MsTiara’s Thoughts

As Kitten and I fell into infinity, we heard everything.  All of time, all of life all of the universe all singing at one time.  It was like the time we went swimming and the whales were singing off in the distance, it surrounded us and vibrated through us and we just knew.  It was beautiful as the song wove around and through us, it all made sense in that single moment in time.  Then the color, every color all at once all painted around us like we were swimming in a swirling sea of color.  It was even more intense and beautiful than watching the star being born.  As I started to fly through it, Kitten sat up and started humming with the tune and swirling her fingers through the colors and started to paint pictures in the fabric of infinity.

I had been born a Star, no, not a famous person or an actress, an actual Star. You know, when you look up into the sky at night and you see me twinkling down at you and then you tell me all your hopes, dreams, and wishes. I then listen to them and I have to decide which ones I help along to coming true and which ones you have to make happen. Each Star when they are born is given a protector to look out for them and to believe in them. For you see, a Star will disappear from the sky if no one believes in them. My protector and friend happens to be a small dragon, no bigger than my head and he is always with me as I go through my time in the heavens.

One day, Cyn and I decided to take a morning walk through a forest on a warm summer day. The forest path we walked along had little coolness as we wandered underneath the shadows of the ancient trees and shared stories and dreams. The silence of the day was broken as we could hear shrieks up ahead and off the path. As we got closer we could hear childish voices raised in terror, “No! No! Don’t catch us.”

Cyn and I looked at each other in fear and started to run to see if we could help the voices that were crying out. As we rounded the bend we saw a field of grass where a large, black dragon was flying low and deep towards the ground. Ahead of him were 3 baby bunnies running away and they kept on looking back over their shoulders and tripping as the dragon came in even lower before he grabbed them with his claws. As I watched in fear, the dragon swooped around the clearing skimming over the trees and the shrieks of the bunnies could be heard throughout the woods as the dragon came in low over the grass again. Then, gently, he let each bunny drop daintily upon the ground.

The giggles of the bunnies were then filling the clearing instead of their shrieks, and as they ran away from the dragon, I could hear their voices float back upon the wind, “Again! Again! Catch us again! We want to fly as high as the clouds this time and cool off.”

Cyn and I looked at each other in wonder and surprise. It appears we had come across a dragon who had decided to spend his day playing with bunnies instead of causing terror. As I looked up into the sky, the dragon lazily did a loop de loop and turned his head and looked towards Cyn and me. His voice echoed in my head, “Come and play with us.”

I looked longingly at the bunnies, playing in the tall grass as they worked out their strategy with glee. I wanted to run and join them, but I knew that I had so many things I needed to take care of for the day and I was much too old to play with the bunnies. “I want to, but I am too big to play with the bunnies.” I whispered back through the path he had left in my head.

“Then I will just have to make you into a kitten.” As the words whispered through my head I felt myself slowly changing until I was low to the ground. As I looked up at Cyn, I could see myself through his eyes and what I saw was a cream colored kitten with aqua eyes and a white star in the middle of her forehead.

I felt joy rush through me; I had never been young, always having to be wise so I can grant the wishes of the people who look to me with their dreams and hopes. I wondered what it would be like to just be kitten and play for the day and not have to worry about everything I needed to do.

As I once again looked up towards Cyn with the question forming in my mind, he smiled down at me, “It is okay to play for awhile as long as you remember it is for play and it isn’t who you are. You will have to go back to being a Star at the end of the day.” I felt all of my worries slip away as I ran towards the bunnies, and they let me into their circle and we started to whisper out our strategy of just how we were going to evade the dragon before we let him pick us up so we could fly through the clouds and let our laughter shower the land with joy.

As the night sky grew darker and the Dragon carrying the bright star on his back flew farther out over the ocean, if you listened closely you could hear in between the night sounds a voice talking into the darkness.

“Where are we going?” Astrid asked Dragon

There was no audible reply because Dragon was speaking to Astrid using his soul link to her. What Astrid heard in her head was, “patience Little Astrid, patience. Enjoy the night breeze, watch the moon play upon the water and turn it into liquid silver. We shall be there soon enough.”

Astrid sighed deeply and in case Dragon didn’t hear her the first time, she sighed even louder. “Shush” Dragon murmured “and listen.”

As the night grew quiet, Astrid started to pick out all of the different sounds in the night. The closest was the rhythmic flapping of Dragon’s wings. This deep, but almost quite whoosh as he flew steadily onward. Down below she could hear the water rustling into the night which sounded like a back up singer to the drum beat of Dragon’s wings. Then all of a sudden she could hear the main singer, these beautiful deep moans that lifted up to a higher note at the end. One of the most beautiful songs she ever heard. Astrid wondered where they were coming from, who was making them when Dragon started to fly lower towards the water before landing lightly onto a rock that seemed to be floating in the middle of nowhere. As she slid off of Dragon’s back onto the ground she felt the chill from her toes and then winding it’s way up to her head. She looked around and realized that they were on a glacier floating in the ocean and that was what was so cold. Dragon then turned into a boy and created from the very air two long velvet capes. One for Astrid and one for himself.

Star was looking around at the beauty of the floating ice that looked like it had diamonds thrown across the surface as it shone in the moonlight, while all around her the song continued to play. Her back was turned to the water when she heard a splash behind her and the ice rocked gently. As she turned around quickly, she was just able to see a large black shape with a very large eye before it disappeared back under the water.

