Kayleen is a young author and artist. KindTree is working with her to get this story published and include her drawings as well. KindTree will offer her book for sale at the Festival of Art for All event, August 6, 2022. Below is an excerpt from the beginning. Amazing!
“Kayleen E. Stuck (Kay-Kay to her friends) is a Eugene native and highly imaginative. Her hobbies include drawing, writing, quilting, sewing and figure skating. She also likes to bake special treats for the holidays with her mother. They double each recipe for the treats so they have plenty for themselves and their other family members and friends they give to in treat bags. Kay-Kay also likes to cook different dishes for dinner (every now and then).”
Downloadable PDF of both Part 1 and Part 2 RIGHT HERE!
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Beauty and the She-Beast Part 1
By Kayleen E Stuck
Based on the stories by Madame Jean-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Charles Perrault, The Brothers Grimm and Andrew Lang
Influenced partially on the 1991 animated movie, 1994 Broadway Musical and 2017 live-action movie of “Beauty and the Beast” by Disney Productions
Prologue
Princess Mandy
Once upon a time, deep in the heart of a faraway land called Oregonia, a beautiful young princess named Mandy lived in a shining castle. She had everything that her heart desired, yet she was caring, gentle and kind despite her royal status. One day, Mandy’s two dear friends, the good enchantress sisters, Kay-Kay and Hayley paid her a little visit. While the princess and the enchantresses visited, Kay-Kay presented her with a gift…a single radiant rose. Mandy accepted it with a warm and sincere smile. “Oh, Kay-Kay, whatever did I do to deserve such great friends like you and Hayley?” she asked gratefully. “Just seeing that you’ve shown most of the world that you have kindness to spare is gratitude enough to deserve friends like us, Mandy,” said Kay-Kay. For that moment, the castle was filled with laughter and gaiety.
Meanwhile, in a remote tower far from Mandy’s castle, there dwelled another enchantress by the name of Ashlie. She was the middle sister of the enchantress sisters, but she was evil (I’ll tell the reason in a moment). At that moment, Ashlie had been looking over her magic crystal and saw all that transpired at Mandy’s castle. The reason she had become evil was because over the past few years, she had grown jealous of the friendship that had blossomed between Princess Mandy and her sisters. For you see, the other part of the reason she was an evil enchantress instead of good was because she was full of vanity and greed. She had also begun to believe that those who were as pure-hearted as the princess and friends with her sisters instead of herself were rotten to the core and selfish. And the friendship between Princess Mandy and Kay-Kay and Hayley was just about enough to make her stand it no longer as she angrily said, “I’ll show that princess what happens when she messes with the wrong enchantress!” With that, she teleported herself to Mandy’s castle to pay the princess and her sisters a surprise visit.
Hayley and Kay-Kay did all they could do to protect the young princess. But it seemed that Ashlie’s jealousy was slightly more powerful than their friendship toward Princess Mandy. Since Kay-Kay was the eldest enchantress in the family, she could sense Ashlie’s fit of jealous rage and she tried her best to reason with her as she said, “Ashlie! Please stop this madness! Just because Hayley and I are friends with the young princess and a few others doesn’t mean that we don’t like hanging out with you anymore!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Ashlie shouted. “When I finally get this done, everyone will have no other choice but to worship me!” Ashlie summoned all the evil power that she could muster and within an instant, she transformed Mandy into a hideous female beast. She also placed a powerful spell on the castle and everyone else who lived there. As punishment for her misdeed, Kay-Kay confronted her and said, “Ashlie, I’m afraid I have no other choice but to send you into exile. Unless you can learn to adapt the powers of good and expel all of your evil powers, you’re forbidden to ever to come back home.” Ashlie said nothing for she was miffed enough that her older sister dared to send her away because of her so-called (according to her) jealousy. As Kay-Kay watched her depart, she began to hope that by sending her younger sister away because of her actions, it really would help her consider learning to use her powers for good and no longer for evil.
After Ashlie left the castle, Kay-Kay, Hayley and Mandy (now a She-Beast) were the only ones who remained. However, Mandy was so ashamed of her new monstrous form that she tried to turn the two enchantress sisters away as she said, “The way that I look now must disgust and frighten you both. Just go and leave me to wallow in grief.” But the sisters were so loyal to their friend and they refused to be turned away as Kay-Kay defensively said, “No way, Mandy! A good friend poorly misjudged as you doesn’t deserve to be friendless for the rest of her life! For what Hayley and I have seen, we’re going to stick by you through thick and thin.”
“Even though I’m now hideous?” Mandy asked.
“Your new outer appearance doesn’t change who you truly are,” said Hayley. “Deep down, you still have the purest heart of them all.”
“Hayley’s right, Mandy,” Kay-Kay replied in agreement. “Here, I have something else that just might cheer you up.” She then pulled out another gift to present to Mandy from her pocket…a magic mirror. Mandy gazed at it in awe as Kay-Kay explained, “This magic mirror will be your only window to the outside world. Remember the rose that I gave you earlier?”
“Yes,” said Mandy as she nodded.
“The rose that I gave you is truly an enchanted rose which shall bloom until your 21st birthday,” Kay-Kay continued. “If you can learn to love another and earn his or her love by the time the last petal from the rose falls, then the spell will be broken.”
“But what will happen if I don’t?” asked Mandy worriedly.
“I really hate to say this, but if you don’t learn to love and so on, then I’m afraid that you’ll be doomed to remain a she-beast forever,” said Kay-Kay grimly.
As the years passed, Kay-Kay and Hayley kept their vow to stay by Mandy no matter what. But alas, because of the curse and the grim part of what Kay-Kay had said, the young princess fell into despair and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a she-beast?
We hope to have this project completed by the August 6 Festival of Art for All. See you there!
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