Normally, when you read a story about a prince and a princess, you would expect the normal 'Once upon a time' beginning. Well, I'm sorry to say that this story isn't just some princess finding true love and living happily ever after. Yes, there will be happy parts to this story, but mostly, there will be drama, fighting, angst, horror even. If you cannot stomach a story such as this, then I do not advise reading it.
This story actually begins with a young girl around the age of 17. She was very beautiful with her long black hair and her sparkling green eyes. Many people, in fact, were entranced by her radiant beauty. Her name was Victoria Collette Frost. Though of course, being a princess, she was to be addressed as Princess Victoria.
As I was saying, this story begins with Princess Victoria, who was currently enjoying some of the little bit of free time she had. Which was basically whenever she managed to get away from her maids and tutors. She was reading a very interesting book about different mythical forest animals. So far, she had learned several interesting facts on unicorns, fairies, and ogres. Now, she was learning about dragons and trying to find out whether or not they burn the roof of their mouths when they breathe fire. That is, until her father burst into the library.
"Victoria! I have something very important to discuss with you, and you weren't with your maid," he said, his scruffy face looking annoyed with her. The king was a very gruff man, she got her eyes from him, though his green eyes were much more firm than hers. They held no curiosity or innocence at all, only cautiousness and strictness. He had chin length dark brown hair with a beard of sorts that had speckles of white and gray in it from age and stress. He wore the normal kingly things, though they were much more modernized, as in, he didn't have ruffles all over his clothing. He wore a very interesting and eccentrically designed vest of sorts that were the colors of their royal flag and family crest. His dress pants and stylish tights were also the same color along with the cape he wore. He was decked out in gold, red, green, and white. All colors of their royal flag.
Sighing inwardly, Victoria quickly stood up to address her father, putting her book down in the process. "Yes father? What is it you would like to speak with me about?" she asked, looking at him a little wearily as she smoothed out her elegant light green gown with dark green vine designs crawling around the corset, sleeves, and down the skirt of the gown. It was simple, though she hadn't planned on addressing her father in it. Though she couldn't help but to dread speaking with her father. He had been talking with her about the subject of arranged marriages for quite some time. She had grown quite suspicious and still wasn't quite sure how she would be able to tell her father that she didn't want an arranged marriage without being punished, which was really rather impossible.
"You see, there is this neighboring kingdom-"
'Here he goes...' Victoria thought to herself.
"That seems to be very interested in uniting by marriage. Your brother is already married, and is next in line for the throne. I don't want you to grow too old to marry and so I have already told King Francios' eldest son," he announced, "it has already been decided for the two of you to marry so the two of you will meet first thing tomorrow. We will leave in the morning," he said, dropping it all on her. Though when he saw her face he quickly added, "This decision was made with your best interest in mind, I'm sure you will be much happier if you had a husband, Victoria."
"Wait... So Father, I don't even get a say in this? How is that fair?" She asked, trying to keep her voice from raising, though was panicking as she never really thought about marriage before he began to speak about it.
"I never said it was fair. But you shouldn't think of whether or not an arranged marriage is fair, it is your duty as a princess to keep your kingdom safe and to do what is best for your people! Uniting our kingdom will help very much with our strength and we will easily be able to defeat enemies if we unite. You are not allowed to argue, first thing in the morning you will be on a carriage with me and we will be meeting with King Francios and his family. That is final, Victoria." The king shouted, though attempted to keep his temper under control, hating it when he lost it due to his daughter. Though there really wasn't anything else that got through to her. Victoria was simply just too stubborn.
Without another word, as she was afraid to say anything else that might anger her father more, she quickly ran around her father and ran to her room, hating her father more than life itself at that moment. Though deep inside knew that she was only upset. She was very emotional, she hated it though she was a young girl still. The very idea of marriage frightened her, she had always hated her parent's before her mother had passed, her mother had always been too afraid of her father to say a word in her defense, so she didn't want to turn out like that. Different thoughts raced through her head, anything and everything that might stop her from having to get married popping into her mind. She slammed her door open, then shut and ran to her bed, jumping onto it and stuffing her face into her many pillows and letting out a muffled cry of anger. Thoughts of running away, fighting back, what might happen to her if she went through with the marriage popped up, even the petty thought of suicide. But the very moment she thought of this she shook her head and cancelled out all thoughts of escape and decided on the most logical idea. She would wait until she officially met this man, then she would decide what to do from there. Besides, maybe she would be happy like her father intended after all. Though what Victoria didn't know, was that she would be happy, though if that happiness would stay is something only her choices could show.
As she laid down in her bed, rolling over onto her back and not even bothering to change out of her gown she sighed softly. All of the exhaustion of her lessons and having the sudden bomb of news from her father, she couldn't help but to allow all of her thoughts to escape her, but replaced with a new thought before she could force it away, "What is to become of my future after tonight?"
((Simply prologue, done on phone so if there's any mistakes, I would be glad to know. Creative criticism is welcome.))
