Janet's Animal Adventure

The powerful sorceress sat on her golden throne. She had a diamond crown on her head and a sceptor in her hand. A servant entered and said," A little girl wants to see you." The sorceress stood up, her long, white dress rustling. "Show her in," she replied. The servent nodded and left. Sorceress Magenta sat back down and sighed. People came from all over the village to ask her advice or to ask her to do something. She did her best, but it got tiring after a while. Magenta was thinking about moving to a forest, where she could practice her spells in peace and quiet. A girl entered. She stopped as her feet touched the green, silk carpet and looked around in awe. The ceiling was light blue with golden stars. The room was very large. A fountain squirted clear water by Magenta's throne. A golden birdcage sat by the fountain. A colorful bird sat on the floor. The cage door was open so that the bird could fly away. A large willow tree stood by the door, so that Janet had to walk through the leaves.A rainbow was painted on the wall behind the sorceress. It was a beautiful room. Magenta stood up again and asked," What is your name?" "Janet," the girl answered. "What do you want from me, Janet?" asked Magenta. "I would like to see what life is like for animals," Janet said. Magenta thought for a moment and said," I will turn you into three animals. You can be one animal for one day and then the next, I will turn you into the next animal, wherever you happen to be. What three animals will you pick?" Janet smiled and said," Well, a cat for one. And a bird. And I guess a fish." Magenta nodded. "Don't worry," she said to Janet. "When you are a fish I will make sure to put you in the ocean. You may go." Janet left. The next day, Janet woke, curled up on her bed. She got up and stretched and suddenly saw how close to the floor she was. Looking at herself, she saw that she was a light orange kitten. Janet meowed happily and jumped off the bed. Padding down the hall, Janet sniffed the new and exciting smells. Then she meowed with excitement. Her mother was making her favorite breakfast. She raced into the kitchen. Her mother looked down and cried," How did you get in here? Oh, well." She picked Janet up and put her outside. "Go home!" her mother told her, sternly. She went back inside and closed the door. Janet sat on the steps and meowed plaintively. Then she thought," Wait! I wanted to be a cat. Now I can have cat adventures." So she ran down the steps and decided that the first thing to do was look for breakfast. She trotted down the street to a fast food place. Anything she wanted! Janet sat by the door and waited for someone to come in. When somebody finally did, she went in, too. Inside, the smells of food were everywhere! Feeling like french fries for breakfast, Janet jumped on a table that was left vacant. A hamburger and fries sat on a tray, just begging to be eaten. The kitten dug in. "Hey! Get off my food, you dumb cat!" screamed an angry voice. Janet was swept off the table by a large hand. Mewing, she ran out the door and looked for a better place. An hour later, Janet was happily eating an ice cream cone and candy bar that a little boy had given her. Yum! A purrfect meal! When she was done, Janet went exploring. Life was so different for cats! She found a tree that she liked to climb and decided to climb it. She dug her claws in and started up. This was even easier when she was a cat! When she was on her favorite branch, Janet stopped and looked out at the sights. It was wonderful! She could see her school and her house and even the place where she took ballet! While she was staring at the world, a little girl had seen her and mistaken her for her own cat, who had been missing. The little girl's name was Barbara. She was six years old. She ran inside her house and cried," Mommy! Fluffy is stuck up in a tree!" A voice answered and Barbara said to Janet," Don't worry, Fluffy. Mommy is going to call the fire department. They'll get you down." Janet looked down at Barbara and asked," Are you talking to me? My name is not Fluffy." But it was only a meow to human ears. The fire truck came rumbling down the street and stopped in front of Barbara's house. A man stepped out of the truck and said," Where's the fire?" Barbara shook her head and replied," There's no fire! My kitty is in a tree." The fire-fighter sighed and said," Okay. We'll get him down." "Her," corrected Barbara. "Her name is Fluffy." The man nodded and leaned a ladder on the tree that Janet was in. Janet looked at him and asked," What's going on? What are you doing?" Bill, (the fire-fighter.) lifted Janet out of the