Dagon turned to greet the man, however as he did so, Shida could see it in his eyes that he was desperately trying to remember a name that connected to the face right in front of him, and still came up short, even though he was way too polite to mention that he had actually forgotten it.
However, the driver seemed to be a somewhat savvy guy too, as he mentioned,
“It’s Ian. I used to go to school with Mary. We met a couple of times when you were in town visiting, but only ever in passing,” he informed, clearly not all too broken up about not being recognized. And in his endless need to try and make friendly conversation, Ian of course ended up accidentally stuffing his foot into his mouth, as he continued, “I hope things have been going well for you two. I remember how surprised I was when she brought you home that first time, but hey, you always seemed quite happy together, so I thought ‘hey, good for her’.”
“Ahh… uhm… it’s appreciated Ian. Unfortun-” Dagon started to respond before correcting himself, “Mary and I are… well… after a rough turn of events with her family and other private circumstances… our future moving forward may only be a professional one. But Mary and I have had a long conversation and we are still on positive terms. Very much so.” he managed to diplomatically respond.
“Oh uh…darn. Sorry to hear that,” Ian mumbled, seemingly unprepared for an honestly negative answer from one of his patrons. “I mean good, I mean, uhh- You know. Good thing that you ended it on good terms and all that, but sorry that it didn’t work out. And uh, all that.”
He cleared his throat and affixed his eyes to the road, quietly driving on for some time as that had apparently thoroughly tied up his tongue.
“It’s really alright. Honestly, it’s better that certain things came to light now rather than later. It’s for the best for everyone involved. Except Mary’s mother of course… but I don’t think she’s going to be much of an issue anymore.” Dagon attempted to smooth over the mood before peeking over to the women, “So… you two alright?” he asked.
Chak blinked, being pulled away from her daydreaming.
“Oh, yes. Mostly. Just… a little more sore…” Chak answered, not wanting to reveal specifics of the crazy events to their driver. She turned back out to face the window, now paying a bit more attention to the happenings outside the vehicle.
“No complaints from my side,” Shida lied, as her chest still particularly ached, even after her wound had magically closed again. The memory itself also wasn’t particularly nice, even without the attached bodily problems. “Just in a bad mood, I guess.”
Chak froze up next to Shida as her eyes scoured the people they drove by. She swears that every tenth or so person stopped whatever they were doing to look at her. A few odd curious glances were more than reasonable, but the cold dead looks she felt like she was receiving so consistently gave her the confirmation that they were at the very least being watched.
She backed away from the window as she swears she saw a repeat of the same people, somehow in a different place playing a different acted scenario. One moment a man in a green sweater and blue hat is eating outside with ‘friends’, then the next he is stepping out of a barber shop laughing at something that was said behind him. Then it was a short woman with a thick hoodie who was playfully having a half-hearted snowball fight and then suddenly was walking a dog across a crosswalk just a few blocks down.
Each and every time these people glanced up at Chak, the Princess couldn’t figure out if they were more copies of the same person, or if they were teleporting to maintain visual on the vehicle. Honestly, she didn’t know which answer was worse.
Regardless, how had she not picked up on this till now? Especially when walking around the block with Shida before and after their encounter. Was it just less noticeable to her at a slower pace? Did Shida already pick up on it? Or was she just as clueless as Chak was up to this point? Of course they all knew that these clones were out there and more than likely kept watch on them, but actually noticing them doing it shook the Princess’s core.
It’s like these things existed in the background, knowing how to play a part at a distance. But once you started paying attention, repetitions were all too noticeable.
“None of us should be alone from here on out.” she reiterated their previous understanding in a low whisper.
Shida nodded without removing her lazy gaze from the direction it had been staring at for the past several minutes as they drove along.
“Tell me something new,” she mumbled, as a glint of light reflected in her eyes. It was like someone had been shining a flashlight at the car, even though it was the middle of the day. Although, when Chak looked out of the window to search for a source, she couldn’t see anything of the like within the vaguely repeating scene outside. “Let’s get to the others quickly.”
They easily heard the crowd before seeing it. And the unfortunately familiar ranting voice amplified by a megaphone was apparently still at it since Zithra and Mary’s arrival. Dagon leaned his head back again, begging the universe to give him a break.
“Could you take us ‘round back, Ian? Best to avoid the potential mob.” he requested.
“Already on it,” Ian replied under his breath as he brought the car around a corner, his concerned eyes affixed to the crowd for a mere moment. “You weren’t kidding about ol’ lady Light, huh?”
