I am 17 going to be 18 in a couple of days. My name is Aries Tiger, the year is 1593, and in just a few short days, I will have to wed. My father said he will make sure the man I marry is handsome and rich; I just want him to be nice, kind, and thoughtful. I told my father that and he went wild with laughter, which was silenced when he saw my serious face. He said, “My dear, you are a gem; you will not be married to some plain man.”
I just shrugged and said, “I am no gem, father,” which I thought was true with my ankle length black hair, black eyes, full red lips, pale white skin, thin body, and that I am 5’ 3”, I am different, “Good day father, I am going to retire to my room. Besides, I said I would like a nice man, I never said in exact words for him to be plain.” I wanted a man that would not think me to ugly for him, and so he would not want to look for someone much prettier than I, which would be almost any girl. Time is ticking for me ‘till I am able to be married. I am to be presented in court tomorrow. I am to be shown about the room, but I fear everyone will avoid me. I hope people in court aren’t mean, at least.
Who knows, I might find someone as a friend. After I go to court tomorrow, I am legal to marry in 1-2 days. If I know my father, and I do, he will marry me off as soon as possible. This may take a while, though, because I’m not beautiful, and men love beautiful women. My life stinks, why do people usually hate me, and why did I have to be born ugly? Oh well, I will have to deal with it. Well, I have a big day tomorrow.
When I got up, I dismissed the maids and got out my favorite gown, a black one with a red rim and red bosom. I loved that one because it was my favorite color, black, the red looked like blood, and I had made it myself. ‘Well, I’m done getting dressed.’
“Aries, come down, we’re about to leave soon.”
“Ok, mother, I’m coming.” ‘Sigh, this is going to be a long night.’ When I got to the palace to be shown, I was first forced to wait in line to be received. I am fifth in line. ‘Well, at least I don’t have to wait very long.’ It was soon my turn to be presented. I heard a man call, “Lady Aries Tiger of Tigers’ estate.” I stepped up, curtsied low, and when I was allowed to stand up I said, “Good day, your majesties.”
The Queen just slightly nodded her head while the King said, “Good day, Lady Aries.” I smiled and left. I was walking towards my parents when a strange man stepped in front of me.
“Hello, I am Lord Fire Dragon. And you are?”
“Hello, I am Lady Aries Tiger. Nice to make your acquaintance.”
“I have not seen you around here before.”
“I’m new here; I turn 18 on the morrow.”
We talked for a while longer about our families, and the palace, and whatever subject he came up with. It was over when he said, “Good day Lady Aries.”
“Good day, Lord Fire.” I went over to my parents. They immediately started asking questions about him.
“Who was that man, Aries?”
“His name is Lord Fire Dragon, mother.”
“What were you talking about for so long over there?”
“Whatever subject he brought up, father.”
“How old is he?
“About 20, father. Mother, father, please, let me rest, this ball is becoming very exhausting.” My thoughts immediately trailed off to Lord Fire Dragon. I couldn’t help thinking about his hair that was as black as my own, how tan he was, as if he spent every sunny day outside, his eyes, shining as bright as the northern star, sweet, like a lamb, and oh so charming, sigh.
They left me to my thoughts for about an hour, but soon said “It is time to go home Aries.”
I leapt up and said, “Good, I am very tired.” When we got home, I went to my room, got ready for bed, but went out onto the balcony. I sighed wistfully, “How I wish that someone would just love me, or at least like me.” I murmured. I went back inside, and went to sleep.
I was to go to the palace again tonight. And I also thought about how today would hopefully be good, for I am 18 today, but it is also sad, fore I am old enough to marry today as well. No doubt my father is going to try to arrange a marriage with the first man I meet, sigh. Why did I have to be born ugly!?! ‘Hmm, I wonder how today will go for me, though. I hope to see lord Fire again.’
I wonder why my maids are always telling me I’m ugly, and that I am horribly distorted and weird. Off to the palace I am to go, but this time in a black dress with white trimming instead of red. I am to leave in about an hour, oh, I just hope tonight bodes well for me. Maybe I will get a husband soon enough.
About half past 7, I was to arrive at the palace, and once again be shown around to the public. I know one thing that is certain, it’s going to be a long night. I got out my black cape, and looked in the mirror, and saw I was whiter than ever. The white trim did nothing to make me look darker, but in fact looked darker against me.
I was furious when I saw a stranger in the corner. I said, “What are you doing in my chambers?” as calmly as I could.
He replied, “Mad, are we? Well, I’m here doing my job, so are you going to come quietly, or do I have to take you by force?”
I said in even tones, “You can go to the devil.”
