Why Is There An Alien Princess In My Room? (ONC 2023 - Alien Romance - Complete)

Celebration Bonus Chapter: Bobby Comes Along

As some of you may have already seen, this story was one of the Grand Winners of ONC (placing 5th! I'm still in shock about this, as I never thought a silly story such as this had a chance of placing. But I'm also really happy I chose to write this story (as I actually started another ONC first, and then had this idea that I just had to try). Thank you to everyone who's read this story and encouraged me along the way!

To celebrate, I decided to finally write that Bobby chapter I promised before (since I can now update the story without risking ONC disqualification), featuring how she ended up on that field in the end. And it also contains some new intel that was a revelation also for me...

I also wanted to take the opportunity to talk about my future plans for this story. Because obviously, this can't be the end! Right now, I'm prepping some stories for Wattys, but after that, my plan is to start on part 2 of this story. My vision is that this will be a trilogy, taking a journey from Earth, to Coi, and later to Vyrsa's home planet. We'll check in on SquidBowl, say hi to Vyrsa's family, and see what the cats of space are up to.

I'm planning to put 2 and 3 as parts of this book as well (to make it eligible for Wattys eventually, since each part in itself would be too short), so if you want to know when the next part commences, just keep this story archived in your library :)

But now, without further ado, here is the missing Bobby chapter:

***

A hint of a breeze hit Bobby's sensitive whiskers, alerting her keen cat senses. Somewhere, a door or window was left open, making it possible for her to sneak outside for yet another adventure. Sure, she was still sleepy from her scuffle with Frances the poodle, but adventure waited for no one.

After opening her jaws into a giant jawn, she stretched her paws in front of her to warm up before exiting Brody's wardrobe. Because of the ruckus in Tristan's room earlier, this was where she'd escaped, curling up on top of his favorite black hoodie. She preferred to sleep atop dark clothing which contrasted nicely against her white and orange fur, which she left on the fabric as a reminder of who her servants belonged to. No other pesky cat would try to claim Brody if he walked around wearing a layer of her fur on his clothing.

With an agile jump, Bobby descended from the closet, using her magnificent feline night vision to navigate through the dark apartment. It appeared to still be nighttime but yet, no one was around. She couldn't smell any of the distinct scents lingering around her approved guardians. No Brody. No Tristan. No Vyrsa.

What if Bobby needed to be fed? Obviously, no one had thought about that before leaving her all alone. Her minions obviously needed more training to understand their responsibilities. Her work was never finished.

But Bobby wasn't hungry right now. No, she was keen on adventure. She knew her staff didn't like her going outside, which was a silly notion, because who were they to decide what she did? Unfortunately, though, her paws couldn't operate the mechanisms on the openings leading to the adventure-filled outside, where birds chirped and squirrels jumped.

Curiously, she found the front door left ajar. Usually, Brody and Tristan were annoyingly meticulous with closing the door behind them. Although she supposed maybe it was a good thing, since she'd observed some of the other hooligans living on the campus through the window. She didn't want them coming into her castle of feline reign.

Luckily, she couldn't spot any good-for-nothing lawless humans in the hallway when she peeked outside. Perhaps they were all asleep at this hour. So why were then Tristan and Vyrsa out and about?

The hallway carpet was soft and bouncy against Bobby's nimble paws, making it possible for her to quickly reach the stairs toward the bottom floor. She descended it in a few quick strides, using her expert stair technique, rabbit jumping with her back legs while her front legs alternated sides with each step.

Once she'd made her way down, she heard noises. Muted voices from right outside the doors. So there were some residents wide awake after all. A stinging scent permeated the air, making Bobby wriggle her nose in disgust. She couldn't understand why humans would voluntarily light those weird-smelling sticks and put them in their mouths. To her, it smelled vile.

But the smokers were a blessing in disguise, as the shadowy figures lurking outside had left the door cracked. Which made it possible for Bobby to reach up high and put her paws in between the door and the frame, creating an opening big enough for a cat. Once the door was open, she galloped outside, avoiding the cloud of smoke lingering around the exit. As she ran, she heard some shouts behind her, calling out something about a damn cat being in the building.

Well, Bobby wasn't in the building. She was outside of it. Free to hunt for rats in the trash and birds in the trees. But as her fine-tuned nose caught a whiff of a familiar scent, she forgot all about rats and birds.

There was a distinct trail of Tristan's smell leading across the campus. Bobby wondered what he was doing outside. Since humans were nearly blind in the dark, at least compared to cats, they rarely ventured outside in the darkness. So perhaps, he needed her expert kitty help.

Good help was hard to find these days, so Bobby valued Tristan for his pampering efforts.

Trotting across an empty campus, void of both movement and sound, Bobby spotted a glimmer in the sky. Jumping up on a bench, she observed what appeared to be a vessel descending on her home. It glistened like the stars she saw at night. That must be where it came from.

Just like her.

For thousands of generations, catkind had told their young of the sparkling world beyond this one. A world where they were revered as gods and ruled over planets. That's the world they descended from before a vessel filled with their kind plummeted to this planet. The reason for this incident was unknown but the prevailing theory was that one of the cats aboard had rolled on the spaceship's keyboard, changing its trajectory. The story had become part of their DNA, as much a part of them as flickering whiskers and curling toe beans.

Cats knew their place in the universe. But humans didn't. One day, it would be a shock to them all to discover they were just a flicker in a world filled with light.

With a newfound sense of urgency, Bobby ran toward the light. It was brighter now, stinging her retinas as she got closer to the giant green field that it hovered above. She'd zoomed across that field many times when she still lived in the dumpster outside the residence building, expelling her energy in preparation for a nap. But the field looked much different now, drowning in light from the stars.

In the middle of the light stood two figures. Bobby recognized them, both with her eyes and her nose. It was Tristan and Vyrsa, about to be consumed by the interstellar beam. Instinctively, as if the knowledge had been inherited from interstellar feline travelers from long ago, Bobby knew the light would beam them far away.

She couldn't let them go alone. They would need her, and her inherited knowledge of the stars.

So Bobby ran. She ran with the speed of a cat just exiting its litter box. She ran toward the home of her ancestors. She ran toward the stars.

See you in part 2...

And if anyone wonders why Bobby didn't know Vyrsa was from space already, if she knows so much about space, the answer is that Bobby is simply used to her humans doing weird stuff and she usually doesn't concern herself with it too much. So Vyrsa appearing in the apartment wasn't really something that was more than a blip on her cat radar, as she was more focused on getting fed in time, making sure the bottom of her bowl wasn't visible, and meowing incessantly in the middle of the night. You know, crucial cat stuff.