Many Beauty and the Many Beast Read online

  Many beauty and the Many beast

  WRITTEN BY

  Felicity Collins

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  Here I am, standing and waiting at the start of the aisle. I'm not supposed to be here, but here I am. As the music began, she entered the church in her wonderful white bride dress: an off-shoulder dress, that perfectly hugged her body to her waist and loose beneath it, she wasn't wearing any heels, her long, wavy auburn hair was loose with her bangs perfectly combed to the side, showing off her bright eyes. She wasn't wearing any make-up (like she needed any to begin with), she was wearing our necklace: Ying and Yung. Mine was gold with a silver spot, and hers was silver with a gold spot. It was a symbol of our friendship, of our bond. In all, she was stunning. It was the second time I ever saw her dressed as a woman. She was just sixteen and looked so grown up, and she was already getting married. All the people who were invited stood up as I walked to her, offering her my arm which she gladly took, looping hers through it. I walked her down the aisle to her Prince Charming, who stood at the altar in his royal uniform glory, the young King Landon of Drakora. He was a couple of years younger than me, which made him 19 years-old, tall, short blonde hair, neatly combed to the side, broad shoulders, athletic figure, he was certainly a good-looking man, but what counted the most was the look in his eyes as soon as he saw the woman walking at my side. He loved her and the smile on her face confirmed that the feeling was mutual.

  There were a lot of people celebrating the wedding, most of them were soldiers and their families, others were commoners but they had all one thing in common, they were all people who were eternally grateful to the soon-to-be queen. As we got to the altar, Skylynn smiled at me and hugged me as I kissed her cheek, then I stood to the side as she took King Landon's hand and the ceremony began. All eyes were set on the happy couple throughout the ceremony.

  "I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss" said the priest as soon as they exchanged rings. Skylynn smiled widely as Landon wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her as the crowd cheered. When they pulled away the priest said "I now present you King Landon III and Queen Skylynn I of Drakora!" The crowd cheered even more loudly and I couldn't help but smile at them. Then a thought came to me, I was on my own now… I didn't have Skylynn anymore. Skylynn got her happy ending, she didn't need me anymore, actually, she never did. She became queen and I was back to being the last of thirteen sons, back to being ignored, back to being the… thirteenth wheel. When I got back 'home' from the wedding, it didn't take much for my brothers to figure out where I've been and make me pay about it.

  "What the hell did I ever do to you?!" I shouted coughing as Brad, the sixth of the offspring, punched me in the guts "Why do you treat me like a piece of trash and what's so wrong in attending Skylynn's wedding?!"

  "She is a bastard child! And we treat you like trash because you are trash! Nobody cares about you! Look at you, you can't even defend yourself"

  "Easy when it's a 6 on 1!" another blow came from Herbert, the third son.

  "You would manage if you were a man. Us Westerguards are warriors, admirals, we fight back. If that girl got to get where she is you should at least try to defend yourself. Plus we're just preparing you"

  "That girl has a name"

  "Getting defensive over King Landon's mistress are we, Hans?" Jayden, the eighth prince, provoked.

  "Don't you dare talk about Skylynn like that, you bastard!" I yelled throwing a punch at him, but Linus, the eleventh, caught my fist and punched me in the gut.

  "The only bastard here is her" Linus said

  "Luckily for us, she is now King Landon's problem" August, Herbert's twin, said. I smirked.

  "I get it now" I said trying to get up "You are all jealous of Skylynn. You're jealous because she made it, you're jealous because she's a heroine, you're jealous because she outsmarts all of you, because she found love and because starting from nothing, she proved herself worthy of being a ruler, something you never will be" they all laughed at me, then Gordon, the fourth prince, punched me in the face, again knocking me down.

  "And neither will you" he said "You may be a prince, but you'll never become king, nobody wants you, you are worth nothing. Nobody needs you, not even your precious Skylynn. If only there was someone out there to love you…" he said with a smirk that wiped away mine. Then they left.

  That was the moment I made up my mind: I would become king, whatever it takes. Even if that meant killing someone. I would have shown them all. I would have proven all of them wrong! I would have shown them what kind of man I was. I would have them either begging at my feet for forgiveness or look at me with envy knowing that I made it and that they can't touch me anymore without risking of having their heads chopped off. I wouldn't have needed anybody, I could have done this on my own and nothing and no one was going to stop me.

  2 years later, a month after the Great Thaw…

  Anna's POV:

  "Incoming!" I yelled as I threw a snowball back at Elsa. She finally had some time off and we decided to spend it together by having a picnic near the lake. It was a wonderful day of early September, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was still very warm, actually. We got there by carriage since Sven was out with Kristoff. We had a nice picnic, catching up after being separated for years. We talked about Elsa's queenly duties, about her control over her powers, and she wanted to know how it was going with Kristoff… she said it was just out of curiosity, but I believe that she was being the protective big sister. Well, what was I supposed to expect? I got engaged after one day and it didn't end so well, plus she spent all those years in isolation to protect me from herself, of course she is protective of me! Anyway, after eating a delicious chocolate cake, I asked Elsa to work her magic and soon enough, the small area was covered in snow, perfect for a snowball fight. The fact that Elsa could just conjure the snowballs was an extra to the fun even if harder for me. Usually Olaf would join us, but sometimes we wanted it to be just the two of us. As we threw snowballs at each other, we didn't notice we had moved away from our picnic spot and towards a higher edge of the lake, Elsa dangerously close to the edge and with her back to it… what do you think happened next? Yup, that's right! I hit Elsa square in the face with a snowball and sent her splashing into the lake. I froze… almost literally.

