Princess Judith Hoppson was in the middle of her history lesson along with several of her siblings and she noticed one of her brothers was yawning, not that she blamed him as their tutor literally a boring old goat was droning on and on about the wars and famine that eventually brought mammals, both predator and prey together.
Judith was all too aware of this, as shortly after the famine ended when she was a young child her parents worried their kingdom would suffer another one as the kingdom was mostly made out of farm land and they grew the richest of foods. But the famine had almost destroyed that and her parents knew they had to seek out lands that could help if that was ever to happen again. The problem was, in order to expand with other lands they were going to need to offer more than just a treaty, they would have to offer a daughter.
Turns out, in a neighboring kingdom, they had lost a war with another kingdom and were in desperate need of rebuilding and food supplies for their people. But it was ruled by two foxes that had a young son and her parents were hesitant of offering one of their daughters to be the wife of a fox prince. But once the fox rulers came to visit, they started to get used to them and they knew they had to choose a daughter to be betrothed to the prince.
Judith was seven when she met Prince Nicholas de Wilde and the reason they chose her was because the rest of her sisters were scared to get to know the fox and didn't want to marry him in the future but Judith wasn't scared, she didn't like the idea of being in a arrange marriage but she didn't want to disappoint her parents and she knew how important it was to help the kingdom. But as luck would have it, she and Nicholas actually got along well!
The war on his kingdom had affected him greatly, so he knew how important it was to marry a princess even if she was a bunny. He had a duty to help his people and parents. He didn't like the arrange marriage either but he was willing to put his feelings aside. But as the years went on, the two of them got to be the best of friends, and when Nicholas wasn't visiting her in the summer, they wrote to each other for the other three seasons. They enjoyed each company's so much that they didn't mind the arrange marriage so much anymore.
Judith looked out the window of the classroom to see it was the middle of winter and sighed, wishing summer would come already.
Her sister, Pauline was sitting next to her and noticed her look. She smirked and whispered, "Miss your foxy prince?"
She faced her and smiled, "It's hard to believe that more than fifteen years ago, I didn't care if I'd like him or not so long as our parents got what they needed. But now, I'm glad I ended up being betrothed to him."
"Princess Judith!" She straightened up as the tutor was staring right at her. "Are you paying attention?!"
"Yes, Sir Gruff!"
"I would think the princess who is betrothed and will be marrying her future husband soon would be more interested in learning political affairs as that will be essential for when you will your husband's queen."
"I know that, Sir Gruff… Nicholas and I are well aware of making sure our kingdoms will be well taken care of."
"But they won't be taken care of if the soon-to-be queen can't stop herself from daydreaming!" he said to the rest of the royals, "That will be all for today, you may go." they started getting up to go, but Sir Gruff directly said to Judith, "You however will stay behind and write, 'I will not daydream in class.' Hundred times."
Judith sighed as she sat back down and took out her quill and dap it in the ink bottle and began writing. As she kept writing she thought, There are days I wish I wasn't a princess…
In a small dress shop not far off from the castle, a young rabbit maid was sewing new creations with her friend and fellow employee, a shrew name Fru-Fru. The shrew then asked, "Could you hand me some more blue thread, Sadie?"
"Of course." and the bunny that was gray all over and had a pretty shade of dark blue eyes that were almost purple gave her the thread she needed.
Suddenly they heard a slam of the shop door, and the two cringed at the sound of it as a female hippo stomped into the workroom behind the counter. She saw the creations and scowled.
"Lazy! Just lazy!" she exclaimed. "You haven't even finished!"
Sadie spoke up, "We're going as fast as we can, Madame Hippolyta!"
"I don't want excuses! I want results! Now, I have to go out again, but when I come back I expect every one of these dresses done!" and she stomped back out and slammed the door again.
Sadie and Fru-Fru sighed as they continued sewing, in a few moments, the door opened again and they worried it was their employer, but to their relief it was Gideon Grey, the town baker from next door.
He was carrying a cherry pie as he went to them, "I saw Madame Hippolyta leaving the shop a few minutes ago, she looked mighty furious."
Fru replied, "That's because we haven't finished the dresses she wanted before she came back."
Sadie sadly said, "I wish I could just quit, but I have to repay back the debt my parents made as they had to borrow so much from her, but when the famine came they died, so she had no choice but to take me in because I would have to repay back their debt instead. Except now I also have to repay her for taking me in, not that was a good thing…" she mumbled that last part.
Fru sadly nodded in agreement, "You really had it bad… She was so abusive toward you…"
"And right now, you're the only thing keeping me from falling into darkness." the rabbit gave a small smile to her friend.
Fru also smiled, "It's the least I can do… after all, you took me in after my father died and he was in debt so the house and all the possessions he owed had to be auctioned off. I was wandering the street when you found me and was able to convince Madame Hippolyta to let me work with you so you can repay the debt faster."
Gideon then spoke, "And I also got another way for you to repay the debt faster," he held out the pie, "By eating this to keep your strength up."
Sadie smiled as she took it, "Thank you, Gideon. We didn't eat much breakfast and we're still hungry."
"It's my pleasure, Miss Sadie. I know a thing or two about mistreatment… I was a rotten apple when I was younger. I terrorized a lot of kids who were prey, because I was angry at the fact prey had it better than us predators but that all changed the moment they announced that Princess Judith would marry Prince Nicholas who happens to be fox and the townsfolk started treating everyone better. I stopped being angry and I when I was old enough I got to open my bakery and the best part is my customers aren't scare of me.
"I know I shouldn't take pleasure in the princess and prince marrying against their will, but my life got better all because they got betrothed."
Fru-Fru sadly sighed, "I feel so bad for them. They have to get married without being in love…"
Sadie pondered on this and said, "Maybe they will fall in love later...?"
Gideon shrugged, "Who knows? But I hope they'll find some happiness together, because they've already done some good together even if they don't know it." he started going for the door, "I have to go now, but I'll check on you again when she's gone."
"Thanks again for the pie!" Sadie called out as he left. She set it down in front of Fru-Fru and they were about to eat it when the door busted wide open and Madame Hippolyta stood there looking intimidating.
"You're eating on the job?!" she angrily walked over and seized the pie.
"Hey! That was given to us!" Fru protested.
"And I don't want you getting stains and crumbs on the gowns! So I'll eat this while you keep working!" she moved on to some stairs that led to her apartment above the shop.
Sadie glared on where she went and thought, It's days like this I wish I wasn't a pauper…
Little did the princess and pauper knew, their wishes were about to come true…
