Note: The soundtrack for this story is in my profile, if you want to listen to it while reading.
Two ravens in the old oak tree
And one for you and one for me
And bluebells in the late December
I see signs now all the time
-Signs by Bloc Party
The two soldiers dragged the naked girl through the rough sand towards the sea, pulling her forward by her arms even though the girl made no move to escape. They chained Andromeda to a wet, sticky rock with sea weeds stuck to it, the closest one to the sea. They chained the young girls wrists and ankles, making sure she wouldn't be able to escape and after their job was done, they left as quickly as possible, not wanting to linger long on that place.
The girl didn't struggle nor did she scream, she had accepted her fate long ago. She was to be sacrificed in exchange for peace.
"I'm going to take your daughter." Sakura heard the King tell her father.
Take me? Sakura had been woken by the sound of the King and his small army arriving in her family's property. She had rushed getting out of bed to see what was happening and when she arrived, still in her bed clothes, they were already talking so she hid herself behind a wall and listened to their conversation. Take me where?
"My daughter? Why?" Father asked.
"Are you going to marry her?" Mother asked almost at the same time as father. Sakura was amazed at how her mother had such bravery to talk to a king like that.
The king didn't even bat an eyelash. "Yes." He admitted.
Marry me? He can't. Sakura didn't understand why he would want to marry her, she was already promised.
Sakura knew, from her father's expression, that he was furious. "She's going to be a hostage."
"She is going to be a queen." The king countered.
Father wasn't convinced. "A hostage nonetheless. Someone you can kill if we rebel."
"Exactly." He said. The way he had said it had given Sakura the chills. The hairs in her arm rose up and she was suddenly very, very cold. Kill me?
"I won't do her any harm if you don't give me a reason to." The tall man told father and then turned to speak to mother. "Will you, please, bring her here?"
"I am afraid what you ask is going to be impossible." Father said, obstinately ignoring that the King hadn't asked anything, rather he had commanded it. "My daughter is already betrothed."
Yes, tell him, father. After all how could she marry someone when she was already promised to another? And when that another was so gentle and gallant and brave? When that another was sunshine and fairytales and this one was blood and war and unhappy endings? No, that was impossible. She would never marry the usurper. She would marry the rightful King and she would be the rightful Queen. No, never the usurper.
The black haired man gave father an ironic smile. "The traitor? You would rather see your daughter marry a traitor, an exiled and a soon-to-be dead man than be the rightful Queen?"
He is no traitor, he is the rightful King. Sakura saw, in her father's expression, that he probably wanted to say the same as her but he kept his mouth shut.
The king, seeing he had no opposition, turns to mother again. "Bring her here." This time there was no polite question masking a command, this really was a command and his tone had a finality to it, an implicit threat.
Sakura knew it was time for her to get out of there so she ran, as fast as she could, towards her room. She had been lucky for she had not met any maid on the way.
She quickly pushed the curtains close again, pushed the bed sheets back and jumped into bed, pretending to be asleep.
Sometime later her mother entered her room and woke her up.
"The king is here and he wants to see you." That was all she said. It seemed to Sakura that her mother was in a bad mood.
"Naruto?" Sakura asked, feigning ignorance. In their house the King was her cousin, Naruto and the other one was the usurper.
"No." She mumbled. Apparently Mother wasn't in a disposition to talk. "Now, stop asking questions and get dressed."
Mother went to the doors and called in her ladies to help Sakura get dressed. Mother chose a gown of a dark green, embroidered with pearls in the bodice and lace in the sleeves and neckline, that she deemed appropriate for the occasion. Sakura failed to see how a riding gown was appropriate for a meeting with the king but she chose not to voice her reluctance in her mother's choice of clothing.
While her ladies prepared her corset and unlaced her nightgown, mother started undoing the braid she had slept in.
Her ladies did their job quickly and efficiently and she was dressed faster than she had ever been before.
Mother hurried her towards the meeting room where the King was waiting for her.
"Your grace." Sakura greeted the usurper King, bowing deeply.
The tall and handsome man greeted back with the polite and customary 'my lady' and gestured for her to get up.
The usurper took two steps towards her and grabbed her chin, making her look up into his eyes but his eyes were looking elsewhere. First her face, then her chest and finally her hips. All the while his thumbs were sliding back and forth in her chin making her feel something she didn't quite understand. It wasn't the same feeling she got when Naruto touched her. Sakura didn't dislike it, as she thought she would, she actually quite liked it and she wanted more of it, more…something more she didn't knew what it was. It was a very strange feeling.
Sakura saw the Uchiha usurper nod and then he quickly released her.
"Pack her things, only the necessary for the trip in a pack that can be carried by horse. I shall provide whatever she needs once we reach the capital." He instructed mother. "We leave as soon as she is ready."
What? No! You can't take me! Sakura turned to her mother, hoping to find some support there but her mother grabbed her arm and took Sakura to her room, to pack.
"Mother, I can't go with him, I am going to marry Naruto!" She shouted to her mother once they were in Sakura's bedroom.
"Hush, now." Her mother whispered. "There is nothing any of us can do right now. You have to go with the usurper and we have to hope Naruto will come and rescue you."
That sent shivers of delight travelling through her body. "He's going to rescue me?" She asked in a high pitched voice from the excitement. It was just like the fairytales. The prince coming to rescue the princess from the clutches of the gruesome monster.
"Hopefully, yes." Mother said. "Now, do as you are told and pack."
