Once upon a time... (You have to say that, it's the rules, *giggles*)

Keiko was a Princess who was to be married against her will, but there was nothing she could do. Until one fateful day..

Keiko woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, but that couldn't make her cheerful. Now came the boring life of a Princess.. But unlike most, this was an eventful morning.
"WHAT?!?!!?!" Keiko exclaimed.
"Ladies shouldn't raise their voices, Lady Keiko." King Shinji said sternly. "You shall be married to Prince Kakeru. He is coming two weeks from today."
Keiko was ready to die. 'MARRY?!!? A PRINCE?!?!'
Keiko closed her eyes shut. "I wont do it!!" She ran off.

Later that day, Prince Anji was working on his archery with Keiko.
Keiko, in her anger, hit a bullseye.. On Anji's target.
"Watch where you point that, Keiko, or someone's going to be sorry you ever picked up a bow." Anji sighed. "That someone would be ME... I told you I'd teach you but.."
Keiko aimed the arrow at Anji and pouted. "Be quiet!"
"WATCH IT!!" Anji's eyes opened wide.
"Fine.." She turned quickly and hit a bullseye on her target. "I know what I'm doing.. Did you think I was actually going to HIT you??"
"How am I supposed to know? You are still steaming about the whole marriage thing, right?" Anji wiped his forehead.
Keiko sighd in frustration then walked off.

"Lady Keiko!!" Aika, one of her ladies-in-waiting exclaimed. "You almost HIT Lord Anji!!"
"Please, I wouldn'thave let go.." Keiko rolled her eyes. "You know I wouldn't kill Anji.."
"Please don't do that!!" Naoki, another lady-in-waiting said.
"Fine! I wont make ANY descisions." Keiko exclaimed. "I'll just sit in my room and not do ANYTHING and let my father and future husband plan my ever step! How's that?!!?"
She stormed off to her room. 'I've got to get out of here..' She thought.
She then heard something.. She opened the door to see a Boy about Anji's age, cleaning the floors. He had the haircut of a pageboy, and a few cuts and scrapes on his arms.

Keiko stared silently at this dirty, disheveled, but otherwise handsome young man, taking in the cuts on his arms, bruises on his neck, and the way he winced whenever he put pressure on his left knee. The sight of this poor boy obviously in need of help put out of her head thoughts of anger against her parents who thought they could make her marry whoever they wished... just WHO did they think they WERE, anyway??

Oh, yeah. Back to the poor boy in need of help.

"What is your name, laddie?" Keiko asked him sweetly as she grabbed his hand and pulled him roughly up, causing him to wince again. "Oh, sorry."

"My name is Otaru." He stood up shakily and attempted to bow. "May I ask what has caused your ladyship to take such kind attention to me, who is but a poor slave?"

"The site of your wounds is what caused my royal attention to fall to one as low as you. What happened-"

"Keiko!" Anji came running to her, causing Keiko to break off her sentence and look up in surprise. "What are you doing?!" He took her hand and started to drag her away from the servant, looking around frantically for anyone who might be coming.

"I was just talking to this slave..." She looked back, but he had disappeared from sight. "He interested me. He is obviously in need of medical attention-"

She was cut off again by Anji, who spun her around and looked her sternly in the eye.
"NEVER, I repeat NEVER allow our Mother and Father, the King and Queen, catch you talking to that slave. The crime carries severe punishment. Do you understand?"

"But, but... WHY? What is the matter? I don't understand..." Keiko looked pitiful. She hated being left out of anything.

"Good." Anji relaxed about an inch. "The less you know, the better." He left her than, intent on carrying out his Princely duties.

But he really shouldn't have said that. Keiko stamped her foot, and stubbornly said:
"Leave ME out of the secret, huh? Yeah right! Upon my honor, I WILL find out the mystery surrounding the hurt servant."

The red-haired prince turned, abruptly, to face his whining sister. His look was piercing, and Keiko felt a lump form in her throat.

"Mystery?" he said mockingly, "Dear sister, there's no mystery to be found among the serfs. They are a worthless people; to meddle in their affairs is pointless. I suggest you don't involve yourself with such people, or father might throw a fit."