  Luckily, Elsa emerged from the water, brushing away her soaked platinum blonde hair from her eyes. She looked up throwing daggers at me. She was not happy about that. "Sorry" I muttered waving timidly at her. She shook her head and, fighting with her ice dress, swam towards the shore where our picnic spot was. I immediately ran back there, heading towards my sister. As I got to her, Elsa was out of the water and completely soaked, she was actually twisting her wet braid to get the water out.

  "I'm so, so, so, so, so, so sorry, Elsa!" I said running towards her.

  "I really hope you saw that back dive, because I'm NOT doing it again" she said glaring at me.

  "Sorry… are you alright?" I asked as she wiped her face from th
e water and placing a hand on my shoulder walking around me.

  "Yeah, I'm fine. I would have rather liked to stay dry, but…" she paused and placed her other hand on my other shoulder "Are you alright?" that got me confused.

  "Yeah?"

  "Good!" and she pushed my into the lake. Good news was the water wasn't deep because we were next to the shore, bad news was I fell on my butt, inside the water with a loud splash and ended up soaked almost as much as my sister. But Elsa wasn't done, she came closer to me and started splashing me.

  "Elsa! Stop it!" I said between laughs, splashing her back, but she didn't stop and kept splashing and laughing at me. It felt like we were kids again. When we were decided we had soaked ourselves enough, we went to lay down in the sun on the picnic cloth to dry ourselves as best as we could. Elsa was laying on her back and I used her stomach as a pillow. We laid there chatting and joking, sometimes Elsa would gently whack me on the head when I cracked a couple of jokes on her. But of course, we had to head back at some point. We got up, cleaned up what was left of the picnic, placed it on the carriage, woke up the coachman who had fallen asleep waiting for us, went back to the castle. As soon as we got there we didn't even get the time to go back to our rooms that Kai, the butler, walked to us as fast as he could.

  "Queen Elsa, your Majesty!" he called her. Elsa turned to look at him.

  "What's going on, Kai?" she asked as soon as she saw his worried look. Kai stopped in front of us and acknowledged my presence with a quick bow.

  "A letter just arrived, it's… it's kind of important" he said.

  "Thank you, Kai" she said, the butler bowed and walked away. Elsa turned back to me with an apologetic smile on her face.

  "Duty calls?" I asked, even if I knew the answer

  "Yeah…" she said "I'll see you later though" then she looked out of the window and then towards the clock "It's 5:45p.m." she said looking at me with a small smile.

  "Okay…?" then my eyes widen as I remembered "Kristoff's back!" I shouted jumping up and down, excited to see my boyfriend after a long day "I'll leave you to your queenly duties, then! Bye-bye!" I said smiling widely and running back down the stairs.

  "Anna" Elsa called. I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around, ran back up the stairs and back to Elsa who stood there offering me her cheek.

  "Right, sorry" I said, swiftly kissed her cheek and turned back around "I'll see you at dinner!" I said and ran down the stairs nearly falling down as I tripped on my feet.

  "Try not to kill yourself down the stairs!" shouted Elsa from behind me.

  "Okay!" I answered and made my way looking for Kristoff. I ran around the castle, tripping a few times, until I found him in the stables with Sven. Since he became Arendelle's official Ice Master and Deliverer, I suggested him to come and live in the castle with us so we could see each other every day. Of course, I first needed to ask for Elsa's permission, which meant it was not just the Queen's permission I had to ask. She looked kind of suspicious and reluctant when I first asked. Basically, she first lectured me and then gave me a third degree, but then she agreed to it. I believe she already had decided he could stay, though. Even if she would never admit to it, I knew she had grown fond of Kristoff. She just enjoys playing Protective-Big-Sister.

  Anyways, as I was saying, I found him in the stables, where he was taking care of Sven. As I called him, he turned around and smiled at me and opened his arms as I jumped to throw my arms around him.

  "Hey, Anna!" he greeted kissing my cheek and setting me back down on my feet.

  "How did the ice harvesting go?" I asked keeping my arms around him.

  "Oh, it was fine. The harvesters are actually quite happy about it. Looks like Elsa actually froze more ice than usual up in the mountains, last month. More ice, means more extras, which means more ice to sell" he said with a happy face.

  "That sounds great, Kristoff" his expression changed for a moment, as if he has just remembered something.

  "Anna, where's Elsa? I need to talk to her" he asked me.

  "About what?"

