(Sorry it's a bit short!)

For a few minutes, the hall was still in complete silence, except for the shuffling of guards outside the hall. Everyone waited patiently for the princess to arrive, their eyes fixated on the grand doors ahead of them.

Sythaeryn was watching the doors too, though not with excitement like the others. He could only dread and hope it all went wrong, that the princess wouldn’t even arrive, having decided not to marry him after all.

He could hear Sierra’s deep, grunting breaths next to him, and the two glanced at each other every few minutes. Sythaeryn was scared out of his wits. He didn’t care if the princess was ugly or beautiful, nice or absolutely awful, he just hoped and dreamed and wished that she’d at least let him go off peacefully, and maybe they could even be friends. “Just friends” would probably not be good enough for his kingdom though, and he slumped even farther into his chair, glancing over at his father and mother, who were still staring patiently at the doors.

Sythaeryn sighed and sat back up, feeling Sierra’s hand resting roughly on his shoulder, and he knew, whether he was thrown from the castle or not, that he’d still have Sierra and Arcaena to keep company.

Sythaeryn had been waiting for what felt like hours by the time he could hear the guards yelling outside the doors, “The princess has arrived!”

Sythaeryn held his breath, straightening up a bit, but a look of worry clear on his face. When the doors flew open, he closed his eyes for a second, hoping one last time that this was not real. His hope was not met though, because the hall had suddenly gone deadly silent, and he knew that the princess had really come. Opening his eyes, he looked down, and sighed. The princess was now entering the hall, long blond hair and noticeably blue eyes. She was surely pretty, but that didn’t make any of this better at all. He wouldn’t be surprised at all if she hated him with just one look, but he’d just have to bite his tongue and deal with this till it was over. Maybe she’d just leave after realizing how incompetent he was. The thoughts went through his brain over and over again, only hoping and wishing it’d go wrong, it’d all fail. But then he remembered they’d probably have a war if it did.

A war would be the worst possible outcome, and if it came to that… he sighed again, straightening up a little more. He could at least try and be slightly impressive, but he knew, he just knew, that this probably wouldn’t work out well.