A/N: Here it is! The first chapter of my first chapter story. I hope you guys will enjoy this story. Of course, it's AU and OOC and all those other "other-worldly" things. This story involves all the elements to a classic fairytale and a few twists. Anyway, hope you guys will like it! Please review, leave your comments, leave suggestions, maybe if you have constructive criticism. I think I'll just shut up now and let you read the story.

DISLCAIMER: Ok must we always go through this? You all know who the characters belong to. The dude goes by the name of Rick Riordan.

I woke up to the sound of someone banging on my door, yelling, "Princess! Princess!" When I opened the door, I saw it was my mother's lady-in-waiting.

"What does my mother need from me, Margaret? It's very early right now. What could she possibly want?" I asked her.

"It is an emergency. The Queen needs to speak with you emergency. The news is urgent," she replied.

I heaved a sigh and headed towards my mother's bed chambers. Along the way, I couldn't help but mumble to myself about why this couldn't wait. I reached the door and could hear crying on the other side. This worried me because my mother rarely cried. She was too strong to cry. I opened the door and peaked inside to see my father soothing my mother as she sobbed into her handkerchief.

"Mother, father? You wanted to speak to me," I asked cautiously.

"Annabeth, we have a very serious issue in our hands. It's best that you know this predicament. Our kingdom is at risk," said my father urgently. The last thing he said brought me to my senses. Our kingdom rarely had any threats, and most of those were very minor. If we could be at risk, this had to be enormously huge.

"Are you okay, Mother?" I asked her. She was still silently crying and didn't look like she would stop anytime soon. I looked at my father. "What's so bad that it's putting the kingdom at risk?"

"Well, the adjacent country, Olympia kingdom, has threatened to wage war on us if we do not remove our border patrol. Apparently, our soldiers have unbalanced the serenity of their wildlife. I'm afraid we can't remove our troops because the civilians will feel insecure. They're the reason we had border patrol in the first place," my father told me.

"Is there anything else we could do? Can't anything be done to resolve this?" I demanded. Just then, one of the squires told my father that he was required to speak with his council. "It is critical that you attend the meeting, your majesty," said the squire. My father excused himself and whispered something in my mother's ear, but before he left he said, "Do try to speak with her. She is suffering terribly from the situation. Maybe you can comfort her." I nodded in response.

When he was out of the room, leaving only my mother and I, I knelt beside her. "Mother? What's making you so upset?" I felt stupid saying that, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. Her crying subsided to mere sniffles. "Oh, honey. I'm fine. It's just this is making a huge impact on our family right now. There's only one way to solve this problem, but I doubt it would be possible," she said.

"What is it, mother? I can help! Whatever it is, I'll make sure it happens," I hastily said. I didn't care what it was we had to do. If I had to eat a whole frog alive, I would do it, but grudgingly of course.

"Well you see, this solution actually involves you. We've sent message to the other kingdoms in the realm. One kingdom has offered their security reinforcements to help threaten the Olympian kingdom. Of course, they have one condition," she said, looking nervous about the last thing she said.

"What's the condition?" I asked. My mother took a deep breath before rushing it all out, "The prince of the kingdom must marry you."

I froze and stared at her. I had to marry the prince? This was such a large commitment. Though it meant that our kingdom would be safe. Then again, I didn't even know this prince. How could I even like him, let alone marry him? My mother probably saw how distressed I looked so she said, "Why don't you think about this? I'll give you some time. Do you think you can make your decision by dinnertime?" I merely nodded my head and bursted through the door, running towards my room.

Once I was inside, I flopped onto my bed and bawled into my pillow. It took awhile until I calmed down, only because my lady-in-waiting, Thalia, had rushed to my side to comfort me. Thalia and I had been best friends since we were very young. She was the only person in this whole kingdom, besides my parents, who addressed me using my first name. She was still my best friend and that meant she could call me whatever she wanted to. I explained everything to her. When I was finished, Thalia had a look of pity on her face.

"Oh you poor thing. You have so much held over your head right now. What are you going to do?" asked Thalia. I knew what I had to do. My kingdom always came before me. I had to be married.

