Arabia, Chapter One

Jasmine sat in her bedroom dressed in silk, trying to sleep in the heat that never left. Her maids were laid out on couches and chairs dressed the same way. A few sat cross-legged on pillows, gossiping about news from the market place. She sighed and sat up, all the girls gossiping hushed and stood.
“Princess.” They said from behind their masks.
She stood up, a figure so dainty and beautiful that any man could fall in love with her at first sight. She had black hair so silky it might as well be actual silk. Dark brown eyes that seemed to hide such mystery and beauty that they intrigued even the saltine, her own father.
“Tell me what you know about the rumors. The rumors about my fathers wants. My fathers wants for my marriage.”
They glanced at each other with eyes that almost held fright.
“We know- nothing.” One finally said.
“Yes you do.” She hissed. She grabbed hold of the young girls arm, holding on tightly. Every few seconds of silence meant twisting her fingers tighter. “You know plenty.”
The girl started to shake and her other hand grabbed just below the princesses, since no one was allowed to touch her without permission.
“Stop!” She cried, tears starting to flow down her cheeks. Her face started to scrunch up as she cried more. “Fine. He is asking for princes.”
Jasmine smiled and let go of the girls arm. “You know I do care for you. You are my friend. I only did that because I did not want to send you to the beater for not obeying me.”
Princess Jasmine was bound by the law to send anyone who disobeyed her to the dungeon to be beaten. This was something she hated to do, since she was good friends with all of her maids. So instead, since it was at least law for them to be punished, she hurt them herself. But much less pain was put on them then being beaten.
“Yes ma’am, I know in full. It is law. And even you, oh high princess, must obey your fathers law.”
Something like this was always said after the princess ‘apologized’ to the hurt maid. This was how they ‘forgave’ her. Most of the girls learned by example and soon the pain from the princess grip would vanish. Then they would be happy with one another again. They all understood it was law, not hate, that forced the princess to hurt them. Jasmine went back around and lay out on her bed again, its silk cushions and blanket so divine that no other in the world matched it. Her face was hidden by a mask of soft gauze like material, as were all of their masks. On hers were jewels and beautiful embroidery. Most were just plain. They covered most of the face; only the eyes would be seeable when it was completely put on. It covered their hair, but the princesses was so long that it could not be completely hidden by it.
“Girls, bring me a drink. A lemon drink with cool ice. And a platter of meats and fruits.”
This was done immediately and soon handsome young men were putting food into their princess’s mouth. This was done for one specific purpose: increase the princesses want to be accompanied by men. She enjoyed the way these men treated her and her father planned for it to continue until she was married. She would be around men who adored her, practically worshipped her, so that she would understand how men felt towards her. Then she would want a husband, because she would want a man there to treat her that way at all hours.
“My lady, you are but a flower in the desert. You are so beautiful, so, so beautiful.” Handler said, placing a piece of meat into her mouth.
“And unique. The richest man in the world, a man richer than your father, could only wish to marry you. His heart would beat only for you.” Kurt continued, picking up a strawberry and feeling her warm lips against his fingers.
These were the two most responsible men and were allowed to see Jasmine whenever she wanted. But there had to be other girls there, watching the men to make sure they did no harm to her. These other girls would dance, sing and play music without their masks on. The saltine wanted all of his maids to marry his manservants, so he often would put unmarried men with unmasked, unmarried women. Handler’s eyes started to move, to shift for a second or two over to the dancers, watching the silk swirl around their beautiful figures. For once they had no mask on and in the afternoon light their faces shown, their hair swept back.
“Say more.” Jasmine requested. “What else would a man do for me?” Her eyes opened and she smiled. “What would you do for me?”
Kurt and Handler looked at each other.
“I,” Kurt started, “Would sell my beloved dog, horse and cart, all my possessions, just to have money to try to win your hand in marriage.”
“Oh, that is nothing.” Handler said. “I would sell the very clothes on my back to buy you a rose and be a slave for you, just to see you. And sell everything to have money to persuade your father for you hand in marriage.”
“I can feel your love.” The princess said. She touched each of their arms, permission for them to touch her on her arms. And lifted her hands to take off her mask. Once it was off, she smiled. “Now tell me, what would you do to prove your love to me?”
This time Handler started. “I would give up everything to be your slave. And as your slave I would tell you each day that I loved you.”
“I would pretend to die and then become a prince and come and take you away into the desert, where we would start a family and a kingdom.” Kurt said, smiling. Then he bent over and kissed her arm. He ran his hands down her arm as well.
Handler swept his hands down her arm as well, but did not kiss her.
“Why do you not kiss me? Is it not you that just said you would give up everything to tell me that you love me?”
He bowed his head in shame. “Your father is wise. He has put lovely girls in my sight. They dance with silk and have faces of the moon. Yet yours is like the sun.”
“Go.” Jasmine commanded. “Go and pick a girl. Then go to my father and bring her along. If she goes willingly, than marry her. If she fights against you, bring her back and tell my father to not let her marry for two years. And if she conceives before you are married, than you both must depart from this castle- and never return.”
