike Beauty, she will never return.  The ring will give her untold riches but just as Anna walked away, a sprout appeared in the soil where she had buried the ring.

Beauty played with the small food in front of her, barely able to eat a morsel.  She barely spoke while her sisters sat inside the house giggling.  Beauty knew that she wouldn’t have the spectacular feast or the grand settings with her family but she also never expected that she would be as big as the house she once lived in.  Maurice frowned when he saw his sad daughter.

After she had bathed in the lake, Beauty dressed in her nightgown and braided her hair.  Maurice stood at the barn door with a lantern.  Beauty smiled as she lies down on her bed of blankets and straw.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you the grandeur that you have grown accustomed to my Beauty,” Maurice tells his youngest daughter.

“Oh papa, it doesn’t matter, as long as I am here with you,” Beauty said as she lays her head down on the blankets she used as a pillow.

“You were always my smiling daughter.  Even when things were at its worst, I could always count on a smile for you,” Maurice tells her.

“Papa, can you tell me a bedtime story?  Just like before,” Beauty said and Maurice smiles.  Maurice knew of one story he had never told his youngest, his wife use to tell it to the older children when they were younger.  Maurice felt it was time to tell her of such tale.

“Well Beauty I have a tale for you,” Maurice said as he sat down on a nearby bale of hay.  “It’s the story of a prince that lived in the biggest and most shining castle in all the land.  The only reason the castle was so big is because the inhabitants were all giants.  In fact the whole kingdom was all giants.  It is believed that the giants were so big that a grown man could fit in the palm of one of their hands.”

“Papa, I don’t mean to interrupt but do you think that I am a giant?” Beauty asks as she was sure her father was telling her the story about a kingdom of giants for a reason.

“No dear, you have just grown bigger than most,” Maurice said with a fatherly smile.  “As I was saying, there once were giants in these lands.  They lived in peace with the humans much like the dragons do now.  The king and queen of the giants had a son.  The prince was the most handsome of the giants and also the most spoiled.  The giant prince had everything he ever wanted, the finest garments, the best steeds even though the prince was far too big to ride a horse, a staff of humans that kept him entertained and the best education but the prince became a brat.

The king and queen couldn’t quite figure out where they went wrong.  Even though they were giants, it wasn’t an uncommon sight to see the king or the queen helping the unfortunates whether it be giants or humans.  One time the king and queen single handedly rebuilt a village for peasants displaced by a terrible storm.  The king and queen did their best to set an example for their only son.

Misfortune hit the kingdom of giants when a giant slayer assassinated the king.  This devastated the queen.  The prince ascended to his father’s throne shortly after and that was when the giants were no longer allowed near the humans.  The new king declared that giants were far too superior to be living around such small and insignificant creatures that he made the commoners move back to the palace.  The queen fought her son’s actions but to no avail and eventually the queen succumbs to illness and died.  Then one day, without a word, the giants all disappeared.  No one knows what happened but it was rumored a sorceress put a curse upon the kingdom and all the giants because the prince had wronged her in some way.  It is said that the giant treated her like an insignificant and dismissed her from his palace,” Maurice tells his daughter.

“What an awful prince!” Beauty declared unaware of the pitch of her voice as Maurice quickly held his ears.  He smiles at his daughter.  “I would give him a few words,” Beauty then said in a lighter tone and Maurice let out a small laugh.

“You would my dear.  With that, I must wish you a goodnight,” Maurice said and kindly kissed Beauty’s cheek before leaving the barn.  Beauty went to sleep, thinking of her father’s story of the bratty giant prince.  Was he a real person?

Beauty dreamt of the Beast’s palace only it wasn’t as she remembered.  The walls weren’t crumbling and the great halls were bursting with activity as a flourish of servants moved about the place.  They all stopped and bowed as Beauty approached.  One kindly servant handed her a long steam rose, no doubt from the Beast’s garden.  Beauty smiles and nods at the gray haired man.  She walks on and notices a small ledge at eye level with little people coming in and out of small doors.  Beauty had noticed this small detail before in her Beast’s castle but dismissed the strange little chambers as nothing more than homes for brownies.  Even the small people bowed in her presence.  Beauty just nodded in return.

As she walked on, she noticed three ladies coming out of the small rooms.  They walked with their heads held high and the small servants stopped and bowed.  The three small ladies were her sisters all dressed in the same finery she was wearing but there was something different about them.  Something humbling as Anna gave a silver coin to a little girl.  They all three waved when they noticed Beauty and she smiled in return.

“It is quite amazing what a few years of servitude did to them,” a deep voice whispers in her ear.  Beauty felt a presence behind her, holding her.  The voice seemed familiar but yet not quite the same.  “Sort of like turning a prince into a beast.”

Beauty turned around and just as she did, she was woken up by the sound of the rooster and the sight of the sunlight coming in through the cracks.  Who could this mysterious presence be?

The week went by fast and Beauty barely thought of her Beast but on the seventh day, Beauty woke up as Nellie huffed and whinnied.  Beauty reaches over to scratch the horse’s nose and realized that her hand appeared slightly bigger than it did a few days ago but the horse made no judgment.  Nellie welcomed any attention she could get.

“Odd but I don’t feel any different,” Beauty said to the horse and Nellie just whinnied some more.

Beauty stood up, careful of the rafters as she has been since the first day she entered the barn.  She hit her shoulder and realized that the space of the barn appeared smaller today than it did last night.

