Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to get up, it's kinda long (though I wrote it in one day) I was working on some other stories…and my science project. Well, here it is—Kyo's story (more like fairytale). Enjoy! And please review:)

Story 5: Just a Story?

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Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Onigiri. While growing up, her late mother told her wondrous tales about a cursed kingdom put under a terrible spell by a tyrannical king. "In a fit of rage, the king had turned all his family into animals. There are many enchanted animal kingdoms," said her mother, "but only one with a curse." She also told Onigiri about an outlawed member of the family who was banished because he had tried to break the curse. And since he was the son of the king, he was a prince. But after many years away from his home, his family had forgotten that he had ever existed. "How horrible!" young Onigiri would cry. "I want to find that prince and make him better!" her mother would always laugh and say "It's just a story."

But that was a very long time ago, and now, princess Onigiri is a very beautiful, very kind, young woman. All the townsfolk under her rule loved her, they were always thankful that she was their leader. But one day, an evil rat prince came from a distant kingdom to Onigiri's town, and when he saw her, he instantly fell in love with her. But the princess was not yet ready to become a queen, she often tripped and made mistakes, she had yet to finish her royal training. But that did not matter to the rat, and when he asked the princess to come away with him, she refused. Enraged by her answer, the rat kidnapped her and took her back to his far, far away kingdom.

"Help me," pleaded the princess one night to a castle guard dog. "Please find someone to save me—I do not wish to be married!"

"I will help you," said the dog. "But in return, you must give up your life as a princess and come to MY house to cook and clean for me." The princess thought this a fair price and agreed to the dog's terms. He then ran off into the night to find someone brave enough to rescue the princess.

"In truth," said the princess, gazing up at the stars. "I no longer wish to be a princess, all I really want is a real family who will love me and know me as me and not for being a princess."

The next day, two guards from Onigiri's castle came to her window and said "Princess! Why have you come here? Your people need you!" Onigiri explained the situation to her two friends and they gasped, asking if there was anything that they could do to help her escape. But before they had a chance to do anything, the rat's guards thwarted them, all the while chanting their love of the prince. "Princess!" cried her friends as they were dragged away to the dungeons. "Do not worry, we will escape and come to your aid!"

By that afternoon, Onigiri had given up hope of being saved from marring the rat prince. She would be wed in three days, and not one soul had had a successful rescue plan for her. "Ukiki!" cried something from a nearby tree. "Why is such a lovely girl crying?" asked a monkey.

"Mr. Monkey," started the princess. "The rat wishes to marry me, but I do not love him! Can you help me?"

"Gomen ne," said the monkey, "but I am too weak alone. My mother is a royal tailor in the castle and undoubtedly she will make your wedding dress. Ask her for help when she comes to you." Onigiri nodded and the monkey left. In only a few minutes, she met the monkey's mother. But unfortunately, she could not speak to her, for the tailor had an unseemly habit of screaming " GOMEN NE!" at the top of her lungs. An ox, one of the rat's guards, withdrew the woman from the room and replaced her with a different tailor—a VERY different tailor; a snake.

"Well, what a pretty princesssssssss," it hissed, slithering over to Onigiri. "How may I sssssserve you?"

"Please help me, I don't want to marry the prince!" she cried.

"Your wissssssshhhh isssss my command…" he slithered off to go find help for her.

"…I'm doomed." sighed the princess, falling to her knees. A servant of the prince entered Onigiri's room, set a colorful box down on her nightstand, and left. Onigiri went over to the box and opened it. A small rabbit popped out and gave the princess a big hug. "Ehhh?" she shouted surprised.

"Hi Miss Onigiri!" he shouted. "I'm a present from the rat prince! Do you like me? Do you, do you do you?"

"You are very cute, but I don't like the prince; I'm trying to escape before the wedding."

"Then I'll help you!" With that, the rabbit hoped out of Onigiri's arms and scampered away.

"Th-thank you…?"

The next two days flew by without any sign from the animals that had promised her help. Onigiri thought that they had surely forgotten about her. "Psst," said a voice from outside. The princess ran to the window and looked out, there was a tiger and a sheep standing below the windowsill. "Princess," said the tiger. "We bring you good news. We have received word that the guard dog has found someone to help you! He is two villages over as of now and will arrive here tomorrow."

"That's wonderful, but," said the princess, smiling sadly. "I'm afraid that they will be too late. I'll be married in one hour."

"We're so sorry…"

An hour later, a beautiful black horse came into Onigiri's room; she was to carry her to the ceremony. "Are you ready?" she asked. Onigiri nodded sadly. "…We'd best be going now…" The princess climbed atop the horse and was steadily carried to her fate.

Flutes and violins played when Onigiri entered the great hall. She looked around her, trying to come to terms with what was happening. She spotted a black dog near the back of the room; he winked at her.

"Do you, rat prince, take this lovely princess as your lawfully wedded wife?" asked a man with black hair dressed in white robes—the priest.

"I do."

"And do you, princess Onigiri, take this, err… rat, as your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I…"

Just then, the captain of the guards, a rooster, burst into the great hall, feathers ruffled. "Th…The prince has returned…" he said, collapsing from exhaustion.

