THE CURSED PRINCESS

King Richard paced up and down waiting anxiously for news from the royal messenger. Queen Aurora, his wife who was heavily pregnant and due for delivery in a few days couldn't take it anymore.

She slowly stood up and stood in front of her husband. "Calm down your highness, you will gain nothing by pacing up and down like this. I can't bear to see you so anxious, please come sit down."

King Richard helped the queen sit down and sat beside her. "How can I not worry my love? We have waited ten years to have a child of our own and now that you are almost due, the shaman says he has news about our unborn child.

What if it's something bad? I won't be able to bear any bad news. I really want to hold my child in my hands borne by you, the one I love most in the world."

The queen smiled and replied, "have faith my king. I believe in my heart that whatever news the royal messenger brings will be a happy one."

"I really hope so" king Richard replied.

Just as the king finished speaking, the royal messenger arrived with a smile on his face. The moment king Richard saw his expression, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Sebastian was his most trusted messenger and also the one who understood him the most among other royal messengers. So, the fact that he was smiling meant that the King also had a reason to smile.

Sebastian bowed before King Richard and said, "Your highness, my queen, I bring good news.

The message from the shaman says that, yo will have a daughter and she would find favor in the eyes of anyone who sees her. She will be the most beautiful princess who ever lived and will be extremely kind.

All the young men will queue up just to get a glimpse of her and kings and nobles will desire her to become their bride.

However, the one who will get her heart will be the strongest and most powerful in the whole world. Yes your highness, the princess will get married to the strongest warrior of her time and he will protect her from all forms of danger."

King Richard stood up and happily hugged Sebastian before saying, "for being the one to bring me such good news, your wages will be doubled."

Turning to the queen, he said, "we are going to hold a big feast and celebrate the arrival of my beautiful princess."

He then turned to Sebastian and said, "go, inform everyone that there will be a grand feast tonight in honour of my soon to be born princess. Every one is welcome to eat and drink to their heart's content."

Sebastian bowed before the king and said, "thank you so much for your kindness your highness. May you live longer than all your enemies."

After Sebastian left, the king went to hug queen Aurora who was shedding tears of joy.

She looked at the king and said, "didn't I tell you to have faith? I really don't know what we have done to be blessed with such a wonderful gift but I feel very grateful."

The king wiped her tears and said, "it's because we have waited for so long and now our patience has been rewarded."

What the king and the queen did not know was that outside the room, Meela, the waiting maid of the queen was eavesdropping on their conversation while pretending to clean the place.

Queen Aurora who was very kind and considerate had already told Meela to stop working for now since she was also heavily pregnant.

But, she refused and begged the queen to allow her serve her until one of them births their child.

Meela had always been greedy and wanted to live a luxurious life from when she was a young girl but she never got what she wanted.

She had come to work in the palace for the queen right from when she was young. She had gained queen Aurora's trust because she hoped that when she got married and gave birth to a child, he would be given a royal position.

Despite being a maid, queen Aurora treated Meela like family and showered her with love.

When she had just gotten pregnant, Meela had thought she would give birth to a son but she discovered a few weeks back that she would have a daughter instead.

She was devastated at first because she knew her daughter would never be given a royal position since it was bestowed only on men. Her dream of living a luxurious life would never come true.

But then, she came up with another idea. Queen Aurora was pregnant and could give birth to a son. If that happened, she would make sure she got him to fall in love with her daughter. That would even be better than her initial plan.

She so badly wanted to know the sex of the queen's baby and this was why she refused to stop coming to work despite the fact that she was heavily pregnant and was also due in a few days.

Now that she heard that the queen was going to have a daughter, she felt really heartbroken. When she heard about the life the princess would live, she was so jealous and wished that such a life was designed for her child instead.

She walked back sadly to her house, having lost all hope but, suddenly an idea came to her. She knew it was an evil idea the moment she thought about it but she believed that she didn't have any other choice.

Her husband was already dead and this child was the only hope she had of living a better life. She was going to do whatever it took to achieve that.

She quickly prepared herself to visit the black forest witch. She knew that they were forbidden from meeting that witch because she was known to be evil but the witch owed her a favor.