PRINCESS BEAST Read Online Free PDF Page A

appears, Beauty's massive body quakes with impatience and dread as she sees Rune's precious face mugging in the mirror.  Then, Rune began to sing:
     
    "All the stars caught in this mirror,
    tell me why Hans didn't hold me dearer.
    I confess, I love him still,
    not his figure, nor his quills,
    his soul and spirit I adore,
    surely they're the same as before.
    He never wants to see me again,
    but might we meet in a faraway glen?
    Might I have a different face
    that would invite Hans' embrace?"
     
    Icy fear slithers over Beauty's ribs.  She's afraid to keep watching, terrified of the secret about to be revealed.  She bites her lip and blood flows from beneath her fangs as her beloved daughter beheld her true visage.  Within the mirror, Rune's coarse, copper colored fur disappears, and underneath is skin like apple blossoms; the gold crown sets upon lustrous, wheat blond curls framing her oval face and tumbling over her shoulders; her bulging hazel orbs recede to resemble the eyes of a fawn, fringed with thick black lashes; her purple cauliflower nose shrinks to a diminutive, finely sculpted nose; her great gash of a mouth and three rows of fangs set in bright blue gums become a cherubic mouth with teeth like strings of pearls and full, cherry pink lips.
    Beauty wants to scream, but can only gulp the air.  Her worst fear is now a reality.  Not only is Rune Prince Runyon's daughter, she is a fairy tale beauty of the first degree.
     
    * * *
     
    "Beauty's found the mirror," Elora mumbles into her pillow. She sits up, and squints in the light flashing from her crystal ball.  Croesus is sprawled at the foot of the bed, his legs twitching in dream pursuit of a fat woodchuck.
    They had both been out until 5:00AM visiting Grimm cider mills with the Devil and his dirty brother, turning the cider hard.  After fermenting 700 barrels, they stopped in a Grimm graveyard and sampled their work under a harvest moon.  When enchantress and dog staggered into the Deco Palace, her crystal ball was flashing.  She watched Rune sing into the magic mirror's gleaming oval.  And as her uncharmed face was revealed, Elora narrowed her silver-flecked eyes and stared inscrutably into the crystal ball.  Then, the swan flew into view and she hissed with contempt.  (Elora has held a grudge since, as a novice enchantress, ages ago, she stumbled into a swan's nest, and the furious bird got the best of her; she still has a red, hour glass scar on her hip.)  And when Rune dropped the mirror and climbed onto the swan's back, Elora curled her blackberry lips and cursed, "Bricklebrit."  
    Her mood is not improved this afternoon.  She aims her index finger at Croesus and zaps up a bugle beside the dog's ear.  She puffs out her cheeks and the horn blasts reveille.  Croesus wakes with a startled yelp and tumbles off the bed. 
    Elora conjures up a glass of clamato juice with a raw egg and floats the crystal ball across the spacious bedroom into her lap.
     
    * * *
     
    Beauty's legs grow rubbery.  She drops to her bottom among the cattails and numbly watches the drama unfold within the mirror.  Rune rips the satin from her shoulders; the pelt tumbles off the boulder and the crown plunks into the water.  She gapes at the vision in the glass, and the vision gapes in return.  As she places a hairy hand on her hairy cheek, the vision places a smooth hand on her rosy cheek.  So engrossed is Rune that she doesn't notice the graceful landing of an enormous white swan.
    The swan paddles silently to the moss-covered boulder and cranes his long, elegant neck over Rune's shoulder.  He looks at Rune, looks at her reflection and tsk-tsks.  Startled, Rune whips her head to the right, her mouth snapping. But the swan anticipates her and glides backward to a safe distance.
    "That is your true reflection, the beauty you are to become," the swan says matter of factly.  Rune regards the image in the mirror again and shakes her head in disbelief. 
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