Prologue - The Beast

The newly-transformed Beast howled in despair. The sorcerer stepped back to admire his work, grinning maliciously.

"Sorry now, are you? Perhaps you want to change your mind, beg for forgiveness?" His eyes were bright and gleeful, shining demonically.

The Beast could not master its tongue, could not twist it to form human speech, but its bellow was answer enough. The sorcerer's expression darkened.

"Then you will stay this way, until you find someone brave enough or blind enough to love you, as you are now!" He calmed himself and smiled again, but there was still a hard gleam to his eyes.

"If you still have any sense left, you will come to me, to apologize, to grovel," he seemed to relish this idea. "But, if you wait too long ... Well, perhaps your condition will no longer interest me." His face a picture of evil pleasure, he bid the Beast farewell and disappeared in a cloud of smoke that stank of brimstone.

The Beast dropped its huge head into its clawed, misshapen paws and wept.