On the wonderful day of her nineteenth birthday, Atiena woke up bright and early to find a small mouse standing on her pillow.

"Gasp," Atiena said, holding a hand to her mouth. "At long last, my fairy god mousether!"

"Aunt," said Leona. The mouse's blue hair had faded to a light gray-blue over the years but she dressed as witchy as Atiena had ever seen her. "I'm your aunt. And I saw you yesterday for your magic lesson."

"Hey, Auntie Leona! Come to wish me a happy birthday? Get me anything niiiice?"

The mouse held up a large (relative to her) ring with a green stone.

"Ooo," Atiena said. "It goes with my eyes."

"This ring (and a lot of stupidity from my brother) brought your parents together so I thought you should have it."

Atiena cackled and pointed the stone towards herself. She waited expectantly but nothing happened.

"I locked the enchantment on it," Leona said sternly. "You have too much of your father in you to be trusted with a shrinking spell."

"Phooey," said Atiena. Something occurred to her. "Oh! You promised when I was old enough, you'd tell me what happened to dad."

Leona sighed and wiped her glasses on her dress. "I suppose you're old enough. You see, when a man loves a woman a hundred times his size, sometimes he gets accidentally crushed under her enormous ass. The end."

Atiena nodded solemnly, ignoring the dig at her mom's enormous ass. "I suspected that was the case. Mom always just said he died happy."

"Making a little thumbs up, the weirdo," Leona said, sadly.

Atiena gently picked up her tiny aunt and pressed her against her shoulder in a hug. "I'm glad I had such a cool aunt watching out for me. Also, teaching me magic."

Leona smiled but then she looked towards the chamber door. "Something demonic this way comes. I must go."

"Oh, that's just Mrs Gabriela," Atiena said brightly.

Leona climbed down the bed sheets and hurried to a mouse hole. Atiena giggled.

The princess sat up in bed and waited for the chamberlain.

There was a knock and then the goblin called "Princess?" through the door.

"Come in, Mrs Gabriela!"

The door opened and the busty goblin in a black dress came in. Gabriela looked at Atiena sitting in her pajamas and then ducked to look under the bed. She pulled out a long rope made of knotted bed sheets.

"Planning a trip to the market again?" asked the goblin.

"I thought I might pick up some more banana before the party," Atiena said casually.

The goblin raised an eyebrow at the lioness. "Have you figured out how to eat them yet?"

"Of course," Atiena scoffed. The princess pulled a banana out from under her pillow and then pulled a knife out from under her other pillow. She lopped the top of the banana off in a stroke. Then she stuck the cut end in her mouth and loudly slurped the banana out of the peel.

It sounded - and looked - very unseemly.

"Perhaps keep working on it," suggested Gabriela as Atiena licked banana pulp from around her muzzle.

Then the goblin took the bed sheet rope. Atiena grimaced. She lived in a tower! It had taken a long time to get enough sheets!

"Now, your highnessesse, should I have your lady's maid bring in the dress you selected?"

--

"Are you sure about that dress?" asked Queen Jasiri after Princess Atiena showed her a little twirl. "It shows an awful lot of leg."

"That's the style, mom," Atiena said, admiring herself in a mirror. The dress looked dynamite on her. Her hair, though, could have used more taming but she'd gotten impatient and run off from her lady's maid after a few passes with the brush. "Leg out, shoulders out. You'll see when the dress I got you arrives."

Queen Jasiri wrinkled her nose. Her taste in fashion had stayed static throughout Atiena's entire life. Her mom wasn't prudish by any means but she'd found clothes she liked and stuck with them.

"You promiiiiised," Atiena wheedled. "I stop messing with the guards and you dress fashionable for my crowning party. Have any of the guards complained recently??"

Queen Jasiri sighed but agreed with Atiena's point.

Atiena had been the heir apparent her whole life. The only child of Queen Jasiri, she was a shoo-in, even though the other half of her parentage was a mystery to the kingdom. But Dunia had some bad history with teen queens so she could only officially be crowned as Queen Jasiri's heir to the throne at nineteen.

"This night is a turning point, Atiena," Queen Jasiri warned. "All the noble families will try to get you to advantage them over their rivals or agree to marry into their family. But favoring any of the noble families could disrupt peace in Dunia. While you are at the party, keep in mind the lessons I gave on how to conduct yourself at court."

"I've had a better idea, mom!" said Atiena.

Jasiri had a look like she'd been told an asteroid was headed right for the country.

"As an adult and crowned heir, I'll finally open up that harem I've been wanting. All the noble families can submit their hottest young men to be my boy toys and everyone can get a piece of me that way."

Atiena mistook the look of dread on her mom's face as mere doubt.

"Good point," she agreed with the point she imagined her mom was going to make. "I'll open up applications to noble ladies too. BUT THEY GOTTA BE HOT!"

"Daughter," said Jasiri in a strained voice. "Please don't so much as say the word harem at your crowning party."

"Then what will I talk about all night?" asked Atiena.

---

The theme week gets a sequel!

I wanted to properly introduce Princess Atiena, secretly the half-mouse, half-lion offspring of Jasiri and Leopold, and future queen of Dunia. So here she is. Definitely a handful.

She mostly takes after her mom in being very much a lioness. But her fur color is between her mom's golden and her dad's white. She's got her dad's eyes and a lot of his mischeviousness. And her ears are bigger than normal for lions.

And while Jasiri resents her own sex drive, Atiena looks at stories of ancient kings and queens with massive harems and thinks "goals tbh."

I wanted to establish some basics about Atiena's life here and the relationships she has with her tiny mouse aunt, the goblin chamberlain (and yes, Atiena knows that goblin rabbit isn't a real thing), and her queen mother.

I've got some pictures of this princess burning a hole in my pocket so lets look to the future for some princess antics this week.

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Princess Atiena owned by me
Art by  songgoishtar