Princess Astrid was peacefully sleeping when she heard a scratchy voice calling her name. "Where are you Astrid?", the voice called out in an echo-like speech. It creeped her out because it was pitch black in the place the voice was calling from. She was surrounded by darkness and all she could here was that voice. "Where are you Astrid!?!", the voice screamed, waking Astrid up from a deep sleep. She felt someone holding her, and looked over to see her mother peacefully sleeping by her side. She realized it was just a dream and she calmed down. She got up, and got dressed. She left her room, leaving her mother to rest. "Your Highness, your awake!", Daniel spoken abruptly. "Yes, I've noticed. What do I need to get done today? Knowing how I'm going to be Queen any day now.", I said with an attitude. I was already having a bad day because of the crazy dreams and people staring at me weirdly. "Ugh... don't you think you should rest?", Daniel asked. "Ugh, no I don't think I should rest. My father never rested when he was asked to, so why should I? It made him a great leader, putting other people's needs above his. So, now it's my turn." I spoken with confidence. I continued to walk towards the throne room, when I got so annoyed by everyone staring at me like I'm going to die. I shouted towards everyone saying, "All of you better get back to work and stop staring at me like that or else you will be dealt with." They all looked away and rushed back to work. I felt relieved when they stopped staring. I got to the throne room, and I hesitantly sat down on my Father's throne. I signaled the guards to let people come into the castle and share their problems with me, so that I could fix them. "Your Highness, This is a farmer who is dealing with finding his livestock dead and all his crops destroyed.", spoke one of the guards. The farmer said, "Your Majesty, all my crops where ripped apart from the ground and in the dirt where claw marks, and my livestock wasn't eaten, they were just slaughtered. It is a very gruesome sight. It frightened my children and wife. Other farmers are struggling with the same problem." He stuttered, and I could tell he was frightened himself. I looked at him and said, "I promise you that this problem WILL be solved, the animal that is doing this will die. And the money you were working to earn will be payed back to you." The Farmer smiled, and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty! This brings me great joy, knowing I will have money to feed my family... but there is something else..." "What do you mean something else?", I said standing up. The farmer gulped and said, "There is something written in blood on my house, but I can't quite read it." "I will send one of my guards to read the message on your house and he will bring that message back to me. Please don't be scared, I will take care of this problem." I said sitting back down and waving my hand for the next person to come. The next person said they had the same problem, in fact about twenty something people had the same problem. Others just had trivial problems that can easily be fixed. I was exhausted, but I still had to find out what that message said. "Guards! Bring me Daniel, now!" I shouted, which made the guards scared. A moment later the guards came back with Daniel. "Leave us." I said to the guards. Daniel kneeled. "You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?" He asked. I replied saying, "yes, I did. I need you to go to one of the farmer's homes and read what the message in blood says. And please be discreet when leaving the castle. This manner is between me and you. Your dismissed." He shook his head and left the throne room. The guards at the door came back in and stood by the door. I stood up and just started pacing back and forth. I was trying to figure out what was slaughtering the livestock and destroying the crops. If this creature keeps it up, we will all starve. And I can't let that happen. I got lost in thought, that one of the guards had to grab me to get my attention on them. "Sorry Your Majesty, but it's getting late and you need to rest for tomorrow." one of the guards said. I agreed, "yes, your right, thank you. Please let the kitchen staff know that I will be going straight to bed, so I won't be eating dinner." The guard shook his head and left the room, while the other guard escorted me to my room. When I walked into my room, Clara was already pulling out my night gown and everything. "Good evening, My Lady." Clara smiled. I smiled and said, "Good Evening, Clara. Will you be drawing me a bath?" "Yes, My Lady. Only if that's okay with you, though!" she said. I smiled again and just nodded. She smiled. "Um... My Lady, I'm sorry for your loss...", Clara apologized. Yeah... my loss... father... I was close with him, but we also had our distant times. "Thank you, Clara. That means a lot." I tried to smile, but I could tell she knew that I was actually forcing myself to smile. She drew me a bath and helped me get into my bath. It was warm and smelled like roses and lavender. My favorite scent.