Meanwhile, at the Naboo Palace...
"I've never been so insulted in all my life!" Clovis exclaimed angrily, passing through the palace doors, storming out.
King Ruwee was fraught with dismay as he saw his daughter's latest suitor storming out.
"Oh! Prince Clovis, please... I don't under-" stammered the king.
"Good luck marrying her off!" Clovis said, storming out, a big hole in his trousers, revealing his underpants with pineapples on them.
Ruwee face palmed and groaned.
"Padme..." he sighed.
Padme had already chased off too many suitors for Ruwee to count.
Prince Palo Jemabie of Nabyria: Rejected
Prince Mee Deechi of Umbara: Rejected
Prince Aang of Roona: Rejected
King Jango of Kamino's eldest sons; Princes Echo, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair: all of them rejected.
Ruwee felt as though he would pull out his hair at this point. Clovis was one of few princes left for Padme to potentially marry. There was only five more days until Padme's twenty-fourth birthday, when she had to have a chosen suitor for her hand in marriage. They didn't have a lot of choices either.
King Jango's youngest son Prince Boba was still a child, and Prince Korkie of Mandalore was only fifteen; both too young to marry. And many other princes across the world, if it wasn't because they were too young, it was because they'd already got engaged to other suitors... or they heard about Padme's reputation for dumping guys before they could get through the first date.
Outside in the garden, the beautiful princess Padme sat on the edge of a beautiful fountain.
"Padme!" came Ruwee's angry voice. "Padme Julianna Amidala-Naberrie-"
Ruwee was startled as a blue and white wolf growled with a piece of cloth in her teeth.
"Agh! Confound it, Vivian!" Ruwee groaned, pulling the cloth, only for it to rip again, the king falling to the ground.
Ruwee looked at the ripped cloth and came to a conclusion.
"So, this is why Prince Clovis stormed out." he said.
Vivian walked over to her girl.
"Oh, Father," giggled Padme, taking the cloth from Vivian's mouth and scratching the wolf's ears. "Vivian was just playing with him. Weren't you, girl?"
"He called me a big filthy dog!" Vivian said. "Someone had to set the man straight."
Vivian started licking her paw and grooming herself as the king glared at her and his daughter.
"Um... I could've handled it better, though." Vivian said awkwardly, scratching herself behind her ear.
Ruwee sighed and said to his daughter, "Padme, Dearest, you have got to stop rejecting every suitor who seeks your hand. The law says you-"
Padme and Vivian both rolled their eyes and said together with Ruwee, "Must be married to a prince."
"By your next birthday." Ruwee finished.
Padme sighed as she approached a big cage full of beautiful blue birds.
"The law is wrong!" Padme said.
"You've only got five more days!" Ruwee emphasized.
Padme took a blue jay out from the cage and held it dearly.
"Father, I hate being forced into this." Padme looked with love at the bird she held in her hands. "If I do marry, I want it to be for love, like you and Mom."
"Padme..." said Ruwee, looking down. "It's not only this law."
Ruwee gently took the bird Padme was holding and looked at it the same way he had when he'd held Padme as a small baby.
"I'm not going to be around forever and, well... I- I just want to make sure you're taken care of." Ruwee placed the bird back in the cage and closed it. "Provided for."
"And you think she's too helpless to do any of that for herself?" Vivian said. "You had me trained to protect her from when I was just a pup."
"Father, please, try to understand." Padme said. "I've never done a thing on my own. I've never even had any real friends."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Vivian whined.
"Except you, Vivian." chuckled the princess. Then she returned her focus to Ruwee. "I've never even been outside the palace walls."
"But, Padme, you're a princess." said Ruwee.
Padme looked at her reflection in the water, seeing that jewel flower tiara on her head that symbolized her title in the royal family.
"Then maybe I don't wanna be a princess anymore!"
Padme splashed in the fountain and turned her back on her father.
Ruwee facepalmed again. He looked at Vivian.
"Heaven forbid you should have any daughters." He grumbled before storming into the palace.
Vivian just looked confused.