Her ladies finished packing her things rather quickly after she chose what to take with her. They were actually efficient when they wanted to be. Sakura was to reprimand them later but then she remembered she was to go alone, her ladies were to stay here, with her family and to be replaced by new ones once she was settled in the castle. Good riddance. A band of gossipers and sluts, not worthy of being the queen's ladies.
They were all ready when she stepped outside, in the cold, grey summer day. The king and his small travelling party were all mounted in their horses, waiting for her.
The King spotted her and trotted closer to her. "You can ride with sir Kiba, my lady." He said pointing towards the said man. He said it as if she was a child, as if she didn't know how to ride. Naruto would know, Naruto would never tell me that. Naruto would give me my own horse and tell me to ride beside him.
"I can ride alone." She told him, making sure her voice was colder than the wind harassing them.
The usurper king raised an eyebrow. He's doubting me, he thinks I'm weak. "Are you sure, my lady?" He asked. "We wouldn't want y-"
"I know how to ride." Sakura said, interrupting him. "Every woman and child here learns how to ride since birth."
"I intend to bring peace to the kingdom." He said, after a moment of silence. He had understood what she meant. In these times of war, everybody had to learn to defend themselves and Sakura had been taught by the best.
They talked no more after that. The King retreated with sir Kiba and the servant's brought Sakura her horse. The white stallion, that had been Naruto's present for her coming of age, stood out in that sea of brown horses, just like she stood out with her pink hair and her ridding dress in a sea of men dressed, equally, in brown.
The ride to the capital was long and tiresome, for Sakura, although used to riding, had never rode such distances before and thus she was stiff, sore and very, very tired.
The king had told her they were taking the road by the coast for it was safer. He had told her that as the road had less trees, it was easier to see if there was someone to attack them and it was almost impossible to hide there.
It was quite curious to see the way the road changed as they approached the city, you start seeing small and poor houses here and there, few and far between but as you get closer to the city walls, the houses increase in number although, quite clearly, they belong to the peasants. However once you enter the city itself, once you get past the wall, past the gates, the amount of houses is almost unbelievable. There were so many and so close to each other that it left little room for the streets.
The city was built on a hill, with the castle resting on the very top of it and the rest of the city descending, literally, into the sea. It was a beautiful sight, the city and the sea, in harmony.
The main street was crowded with people who wanted to see the King's party and his wife-to-be. They clapped and laughed, they threw colored papers and asked for his blessing. Sakura frowned. Can these people not see that this is not their rightful king? Are they so ignorant as to not know who is who?
"Smile." She heard the usurper tell her. "They are here to see you…us and we have to leave a good impression, we want people to like us, rather than fear us. Love is more efficient than fear."
Yes, I can see that. She thought, resentful but she did what her husband-to-be told her and smiled, waving from time to time.
On the contrary of what her husband thought, she wasn't ignorant in the ways of ruling, the politics and the games involved. She was her father's heir and thus she had to learn how to take care of their estates, how to treat with nobles, with merchants, with peasants and how to please them in a way that they would do what she wanted them to do.
There were more and more people coming out of their houses into the streets, the curious who wanted to know what the fuss was all about.
By the time they reached the castle she was sore all over. Her thighs were sore and her back hurt, there were blisters forming in her hands from holding the reins all day and her cheeks hurt from all the fake smiling. It was a relief when two ladies of the court helped her off her horse and took her to her new rooms. Sakura was so sore she could barely walk so she leaned on the two ladies who were later joined by four more.
The walk to her rooms in court was all a blur. The pain was blinding her and all she could see was a bath a proper bed, something she had not had since she left home, twelve days ago for there were very few noble houses on the coast side who could host the King and his small army. There were barely any inns also and so, more often than not, they had to camp, something that Sakura was a stranger to and did not wish to repeat.
The King had apologized, every time they had to camp, for the lack of conditions, something that was almost gallant of him but Sakura could never call gallant to someone who deposed her dear Naruto.
The ladies helped her to get rid of her dirty riding clothes and, quicker than she thought possible, prepared her a warm, inviting bath. The bath was a big relief to her aching muscles. It numbed the pain to a tolerable tingle, it made her relax completely and, for the first time in many days, she felt at peace.
Sakura wished she could stay there forever but the water was getting cold, the skin on her hands and feet was already heavily wrinkled from the time the spent in the water and her new ladies were insisting that she got out of the bath. She felt very sleepy now, after the bath so she told her ladies to dress her with her nightgown for she wanted to go to bed.
"Do you want me to read you the holy book?" One of her new ladies asked. Sakura couldn't quite differentiate the yet. They all dressed the same and it seemed to her that they all looked the same. They all had the typical brown hair and eyes.
"No, let's just say our prayers."
Her new ladies all knelt around her and she led the prayer. Sakura only recited the essential, deciding that, being so tired as she was, she could fall asleep in the middle of the prayer.
She quickly got into her new bed, her ladies closing the bed's curtains and she was almost asleep, in that state where she is starting to dream but still half awake when a knock on the door woke her up and made her jump.
Sakura heard one of her ladies open the door and she forced herself to be very, very silent so that she could hear what she was saying.
"My lady is already sleeping, your grace. Do you want me to wake her?"
The king is here? What does he want?
"No, just tell her I want to speak to her in the morning. Goodnight."
She supposed she should get up now and pretend she hadn't heard the conversation but she was so tired she doubted she could get up now. She made herself comfortable in her feather bed and went to sleep.
To Be Continued...
Requested by Shakespearenarutostyle. I love you, sweetie and i hope you like it!
xoxo
