Myth Land (unedited)

XV

'Good morning, sunshine!'

It was Sphynx's voice. I knew for sure.

Everything was mosaics for a moment, but then I could see a whole figure of Sphynx sitting next to me. We were deep in the forest right next to her tree. My tiny feet were covered with a dry lotus leaf yet still coated with the freezing thin air creeping around my toes. Guessed I fell asleep.

'Been sleeping for two days. Too much rest. Still have no inspiration of how to get the golds, uh?' she mocked.

I looked around me. It was in the middle of the day. The sun broke into the forest through tiny holes between the leaves. Made me think that it wasn't that cold.

'Since you have talent in sleepwalking, maybe you can use that to earn golds.'

'Exse mh—?' I cleared my throat. Hoarse. But still high pitched.

Throwing so many questions with my eyes, she found out that I had no idea what she talked about. She bent her neck backward—laughing—meowing like an evil cat who caught a mouse without even touching.

'You waddled to the bush where I usually hide. You got that scar on your stomach, you see?' she pointed at my stomach.

'It bled a little. Well, a little too much. I think it was because you were running. You were lucky I was already here. I saw you lost your balance. You tried to take my hand, but you missed it even when I was one step away from you, so I carried you on my back and took you here.'

My jaw dropped. My mouth started to get dry as I waited for her to laugh and said that she was joking.

'Hey, I thought you'd want to say thank you or something? I've been feeding you for like two days,' she paused, yet I still couldn't say a thing.

'I should probably thank you, too, for giving me such unique entertainment. You were sleepwalking every time you wanted to pee. Oh, and you were actually sleep-talking—'

'Kidding me! What did I say?'

'I don't know,' she shrugged her shoulder. 'Animal language undetected,' she chuckled.

She then asked me to sit on my tail to examine my body. She said that my wounds were recovering, but I still needed not to move my body too much. Nonetheless, I asked her permission to go out to look for fresh water, and I might spend some times to comfort myself in my dandelion garden. She agreed, but she wanted to go with me, so we did.

As soon as we arrived, I walked a bit fast to the flower which was dancing a bit more aggressive compared to the other flowers. I knew it was the exact same flower which always accompanied me. I threw my back to its stem, and its swaying petals fanned my body.

Sphynx, whom I thought would not like it there, seemed to be fine. She looked around—at the flowers, at some huge trees we had there, at the sky—and I could see her eyes sparkled. Reflecting the sun like never before.

'It's sad to leave my family for the second time,' I sighed.

'What?' asked Sphynx who was—I guessed—daydreaming.

'I left my family when I could choose to stay. I can go back to the Christmas tree next year.'

She turned herself back to face me.

'You still don't get it do you? You were sleeping. For two days. After the fight with a snake—what did you tell me? A krait? You ran, technically waddled, to me, and I took care of you while you were unconscious—well, subconscious. You were tired. Exhausted. And wounded. And I told you to give up, but you didn't want to.'