Regina nervously combed through her thick, dark hair, repeating the same movement over and over again until her scalp and wrists ached. Her hair had never shone brighter, but the small sparkles of youth that had danced in her eyes before were all but gone. She furiously tried not to notice the extravagantly beautiful white dress that was just waiting for her. Fittings had filled her heart with dread before, but now that she couldn't tune it out anymore, it was fear that encompassed her mind as she glanced at the white fabric that was to be her leash.
"Regina any more of that and you'll pull it out!" Cora scolded, slapping the brush from her daughter's hand with a wisp of magic. It had been many years since she had touched her daughter. It had been hardly a day since Regina had felt the sting of her anger, brought to her by magic. It was better that way, Cora had explained to her in odd cheerfulness, because it didn't leave any marks. She also taught her daughter how to conceal any marks that others could make upon her and had warned her girl never to speak about it, to heal her own wounds and carry her burdens herself. 'It is about what they want, not what you do.' Cora had told her. The man Regina was to marry was one of the men that her mother had told her about. The kind of men that had every right to her body and soul, the one that she should please to whatever end. Regina would have to do whatever it took to please the lord of Locksley, and that was all she knew and all her mother cared for her to know.
"Put on the dress, dear, we want him to see a woman, not a girl barely capable of carrying his children yet." Cora sneered, waving her hand and coating her daughter in the white, shimmering fabric. "You are, aren't you?" Cora asked, almost as if the idea that her daughter would be unable to fulfill the only task she had to accomplish was too absurd to even mention. She walked up to her daughter and made another careless gesture, tightening the corset and slamming the air from Regina's lungs.
Regina gasped, tried to catch her breath and blushed at her mother's question. "Yes." She quickly supplied, earning a pleased smile from her mother before the corset was tightening again around her fragile figure. The question itself hurt more than the tightening of the corset, because her mother knew full well that she was capable of carrying a child. It hurt, but she barely moved, remained standing and held her head high. Her mother had told her that; never show them how much it hurts. She would never show her mother how much pain she had caused her, would never show her mourning for all that she had lost.
"You look beautiful." Cora praised, but the words rang hollow in Regina's ears. Words from her mother had stopped meaning things to her a long time ago. She had chosen to listen only to those who cared for, but her mother silenced them until she couldn't hear anything of them anymore. Daniel hadn't called her beautiful for a long time, her father hadn't called her his 'little girl' anymore. Even the servants weren't allowed to marvel at her riding or her grace anymore. It had been a lonely life, yet right now loneliness was what she desired above all.
"He will be expecting us." Said Cora with an excited smile, taking her daughter's hands. Regina gasped, barely keeping herself from pulling back her hands. Her mother hadn't touched her like this in a very long time. The older woman smiled and traced her finger over her daughter's joints. "The ring will feel heavy, my dear, but you will carry it. You will satisfy him and you will be his wife. Do you understand?"
Regina quickly nodded and her mother let go of her hands. "Good. Let us depart, we would not wish to arrive late to your own wedding."
Regina nodded, terrified of the prospect of marrying this man, but infinitely more terrified of her mother's wrath. So she followed, she kept her head high, forced a smile and faced the future her mother had paved for her. After all, it was all she had.

The kingdom of the Sherwood forest was wildly different from the landscape Regina was accustomed to: the lands around the enchanted forest were light and with a gentleness, as if the gods had smiled down upon the lands. The Sherwood forest was as savage as the tribes that were said to inhabit it: the woods were thick with trees and sunlight barely touched the ground, causing the ground to be bare, but the thick canopy of leaves to press down upon them. The trees were thick with black bark, red from the inside and tipped with golden leaves. The natives called it Dragonswood, because it was virtually impenetrable and went untouched by the hottest of fires. Because it didn't burn and was hardly unable to cut down, the trees grew until they seemed to touch the sun, bathing in the gold rays. The sunlight filtering through the sheet of golden leaves gave the forest and oddly light glow. It was a beautiful place, Regina registered, too terrified to really marvel at the beauty of the place. It was also a harsh place and Regina's home for possibly the rest of her life and that made it haunting above everything else.

