My Princess

Chapter 2 - The Meeting

Natalia's POV

There it is, standing by the edge of the lake and replenishing its thirst. Its graceful movements, unaware of the danger that is about to come to it. I am crouching behind a bush, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. It is slowly moving closer to my direction, I draw my arrow and wait for the right moment to release. As I was about to shoot, something dark caught my attention. There, a panther hiding behind the shadows of the trees and bushes. It is stalking the deer. My deer.

I observe its movements as it gets nearer to the deer. As it pounces, I release my arrow and hit the panther on its neck, killing it instantly. The deer ran away from the sudden commotion. Oh well, this'll be a good carpet or clothing material. I walk towards my kill, as I was about to take the arrow, I heard people coming riding their horses. I am instantly on defense mode, thinking that it could be bandits or thugs, there are a lot of them that use this forest as a place to stay in or group together. The sounds grew near, as I saw who these people could be, I released my breath that I've been holding on.

"Princess Natalia, pardon our intrusion to your hunting but we were requested by the King to fetch you." Don, the head of our security, told me as he went down his horse and looked over to my kill. He and a couple other guards are here. Don and his family have been a part of our security for many generations, their family has always been trusted by the royal family. It all started way back but let's not get into it.

"You came just in time, I need help with this," I gestured to the deceased animal on the ground, "Bring me Joseph, he's tied to a tree over there." I pointed to the direction where I tied my horse, Joseph. You thought I tied up someone to a tree, didn't you? Wow, rude much. Don nodded to one of his guards to fetch Joseph.

"You know, it's unladylike for a woman to hunt, and that woman who also happens to be a princess. I thought princesses were supposed to be prim and proper at all times." Don says to me with a smirk. He looks to be in his mid-50s, his gray eyes are always on the lookout for any trouble. I roll my eyes at his response.

"Yeah, well. I'm a different type of princess. I'm an awesome princess." Don snorts and laughs, the guard has returned with Joseph.

"Hello boy!" I greeted and patted him, "Thank you Ronaldo" I thanked the guard who went to get Joseph. Ronaldo nods and smiles, "You're welcome Princess". Yes, I know all of my guards, well most of them at least. Only the ones I see often, those who are assigned to me. I see the guards bagging the body of the animal and tied it on to the back of their horse. I climbed up my horse and we were on our merry way to the kingdom.

As we neared the kingdom, we heard noises and a girl screaming, it sounded like she is in trouble. The guards then rounded around me, protecting me from any coming harm.

"Stay behind us princess. Come on lads! Shield Princess Natalia!" Don ordered and the four guards he had with him rounded around me.

"We need to save her Don, she could be in trouble." I said with worry in my voice.

"You are our priority, we can't risk it." Don said as he withdrew his sword up along with the other guards.

"As your future Queen, I order you to go and save her Don. I can take care of myself. Now let's go!" I said with a stern voice. Don said with a sigh, "Alright, but stay close princess." We went nearer to the source of the sound. We saw five guys, they look like a band of assassins to me, and they appear to be surrounding a girl on her knees. I couldn't see her face since it was covered with a bag and her hands were tied behind her back as well.