The sun’s bright rays of light reflect off the pond and shine on the humans’ house. The glass sliding door in the back of the house reflects the image of the television set. The grass is green and the sky quite clear, with just a few big white cotton balls floating amidst the ocean of blue. The trees surrounding the yard sway gently in the breeze, creating a brushing sound as the leaves rub against each other. Over by these trees, a kitten and a turtle are playing on this beautiful day.

“Three, two, one, ready or not here I come!” shouted Felix the kitten. Winston, the turtle, was hiding in his shell by a pile of big dirty rocks next to the trees, hoping to blend in. Felix jumped up and starting roaming around the yard, searching for Winston’s dark brown bumpy shell. He first walked around the pond, but no Winston. Then he walked around the house and looked under the porch, still no Winston. Felix was starting to get very eager to find Winston. He ran over to the trees and walked very slowly by them. “He’s got to be in here somewhere,” Felix thought. He walked back and forth along the line of trees, scanning every inch.

Something then caught Felix’s eye. There was a pile of rocks next to a big oak tree, and one of the rocks just didn’t quite fit in. All of the rocks were gray, but this rock was more of a brown color. He approached the pile to get a closer look. Once he got within a foot of the rocks, he realized that the rock that looked out of place was not a rock at all! It was Winston! He could tell by the texture and patterns of its oval shape.

Felix crept up slowly, making as little noise as he could. Then, he jumped on top of Winston’s shell. “Ha! I found you!”

“Oh no! I thought I fooled you for sure this time!” replied Winston, poking his head out of his shell.

Felix rubbed his furry head against Winstons. “I love playing hide and seek with you Winston, you are my best friend.”

“Hey that tickles!” Winston giggled.

Felix jumped around laughing as Winston’s feet and tail popped out of his shell and he stood up.

“Let’s race!” exclaimed Felix.

“That’s not fair, you are much faster than me!” Winston replied indignantly.

“Come on!” shouted Felix as he took off running across the yard.

Winston sighed and followed him. Felix slowed down a little so Winston could keep up. They ran in circles, Winston behind Felix, around the yard. Then Felix decided to go through the trees to the other side, where there was a field of bright flowers.

Felix was running joyously through the flowers when he looked back and saw Winston off in the distance. He decided to wait for him and sat down.

“Ouch!” a voice screamed.

Felix jumped up. “What? Who’s there?!” he shouted, looking around him.

“I’m down here, you sat on me!”

Felix looked down and saw a beautiful golden flower. “Oh! I’m terribly sorry! I didn’t even realize…”

“No, no, no, it’s perfectly fine, it wasn’t your fault,” the flower interrupted. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Felix, what’s yours?”

“Sylvia.”

“You are a really beautiful flower Sylvia.”

“Thank you very much Felix.”

By this time Winston caught up with Felix, out of breath. “I don’t know where you get all of that energy from Felix!” he said.

“Ha! I never run out of energy Winston,” Felix laughed. “Oh, Winston, meet my new friend, Sylvia.”

“Hello,” Winston said looking over at Sylvia.

“Hello,” she replied.

“So, what is it like being a flower?” Felix asked.

“It’s quite nice really, I get to sit here all day and just soak up the sun’s rays. And I am always surrounded by my friends and family. The only problem is, it is very easy to get stepped on, and that really, really hurts. No one really watches their step, they just don’t care,” Sylvia sighed.

“Oh my, that’s terrible!” both Felix and Winston gasped.

“Yes it is. No one hears our cries either, so they don’t realize how much they are hurting us. But, I think they could hear you guys! Will you help us?

“Yes, we’d be glad to help.”
“Oh, thank you so much! There has been a horse that has been galloping around here lately. He has trampled hundreds of us so far. I have been lucky though, I haven’t been trampled yet. Anyways, he usually comes around this time.”
They all sat there in silence for what seemed like a very long time. Felix kept watch over the flowers, waiting for the horse. And then, sure enough, a horse appeared from the wall of trees and took of running threw the flowers.

“There he is!” Sylvia exclaimed.

Felix broke out into a sprint towards the horse, Winston slowly bringing up the rear. The horse was very far away, so it was going to be hard for Felix to catch up.

“Wow he sure is fast,” Felix thought.
After minutes of chasing he finally caught up to the horse. “Stop!” he yelled.
The horse stopped. “What?” He looked down and saw Felix.

“You have to stop running through here! You are trampling all of these flowers! It really, really hurts them! Can’t you hear them crying?!”

“No, I can’t.”

”Well they are.”

”Oh my goodness, I had no idea! I am so, so sorry flowers!” Then he slowly walked away, watching his every step.

Winston just now caught up with Felix, “What happened?! Did you tell him to stop?”

“Yup, and he is going to stop. He also apologized to the flowers.” They then walked back to Sylvia together.

“Thank you so very much!” she cried. “We no longer have to live in fear!”

“I’m just glad to have helped out,” Felix said with a smile.

A few days later Felix and Winston saw the horse again. They walked over and talked to him. The horse’s name was Fred and he was very kind. He kept saying how terrible he felt about the flower ordeal. Felix and Winston told him that it wasn’t his fault because he didn’t realize what he was doing. Fred slowly started to feel better about it.
About a week later, Felix and Winston talked to Sylvia and the rest of the flowers. They asked them if they could forgive Fred for what he did. Felix told them that it wasn’t intentional and that Fred felt very badly about it. The flowers were all very kind; it didn’t take long to convince them to forgive Fred.

After this, Felix and Winston brought Fred out to the field of to meet Sylvia and the rest of the flowers. The flowers were all very nice to Fred. They told him that they forgive him and befriended him. Fred was ecstatic.

“I can’t believe I ever hurt such beautiful and kind things,” Fred told Felix later that day.

“Yeah, they really are beautiful, and nice,” Felix mused.

“Thank you very much Felix and Winston, for helping me realize what I was doing. You two are great animals,” Fred said.

“No problem Fred. It was our pleasure,” they replied.

And so, Felix, Winston, Fred, Sylvia, and the rest of the flowers all played for the rest of their days and lived together in happiness.