As she turned to Dragon to ask a question, the shape once again emerged, but this time continued to float at the surface.

“Talk to him,” Dragon encouraged

“Talk? But, Dragon, how can I talk to him? He is an animal.” Astrid replied

“An animal? Astrid, you know better than that. What just because someone is different than you, you can’t communicate with them? They don’t have a brain? They don’t have a soul? Does that mean that neither you nor I truly exist because we are different? Think, Etoile, think”

Astrid continued to stare at the whale in front of her, wondering how she would be able to communicate with it, when she felt Dragon nudge her mind before quickly pulling back. She wondered, could she talk with something who doesn’t speak her language by reaching out to it with her soul? Would they be able to truly understand each other with no words? She slowly opened her mind to the whale in front of her and as she did, her senses were flooded with so much knowledge and love and experiences that she couldn’t even begin to understand. She knew about the whales family going back thousands of years and how they knew all of the stars intimately and the stars knew them. How this very whale was watching the sky the moment she came into existence and had made a wish to meet her. That the reason why she was there in that single moment, was because the whale made a wish on ‘her’ star.

In gratitude for all that she was learning, Astrid shared back to the whale the beauty of the night sky from where she was in the universe and all the dreams and worlds she had been lucky enough to see and experience and be a part of.

Time in that moment ceased to exist as the two met in a world not of words but of light and love. Finally as the sky slowly started to lighten, Dragon touched her arm to bring her back into her physical self. “It is time for you to go back to your home.”

Astrid looked up at him with tears in her eyes, “I don’t want to leave, there is so much more to share.”

Dragon sighed deeply and just in case Astrid didn’t hear him the first time, he sighed again. “Silly Astrid, why should time or distance be any different than physical words? All you have to do is open up your souls to each other and it will be as if you are physically there. Now time to say goodbye.”

Astrid reached out with her mind one more time and showed her friend her opening up her arms and embracing her with all the loving energy she could. Her friend reached back and filled her soul with song. Then Astrid slowly winked out of existence on the glacier before winking into existence on her Star far up in the sky.

A girl lies sleeping in the bed as the evening moves towards midnight. From the shadows in the corner, whispers can be heard, a deep male voice that seems to rumble through the room and a higher voice that seems to whisper and curl around the other.

“Do you think she will ever see me?” Rumbles the first voice.

“She is one of the special ones that can; she is really kind and sweet.” Whispers the second voice.

“What if she doesn’t?”

“It won’t matter, I can see you and I believe in you.”

“But, what if that doesn’t matter, what if SHE has to believe in me.”

“I know she will. You are too special to cease to exist and I believe and I am a part of her soul.”

As the moon shifts in the night sky, a moonbeam highlights the corner of the room. Two figures can be seen curled together so that they blend. One is a red dragon that scales glimmer in the moonlight and the other is a cream colored kitten with a star in the middle of her forehead.

The girl mumbles in her sleep and turns over and curls into a little ball. She is a timeless beauty with blonde hair, pale skin and a small bone structure.

Kitten uncurls from around Dragon and lightly jumps onto the bed to place her paw on the girl’s hand. “Come on, join her in her dreams.”

The Dragon stretches and flexes his wings and lightly flies into the air and toward the girl dreaming on the bed. As he curls around kitten and wraps her in his wings, he places one wing lightly on the girl’s hands.

Kitten purrs and whispers into the night, “Etoile meet Dragon…”

In Etoile’s dreams she is standing in a meadow surrounded by trees that seem to reach into the eternity of the night sky. In the distance she can hear something moving through the sky toward her. There is no fear just a happiness and joy of something special, a gift, that she is about to receive. The stars fill the night sky as Dragon lands lightly before her and on his back is her Kitten, Star.

“Kitten who’s your friend?”

“This is Dragon, can he come live with us?”

Dragon, chuckles and ducks his head in shyness. “shhh, Kitten. She needs to know me, you can’t just ask her.”

Kitten gets all ruffled and nips Dragon’s ear, “why not? She doesn’t know what you want unless you ask her. Please? He’s my friend and he will make a really good friend to you too.”

Etoile giggles at the two of them. There is something about them that makes her smile and the world seems a bit brighter with both of them standing before her. “Hi, Dragon it is a pleasure to meet you and I don’t see why you can’t stay with us. Will your human miss you?”

“He says I can stay with you and I already asked him and he says kitten can stay with him. Kitten likes him.”

Etoile looks up at Kitten, “ummm, you are going to leave me?”

Kitten scrambles down off Dragon’s back and climbs up Etoiles leg to curl around her neck. “No, not leave you; I’m a part of you. Just his human needs a kitten in his life and you need a dragon because you are stuffy and dragons bring laughter. We will still be a part of each other’s souls and go adventuring together, honestly.”

The girl reaches up and scratches Kitten behind her ear and steps towards Dragon and puts her arm around his neck and hugs him. “Why do I have a strange feeling that life is going to be very interesting with the two of you in my life?”

As Dragon chuckled kitten scrambled up to his neck, “want to go flying?”

“Can I really?”

