"I'm… so… tired…" I groan, dropping all my bags at once onto the green grass, making a satisfying dull thump sound. I turn around to look behind me. "Well I made progress anyway." I sit down and lay in the blowing grass, closing my eyes. I feel the warm sun and see its bright glare through my closed eyelids.

Well, let's see. It's about three in the afternoon, I'd say, if I had to guess. I don't know for sure because I had to turn off my phone; Hiromi won't stop calling me. I called her, briefly explaining that I'm leaving, and she absolutely lost it. Tears and crying and 'why the heck are you leaving's and 'you're a horrible person's and 'YOU'RE GONNA DIE's were all I heard when I was explaining to her that I'm going to find my place in the world.

So I had to hang up on her, being that she rambled for over half an hour while I used my free hand to gather the remaining junk I needed. Hugs and kisses for mom, and two free hands for my bags, and that was that. I knew I had to get out of there fast – Hiromi might come after me, and I also didn't want to wimp out at the last moment.

I took a train out to the middle of no where, and now I am in the middle of a field with tall grass and a lake about a hundred feet from where I presently lay. I don't exactly have a plan, to be honest. It felt good getting out of there, actually doing something, but now I don't know.

"Maybe leaving so quickly wasn't such a great idea…" I murmur to myself. I pull my phone out of my backpack pocket and stare at its blank screen. I groan and toss it on top of my bags.

"But I can't turn back now… I'd look like such an idiot." I mutter to myself. I sit up and look around. "What a pretty lake…" I sigh and pull out my map. I use my finger to trace the many miles I've traveled today. I find the lake, which has a peculiar shape… strange… it looks like - suddenly I hear a rustling very close to me.

"If you followed me Hiromi, I swear to-" I stand up and look around, seeing nothing standing above the mid-thigh high grass. "… but I could've sworn…"

I look around and see grass rustling about ten feet away from me. I hesitantly walk towards it, thinking that if it's a snake or something I'm totally going to freak, and I part the grass right above the traveling rustling spot, and gasp.

Looking up at me, surprised that I found her, is a pink cat. She looks awfully surprised to see me, but not as surprised I am to see her. To my dismay, she starts running away from me.

"No, wait! Please don't go!" I run, chasing after her, and to my slight shock and to my grand pleasure, she falters, and stops, turning around to look at me.

I kneel down, right in front of her. "Do I… look familiar at all to you?" Sure I may be wearing a black skirt and a red blouse as opposed to my school uniform or a yellow ball gown, but I should look remotely the same.

She looks at me and sits down, taking her time with thinking. I nervously tuck my hair behind my ear and bend forward, so that my face is inches from hers, where her fine whiskers could tickle me if she tilted her head.

"Do you… s-serve the Cat King…? Remember a h-human who came to the Cat Kingdom? H-Haru?"

The cat's eyes widen and she eases up on her back legs and covers her mouth with one paw.

"Miss Haru?"

"Y-yes… it's me!" I start shaking, but I'm grinning so much it hurts. "I can't believe I found a cat from the Cat Kingdom! How's Yuki? Prince Lune? Natori and Natoru and-"

"Oh, calm down, Miss Haru." The feline laughs. "They're wonderful. Except Prince Lune has been crowned King now."

"Oh has he?" I grin, clapping my hands together. "That's wonderful! And he and Yuki have…?"

She smiles warmly. "They wed a week after you left."

"Oh I am so happy for them!" I say, noticing a tear welling up in my eye and I wipe it away. "Please, miss. Are you going to the Cat Kingdom now?"

"Yes… I came to this world to visit one of my relatives. I am returning to the Cat Kingdom after my, what his majesty calls, a 'vacation.'" I nod encouragingly. "Miss Haru…? Would you like to ask me something?"

I notice that I am shaking with anticipation. "Oh, please, take me with you!" I stand up and wave my hands around excitedly as I talk. "I have been trying to figure out what to do since I left home and since I found you and you're going back to the Cat Kingdom that it's destiny I think I'm supposed to go with you so please take me with you I beg of you please!" The cat pats my leg to make me realize I am rambling and I silence myself.

"Please, Miss Haru, calm down." She sits and smiles at me. "I see you really want this." I nod fervently. "You seem to be so different than the scared and hesitant girl I picked a yellow dress for many months back." She sighs. "What about that fat cat that was with you back then?"

I feel my face fall despite the great joy that is in me from seeing this cat. She notices this as well and speaks up.

"Well, shall we go?" She asks me, her whiskers twitching once.

"Oh, yes!" I grin. "But how?"

The moment I asked this, a blue portal opened up out of thin air next to us.

"That's how." The cat smiles and walks up to it. "Just go right through."

I laugh. "Oh, I remember how they work."

She nods and says to me, "Go through right away. It doesn't stay open long." She hops through the portal, and already I see it shrinking. I gasp and step forward and stick my hand through, and then dive through.

I should have realized it sooner. The shape of the lake… on the map… it's a paw print.

"Here I come!" I cry, a grin on my face, my eyes shut against the bright light of the portal. And then I don't feel anything except warm, not as tall, amazingly soft grass under me, and I sneeze. I open my eyes and find a cattail blowing against my nose.

Looking up, I see the bright sky I remember from so long ago, and I turn around slowly, and I start laughing with joy when I see that tall castle.

"Here I am!" I squeal, throwing my arms out and spinning around in circles until I get dizzy and fall down on my front. "The Cat Kingdom."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hey guyssssss!

Sorry I haven't updated in so long! School has kept me from the computer!

And I finally have Word on my laptop.

So I'll (hopefully) be able to write more often!

Anywayyyyy… here is the next chapter!

Hope it's alright! I'm a crazy chickie where I am daydreaming and I'm formulating a story in my mind and I'm like NOOOOO I have to finish my Cat Returns fanfic first!

Haha so I promise I won't abandon this story!

The Cat Returns belongs to Studio Ghibli and such.

Bye!

=^.^=