The Not-So-Little Princess

I never thought about leaving Ghozelle when I was four, not even when I was ten, but when I was fourteen it occurred to me. Then I went back to being four and forgot all about it until I was fourteen again. I saw a movie from Earth once. The villainess was kinda like me, except that instead of different ages, she had different heads. I liked that girl. I wish I could change heads, I don't like mine much. I'm not as pretty as Kendra.

Who's Kendra? Kendra, Kougo Ada, the Sith Queen. My big sister. Sort of. When I'm less than twenty she's my big sister anyway.

I'm the Sith Princess. Dadakko Koujo. Kayla. Age-shifter. Demon child. Whatever. I've been called a lot of things by a lot of people. I was called a gutless beetle-minded tree snake once. I don't know WHERE she got that one. But then, Sailor Yavin doesn't like me much. I wouldn't doubt if she spent her time just coming up with things to call me. Such a loser. But I guess I kinda got under her skin that time I tried to seduce her boyfriend. Eh. One little affair and they get all upset. I'll never understand the Jedi.

Anyway, when I was fourteen I decided I would run away. Well, not run, that would mess up my hair. So I decided I would tell my Nurse that I didn't want to live on Ghozelle anymore. She basically said 'whatever', I guess she figured I would age-shift before going through with it. Well I did, but I made myself older than I ever had before. I made myself an adult, nineteen to be exact.

Since I was now an adult, Nurse couldn't tell me what to do. So I took the Royal Family's transport and left. Being nineteen, I knew where I was going (nineteen-year-olds are naturally smart that way, you know), and I was in quite a hurry to get there.

I was headed to Bakura. That's where my father and sister were. I knew because I'm a genius and know everything. Okay, okay, I found a letter from Daddy to Nurse, telling her about visiting his sister. I'd heard about Queen Annika. She was evil and cruel to her people. Her family had always been that way, tyrannical dictators. Daddy was different; he was good and kind. Nurse had told me about him at one point. I think I was about eleven... but I'm not sure. I could have been four. Oh well, there was only a ten-minute difference anyway.

When I got to Bakura, I was seventeen. The nice thing about being seventeen is that for some reason all men find you irresistible - at least, they find ME irresistible - and thus it's easy to get pretty much wherever you want. So it wasn't hard to get in to see the Prince. It was really easy, actually, and fun - one of those guards was really quite handsome - eh, heh, ANYWAY, it wasn't at all hard to get in.

I was waiting in my father's sitting room when Kendra came in. I was so happy to see my sister it took me five minutes to realize she didn't know who I was. That was when Daddy came in. I suppose I must have looked like Kendra, for he knew who I was instantly.

"What in the world... no, no that's impossible," Daddy whispered, staring at me in shock.

"Daddy!" I exclaimed. "Daddy, it's me, your daughter! Dadakko Koujo!"

"Kayla... my God it's Kayla," he whispered. "But how?"

"I'm an age-shifter. Nurse taught me," I explained, giggling. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, Daddy was a lot taller than he had been a moment ago. "Dada? Huwwo Dada. I'm Kaywa. I'm fo' now." I held up three fingers. "Fo'."

"Kayla... it is you. How remarkable." Daddy laughed oddly, and I smiled at him.

I returned to my natural age of eight and giggled. "Hullo Daddy. Nurse told me where you was, and I wanted to meet you so I tooked a ship."

"Indeed..." He thought for a moment. "This might be useful..."