9th Rock From The Sun

"You have hereby been found guilty of the murder of a fellow planet cat, Saturn." Came the booming, authoritative voice of one of my fellow planet cats. Though I could not see them, I could recognize the voice as being Jupiter's.

I was spitting angry that I had been accused and found guilty of a crime I didn't commit. So, I of course, retaliated.

"I didn't kill him! Why would I!? I have been very busy with my planet and I have no desire to go kill anyone, least of all Saturn."

"But you had a fight with him recently we were told." Another voice, I guessed it was Mars's, pointed out.

"Yes, we had a bit of verbal quarrel, but it was nothing for either of us to kill each other over, it was merely over whether or not we should allow life forms to exist on our planets, that's all."

There was some chatter and I really just wanted to cut to the chase, so I asked them what proof they had that had led them to me as the killer, the answer I was to receive shocked me to no end. "We found one of your feathers there at the crime scene."

If this was true, then it indeed was good evidence. Every planet cat knew that your feathers only fall out for two reasons: 1) that your wings are growing and the small feathers need to go, and 2) when a planet cat begins to fall from grace, the feathers begin to fall out at every bad act. I stood there, silent, in shocked disbelief. My wings hadn't grown in a long time, and probably never would grow any bigger because my planet would always be the smallest. The bigger the wings, the larger the planet. Saturn's were the largest because his planet was almost a second sun. The only way one of my feathers could have would up there is if my wings were growing and I didn't know it, someone had plucked it off of my while I was sleeping, or had kept a feather from my childhood. Lifting my wings, I examine them, looking for any missing feathers, but it looks like they're all there.

"Pluto, we find you guilty to the murder charge and you are hereby stripped of your title as a Lord of your planet and your planet is now demoted to a planetoid. You will be sent to the planet Earth to spend your life sentence." It was Mercury's voice, he sounded almost gleeful announcing the charge.

"But I didn't do it!" I protested, but to no avail.

"SILENCE!" Jupiter boomed, I could almost sense him glaring at me.

In the darkness, I felt something or someone rub against me and a whisper in my ear. Go to the place where you have been condemned to go, be strong and find the proof you need to clear your name. It sounded like Venus's voice, but I couldn't tell. I soon felt myself ripped in two, at least that was what it felt like it. I was being stripped of my supernatural-like powers and was being sent down to the planet Earth.

****

It was cold and it was wet where I woke up, off to the side of a street in some city. I felt like my mind had been wiped clean and all I wanted to do was just get out of the rain and find someplace warm and dry. I tried to fly, but my wings were soggy and somewhere in the back of my mind a voice echoed faintly. You can't fly where humans can see you. Grumbling, I decided that the voice must be right, whoever it belonged to. Trudging through the rain, I found an unusual looking female padding out of a house, she was sniffing about, perhaps looking for a mouse, when she spotted me. Her head tilted to one side in curiosity, clearly intrigued by my appearance. Boldly, she padded over to me. "You poor thing, you look soaked." She mewed. "You can stay the night with me and dry off."

"Thank you." I replied, taken aback by her unique eyes. I had to admit, I didn't think cats on Earth could have eyes like that, but apparently they could.

"So...what's you're name?" I asked, curious about this female who had just taken one look at me and decided to bring me into her human's home.

"Kyna." She said it Key-nah, the "nah" being very soft and feminine sounding.

"That's a very pretty name." I remarked, trying to make good conversation.

"What's your's?" She asked me, sounding some-what playful.

"Pluto." I told her, perhaps a little too proudly considering my situation.

"After the Disney dog or the planetoid?" She asked, looking over her shoulder at me.

Wow, they already know it's a planetoid down here? I wondered to myself, surprised, though I probably shouldn't be. They certainly work fast inserting the knowledge of my planet being a planetoid. I thought in annoyance, wishing this hadn't happened to me.

"After the planet--oid," I said, trying to cover up my mistake. "Sorry, I'm so used to it being a planet."

"It's alright," she laughed, glancing over her shoulder to flash a smile at me. "Lots of folks hate that its classification changed."

"Yeah." I said, trailing off, feeling all this small talk was getting to be too much. I had a mission to accomplish, true, I probably couldn't do it in the rain, but still, it irritated me that I couldn't get started right away.

"I was once highly respected and honored, I was in charge of my own planet, in fact I had the distinction of having it named after me, then my lovely planet of gas and ice was cruelly stripped of its title as a planet and demoted to nothing more than a planetoid and I was sent down here to this planet, Earth. My wings apparently can't be seen by humans but are visible to all other beings as punishment for killing another planet's Lord, which I most certainly did not do. I was framed, by whom I know not, but for the council of the planet cat Lords and Ladies thought that I seriously took time out of my busy schedule watching over and taking care of my beautiful planet to go kill another denizen is just....irksome! I don't usually go off like that, but with all those accusations, I just lost it. They took my anger as proof that I am capable of being angry enough to kill another Lord/Lady of the planets. I mean, I'm sure that anyone accused of such a heinous crime and was innocent would react the same way, right?" I fumed to Kyna, the cat who I had spent the night with in her house, keeping me warm and safe from the rain that still drenched the world outside her home.

"Oh yes, it's perfectly understandable." She purred, smiling at me with a look of understanding.

I looked at her questioningly. "You mean you believe me? You don't think I'm some crazy cat?" I sort of skeptical about it, but mostly I was just shocked she actually believed me. If it had been me, I would have thought I was a complete nut.

"Of course, it makes complete sense, taking into consideration your wings." She replied, giggling slightly.

"Oh, yeah. Right." I said in embarrassment, feeling rather foolish now. I knew that the humans couldn't see them, but I wasn't aware that the animals here could.

Anxiously, I looked over at the nearest window, I was praying that the rain would let up soon so that I could get on with things. I wanted to get off of this planet as quickly as possible. No offense to the Lord of Earth, but I quite preferred my own planet. Er...planetoid I guess. But I would have to find proof of my innocence soon so that I wouldn't have to die here, I used to be immortal, but that was stripped from me along with my title and abilities. If I was going to get out of this, then I was going to need to find that proof...whatever it may be.