“Of course! Let’s go fly through the stars!” As Etoile climbed onto Dragon’s back and they took off into the sky, bunny rabbits snuck out of the trees and cheered as they tumbled into the meadow.

As Dragon, Kitten and Etoile flew through the night sky and started the first of many adventures Etoile turned over with a smile on her face back in the bedroom and curled around the Dragon and Kitten lying there.

The next morning, as the sun rose in the sky Etoile yawned and felt warm and happy. As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the red dragon curled up on her bed. She reached over and petted him and whispered into the morning’s dawn, “welcome Dragon.”

As Dragon flew over the garden under the full moon, we see Kitten down below talking to thin air. Dragon circled the pond and landed lightly next to the cream colored kitten with the white star in the middle of her forehead. She turns her aqua colored eyes towards the red dragon with the green eyes.

“You talking to the air?”

“Dragon!” I cried and gave him a quick hug. “I’m trying to talk the birds into making their home here.”

Dragon looked around the garden before looking back at me with a question on his face, “where are they going to sleep? Don’t they need a home?”

“You think I should build them one? They seem like nice birds and would make good friends. But, I don’t know how to make them a home.”

Dragon smiled at me, “I know how to make one, let’s go to the hardware store. Climb on and we will fly there.”

As I climbed onto Dragon’s neck he lightly took off and headed into town, we caught up on the latest adventures of our humans. I told Dragon all about Blaze hurting his ankle and he told me all about Etoile and her latest story that she is writing.

I enjoy watching the cars driving below and all the humans traveling back and forth in their little boxes. I always wonder how many people can actually see me and Dragon up in the sky. I don’t think it is very many. It takes a special soul that still has wonder and joy to be able to see the magic in the world around them.

Dragon turned to the left and I could see the hardware store down below and he slowly circled till landing on top of a wood stack and gave a toothy grin. “I love hardware stores, anything is possible. We could make a pirate ship or a tree house, we could create a fairy garden or a submarine.”

I giggled at Dragon, “All we need to make is a Bird House.”

“I think the birds would like a Taj Mahal!” Dragon said in all seriousness

“No”

“Maybe a fairy Tale Castle?”

“No”

“How about a southern mansion, you know like Tara from Gone with the Wind?”

I reached up and hugged Dragon who was now flying in excitement just above the stack of lumber “NO, we just need to make a simple bird house.”

Dragon got a pouty expression on his face. “Okay, but can we paint it with Clouds and rainbows?”

I turned my head to the side and thought really hard, “Do you think the birds would like that?”

Dragon smiled at me “well maybe not the rainbow, but I think we should paint our friends the bunnies on it. I bet the birds would really, really like that.”

I nodded my head in excitement, “I think you are right and we could put a carving of you on the roof welcoming them and a carving of me next to the door waving ‘hi’. Then the bunnies can be tumbling all around it, playing and laughing.”

“Like bunnies do!” we both said at the same time.

“So, what do we need?” I asked as I smoothed down my fur from the flight.

Looking shy and embarrassed, Dragon mumbled, “ummm… I’m not sure.”

“You don’t know? But you said you knew how to build them a home.”

“Well, I kinda do. Look, there is a nice man in an orange apron, see he is smiling. I bet he can see us and he will help us build a house for the birds.”

Picking me up in his mouth, he flew down off the stack of wood and landed in front of the man in the orange apron.

“HI, can you see us?” I asked

“It’s okay if you can’t, not very many people can see dragons” said Dragon

The man in the orange apron smiled at us both. “Well, it’s not every day I see a Dragon and a Kitten in my store, but I can see you both just fine. My name is Bob and what are your two names?”

“I’m kitten and this is Dragon and we want to build a bird house, painted blue.”

“With white clouds”

“And a dragon on top”

“and of course a kitten waving hi to the birds”

“We also want to paint our friends, the bunnies tumbling on the sides,” said Kitten and Dragon one after the other.

“Can you help us?” we both said together

“I think I can” said Bob “now, do you have any tools, like a saw or a hammer?”

“ummm, no.” said Dragon. “We aren’t allowed to play with tools without our humans around and they are in New York and Dallas, much too far away to help us. Can you help us?”

Bob nodded his head yes and gestured for us to follow him. I climbed onto Dragon’s back and asked, “So, what do we need?”

“Well… Wood, nails and some paint will be enough for us to start.”

As Dragon and I watched, Bob pulled down some wood and measured and cut and placed it before us. “Now here is some sand paper, it is really important that you smooth the wood out or your bird friends could hurt themselves, also the wood will paint nicer if you sand it first.”

Dragon and I both picked up our sand paper and each of us grabbed a piece of wood and started sanding as hard as we could till a big cloud of dust floated in the air. “Look! Do you see the Pirate Ship in the dust?” Cried out Dragon. I looked and I looked and there it was a pirate ship with its sails out floating on the waves of dust.

“I see it! Oh, I wonder what else the dust will make?” and we both grabbed another piece of wood.

This time, I saw a dragon in the dust and as I turned to show it to Dragon, I realized it WAS a Dragon, MY Dragon. We both laughed as I shared my dragon story. Then Bob came back with nails and a hammer. He showed us how to put the bird house together and to put the nails in without hurting ourselves. Then Bob brought over blue paint so we could paint the bird house blue. Dragon tried to paint my toes but Bob frowned at him, because it isn’t easy getting paint out of fur.

