For Love And Honor
Ch. 1
The fair and beautiful princess, Sabrina, strolled outside in the palace gardens in her lacy robin's egg blue dress that flowed down to her bare feet. Glancing down at the flowers she felt a distant longing to be young again, to have a childhood where she wasn't constantly trying to govern a palace on her own, everything coming down to her final decision all the time. Her parents had been under a deep enchanted sleep for years and she was left with all the responsibilities a king and queen would have since she was just nine years old. Along with royal duties, she had her dear sister whose life had caused her to believe that her sister's happiness was more important than her own. She could never tell her dear sister Daphne that this was what she was doing, and she had learned to fake happiness with a simple smile to make her sister believe she was happy too. Sabrina was a stern, serious, level-headed, no emotion showing, ruler. And a wonderful one at that. She ruled the palace with grace and beauty, but alas no love. Something she thought she could never truly give and felt she didn't deserve to receive.
Gently she picked a flower from a vine and tucked it behind her ear. She strolled gracefully over to a pool of water and stared at the colorful fish swimming in it. Her gaze was suddenly transfixed on her own reflection in the water, and she smiled as she realized what a beautiful woman she had become over the years. She let her smile fade and replaced it with her classic emotionless face as she saw a figure approach her. The flower behind her ear she tossed into the pool behind her. She turned to see Prince Charming who had recently insisted on being added to the royal council.
"Princess Sabrina, your council is waiting for you, they have some important news to discuss with you," he stated and gave her his arm to guide her to the council room.
"Of course Prince Charming, but please, Sabrina is fine you know how much I dislike the title princess, it sounds so naive"
"Of course, Sabrina," he said and smirked. He studied her stern face and led her quietly out of the courtyard and into the palace.
"You know Sabrina, it's ok to smile sometimes, and even laugh, you should try it sometime," he told her.
"I will smile, and laugh plenty when my parents are awake and well," she said sternly and began to walk faster down the hall. Sabrina and Charming entered the council room minutes later and found their seats. The council welcomed Sabrina and they began their discussion.
"The Scarlet Hand is trying to rise up again, they want a war!" her uncle, Jake announced.
"We aren't strong enough for a war, we will never win, our defenses are weak! We would never be able to hold them off!" The Cowardly Lion stated.
"Well then we need allies, if we can't fight this war by ourselves, then we must not do it alone!" Sabrina shouted across the table.
"I agree, there is a strong kingdom nearby, what is it Faerie?" Lancelot chimed in.
"Yes! They are very strong and have been around for millennials, they surely know how to win a war, but if we ask them to help fight our war they will most likely ask for something in return. A beautiful maiden perhaps?" The Scarecrow added.
"Excuse me?" Sabrina asked giving him an incredulous look. Everyone hushed and waited for a response from the scarecrow.
"The kingdom's oldest son has come of age and seeing as the king and queen have already served for thousands of years, they will likely be stepping down as soon as possible. You, Sabrina, will be of age also, as of next month. 16, Sabrina. If you do so band these two kingdoms together it would save your entire kingdom."
"I can't give up my entire life just like that!"
"We see no other choice, the hand is quickly approaching, they're getting stronger every single day, we have no time to waste," Lancelot announced. Everyone turned their gaze to Sabrina.
"You can't put me on the spot like that!" She said, not finding any better answer.
"I'm afraid we need an answer so we can have a chance to set up an appointment with the prince," The Cowardly lion told her. Everyone looked at her with hopeful eyes, she hoped she was making the right decision and not inflicting more misery into her life.
"Fine, I'll do it for my kingdom, you can invite him over whenever you feel is right."
"I believe you have made a very wise decision Sabrina," her uncle said with pride and gave her a thumbs up. Sabrina gave him a doubtful look.
Sabrina lay in bed that night thinking more about what possibly bad things could happen to her life and her sister's life with this new agreement she had made. She needed to be ready to handle anything to keep her sister out of this mess. An arranged marriage, she thought, what a pitiful way to give up your life she concluded and then went to sleep. That night Sabrina had a very disoriented dream, it was her and her sister in the palace gardens, playing happily. Then a group of people, no they were more creatures than people, with blood-red handprints on their chests charged in, the palace was destroyed and then everything was gone, all that was left was just a deserted wasteland with thousands of pools of blood and bodies scattered everywhere. That's when she looked down and saw her sister dead at her feet. Sabrina screamed, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Then her dream turned into black nothingness and Sabrina jolted up out of bed screaming and crying."Sabrina! Are you ok," her sister said, opening the door and rushing to her side.
"Oh thank goodness, it was just a dream," she said and let Daphne up on her bed where they snuggled under the covers together.
"Sounds like a pretty bad one at that, you wanna talk about it?" she asked.
"I think, it's probably best that I don't share it with you. I don't want you to have nightmares yourself, please understand," suddenly the image of Daphne's dead bloodied body came back to her mind and she pulled Daphne into a tight hug.
"I love you so much Daphne," she told her, suddenly Uncle Jake came barging in.
"Is everyone alright! I heard screaming," he said and ran up to the girls.
"Yes we're fine," Sabrina assured him.
"Oh thank goodness, well I was going to come up to tell you soon anyway, but breakfast is ready, so get dressed and meet everyone down there soon."
"Will do!" Daphne exclaimed and saluted to Uncle Jake who laughed at Daphne's silly behavior.
"Ok, I'll be down soon, now everyone out!" Sabrina shouted and pushed them out of her room.
When they were gone, she began searching through her closet to find an elegant dress to wear for the day, she came out with a dark red dress and slipped it on. Not caring much for heels she went down to breakfast with bare feet like usual. The dress was so long no one could notice anyways. She strode down the hall and came to the dining room with a large table in the middle that could seat a whole kingdom. She made her way to one of the many chairs and the chef pulled it out for her. She took her seat and then let him push her chair in, and place a steaming plate of breakfast in front of her, she thanked him and he rushed off. At breakfast, the kingdoms most important people were there, the rest of Sabrina's family and the council. Breakfast was a quiet affair and most everyone was sidetracked with their work. Uncle Jake tried to make conversation sometimes. "How did you two sleep" was his typical way to start breakfast.
"I slept great!" Daphne would always say. Sabrina's response was the complete opposite and always
"Fine." This morning he went further into talking about the new agreement the council had made.
"The council is going to meet with the leaders of Faerie today, to seek help with the war, perhaps they won't even ask for anything from us if we are lucky. If that isn't the case we know what they most desire and we will set up an appointment for you to meet the prince." Uncle Jake said between bites.
"Sounds wonderful," Sabrina replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she put on a fake smile. Then she got up to leave, not wanting to talk any more about her arranged marriage or the prince.
A/N: How was the first chapter? Hopefully, there aren't too many mistakes, anyways leave a review if you get I chance, I'd really appreciate it! I will post chapter two soon, just give it a day or two, it'll be up. Chapter two should be more interesting also. Yay! Hope you guys enjoyed this. :)