»Did you have a good time reading the book last night?«
Tika's father asked,
innocently rolling some marshmallows
over the fire.

»Yes, we did!«
Tika exclaimed.

»I want to live in Cigolon one day.«
Angie wore a sad face.

»Yes, Daddy!« Tika beamed,
»they have this crazy princess Mela.. ehm.. Aniemel there.
And Shura, the magician who can make all dreams come true.«
Tika sounded so sure of this.

Tika's father laughed.
Did he really believe that
this book is only a story?

»Do you remember all the fun we had
together with Melanie this summer?«
Tika's mother suddenly asked.
The girls started to laugh at the memories and soon
the all found themselves
singing happy songs until once more
it became time for bed.

When Tika's mother sent them into the tent,
they both looked unhappy at first.
They wanted to talk some more,
laugh some more
and sing some more, but
being good children
they finally gave in.

After having brushed their teeth
they retreated into the cozy tent for
a beautiful night's sleep.

Tika and Angie both fell asleep quicker
than their cat Betecee, which
was highly unusual.

Highly unusual was also
that all three of them
were soon to have
the same dream.



CHAPTER THREE

»Angie?!«
Tika called,
»Angie, wake up! Everything is
yellow! Are we in your dream,
or is it mine?«

Angie opened her eyes and
looked around.

They found themselves inside an enormous
yellow balloon with Betecee between them
floating in the night sky.
They brushed past
bright stars, the clouds and the moon.

»Where are we and why
are we inside a balloon?« Angie wondered,
»can we jump down and
go back to bed, please?«

Tika held tightly to her cat,
ready to jump out of the gigantic balloon.
»The magic rules say that
you can only super-jump up, but
never down into bed,«
Tika replied with a defeated look,
»apart from that we're already
too far from the ground.«

The girls were a bit worried about
this journey
and being trapped in a balloon.

Suddenly, the balloon took them to a place
deeper in the skies with
an extraordinary film of sunlight and fresh
clean air.

The girls noticed the beauty of this place right away.
They saw trees and fields, but the entrance
to this land was blocked by
a very turbulent river.

»I am really scared, Tika,
where are we?« Angie asked and
noticed her friend's smiling face.

»Look! Look at that signpost at
the beginning of the river!«
Tika pointed at a huge black signpost with
some words written on it.

''The Great Princessdom of Cigolon''
Angie gasped as she read the words aloud.
Just then, the enormous balloon began to
descend towards
the middle of the river.

»No! Please, yellow balloon!
Don't drop us into the river!«
Angie cried.

»Hey, big fat balloon, I don’t know who you are,
but take me back to my bed!«
Betecee screamed at the top of his voice in a mixture of
human-ish and cat-ish.

The yellow balloon burst
and let Betecee
and the girls down.



CHAPTER FOUR

»AAAARGH,«
the girls screamed as they fell
towards the river.

Suddenly, a flying creature caught them
on her back and flew them
away from the river into the Princessdom.

»Is this real? A flying horse?«
Angie's eyes grew wide.

»Wow, I don't believe it!
It's a unicorn!«
Tika's mouth fell open.

»Hi girls, my name is Kayla and
I am a flying horse,«
Kayla, the flying horse said, »but pleeeeease..
I'm not a unicorn! Do I look pink or
scatter sherbet powder?«
Kayla laughed like a horse.
»Don't be scared, you entered the magical land, not
through the usual pajamas waterfall, but
through the backdoor.
You're back
in Cigolon.«

The girls calmed down and began
to enjoy themselves.
It was only that
back on Earth, horses don’t fly and
horses don't talk!
Angie and Tika knew already
that in this magical land
things weren't always what they looked like
at first,
but every time they returned
they needed to remind themselves of it.

»You two are friends of our princess, right?«
Kayla, the flying horse asked.

»Yes,« Tika nodded,
»we have already helped her with
her letters and numbers,« she added.

»Then welcome back! Yoo-hoo!«
Kayla flapped her wings faster as she took the kids to
the most beautiful places around.
Tika and Angie enjoyed the ride tremendously.

»Tell us, Kayla,« Angie asked,
»how is Princess Aniemal these days?«

»Very good and as beautiful and confused
as ever,« Kayla replied,
»you will be seeing her soon.«

»Are you taking us her now?
Tika wanted to know.

»No,« Kayla said,
»first of all I am taking you to
Sirap-Beyond-The-Pond. Someone else
is waiting to greet you.«

The girls cheered and clapped their hands as
Kayla flew them over sharp mouthed rocks and flat hills.
They were excited as she took them over rivers.
Whenever Kayla flew below huge trees,
they got to pluck some fruits.

»What fruit is this?«
Angie held a golden round fruit.

»It's an elipin,«
Kayla replied.

»What's an elipin?«
Tika stared at the fruit in her hand.

»A wisdom orange. If you take it,
you'll get to be wiser than you already are,«
Kayla explained to the kids.

»Wow, we would love to be wiser than we already are!«
Tika shouted with joy.

Without hesitating,
both girls bit into the juicy elipins.
»Yummy! Super delicious!«
Angie and Tika licked their lips happily.



C O N T I N U E