"What?" demanded the rat, leaping to his feet. There was a thunderous thump from outside and a dragon poked its head through the door. An orange speck of something leapt off its head and ran to the rat, hissing very loudly.

"You!" he yelled. It was a very fine looking cat with bright orange fur. "What are you doing now?"

"How rude, you stupid cat." said the rat. "To show up uninvited and still banished, bursting into MY wedding; I will not allow it."

"Open your eyes, you glorified rat. This princess wants nothing of you!"

"Nothing will keep me from what I want." The cat charged at him, baring his claws and fangs. The rat easily avoided the assault. "I have no time for this. Pig!" he called. Instantly, a boar came running at his call.

"Yes, my prince?" she looked over to see the cat. "PRINCE KITTY!" she shrieked gleefully, running towards the cat. "LOVE!" her happy skip turned into a deadly charge, the cat fled from her, hissing as he did so.

"Now, where were we?" asked rat, pulling Onigiri back over to where the priest stood.

"Do you, princess…" Onigiri couldn't pay attention. She stared back at the cat as he tried to shake the boar's rampage.

'He came all the way here to save me,' she thought, 'was it all for nothing? If only he had some kind of help…' Just then, the monkey came flying through the window, shouting " GOMEN NE!" and smacking into the boar, knocking her against the wall and unconscious.

"Guard!" called the rat immediately. The rooster went for the cat, but was stopped by the horse, who stamped her foot down in his path with a threatening look in her eyes that read "If you want him, you have to deal with ME." The rooster backed away.

"Let us in!" cried the tiger outside with the sheep, the rabbit, and the snake. The dragon apologized; his head was stuck in the door, leaving no space for them to pass through.

Inside, the ox stepped up to face the cat, but the dog stood in his way. "I wouldn't if I were you." he said, baring his teeth. The ox stood his ground.

"Alone at last, eh?" taunted the cat, circling the rat.

"Do you honestly think that you can win? When we were kids, no matter how much you practiced, you could never beat me."

The cat growled at him. "That was a long time ago, things are different now."

"Hardly," he then swung a tiny-rat-punch at the cat, making contact with his right forearm.

"Uh," grunted the cat in pain.

"Not so easy, is it?" asked the rat smugly. He let down his guard for less than a second, thinking the cat was too weak to harm him. But the cat pounced on him, pinning him to the ground.

"Piece of cake," said the cat, snapping his teeth at the captured rat, threatening to eat him.

"Please don't hurt him!" cried Onigiri. "I know he kidnapped me, but he doesn't deserve to die!"

The cat stared at her for a moment before turning back to the rat. "Just promise you won't do anything stupid like this again." The rat's eyes answered for him. "Good," the cat lifted his paws from the rat who scampered away when released. Onigiri skipped over to the cat.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

"Feh…don't mention it."

"But, I want to repay you." With that, Onigiri picked up the cat and kissed him on the nose. A loud bang and a cloud of smoke replaced the cat, Onigiri automatically let go. When the smoke cleared, a handsome young man with bright orange hair was sitting where the cat had been. Identical bangs all around the room followed, five people fell through the doorway where the tiger, sheep, snake, rabbit, and dragon had been trying to get it, the knocked out boar against the wall turned into a young girl, and even the rat became human. "W-what happened…?" asked Onigiri, stunned by the appearance of all the beautiful people.

"You broke the curse," said the priest, "Thank you, it has been far too long…" he disappeared.

"H-huh?" asked the princess again. She looked up to find the orange haired boy holding out his hand to her. She took it and he helped her up.

"Thank you so much, princess," he said smiling kindly. "For everything…" with that, the prince kissed her, and the princess kissed him back.

After that day, Onigiri released her own guards from the dungeon and asked them to go home and tell her people that she was going to live in this kingdom now; it was her promise to the former-dog prince. Her friends said that they would return and visit. After apologizing, the ex-rat prince was forgiven for kidnapping the princess; she actually thanked him for bringing her there. If he hadn't, she would have never broken the curse, met the cat, or lived happily ever after with her knew family…

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"That was really long…" sighed Hiro. "I didn't have any lines, either."

"And just where do you get the idea that you were even in it?" asked Kyo indignantly. The sheep rolled his eyes.

"Stupid cat," started Yuki, glaring at Kyo. "That was a fairytale, we're telling campfire stories. Plus, it was totally unrealistic."

"Says you." huffed Kyo.

"I liked it," said Tohru. "I especially liked the happy ending." Kyo stuck his tongue out at Yuki who turned away, resisting the urge to smack him.

"Okie Dokie!" cheered Momiji. "Who wants to tell the next story?"

"I will," said Hana darkly. "Kyo, you mentioned something about the cat almost eating the rat prince, am I correct?" he nodded. "Good, because my story is about a very hungry cat who loves all kinds of meats…"

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TBC…oO

Quick Note: If you're wondering why the priest disappeared, I'm not sure. Let's just say he was an apparition of the former king (Akito), and when the spell was broken, his soul was freed. Does that sound good to you? Okay. Please R&R:)