Not your princess.

Prologue

Just like any good story, this one begins in a kingdom far far away. A benevolent king and his beautiful queen had it all. Their subjects loved them, they lived in a palace filled with splendor and light, their bellies were never without food and their minds never without entertainment. And, just the way many good stories begin: the king and queen were expecting a child.

Now, before you stop reading out of boredom, don't worry. This isn't another bland fairy tale where the newborn is the *special chosen one destined to be super amazing and wonderful, sparkles and sunshine!!* This isn't any ordinary kingdom, and this isn't any ordinary princess. But why would I tell you this, if I could just as well show it...?

"Cassandra, where are my night robes? I could swear that I left them here somewhere!" Before the poor maid could think of a response, she tumbled back as a red-and-purple ball of bubbles the size of a jellyfish shot past her. At the very last moment she steadied herself on the coffee table and with a huff she said "how often do I have to tell you to just put your clothes away, instead of leaving a mess? It is not befitting for a princess to be messy. Speaking of, a princess doesn't swim around like a tornado! You almost pushed me over."

The jellyfish-sized blob (which upon closer inspection appeared to be a bold looking guppy with messy hair as red as fire), didn't bother looking up, as she went through the huge pile of clothes. 'Cassie is right,' she thought to herself, 'if I didn't have to look through weeks worth of clothes, I would've already found my dress by now!' But she knew she would never tell the woman. She had always hated being told what to do, and even though she usually adored the maid, her using the p-word (twice!!) made the girl grit her little teeth. "Cassie please, stop calling me that! I never made the choice to be my parents' daughter, they did! Why am I being punished for their stupidity?"

Even as a young child, Lennah was already very eloquent. Although her vocabulary was still limited, she always knew exactly what to say to get her point across. And this she did, often and without mercy. With Lennah, you never had to guess what she thought or wanted. She loved dressing up, but hated sitting still. She would jump at the opportunity to play with the newborn dolphins, but detested her mother's sea cucumber curry. But most of all, she always enjoyed the stories the soldiers told her, when they were guarding the palace gates. When she listened to their tales of far away places and heroic battles, she always lost track of time. This would lead to many scoldings by her father, who had told her a thousand times by now that she was not allowed to wander off like that!

Oh, how hard he tried to get her to listen to him. He loved his little girl to death, but she was just so stubborn! And he wasn't asking much, was he? She had everything a little girl's heart could desire. Beautiful dresses, decorated with exotic pearls and shells in colors that would make the very rainbow envious. Toys in all shapes and sizes, and a room where she could dance and play to her heart's extent. All that he asked of her, was that she could just once attend a formal meeting behaving like a princess, instead of playing with the prime minister's toupet or asking the duchess whether her dress was intentionally made three sizes too small. He knew she was still a child, but she was perfectly capable of understanding him. She did it on purpose. She knew how embarrassed it made him, and he would often just send her to her room. Oh, she had always been an evil little mastermind! Sometimes he thought to himself, what a shame it was that she had been born a girl. She would've made an exquisite warrior (maybe a terrible soldier, but she definitely possessed the strategic mind of a captain or general). He sighed and shook his head at the thought of this missed opportunity. All he hoped for, was that the grandsons she would give him would possess even a fraction of her spirit and willpower. First he would have to find her a husband, though. He massaged his temples and groaned. He already expected this to become a challenge, but little did he know that this task would fade compared to the problems ahead of them...