The Bear Prince

The Bear Prince, also known as the Beast (from "Beauty and the Beast"), is a character from the fantasy book series "Fairest" created by Fabian De Sousa and illustrated by drachenmagier. He debuts in the first instalment of the series.

The Bear Prince is based on the characters of the same title from the fairy tales "Snow-White and Rose-Red" and "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", as well as the 'Beast' from "Beauty and the Beast" and the 'Prince' from "Prince and the Pauper".

History
The royal heir to the enchanted kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon located in the Land of Norge (home of the Norwegian fairy tales), the Bear Prince is the son of King Valemon the White Bear King. After the early death of his mother, the Bear Prince is sheltered by his protective father and longs to see the outside world. When he meets a Pauper who looks exactly like him, they decide to temporarily switch places to experience each others lives. Seeing how poorly his subjects live and how badly the palace guards treat the smallest offences, the Bear Prince returns to the palace to find his father dead from sickness, and the evil imp Rumpelstiltskin demanding the Pauper tell him where the King's greatest treasure is.

The Prince & the Pauper switch back to their rightful places, and Rumpelstiltskin tries to make the same deal with the Prince that he had with the King, but the Bear Prince refuses, suspecting that the evil imp killed his father. In a fit of rage, Rumpelstiltskin kills the Pauper and curses the Prince into the form of a brown bear and sends him far away to the Enchanted Forest.

Fairest (Book One)
One winter, while his father's greatest treasure is buried under the ice and snow of winter, the Bear Prince knocks on the door of a cottage and asks the women living inside if he can come sleep by their fire. Under the advice of their mother, Snow White & Rose Red invite the Bear Prince in, become friendly, and they clean the snow off his fur, play with him and sleep beside him next to the fireplace. They repeat this every night for the rest of winter until the snow melts away, and the Bear Prince announces that he must return to guard his treasure from the evil imp that cursed him.

Later, the Bear Prince is too late to stop Snow White & Rose Red from freeing Rumpelstiltskin's beard from a fallen log, and with the evil imp free, he curses the Bear Prince into the form of a monstrous Beast and banishes him to a 'prison of his own making '.

Fairest II: East of the Sun & West of the Moon
The Bear Prince makes a deal with his stepmother, the Evil Ogress, that if he can convince a beautiful maiden to share his bed every night for a year without ever seeing his handsome human form, his stepmother will break the curse for him, but if she does see his real form, then the Bear Prince must marry the Evil Ogress's daughter. As the Beast, the Bear Prince lives in an enchanted castle found by a Merchant, whom he gives shelter, food and gifts to. Unfortunately, the Merchant picks a red rose from the Beast's garden, angering him, and the Beast demands death in return. The Merchant convinces the Beast to let him return to say goodbye to his three daughters, but when the youngest of those daughters, Beauty, learns what happens, she takes her father's place.

Instead of death, the Beast allows the Beauty to be imprisoned for life in his castle, but every night she sleeps by his side, she never sees his true form when he removes his fur coat in the dark. One day, she brings a candle to bed, sees his handsome human form, and accidentally drops melted tallow on his shirt. The awakened Prince is saddened that she didn't wait the year for his curse to be broken, and he's whisked away to his home kingdom East of the Sun & West of the Moon to marry the Evil Ogress's daughter.

Luckily, Rose Red set out on a dangerous quest to rescue the Bear Prince, arriving three days before his wedding. The first two night's she buys her way into the castle to speak with him, but the Evil Ogress and young Ogress feed him a Sleeping Potion so they cannot talk. The third night (when there's no more Sleeping Potion left), Rose Red sells the young Ogress the Golden Spinning Wheel from the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", and they prick the Bear Prince's finger with it, hoping he'll stay asleep (he doesn't because the Spinning Wheel has no magic). The Bear Prince and Rose Red reunite, and the Bear Prince reveals he loves red roses because they remind him of Rose Red. The two plan to break the Bear Prince free of his vow to marry the young Ogress, and on the wedding night, the Bear Prince convinces the ogresses to wash the melted tallow from his shirt. Because they are ogresses, everything they touch is stained and dirtied, so they invite a disguised Rose Red to wash the shirt for them. When the Evil Ogress discovers the deception, she tries to attack Rose Red, but the Bear Prince protects her, so the Evil Ogress enchants the Bear Prince to transform into the Beast and kill Rose Red.

A massive battle ensues where the Beast is unable to break out of the enchantment and viciously attacks Red Riding Hood. The young Ogress steps in-between them to protect Rose Red, and he kills her, prompting a horrified Evil Ogress to attack him with her magic. Rose Red defeats the Evil Ogress and runs to the Bear Prince's aid, proclaiming her love for him. Rose Red's true love revives the Beast, transforming him back into the handsome Bear Prince, and the two return to the Charming Kingdom in the Enchanted Forest to reunite with Snow White and announce their engagement.

Appearance
The Bear Prince is tall and handsome with shaggy dark brown hair and a matching beard, as well as dark brown eyes.

When in his bear form, the Bear Prince appeared as a brown bear. However, when he first met Snow White & Rose Red, he was covered in snow and they mistook him for a white bear.

Personality
Rose Red described the Bear Prince as gentle and kind when she and Snow White first befriended him as children when he was a bear.

However, Rumpelstiltskin's curse that transformed the Bear Prince into a monstrous Beast appears to have affected his personality, judging by his harsh reaction when the Merchant picked a red rose from his private garden.

Powers
While cursed into the form of a bear, the Bear Prince had the strength, speed and endurance of a regular bear, as well as their claws, teeth and senses. However, while he was cursed into the form of a Beast, the Bear Prince's strength, speed, endurance and senses increases vastly, as well as his size. He also gained extra horns and fangs. It is unknown if he retained these powers after the curse was broken by Rose Red's proclamation of true love.

Trivia

 * The Bear Prince is a combination of several fairy tale characters: the characters of the same name from "Snow-White and Rose-Red" and "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", as well as the 'Beast' from "Beauty and the Beast" and the 'Prince' from "Prince and the Pauper".
 * The Bear Prince is one of two fairy tale princes cursed into the form of an animal and named after that animal. The other one is the "Frog Prince".
 * Like all fairy tale princes in the "Fairest" series, the Bear Prince is never referred to by name and only ever called the "Bear Prince" or the "Beast".
 * In the original fairy tale "Snow-White and Rose-Red" by the Brothers Grimm, the Bear Prince actually fell in love and married Snow-White while his younger brother married Rose-Red.
 * When Snow White & Rose Red first meet the Bear Prince, they mistaken him for a white bear because he was covered in snow. This is a reference to the fairy tale "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" which features a prince cursed into the form of a white bear.