T.
All she'd wanted to do was bake a pie.
She'd skipped down to the kitchens, wearing a dress that was a particularly flattering shade of blue, feeling young and exuberant on such a sunny, perfect day. She'd insisted on getting everything herself, asking the staff to leave her a section of the counter to work on, whispering a hurried good morning to the animals in the pens at the back of the kitchen that the cooks collected milk and eggs from.
She'd pulled on an apron and started by throwing down some flour and worked more flour and cold chunks of butter with sprinkles of water and vinegar for the crust, and then set about washing and slicing up her apples.
She tossed them with lemon juice and sugar, then cooked them over the fire until the apples were good and soft before setting them aside to cool. She divided up her ball of dough, and rolled it flat to line her pie dish with.
That's when lunch prep started around her, the staff being careful to leave their cheery Princess enough room to move.
She was humming to herself, brushing the edges with an egg mixture before slopping the apple mixture into the center when they brought in a chicken, still squawking, and she froze, in the middle of putting the crust on the top as the chicken cried in terror. She was flapping against the cook, crying for help as she held her up for the chef's inspection. Sofia realized that she must have just pulled the fowl from the pen.
"I don't want to die!" She turned to Sofia, desperate. "Please! Please don't let them kill me!"
Sofia dropped the crust, and that drew the attention of the chef.
"Is something the matter, your highness?" He asked, and he turned along with the cook to look at her.
"Your dough is on the floor.."
"Don't eat me!"
"Your highness?"
"You're hurting me!"
"Uhmm.." She pressed her flour covered hand to her throat.
A hour later she was seated at the long dining table, looking down happily at the array of vegetables and grains on her plate, avoiding the occasional glare from her family as she hugged the chicken on her lap.