“Now you need to let the paint dry before you start painting the bunnies. What do you think so far?:

Dragon was frowning, “well it’s a very nice bird house, but why would the birds want to stay here instead of somewhere else? It needs something special.”

“Silly, it will have us welcoming them, a Dragon and a Kitten how can they resist?”

Bob sighed, “well it isn’t going to be easy to find carvings of you two. You may need to make your own.”

Dragon looked concerned, I don’t like it when he’s concerned since dragons are supposed to know everything, kind of like adults without being so grown up about it.

“How do we do that?” I asked

“Cou take a block of wood and you use a sharp tool and you remove pieces of wood till you get the shape you want. Here are some carving tools and some wood to work on. Now put on this protection for your fingers or you could cut yourself, these are very sharp tools.”

I watched really, really carefully on what Bob was showing us and I put the protective stuff on my paws, but no matter how hard I tried my wood looked like wood with chunks missing. But, Dragon was humming away and hiding his carving from me and happy as a Dragon could be. I wanted to cry.

“Show me what you are making.”

“mmm mmm”

“Pretty Please with bananas on top?”

“Not yet”

“Dragon, Please???”

“shhh… Kitten, in a bit” and off he went back to humming while I stared down at my block of wood. I touched the marks I had made with my nails, the ones that should have been light are deep and the ones that should have been deep are light. The tools just didn’t work well in my paws. I started to use my sharp kitten nails on the wood and all of a sudden the marks started to do what I wanted them to do. I smiled and did a happy dance and picked up the wood and started to sing as I carved my best friend, Dragon, out of the wood. Now, how am I going to make him seem friendly to the birds? I know, I will carve him with his silly grin when he is juggling the bunnies making me laugh, and I sang louder as I carved.

Bob rushed back to us with a concerned expression on his face. “Everything okay kitten? You didn’t hurt yourself?”

Dragon laughed behind his hands before answering “No, Kitten is fine, she was just singing.”

I frowned at Dragon because normally he LIKES my singing. “No, Bob everything is purrfect, I just finished my Dragon.”

As I went to show him my carving Bob replied to Dragon “Singing, not hurt? Good, I am glad to hear that.” He then looked closely at my dragon and laughed at Dragon’s expression. “Very cute, I see you signed the tail.” I ducked my head since I was hoping he wouldn’t see my nick. “Don’t be embarrassed. Did you know that in Persia, when they make rugs, they build a mistake in them on purpose so that the gods won’t be jealous of their perfection?”

As Bob said this, Dragon pulled out a perfect miniature of me, right down to the star in the middle of my forehead. “ooohh, it is beautiful.” And as I said it, Dragon used his claw to nick a spot on my tail, right where I nicked his.

“I wouldn’t want to bring any bad luck onto My Kitten.”

Bob smiled at both of us, “Your paint should be dry, let’s go put the carvings on and you can paint your bunny friends.”

Bob helped us glue the two carvings on the bird house and set us up with paints for the Bunnies. “Now think out what you want to paint before you start, then you can plan how it looks around the entire house.”

As Bob walked away, Dragon and I looked at each other blankly.

“Well, how should we paint it? There are 3 bunnies and 3 walls not counting the front because that is where you and I are” said Dragon “we could paint a story for each of them on each wall. One for Topsy, Turvy and Popsy.”

“Or,” I said “we could paint a different scent hat includes all 3 and you and me on each side and we should include the birds watching so that they know they are welcome.”

Dragon liked my idea and after a lot of giggling, laughter and a couple of scowls, our birdhouse was all done.

Bob came back to see how we were doing and we showed him the finished bird house. On the front was Dragon and me with the birds singing to us as we welcomed them. On the left side was Dragon swooping down taking me and the bunnies flying while the birds watched and sang from the trees. On the Right Side Dragon was juggling the bunnies and me as we laughed and the birds were flying around in a juggling formation themselves. Then on the back, there was a picture of all of us sleeping on the grass and the birds were sleeping in the trees cause they were tired and happy from all of the fun.

“What a beautiful house you have created. I am sure your bird friends will be very happy because you can tell it was made with love and friendship.” Bob praised our house as he smiled and nodded approvingly.

“Thank you, Thank you for everything.” Dragon and I called out as we flew away with our bird house back towards home.

Dragon landed lightly next to the pond and we hung the house up on the tree. Topsy, Turvy and Popsy all came out and laughed and were delighted over the bird house, but still no birds. I was sad and Dragon and I climbed into the hammock next to the pond and Dragon whispered, “give them some time, they will come play.”

As we drifted off to sleep, I could hear bird song in my dreams and when I woke up there was a bird singing in delight over the house. She came and perched on the hammock and sang out her thank yous and hellos.

The sun was starting to rise and Dragon had to head off to Dallas to be with Etoile and I needed to head to New York to be with Blaze. But, we knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw each other again for the slumberlands were but a day away.

Dragon flies Kitten down onto the beach at Whitehaven, but can’t help but take her gliding just above the water so she can look down onto the amazing creatures swimming in the depths of the water. There is a sea turtle lumbering along in the light green water, dancing with the sun as it beams down. In the aqua area a stingray is lying against the bottom until Dragon’s shadow falls over him, then he slowly glides up and gracefully flies through the water away from the shadows. As they continue along, skimming the water, schools of fish dart along singing their songs. Dragon and Kitten’s laughter rings along the beach as he lightly touches down onto the sand.