With that said, he turned to leave. Once again, he stopped himself, and turned to face the brown-haired princess, whose face was unusually pink. He grinned maliciously at her.

"Oh, yes," he said drawlingly, "There was something I came for. Father said he would like to speak to you about the marriage in his chamber."

With that, he turned again, feeling Keiko's burning eyes on his back. Then he turned down a hallway and out of sight.

With one last reproachful look at the direction her brother had left her, she turned and walked the oppisite direction, still fuming.

Vicious thoughts entered her mind as she approached her father's chamber--one of them. This, she recalled, was his study, used only for discussion of private matters. She wondered, sourly, why he needed to further discuss the matter of her marriage, when they had already spent hours on the one subject.

She roughly pushed open the huge oak doors, ignoring the assistance of the leather and armor-plated soldiers who stood on either side of the entrance. They slowly closed the door behind her as she entered, her satin gown sweeping behind her. Her father stood as the creaking doors slammed shut, and his face lit up with pride. He smiled and held his hands out to her.

"Ah, there you are!" he said jovially, his pudgy face glowing. She glared at him.

"Father," she said curtly, swiftly refusing the seat he offered her to sit at. His face fell once more, and he sat at his immense square table, which was piled high with papers and quills. Keiko suspected that her father had been quite busy declaring to the entire kingdom her marriage to the prince of Alarras...

"Well, Keiko," the King began rather sheepishly, hurt at his daughter's sour greeting. "I expect your brother has told you what we are to be discussing?"

Keiko stared at him furiously. "There is nothing more TO discuss!" she spat, surprising the plump king. He looked her over grimly before once more asking her to take a seat. She did so this time, but not without first glaring at her father and pouting.

"Father," she said pleadingly, "How could you marry me off to the Alarrians, of all people?"

The king sighed and shifted his weight uneasily in his chair. "Now, we've been over this before," he said with a twinge of impatience. "Doing so is going to unify our two kingdoms, which will prevent any further wars. There have been threats of more wars for a long time; you know that--"

"But, Father!" Keiko continued to plead, "It's the Alarrians--the ALARRIANS!" she emphasized her last words as if they would hold some special meaning. "They're cruel and conniving! They're kingdom is a MESS! I won't marry their prince!"

Keiko spoke with finality but, from the look on his face, the King would not allow her selfish whining to faze him.

"That's not what I wanted to talk about, anyway," he said quickly, "Well, it partly is, but--"

He cleared his throat importantly, as if the next statement he was about to make was the most important thing his daughter would ever hear. "The wedding has been postponed..."

Keiko stared at him. "Why?" she asked dumbly. She hoped, though, with all her might, that the next step from postponing might be full cancellation. She crossed her fingers behind her back with seething hope.

The king looked grim. He ruffled through his pile of papers and quills, and finally located a blanch piece of parchment. He held it out to his daughter and she took it, her hands trembling, slightly.

The king explained the letter aloud as she read it carefully. "Their prince has fallen to a sudden illness," the king said sadly, "They say they will need at least two weeks to rid him of it."

Keiko snorted sarcastically. "He could very well be dead, father," she said, "You know their people; too proud to admit anything. If their prince died, they'd find a beggar off the streets, dress him up, and make HIM marry me, instead."

The king shook his grey head. "You are so young, yet," he said with a drawn-out sigh. "I don't expect you to understand, yet, the value this marriage is to our kingdom..."

Keiko arched an eyebrow at her father questioningly and had opened her mouth to speak, when a man came bursting in proudly.

"Here's your tutor, dear," the King said with amusement as the man approached the princess, with an expression of clumsy smugness. Keiko looked helplessly at her father, who smiled as she was dragged unwillfully from the room.

Keiko decided the only way to get out of marriage was to run away. It would be a breeze, right? She needed to find a way... A noise was heard.. She walked out of her room and went through the hall, listening as the sound got louder. It echoed through the stone hallways. 'This is insane, this noise could be anywhere..'