“Nope,” Shida said from the back seat. “And that’s not even the half of it.”
“Or an eighth of it…” Doodle mumbled, recalling his time wounded while having to listen to the entirety of that vile woman’s ranting to her hurt husband.
The vehicle pulled up near the storage truck and Dagon opened his wallet.
“Here’s your additional tip without your higher ups taking a cut, I really appreciate this.” he said, feeling guilty for potentially pulling this man so close to world shaping horrors beyond comprehension. Leaving twice the amount that the total trip costed, Dagon quickly hurried out in a limp with grave concern that someone involved in the protest could see them and get a bad idea.
“Thanks, neighbor. Appreciate you,” Ian nodded back at Dagon with a wide smile while everyone else got out of the car. “And remember to leave a glowing review.”
Shida stretched for a moment, the bag with Zithra’s clothes gently crinkling as it swung from her arm. She was less concerned about the protesters themselves, although there was of course a chance that some mimics were mingling within them that would go on the attack once they spotted the group. Then again, those things had gone down to bullets just fine so far. Maybe a few shots would help disperse the townsfolk if it came to it.
Still, she had her eyes and ears open. After all, bullets were a concern for her as well. And those things had shown to be quite trigger happy.
Dagon rushed as fast as he could to the door and fiddled with his keys until he found the correct one. As he inserted he gave a patterned knock on the door to warn the people inside before turning the handle.
Even still, there were slightly panicked faces as nearby workers watched to see who came in. To quell concerns Dagon raised his hand in a friendly wave to the warehouse interior as he waited for everyone else to come in.
“Don’t mind us.” he pretended to joke.
Chak and Doodle were next to follow inside. The Princess looked around at the people and the floats being constructed.
“Oh… These are looking rather good!” she noted before catching sight of Zithra carrying a heavy wooden box.
“Glad to see you guys made it back alright!” he called to them as he set the box down by the float that needed it.
A blend of jeering and cheering picked up outside as the amplified voice of Mary’s mother started back up again.Though her words were blared out completely this time by accompanying enthusiastic vehicle horns.
Dagon brushed his hair back with his hand and deeply sighed, wondering on what’s to be done next. He looked over the floats noting that most were just about finished, however none outside the initial ‘Christmas’ floats were actually complete. But considering the timetable at hand they were probably going to make it.
It was really only a matter of nothing major going wrong, the current biggest threat of that happening being those gathered outside of course.
Shida skulked into the room after her companions, keeping to the shadows on the edge and corner of the room since she no longer had her own disguise and would therefore rather stay out of everyone’s focus. She eyed many of the workers in the room suspiciously, trying to pick up on hints that some of them might not have been who or what they pretended to be. However, since Doodle didn’t give alarm, it was most likely fine. At the very least in a magic sense.
She decided to still be careful, just in case some of them had a bit too much sympathy for the people outside.
It was good to see everything seemingly go smoothly, however everything was getting more and more aggressive, and with the people outside seemingly getting continuously riled up, she was already trying to figure out a way to make them leave already. That or strip them all or at least most of them of their perverted spirit at once somehow. She could hardly rip those grasping hands away from every one of them, and she doubted they’d all be willing to sit down for a quiet conversation with her.
She had to think of a more effective way. Something that could be done on a larger scale.
Of course she now knew that she basically only had to wait out Christmas time if it really came to it, but it certainly would be made easier by large parts of the town not constantly hounding them.
She sank deep into her thoughts as she bruised her brain, trying to think of what exactly could be a common thread to pull on to make this entire spirit-thing unravel at once.
However, her thoughtfulness was briefly interrupted by a heavy coughing fit that lurched her entire body forward. After a few seconds of clearing her lungs, she disgustedly spat out a large glob of semi-coagulated blood that had seemingly collected somewhere in her airways after her earlier stabbing. Shaking her head, she looked away from it and tried to concentrate again.
What sounded like another rock or stone collided with the side of the warehouse. Which was responded with a whirling of police vehicle sirens.
Over the crowd and their vocal leader another amplified voice joined in the fray.
“Alright. It’s time to disperse.” the Sheriff said, “You’re allowed to say what you want to, but this is where the line is drawn. If you’re gonna start causing property damage then there ain’t nothing I’ll be tolerating here. That’s right, disperse. Don’t make me arrest any of ya’ll before Christmas. I-”
The woman cut herself off, but it sounded like, despite sounding displeased, the majority of the protest started to fracture apart.