“Have it your way,” he said. Before I knew it, he was behind me with a weird smelling cloth, and I blacked out. When I woke up I was in a cell that had a window, just big enough to see out of. I got up when my kidnapper came in, and I stared at him straight in the eyes. He started laughing at how I was standing like a warrior. While he was doubled over, I quickly ran around him, and bumped into Lord Fire. I was furious once again at the sight of him. I kicked him in the shins and walked around him, but he caught me from behind before I got far.
“Oh no, you don’t. You’re here and mine now,” he said.
“I’M NOT ANYONE’S BUT MY OWN, NOW LET ME GO!!!!!!!!”
“Are you trying to make me deaf?”
“Yes.” I said sweetly.
“Well, besides what you think, you are mine. Me and your father arranged it.”
“I do not believe my father would do this, you are lying!”
“No, I’m not, I have the letter your father wrote to me right here.”
I snatched it from him and read it over. And surely, there it was, my father agreeing to the match. “I can’t believe this.” I fell into a sitting position with my legs to my side. I handed it back to him and stayed there, dazed. I finally said, “I guess I need to get to know you better if I’m going to have to live here, huh?”
He said, “I guess so. I have a room prepared for you, for now. It is down the hall from mine. But on our wedding night, you will have to move into my room.”
“How long until I have to marry you?”
“A week. Your father and I thought it would be good to have the marriage quickly.”
“Oh. I know I have no say in this, so why do you even bother to explain?” I felt depressed and defeated; I had no energy left to fight. He saw this and frowned.
“Here, I’ll take you to your room. I’ll send a few servants up with a tub and warm water so you can wash up before supper.”
“Ok.” I didn’t have the energy to even utter regular sentences. I took the hand up he offered, and let him lead me by the hand to my room that I would stay in for a while. He had me leaning on him slightly, and I did so willingly, thinking how nice it felt to finally give in. I fell asleep on my feet after a while, but I was awake enough to know he picked me up, and carried me the rest of the way. I snuggled as close to his chest as I could and laid my hand on his chest. I felt his pulse quicken, and heard him sigh.
He muttered to himself, thinking I could not hear him, “Woman, you are going to drive me crazy doing this.” And I just smiled lightly. When I felt that I was being laid down on a bed, I opened my eyes a little to know he saw me smiling and was smiling as well. I could tell he thought I was deeply asleep, for he said, “You are going to be very good here, and I will try to make you very happy.” Then he bent down and kissed me lightly on my lips, which I returned.
I opened my eyes to see his surprise to see I was awake. I said sleepily, “Just keep kissing me like that and then we’ll have a good start.” I smiled when he laughed heartily.
“Woman, you are going to be difficult to understand, huh?”
“Depends on what you consider difficult and just plain impossible.” I fell asleep listening to his deep laugh, I could hear a need, kind of like he had not been able to laugh for a long time. The next day I pondered that thought until a woman came up to the chamber I was given. I had a chance to look at the room. It had black walls and a ceiling of red and white, all of which are my favorite colors, upon investigation I found Lord Fire had had this room designed this way the moment he came home after meeting me.
I thought, ‘Wow, he must have been very observant of my clothing choices.’ I was led to a big dining room where I was set to the left of Lord Fire. I curtsied and sat next to him. I said, “The room you put me in is very beautiful, especially how all my favorite colors are in it. Either you have a very observant eye, or you asked my father a while after meeting me.” I looked over to see his face diffuse in a light pink. I smiled lightly at him blushing. All of a sudden there was a knocking at the door. His blush was gone and he got up to go see who it was. A few minutes later, a serving man and woman were at my side ushering me up a staircase to a different room. The woman pushed me in and followed, while the man stood guard. I asked the woman, “Why are we here?”
She put her hand on her lips and shook her head. I guessed she meant she was mute. She led me over to a hearth, and had me sit down. I asked, “Is this another guest bedroom?” She shook her head no. So I then asked, “Is this Lord Fire’s room?” She shook her head yes. I wondered why I was brought to his room, for it was not yet time for the wedding, and my father would kill him for taking me before our wedding night.
I was getting up and getting ready to leave his chambers when the maid made motions for me to stay put and be quiet, when I heard foot-falls outside in the hall. I stayed put, and stayed quiet as a mouse, for I was very fearful, for it was not the same as Lord Fire’s steps, which were quiet almost too where you wouldn’t believe he was walking at all. I watched where I stepped and went to lie down on the bed a foot away. I completed the task in a very quiet manner.
I fell asleep on top of the covers, and woke to find Lord Fire sitting in front of me smiling devilishly, and I looked at him confused over where I was. I decided it was a dream and leaned in and kissed him fully on the mouth. After I pulled away, I sighed and murmured, “I like this dream so far.”
He started laughing and put me on his lap, murmuring in my ear, “Woman, if this were a dream, I wouldn’t be letting you off with just a kiss.”
