Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of fairytales. They are timeless. This is an original fairytale, not following any previous plotline but my own.

A/N: This is something I've had in mind for a while, I hope you like it. It seems I've done something right if you're reading this now :D so please, read and review and hopefully…enjoy!!

This is dedicated to elleoire. Thanks for annoying me till I finally wrote this. Thanks for help picking the names. And one more thing – this will be the only quote/extract in the story.

'Yes, that would work. I think I'd quite like that. Only there still isn't anybody, is there? So I might as well marry this man my parents have chosen for me.'

'Well,' said Kestral, feeling she'd done all she could,

'I'm just glad I'm not a princess.'

After a short silence, Sisi said in a quite voice,

'It isn't at all what people think. Nobody ever tells you anything. You never go anywhere. You never meet anybody. You're supposed to be better then everyone else but really you're sort of a doll in a doll's house.'

Kestral was touched.

'You could always stop being a pincess.'

'What else am I good for? I've never been taught to do anything for myself. All I know ids how to be beautiful.'

'Oh, Sisi.'

'Don't tell anyone I talk like this. They wouldn't understand. The doll princess is supposed to be radiant, and happy, and-'

She gave Kestral the oddest smile, and turned her head away.

- Slaves of the Mastery, William Nicholson

CHAPTER 1

Do you ever wake up in the morning g and just know what you're day will be like? I don't. Well, I do, because each day is pretty much like the last, give or take a ball or two, but on this particular day, I felt odd.

Maybe, I mused, as I got dressed, was the kind of the day which simply feels like something interesting would happen, only nothing ever does.

I wouldn't say that all of this land is a boring place to live, since I've never actually been out side of the castle except to attend a few events.

The rulers of my homeland, Karivola, are not modest people. They live in a huge palace overlooking the sea, with grounds extensive but not as extensive as their impressive collection of dungeons.

Said rulers also happen to be my parents. Life sucks sometimes.

There are three times the numbers of people working in this palace then actual inhabitants; a lot of these servants are hired to clean and tend to the 302 ornate windows that adorn the castle. It is famous for its beautiful display of light; on any holiday or birthday of royalty, every single window is lit up with candles, till the castle is blazing with light for all to see.

I'm told it was my father's idea, though he originally thought of it for the lost travelers at sea and not for celebrations.

Really, he seemed like such a sensible king. I have no idea what he saw in my mother. Not that she's evil or anything like that, it's just she is such a…wimp. But I'm told that before my father's death, my mother was completely different; the story of their romance was almost legendary in Karivola.

I would like to tell you more about my father, but I can't, because he's dead. He died a month before I was born.

Now here comes the really twisted part: four months later, leaving a respectable time for mourning, and my birth and all that, my mother married his brother.

So you see why I don't really think my mother married my father for love??

Her Royal Highness, Queen Aurelie of Karivola, is a most beautiful lady with impeccable manners, grace, poise, and absolutely no common sense whatsoever.

I would know, since whenever she is asked to arrange a ball or organize a tea party, she is absolutely helpless. It is usually me who ends up sorting out seating arrangement, remembering that the Prince of Berkingham cannot sit with Lady Louisa, because they just ended their courtship on rather bad terms. It's me who decides that family china with the crest of the phoenix (Karivola's national animal) entwined with the Crown needs to polished. It's me who remembers it's the Duchess's birthday, and to send her a suitable present, and gracefully decline the invitation to her birthday party.

My mother just sits there looking pretty.

And I'm only sixteen. But I know how to handle the servants; I'm not exactly harsh to them, but I know they get well paid, and if my mother held the reins of the castle they would get absolutely no work done at all. I know that when the specially imported red wine supply from Senriole doesn't arrive on time, it's not the supplier's fault. It's the crew, who couldn't resist taking a sip. Or two. Or finishing the entire supply.

Hehe, trust me, you don't want to know what I did to them in punishment…

I'm not exactly your average princess. I'm not beautiful, intelligent, or a social butterfly. There is only one thing I'm good at, and that's dancing.

Oh, I guess you don't really know who I am. My bad. Let me introduce myself…

My name is Princess Aneliese Carthigy Relovise of the Ninth Descent. That just means the Crown has been in my family for nine generations.

But every one just calls me Lise. Pronounced Leese, if you couldn't already tell.