She followed it until she got to a darker part of the castle, a place she hadn't been to, often to busy, or pushed away before she could see this place. A thin light shone through an open doorway, and the sound was heard again, this time more clear.. A whip.

She peered through the doorway and saw the handsome young servant boy being whipped, by.... Lord Obari?! How odd!

"I know you hid it somewhere!!" Obari growled. "You know I could kill you for this.."

She held in a gasp, and watched as the boy Otaru didn't even flinch. How could he take that pain??

"I didn't take anything, I swear it.." Otaru said.

"Get out of my sight.." Obari hissed.

Keiko backed away as Otaru, eyes at the ground, made his way to the door. She turned quickly, and inched her way into the shadows of the walls. 'Forget what Anji said! I am getting to the bottom of this!!'

She thought, as the bruise, cut, and broken Otaru passed her, unknowingly. She followed him quietly. 'Hah! He doesn't even know I'm following him! This is too easy..'

Otaru quickly turned to face her. "Who is--" He started. He then dropped to the ground, bowing to her. "Your highness!"

"Shh!!" She said quickly.

"But M'Lady, I--"

"Don't you know what SHH means? Be more quiet!!" She whispered.

"A thousand pardons, your highness.." He said sorrowfully.

Keiko led Otaru through the castle, looking for a room hidden off in a forgotten wing of the castle hardly anybody knew about, certaintly not her parents. She wanted to make sure no one saw her talking to Otaru, but she was determind to get to the bottom of the mystery. And it must be a mystery. After all, strange, handsome serf boys with hidden pasts did not pop up every day! Especially not being beaten by Lord Obari... yes, this serf was interesting indeed.

"Okay, serf boy, you might be wondering why I brought you here." Keiko said briskly, tapping her foot against the hard stone floor.

"Y-yes, certaintly." Otaru said nervously, eyeing Keiko with a mixture of suspicion and fear. What did the Princess want with him?

"Well, you interest me." said Keiko curtly. "Most of the serf boys around here are poor and ragged, going about their jobs anonymously. Very rarely do they attract the attention of Lord Obari, who I should think have better things to do than beat one as low as you. They especially do not have hidden pasts, which the Princess's older brother refuses to tell her." She eyed him with curiousity. "What is the deal here?"

"P-Princess!" Otaru said nervously, flattening himself against the wall and edging away from her. "Surely you are confused! I am of no interest to you, coming from a poor family, and being privliged enough to work here in the castle!"

"Don't mess with me!" Keiko grabbed poor Otaru by the collar and moved very, very close to him. "I know a lie when I see one, and no offense but this one is VERY OBVIOUS. I'M the Princess in this castle, and when I want something, I GET IT!!"

When she stepped back from him to get her breath, Otaru, with his eyes wide, took this opportunity to bolt for the door. He had heard of the Princess's tantrums, but until then had been fortunate enough not to witness one. Now he wanted out. Unfortunately she had locked the door. Otaru, realizing he was trapped, sighed and leaned against the heavy door. He would have to face up to her questions as well as he could.

"Okay," she said sweetly, walking up to him. He drew back in fear. "Lemme give you one more chance. I'm not leaving this room until I find out what's wrong here."

Otaru babbled on incoherantly, trying to figure out how to skirt her piercing questions, when, suddenly, they heard the sound of a key turning in the lock. Both of them froze.

Slowly, slowly the door turned, while both of them stupidly stood there. (Don't ask me, it happens all the time in movies. Why don't you RUN, darnit!)

A face peered through the door. An evil smile spread across the face. It was Lord Obari!
When Keiko realized who it was she let out a shriek, and Otaru quickly ran through the crack between the Lord's body and the door. For Keiko there was no escape.

"Let him go." Obari dismissed Otaru with a wave of his hand, and turned back to Keiko. He smiled at her, but not one to encourage. "My, my, we ARE in trouble, young lady. I think you'd better follow me back to the King's quarters."

Keiko, helpless, followed Lord Obari. Otaru watched her from a corner, wishing he could do something to help her. He knew how people suffered when Obari was mad at them...