Queen Dawna

003

'How can I help you on this beautiful day? You know, the one that is supposed to be my only free day to do whatever it is that I want to do?' Dawna asked, clearly irritated that her father had once again interrupted her leisure time.

'You come with me, now. Since you are clearly not doing anything, you can put a hold on this nonsense behaviour and follow me to my office.'

'Well pray tell daddy, why would I do such thing?'

'Because your future husband is waiting for you in my office, so you better get changed and be on your very best behaviour. I expect nothing less from the future Queen,' he revealed with a big smile on his lips. The pale young woman could feel her stomach twist at the thought of meeting yet another potential husband. Why her father was so keen on finding her a suitable husband was a surprise to her, yet she knew that there was nothing she could do about it.

'Fine, give me ten minutes.'

'Good girl,' the King said satisfied with a small grin on his lips. 'But do make sure that your nasty hairball does not follow you, we cannot have another man being attacked by that monster.'

Looky only hissed as the man walked away proudly, with his stupid crown on his head.

***

The potential husband her father had sought for her appeared to be at least twenty years older, with dark brown hair and a deep frown in his forehead. He wore a beautiful blue suit and his skin had a nice caramel colour.

He also happened to be her husband; instead of het potential husband. Apparently, the villagers were fed up with the thought of having only a Queen and no King when their current King would die. Therefore, they had demanded for the young princes to marry a suitable man as soon as possible. If not, they had threatened to attack the castle again and since Dawnas father was too afraid that that might happen again, he had agreed.

'Please, darling, sit down. We have a lot to talk about,' the king spoke. He only ever called her darling when someone important was around. Apparently, he felt the odd urge to make it sound like their bond was very strong; when in reality it was anything but.

The man stood up and offered the Princes his rather large and slim hand. With great hesitation, Dawna eventually accepted his hand and places hers into his. Slowly the man brought his lips closer to the back of her hand where he placed them. The young princes bowed slightly as a taken of respect, something she did not really feel.

'Dawna,' she said, telling him something he already knew because it was a formality.

'Rafferty,' he then said with a small smirk on his lips. His eyes were the same colour as his hair; dark brown. 'But as my future wife you may call me Raff.'

Future wife, the thought alone made young Dawna feel sick to her stomach. Her father would not really force her to marry that old man, now would he? Even though she already knew the answer she kept hoping that eventually he would come to his senses. She had been hoping that for almost nine years now, however, and her fathers behaviour had not changed a bit.

'I can only imagine that you two have so much to discuss before you get into the wedding boat. Therefore I have cleared your schedule for next week so you can get to know each other a little bit better.'

'Have you set a date for the wedding yet?' the man, Rafferty, asked while folding his hands in prayer position. Somehow the young woman doubted that he was forced into this marriage, yet part of her sincerely hoped that he was forced. If he was, they at least had one thing in common, or perhaps two if he hated her father as well.

'Yes, I have. You will be wed in fifteen days.'

Just like that, her heart sunk in her stomach.

'Fifteen days?' her trembling voice asked with anger. 'I am to be wed with this man, a man whom I do not know, in fifteen days? Daddy, I just turned seventeen! You cannot do this do me. You cannot.'

'Well, I can,' her father spoke with a cold voice. 'I am King, and I make the decisions here. The first lesson as ruler is to always put your Kingdom fist. If you do not get married within three weeks, the people will get angry and they will try to attack us again. The thought of only having a Queen is frightening them, it has never happened before and it must never happen again. This is the only solution.'

'Marrying me off to some older man that I do not know?' Dawna scoffed, her blue eyes lighting up with anger. 'How is that right? How, daddy, can you sleep at night knowing that I am forced to be wed? That is not the way a father should behave.'

'That is quite enough,' his loud voice screamed, causing goose bumps to appear all over her pale skin. 'I am not only your King but your father as well and you will obey me. Now get out and take some time to get to know your future husband. I cannot stand to listen to your whines any longer. You, missy, are going to be Queen after my death and I cannot die until I know that I leave my kingdom in safe hands with you.'

'Damien would have never allowed you to marry me off like this.'

A painful silence fell upon the room as the two royals looked at each other with anger and hurt.

'Damien,' her father spoke with pain in his voice. 'Is no longer here, so you cannot say what he would or would not have done. He died for our Kingdom; he died so you could become Queen. Do not use his name in this kind of matters.'

There were so many things the Princes wanted to say to her father in that moment. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, and she wanted to crawl his eyes out of his head. It was not right; he had no right to do this to her. Yet, he had every right.

'One day, my little Queen, you will understand that what I did was best for you. One day, when you are surrounded by your own children you will know that it was all worth it. Just wait, you will see.'

'I am seventeen, daddy,' the pale girl sneered. 'I think that those children can wait until their mother is no longer a child.'

The anger that was boiling up in her body reached a new high; a dangerous high. The pale Princes had the urge to strangle someone, preferably her father or her soon-to-be husband, she had the urge to destroy everything they loved in order to make them feel her desperation. Why was no one even listening to her?

The table started to shake slightly as her eyes kept locked into those of her father. A small cup fell on the ground, shattering into a hundredth small pieces, yet neither one of them looked up. The books in the shelves started to tremble, some even fell with a loud thump on the ground.

'What is happening?' a weak voice asked as the ground started to shake slightly as well. 'Is this an earthquake.'

Her anger started to find more ways to free itself, the paintings of the King on the wall started to go up in flames. All she wanted to do in that moment was make her father burn as well, he deserved it. The King had never loved his daughter as much as he had loved his son. Not before and most certainly not after his death. He had always claimed that is had not been his fault that Damien had died, but the seventeen-year old begged to differ. He had told them that children could be replaced. He had told them to kill his children. It was his fault; he was simply too ignorant to confess it and it made the Princes even angrier.

However, all that anger got channelled away when she felt a heavy ball curl up into her lap. Her bright blue eyes that where now almost glowing finally broke free from her fathers glance only to look at whatever had just appeared on her lap.

Much to her surprise, it was Looky, whose soft paws were now trampling in her stomach. He must have come in when her anger reached its high. Now that he was there, it completely disappeared. It went quiet again; the earth did no longer shake, books did no longer fell and even the paintings were no longer on fire and it was all because of her sweet cat.

Without wasting any more time on them, the Princes stood up and walked out of her fathers office with Looky right behind her.