“First thing in the morning! We’ll be back!” Mary’s mother called out, followed by horrible mechanical screeching as she struggled to turn off her megaphone.
Shida’s phone then buzzed from a text, looking at it she saw that it was from the Sheriff.
“Bell was spotted in the protest crowd by the parade warehouse. Lost him, but we’re looking.”
Shida was about to answer something, however when she lifted her finger, the screen of the phone was frozen - both figuratively and…quite literally as Shida saw her finger leave a line on it as it wiped away some mild frost that had formed on the smooth surface.
Letting out a breath, she could see it form a white, puffy cloud in front of her face, that pulled her attention away from the seemingly crashed device in her hand, and instead made her look around. To her surprise, she noticed that it wasn’t just the phone. All around her, growing crystals of ice and frost had formed and were starting to creep over the walls and floor like roots of a plant growing in a timelapse. Although now, the moment that she started paying attention to it, the movement stopped, and the ice remained in place as it was.
Then, as she stared at it for a bit longer and tried to figure out where exactly it had come from, it soon started to melt away, and the thin layer of frozen crystals disappeared in the warm air of the warehouse just as quickly as it seemed to have appeared.
The phone now also thawed, although it seemed like the system had thoroughly broken down and needed a reboot. It was now that Shida noticed that she actually didn’t have the password to the device, and therefore she exhaled slowly, this time without a cloud of steam, and began to begrudgingly skulk over to Dagon to ask him to restart it for her.
As she went, she let her eyes suspiciously glide over the darker corners of the room, as well as the obscured spaces behind or between the floats where it would be hardest to see. If Bell had been here, he might still be, after all he could probably slip through walls with the Krampus’ help or something. If he showed himself, at least she could end this all quickly. Still, she would have to have an eye on Mary. There was a good chance that the guy was still at least somewhat obsessed with her.
Using her as bait may not have been the nicest thing, however while Shida was quite confident in her ability to take the guy on if she had to, enhanced by magic or not, she felt like she would have to do it sooner rather than later, because ever since she came here, she had accrued injuries like a gosh-darn collector, and she didn’t know how many more she could take before they would start to seriously hinder her.
“Hey Dagon, thing’s crashed,” she finally announced as she arrived at the man’s side, holding the phone out to him. She decided to not mention the strange ice-phenomenon that had led to the circumstance. “I need to answer the Sheriff, could you-”
As she spoke, she noticed some of the looks that the hired hands and workers Dagon had been instructing were giving her, and she annoyedly rolled her eyes as it threw her out of her groove.
“Could you restart it for me?” she finished her sentence after a second of reconstitution.
The man raised an eyebrow curiously as he accepted the device.
“Crashed? Odd, what things were you downloading?” he lightly jested as he held down the combination of buttons to perform a full reset on the phone.
As he did so he looked around curiously.
“Has anyone seen Mary?” he asked aloud.
“She was talking to Susan by the snowman float.” a worker called back.
“Okay…” Dagon mumbled as he handed back the booting up phone to the feline to glance over towards the desolate snowman float, “Where’s Susan?” Dagon inquired further with a bit more concern.
“She was just there…” the worker replied.
“Mary!? Susan!?” Dagon called out as he hurried his pace.
“Check the bathroom maybe?” another worker offered.
Nodding Dagon redirected himself to head towards the back corner where an empty, windowed security office waited with an accessible lavatory. However as he entered he noticed that it wasn’t currently being used.
Panic started to set in, Dagon turned around and practically ran for the back door. Before he made it halfway it opened with Mary and Susan hurrying back in. Loaded in their arms were stacked flat cardboard pizza boxes.
Staggering to a stop Dagon sighed in both relief and frustration.
“Mary, what the hell!?” he snapped, “We can’t be wandering off alone!”
“Susan was with me, and we were right outside the door. Joyce ordered in pizza for everyone. Didn’t you see her message?” Mary defended as she and the worker carried the stacks over for the rest of the crew to dig into.
“What? No, I didn’t-” Dagon muttered as he pulled out his own phone to find it completely dead, “Damn it all… Still you gotta tell us where you’re going, you know that.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“I’m sorry Dagon, the crew here is starving and I knew it would only take a few seconds to grab the pizza from the delivery guy.” she argued.
“What if that guy was- you know…” he uttered, realizing that the workers were within earshot.
