Sydney's Neptune Adventure(Kayla) On a bleak winter night, a woman with blue eyes spots me living on Oak Street.
"Oh, how adorable! A kitty cat! I am taking you home with me!" She says as she covers me up in a blanket and takes me to her warm, toasty car. She conveys a great sense of compassion, and her smiles are alluring. My dream of having a forever home with a loving family has come true!
When I arrive at my new home, another woman gawks at me with hazel eyes.
"Let us call her Luna! Since we found her on a full moon." They must have been sisters as they quarrelled over what to call me.
I remember when I was a wee kitten wrestling with my brothers and sisters until one day my humans left me out on the street in a box, while my brothers and sisters got adopted into their new families.
"No, I found her! Her name is Sydney!"
The sisters play a game called, "Rock, Paper, Scissors."
The woman with hazel eyes shapes her hand into a fist. However, the woman with blue eyes covers the fist,
"Paper!"
"Darn it!" The hazel-eyed woman exclaims with half-hearted defeat.
"Her name is Sydney, and that is final!" The girl with hazel eyes eventually warms up to the name as do I.


Few months later

I sit on my wooden table gazing up at the still night sky, hoping a shooting star would pass by one more time. Then, an earthquake shakes my entire house, knocking off family photos and almost knocking me off of my table. A glowing pink comet blasts in front of the huge diamond moon. I always say that the Moon is Earth's night-light, as the light defends it from the shadows of the night. That is why dogs howl, and cats meow at the moon to offer respect and appreciation for its generosity. It astonishes even the humans
While my humans sleep, I escape outside through the flappy door. I stroll to the edge of my driveway and roll around on the scorched pavement from today's sweltering sun. My humans laugh whenever I do this, but then Karma comes along, and the enemy known as Bathtub appears.

A cat next door lies in the window and hisses at me. He is envious of my sneaky feline moves. I cross the street and squeeze through a metal fence at the playground. I proceed to the spot where the pink comet transforms into a mysterious object. It stands taller than the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. Its ambience speaks of love and healing. The aroma of roses surrounds this pink light, a similar scent to the flowers that bloom elegantly in my flower oasis at home.

I meow to see if anyone is there, then a woman appears wearing a silver gown and holding a silver staff.
"Greetings Sydney! I am Princess Aria, the guardian of space and dreams. This is my beloved pink crystal that allows me to travel as humans travel on airplanes. Please tell me what your heart desires, and I will make it come true."
"I would like to visit Neptune, please." Princess Aria opens the crystal, and I walk inside. She waves her hand gracefully in front of the staff. A light turns on in the centre where the sun and the moon collide with each other. Then a hologram of planets appears in a rainbow-like shape above the sun and the moon. She presses the blue sphere at the end of the rainbow and the rumbling I heard earlier returns and it is remarkably louder. Princess Aria takes me into her loving arms, admiring my dark-grey fur. She sings a sweet lullaby to relieve all of my anxiety. As the Pink Crystal fires into the sky, I watch my precious home become smaller and smaller until I could not see it any longer.

When we enter space, the twinkling stars eliminates the eeriness. At that moment, I see a massive, red, round ball approaching us. I want to reach out and smack it around as if it were one of my toy balls.
"This is planet Mars known for its war and fire. Ironically, it is a cold planet, but the ancient Arians who lived there were hot-tempered. Mars went extinct because of their extreme fighting. I would like to revive Mars, but I am afraid fighting will continue. That is why I formed Earth to give a second life. Everyone on Earth is primarily from another planet. "
The next ball left me dumbfounded as this one was even bigger. My body tenses up as we get closer, "This is Jupiter. And no, it will not hurl thunderbolts at you."

I doze off in Princess Aria's arms as the journey ahead is long. I purred away, anticipating the arrival of Neptune. The Pink Crystal eliminates my hunger and heals my wounds. At home, I always slap my humans on the ankle if they dare walk by my half-filled bowl of food. As the saying goes, "Happy cat, happy ankles!"

