3. Timeless Wishes

The longer Sotho and Mindy collaborated, the more he thought he understood her work. She placed some machine on all the corners, pressed a button, and suddenly a perfect drawing of the environment rolled out of the machine!

Then she’d start a different machine that changed the drawing every second, especially when she pressed even more buttons. Sometimes she said “aaah” and was happy; sometimes she said “uuugh” and shut down the machine.

He wanted to help, yes, but exhaustion overwhelmed him after carrying five objects. Even though those had been tiny petri dishes without content.

Mindy talked, a lot, but he couldn’t understand. He mostly responded by saying “Wish Fulfiller” again. He grew frustrated that she didn’t understand he wanted to look for that person now.

She said something hopeful after another measurement.

He repeated for the hundredth time: “Wish Fulfiller! Now!”

But every conversation ended before it properly started. It was impossible to accomplish anything. His frustration grew until he felt the need to throw a few of those tools.

He’d seen it a few times now: what happened when you touched the Curse. You had a short window of time before there was no way back. Mindy had only touched it briefly and seemed unchanged. So maybe …

His claw grabbed Mindy’s wrist. His other claw reached for the Curse.

He touched it, ignored the buzzing of overwhelming magical power through his body, and spoke rapidly:

“IwantsearchforWishFulfillernow.”

And he pulled away. He looked at Mindy’s face: yes, he still knew her, all was well. If it had gone wrong, he’d now think he stood in the Curse Circle alone.

Mindy collected her courage and did the same. As her fingertips touched he Curse, she spoke:

“Howorwhat?”

“Creatureorthing. Magicalglow. HiddeninSlumerlandsaylegends.”

Both stepped away from the curse and studied their hands. The touch felt as if your fingers burned, but that wasn’t the reality.

Another sloth fell from their branch high in the air.

Sotho used the moment to jump on the elevator with Mindy. Mindy nodded, but did she really understand? He had no idea.

He hung in the ropes and relaxed from the heavy work. Mindy tirelessly pointed out different parts of his stupid territory. She was excited about the large wooden branches, which connected to each other and made all of Slumberland one big machine. If someone fell on a branch with some speed, it would bend, which would bend the branches to which it was connected, which would pull on a rope, which would set in motion a whole series of changes that eventually lifted the elevator.

There were parts of Slumberland they still didn’t understand themselves. Branches they’d pushed and pulled for days, knowing it should do something, but they didn’t know what. Only a few months ago, Lothan accidentally discovered there were wooden buttons below the ferns. When pressed, the pushed the Treetowers away from each other, like opening the roof of Slumberland.

He hoped Mindy’s human eyes might see more. Because sloth eyes fell shut oh so easily …

She said “ooooh” about the treetops. They came in many bright colors—natural enough to not hurt your eyes, but different enough to create a painting from the skies. Sotho had thought that all trees looked like that for years, until he learned that there were boring brown and green trees on the border of Slumberland.

When the elevator stopped, Mindy looked down once and went white as a sheet. She clung to the ropes and didn’t notice Sotho had shuffled to the Branchbridges. Those wobbly vertical tree trunks had been built in places where you had to climb upwards. And where the cable cars—which worked on gravity—would not work.

Mindy crawled over that bridge like a baby, refusing to look to the side.

All lazy gods! How they had been wrong about those humans. They feared everything! He could give her a push now and—brrr, he’d never do that.

They arrived at the tallest of Treetowers. Magical flowers encircled it, hiding the tree trunk and the complex wooden machinery inside. This made the entire area look like a soft bed, shaped like a twisting staircase to the canopy.

There, Mindy discovered the goal of this long journey.

The tree was hollow on the inside. Someone had once lived in this cozy room, but departed long ago. Many connections were built along the edge, but the branches and ropes that were supposed to attach to the other machines had snapped or shattered. All sloths had decided, long ago, that it was no impossible for them to attach this tree to the others again.

At least, that’s what Sotho saw. He now studied Mindy’s face. She had only just arrived. She had only just started her relationship with the Wish Fulfiller—so, if that creature still lived here, then she must be able to see them.