It's a bit of a problem, the whole Ninth Descent bit. Because nine generations is quite a lot to live up to and this is the first generation that doesn't have a prince. Which means I must marry a prince from a neighboring land. This is good and bad; it's good because the prince controls and rules the land of both kingdoms. This makes our empire stronger. The bad thing is I must marry someone who our country is allies with, someone whose country never had a war in history with.

And when I say never, I mean never. Even if the war had taken place decades ago, I must only marry a prince whose country is absolutely loyal to my father.

Sometimes I wonder whether I'm to marry a prince or his country.

I know a lot of princesses who would hate to marry someone they've never met, but I've thought about it carefully, and I've decided I'm not going to make a fuss.

I mean, what's marriage, if not a business arrangement? It does seem sensible to me. And anything would be better then staying here for the rest of my life in Fabian's castle, watching him dominate my mother and control my life.

I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if mother hadn't remarried. Technically, she could rule the lands herself, being of royal descent. But instead, she took the cowards' route and married Fabian.

This, as I'm sure you've figured out by now, effectively made him the next King of Karivola.

King Fabian the Fathead Extraordinaire.

Oh, I'm sorry, I just let slip what his real identity is.

As you can imagine, I haven't really begun to forgive my mother. But somehow, I cannot remain angry at her for long.

She is the type of person who is weak and helpless and yet so lovely, and makes you want to protect her from all the Fabians of the world.

Because, trust me, Fabian is evil. But nobody believes me. They think I've just got a natural block against him.

So lately, every time we fight over some trifle or the other (ALWAYS his fault, really, I'm not kidding) I try and back down.

Because Fabian, being the king and all, has the power to make my life miserable.

Meh. Being royal sucks.

Fabian and Mother have asked for me to be in the drawing room, for a 'meeting' after noon. They seem very mysterious about it.

Not that I really care. I couldn't care less about some stupid thing they had in mind for me.

As soon as breakfast was over, I rushed over to my room. This was my favorite day of the week because I didn't have etiquette lessons, I didn't have to solve out any courtly problems, or anything of that sort. I could spend the day doing what I loved doing best.

My room is pretty, I guess, full of luxuries any girl would dream for. But what made me really happy was to see Katia in my room, sitting in an armchair by the fire and reading the newspaper.

Katia is my handmaid, but she's more like my best friend. She's a year younger to me, but she understands me more then anyone else I know in the world.

She is the only servant who treats me like an equal. Heck, she even treats me like an inferior sometimes, bossing me and around and swearing in front me and laughing at me all the time. But it's all in fun, and I'd die of boredom if not for Katia.

She's also the only servant who would dare use a princess's armchair. But that's Katia for you.

'What's in the paper?' I asked, plopping down in front of her in another cushioned armchair.

'Oh nothing, just this and that...' She said absently, turning a page.

I instantly knew something was up. Katia is the wildest, most energetic person I know, even more so then me. She loves pranks, is clumsy, and hates working. She wouldn't tell me much, but her family wanted to 'keep her out of harm's way' so they sent her to work in the palace.

We became friends on the very first day of her employment, when she split Fabian's tea all over his beard. I knew, at that moment, that we would get along very well.

'Let me see,' I insisted, curious to know what was so important.

'No, really, Lise, it's just-'

I snatched the paper out of her hands and turned to the front page. 'The Bloody Phoenix Strikes Again' I read the big black bold headlines, and read the article out loud.

'The revolutionary group that is known to have planted many previous attacks on the Crown has struck again. (Oh bugger, what is their problem, anyways?) Last night, in opposition to the new Order for longer pay hours, the Bloody Phoenix (who are heavily suspected of the Senriole Protests, though evidence is yet to be found) went on a strike, effectively convincing the villagers to also strike.(Do they have nothing better to do then cause strife in MY land?) Very little people worked in Karivola all week, choosing to roam the countryside and stay at home. (Yes, that's smart, I'm sure that many poor commoners would benefit from A WHOLE WEEK'S PAY MISSING!) The Crown has been trying to investigate who the ringleader of this group is, yet so far no leads have been found…'

The article went on to describe previous attacks on the Crown and it speculated the causes and leaders of the group. It was a rather biased story, I thought, as I finished reading. Even though I naturally sided with the crown, I had a feeling that Fabian was leaning heavily on the press.

I wondered why Katia was so interested in it.

