Chaos Tales: Beastly Manners
My version of how the Beast was cursed in a retold opening for Beauty and the Beast. I hope you enjoy the chaos that is my telling. Plus critter pictures!
Introduction
It is odd that every person experiences a life that is different and yet the same. As time passes, we get further and further from our ancestors, from the terror that was our first steps in the darkness. And yet, there is something that remains the same. A fire in the human soul, a whisper in the mind, and a frozen feeling that takes over the limbs at times.
It is that creeping sensation of discontent, the sense of loss, and the sense of connection that comes in fleeting and hollow. The mesmerizing beauty of romantic, complete and whole love. A dream full of wistfulness and hope, a mirage of the actual world.
What are the classic fairy tales but exactly that? A shifting storm of love and terror, of our greatest beginnings and greatest endings, twinned together.
And as such, though the classics, we find condition and call it human, only to realize we have connected to words on a page, from a mind that is been and gone, that was and is no more. And thus by writing we are connected more than ever and separated completely in the same breath.
Below, I have taken a story as old as I can find and turn it into my own. And yet, and yet, it reminds, a ruminate of mine soul, and the souls of all those before and behind me.
Beastly Manners
Henri gazed outside at his fields. Young workmen sang as dawn broke, and they began their work. The harshness of winter was over, but there was still a crispness in the air. He turned away from the window with a sigh. He wanted nothing more than to run down the stairs, out to his stables, and take his stallion for a long gallop.
But today, he couldn’t.
With a sigh, he returned to his desk and the letters etched with seals - a reminder that the trade delegation was on its way. He felt a wave of weariness and fought the urge to loosen his cravat.
If it was not his duty, he would have turned the delegation away. His father was less than 6 months dead, and he was still in deep mourning. Deeper than most people would expect, as he and his father had rarely shared a house.
Still, he was determined to be a good host. His father’s last wish had been for him to pave the way for trade. Henri had few fighters. Indeed, his were a people of the farm, dairy, and brewery, with a random healer or two. There had not been a soldier in his direct line for decades - a weakness according to the other dukes. His land needed trade. To barter for protection from the coming civil war, if what his father had suspected was true.
So, Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen pushed aside his grief and flipped through the tome of social etiquette. He wanted action and was bored by farming and negotiations. But if he had to be a diplomat, well, he would learn that too.
~~~
Henri awaited the delegation awkward in stocking feet, but his reading said the delegate did not wear shoes inside. He must make them welcome. He had banished all shoes from indoor workers, and the lingering smell of feet unused to being free from leather almost turned his stomach. But his reading was clear shoes indoors were an insult.
So, he stood barefoot, in a dark robe that felt more like a blanket and left him feeling awkward instead of hospitable.
The long parade of people slowly approached. His inside servants stood likewise barefoot, while outside workmen waited in their boots.
He would greet the delegate, let her select a meal of lamb, beef, pork, or fowl. The workmen would perform a ritual slaughter in the courtyard before he led the delegate to her suite.
Having read that a small, thoughtful, personal token was the best way to open negotiations, he held in his hands a gift - a pocket watch, his father’s greatest gift to him.
He felt certain he would soon have a true alliance. He smiled and then tried to school his features to the blankness that he had read was polite as well.
~~~
Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo felt tired and drained. The cold bit into her, and she wanted nothing more than to receive the bows of this new trade partner and retire to her bedchamber with a hot green tea. But knowing the French, they would only have the bitter, black tea that bit at her throat and made her skin itch with excess energy. Her three maids - personal, secretarial, and ritual - walked behind her, while her two guards walked behind, guarding their backs. Two male servants walked in front of her to clear the way. She could have been carried from the boat, but such delicacy was not for a Maiyaku no Shonin. Her magic with words and spirits meant she needed, more than others, to have her feet on the ground, to remain humble and clear of mind.
But her feet ached, and her stomach was still raw from the pitching of the waves. The wind made her robes heavy and her headdress almost clang like a bell around her head. Her expression was blank, as any good negotiator’s would be, and the white face powder helped keep her secrets. The courtyard of cold, hard stones opened. Her waraji sandals made a soft rasping sound across the hard stones. The courtyard was filled with row after row of men and women. A few animals stood on short lines.
She felt the piercing gaze of each person, making her skin crawl as unnaturally light-colored eyes followed her every move.
A man came forward, tall with sun darken skin and light hair. His grey eyes, still to light-colored, held a smile and glinted. For a moment, she felt comfortable.
She nodded to her ritual secretary.
“May I present Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo to you, duc d’Ayen.” Her secretary bowed deeply to the man. “We thank you for coming to lead her into your lands. May you find wisdom and balance in each other’s terms.”
The man flinched and shook his head hard.
“I am but a humble farmer. My name is Sils. Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen, asked me to present you with a choice of life stock before entering the manor.”
He gestured back toward the line of animals. Chiyo recognized pigs, cows, and saw chickens picking at the ground. They all smelled, and the new shaggy ones made her nose twitch.
