It is Day 3 of Lady Antimony’s Seven Virtues Flash Fiction challenge. The theme for today: Charity. My take on Chastity is here, and my entry for Temperance is here. I’ve also made a handy flash fiction page, so once the challenge is through, all seven of my delightfully virtuous entries will be corralled into one spot.
Swing by the challenge page, or visit #7Virtues on Twitter, to check out the entries from the other writers in the challenge, who have all created some wonderful stories based on each prompt.
Today, the inspiration for Charity comes from my favorite movie of all time, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Enjoy!
-oOo-
“Regret”
The old woman they brought before me was gnarled and grey and stank of urine. I recoiled in disgust, the sight of the thing sullying my hall awakening nothing but contempt within me. The revulsion only grew when she croaked,
“A bed for the night.”
I kicked at the hands stretched in supplication.
“Take this hag from my sight,” I ordered. “Toss her outside the palace gates, where she belongs.”
Before the servants could move, she stood, spine shockingly erect. Her rheumy eyes sparkled like brilliant emeralds. She grinned, and her mouth was luscious; she was melting into youth.
“You will regret this.”
A howl was my only response.
August 9, 2011 at 10:04 am
Fairy tales are so fun. Very well done :-0 (i rhymed)
August 9, 2011 at 10:33 am
Thanks so much!
August 9, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Another good one!
August 10, 2011 at 12:33 am
Thanks!
August 9, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Nice and compact. Real nice. I have a hard time imagining that I complete a flash piece with such brevity. I’ll be stopping by to read more. Can you hear the virtual hand-clapping?
August 10, 2011 at 12:34 am
Aww, thanks! *blushes* I’m surprised at how much fun I’ve been having with these bitty pieces. Thanks so much for dropping by!
August 10, 2011 at 3:07 am
Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney Princess movie! I love how you have sleshed out the backstory!
August 10, 2011 at 3:07 am
haha… Fleshed, not sleshed!!!!!
August 11, 2011 at 8:32 am
Yaaaay, thanks so much! I love finding other Beauty and the Beast lovers!
August 10, 2011 at 10:05 am
*gasp* How did I miss this yesterday? I’m a HUGE Disney fan. I loved this retelling! Well done.
August 11, 2011 at 8:32 am
Thank you! Seriously, I am obsessed with this movie, so this was a blast to write. 😀
August 11, 2011 at 2:41 pm
This is great. Did you miss the word ‘eyes’ out though?
August 11, 2011 at 3:47 pm
Whoops, you’re totally right! Thanks for the heads-up. Just tweaked it. 😀
August 14, 2011 at 12:23 am
Very beautiful and I love the movie too! So very classy choice for Charity. I’d love to know more about the lady with the rose, who apparently just felt like giving the prince a test it was probably pretty obvious he’d fail. Where’d she get the right to transform him like that?
Granted his perspective, which you capture well, is a pretty good justification for what she did to him anyway.
August 14, 2011 at 12:28 am
Thanks, David! You know, I’ve given some thought to the witch’s backstory, and I’ve been meaning to write up something about that. I had had this idea of a witch who fell in love with a prince and gave him a rose to symbolize their romance, only to find that he leaves her and offers the rose to another. Her act of vengeance is to transform him into a beast.
If I ever get enough time, I might try to scribble it up. 😀