I let her finish reading the rest of it, and then agreed to meet her in the ballroom in an hour. I got my dancing shoes out and headed downstairs so I could practice alone first.

000

My passion is dancing. I began dancing at the age of five, compulsory lessons for all young ladies of high social stature. But to me, dance became a way to escape from Fabian, to escape the strict confines of my life.

Everything in my life was planned, proper; even the dance steps were in step and rigid. But every night I used to creep down, in the middle of the night and dance my own dance. It was wild, so unlike the ballroom dancing I had been taught. I leaped, I pirouetted, I spun wildly, my hips swiveling, my hair flying – and I was free.

Then I met Carlos, a stable boy my age, and his family originated from the Gypsies, like Katia does. The Gypsies are a large group of people who live in a small village near the palace; in fact it's right beside the main trading village of Karivola, Sorrolos. Karivola is huge, but Sorrolos and Terria (the Gypsy village are the only cities very close to the palace itself.) Surprisingly, the two villages get along well their children mixing and goods exchanging all the time.

Anyways, I bumped into Carlos dancing alone in the woods (oh, stop it, nothing like that, he's a year younger then me, like Katia!) and I begged him to teach me. He was an excellent dancer, and he missed the dancing festivals that he had back home.

It took a lot of bribing, assuring, and threatening to convince him to teach me. He was afraid I would have him beheaded (not that I really had this power, I can't even lift a sword – why do you think Fabian is still alive?) if he made the slightest mistake.

Soon we became friends and every night till the hours into dawn, we would dance, and dance and dance.

Over the years between Carlos and Katia teaching me non-stop, I learned to dance with my own unique style. They taught me how to leap higher, and move my hips. They taught me the bhangra, the Lupro, the Waylie. They taught me group dances, and told me stories of how, back home, they danced all day and all night sometimes. They had dances celebrating the seasons, the moon, the harvest time, even a dance for mourning. I learned them all.

Ah, good times.

Carlos is gone, but Katia still teaches me as much as we can. I don't go a single day without dancing. She is usually busy now, but I dance on my own a lot, in the woods (I found a little clearing deep in the woods) or at night in the Royal Garden or the ballroom.

Sometimes it's the only thing I feel is worth living for.

After spending the morning dancing away (Katia taught me the dance for someone's wedding) I ate a solitary lunch and made my way to the drawing room to meet Fabian and Mother.

We sat stiffly, and as usual, Fabian got straight to the point.

'Lise, it's getting near your seventeenth birthday. We've talked about this before; it should come as no surprise to you. It's time you found a suitable husband.'

I sat there saying nothing. Gosh, this was what they had to tell me? What a bore. I couldn't care less.

'We've narrowed it down to…' Like a manhunt? Wow. Cool.

No really, it doesn't matter. I mean, it's just a prince, not a monster. And I'm sure it won't be someone terrible, I know all the princes and Dukes nearby anyway.

It would either be Prince Carl, Prince Nathanial or…nah, it couldn't be…definitly not…

'Prince Jasper. How does that seems to you?'

We might as well have been deciding the color of a dress.

All of a sudden I began to feel less sure. The room began to sway, and I heard Fabian's voice over and over in my head.

'Prince Jasper…Jasper…Jasper.'

A vision of a tall thin man with a goatee who pinched my bottom at my first ball ever swam before my eyes.

No…please, not him…

Then the world went black.

I woke up at dusk under the silk of my bed, my room smelling of oranges. That meant Katia had been here recently. She loves oranges.

I felt calm, and my head clear….until I remembered the reason I blacked out in the first place.

Jasper. It was strange, because up until now I hadn't minded marrying someone I had never met.

Now I felt like a complete idiot. Then I began to feel angry. At Mother. At Fabian. But mostly, at myself.

What the HELL was wrong with me? Was I CRAZY??? How could I have acted like I actually wanted to get married to a stranger!

The warnings of Katia, the other Princesses, Ladies, wives, swum around my head, making me feel giddy. It was too late now. Fabian and Mother would plough on ahead with this wedding. The time to protest was gone.

I burst into tears.

It's not fair. All I want to do is dance. I have only one life to live and all I want to do all my life is dance – till the world begins to spin and I no longer have to be perfect; till I can be sarcastic and no one will care. Till I can hate whomever I want and yell and scream till I'm hoarse.

I don't know how long I cried, but it was dark when Katia came into my room carrying a satchel.

