Alternate Ending To: Lady Or The Tiger (By Frank Stockton) Innis
Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right and opened it.
In a flash of orange, he was flat on his back. However, he wasn’t dead. Perhaps it was the rude awakening of daylight from the darkness of the tiger’s cage, or maybe by some divine intervention, the tiger had misjudged where the man was standing, therefore only hitting him on his left shoulder, sending him spiraling eight feet. Our hero was not done though. He got up and glanced around, time was everything. About five feet away from him the flag of the Courts stood erect, swaying in the breeze. On a pole! He leapt for the pole and took it off of its stand. He spun around with the sturdy pole held out in front of his chest. This was the first he had actually seen of the tiger. It was a massive beast. Although he was no expert in the way of animals, he could tell that this was the epitome of the fiercest, despite the fact that it gave the impression of being a forlornly deprived, not only of food, but of any positive relation with anything.
Leaving no time to marvel, the tiger got ready, and pounced. The Lover caught the brute with his pole, but his pole snapped in two and he was thrown back once again. Now, he had two poles; two sharp poles. The tiger bounded up to the man, but he was ready. While playing dead, he was consciously aware of the proximity of his foe. At the last moment, he stuck out his right hand with one of his weapons sharp end up, and caught the tiger in the edge of its neck. A roar of earsplitting rage erupted from the beast as it thrashed around, trying to rid itself of its agonizing, oversized thistle. This gave the lover time.
In the blink of a moment, he had plan. As the beast continued its dance of pain, The Lover bounded back toward the cage, about 20 yards away with the intent of locking himself in the tiger’s now unoccupied cage. Just as the man thought he was safe, the tiger, in blind anger turned and started to sprint back towards the man, who was now not seven yards away. Knowing that the tiger would catch up in matter of seconds, the man took his remaining flag-clad shaft and readied for his final desperate attempt at life for the sole purpose confronting the princess.
Four feet away, with the tiger at his back, he jerked toward the door of the lady, threw his stick at the door, and rolled into the tiger’s cage. He hoped that the tiger, in its dysfunctional state would take the movement of the waving flag for himself. The fact that he was alive, standing in the cage, meant it worked. He heard the slamming of the brute’s body against the door of the maiden- stunning it instantly. The man cautiously came out to examine. Sure enough, the body of tiger lay slumped against the lady’s door, leaving a massive dent in the door, undoubtedly breaking the lock.
As the man stood there hands-on-knees catching his breath, he heard pummeling on the other door. The lady must be trying to get out, I must help her, thought the man, how sweet will it taste when the princess sees the man she doomed marry another woman? He ended bitterly.
No sooner did the man straighten up to attempt to help the lady, the door flew open, and out jumped another tiger. Emotionally and physically exhausted, he knelt down at the claws of his doom, with no motivation left to fight. Not only had the one he had so loved betrayed him, she had ensured his death. Then, suddenly he heard a whizzing sound, and the tiger dropped dead from the air. A bolt from a crossbow had penetrated its skull. The man looked toward where the bolt must have come from. There, in the royal box, the princess stood with the still-raised crossbow of a guard in her hands. There eyes met.
There is no word in any language that can describe the emotions that passed between the Princess and her Once-Lover.
The audience sat in a stunned silence, never having been faced with an outcome quite like this.
The king, looking somewhere between flabbergasted and outraged, turned his eyes from the man he hoped to have eradicated, to the bewildered crossbow-less guard, and finally resting on his daughter.
In is now clear that the King’s daughter bribed her way into ensuring her lovers death, though when her actions played out before her, she couldn’t stand it and killed her lover’s killer. She may have saved his life, but with the look in his glassy eyes, and the way she felt, it would have been better had they both died that day.
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