These rules Jasmine had given a few other times. Responsible men would flirt with her and claim to love her, then their eyes would dance over the dancers, singers and musicians. She would give them permission to pick a girl to marry and half the time, they came back crying. One time an engaged girl was found pregnant and forced to leave the castle life forever. This time, Handler picked Kayla, a young girl with shining brown hair and dark green emerald eyes. And then he did what he was supposed to. With rope, he tied her hands and dragged her along. If she fought, she was condemned to two years without a man picking her. If she didn’t, then she would be forced to marry him. Five minutes later, Kayla was returned crying by an extremely angry Handler.
“You scrone! You fight against me, beg not to be married. Now I am forced to make you unmarriable for two years.”
He turned to the princess, whom was now sitting up and Kurt was rubbing her arms with his lips against her shoulder.
“I must beg to be excused. Your father must know of Kayla’s plea.”
“Do as you must.” She replied. Kayla’s hands were still tied and she was still standing. Kurt went over and slapped her, making her crumble onto the pillows. “Stop.” He turned. “Go and tell my father that she fought. And that you slapped her.” He nodded and left. Jasmine got up and rushed over.
“Kayla! What did he do? How hard did he hit you?”
The young girl struggled to sit up, her hands still bound. A bruise was on her cheek and she was sobbing.
“He hit me. Oh he hit me so hard. In the hallway, when I struggled, begged him that I was only fifteen and not ready to bear children, he laughed and slapped me. Said his niece was married at fifteen and now has eight children. He said that getting married young is a good thing and that I should be happy to marry him. He promised that he had enough money to buy a nice house. And when I tried to pull in the other direction, he slapped me and I fell, then he dragged me back here. He threatened the whole way back that he’d have me beaten and killed. Or sent out of the castles service. And when I was, he’d come for me again. And then nothing would stop him.” She started to sob again and Jasmine reached over and pressed her against her chest. Jasmine herself was only sixteen, but had almost been married at fifteen. She knew the terror.
“Hush now. Sobbing won’t help. Remember, now you can’t marry till you’re seventeen. Handler will not bother you again. When he comes back, since he has tried to pick a girl, he must pick another till they will not fight.”
Kayla looked up, her eyes widening with fright when she found her cheek on the princesses chest.
“Don’t be afraid. Just cry and then we will untie your hands.”
And so she did. Handler came back and picked two other girls, who both came back crying. One girl’s shirt was even torn and bloody, but the forth girl found him handsome and did not struggle, so after a while of being engaged, they were married. This gave Kayla and the two other girls a great peace and life returned to normal. Kurt still came and flirted, claiming his passionate love for Jasmine, feeding her with his fingers. But soon life was again disrupted. About a month after Handler’s wedding a prince arrived from a far off land. He came on a caravan that was full of jet black and pearl white horses that held girl riders. They were dresses in fine silk, their masks on their faces, but they did not look happy. Their hands were tied to the saddle horns and heavy gold bags were tied to their saddles as well. They were gifts for the princess, who was called from her room to see him.
“I am Prince Ashka, from the land of Servian. And dear, beautiful, princess, I have come to marry you. To prove my wealth, I have brought 100 new maids, fifty jet-black perfectly bred horses, fifty pearl white horses that have been bred just as well and 200 bags of gold. And, of course, me.” He smiled at her, took her hand and kissed it. “Which, really, is all you need.”
She pulled away. Her mask still hid her face, but it seemed the man could see right through it. His eyes seemed to trace her chin, lips, nose and eyes. Then they fell over her body and hair.
“You are more beautiful than one can even start to imagine. Please, say you will marry me.” He had kneeled on the floor now and was smiling up at her, taking her hands in his own. “Please, you will be the reason my heart beats.”
Her mind raced back to when Kurt had said something similar. ‘They will say that their heart beats only for you’ or something like that. She looked at him, then at her father.
“He must stay and dine with us for five days. Give us time to fall in love.” Her father nodded. She turned back to Ashka. “You will sleep in a chamber next to mine, to test your patience. And you will eat beside me, to test your words and hands. You will also sit in my room with me during the day to test your love for me and to test your mind. Is that clear?”
He smiled and nodded. “But of course.”
“Then come, untie my new maids, bring them to be clothed and bedded. Also, untie the bags of gold. Finally, set out the horses to the back to be groomed, feed and watered. Once you have done this, or found another to, come back to me.”
Then Jasmine went down the hall, her new maids trailing her every step. Once inside her room, she gathered all of them and explained her plan.
“I have set up tests for him. At night, he might come to sleep with me. But I will not be in my bed. One of you will. When he dines with us, one of you will sit next to him and I across. But during the day, when he sits in here with us, I will sit beside him. I will ask him to come up with pictures, songs and games, to test his imagination. And you will all be without your masks. To test his love. Is this understood?”
“Yes princess.” They all said.
“Good, now hush, I hear him coming.”
They all scattered, taking off their masks, sitting on pillows, couches and chairs. Only Jasmine kept her mask on and lay out on her bed. When Ashka came in, the unguarded faces amazed him. But he went over and sat beside Jasmine, taking her hand in his.
