Slumber (Part 2 of 10)

Yay! Received my bonus and some long-overdue freelance payment, so don't blame me for feeling rich as full cream milk. Why, I could end up a mini-millionaire after Chinese New Year!

I kid you not, this must be close to the tenth time I'm working on this entry. Just can't stay focused for longer than 2 minutes these days! Say hel-lo to attention deficit.

I want to update religiously, really I do. It's so frustrating to have stuff on my mind and not being able to translate that into a killer post. And the story! As I've always suspected, you need to keep writing, writing, writing once the idea hits. Which is exactly what I've NOT been doing. Bleargh. Let's try get this baby going, all the same.

Jenny stared at Bo, mostly dumbfounded. Was this even her stuffed dragon?

"Teddies!" Bo bellowed. "Take her away!"

Two button-eyed teddies swooped down and lifted her.

"Take her to the Scatter Witch. She'll know what to do."

"Wait!" Jenny yelled. "This is just a dream, right?"

Bo's lips curled upwards. "Of course. I wouldn't be twelve feet tall and talking in real life, would I?"

So it was a dream. How curious. "What do you want to do with me, then?"

"I told you. I'm going to keep you awake forever. 'Cause once you fall asleep in the Land of Slumber, you wake up in the real world. And when you do...I disappear."

"B...but, I'll dream of you again tomorrow night! I always do!"

"There's no way you can be sure of that."

"I will! I promise!"

"Bah," Bo coughed up a puff of smoke. "Enough talk. I don't want this night to ever end. I have a land to rule over."

He motioned for the teddies to take her away. Screaming, kicking, Jenny suddenly felt very, very worried that this was no ordinary dream.

*****

The teddies had been carrying her close to a half hour now. She was growing sick of the sight of purple clouds.

How long more is this going to take, she wondered for the umpteenth time. The teddies didn't say anything when she asked.

Finally, they descended -rather roughly - on a clearing of soft grass. A barely-noticable sign read "THE SCATTER WITCH NEVER RESTS."

The teddies nudged her towards a sorry-looking hut. The Scatter Witch's place, no doubt about it.

"There you are, my dearie," A decidedly witchy voice fluttered from inside. "Come in, come in."

Two sharp teddy jabs didn't allow her anywhere else to go.

So up the steps she strode. When suddenly, swiftly - in half the time it takes a teddy to blink - a pair of powerful jaws snatched her into the air.