Myth Land (unedited)

XVI

Sphynx had the corners of her lips pulled high to her cheeks as she waited for my response.

'W—What do you mean?'

She lost her smile and groaned, 'Oh, come on, guess!'

'Are you saying that you kissed every single animal you met, and they gave you gold for every kiss?'

She smirked.

'Oh-ho-ho!' She Santa-laughed herself. 'Believe me, I did much better than hugging or kissing or giving them acts of affections. I broke into their brains and took control of their souls.'

She scared me for a while, but then she made me understood.

'When I sneaked into the Christmas tree, I figured out that these animals have one thing in common: they are depressed. They are lonely. They are tired. They are desperate. They are stressed.

And I knew that they need something to relief themselves from all the burdens they have.

Since most of the Family members were talking in human language. I wondered where they learned to speak the language, and that was the time when I found the book of human, which was hidden and buried near the Christmas tree. I made to borrow—let's say that I borrowed because I put it back every midnight and took it again at dawn—the book and learned some human words for a few days. Or maybe weeks.

Writing was hard, but I managed to be able to speak because I imitate how the Family spoke. I was to write my own book in human language to impress them, but it was too hard.

Thus, I decided to just use my voice. I had all the beautiful, beautiful things inside my head which I thought might force to push them on their knees.

Prince charming. Flawless princess. Everlasting love. Being understood. Being taken care of. Physical affection. Touching. Caressing. Kissing. Waking up in the morning with the animal you fall in love with. And all of the dreamy vague things that they had been dreaming of.

The day when I finally stepped out of the forest to look for golds, my dear Pearl, it was magical.

It was toxic.

Each and every helper came to me and made queues to get their turn to listen to my storytelling. Each of them gave me more than fifty gold leaves, and some even gave me a hundred. For only one time listening.'

I stopped her and asked, 'How can love be so toxic?'

She cringed.

'Desperate people, my Pearl, are craving to be loved. When they listen to this false picture and depiction of love, they imagine themselves as one of the characters inside, and they dive deep into the stories, then they live in their own imagination of hopes. They swim into a very deep delusion to taste the bland happiness because they simply hate realities. They escape from the fact that they are living the hard life they have never been ready to face.

Who cares if they felt drunk after listening to my story? Who cares if they started to blame their surroundings for not being sweet or gentle or sentimental enough? Who cares if they lost consciousness and failed the works they had on their tables for having too much daydreaming? I earned my golds. And that was all I needed. And they loved it.'

I shrugged my shoulder, 'Yet you still didn't make it to Myth Land.'

She nodded.

'My mistake. I made myself needed by them. Ever since that day, they want me to work for them. To cure them.'

None of us talked until sunset turned Sphynx's skin into orange. I embraced the silence, for Sphynx's eyes told much more stories than her lips did. Sure all her memories recalled. I bet it was hard to be Sphynx. She did not like meeting many people, but then people kept coming for her to listen to her fake stories which she did not even like.

I stood up and told Sphynx that I needed to look for more inspiration. She told me that she would be back to the forest, and she would not be able to help me until dawn, for she needed some sleep. We left my dandelion garden together and then went separate ways.

'Good luck and good night,' she patted my head.

I walked a bit fast to the center, but before I reached the Christmas tree, I saw familiar figures having a conversation in loud voices. I hid behind a big cubicle fit for a giraffe and sought what happened to the three silhouettes. There stood Hani, Chuckle, and Risum. I could not hear them clearly, but it was clear enough that they wanted to work together.

The problem was no matter what would happen, if they won, one of them would lose. I heard Hani tried to calm the situation down, but Risum and Chuckle could not stop fighting. Risum kept saying that Chuckle should not be selfish. All monkeys were guaranteed that they already had a place at the Christmas tree. But Chuckle said that it was only rumor. If all monkeys were guaranteed, how come her parents stayed at home and looked for fruits every day and night? Hani suggested that they needed to go back to their own helpers, and it was best for them to work by themselves, but the other two knew well that Hani's wisdom and calmness would give them so much advantage. Then they kept on yelling at each other.

Louder...

Louder...

Until their voices turned into screams.

One screamed. The other cried. Another voice made an audible gasped.

I gasped a little although it was expectable for Risum to scratch Chuckle's face. Chuckle fought back by scratching her left ear. Hani only moved backwards to avoid getting hurt by the two girls. Her silhouette became smaller and smaller as she finally ran from Risum and Chuckle. Abandoned them while they made a bet of who would die first.

Not realizing the absence of Hani, their fight became even brutal that Risum bit Chuckle's hand until she bled. If only Baboon and the Family knew about their fight, they might have sent home, for they broke the basic rule. The very first rule taught by the Family: fight back with your brain. But I shouldn't have wondered. We were only animals, and not all of us would be human.

Chuckle stopped fighting back and ran away. Risum hobbled slowly to the nearest cubicle and closed her eyes to sleep.

Under the bright moonlight when around me was dead quiet, I realized that there was someone who had also been watching the two of them fighting. That creature was hiding on a tall tree behind the cubicle where Risum slept.

It was Insulsus.

-tsl

*Hi! So here's Chapter XVI for you! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy reading it <3 Don't forget to leave any comments or give "Myth Land" some votes! I will try to constantly update the chapters in every two days, so stay tuned because Chapter XVII is coming veeerryyyy soon! Have a good day/evening!

Rise and Shine,

The Sunflower Lady