“Hence why I didn’t go alone. Look I’ll tell you in person next time. I really didn’t think it would be a big deal. I’m just doing what I can to help out around here.” Mary said as she passed by the man to look over a float. But the man didn’t drop it just yet.
“Prick your hand.” He said.
“What?” Mary asked, almost insulted.
Shida sighed audibly, and before this could go any further, she loudly called out,
“Doodle!”, looking over at the elf expectantly while almost the entire room turned towards her. “Check her before this erupts into another quarrel, will you?”
She really didn’t have the nerve or time to listen to those two argue over mundanities.
The elf pulled himself away from nearly licking a fiberglass candy cane and erected himself up straight.
“Right, boss! Uhhhmmm yep! Bonafide Mary right there! Susan is good too, and so is Dagon, and you and-” he said as he spun on his heel, pointing people out but his spin ended pointing at nobody in particular, “Uhm… s-something’s off…” he uttered as his eyes trailed the darkest corners, but can’t settle on one place in particular “Something’s watching…”
“Security camera?” a worker shrugged in confusion as he stuffed his face with cheap pizza.
Doodle breathed out, and started rubbing the sides of his arms. Shida noticed his breath perfumed out in a frost just like hers did earlier.
Then, from a ceiling corner something shot out towards the elf and latched to his ankle. A spiked chain of ice clasped to him and in a blink of an eye Doodle was yanked up in the air. All around echoes of high pitched gremlin laughter of several individuals reverberated every which way.
Yelling out,
“Doodle!” in surprise, Shida lifted her arm in instinct, as if she wanted to grasp at the far off elf. Obviously, this had never been intended to have an actual effect and was purely done out of muscle memory, however to possibly her own surprise more so than anyone else’s, the chain suddenly snapped in a bright glimmer of frozen crystal, making the elf plummet back to the ground.
Although, maybe it was overstated that it surprised her more than anyone else, because as intense as it had been just moments earlier, the crazed laughter stopped almost all at once, most likely as its source couldn’t figure out what exactly had just happened, just as little as Shida did.
Once again, her breath was entirely visible, and even lingered in the air as white clouds long after it had been breathed out. Ttendrils of frost once again started to grow along the ground all around her. She couldn’t wonder about it for long though, because her sharp gaze immediately dashed over to the corner from which the now severed half of the icy chain was still hanging down, its owner apparently too perplexed to act further for a second.
And for once, even Doodle seemed to be rather at a loss, as he briefly pushed himself up after the hard fall to stare at his own boss in disbelief, while frost and white clouds more and more took over the space around the feline.
“N-no… even Kram wouldn’t- Boss!” Doodle shouted as more chains appeared zipping right to ensnare every limb of his Santa. Having no choice he ripped off his hat and threw it in uncharacteristically incredible speed as it intercepted a grasping end of a chain aiming for one of her wrists. In a sparkling explosion the chain and the hat together disintegrated.
Everything the elf left stored in his magical hat came back into being all at once and clattered to the floor. Among them were small sacks of his favorite candy, baggies of weed, professionally shot black and white actor portfolio images of himself, a WW2 era hand grenade, and several stacks of adult themed magazines.
But while the gesture was noble and once again quite sweet in and of itself, it also turned out quite pointless, as three other chains snapped onto Shida’s limbs.
At first, there was some more triumphant hollering from the dark corners, as the attackers began to pull on the icy restraints. That was until they realized that, no matter how they pulled, they could not move Shida.
Around here, the onlookers had obviously become confused and panicked at the sudden and surreal attack. However, now their minds were given something entirely else to chew on as something happened that was hard for their brains to justify with reality, even in a stretched sense.
As they clasped onto the feline Santa, the chains of pure ice seemed to…freeze? More than they already were. It was a strange phenomenon that could barely be described, but it indeed seemed like the ice was somehow becoming more frozen, as a pattern of white started to spread across it and prevented the presumably magical items from moving. More and more crystals started to emerge from the links, changing its color to a sheer white gradually, before they ultimately could no longer hold their own weight and just snapped, much like their earlier counterpart did.
In the meantime, the ground around Shida looked much the same, and the floor cracked in many places as it could no longer withstand the cold grasping at it. The fog that formed out of Shida’s seemingly endlessly lingering breaths forced all around her to step back, lest they wanted to try and see if they could face this cold that seemingly not even ice could withstand.