“I’ve grown,” Beauty tells the horse.  “Louie is right, I am growing.  My gown still seems to fit,” Beauty said as she spied her shoes.  She slipped her feet into them and noticed that the shoe still fit.  She pulled a dress out of the trunk and slipped out of her nightgown.  The dress fit perfectly.  Beauty then came to a revelation.  “I am enchanted!  Louie is right,” she said to the horse again.

Beauty noticed that no one else was awake and so she decided to wake her brother Louis.  Louis shared a room with Anton just as she used to share a room with her sisters.  Beauty gently tapped on the brothers’ window that she now stood slightly above.  It was only yesterday that Beauty stood eye level with the second story windows.

“What the devil Beauty?”  Louis exclaimed as he opened the window.  His jaw dropped when he realized he was eye level with Beauty’s collarbone.  “You grew,” Louis exclaimed as he stared wide eyed at his sister.  Beauty frowned.  Anton came to the window and stared too.

“I am cursed just like the Beast,” Beauty sobbed.  “I never asked to be this big.”

“Oh Beauty, if there was anything we could do to help you, we will.  What do you think caused this?” Anton said, playing the part of the understanding older brother.

“I don’t know?  I’ve been having these dreams and I miss the Beast,” Beauty said and just as she said she missed the Beast, she grew again ever so slightly.  Beauty seemed unaware but Anton and Louis took notice.  Beauty only realized it after she straightened up and noticed that the peak of the thatch roof was closer to her line of vision.  “Not again,” she whispered.

“Beauty, I think I know what’s causing this.  Tell us about your dreams,” Anton said and Beauty told him in detail about her dreams.  Anton and Louis both pondered this for a moment.

“I know what is making you grow,” Louis declared.  “You miss the Beast.  You need to return to his castle.”

“Oh Louie, you really think that is what it is?” Beauty asked.

“I’m sure of it,” Louis responded.

“I must get my ring.  I can return if I have my ring,” Beauty declared as she headed back to the barn.

What Beauty wasn’t aware of is that she grew so much she had to crawl into the barn.  The more she thought of her Beast the bigger she grew.  It wasn’t just her size that worried her but the Beast’s warning that he would die if she never returned.  Beauty became upset when she couldn’t find her precious ring.  She was also unaware of how cramped the barn had become in the short time she had crawled through the door.  The door had become far too small for her as she felt the walls closing in on her.  She managed to open Nellie’s stall and the horse promptly exited the unstable building shortly before Beauty’s head came crashing through the thatch roof.  No matter how much she tried, Beauty couldn’t help but not think of her dying friend.

“Beauty,” she heard her father yell.  “Are you alright dear?”

“I can’t seem to stop growing!  I’m stuck,” she tells her father.

“Beauty, that barn is going to fall apart anyway.  You might as well stand up,” Maurice tells his daughter.

The three sisters ran out of the house to see what the commotion was.  They all ignored Beauty as much as they could all week.  Anna never told a soul about the ring she buried but at the sight before her, she was going to have to crack soon.

“Good Lord!” Felicia gasped as she saw the walls of the barn collapse as Beauty stood up and up from the rubble.  Beauty still appeared to be growing but stopped eventually.

“She is as big as a whale!” Marie declared. 

Beauty still thought of her Beast but the growth had stopped.  She looked around her at the splintered building.  Tears began to form in her eyes when she looked down at her family.  Anton, who was the tallest, stood just past her ankle.  She had truly become as big as the legendary giants now but she didn’t appear as hideous as the giants in the tales.  Everything about Beauty was still Beauty.

“I am a monster,” Beauty sobbed.  “I need the Beast and I cannot find my ring.”

Tears began to fall from Beauty’s eyes.  She was ready to admit defeat but Anton and Louis gave their greedy sisters a frown.  Beauty’s brothers suspect the sisters had something to do with the lost ring.  Maurice wanted to embrace his crying daughter.  Finally he just tugs on her skirt.  Beauty looked down at her father and bent down to as close to his level as she could.

“Beauty, please pick me up dear,” Maurice tells his enormous daughter.  Beauty puts her hand in front of him and that was when she noticed her new size was that of her size in her dreams.  Maurice fit into the palm of her hand.  She was careful and slow as she rose to her new height.  “We will help you find the ring, I promise,” Maurice warmly tells her.

“I think we may already have,” Anton said as he eyed Anna.  Anna hung her head low in guilt.

“She never deserved such a grand ring,” Anna said with her last bit of courage.  She didn’t have the nerve to look up at her gigantic sister.

“Anna!  How could you!  Beauty needs that ring,” Louis scolds his sister.  Anna just hung her head down in defeat.

“That’s quite alright.  Anna, I need you to tell me where you hid the ring,” Beauty said calmly to her sister.  Beauty wasn’t quite sure if she could fully forgive her sister if it is too late but she needed that ring.

“Please Anna,” Maurice pleaded from his lofty position.

“You better tell her or she’ll crush us all,” Felicia mumbled quietly.  The two other sisters frowned at the petite Anna.

“It’s buried under the willow by the creek,” Anna said in defeated and collapsed to her knees crying.  She never meant to harm her sister but now she may have if Beauty can’t return.  Giant killers from all over will come after Beauty if she doesn’t return.  Anna didn’t want to harm Beauty in such a way.

Beauty slowly lowers Maurice toward the ground but he stops her.  Maurice offers to help his daughter as does her two brothers.  Since Beauty great size made her faster than any steed, Anton and Louis decided to ride in the pockets of her apron.  Maurice thought it would be safe to do the same and so he shared a pocket with his youngest son Louis.  Beauty then ventured to the creek with part of her family secure.  The sisters all stayed back hoping for Beauty never to return.