It was a stormy night, an old woman was knocking at the doors of a small castle, asking for shelter. The owner was still a child, at 11 years of age. She was granted entry and hospitality, but the curiosity of the boy led him to meddle with the possesions of the lady, what led to him breaking a crystal ball. "Impudent child,didn't you know that messing with things that you would never understand will lead you to your doom?" The kid had tried to apologize, but the woman had been in a sour mood, not listening him at all. "Now you will live as a demon, if you truly regret your actions, find true love before the next eclipse of the sun." A fog had enveloped him, screams could be heard, turning gradually into roars. Red fur could be glimpsed along with flailing tails. All the servants were horrorized by the scene, fleeing and wishing that the foreign person wouldn't turn on them.

"Haah... haah..." What was once a little boy, was slumped on the ground. Claws, fur, tails. He wasn't human anymore. "According to my knowledge, you have around three hundred years to do so." Golden eyes full of confusion stared onto cold ones. "Make no mistake, I merely spared you. If I wanted, I could kill you easily." She left in a swirl of mist, leaving her victim behind.

"Ugh..." The boy got up with difficulty. The house he shared with many people was now empty. A fact that hurt him deeply. 'WHY!?' He wandered aimlessly by the hallways, until he reached a mirrors. "Eh...?" 'Is this me?' Staring back to the boy was a large humanoid fox, around the height of a horse. It was so disturbing, he couldn't recognize himself. The claws were larger than a bear's, the tails gave him a weird feeling, and he struggled to stay upright. He punched the mirror, not bothering with the shards embedded in his fist. 'Now they see me as a monster... fine, then. I'll be one.' He needed a new name, so he went to the library, but there was a problem. 'My hands...' Frustrated, he simply puled books aimlessly, throwing them to the ground. After he had tired himself, he looked down, seeing an old volume about legends. A name piqued his interest. 'Kurama...'

Fire... He was holding fire, yet it didn't hurt him! It was so awesome! A cursed life didn't seem too bad now. He had gotten used to his new form and he felt free. 'What did she say? Three hundred something...' He didn't care now, not when he had powers to find about! He had 0accidentally uprooted a tree when he tried to find his strenght, his jumps reached so far, but he had fallen on his face many times before he got the hang of it. When his stomach growled, he went to find something to eat, satisfying himself with fruits. He loved to scare the peasants that wandered in the forest, suddenly jumping in front of them and watching their reactions. Hunters would occasionally gather to kill the beast, but whenever they did, all they found were footprints and booby traps improvised with vines and logs. 'Hehe! It's too fun!' Kurama simply loved to play tricks, he was still a child after all.

But even fun ends after a time, he had met a group of hunters with sharp reflexes and one had nicked him, prompting several shots aimed at him. He had barely escaped, almost falling on their clutches. "Humans..." He found a new feeling inside him, it burned as much as his wounds hurt. "I hate them!" He had ambushed them after recovering a bit, ripping their throats with ferocity and revelling on the taste of blood. 'So delicious!' He ripped off chucks of flesh and swallowed them. It was a carnage, only a single man remained. "WAAHHH! SPARE ME!" The demon crawled towards him "Tell them about me. My name is Kurama, and anyone who steps in my territory will die!" The human had pissed on his pants, running away pathetically. The sight of the blood-covered monster that had killed his partners was forever ingraved in his mind.

The servants had all fled to the villages around the castle, seeking refuge and telling the locals about what happened to the boy they once served. Like any kind of rumor, it bred itself, getting more and more decorated as the years went by, eventually becoming the local folk tale. Every time a person went missing, the blame was pinned on the cursed boy. Eventually, the cattle began disappearing as well, never to be found. But there was an upside, whenever bandits popped up, they decided to challenge the 'beast' and claim the treasures left in the castle, with a predictable outcome. The descendants of the servants had formed a cult, in which an adult bull was sent to the forest once per month, in return of protection. If one asked for permission before entering the forest, no wildlife would bother them, letting them gather herbs in peace.

At the hundred years milestone, his mind had been changed dramatically. The innocence was gone, in the previous years he had killed more people than he could count, but even that got boring. Now his days were dedicated to watch over the humans and defend his home, the forest. Many mercenaries and caravans had lost their lives there and left loot, such as food, money and general products. He kept reading the books he managed to get, having learned the trick to flip pages without tearing them, accompanying the changes in the language and the world around him. The clothing was useless to him, mainly the female ones, but he thought that it would be a waste, so he merely stashed them in his castle. His memories of being human were no more. It was somewhat interesting to hear the legends about him, he often compared them to himself, even if they were farfetched. The forest had grown, as the humans didn't dare to extract wood, for fear of angering its protector.

'I wonder if someone still remembers that I am real.'

As you saw, it's loosely based on the movie 'The beauty and the beast', and I added my own twist on it. It's somewhat darker and the servants weren't cursed along with him.