Princess

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.

Well, beautiful as princesses go, anyway. (She could've stood to lose a few pounds and maybe done something with her hair)

Anyway, she had a brother living with her and the king in a backwater kingdom that just wasn't exciting at all.

She longed to travel to exotic new lands, see new things and new people. She wanted to break away from this boring old place and join her mother the queen on her adventures through far away kingdoms.

Oh, how exciting her life must be!

No wonder she'd left the king in his stuffy little castle in this pit of a kingdom.

"Patience" said the king.

"When you get a bit older and can take care of yourself a little better, you can move around to your heart's content"

The princess didn't like this at all.

So when the queen arrived from a long, long time away and announced that she needed a safe haven for the princess's half-sister, she saw her chance.

"I'm old enough now, father!"

"I can protect myself from the slings and arrows that the youngest princess was victim to."

"Oh please let me go in her place, for truth be told; the queen needs some family to keep her company there in the meepbag Kingdom"

And the king, seeing that he couldn't win, let her accompany the queen back to those strange lands and dangerous, exotic people.

The new little princess was welcomed as a member of the family and given all the things that the older princess had thought tiring and mundane.

She had a tower of her very own, decorated in colors most pleasing and furnished with a comfy new bed, fresh new linen, and lots of nice things that she alone was responsible for.

(She was also now several thicknesses of wall away from the more grown-up business the castle might be full of on a given night.)

Two years passed

The youngest princess learned that security came at the cost of excitement.

And that the peace and quiet gave her the time to think...to plan for the future.

The older princess learned that excitement came at the cost of security.

And also that the queen had been lying about just how glamerous that lifestyle was.

She spent her days locked in a small cottage because (of course) it was dangerous to go out alone.

She changed schools often and didn't have time for steady friends.

She took to skipping important lessons to see the real world beyond the safety of her mother's temporary home.

She lost her virginity to a boy she barely knew in an attempt to have SOME kind of hold on things.

But like everything else in this new life, he quickly moved on.

She would try this tactic again and again to no avail, until finally she understood how the queen got to be the way she was.

It was little comfort, for by now she had missed so many lessons and been hurt by so many boys(and girls) that when she turned 18, she had no idea what her future would hold, no idea how to fix it and wouldn't trust anyone enough to guide her.

It wasn't long before she realized how much she'd left in the backwater kingdom.

She had heard about the youngest princess and her brother the prince.

They would complain of boredom and in the same breath tell her about the park or school event they'd just taken part in or the new toy or game or gadget they'd been given.

How they looked foreward to putting all the money they'd been slowly earning to use to get their degrees and have exciting careers.
Then they'd tell her they'd love to talk more, but they were sooo busy with this or that.

Even the boring projects the king was always tinkering with slowly became painful to hear about.

So she returned to the backwater kingdom.

She told her father "I've come home dear father. Your little girl has returned!"

And the king said to the grown woman;