She gave a slight nod to the farmer and turned to the creatures, unsure why duc d’Ayen would be offering her an animal. Some strange welcome gift.
She looked over the odd assortment, looking for the most dignified looking beast. After all, what could it be but a test of her ability to choose the best from the muck. One cow stood out - placid, regal, and mostly clean.
Chiyo gestured, indicating the beast with a nod.
“Good choice.” Sils smiled, nodded and led the beast to one side.
She kept her face clear and continued on toward the manor.
No one else came out to greet them, instead waiting for her to reach them. This might be her first negotiation, but her blood froze with the anger of being so demeaned. Met by a servant and beasts.
Her servant stepped forward once again to introduce her.
“May I present Maiyaku no Shonin, Rin Chiyo, to you…” Her servant bowed and let the words linger.
The man nodded and moved forward. “Madam Chiyo, I am Henri de Noailles, duc d’Ayen. Let me present you with this token of our meeting.”
The French duke offered her a symbol of death - a handheld clock - a reminder of her limited time on earth and how she too would fade and die. Her blood, already frozen, deepened into frigid.
But she kept emotions from her face, passing the evil disk into her sleeve.
The duke was not yet done with the insults. “Remove your shoes and enter. We have much to speak of.”
Thankfully, the white powder covered her flush of rage as she removed her shoes. She looked around carefully but was not mistaken. No slippers. Like an uncultured peasant.
To one side, she saw Sils raise his knife to her chosen beast’s throat.
The scream was wrenched out of her. “Stop!”
Her magic pulsed through the air.
The world froze.
She stalked forward, ice leaking from her bare foot, her prints rimed in ice.
She threw Sils to one side and claimed the knife. Her people bowed, covering their eyes, while the wind whipped around her, becoming a flowing cape of power. The powder blew from her face, leaving a light tan skin open to the air only for a moment before frost settled over her. Her black eyes were cold with anger.
Her headdresses fell to shatter at her feet, while her loose hair flowed down her back like a black, frozen river. She turned coated in the white of ice and snow, in the white of death and dying.
“How can you dishonor me so? After a long voyage, you do not greet be but send a servant and beasts in your stead. I am made to choose an animal, only to have you attempt an unclean act of killing it in my presence.”
Strands of frozen ice pellets orbited, shadowing the harnessed wind around her. “You strip me of my travel shoes and offer me no slippers. And last of all, you give me this.”
She let the death watch dangle from one long finger. “You wish death?”
The duke stepped towards her. “Madam Chiyo, I mean you no insult.”
“Bha. You do nothing but insult me. But no more.”
Her winds picked up speed. The ice formed blue-white paths around her. “For your beastly manners, you and yours will feel the wrath of a Maiyaku no Shonin.”
The ice ribbons reached out to wrap the other French in the yard and beyond. “Your servants shall be silent and unseen.”
Columns of white faded to nothing. New strands were carried by her winds across the nearby fields layering them in frozen blue. “Your crops shall grow for a hundred years without harvest.”
When the winds returned to her, the early crops stood, perfect, unchanging, and blue. “Your face shall take on the shape of all the animals you have ever killed. You will not know yourself until you have lost yourself. Your blood will fall on the most beautiful flower, until you can wake in the heart of one of my country’s women, a love as pure as it is bold.”
Now the winds and ice surrounded the duke.
~~~
Henri screamed as the wind whipped around him. The ice went through him. His face contorted and burned. He raised his hands to his face to see fur and claws. A whimper escaped him.
His vision blurred and turned dull. He could not even yelp for the pain that filled him.
The slow sound of feet wrapped in soft reeds pattered around him. But he was in too much pain to move. He lay panting.
The wind echoed the Maiyaku no Shonin’s last words as her vessel sailed away. The courtyard was empty of all life but him. And his father’s pocket watch that floated in a pocket of blue in the air.
“You have until the watch stops to find one that can love you, as both Beast and Man.”
Chaos Critter Pictures
Chaos Tip of the Week
A bone for one is a treat, for another an omen, and another trash. Make sure you don’t mix and match your omens or throw them in the trash.
Chaos Question of the Week
What is the most common thing that people casually do, that you find insulting?
~ Anna (and Tod)
Minstrels in the Galaxy
If you enjoyed “Beastly Manners”, here’s a little throwback you might like!
Minstrels in the Galaxy shared our delightfully chaotic story “Tablet in the Air.” It is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, but with a similar feel to our free fiction in our Chaos Tales Section. (But less dark.) So, if you enjoyed “Beastly Manners” consider giving this a try.
https://www.amazon.com/Minstrels-Galaxy-Stories-Key-Tull-ebook/dp/B0D79FMH8S/
And of course, we cannot forget to thank the editors and publishers for this anthology, Sam Robb and Shari Robb. They put in a ton of work into making this and other anthologies. We are still grateful to have been selected for their first publication.