Disclaimer: I do not own most of the characters in this story. I do not own the plot, up until he reaches for the door (you will know what I mean later) though the rest is mine. What is not mine is Frank Stockton's form The Lady or the Tiger. I'm just a lowly fanfic writer who thought this would be a great story to play off of. So don't sue! plz (sad eyes) :'-(

A/N: plz review.....i haven't written in quite some time and I need a little reassurance to get back on track.
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PROLOGUE:

"The eyes."

The young boy of around seven years looked up, startled, from his absent- minded shuffling of the dirt beneath him with his feet. There, standing before him, was a woman. She was unremarkable to see. She wore a scarf around her head, as was customary. It was black, as if she was mourning, but at this time in Persia, that was not an uncommon thing either. She was slightly aging, of around forty. Her hair was streaked with white, in what had once been black as ebony. She had a sense of urgency about her, as if she had just seen something dead coming for her. And she spoke in a whisper riddled with fear and harshness, as if what she said was evil. As if what she said would bring doom if it left her lips. Which it had. And if the boy hadn't been so shocked, that would have caused him to run for his life. But under the circumstances, all he could do was gape.

"The eyes, boy!" The woman grabbed him suddenly by the shoulders, nearly causing him to scream out loud. But, being seven years old, he didn't want to scream. His friends were a few yards away. He would never do himself the indignity of screaming in fear for their eyes to see. So still, all he could do was gape.

"Listen to me," the woman said. She seemed to be growing more urgent, as if she wanted to be as far away from this spot as possible, but had to do something first. Well he could share in that sentiment. He wanted to be as far away from this spot as possible right now, too. "Listen! You must remember the tiger eyes. You must remember! Because the tiger eyes will be the end of you. Or they could be the end of you, if you let them. And with the end of you, comes the end of us all!"

The woman's eyes shone with obvious fear. She seemed in awe of what she was witnessing, though the boy didn't know what she thought she was witnessing, as all she could see from that close was him.

Suddenly, her hands jumped off of the boy's shoulders and she recoiled as if she'd touched a cobra. "Remember. Don't let us die."

And then she ran.

And so did he.

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Once, long ago, in the land of Persia, ruled a king. He had won no major battles, or made peace in any major way. He had not made any great advances in learning or healing. But he was special. What made him so special, you ask? He devised a plan. He devised a way to choose the guilty from the innocent, and let fate decide.

Ah, fate. What a word that is. It rings a little after you say it, giving a deafening sense of finality. Making you realize that no matter what you do will change the outcome. Fate was what this king depended on.

For his system was simple. If a man commited a crime great enough for a sentence of death, he would be brought to an arena. The doors would be opened and the man would step inside. He would not face immediate death there, though crowds did come to see this, just as they did for gladiators. He was faced with two doors.

The doors would be exactly identical. They would be alike in color, shape, size, wood type, and height. But behind each door, something completely different than what was behind the other lay. In one would be a starved, man-eating tiger. In the other would be the most beautiful woman in the whole of Persia. No one, not even the king, would know which was behing what door. After that, the rules were simple. The man chose one. And if he opened the door with the tiger, the Fates had supposedly pronounced him guilty, and he would die. Or if he opened the door with the lady, the Fates had pronounced him innocent, and he would marry the woman on the spot as a reward for his innocence. The king saw this as a genius plan. There was no way that some judge could accuse the man wrongly, for it was left entirely unto the gods.

But, the king had a daughter.

She was a lovely thing to see. Some said that she must have once been a lesser goddess, and that she was sent to watch over mankind. Of course this wasn't true. This girl possessed no divinity. But she did possess royalty. And so, the minute her romance began, it was doomed. Becuase she fell for a man of common blood.

They had an affair for quite some time, staying in secret with their rendezvous'. But of course, as fate would have it, the king eventually found out. He became enraged and arrested the man; set a date for his trial.

Now, the daughter, through her position and wealth, learned which door the lady would be behind at her lover's trial. And which would be the tiger. The princess agonized every day about what to do. She knew that she would have to give her lover some signal. Now that she knew she could not simply leave it up to fate. But what could she do? She couldn't bear the thought of him dying, especially for her eyes to see. But she also couldn't imagine that she could tell her lover to pick the door with the lady. How could she live seeing him with someone else? Actually witnessing their marriage?

Well, she came to a decision. And on the day of the trial, the man stepped into the arena. .He had known that the princess would have found out where his fate would lead him, because he knew her well. So when he stepped in, he casually glanced at her. And she discretely pointed. And he walked to the door that she pointed to.

The End.

Or, at least, that is the end of Stockton's tale. He leaves you to think which door she would have pointed to. But I will tell you my version of the story after.

I will tell you of how the princess's choice effects them all.

And I will tell you of the doom in the tiger's eyes.

In time.
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A/N: tada! there's the prologue. I hope it got you hooked. I'm really looking forward to this fic so plz review!! keep me goin!