Knock! knock!! The sound of someone knocking on Violet's door ravaged the room. Violet was still sleeping, turning over like a restless dog. Knock! knock!! The person knocked again this time louder

"Go away." Violet cried out, groaning as she did.

However, that was to no avail for the person knocking, simply pushed the door open as she walked into the room.

It was a woman in her late forties, wearing a uniform consisting of a black dress, a white apron, a hairband and a cap of some sort, who walked in. She was the head maid of the council, and she was carrying a food tray in her hands.

"Ughh…..I said go away." Violet groaned, turned over on her bed and covered her face with her blanket. The lady shook her head and dropped the food tray on a small table in Violet's room. Then she walked straight to open the windows and curtains.

This brought in the early morning sunlight, illuminating the once dark room. The glittering light went straight into Violet's eyes. "Ahh, close the windows!!" Violet grumbled and turned to the other side of her bed.

The head maid then walked up to the side of her bed she turned to. "Come on, your father has requested your presence." The head maid pulled the blanket off her face. "Ugh… what could the king want now.." Violet sighed as she slowly pushed herself up and sat up half way on the bed.

With a shocking look, the head maid replied. "Violet, that's rude… Maybe she just wants to spend time with her daughter." Violet burst out into laughter as the head maid said that.

"My Father, the king, hasn't done that in years." Violet replied. "Shh…" The head maid shushed Violet. "He is your father, and you don't know, maybe today could be different." Violet bit her lips slightly, with an unimpressed look she rolled her eyes as she sighed.

"Fine, I hear you Marian. I will get up and go see him." Violet added and moved her legs from the bed.

The relationship between Violet and Marian, the head maid, had grown over the years. Part of their relationship growth was because Marian was the one who raised Violet from a crying baby to the nagging adult she is now.

This happened because Violet's mother died when she was at a very tender age. So Marian was the closest thing to a mother Violet had.

"Alright so what's for breakfast!" Violet delightfully said and stretched her hand to pull the table close. Then she opened the tray to see the delicious food. Violet started eating as they both continued their discussion.

********

A few minutes later, Marian had leftViolet's room and eight beautiful women walked in after her. They were Violet maids, junior to Marian's rank of course, for these were the maids responsible for Violet's everyday needs. They all gathered round Violet and escorted her out of her room, to the royal bathroom.

Outside Violet's room, there are two guards always standing outside Violet's door, their job to protect the princess even at the expense of their life.

After Violet finished having her bath the maids all surrounded her and as they walked out of the royal bathroom, making it almost impossible to see her as she walked back to her room.

When they got to Violet's room, the maids helped Violet dry her hair properly. They helped her use the best lipstick and picked the perfect dress with the best matching shoes.

The dress they picked was perfect on her, with its long hands. It was a red dress, slim on her waist area. It was displaying her perfect shape and incredible beauty. Violet is a girl with red hair, gray eyes and the red dress matched her perfectly.

After dressing she gazed at herself in the mirror, her red hair matched the red dress. On her feet she wore a beautiful gold colored shoe, which was sparkling like glass.

Finally she was ready to go see her father. The maids left, and in a few minutes she walked out of her room and straight to the throne.

Getting there, the two huge doors of the throne room were opened with two guards standing beside them. This felt weird to Violet for it was always locked.

Her speed however reduced as she slowly walked in to her father King Asher and General Scott Theodore, standing at a rectangular table which displayed a map of their Kingdom, Zyprian. The table also had small toy-like soldiers to map the movements of their soldiers and that of the enemies.

Every time Violet saw General Scott, she was always amazed, not just by his charming looks but his success.

General Scott is a boy with blonde hair, blue eyes and is around six feet tall. He was by far the youngest general that had ever led the kingdom's army, getting the post of a General at the early age of twenty.

King Asher on the other hand, is a man with half grey hair. He had past his prime and was in his mid fifties, his hair was slowly changing into grey and his skin was gaining some wrinkles. Time indeed was gaining on the once young king.

"They are making their move, they've crossed the border. We can make our move through...." King Asher said loudly and moved a soldier on the board map past a spot which should be interpreted to be a pair of villages. "....This village and our presence will be unnoticed, we will kill the enemy's troops in their sleep."

Meanwhile, the presence of the Princess was still totally unnoticed as continued standing at the door, looking at both of them. "But my king, the villages around that vicinity would be the war zone. The villagers will be homeless or worse, they'll lose their lives. We can't risk such a wide attack on that area." General Scott replied.

"They would lose their homes anyway. We must strike now!!" King Asher said, while giving a terrible glare at General Scott.

Violet could smell the tension in the room, she couldn't take it anymore. "Ahem! ahem!" Violet deliberately coughed, alerting General Scott and king Asher, about her presence.

King Asher then tilted his head back to Violet. "Good morning, dad." She greeted, but her greeting was suspended in the air as both King Asher and General Scott stared at her for a moment.

They were caught by the gleaming beauty of the Princess. "Um..everything alright?" Violet asked, trying to put an end to the awkward staring.

