Betrayal
    He turned, and with a firm and rapid step he walked across the empty space. Every heart stopped beating, every breath was held, every eye was fixed immovably upon that man. Without the slightest hesitation, he lumbered over to the right door, the same one the princess gesticulated towards just a moment before. The guard pulled the chain, the stone door opened, and two ferocious eyes stared into the man’s face, burning into his soul, declaring him guilty. The tiger let out a bellowing roar, chattering the teeth of every spectator. The tiger’s hind legs, ready to pounce, were clawing the dirt on the arena floor, sending up plumes of cloudy dust. The second that the man laid eyes upon the tiger, he knew he had been betrayed.
    He thought the princess and he were in love, but he had been severely amiss. The princess could not have truly loved the man if she had just sentenced him to death. Up on the balcony, a single tear, plump and lonely, rolled down the rosy cheek of the princess. The king briskly turned away from his beloved daughter so he could not witness her anguish, and glared down upon the man in disgust.
    “Tiger, commence!” The king roared across the vast stadium. The princess dropped her head into her hands, trying to shield the pain of what she would witness next. At the sound of the king’s voice, the tiger lurched from its crouch, but not in the direction of the man. The king’s eyes widened in fear as a muscular mass of orange and black lunged at him with great force. The crowd gasped in unison, the shock of what was coming fully dawning on them at once.
    “No! No! You are supposed to attack the man, not me! You foolish creature!” The king’s hopeless cries emanated through the arena, bouncing off the stone walls like pebbles dropped in an empty chasm. After several attempts to break free, the king stopped struggling, and the tiger brutally clenched his fangs around the king’s torso, killing not only the body grasped in its jaws, but the souls of every onlooker. The blood from the king’s body seeped through his regal robes, dampening the mosaic tiles underneath his lifeless form. When the crowned head of the king thudded at the princess’ feet, a waterfall of tears cascaded down her face. The princess had a strong connection with her father, and now, the bonds had been broken, and she was extremely distraught.
Meanwhile, the man was still standing in the center of the arena, surprise painted on his face. He was peering up at the balcony, in the direction of the princess and the dead king. The princess was a sobbing mess of tears, and she looked about ready to faint. In that moment, the man fully understood the meaning of true love. The princess adored her father, a love that the man had never known. He was not jealous, only annoyed. He had spent two years of his life with her, dedicating his every action to her. He fell in love with her, but the love was not reciprocated back. The princess knew true love. She cherished her father with all her heart, and it destroyed her to see him dead. The man wanted to feel true love for himself, so he made a decision that would surely change his life. In that arena, with millions of spectators, and a blueberry sky, the man walked away. Away from the dead king, away from the blood, away from the princess, he stomped triumphantly out of the arena, and into the light. He was on a quest to find true love.