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?