Once upon a time, there was a little princess. The little princess was admired by all, courtiers and commoners alike, because she was clever and polite and never complained about having to finish her dinner before eating dessert.
But the little princess had a secret.
Sometimes, the little princess was also a little pirate.
Some nights she would remove her pointy veiled hat from her head and replace it with a black tri-corner hat decorated with a skull and crossbones. She would sneak some cake from the kitchen and bring it to the castle next door for the two princesses who lived there. In exchange, they would cover for her while she climbed aboard her ship, shouted orders to her crew, and terrorized the seas just beyond her home.
And she was always back in bed before morning.
Until, one day, the other princesses turned on her. They were tired of cake, they said. They wanted cookies, they said. And brownies, they said. With frosting and sprinkles.
The little princess tried her hardest to make it happen, but as their demands grew more specific, she found herself unable to supply, and so they stopped covering for her.
For some time, the seas went unterrorized, the boats nearby untouched, their jewels secure. The princess was very sad.
But one day, she saw the other little princesses, the ones who had betrayed her, playing outside in their boat, and she had an idea.
Without making an excuse, she boarded her pirate ship and steered it toward the other princesses. As she grew closer, she saw they had cookies, and brownies. With the might of her ship and her crew behind her, the little princess stormed the ship and took all the desserts with her when she left.
But that night, she was too full to finish her dinner. She went to bed sick, with the sad voices of the other princesses repeating mean things in her head. At one point, she thought she dreamed that an angry cookie was chasing her about the docks.
It was a terrible night, and the very next day, the princess went to the other two girls with a cake and an apology. She even offered to make them her first and second mate.
From then on, all three princesses shared their desserts, and worked together to steal cookies and cakes and brownies and tarts, not to mention bags of money and precious jewels, from the other, weaker children in other kingdoms.
The End.
© A Beatrix Cottonpants Original.