"I guess I'm going to have an arranged marriage. It's the only way we'll have peace again," I replied shakily. Thalia then took my hand and helped me clean myself up. It was almost dinner and I had to announce my decision. I was going to officially agree to marrying a complete stranger.

The next day, the palace was in complete chaos. Everybody was preparing for my departure to the kingdom of Castella. I had learned that the name of the prince was Luke Castellan, they even showed me a portrait of him. He didn't look that bad. He was in fact pretty handsome.

I was already set for my journey. Dressed in what princesses would call "casual" I stood at the gates of the palace with my parents. My belongings were already in the carriage, and about six men on horseback surrounded it. My father took extra precautions about the trip and insisted that I was escorted by a few soldiers from the royal guard. I didn't think this was necessary, considering I was practically fine defending myself: I'd taken private lessons with an expert swordsman, and I was now a master with the dagger. Of course, I still had to go with my father's plans. My mother, on the other hand, was more worried about how I would fend for myself without a lady-in-waiting. Thalia was ill and could not accompany me on the trip. Mother had insisted that she call one of the other maids to take Thalia's spot but I simply refused. If Thalia wasn't going to be my lady-in-waiting, nobody else would be. I had to reassure my parents that I would be fine. The trip wasn't going to be that long. We'd probably reach the kingdom in about a week. But of course, my parents just had to be overly protective so they told me that I had one more person coming along. This person was going to be my "personal protecter." They called him over, addressing him as Percy Jackson.

I almost gasped when I took in the sight of him. He looked about my age, sixteen years old, but his body was well-built. He had a serious expression on and his unkempt hair got into his eyes whenever a breeze flew in. Those eyes. They were the one thing about him that captured my attention the most. They were a sea-green color, like the ocean. I felt like I was drowning into them, but not without noticing the slight twinkle in his eyes that gave away his serious demeanor. In others words, he was, with no doubt, immensely handsome.

"It is my pleasure to serve you, Princess," said a bowing Percy Jackson, bringing me back to the real world.

I replied, "Glad you are of service Mr. Jackson." I gave a short nod. He bowed once again before heading towards the carriage. My mother turned toward me and said, "He's a fine young gentleman isn't he? He does his job well at protecting the royal family, even at his age." I merely nodded my head, still staring at the mysterious black-haired, green-eyed boy I now called my "protecter." My parents bade farewell, each giving me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I returned their actions tentatively, still nervous for my journey to the Castellan kingdom.

As I reached the carriage, Percy held the door open for me. I thanked him and smiled. He dropped the stern look on his face and grinned and winked at me. I couldn't help but blush before stepping into the carriage. I stuck my head out the window and waved back at my parents. Once we were too far away, I sat back inside, leaning back against my seat. I closed my eyes and sighed, knowing that this could all turn out to be a mistake instead.

"Is everything alright, Princess?" asked Percy. He was riding along side the carriage so that his face was visible through the window. I looked over at him warily.

"Everything is fine, Mr. Jackson," I murmured.

He laughed. "Even I can tell something's up from your tone of voice. By the way, you can call me Percy, Mr. Jackson sounds too formal."

I smiled, I was actually enjoying this boy's company. "The truth is, there's so much pressure on me right now. I'm expected to marry someone I've never even met and this is supposedly going to help save our whole kingdom."

"I never knew it was that serious. I just thought that you agreed to the marriage because, well, you fell in love or something," he said, frowning. I laughed, but it was hollow.

"Yeah, it's a lot more serious than that. I just wish this never happened. When I was young, I imagined myself actually falling in love with the person I married, not forced into it," I sighed.

Percy looked forward and mumbled, "I'm sorry." He then looked back at me. "You should get some rest, we have a long journey ahead of us."

I nodded and let myself drift into a deep sleep. My dreams were pleasant and occasionally, a particular boy would appear in them.

A/N: Can you guess who the boy was? I think you can. Hope y'all enjoyed the first chapter! There's going to be much more interesting things in the future chapters. So please review and hopefully you will do it in a kindly manner. :)

storytella out!