I blushed a deep crimson, and tried to wriggle off his lap, but he had me in a hold I could not get out of, and that’s when I felt something hard under me, and that made me bolt off his lap and onto the bed with a yelp. He laughed and said, “Woman, you might want to be careful.” And laughed at how bewildered I looked. I finally got my composure, and glared at him for laughing, which just made him laugh harder. I threw up my hands, and sighed. He just smiled then.
I could see he had a mischievous look in his eye, and I started to say, “Don’t…” when he leaped onto the bed and pulled me on top of him. I just grunted and said, “Why are you so annoying?”
He replied, “Because it does what needs to be done.” And before I could ask what he meant by that, he had his hands behind my head, and kissed me square on the mouth. A few minutes later he let me up for air, and all I could say was, “Whoa!” And he had me back down again in an even deeper kiss which, if I was able to think at that point, I would have never thought possible. That kind of kissing continued for a few more minutes, and when he let me up for air again, I found I was underneath him with his legs on either side of mine. All I could utter was incomprehensible grunts for a while. He smiled once again and leaned down, his mouth a few inches from my own, with his head on his fists, and just stared at me. After seeing that he ravished me fully without going too far, said “Woman, you definitely will not get off this easy on our wedding night. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve.”
I tried to wriggle out from under him, but instead felt him through my thin dress. I closed my eyes tight, which just made him laugh, and tried pushing him off me. After a few minutes, he got up off me, and helped me up. I blushed crimson when I found my dress wriggled up slightly to the lower calf of my leg. I pulled my dress down, but not before he had an eyeful of my skinny legs. After he was done laughing at my modesty, which had made me mad, I said, “Oh stop laughing. And stop calling me ‘woman’; you know very well my name is Aries. So start using my name. Or I could just start calling you ‘man’, or what would be even more fit for your behavior, ‘boy’.”
He smiled at that and said, “Ok, Aries. Is that better?”
I retorted, “Yes, Fire, it is.” He lifted me up over his shoulder which got a little shriek out of me. I asked, “What are you doing, Fire? Have you gone mad?”
He replied in a calm voice with a tint of laughter, “No, I am taking what will be mine, and showing her around the place.”
I said, “Well, you don’t have to pick me up, all you had to do was ask me to follow you.”
“Who said I wanted to do it the diplomatic way?”
“Your impossible, maybe even more so than me at times.”
“Well, that maybe true, but when I want something, I’m used to getting it.” I just folded my arms and tried to relax in my position.
I mumbled, “You, sir, are a handful.”
He chuckled, “Thank you, miss. I am very flattered.”
“Ugh. You’re impossible!”
“I might be that, but it never does get tiring. Ah, we’re here.”
“And where is ‘here’?” He finally set me down, but not without him kissing me until I could barely stand on my own. After that all I could do for a while was grunt.
He smiled triumphantly and went on as if he hadn’t taken my breath away, “This, my dear Aries, is a sort of special chambers I made for our wedding day, so you can have your privacy before the wedding, and, if ever needed, afterwards.”
I looked at him quizzically. I was about to ask him what he meant, but then he pulled me towards him. He had me under him, and that’s when I noticed the bed. I couldn’t see it, but I felt a soft silk under my hands. I was looking at his mouth, thinking about what he keeps doing to me when he kisses me, when he asked, “So, how do you like the room?”
I was still looking at his mouth in a daze, so it took me a moment to realize what he had asked me. I couldn’t think of a response, so I did what I was thinking and threaded my fingers in his hair, pulled his mouth towards mine, and kissed him fully and longingly, with a passion that I didn’t even know I had. He returned the kiss, and then in a kind of satisfied/questioning way, he asked, “And what was that for? Not that I’m unhappy about it.”
“Because it’s what I was thinking about, and exactly what I wanted to try.”
He bent his head down, his mouth ever so close to mine, and whispered, “Aries, you are going to be hard to keep away from before the wedding.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to try harder.” And then I gave him my own devilish grin, and kissed him. “Now, I believe we have a wedding to get ready for.”
He laughed and I smiled, I loved his laugh. I might even just love HIM! Wow, a lot of realizing in one day, I hope my love will be returned. “Aries, you are going to bring many surprises to my life, aren’t you?”
I grinned sweetly as I could and said, “Maybe, depends on how good you are, now please get off me or else we won’t be able to get ready for the wedding.”
He grunted, kissed me hard, and did as I requested, but when I got up, he kissed me again. I could only grunt for a while after. I loved how he did that to me, how he rendered me speechless. “Aries?”
“Yes, Fire?”
He leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, “I will keep you very safe here, and you shall always be mine.”
I smiled and whispered to him softly, “I don’t know how you make me feel this way, but I love you.”
He picked me up and twirled me around. He held me close and said, “And I love you, my darling Aries!”
After many years, I have stayed happy and healthy with my loving husband, Fire. He has always been sweet to me, and boy do I have a few surprises for him that are coming along the way.