"Oh, good morning…." King Asher finally responded, as slowly walked to Violet's location. "I requested for you hours ago, well nevertheless you are here. We have an urgent matter to discuss." He added.

"Princess Violet." General Scott who had got to them their position bowed his head as a form of greeting. "We will discuss this later," King Asher said to General Scott.

"For now can we have the room?" King Asher added with his tilted to General scott. "Yes my king." General Scott replied and walked out of the throne room locking the doors behind him.

"It took you long enough to get here," The king said. "I was. Umm Busy" Violet replied.

"Busy sleeping?" King Asher asked. "I wasn't sleeping dad I was….." Violet said, put her finger in her mouth, trying to think of what to say but came up with nothing. "What I was busy doing doesn't matter, now it does." Violet added and continued. "So what was the urgent matter you wanted to discuss that couldn't wait and you had to abandon kingdom affairs."

The king took a deep breath before exhaling. Then he walked back to his throne chair to sit down comfortably. His response to the question was already giving Violet bad feelings, as she stared at King Asher intensively and walked over to the front of his chair.

"That's because this is a kingdom affair." King Asher replied, throwing Violet into the air with curiosity. "It is?...you never discuss kingdom matters with me, what could this be about?" Violet asked.

"It's about your betrothed, Prince Charles." General Scott replied. At the hearing of that, a terrible frown sprang out of Violet's face. "Oh my God, don't tell me you called me all the way here to discuss about him." She sighed.

"Violet, it's about your marriage. It would be happening sooner than I said it would." King Asher said.

"What!!" Violet yelled, her mouth was left slightly opened. "How soon." She went on to add. "Prince Charles will arrive in a month's time and the marriage will carry on after the fourth month." King Asher answered.

While news of Violet's betrothed was no news to her. But how soon it would be happening was.

"You have got to be kidding me." Violet yelled, "You promised me that if any marriage was going to happen, it was going to be after my twenty-first birthday." Violet added with a sour look. "I'm sorry Violet, I really am but this is important. We need their army to hold our line of defense, and if we don't get that, we may lose the kingdom." King Asher hinted.

"That's all it is with you dad, you don't even care about me or who I love." She replied. "I don't care about you??" King Asher snapped. "Everything I do is for you and the kingdom." He added as he stood up.

"Without the Kelayrian armies to back up our line. I fear we may lose the kingdom, you would be lost too or worse, enslaved and you think I don't care about you." He added.

"And Kelayria is our only choice, I have to marry Prince Charles in order to save my kingdom, there's no other way?" She asked.

"We have been over this, believe me I have tried other kingdoms but no one would dare assist us against the fierce kingdom Vraviadia. The only way is for you to marry him, that's the only condition the King of Kelayria gave. If he will join our war against Vraviadia, a union of blood is required." He said and Violet sighed.

"Duty before love Violet, it's the only way to save the kingdom." He added and slowly sat down. Violet's eyes were heavy with tears, but there was nothing she could do. Rather than to accept her fate of forceful marriage

"Anyways, the Zey ball is In two weeks from now. I remember you always loved it, Maybe that will lighten up your mood." He added

"Is there anything else?" Violet coldly asked. King Asher could feel how angry she was. "There's…" King Asher paused and slowly shifted her face to the ground. "There's nothing." King Asher added.

"Okay, then. Have a nice day." Violet said coldly and walked out of the throne room. Violet was followed by the two guards especially ordained to protect her. Everywhere she went to, they followed, their only limit was to private places.

They had previously waited at the door when princess violet entered the throne room and when she came out, they followed her. Violet however, wasn't a sucker when it came to losing them. Back in the days, when she was younger, she usually did that on the daily basics, back when she was younger but nowadays security has become tighter in the castle especially with the war

Violet after leaving the throne room, walked aimlessly through the castles for a while before disappearing. The guards had no idea where she had wandered off to. Instantly more guards were ordered to help find her in the castle.

However, she had done it again, she had escaped the castle. This wasn't a new thing to the guards, it was a regular thing for Violet. She often did that to get her head straightened up, most of the time she'd still be in the castle hiding from the eyes of the guards or people.

Violet, who escaped them by running through a dark hall and a secret corridor which she often used, soon arrived at the castle stables. She was wearing a black cloak which she took from the secret path. She hid it there the last time she went out and kept it for the next time she would go out again.

She let out her white horse from the stables, and rode her with speed through the big castle gates, ignoring calls of the guards and straight into town. Guard were instantly dispatched to go after but she was way ahead of them.

She continued riding the horse until she arrived downtown. When she noticed she had lost them, she came down from the horse and took it to what seemed like the back of an abandoned house.

"I will be back." Violet whispered into the horse's ear, while petting it. She then tied the horse to a pole which was close by and left the back of the house. She then used the cloak's hood to cover her head as she started walking through the streets of Zyprian.

Violet got to a point in Zyprian and just stood still. Behind was a dark alley and in front of her was a dazzling city, she was just realizing this after she was sure she'd escape the guards. She was about to cross the road when someone dived out from the dark alley and pulled her back into it.