"On Neptune live the water dragons and mermaids and all creatures the mythical creatures Earth has talked about. They can transform into ice dragons and ice mermaids. It helps them to keep warm during the colder months. I am certain that your fur grows thicker to keep you warm during Canadian winters. It is the same for the creatures on Neptune."
Finally, a lonely but amorous blue planet came into view. We travel through a blue tunnel at warp speed and landing with surprising grace upon the sapphire snow. The quote, 'beauty comes from within' is true for Neptune. It is freezing, but as a Canadian, the frigid temperatures do not bother me. Princess Aria carries me in her arms to an icy ocean. When she places me on the snow, she slowly raises her Rainbow Staff and a flaming -red beam transforms the icy landscape into a tropical beach paradise with sky-blue sand and silver, gold, bronze, and diamond trees. The rocky mountain in the far distance gives this place a picturesque view, reminding me of the Rockies in Canada. The roar of the majestic waterfall coming from the mountain sends me into a deep tranquility.
...
A blue creature with a shell on its back with a blue pointy scales on her tail shoots out of the ocean and greets me with a sound similar to a whale. When I glance at her, she shows divine wisdom and incredible strength. She may look frightening, but her expression is as tranquil as the calm sea.
"I am Maya. I am a water and ice dragon. My body changes to white ice whenever winter is here. Would you like a ride around the ocean?" I hesitate to answer as I despise water, but I take a chance. I climb onto her back, I lose my balance and plunge into the water. Every cat's worst nightmare is happening to me right now. I am happy that it is no longer cold here. I struggled to get a grip of Maya, but I could not latch on to her as she was slippery. I didn't want to use my claws either. She picks me up and places me on the soft, sky-blue sand. She lowers her head and I sit on it. My reflection in the water startles me as I look identical to the prickly porcupine that tried to attack me this summer I only wanted to play, but luckily my humans were there to not let anything happen to me.

"I will let nothing bad happen to you. You are always safe with me. It is too bad our home will not exist much longer though. The Immortal Turquoise Stone is missing, we have searched everywhere on Neptune. Everyone has been feeling ill. It is a sign that the light inside of the stone is to extinguish. If the stone is missing from the immortal stand, then we disappear along with the stone. It is only a matter of time.

To take our minds off the subject, Maya asks if I want to explore underwater. As a cat, I oppose the idea; however, I summon my kitty armor again and accept Maya's offer. A blue mist appears from Maya's mouth and I breathe it in. It smells of mint and coconut, the true scent of paradise.
"This will help you breathe underwater for one hour, so you should not be too long. It will also help you find the Turquoise Stone that will react to the scent and light up. It’s not an enormous stone, but its light will be seen from miles away."

Underwater is exquisite as the array of colourful plants and rocks cover the entire ocean floor. The colours are so delicious that I want to take a bite. I paddle my way through and see Schools of fish swim by as if late for an appointment. A puffed-up balloon- fish with spikes stares me down in defense, "What in the world are you?"

“I am a cat from earth.” I say to him as his eyes grow big and quickly swim away from me. A giant stingray swims above my head like a dark cloud hovering over me.
I hear sobs up ahead. As I get closer, the upper half looks human, but the bottom half is a fishtail. The one in the pink fins notices me and swims over to me.

"Hello, my name is Kaia." She takes my paws and introduces me to the others. "These are my sisters: Clara in blue fins, Pearl in white fins, Aurora in the yellow fins, Vanessa in the purple fins, Michaela in the green fins, Roxy in the red fins, and Amora in the orange fins. We are angels of the sea, and we are to protect precious valuables such as the Turquoise Stone that gives us immortality. Today could be the last day for everyone on our beautiful planet." 
It pains me to hear the sadness in their voices, but sometimes we all have rainy days, but that makes us grow. "What is your favourite thing to do?"

Kaia opens a ruby box and music plays. "We love to sing! When we sing, we feel happy! Music is a physician to our soul. However, our hearts hurt too much to sing. Our mother and father gave us this ruby box as a gift. I will introduce you to them. Follow us!"
The gold palace stood tall and proud. It feels like heaven under the sea. I stepped inside the throne room where the King and Queen sat. The King has gold hair and wore gold fins and crown with different coloured gems, while the Queen has long, diamond hair and wore diamond fins and a silver tiara with a blue oval stone on the front. The King and Queen were very kind. The Queen allows me to sit on her lap and I meow.

"Oh, what an adorable sound! Earth is so lucky to have wonderful creatures like you!" The King picks me up and cuddles me against his face, "So soft, and what are these white lines on your face?" My purrs surprise them, but it seems to calm them.
"Those are my whiskers. They allow me to sense things." I wanted to stay, but I told them that Maya had only given me an hour to explore underwater.

The Queen takes me back on her lap and tells me more about Maya. "She is one divine dragon, She created the turquoise stone from her body. A part of her heart is within the stone, and so can only produce one stone. At the birth of Neptune, she opened her mouth and a blue beam of light shot out and it formed the turquoise stone of immortality. Princess Aria gave us a charger for the stone so that can forever provide immortality. Originally, we were not immortal, but thanks to Maya, we all live forever. She entrusted the us to look after the stone, but I think we have lost her trust. Therefore it is important that we return it to the immortal stand."