Kitten scrambles off his back to set up their two beach towels. Dragon’s is a huge Batman towel with the Batmobile on it and Kitten’s is a Wonder Woman towel with her soul kitten sitting on her shoulder. As they settle down, Dragon and Kitten look around for what they can make their kite out of. Grabbing leaves and twigs they slowly build their kite and decorate it with starfish and dragon fish all over it.

As they fly their kite up high, they start to explore all the secrets of the beach, talking to the crabs, playing chase in the sky with the seagulls and making up songs as they go along. The sun started to get higher in the sky and Kitten started to turn pink, so Dragon curled up in the sand and created a shelter for her under his wing so they could nap until the sun left the height of the sky.

As it slowly slid away, they shared their dreams and their silences, slowly building the ties that bind their souls.

Dragon is curled up on the bed surfing the web while Kitten is taking one of her catnaps.

“So, Astrid, where do you want to work?” Dragon asks as he stares down at a map.

“Why? We have a job here in Virginia and it is beautiful here, you love flying through the trees with the painted leaves.” I ask as I have learned to always question when one of the soul pets suggest a change. They seem to know more about the patterns of the universe than I could even begin to imagine or pretend to make up.

“I dream of mold, every dream has mold creeping and crawling up the sides of the building. I don’t like mold. This isn’t where you should be.” He said as he continued to click his way through the computer world.

At this time, Kitten mumbled in her sleep “get it off me, it is covering my paws, stop it before I become a mold person! Help me… mold, mold, everywhere.”

I looked over at Dragon, caught his eye, and we both looked at Kitten at the same time. “A bit of a drama queen, isn’t she?” I asked as I saw a smile flicker over her face. “Maybe she isn’t really a kitten, maybe she is a Miss Piggy, I think I see her tail curling and her fur turning pink.”

Kitten popped up in a huff, “I am NOT a Miss Piggy, even though there is nothing wrong with her, I think she is a great role model. But I am not a Pig! I am a Kitten!”

“Oh, Kitten, I thought you were napping.” I said ever so innocently.

Kitten did her best angelic kitten expression, with the big aqua eyes and the little halo glow over her head. “I was, but I had this horrible dream of mold attacking me and making me into a mold kitten.” She shuddered delicately after saying this.

As I watched Kitten give her academy award winning performance, or at least her pork winning one, I wondered what was up with the two of them. I have known them in the past to try to manipulate my timelines in this lifetime, but not quite so noticeably.

“So, Dragon, you are searching for places for us to work? I thought you liked the fall leaves here in Virginia for flying and you know we committed to this job…” I started out.

But Dragon, who is normally the easy going one of all of us, had a very stubborn expression on his face. “we made the choice without having all the information. They didn’t tell us the place was filled with mold and that the company would go bankrupt while we were sitting here and they said they had structure. Kitten is complaining constantly about them not having structure and I am tired of her meowing about it. You know how Kitten has to be in control?”

I looked at Dragon in shock, all of this out of the easy going one? I don’t know when he was last so serious and intent about something. Sometime in the 18^th century when he tried to get me out of town before I was burned as a witch was the only other time I remember.

“Dragon, we committed” I tried to explain.

“No, Astrid,” he said very forcibly, “If you commit to something and they don’t tell you that you are flying into a war, then why should you continue to fly in when you find out? If you don’t believe in something, you shouldn’t do it.”

“But, Dragon, the money” I tried to start out.

“Money isn’t everything,” said Kitten. Now this is from a Kitten wearing diamonds and sleeping on silk.

“But,” I tried again.

“No,” said Dragon. “You are going to talk about responsibility and commitment and that is why I am going to find you another place to work. Then you will have no excuse. “

I made a long sigh, realizing that the soul pets know best, they always do, something about all those millenniums of living. “So where do you think we should work?”

“Dragon?” Kitten looked up at him as she called his name.

“yes, Kitten” he called back, a little bit of smoke curling around his head in a question mark.

“Astrid’s birthday is coming up and I think we should do something special, but I can’t think of anything special enough.” Kitten sighed.

“What have you thought of so far?” Dragon asked as his attention sharpened on the potential for an adventure and he flew down to where Kitten was lying next to the pond.

“Well, I thought we could take her to the planet made out of blue diamonds and we could go swimming in the lake there and have a picnic. You know the one that is underneath the waterfall that goes up and up and up and where the water shimmers and glows because the stones at the bottom are all blue diamonds.” Kitten smiled at the thought of swimming in diamonds and wondered how she would look in a collar made out of them.

“Astrid would like that, why did you discard the idea?” Dragon asked.

“Cause it wasn’t special enough for her.”

Dragon thought a bit and the puffs of smoke from his fire formed into little gears working together around his head. Kitten was giggling at him behind her paws, she thought he was funny when he was thinking really hard on something that his smoke gave his thoughts away. Dragon, however, did it on purpose because he loved for Kitten to giggle and be happy.

“Maybe we can take her to the fire planet where the lava runs down the mountain made out of rubies?” Dragon offered up, thinking how much he loves to go there and how warm it is.

