The young man could feel the cool metal beneath his finger tips. He grasped the door handle more tightly. In the second it took him to take a breath, someone in the amphitheater fainted. The tension and anticipation evaporated, as if it had never existed. All attention was now focused on the chaos of the spectator whose apprehensiveness had gotten the better of him or her.
The lover of the princess lost his nerve; his hand feel away from the door, and he stepped back. His abrupt and unexpected movement regained the attention of the viewers. When he turned to look at the princess, her eyes and expressions once again pointed him to the right door. She was pleading with him, mentally begging him to open the right door.
The young man's eyes strayed to the semi-barbaric king and then back to the princess. She was so like her father in looks, but even more so in character. The young man ruminated in how alike they were, and also how those similarities would decide her actions. He had trusted her so fully only moments ago, but now, considering how alike the father and daughter were, he began to believe that the princess had, in distinguishing the right door as the one to open, condemned him to death. To see him dead would be better than to see him married, he felt she would believe.
He walked to the left door and yanked it open. When he saw two gleaming and ferocious eyes staring through the darkness, he turned to the princess. Her face was a mixture of pain, disgust, and angst, for she had not betrayed him, but the reverse. The youth had doubted the honesty and love of the princess and had, in fact, betrayed her by doing so.
The young man was not dead, but knew he should be. The tiger was, for some reason, deferring the end. Without being to sudden, the youth turned around, waiting for the delayed death to bite into him. However, the tiger was lying on the ground with a mouth already bloodied from a meal. There were remnants of what seemed to be expensive material stuck to the tiger's mouth
In the area of the king and princess seats, the young man could hear commotion. The youth could hear the king shout orders, even from so far away. The king was outraged, that much was obvious. Guards came to take the young man to a room where he could rest.
After a meal of simple bread and water, the young man fell asleep. He awoke to the voice of his love, and he smiled, for it was all a nightmare. He stayed in his bed for a few moments more before realizing that it had all, in fact, happened. He sat up in bed and looked at her, but she did not smile.
"You should have chosen the right door, for it was empty. The tiger and the lady were put in the same room so that you would have been let free without death or marriage. However, you are still a free man and my father has decided that we may marry if I still wish it. I knew he would say this when he realized the lengths I would go to, but how can I marry one who does not trust in me? We could have been so happy. Nevertheless, my father will provide for you whatever you need. I ask, as a last favor, that you leave this city, so that I may never have to look upon your face and remember the love we shared or what could have been," she said. The princess gazed one more time into the eyes of her lover and then walked out the door.
The next morning the young man mounted one of the king's horses and rode away from the palace and to a different city, honoring the last wish of his lover.