SWITCHED

Meela was the one who had informed the witch a few years ago that the King had put a price on her head in an effort to put an end to her evil practices.

She slowly began her journey to the black forest while being careful not to be seen by anyone. She arrived at the black witch's den and told her about the news that had been brought to the king.

She reminded the witch that she owed her a favor so she wanted her to make her own daughter enjoy the life that was meant for the unborn Princess.

After some incantations, the witch gave her a concoction to drink and instructed her to wait until both her child and the princess had been born.

After their birth, she was to take her child to the room where the princess would be kept and lay her on the same bed as the princess.

She should leave the both of them there and wait for when the queen would ask her to take her child and leave.

At this time, she would pick up the princess and leave with her. The queen would see Meela's child as the princess and so will everyone else.

This will make her child to live as the princess while the princess would live as a slave. She would look ugly before anyone who sees her and be hated for no reason.

But the witch warned her. While living as a slave, the princess should never be allowed to leave the kingdom. The moment she went out of the kingdom, she would be freed from the curse and the truth would be exposed to everyone.

Meela thanked the witch and left. She felt very happy and looked forward to seeing her daughter live as the princess.

A few days later, Meela gave birth to a baby girl. She kept her hidden inside while waiting for the queen to give birth to her own child.

The queen gave birth two days later, much to Meela's delight. She had not named her child because she wanted the queen and king to be the ones to do so.

It was customary for daughters to be named on the third day after their birth. Her daughter would already be five days old by that time. She decided to exchange the girls a day before the princess was named.

On the day that she wanted to exchange the girls, Meela waited throughout the day and when it was about to get dark, she took her daughter to the palace. When the queen saw her, she wasn't happy because she expected Meela to be resting just as she was.

However, Meela told the queen that she couldn't rest because she wanted to behold the face of the beautiful princess and wanted to introduce her daughter to her because she would like her daughter to be the princess's waiting made when she grew up.

Without suspecting her intentions, the queen took her to the princess's room. There was another maid there who was watching over the princess.

Meela held her daughter and walked over to the little bed where the princess was kept. Looking at the princess, she said, "you will serve her for the rest of your life and be her waiting maid in this kingdom."

The queen thought that Meela was talking about her daughter serving the princess whereas, Meela was saying that the princess would serve her daughter.

She suddenly pretended to be in pain and quickly dropped her daughter on the princess's bed.

The maid stood up to take Meela's daughter away from the bed but as she got closer, Meela held her hands and fell on the floor as if her stomach were in pain, causing the maid to fall with her in the process.

When the queen walked to the bed and looked at the girls, she saw Meela's daughter as the princess and saw the princess as Meela's daughter.

She kept staring at the two girls until Meela stood up and quickly apologized, explaining that she had just experienced a sudden sharp pain in her stomach but was fine now.

The queen then told her, "take your daughter, go back home and be sure to get a lot of rest. I don't want anything to happen to you. If you feel pain at anytime, don't hesitate to send someone to inform me so I can quickly send help for you."

Meela thanked the queen, telling her that she was too kind. As she walked to the princess's bed, she felt her heart beating fast because she knew that she would be in trouble if what the witch did was not successful.

She picked up the princess and noticed that the queen did not say anything. She heaved a sigh of relief and began to walk away but the queen stopped her and said,

"you know the princess will be named tomorrow. Your daughter is already four days old so I presume you have named her. What is her name?"

Meela breathed a sigh of relief again. She thought the queen had discovered her. Turning to look at the queen, she said, "her name is Katherine. Kathy for short."

"Nice name" the queen replied before saying goodnight to Meela.

When Meela got back home, she placed the princess on her bed and stared at her happily. She couldn't believe that her plan had been successful.

Now, all she needed to do was to ensure that the princess never left the kingdom until the day she died.

At first, she thought of killing the princess so her mind would be at rest and she would never have to worry about being discovered.

But, she was afraid of the repercussions. She didn't know if killing the princess would lift the curse and she wasn't in a condition to go back to the forest and ask the witch because it was really dangerous and against the law.

After thinking for a while, she decided to let things be the way they were. She would be so involved in the life of the princess from henceforth in order to ensure that her plans were successful to the very end.