  "Oh, nothing…I- I have to… uhm… do my… weekly report! That's it! I have to do my weekly report, that's all" I raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

  "Uhm… probably in her study, she had queenly duty to attend to. I think it's better if you tell her later"

  "Oh… okay" he said looking oddly disappointed, then his face broke into a smile, he bent down and gave me a quick peck on the lips "So, how was your day?" he asked.

  "Oh, it was great! Elsa and I went…" I started telling him about our day out, Elsa's fall (to which he laughed hysterically, only to beg me not to tell her he knew), and basically the rest of my day.

  Elsa's POV:

  It's been a while since I entered my study to read the letter. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept reading it to myself, trying to come up with what to do about it. It said:

  HRM Queen Elsa I of Arendelle,

  It's been a month since the Great Thaw and it's been a month since my youngest brother, Hans Westerguard, has been imprisoned. I apologize for not being able to take care of his case any sooner, but I had to personally deal with other urgent matters, but alas, Hans Westerguard still needs to have his trial. According to the laws of the Southern Isles, high treason is to be punished with death, however, his crime has not been committed in the Southern Isles, but in Arendelle. Our law is also very clear on saying that whenever a citizen of the Southern Isles commits a crime in another kingdom, it's that other kingdom's duty to hold his trial and decide his fate according to its laws.

  Because of this, I took the liberty of looking at the Arendellian laws myself and turns out that it is up to the monarch to decide the criminal's fate, which in Hans Westerguard's case would be the most outright thing to do.

  My ship shall be in Arendelle in four days. I'll be there as well, escorting the prisoner alongside two of my brothers, Prince Herbert and Prince Gordon.

  According to the law that both our kingdoms have in common, all the nobleman and noblewomen who were present during the Great Thaw, need to be summoned to the trail as witnesses. I took the liberty of sending them a letter to inform them of the trial.

  Considering that all that has happened a month ago directly involves you and Princess Anna, as an experienced king, it's my duty to encourage a young queen, such as yourself, to be as coherent as possible with your country's law and punish the traitor as you see fit, but as a brother, I beg you not to let your resentment for him to get the best of you.

  I will see you in four days

  Sincerely

  King Theodore IV Westerguard of the Southern Isles

  So… yeah… Hans was coming back for his trial. I would have to see his face again – heck- I had his life in my hands. It was my first trial and I already had to deal with sparing or taking a man's life, and King Theodore was absolutely right about one thing. I did feel resentment towards him –no, wait- actually I was beyond furious. He left Anna to die frozen, after he tricked her into being in love with her, then he tried to kill me and to take over Arendelle. All I knew was that, at the trial, every word I say will be written down and every word will weigh something, every sentence that comes out of my mouth will weigh on his fate. But how can I judge someone impartially when his crime was against Anna and I. How am I supposed to ask Anna to be impartial after what he did to her? After he humiliated her like that?

  My train of thoughts was interrupted when I heard someone walking in the hall out of the door. I immediately put the letter back in the envelope, accidentally knocking a couple of books and letters off the desk, scattering a few documents on it as well, in the rush to hide the letter. Luckily I didn't knock over the empty tea cup. I was about to put the fallen items back up when I heard someone at the door and I immediately sat back up straight placing my elbows on the desk, clasping my hands together and resting my chin on them. Then the door opened revealing Kristoff, who immediately noticed the little mess at my desk's feet.

>   "What are you doing?" he asked.

  "Nothing" I said "Thinking"

  "You thinking? Why am I not surprised?" he joked walking towards me.

  "Shut up" he obliged and bent down to pick up the books with the letters and putting it neatly back on my desk. "Why are you here, Kristoff?" I asked, only realizing I sounded harsh.

  "I just wanted to chat with you" Then he took the letters scattered on the desk.

  "Dinner is to be served in a little bit, couldn't you wait for it?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

  "Actually, I was hoping I could talk to you… alone" he then was about to get the letter from King Theodore

  "No!" I said a little too loudly and quickly putting a hand on it. He looked at me weirdly. I gave him an awkward smile and patted the envelope with my other hand "Leave it"

  "Why?"

  "Because I'm telling you to and I'm the Queen of Arendelle" I said, he held back a smirk "Not that it actually means anything to either you or Anna" he didn't say anything and ordered back the documents, but as soon as he was done he turned back to me trying to catch the letter, but I was faster and put my hand on it. Kristoff had a smirk on his face as he leaned down on the desk closer to my face to look at me eye to eye. There was a moment of silence.

  "Tell the ice-harvesters that the royal supplies are doubled for two weeks. We are going to need a lot of ice ready for this Wednesday and we can't run out of it" I said.

  "What for?" he asked straightening up in his full height.

  "You don't need to know" I said and picked up the tea spoon and pointing it towards him "Do not bring a word about that letter to anyone… especially Anna" Kristoff raised an eyebrow.

  "You're the Snow Queen and you're threatening me with a spoon?"

  *SBONK!*

  "OOOWW!"

  "That was the least I could do" I said putting down the spoon.

  "Okay! I get it! Jeez!" he said massaging his cheek.

  "So what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked. Kristoff seemed to pale.

  "I… well… I…" he took a deep breath "I wanted to ask Anna to marry me" he said. I froze for a moment.