Kitten thought about that for a minute, remembering how beautiful it is when the lave flows and the rubies shine as if they were on fire. But then thought of Astrid there and said, “No, I don’t think she would like that. It would be much too hot for her.”

“So, what do you suggest?” Dragon asked, watching the fish swim in the lake and wondering if he could talk Kitten into getting her fur wet and swimming with him. Kitten really only liked swimming in the ocean where she could play with the clown fish and anemones. She liked their laughter and they tickled her until she giggled.

“I think all the other ideas are fun, but Astrid can do them any time, it doesn’t have to be her birthday and I want her to feel special.”

Dragon focused his attention on Kitten. His intense green eyes shone like emeralds as he watched Kitten lying next to him. Kitten was a smoky blue color with eyes the color of the sea, a Blue/Green that sparked in the sun, and in the middle of her forehead was a star, it was the symbol of the human whom she had connected her soul to all those billions of years ago. Dragon also had a star hidden on his body, but you had to know where to look to find it and only Kitten and Astrid knew about it. Dragon’s soul was connected to Kitten and he had adopted Astrid as his human a long time ago, so long he couldn’t even recall the exact moment in time. “Astrid is special,” Dragon said intensely but ever so quietly. You need to tread very carefully when Dragon’s get quiet and intense. “Who is making her feel un-special, I will talk to them.”

“No one is making her feel un-special.” Kitten said, patting Dragon’s paw to calm him down. But, inside she was smiling, she was very proud and happy that Dragon is loyal to Astrid. It was the thing she admired the most about him, his fierce loyalty to his friends and loved ones. He would rather hurt himself before he would ever hurt a friend.

“It’s just on birthdays people can feel down. I want her to know how special she is and loved, but I don’t know how to do that.”

Dragon thought in silence for awhile and watched a butterfly flutter around the flowers on one of the plants that surrounded the pond. Kitten was thinking so hard next to him she had her nose all crinkled up.

“Well, it has to be something that no one else can give her but us.” Dragon thought out loud.

“And it has to carry a bit of our soul and love so she knows that we did it because we love her.” Kitten added.

“Yes, but it also needs to make her smile. I like when she smiles and laughs, there is nothing more special in the world or in the Dreamlands than her laughter.” Dragon shared.

Kitten yawned really wide and let out a rumble, “I’m hungry, what should we have…”

Dragon popped up and started fluttering in the air like the butterflies he had been watching. “That’s it! Kitten you are the smartest soul pet in the universe!” He started flying loopdiloops in the air. First going one way and then going the other, his joy spilling out over the pond and his smoke floating up and over like confetti being thrown.

Kitten was bouncing up and down on the ground, trying to grab Dragon’s tail and get his attention. “Dragon! Dragon, stop flying around and tell me your idea!”

Kitten was bouncing more like a tigger than a cat and Dragon looked more like a kite than an actual Dragon.

“Stop it” Bounce “at once” Bounce “Tell me” Bounce “your” Bounce. Bounce. “Idea” Kitten huffed as she got particularly high at the same time as Dragon got low and she grabbed hold of his tail.

“We will make her a cake! A beautiful birthday cake!” Dragon said as Kitten started to climb up his tail.

“Ooooh what a wonderful idea! We can put flowers on it and a Dragon and a Kitten!” Kitten dreamed out loud. “it will be the most Beauteous cake ever.”

“ummmm, Kitten? Do you know how to bake a cake? Or decorate one?” Dragon asked with a concerned look on his face as he landed on the ground.

“No, but how hard can it be?” Kitten smiled.

Dragon and Kitten slowly fly into the yard of the big house on the hill. The sky is pitch black and any light is hidden behind the thick clouds that cover everything in a layer of darkness. The trees are empty of leaves, showing only sharp edges in the inky darkness.

They are both silent as they stare up at the old house that used to be filled with light and warmth.

“Why did you want to come here Kitten?” Dragon asks in a whisper. “It is so cold and empty.”

Kitten’s voice is eerily empty sounding as it comes through the darkness, “once upon a time, I was very happy here. I remember how much joy I felt as I would stand here looking up at the house shimmering in the sun. It always seemed like the house as laughing and was sharing the humour with me. But, now it seems empty. No sadness, no anger, just empty.

“What happened to it?” he wondered as he noticed parts of it were blackened and crumbling. He felt a shiver run up and down his spine as he looked at the empty husk of a building.

“The soul of the house left it. Over time, the people who used to live here changed. Where once they were filled with joy and caring for everything around them, after time they took it all for granted. They started to become careless, do hurtful things.” As she said this she looked at a stump in the ground in front of the bay windows. A tear slipped from her eyes as she remembered the young boy who lived in the house playing with fire, burning ants who were playing in the roots of the tree. He ended up setting fire to the leaves on the ground and burning the once magnificent tree down. When he was asked why, he said that he was bored and it made him happy. His parents nodded their heads and said it was okay, the tree wasn’t that important anyway.

Dragon counted the rings on the tree as he stood there and cried for the beautiful tree, “how old was it?”

“Over 500 years, it had stood there.” Kitten walked up the steps of the house and stood on the once amazing porch, remembering how it had once circled the house and had a swing on it where she would nap and dream. Now, part of it was rotted through and the swing was just a pile of sticks.