Mindy wiped her sweaty hands on her lab coat. She stepped inside, her eyes fixed in one clear spot: the comfortable lounging chair. Yes, yes, that’s where a sloth would be!

Oh, he’d been stupid. He should’ve stated his exact wish far more clearly. Now … now Mindy might make a really weird wish! Or only think about herself! Brrr. Truly what a human would do.

Sotho followed closely, breathlessly.

But Mindy walked past the chair, to a circular wooden object that leaned against the back wall. Not normal wood, no. This was Dragonwood. Magical, stronger, and probably better in every way. Sotho recognized it because it had been used for most of their machines.

Her fingers caressed the deep grooves—

A door in the object suddenly opened and pushed her backward. A white panda stumbled out of the object and was petrified at the sight of the visitors.

“Oh,” said the panda. “Thought nobody visited here. My apologies for the mess.”

Mindy tapped her ear; Sotho nodded.

They could both understand her.

“W-What are you?” stammered Mindy.

“A panda. You’d think a biologist like you—”

“H-How do you know me?”

The panda rolled her eyes. “I am Ismaraldah, Goddess of Time. We will meet each other a lot, in your future.”

“Are you the Wish Fulfiller?” asked Sotho. Adoration colored his voice.

“If only I were,” she mumbled. She closed the door and hid her circular clock home more carefully this time.

Mindy sought support from the chair. “Sorry, but, this … this is a bit much. Time? As in time travel? Pandas who can speak human language—”

“Yes, yes, no. I’m only here because a fixed point is coming. About … now. Though I can be off by a few days, weeks, or millennia.”

“Fixed point?”

“Something very important is about to happen her. So important that it will always happen, no matter how often I change the timeline.”

She looked away, a tear forming. “And yet I will try to change it anyway.”

Silence reigned for several minutes. Then Ismaraldah swallowed, wiped away the tear, and smiled at them.

“Sorry, this was not the warmest of welcomes. I am glad to see you again, Mindy!”

“I never met you before!”

“We will do great things together,” said the Panda, as she hooked her soft paws into Mindy’s arms. “What, again, did you say about a Wish Fulfiller?”

“Legends say it lives in Slumberland,” said Sotho. “But half of us can’t remember it. Or maybe they died when this tree home was attacked.”

“Attacked?”

“Why else would all the ropes and wood be shattered? Slumberland is stupid. There’s probably another Curse, or a monster that attacks sloths, or something. Brrr. I’m going to wish that the Curse disappears! And everything will be better!”

“Curse?” Ismaraldah pointed all around her. “Slumberland was blessed by the gods! Look how beautiful it is!”

Mindy had calmed herself down. She dared tap Ismaraldah’s shoulder no. “He means it. The Curse is real.”

“Hmm. Show me.”

Sotho, by habit, traveled down using the trusted approach called “fall and hit a few branches”. Ismaraldah and Mindy did not trust their bones to survive that and took a longer route. Over Branchbridges, cable cars, slides, and even a climbing wall woven from violets and roses.

Still they reached the ground before Sotho. He had stopped along the route. Sticking to a small branch, he looked at something with sadness in his eyes.

Almost all sloths had gathered in the large, open tree home called Treetower 22. Unheard of! What would they be doing? They were burning their relationships like a forest fire!

Their conversations grew louder. Lothan stepped to the center and even made movements with his arms. The energy! The effort! Brrr.

“What are they saying?” Mindy asked Ismaraldah.

The panda had to lean forward, crawling over Sotho as if he were part of the furniture, to really hear it. Her ears pricked and her face contorted.

She swung back and pinched Mindy’s hand sweetly.

“Oh, nothing, nothing of importance.”

Sotho frowned at her. “They have decided that Mindy is an untrustworthy human and must be erased. She knows too much now! They claim she’s bewitched me! My best friend is calling me a traitor!”

Ismaraldah refused to translate this for Mindy. And so the young woman climbed down, humming and singing, to study the Curse again.