Heres where he meets

The tale of the beast started like this: deep in the forest, between sharp peaks and serpentine valleys with rivers that glittered like the most precious diamonds, there was a castle cloaked by ancient magic. Nobody could recall anything about its master or if there had ever been one, but everyone knew about the thing that prowled inside its walls like a caged beast.

Some said he had once been a man, cursed to be unrecognizable by his kind, alone and trapped forever. Some that he had sold his soul to demons and became one in return. Others said that such evil could have never been human in the first place, that the beast was instead a nightmare, left behind a long time ago to haunt the earth. The only thing they all had in common was this: there was something in the castle trapped by magic, and that was more than enough reason for the townsfolk to keep away.

Magic was, after all, not to be trifled with.

Or: Dnf Beauty and the Beast AU, but with a twist