Story: Beauty and Ravana

There was once a beautiful girl, named Sitbelle. Although she was the most beautiful girl in town, she was also odd. She enjoyed reading and learning. She spent most of her days going to the library, as opposed to the other woman in town who all wanted to impress the most handsome manly man in town Gasrama. Gasrama was just returning from a hunting trip where he brought back a bounty of 100 deer for the village. All the women were swooning over how masculine he was. He had silky long hair, the size of a bear, and the strength of a gorilla. He was what every man in the village aspired to be. As he was walking down the road, stealing the gaze of everyone he passed, he saw Sitbelle. She was sitting on a park bench reading her favorite story. Gasrama was astonished that a woman was not staring at his glorious self. He approached her asking: "What is it you are reading there girl." She looked up in dismay realizing it was Gasrama, but nonetheless he took interest in her books, which no one has ever done before. She responded: "It's a book about far off places, magic spells, sword fights, and a prince in disguise." Gasrama said: "Why don't you put that silly thing down and go out on  a date with me! Gasrama. The most manly man in town." Sitbelle rolled her eyes, shut her book, and walked away. Gasrama had a plan to impress Sitbelle into wanting to go out with him. He would capture a golden dear. Gasrama went out of village on the quest for this rare creature. He would not return until he had captured one. This left the village vulnerable to the evil beast, Ravana. He would not dare enter the village whilst Gasrama was there, or he would be annihilated within seconds, but since Gasrama has left and not returned for weeks now is his chance. He wants a beautiful bride to bring back to his castle. He sneaks into the village and snatches Sitbelle. She screams and screams, but no one could match the strength of Ravana. The village sends word out to Gasrama, who immediately assembles a team to get her back. They set out in search of the beasts castle. It took a year for the team to finally find where Ravana had taken her. Once they found the location they devised a plan to get her back. Gasrama would distract Ravana by challenging him to a fight, while the others sneak by and get Sitbelle back.
Gasrama then walks up to the front of the castle and yells: "Ravana come out of there you coward." Ravana jumps from atop his castle in a meteoric landing. He says: "Gasrama, you look smaller than I imagined." Gasrama smirks and lunges with his sword as Ravana. Ravana grabs the sword in between both his hands as if he was praying. Then he flings Gasrama through the air mowing down trees as he flies. Ravana laughs as how weak Gasrama is, but then from out of nowhere Gasrama comes from behind Ravana and hits him with an R.K.O and kills him. The others walk out and see what Gasrama has done and cheer. Sitbelle however feels bad for the poor creature. She begins to cry over his dead body.

Sitbelle Crying Over Ravana

She explains how well she was treated and how she began to fall in love with him.
Gasrama looks at her in disgust, how could she love anyone so hideous. Gasrama then realizes she is not worthy of his perfect self and walks away.

Author's Note: This is based of a story from the Ramayana. In the story Rama and Sita, Gasrama and Sitbelle respectively, are married and in exile. While in exile the king of the demons, Ravana, attempts to capture Sita. His plan is to have his brother turn into a golden deer to draw Rama away from Sita so he would be able to capture her. After Rama leaves to capture it he snatches Sita and takes her back to his castle. Rama then assembles and army to get Sita back. He gets her back after slaying Ravana, but then does not trust her purity and turns her away.
I made parallels to the movie, "Beauty and the Beast", where Sitbelle and Gasrama, are Belle and Gaston respectively. Belle is the most beautiful girl in the village, although slightly odd. Gaston is the most handsome man in the village, but incredibly narcissistic. Belle ends up being kidnapped by a beast and Gaston goes to save her. In the original Gaston is the antagonist and the beast is the protagonist, but I wanted to change it up because a kidnapper should not be the good guy. Belle ends up falling in love with the beast, which I kept within the story to allow for Gaston to turn her away as did Rama to Sita.

Bibliography: Ramayana translated by various authors.