'Lise. Oh Lise.' She sighed and sat on my bed. 'Really, I would have thought you to be less silly then this. I mean, it's just Jasper.

He's actually quite nice, except for the looks, the personality, the perviness, the eating habits and his dress sense.' She said thoughtfully, trying not to laugh.

I threw my pillow at her and started laughing. I couldn't help it.

'And his parents, and the fact that he always smells like a pair of shoes,' I joined in.

'Do you remember when he came here a for the Christmas ball and slipped in some water in the middle of the ballroom, right into the Lady Carol's bosom?' She snickered, leaning back against the pillows.

I grinned, but then it faded. 'I'm not getting married. Least of all to him,' I said abruptly, getting out of bed.

'Oh, right, and how are you going to manage that, huh, Princess?'

I scowled at her. She had a valid point, but I wasn't about to mention that to her.

'I'll find a way!!! I'l-I'l I will runaway!!!' I said dramatically.

Katia didn't look impressed. She just rolled her eyes.

Meh. 'Well you have a better idea?' I snapped, fed up.

She smiled evilly. 'As a matter of fact, I do. Tonight, my brother is coming to bring me home.

'Why?' I interrupted. She couldn't just leave!! Could she?

'Will you let me finish?' She said, irritated. 'Its just because…well my work here is done.' She said this hesitantly, and I decied not to press her.

'I received a message today. He doesn't realy care about me just breaking off the employment, and besides, my brother always does things his own way.' Huh. I bet. How rude, really, for him to just snatch my handmaid away, without even letting me know. Ha, I bet he didn't know I was friends with Katia.

'I was just thinking, that is, only if you want, if you'd like, you can come with me and stay with my…family. T least till things get sorted out here, and get less chaotic.' She sat back looking pleased with herself. She tossed her long dark and grinned at me.

I felt like fireworks were going on inside of me. I didn't have to get married! I could be free! I never had to come back if I didn't want to, never had to see Fabian or Mother again…

Mother.

But I didn't want to think about that now. She would take care of herself, right? I mean, she's the Queen. I pushed away my guilt and asked, 'Does your brother know?'

'Well…not really, but I'm sure he won't mind.' She was lying through her teeth, but at that moment I didn't really care.

I narrowed my eyes. 'Are you sure?'

'Oh yes.' Even she didn't sound convinced.

Well, I would just let her deal with it later. I mean, he couldn't be too bad, right? He was practically saving a princess's life!

'What should I bring?'

The night air was chilly, especially because we were right next to the moat. Guards were everywhere, swirling around the castle like ants.

I felt nervous and unsure. Where was I going? Would Katia's brother be mad? Was I crazy? What would Mother say? What would Jasper say?

Katia was beside, in the shrubbery of the small woodland beside the castle. She smiled reassuringly at me. 'Don't look so tense. It's going to be ok.'

We were both dressed in black, and she had only allowed me to take a few clothes with me, and a few of my possessions. I felt very small and insignificant.

OW! Something bit me, hard, on the ankle.

I screamed, jumping away from Katia and into the open.

'AHHHH!!! Help! Help! I'm going to die!!!' I shrieked at the top of my voice.

Ok so maybe I overreacted just a little. But it HURT!! And I could have sworn I saw a snake slither away!

Ew, ew, ew, EW!!!

'Shut up!' Katia hissed, and snatched me. 'They'll find us!' I blushed and muttered 'Sorry.'

'What happened?' She said, concerned but annoyed. I blushed even harder. The feeling of stupidity was NOT going away.

Thanks, Katia, thanks a lot. Way to make me feel like the idiot princess. 'It's nothing, just a bite. I think it was a snake.'

'Let me see.'

I obediently lifted my skirt and held out my ankle. 'My God, Lise, its just a common snake bite. I must have gotten millions of these while I was growing up,' Katia said disgustedly. I stuck out my tongue at her.

We turned our heads towards the castle again, watching the moonlight reflect off the windows.

Then, without warning, someone roughly clamped a hand over my mouth and jerked me down flat on my back, knocking all the wind out of me.

A/N: I spent ages on making this chapter long, but the rest won't, definetly not, be this long. Please let me know if it's good or not, I would love to know!

Because this is my first chapter, I really really need response D

Thanks!

Love, Jyocka

Re-edited/Posted: 30.11.06