She moved to the doorway where a hand carved door once stood, it was magnificent back then, carved with celtic signs telling a story in pictures of Dragons and adventures, but there was nothing left of it but a rusted door knob, lying on the ground in a pile of dust.

Dragon followed her silently as she stepped inside. To the right was the entrance to the once formal ballroom where music and laughter was heard as they had danced till dawn. You could almost hear an echo of cannon fire in the air as memories of playing pirates ran through her mind. All that could be seen now though was a pile of rubble covered in mold slowly creeping up it and eating away the stone.

To the left was the library, shelves and shelves of books with the sounds of whispers as thoughts were shared. But the shelves were now empty and the wall to the outside was gone. What was once a warm room was now cold and empty. Kitten had a crystal tear on her cheek as she silently mourned.

Dragon shivered in the cold and emptiness. “Why are we here Kitten?”

“I have so many good memories of this place. It was my friend. I guess…” She stopped for a second as she felt the grief overwhelm her. Dragon reached out with his tail and wrapped it around her paw and was just there for her. “I guess, I was wondering if it was still here, if there was a part of its soul hanging around just waiting for a friend.”

“And?” Dragon asked, not sure what the question really should be.

“And, it is empty. No soul left, not even any ghosts. There is nothing.” Kitten sounded lost as she said it.

“So, what finally caused it all to die? A fire? A Flood?” Dragon wondered.

“No, that would have been easier to handle. You would have something to point at. It would be a final death.” She sighed, “But none of that caused it, it was finally little tiny moments, the lack of care, inconsideration and an emptiness of the soul that slowly caused the decay till one morning you woke up and this is all that stood, nothing.” She was quiet after that, not moving and not saying anything more.

Finally, Dragon picked her up and hugged her before putting her on his back. He turned and walked out of the house and flew away.

Kitten never looked back and didn’t even say goodbye. There was nothing left to say goodbye to.

Dragon and Kitten are all excited, there’s a new baby in the house and that means a new soul pet.

Dragon rolls off the bed and stands next to it while Kitten climbs on his back, they are going to go and visit Cole. Chompoo and Bo’s soul pets said it was okay to visit as long as they are quiet. As Kitten settles onto Dragon’s back, she whispers into his ear, “So what do you think he will be? A tiger like Bo or maybe a Panda like Chompoo?”

Dragon lifts his wings and starts to fly from the room and out into the hallway, “Maybe he’ll be another Dragon for me to play with?”

As they land outside of Chompoo and Bo’s door, Kitten’s whisper floats out into the living room, “That would be fun then he can fly me around the house too.”

The door to the bedroom is slightly open and Kitten reaches out and pushes it open a little wider so that Dragon can tiptoe through it, as the door squeaks, Dragon and Kitten both “shhh” and then giggle as they sneak into the room.

Dragon looks around for the baby and the soul pets, but can’t see them, so he flies lightly into the air and lands at the foot of the bed. Chompoo and Bo are sound asleep, but their soul pets each look up at exactly the same time to see what Dragon and Kitten are up to.

Kitten whispers, “We just want to see Cole and say hi to the new pet.”

“We won’t disturb him” Dragon says.

Chompoo’s soul pet, a beautiful white panda, so very graceful and elegant has the sweetest smile as she nods her head and whispers, “He will enjoy the visitors.”

Bo’s soul pet, a white tiger with black stripes, laughingly says, “I am sure that Cole is waiting in the Dreamlands to go flying, so you may want to hurry up so you can meet him there.”

Dragon and Kitten walk over to the crib and look in. Cole’s sound asleep, but his hand had snuck out of the blankets and was lying on a dark red tiger, with black stripes.

“Oooh, he is pretty” whispers Kitten

Cole’s tiger opens up one eye and yawns really big, showing all of his teeth as he looks up at them.

“And a fierce protector” Dragon nods.

“Hi, welcome to the world.” Dragon and Kitten smile down at him.

The young tiger smiles back up at them, “Thank you. Cole and I are playing in the Dreamlands. He needs to sleep a lot right now, want to meet us there and play?”

“We will be there soon” Dragon smiles at the tiger as he turns around with Kitten on his back and flies back to where Tara is sleeping in the other room. As he lands on the bed, Kitten tumbles off his back and then reaches out and makes sure that the blanket covers Tara and kisses her on the cheek before curling into her neck. Dragon wraps his tail around Tara’s wrist and curls up next to Kitten and closes his eyes for the trip to the Dreamlands.

Dragon loves the journey to the Dreamlands, first you close your eyes to darkness, but then as you relax you fly deep into the clouds till the next thing you know, you are where you were heading (which could be just about anywhere).

Tonight they land in a clearing filled with long grass and lots of butterflies and frogs, bright red, happy frogs. Cole and his tiger are already in the clearing playing with the frogs. As Dragon approaches them, Kitten tumbles out of the sky giggling. Dragon flies up to catch her before she lands on the ground.

The dark red and black tiger looked up at them with serious eyes as he introduces himself. “My name is Tann.”

Dragon and Kitten smile and introduce themselves back, “I am Kitten and this is Dragon.”

“Your names are the same as what you are? Isn’t that strange?” asks Tann.

