Hello, my name is Kye. I live in Galloway castle in the country of Faraway. The castle is very big and there are over a hundred rooms! The castle is in the middle of a small island in a big lake. A very narrow bridge connects it to the mainland.
I live in the castle with King Grumpy, his wife, Queen Chatty and their daughter, Butterfly, the most beautiful princess in all of fairytale land. The King sleeps almost all day long and you should hear him snoring! It’s so loud that when the wind is silent, it can be heard throughout the whole land. Maybe even the whole world!
In the country of Faraway, the King wears a beautiful royal robe, and underneath it, a dress. Yes, a real dress with a royal diamond print on it and hundreds of pleats. Underneath that he wears beautiful royal red stockings and big black royal shoes with
royal buckles. On his head he wears a royal beret with a golden crown. The Queen always wears a beautiful dress which reaches all the way to the ground, though it has far less pleats than the King’s dress does, for so much fabric could easily make her trip! On her head is a very tiny beret with a very tiny crown. Not a big crown, for that would make her hair untidy and give the royal hairdressers an even bigger task to get it curled properly each morning. Princess Butterfly wears dresses smooth as silk that dance in the wind. But when it’s cold and rainy, she much prefers to wear her cool jeans with a big sweater and her boots, so that her feet stay nice and dry when she plays outside. I am the royal cat and as you’ve maybe already noticed, I wear very beautiful boots. I will tell you how I got them. On a windy, wet day, princess Butterfly took me outside to catch frogs. Brrr, it was very cold and wet! Yuck, I did not like it at all. My paws got completely wet and quickly covered in mud. After a while I even started to sneeze. "Oh dear," said Butterfly, "I hope you don’t fall ill with the cat flu, if you do we’ll all be in bed with the sneezes! Father will be so grumpy… Hurry on back inside and I’ll get you a nice warm jug of water and tuck you in. You’ll be better tomorrow and we can resume our frog hunt then."
The next morning, however, I still felt ill. I sneezed and sneezed without end. I was shivering in my basket and became worse and weaker.
Butterfly went to her father for advice, but he immediately started grumbling. So she turned to her mother, but she was busy chatting with the neighbour from across the road, Baroness Silentia. The Baroness listened to what her mother had to say, but
could not get a world in edgewise. Bla, bla, bla, bla… She talked and talked non-stop.
After an hour Butterfly gave up. There was no other option, but to call the royal
doctor herself. She took the telephone and called the doctor, who rushed over immediately. The doctor put his bicycle against the window and came into my room without speaking a word. He closed the door behind him with a loud bang. BOOM! Butterfly was left alone in the hallway. The door only reopened half an hour later and the doctor came out. He stroked his white beard and said: "It’s nothing serious. With a little protection he’ll be back to his old self again very soon." "What sort of protection?" Butterfly asked. "Well, kitty boots of course," the doctor replied. "Kitty boots?" Butterfly asked with a surprised look. "I’ve never heard of those before!" "Yes," said the doctor, "if you want Kye to get better, you’ll have to buy him a pair of kitty boots to keep his paws dry. You’ll see he’ll be back to normal and playing outside again in no time."
Butterfly thanked the doctor and went to her father to tell him what the doctor had said. "What? Kitty boots?! What sort of nonsense is that? No chance!" said King Grumpy.
And while he was grumbling he fell back to sleep. So Butterfly went to her mother again, who was still chatting with the neighbour from across the road. She tried to tell her mother what the doctor had said, but she kept on chatting. Butterfly looked very sad and just as she wanted to walk away, Baroness Silentia said to her: "Oh, but you can buy those at the Leprechaun’s market. They have very pretty boots there, in all imaginable sizes. They are bound to have a pair to fit Kye." A heavy silence fell. Butterfly kissed Baroness Silentia’s cheek and ran out of the castle.
Fortunately the Leprechaun’s market was open that day. Butterfly walked over the market that counted hundreds of stalls. They sold all sorts of things; leprechaun’s hats to leprechaun’s pipes, leprechaun shoes and leprechaun tools. But no leprechaun’s
boots that would fit me. Butterfly became tired and it was getting late. When she passed the last stall, someone tugged her sleeve. She looked down to see a small leprechaun lady. "Are you looking for these?" the leprechaun lady asked, and from behind her back she pulled two beautiful shiny red boots with exactly the same royal diamond as on her father’s dress. Her mouth fell open with amazement and a huge smile spread over her face, she was delighted.
"How much are they?" Butterfly asked. "One gold coin," the lady replied.
"One gold coin?" Butterfly repeated in surprise. "I haven’t got that much with me. I will have to ask my father." "Very well," said the leprechaun lady. "But these are no regular boots. You will have to bring me the gold coin before noon tomorrow, or the boots will disappear forever." Butterfly took the boots, promised to bring the coin tomorrow and hurried on home. "Kye! Kye, I found them! Look at how beautiful they are! I’ll put them next to your basket, but you mustn’t wear them until tomorrow, when I will have paid for them. You’ll be better soon!"

Butterfly ran to her father and proudly told him that she had found the kitty boots at the Leprechaun’s market, but did not have enough money with her. "How much are they then?" asked her father in a surly tone. "One gold coin." "ONE GOLD COIN?! Have you lost your mind?" her father thundered. "No, no, absolutely not. Far too expensive." "But father," said Butterfly, starting to cry, "Kye won’t get better without them." Big tears rolled down her cheeks as she walked to her room, where she fell asleep sobbing.
The following morning Butterfly sat at the breakfast table with a sad look on her face. She stared on her little bowl of cereal, but couldn’t bear to eat one bite. "Father, Kye is getting worse. May I please have a gold coin? I have to bring it before
noon, if I don’t the boots will disappear and Kye will never get better." Once more a big tear rolled down her small cheek. It saddened the King to see her like that.
"Well, all right. But I want to see them first," he grumbled. Butterfly ran down the stairs and through the long corridor to my room, grabbed the kitty boots and hurried back to her father. "Oh," said King Grumpy, "but those are very beautiful indeed. Royally beautiful even." He carefully looked over the boots and held them next to his dress. "Hmmm," he mumbled. "The same royal diamond and so red… I have never seen boots this beautiful. These would look magnificent on me." The King hesitated for a moment longer and then said: "Okay, I will give you the coin. But I want you to find me a pair of boots as well. Surely the royal cat should not be wearing boots that are more beautiful than the King’s own!" As he grumbled he took a big bite from his freshly made cheese sandwich.
Butterfly grabbed her cloak and ran outside. It was nearly noon already, so she had to hurry to find the leprechaun lady. Just before noon, she saw the leprechaun lady standing on the abandoned market grounds. Butterfly ran to her and quickly gave her the gold coin.
"You know, my father really liked these boots," Butterfly told her. "He liked them so much that he asked me to find a pair for him as well." The leprechaun lady just smiled up at her, put the coin away and when the clock struck noon, she disappeared.
When she returned to the castle Butterfly came to bring me the boots. "Look Kye, you have to wear these from now on. You will never fall ill again and your sneezing will stop." I tried the boots on and oh, they were very comfortable and lovely warm!
The following morning I was already feeling much better. I ran through the long corridor to Butterfly’s room and leapt onto her bed.
"Come sleepy head! We’re going out to catch frogs, it’s raining outside!"
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