The king and queen had known from the beginning that their daughter was different.

For example when she had been a baby she had not cried like baby’s normally do but instead had made an odd howling and gurgling noise.

When she had grown a little older she had developed quite an unusual and interesting behaviour, as the king would put it.

Meaning for example she was very fast, had extremely good sight and smell which meant she could guess what was in every meal.  She was also very good and sneaking up on things and loved creeping around in the dark - which was very inconvenient for the maids as the princess loved to hide and jump out and scare them.

The real problem was that the princess had developed a bad habit of scratching and biting, it usually happened when she got over excited. She knew it was bad and tried hard not to do it but sometimes she just seemed to lose control and without the intention of doing so would accidentally scratch someone. Even her parents kept their distance and left the maids to look after her. The poor princess had hardly been with her parents and when she was with them it was probably something serious.

One of the maids had smacked the princess hard on the cheek because she had jumped out to scare the woman. The maid was fired by an angry king. She had left without a fuss, but not before telling the shocked Queen that her daughter behaved like some kind of demon. There had been many complaints from guards, maids, cooks and so on. Many maids had quit their job in fear of being scratched or bitten.

Only one maid by the name of Martha had stayed loyal to the princess, she had learnt to tolerate the princess’s sudden outburst and behaved almost like a mother to the young girl.  She had also given the princess a name when the king and queen couldn’t think of one. “Emma” she had said quietly gently rocking the baby in her arms.  

Martha felt sorry for the young girl, it was not only the girl’s behaviour but also the fact she looked different. The older she got the more it was visible.

The King was grey eyed and had floppy ginger hair. The Queen had blond mousy hair and small tired eyes the colour of a greenish brown.

On the other hand the princess now at the age of 15 had long wavy locks of dark silky smooth hair  and her eyes were big and bright the colour of the darkest ocean. Martha had been the first to compare them the ocean, she had notice that they changed and almost rippled like waves when the princess showed any sign of emotion.

But there was something off about the girl too, the old maid had thought one evening as she made her way up the winding staircase.

 Somehow the princess didn’t seem exactly human……