"Halt, what business do you seek in Sherwood forest?" Regina jumped the sudden voice and she saw her mother startle momentarily from the corner of her eyes. Cora straightened herself and glared up to one of the trees above them.
"We have the only business that matters." She snapped. "I am bringing you your Queen, Lady Regina, betrothed to King Robin of Locksley."
The next moment the figure appeared before them, having jumped down from one of the tall trees. He was a tall, lean man with dark skin and darker eyes. His dark hair was kept away from his face in a loose braid and he was clad in the same impervious black of the tree trunks, making him nearly impossible to spot when he was immobile. Dark, smoky leather was bound over sturdy yet light fabric.
"Your titles mean nothing to me." He told them with disdain. Now that he was speaking, Regina could hear the distinct accent in his voice. The way the twisted his tongue around the vowels, lifted the ends of some words and hollowed out others. The words seemed to play with him as much as he did with them. He sounded like the forest: quiet, raspy with danger just beneath the surface. A dark bow was flung over his shoulder and a dozen of golden tipped arrows graced the quiver on his back. Regina could barely make out the glittering of knives underneath the thick of his light cape, but she had already seen enough to know that this man was dangerous, even if he didn't seem as savage as Regina had though the forest dwellers to be. "But it seems you speak true. Lady Regina is indeed a much awaited guest." He bowed before Regina, but only gave a slight nod towards Cora, before turning around and gesturing to the couple to follow. Regina could feel the eyes of the forest dwellers that probably watched them from the trees upon them for the entire trip to Robin encampment. Cora had told her that being Robin's queen would come with wealth and respect, but Regina had trouble understanding It now that she laid eyes upon the camp. Laid out in a clearing was a well-guarded encampment of barely over a hundred men. The tents looked sturdy, but didn't compare in the least to the extravagance of royal palaces. Robin was said to be lord of the Sherwood forest, but Regina briefly wondered if perhaps there just wasn't that much alive in the strange golden-black forests.
"You still carry your words upon your skin." Cora said with annoyance, swatting her daughter's hand and gazing angrily at her. "I can feel your all wonderings and I advise you to express none of them. Robin has a thousand of the best archers in the lands and owns all the richness of the Sherwood forests. There is more gold in these woods than you will be worth in a lifetime, but soon it will be yours." She hissed, feeling the gazes upon them as much as her daughter did. Suddenly she pulled away from her daughter and fell into a low curtsy. "My Lord."
Regina followed without looking, keeping her gaze down upon the ground until she would be told to rise. She wasn't told for a very long time, instead feeling the gaze of her future husband upon her. Finally a hand took hers and she was pulled upward.

"Lady Regina. It was a pleasure to finally behold your beauty. Your mother has not exaggerated, I daresay." Robin spoke with the same lilt in his voice was the ranger that had greeted them, but softer, less threatening. Regina dared to look up and was met with a face gentler than she had expected. The man standing before her was in his mid-thirties, but his eyes still carried some of the spark of youth she had seen dissipating from her own. There was also pain in them beneath the surface, but his mouth was curled up in a gentle smile. The wildsmen in the stories she had read was always sported dark beards, but Robin only had a nearly trimmed beard, barely more than a stubble to grace his face. His eyes were light and blue, very much unlike the black eyes that the stories told about. He was dressed in lighter clothing than the ranger they had been greeted by, probably because he didn't have to hide like the scouts, Regina figured. The idea of being married off to a strange men still terrified her, but she felt mildly relieved at the fact that many of the stories she had been told already seemed to be false. Maybe this man wouldn't be as savage to her as she had prepared herself for.
Regina suddenly realized that an answer was expected and quickly smiled at him, curtsying again to be sure she had expressed enough respect for this man. "Thank you, my Lord. I am a very fortunate lady that I am to wed you."
Robin frowned at her words and Regina startled, glancing at mother in fear of having said something wrong. Before Cora could speak to mend her mistake, however, Robin spoke again; "Yes, Milady." He seemed to rest the word upon his tongue, to taste and value it. "Forgive me when I say you are of a younger age than your mother made it sound." He finally said, oddly careful in choosing his words for a lord on his own lands. Regina froze in confusion, for this was something she could hardly change to fit her husband. A small fluttering inside her rose; surely her mother wouldn't hold it against her if Robin rejected her on account of her age? Before Robin could do such a thing, however, Cora gave him one of her smiles and reassured him with a voice sweet as honey.
"I assure you, my Lord, she is of age and old enough to fulfill the duties expected of her. She has first flowered many seasons ago and is young and fit to bear your children."
Regina blushed awkwardly at her mother talking about things she considered private to a men she had never met, while watched by eyes she had never gazed upon and listened to by ears she had never wanted to speak to. She tried desperately not to fiddle, to stand proud and express all that Cora had made her out to be.

Robin turned towards his future queen again, his gaze tracing the contours of her body before nodding and taking her hand. He pressed a gentle kiss to it and gave a low bow towards Cora. "So shall it be. Milady, I will have you escorted towards your tent. Night will fall soon and I would have you settled by then. Tomorrow we will be wed and you can first see the Sherwood Forests and its inhabitants as its Queen." He smiled towards her and for a second Regina could read the same uncertainty in his eyes that she had perceived in her own. Then he turned towards her mother and sent a ranger along with her to escort her from the forest. Cora protested, wanting to stay near her daughter until the wedding, but Robin was insistent, telling her the forest wouldn't be kind to outsiders like her. It both warmed Regina's heart and scared her that already she wasn't considered an outsider anymore. She was escorted to her tent by a tall, gaunt woman three years her senior and almost a head taller. Women dressed and behaved as men within the Sherwood forest and were as capable with weapon as any of the men, Regina had been told. She had asked if she would fit in with the tribe with her lack of knowledge about weapons and combat and the wilds.
Cora had told her that Robin desired a wife, not an maid and things were left at that.

It was light in the tent. The light of the moon filtering through the golden leaves made it seem as if daylight tickled her face even in the dead of night. The camp never seemed to be asleep, shadows always prowling, strange dark figures on the canvas of her empty tent. She was used to the loneliness, but somehow within this strange environment it was worse, because even the memories of better days couldn't reach her here. Normally in her loneliness she would cry herself to sleep, but without darkness to reach out towards her, sleep stayed away. So she stared at the golden canvas above her and tried to forget that she was to be married on the morrow, tried to forget that this would be her life for all of her days to come.

And she cried. She cried until her body ached and her eyes stung. She cried until she was numb.

This is totally game of thrones inspired and I have no regrets. Please review :-)

Cover image made by me. Forest background by kuschelirmel-stock deviantart