tree and carried her down the ladder with him. "Here you go, little girl," he said, giving the kitten to Barbara. Barbara hugged Janet tightly and said," Bad Fluffy! You shouldn't go in trees. We were so worried." She turned and carried the kitten into the house. Janet wondered when she would change. It was almost midnight. Barbara had given her a bowl of cat food, which Janet had found that she liked. "It must be my cat instincts," she thought, drowsily. Suddenly, a loud noise cut into the silent night. It was the clock chiming twelve. Janet felt herself changing. Then all effort failed and she fell asleep. She woke up in another tree. Except this time, she felt that she belonged there. Stretching out, Janet saw that she had traded her fur in for feathers. She was a bird! Janet basked in the fullness of that for a bit, then moved on to what she would do. The first order of buisness was to try to fly. Janet uncertainly spread her wings and jumped. Flying came to her easily and it was glorious! The wind in her face, the delightful motion of swooping and dipping in the sky, knowing that she was utterly free made her feel magnificent! After a while, she grew tired of flying. Too much of a good thing, she guessed. Now then, time to find breakfast. After hovering around food stands for a time, Janet was rewarded with the dropping of somebody's food. She immediately swooped down and began to feast. When she had eaten her fill, Janet flew back to the tree she had been in that morning and decided to build a nest. That was hard work. Janet flew into gardens and parks and brought back twigs. Then she stuck the whole thing together with mud. Now for the interior decorating. She got some grass and flowers and scattered them in her nest. There! Now it was perfect. But what exactly did birds do all day? Janet sat in her nest until she grew bored. Then she sat outside of her nest until she was hungry. Then she flew out for some lunch. For lunch, Janet had vegetables. They were all she could find. She had dug some baby carrots out of a garden and eaten them. It was not a meal that she really relished, but it was food. Next, Janet experienced clouds. She flew up so high that she went into the clouds. It was wet and misty, but it felt good on this hot day. After that, Janet felt like she wanted a bath. So she looked around and finally found a birdbath that was filled with water and reasonably clean. After her bath, Janet felt much better! She noticed that it was evening. Soon came a life of fishdom. Janet couldn't wait until she was a fish. They were in the cool water all day. And there would be plenty of interesting things to do, and she could explore. Janet flew up to her nest and went to sleep for the night. When she woke up, Janet was in water. She realized, happily, that she was now a fish. Looking down at herself, Janet noticed that she was a very pretty fish. She was light blue with a touch of pink and her fins were green. She swam around for a while, just to get used to her new body. When she was used to it, Janet went exploring. The first thing she saw was a beautiful coral reef. It was all red and orange and yellow. Schools of fish swam around it, just lazing around. Janet went closer for a better look. Suddenly, the fish swam away, quickly. Janet looked around and saw a shark coming towards her. Janet gasped and started to swim away, hoping that the shark hadn't noticed her. But the shark had noticed, and followed. Janet swam to a large rock with several small spaces in it. Janet hid in one of the spaces and the shark went away. Janet came out, cautiously and looked around. The coast seemed to be clear. She swam around for a while and saw more sights like caves, coral reefs, and other fish. Janet thought she saw a mermaid, but she might have been wrong. Soon she was bored and decided that being a cat had been the best one of all. Being a bird had been okay and being a fish was pretty boring, but it was nice to find out what lives they had. Janet couldn't tell when it was night, but she was tired. So she slept and floated off into the ocean. The shark had come back and seen her, but it was exactly midnight when he opened his jaws, so Janet was saved. When she woke up, Janet was in her own bed. She smelled her favorite breakfast and ran into the kitchen. Her mother didn't say a thing about Janet being gone for three days, so Janet decided that Magenta had taken care of it. Some of it had been fun, like the flying and the climbing a tree, and seeing a shark. But some of it had been pretty boring. Janet decided that she didn't want to be an animal, she just wanted to be herself.

Copyright 2000 by Chantessy