"I will help find the turquoise stone! Do not give up hope! Hope can be the size of a pebble, but that pebble might just save the world!" The Queen smiled and hugged me, "Thank you, thank you!"
The King was delighted about the news and he swam to the centre of the room and held me up, "Please gather all of our wonderful musicians and play a song for our brave warrior from Earth!" The music plays and happiness rang once again. While the music played, I swim to Kaia and tell her I am on my way to search for the turquoise stone. She hugs me and pink light enters my body. "If you get into trouble, use your heart of love."

"Goodbye everyone and thank you for such a wonderful time!" I wave a paw and exit out of the mermaid palace. I can hear the golden voices outside of the palace. It made the flowers bloom and the other sea creatures dance.







A familiar fragrance lures me to a massive stone cavern. Its aroma matches the blue mist that Maya had blown out earlier. The silence screams at me, sending me into a flutter of fear. However, the cavern is beautiful with blue stalagmites and stalactites shining from top to bottom. The owner of this home might come barrelling out at any minute; so I had to be careful. Although, I have nine lives; I think I will be okay.

A glass cage hangs from the ceiling, blue light dimly beams into my eyes as if pleading for help. A marquise-shaped stone shines a turquoise colour through the glass as if telling me "I'm here! I'm here! Get me out!" When I touch the glass with my paw, the glass shatters, surprising me. It recognised the blue mist, but the stone was losing power fast; however, its will to hang on is powerful. I have to bring the stone back to the charger.

All I know is that someone has stolen the turquoise stone I had to leave now! I grab the turquoise stone with my mouth and swim out of the hole above the cavern. An hour must have passed as the blue mist exhausted out of my body. I swim to the top as fast as I can to catch my breath. The calm sea abruptly changes into the raging typhoon. The rough water makes it hard for me to swim as it tosses me around violently. A deep dark voice rips through the sea as if it was the one speaking, "How dare you steal from the Piscean Sea Octopus!"

"I, Borello, banish you from Neptune! How dare you steal from me!" Behind me, a dark blue octopus with black spots gradually emerges from the water. He shoots out a line of black ink and wraps me up in it. Now I know how a fly feels trapped in a spider's web. The ink sticks to my body as he brings me closer to my face. "Do you have anything to say for yourself, cat?"
"Why did you steal the turquoise stone?" A deep laugh erupts from Borello as his green eyes pierce through my green eyes. Borello blows out a purple smoke and the turquoise stone bursts into a million pieces inside of his mouth. Everyone and everything disappears except for Borello and me.

"Steal? This stone is mine! With the turquoise stone, my powers will increase a tenfold. I will be stronger than every creature on Neptune, maybe even the universe. I was born to be powerful, and what good is a powerless octopus? no one deserves to live immortal and powerful except for enormous creatures like me!" The blue sand turns into black mud, the water turns into a bloody red as the skies are a malicious purple. The look of surprise on his face told me he knew very little about the power of the stone. My anger surges from my whiskers, like radio waves going through an antenna. My heart generates a white-gold glow that gives Borello an electric shock. It is rare that I hiss, but this time I could not control it. 

"Borello, this is not how you should behave! The genuine power lies within the goodness of your heart. Power does not make you better than anyone else. It is the heart that imitates the brilliance of a diamond and the compassion of a flower. Love and kindness should be your top priority!" My words struck him like an arrow to the heart as his face shows a little remorse.
"The power I have is in love and forgiveness. I can tell that you are in pain deep down as cats are sleuths for detecting sadness. So, in this case, I forgive you. Whatever you are going through, we are here to help." The sand and the sea turns blue once again. The creatures appear confused about why they have returned but also thankful. Maya rises out of the ocean chanting a release spell. When the light releases from Borello, Maya blows out blue mist and the light bursts into tiny turquoise raindrops that rained on everyone, absorbing into the bodies forever.

"The stone no longer exists, but I have made it so that everyone can have the light within themselves. Immortality lives within everyone!" A hint of jealousy crosses my heart as earthlings do not live forever, especially cats.
"And Sydney, when your time on Earth is complete. You may come to live with us on Neptune as I have blessed you with the eternal light too."

Borello apologizes to everyone, "Maybe I should go back to my cavern. I have caused so much trouble. I was only thinking about myself. I was jealous that everyone was small and powerful, but I was a giant and weak. Other octopuses bullied me about my weakness. They were so much stronger and never let me forget it. Since that day, I vowed to search for something to help me get stronger. When I found out about the turquoise stone, I had to make my move. I realise now I have hurt others and I am no better than those other octopuses."

