Chapter 3
Princess Cassandra

The next day, in the Captain's chamber. The door bursted open and the prince from yesterday stormed in, missing the rear end of his pants' fabric. "I've never been so insulted!"

The Captain noticed, panicked and ran to him.
"Oh, Prince Achmed. You're not leaving so soon, are you?"

The prince then spat, "Good luck marrying her off." He then closed the door in the Captain's face. The Captain murmured to himself and ran off to find his daughter.

"Oh, Cassandra."

He opened the doors to the garden and shouted, calling her name; "Cassandra! Cassandra!"

He found her... but was interrupted by Tiger, Cassandra's pet tiger. She wasn't creative with names. Owl had a piece of Prince Achmed's underpants in his mouth. The Captain grabbed the cloth and yanked it out of Tiger's mouth. "Confound it, Tiger! So, this is why Prince Achmed stormed out!" The Captain sighed and looked over at Cassandra, who sat by the fountain.

"Oh, father. Tiger was just playing with him, weren't you Tiger." Cassandra rolled her eyes and then Tiger came over and allowed her to pet and hug him. Cassandra then smirked and cooed to Tiger, "You were just playing with that overdressed, self-absorbed Prince Achmed, weren't you?" She then began cuddling Tiger, enjoying the moment, before looking at her angry father and frowning. The Captain sighed, "Dearest, you've got to stop rejecting every suitor that comes to call. The law says you…"

Cassandra and The Captain both said at once, "…must be married to a prince."

She wandered off to a bird cage, The Captain following her.

"By your next birthday." The Captain added.

Cassandra growled and shouted. "The law is wrong!"

The Captain replied to that, "You've only got three more days!"

Cassandra opened the cage and pulled a dove out of it, "Father, I hate being forced into this."

"If I do marry, I want it to be for love."

The Captain sighed. "Cassandra, it's not only this law." He was handed the dove, so he put it back and followed Cassandra who wandered off again to the pond. "I'm not going to be around forever, and I just want to make sure you're taken care of, provided for."

Cassandra gently and slowly stuck her finger in the pond and began playing with the fish, petting a few with her fingers. "Please try to understand. I've never done a thing on my own." She quipped, "I've never had any real friends."

Tiger looked up in disgust. "Except you, Tiger." She laughed softly. Satisfied, Tiger went back to sleep and Cassandra continued talking to her father. "I've never even been outside the palace walls." The Captain replied, "But Cassandra, you're a princess."

Cassandra splashed the water angrily and hissed, "Then maybe I don't want to be a princess anymore." The Captain sighed and stormed off, as well as Cassandra, but in an opposite direction. "Oooohhh! Allah forbid you should have any daughters!" The Captain quipped and he slammed the doors to his chambers once more.

Tiger looked up and thought for a second. Cassandra went to the dove cage and yanked open the door, letting the birds fly off into freedom. She watched them go, not caring that they flew away. She wanted them to. If she could not have freedom, she wanted them to have freedom.

The Captain wandered around the chamber, "I don't know where she gets it from. Her mother wasn't nearly so picky." He muttered, rambling to himself, before a shadow fell over him.

He looked up startled and saw Andrew "Ooh, oh. Ah, Andrew-my most trusted advisor. I am in desperate need of your wisdom." The Captain grinned. Andrew bowed to him, "My life is but to serve you, my lord."

The Captain sighed, "It's this suitor business. Cassandra refuses to choose a husband. I'm at my wit's-end."

Clementine squawked, "Awk! Wit's-end."

The Captain noticed and smiled, "Oh, ha ha. Have a cracker, pretty Polly!" He pulled a cracker out of his pocket, despite Clementine's terrified look, and he stuffed the cracker in her mouth.

Clementine grimaced trying to eat it.

"Your majesty certainly has a way with dumb animals." Andrew said, earning a glare from Clementine. "Now then, perhaps I can divine a solution to this thorny problem." He continued.

"If anyone can help, it's you." The Captain said seriously. Andrew then noted, "Ah, but it would require the use of the mystic blue diamond."

The Captain frowned, "Uh, my ring? But it's been in the family for years."

"It is necessary to find the princess a suitor." Andrew said, the word 'princess' spoke with the accent on the end of it. He turned his staff, in-which had a fake cobra head on it, towarD The Captain. The eyes of the staff beginning to glow. The room darkened and Andrew's voice slowed down and deepened. The Captain's eyes getting a hypnotized look.

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

"Everything…will be…fine." The Captain repeated.

Andrew held out his hand, "The diamond."

The Captain removed his ring and handed it to Andrew. "Here, Andrew. Whatever you need will be fine." He said. The room turning back to normal when Andrew pulled back the staff and took it. "You are most gracious, my liege. Now run along and play with your little toys." Andrew beckoned him to his diorama.

The Captain, still hypnotized; replied. "Yes…that'll be…pretty good."

Andrew and Clementine then exited the room...

Out of the Captain's Chambers, the parrot spit the cracker out. "I can't take it anymore! If I gotta choke down on one more of those moldy, disgusting crackers…bam! Whack!" Clementine began making fighting and punching motions with her wings.

Andrew pulled a rope, which revealed a hidden entrance to his own chamber. "Calm yourself, Clementine." Andrew noted, though Clementine was still rambling, "Then I'd grab him around the head. Whack! Whack!"

Andrew spoke over her, "Soon, I will be Sultan, not that addlepated twit."

Clementine then smirked, "And then I stuff the crackers down his throat! Ha ha!"

The pair passed through a door and slammed it shut...