Dreamy Holyday - Part 2

Martha still dragged Amelia along. They had left the beach behind and now, they were walking through a forest. Since Amelia was getting more and more sleepy by the minute, Martha became more and more exhausted. Finally, they reached a clearing in the woods. Here, several strange creatures were lying on the ground, sleeping. There was a female deer-centaur leaning against a sleeping tree-woman. A giant, female totem-golem sat in one corner of the clearing, asleep also. In the middle of the clearing, Amelia and Martha saw an Asian woman (from her clothes, probably Chinese), a sleeping cat-girl and a mouse-girl, both cuddling with each other. Amelia shied back at the sight of the cat girl, but Martha stepped closer and woke up the Chinese woman.

"Good morning, miss! Sorry to wake you, but can you tell us the way to the palace?" Martha asked.

Slowly, the woman awoke. "Ni hao! My name is Liu. May I know your name?" she said in rather old-fashioned English.

"How rude of me! My name is Martha. I'm a genie."

"Oh! I thought you came from the human world, too. Probably fleeing from the same, terrible war." Liu said, disappointed.

"Actually, we came from that world. But we didn't flee from a war. What war are you referring to?"

"The Japanese invasion of China, of course. I'm from the British colony of Hong Kong. After the Japanese sacked the city on Christmas 1941, life became unbearable. I was lucky to find a portal to this world." Liu explained.

"You have been here since 1941?" Martha asked. "That's 72 years ago!"

Liu was astonished. "What? Say, is the war over? Is Hong Kong British again?"

"Well... the war is over and Japan lost. But, in 1997, Hong Kong was handed back to the Chinese." Martha summed up what she knew about the history of Hong Kong.

"Ah, so General Chiang Kai Shek is back in power, or at least his successors?"

"Er, no. Mao Zedong proclaimed it the Peoples Republic in, I think, 1949." Martha explained.

"So the communists are ruling China, now. I guess no need to go back, then." Liu said. She didn't sound sad, just a bit resigned.

"Do I get it right that you spent the last 72 years in this world?" Martha asked. "Don't get me wrong, but you don't look that old."

"Oh, that's one of the unique qualities of this place. You age only very slowly here. Maybe that's because we sleep most of the time."

"I've seen a lot of sleeping women here. One of my friends fell asleep and I couldn't wake her. That's why we are looking for the palace, to talk to the goddesses."

"I don't think they will be of any great help. But if you want to go, just follow that path. You can't miss the palace. " Liu said. "Please let me go back to sleep. Why don't you give it a try yourself? This place is actually really nice."

"Er, no. But thank you for the directions." While Liu drifted into sleep again, Martha looked for Amelia.


While Martha was talking to Liu, Amelia had overcome her fear and decided to rescue the other mouse girl. "Quick, wake up. Get away from the terrible cat girl."

"Yawn! Calm down." the other mouse girl answered. "She won't do anything to me. The golems won't allow it." The other mouse girl pointed towards a sleeping female totem-golem on the edge of the clearing. "The golems make sure that nobody is harmed."

"You say this is a place where no mouse should fear a cat?" Amelia asked.

"Exactly! Why don't you lay down and have a nap, too?"

Amelia thought for a moment. It was tempting, for sure: A place with no worries, no cats to fear (though cats hardly represent a threat to her, anymore) and no boyfriend troubles. In addition, she felt tired again. "Maybe you're right..." Amelia placed her towel on the ground and laid down.

"Amelia, no!" Martha hurried to her friend. She shook her frantically. "Don't fall asleep. Something's wrong here."

"No, Martha. Everything's fine. I just want to sleep for a bit." Amelia replied. Then she fell into a deep sleep again.

Martha was close to panicking. "Hold on, Amelia. I'll find the goddesses and rescue you. And Babette, too." Martha hurried from the clearing to find the palace of the goddesses.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Part 1: [link]

Part 3: [link]
Part 4: [link]
Part 5: [link]
Part 6A: Accept Babettes choice. [link]
Part 6B: Try to rescue Babette. [link]

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The story is set in the World of SSU by and