“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.