The mermaids swim up to the surface and Kaia waves at me and I meow to her, "Borello, we would like you to stay up here with us. Everyone makes mistakes we did not realise you were in pain. Please come and talk to us and we will help you." Kaia's words were sweet and caring.

A pink light shines up above, meaning that it was time for me to go back to Earth, to my humans who needed me too. When Princess Aria arrives, Borello wraps me up in his tentacle, and he cuddles me the best way he could, "I promise to speak to someone if my heart is in trouble. Thank you for teaching me a lesson today. Earth is a compassionate planet, it seems. Come visit me and I will take you on a tour of the ocean you have yet to explore."

Maya swims over and Borello puts me face to face with her. I meow and lick her nose. "Thank you for your help. You have saved us all! Whenever you want to come visit us again, please ask Princess Aria and next time I will go swimming with you. Maybe we can all go together. We will swim longer than an hour. I know cats dislike water and cannot breathe as long underwater, but I will extend the time next time. Because under the sea is such a fantastic place to be."
Then the King and Queen of the mermaids swim up beside Maya. "Maya, we are sorry that you have lost our trust with the stone. You used up half your energy creating the turquoise so the rest of us can live immortal."
Maya smiles at the mermaids, "My dear friends, please do not be sad. I have already forgiven you. These dark times teach us about the good times ahead. I will always love you. My heart does not lower in love. Therefore, my trust in you has not disappeared."

The mermaids smiled and jumped for joy. They sang again, and the energy was as bright as the sun.
Kaia swims over to me and cuddles me in her arms, "My father is right. You are so soft! Please remember to come to our music festivals, you are our special guest forever!"
The Queen wraps me up in her arms, "Still so adorable!" Then the King had his turn, "I will miss your purring. Come back anytime to the palace under the sea!"

The sky-blue sand darkens to sapphire. The cold seep through little by little as Maya and the mermaids transformed into their icy form. Borello changed into a diamond octopus. He would have blended in with the snow on Earth. Since the snow is sapphire blue, you can easily see him. The mermaids have turned into snow mermaids and their blood thickens as it gets colder. Whenever the ice freezes on the water, Princess Aria gives the King and Queen a staff that allows them to come up to shore.

I walk towards Princess Aria and the pink crystal. I look back before stepping inside the pink crystal and the creatures wave and say their farewell as a tear rolls down my fur. I will always remember my time in Neptune.
Princess Aria waves her hand in front of the staff once again and this time she presses the sphere at the centre of the arch, a familiar planet I know all too well, "Earth!" 


This time we passed a planet with a ring around it, it was just as huge as Jupiter, but not quite. "This is Saturn. Saturn is a wise planet. Maybe one day you will visit and find out the history about the ring."
When I arrive on Earth, Princess Aria hugs me and expresses her appreciation. "You are one brave kitty-cat. Earth is very fortunate to have you." I told her about the problematic cat next door and she chuckles, "Maybe he needs a friend. offer to take him on your next adventure!" Believe in your dreams and I will appear." We landed in the park where I set off for Neptune. for the last time; I see the pink crystal rise into the air and disappear in a twinkle.
I roll around in the luscious green grass before going home. when I entered through the secret passageway again; I faced two unhappy humans. "We have caught you 'kitty-pawed!' You are so getting a bath!" The woman with blue eyes says with her hands on her hips. I meow and brush up against their legs and give them the innocent kitty stare.
"Oh, Sydney, you are just too adorable. We should not have threatened you with a bath. apologies." the woman in hazel eyes says as she picks me up and cuddles me to death. They put fresh food and water into my bowl, but the best sound of all was my treat box... oh boy!

After I finish my treats, I sit on my table looking out the window. "Don't stay up too late, Sydney! I'm not sure where you went, but I hope you had a good time. We looked everywhere for you! Please do not worry us like that again!" The girl in the blue eyes cuddles me before heading to bed.
A pink moon appears, symbolising love, hope, and dreams, and confidence. As a cat, I never thought my dreams would come true. I never thought I could save another planet. I settled into my pink bed by the fireplace as I thought about my next adventure. Where will I go next to Jupiter, Saturn, Hawaii, Tokyo, Scotland? As I know, the sky is not the limit while other planets exist. Always believe in your dreams and yourself. But for now, it is time for much-needed kitty sleep. until next time goodnight everyone!

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