“Well, kind of I guess. We have REAL names, but we are friends with Sandy who is the Sandman’s soul pet and she always tells us not to give our real names. So we just go by Dragon and Kitten,” Dragon explains.

“Do you think I should do the same thing?” Tann asks

“No, I am sure you are safe, but if we go adventuring with Sandy, you may not want to give your name to anyone we encounter.”

Tann nods solemnly.

Cole is laughing at them and all the pets turn to look at him sitting there and smiling. First is Tann, all dark red with black stripes and black eyes. Standing next to him is Dragon all in purple colors, because he is in a mischievous mood tonight, as Cole watches his scales seemed to shimmer between purple with green and hints of black all shining in the sunlight and his eyes are the color of emeralds. Kitten is lying flat on the grass, smoky blue with a cream star in the middle of her forehead and aqua colored eyes and a smile playing around her mouth.

Cole thinks really hard on the image of flying until all of the butterflies in the area start to flutter around and the world is filled with the magical creatures giggling in the air.

“I think Cole wants to go flying, Can I take him?” Dragon asks

“Oh, I think he would really like that, can I go too?” Tann replies back

“Of course you can” he said as Tann picks Cole up and the two of them climbed onto Dragon’s back.

Kitten is clapping in joy as Dragon makes sure that Cole and Tann are settled in before he starts to move his wings up and down and slowly lift them into the air.

Cole claps his hands and starts to laugh as Dragon leaves the clearing to fly through the Dreamlands.

The Dreamlands are an amazing place, with colors that never can be found in the waking world and everything and anything you can imagine is there. Dragon flies over streams made out of chocolate and lakes filled with fizzy soda where bubbles float from the top of the surface and every time they ‘POP’ a song seems to play. “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream”. As they pass each place, the different creatures and pets all come out and wave and say hi to Cole and Tann.

As they circle the Bunny Gove, all the Bun Buns are bouncing up and down calling to them as they swoop low over the grove.

“Hi Cole, Hi Tann,” calls out a pure white bunny that is wearing roller skates.

“Come by and bounce with us! We love to play hide and seek!” Sings out from another bunny that has black and white polka dots for fur.

“Dragon, when are you going to take us flying again? We want to play chase,” can be heard from a silvery bunny that keeps on changing shape.

Cole and Tann wave hi to all the Bun Buns and Dragon roars out a greeting, promising them that Kitten and him will come by and play very soon!

Dragon turns from the grove to head toward the ocean. As they get closer to it, they smell coconuts and bananas and the saltiness of the sea and hear the rumbling of the waves.

Dragon flies down and starts to play catch me if you can with the waves at the sea side. The salty spray hits Cole and Tann in the face and they start to laugh in joy at the cool feel of it.

“It tickles”, giggles Tann

A Pirate Ship is anchored off of the beach and the Pirates all stop their sword play to run to the side of the boat where they are flying, they cheer “walk the plank!”

Dragon flies low over the pirate ship, while the pirates show off their sword skills. Up at the top of the ship, a man sits in the crow’s nest with a bright blue parrot on his shoulder. “Polly, say hi to Cole and Tann! Squawk”

On the bridge, the Captain pulls off his pirate hat and throws it into the air. Tann reaches out and catches it and places it on Cole’s head. “Nice Catch! Any time you want to go treasure hunting young Cole, come and join us, you are always welcome aboard my ship. Aye Mateys?”

“Aye Captain!” they call back

Dragon flies away from the pirate ship, low over the ocean towards Mystery Island. The dolphins are swimming along with them, jumping in and out of the ocean, all the colors of a rainbow, dancing through the sea. As they get closer to the island, the merpeople wave from underneath the sea and sing to Cole to come and swim with them and explore the underwater world.

Dragon flies higher into the sky and through the clouds back towards the land. Flying alongside them are Gryphon’s, Phoenix’, and Pegasus and down on the land are Unicorns, Tichakorn Jatubod, and so many creatures you can never truly name them all, all waving from all around them as they fly towards the Sandman’s castle where Dream and Sandy live.

The castle is made out of sand and shimmers in the sun as if it is painted in gold and silver and inlaid with diamonds. It looks like an impossible thing, or something that can only be made out of dreams. High up on one of the towers stands a man with dark black hair and eyes the color of night, and on his shoulder is a star made out of sand. As they fly around the tower, Dream waves them over.

“Welcome Cole and Tann to the Dreamlands, I hope you always feel welcome here. If you ever have a bad dream or a desire to make a dream come true, I hope you will come to me or Sandy. Any friend of Dragon and Kitten is a friend of mine.”

Tann looks at Dream and knows that this is a very powerful man but he feels safe. Cole laughs with joy at the man who has the power to make dreams come true and make impossible things happen. Dream can’t help but give a smile in response to his joy.

Sandy shimmers and forms the symbol for Happiness “khwam sook” as Dream nods, Dragon turns to fly back to the clearing where Kitten is waiting for them.

As they land in the clearing, Kitten runs up and hugs them. A Hongsa comes out to join them from the trees. They all yawn before curling up in the grass with the sun warming them from up above and the butterflies giggling lightly in the wind. Cole is curled up next to Tann with his hand on his fur. Tann murmurs, “What a great adventure.”

As they tumbled into sleep in the Dreamlands, they wake up in their beds back in the house.