Myth Land (unedited)

III

The day went dark as we all felt tired of trying to cheer Philip up. I wasn't tired of talking since Sophie was the one who did the work. She was an enchanting female deer indeed. Her voice sounded like a mother who knows how to comfort her kids whenever they feel sad. She has an angelic tone in her voice every time she spoke. Although she listened to Philip's whines most of the time, she calmed each and every of us with some proverbs that I have no idea where she got. And yet her motherly aura didn't fit her fresh and young appearance.

While Golden, Philip, and I were listening to Sophie, Hyena was busied making marks on the ground with her claws. I peeked and saw her arranging the schedule of which of us would have the turn to look for food or clean water starting from the next day to the day after. Hyena, in my opinion, was a natural leader. She liked to take control and made sure that everything went according to plan.

At the same time, Fronisi was floating and letting himself being dragged by the gentle wind, yet I knew he never took his time to relax. I saw his eyes glancing around the area of the cubicles with his sharp dark golden eyes. It was as if he proved me that the stereotype of owls was right: observant and wise. Looking at him made me wonder of how many owls had been sent to Myth Land so far.

And Decorus... Decorus only sat and listened. Just like other wolves. He only talked to other wolves.

Not long after I finished studying my own friends, the others were starting to have their eyes half closed. A few moments later, I watched them slept soundly without moving their body a bit from where they were a minute ago (well, Fronisi fell onto the top part of the box). I walked to the very corner of our cubicle which was showered by the moonlight. As I gave myself up to the light, I was starting to remember home. If mama were here, she must have been cooking for dinner and dragged my feet to the living room because I would refuse to eat. Or maybe she would bring a handful of grains to my room and made a sad face so that I would stuff all of them inside my mouth and not left a single grain on the ground. Remembering home reminded me of my brother and sister, who had left us to Myth Land. I realized that once you go there, you'll never come home. Good, heaven, you won't even need to miss home! You'll have a better there, after all—or at least that's what I believed.

The next thing I knew, my eyes were burnt by the reddish cheeks of sun that was too shy to arise. Beside me was Philip whose hands were rubbing one and another as if it was cold that day. His chubby cheeks almost fell out of his face. His lips were parted a little while he was staring at me.

'What?' I asked him while still lying on the ground.

'I-i-it's... half p-p-past furrr... in the murrning.'

I waited for him to say something else. But there was only an awkward silence. He only winked once.

'Thanks, Philip,' I got on my tail and looked at the stream. Golden was splashing the ground with water as though he was taking a bath in a bath tub.

When I got all of my consciousness, I could see my friends gathered around something on the ground which I couldn't see. I approached them and saw a quite large piece of leaf was stretched on the ground. Fronisi, with his wings holding his body in the air, read the writings carved on the leaf.

'OK, good, everyone's here. Ready—ahem!'

We pulled ourselves closer to Fronisi.

'This is your official second day of the competition. How's your life going? We hope that you are gifted with very warm team. We want to remind you that this competition is all about using your brain, so eating your team-mate is unnecessary if your goal is to decrease the number of competitors, well, of course, unless you're just hungry.