“You are beautiful and clever. But why do your ladies not guard their faces. They aren’t scared of males?”
“Oh, silly.” She laughed, touching his chest with a playful hand. “You are the only man here. And since I’m to love you, it is fine to leave their masks on, isn’t it?”
He swallowed hard, but smiled. “As I said, you are clever.”
When they dinned that night, they did as Jasmine wanted. Ashka kept trying to touch the maid’s leg with his hand and guide it up to her waist. Each time he tried, the maid would drink from her cup of wine. At any other time, she would drink from her cup of water. Later, when the princess was in her bedroom, she talked to Ashka of this.
“You were sliding your hand in a very inappropriate place.”
“Ah, but I love you.”
“How many women have you done that to?”
He froze.
“Well?”
“Only the ones I have wanted to marry. You are the third.”
She pressed her lips together tightly, but smiled. “Go to your bedroom. Sleep good.” And she went up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
That night, when the maid was sleeping in Jasmines bed, Ashka came and lifted the sheets. Jasmine herself was up and sitting behind a screen where she could see this. He smiled evilly and reached over to grab the maid. He succeeded. Quietly he whispered, “if you love me, take off your mask”, since she even slept with it on. She shook her head.
“Why not?”
She turned back over, but managed to look over at Jasmine. Ashka’s hand was sliding around her waist. But she pushed it away and mumbled like the princess to go back to sleep. This he did.
In the morning she asked him why he did this.
“If we are to be married, why can’t I enjoy you now?”
“Because we aren’t married, yet.”
He sighed, but obeyed.
In the afternoon she asked him to write a poem for her, on the spot.
“I need time.” He complained. But when an hour passed he still had nothing to offer. His eyes, she saw, kept slipping over to look at Serena, the maid he had touched the day before. During breakfast he tried to touch her again, during the day he tried to touch her waist and at night he again tried to sleep with her. “Why do you not let me?”
All she ever replied was, “I am not ready.”
On the fifth day, Jasmine spoke with her maids again.
“Today we will test his knowledge on ‘me’. Well, the difference between Serena and me. He will still try to touch me, my waist and leg, but let us see if he notices a difference. Even if he doesn’t, I must still decide if I want to marry him.”
So the princess played herself for the whole fifth day. Ashka saw no difference. His hands still traced her thigh and waist and at night he still came in and tried to remove her mask and kiss her. Jasmine only objected to the kissing. She let his hand trace her thigh and waist, let him remove her mask. But she utterly refused to kiss him. On the sixth morning a note was found by the princes’ bedside. It read:
Pack your belongings and take back your gifts. The princess will not marry you.
And that’s what he did. But he did leave a note for the princess reading:
How did you ever doubt my love? If another prince is not found, come to me. My heart will still be beating for you.
After Ashka, a series of princes came and left. All of them in a similar pattern to what the first man had done. Finally, after the fortieth prince, the saltine confronted his daughter.
“Dearest daughter, you know I want you to be happy, but I have let you try to pick your own husband. Was it not the fortieth prince that left this morning? What displeases you?”
“All are to-anxious. They have small space in their heads for imagination and the tests I set up, they failed them. I even told them that they were tests. Father, not one has passed.”
The saltine thought in silence. His daughter was clever, to set up tests that not one of forty princes could pass. And even to be told those tests and not pass meant that they were not as clever. His daughter was thinking of herself and her kingdom. They would need a clever ruler.
“I understand, but alas, we cannot wait for too long. I will allow ten other princes to come. If all ten leave, then I shall pick from the fifty. Yes, I shall pick for you. It seems to be the only way. Now go from my presence, another prince will arrive soon.”
He was right, the next day another prince arrived and the same thing happened. Then the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Jasmine could see her father’s distress. He was not young, but would most likely live to see his first grandchild be born. But he would need a successor, his daughter, but she would need a husband. When the eighth prince arrived, Jasmine did the same tests. Yet this one was charming. He was kind and quick. When they dined he only looked at the woman beside him, but every time his face looked odd, as if he realized the lady beside him was not the princess. When the real princess asked him to create games, he thought long and hard, but his game was quite fun. And at night, he came in wanting to talk, claiming that sleeping in such a different place was hard. After four days, the princess again played herself, but this man noticed a difference.
“Alas, you have changed on me!” He cried in the morning, on the way to breakfast. “Tell me, has it been you or another who I have loved for the past few days?”
Jasmine smiled. “Another. It was a test; the only one that you were not told was one. But you are smart and handsome. I now agree to be your bride.”
When the two went into the dining room, they declared that they were to be married as soon as possible. This gave the saltine great pride. He had found his daughters husband.

Wow, Luv-chan~! That was great! I mean, maybe one or two gramatical errors, but otherwise perfect! Ya' really seem to have nailed all the facts here...I'm hoping there's a part two...? Maybe a war or something, hmmm? Aha, well, keep up the awesome work~!

~Tobi~
Pharaoh Tobi