"I'll never fully understand humans." she shook her head.
Padme sighed and looked at the bird cage. She saw no reason for them to stay cooped up in their cage. So, without giving it a second thought, she opened the doors and set them all free, watching them happily as they flew to a better place.
Ruwee was at the end of his rope. He sat in his throne, looking at the list of potential suitors.
"Ugh, why must she be so stubborn?" said Ruwee. "Her mother wasn't nearly so picky."
Obviously, he had to cross Clovis off the list.
The next name on the list was Carmine Jinn, Prince of Coruscant. King Qui-Gon was one of the most respected kings in the world, his kingdom being one of the wealthiest in the world.
"Hopefully he will have better luck than the others."
It would mean so much to Naboo if Padme were to marry the prince of Coruscant, thus joining the two kingdoms together. The royal family was known to have used their wealth to help a lot of people, and given the number of people on the streets of Naboo right now, such an alliance would be helpful.
The guards had officially lost count of how many thieves they'd arrested, a lot of them being poor street dwellers with no other means of surviving, but the one they couldn't catch was one called Anakin. They couldn't even get him to sit still long enough to make a proper wanted poster for him.
"Guard Kenobi!" Ruwee called out.
That was when a fairly young guard came in and knelt before the king.
"You called for me, your Majesty?" said Obi-Wan.
"Ensure preparations are in order for the arrival of the royal family of Coruscant." Ruwee instructed.
"It shall be done, my liege."
As Obi-Wan left, another man entered the room. An older man in blue robes.
"Ah, Chancellor Palpatine. My most trusted advisor." smiled Ruwee. "I am in desperate need of your wisdom."
"I am here to serve you, my king." Palpatine bowed.
"It's this suitor business. Padme simply refuses to choose a husband!" Ruwee explained. "I just don't know what to do. I'm at my wit's end."
Amedda cawed.
Ruwee chuckled and pulled out a cracker for the bird, but Amedda bit the king's finger on purpose.
"Ouch!"
"Amedda, bad bird!" Palpatine scolded. "Apologies, Your Majesty. I'm sure it was an accident."
Amedda glared at his owner.
"Now, I believe I can devise a solution to this problem." Palpatine told Ruwee.
"Oh, anything would help."
"However, it would require," Palpatine took the king's hand that had a blue diamond ring on it. "The use of a mystic blue diamond."
"My ring?" Ruwee was hesitant. "But it's been in my family for so long. It was given to me the day I met my Jobal."
"It is necessary to find a suitor for Padme." Palpatine smiled, and he held his snake scepter to the king, its red eyes taking control of the king's mind as its holder used his dark powers. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright."
"Everything will be alright..." Ruwee repeated in a trance.
Palpatine hypnotized Ruwee long enough for him to hand over the ring before he sent him along to prepare for the next royal family.
Both Palpatine and Amedda's demeanors changed the moment they exited the throne room.
"If that hair-brained excuse for a king tries to get one more cracker in my beak, I will bring out my talons!" Amedda declared.
Palpatine pulled a decoration to open a secret door to his lair.
"Calm yourself, Amedda." Palpatine said. "Soon, I will be king. Not that insipid fool Ruwee."
"And then I will be the one stuffing crackers into his throat!" Amedda laughed as he and Palpatine entered their lair to get to work finding the diamond in the rough.
Later that night, Padme packed herself a purse with some essentials.
A water bottle, a pocketknife, some money, and first aid supplies.
Padme covered herself in a dark blue hood as she quietly and inconspicuously passed through the garden and began to climb the fence.
Well... she was inconspicuous to everyone except a certain wolf, who was born with night vision.
Vivan bit Padme's cloak and whimpered, looking at her girl with her big puppy dog eyes.
Padme looked sadly at Vivian and said, "I'm sorry, Vivian. But I can't stay here and have my life lived for me."
Padme hugged her wolf.
"I'll miss you."
A tear fell from Vivian's eye as she reluctantly helped Padme up the tree so she could climb over the fence.
"Goodbye." Padme whispered.
And the princess disappeared into the night.