“I’ve had just about enough of this,” Shida muttered in a tone that was just about as icy as her surroundings, and she looked up at the corners she had been attacked from. Meanwhile, those who had enough awareness for it could notice that the snapping of the chains had by no means meant an end to the frost’s advance. Quite the opposite in fact. Spreading out from the very place where the weakest links had broken, the frosty white had began to move a lot faster, spreading on and on across the surface of the chains and in the direction of its holder, before pained shrieks of what could only be sheer agony could be heard from the darkness, as it seemed that the sheer cold had founds its next victim.
The pained shrieking came to a sudden choking stop, before what looked like a stocky horned humanoid ice statue fell down to the floor. Its agony-ridden pose became little more than powdered shards as it collided.
The hyena-like laughter from the other hidden creatures turned to angry screeching that mingled with the workers’ own terrified screaming as they ran for the doors.
“Santaaaaaaaaa!” a deeper voice bellowed as another figure propelled willingly from the ceiling out of seemingly nowhere.
This blueish horned creature adorned with armor of ice-like crystal came down in a roaring rage with a matching ax raised over its head, intending to split the feline in twain. Its wide snarling mouth maniacally grinned as he aimed his blow precisely down, but its course shifted at the last moment sending it away to scramble on the floor after a pulse shot struck at its side. Rebounding, it dug his dark claws into the floor and narrowed its pure white eyes upon the Princess still aiming her weapon its way.
In a fury it twisted and hucked the ax in a sideways spin through the air at Chak before lunging at Santa in a vengeful crazed bodily attack.
“Yes,” Shida said as if answering the beast’s outcry as she slowly stepped out of the fog formed by her own breath. Piercing pale-blue eyes stared at the beast as she moved towards it with a single hand extended, and the look in their gaze was almost a curious one. “You rang?”
The beast barreled on, however, within a split second of the already icy monstrosity making contact with her, the same thing happened to it as had happened to its much smaller contemporary, as it immediately turned solid mid-movement, its momentum carrying it forward only for its mass to shatter over Shida’s unyielding form, sending chunks and bits of it flying and skittering across the ground behind her.
The felines now blue eyes stared down at her hands, gazing at them in something that looked like mild, bemused surprise at what had happened, without truly acknowledging any of the chaos that was happening around her, or the danger that her friend was in from the thrown weapon.
“Santa…” she quietly mumbled to herself, while her breath already started forming a new, concealing cloud of mist around her that hid her away from the vision of others.
Dodging below the thrown ax as it imbedded deep into the warehouse wall, Chak looked up at her friend unsure of what was occurring.
“Shida!?” she called out before dashing all the way towards her.
More and more of these horned creatures of various, inconsistent sizes began to descend, some wielding melee weapons, others with crude bows, but many intended to battle with their bear claws and fists.
Zithra positioned himself between as many of these monsters as possible and the two humans in their company. Pulling his gifted magical bow out from his coat pocket as if it were a magic trick he swiftly loosed sparkling shots that split, seeking several targets at once.
Doodle scrambled to reunite with his Santa, but a creature plopped down in front of him.
“Molasses up my buttered buns…” he uttered before rolling to the side as two crushing fists came thundering down to crush him. Missing by centimeters, the elf bolted for his things, picked up the grenade and, in a single twisting movement, chucked it right at the creature’s face.
It harmlessly bounced off and clattered to the floor as the creature stood there more confused than anything. Doodle then buried his face in a hand.
“Gosh darn it all Doodle… this is why mother kicked you out…” he moaned to himself before a thick arm snatched him up and the monster’s maw of teeth opened up to devour him whole.
But then the head evaporated into flowflakes as a direct strike from a pulse shot rendered the rest of the creature into an ice statue. Doodle struggled in vain against the grip on him as he was still held up in the air by what remained of his attacker.
Meanwhile the mist surrounding Shida itself began to move, spreading through the room in thick plumes and enveloping some of the stray attackers that didn’t stand too close to anyone else to be at risk of affecting them as well.
“Tiny, foolish demons,” a familiar yet unfamiliarly intonated voice said from an unseen place in the mist in a sing-songy manner. “You dare bring ice against me? Where’s your fire that you’re so proud of? Who gave you the maddened gaul to tread into my domain?”
As Doodle struggled against the icy grip, he suddenly noticed another waft of mist changing its direction and heading straight towards him. In a panic, he struggled more and more. And seeing his plight, Chak forewent her own protection for a split second to shoot and sever the arm of the beast, allowing the elf to plummet to the floor yet again.
However it was too late, and before he could get up to flee from it, the mist had enveloped him. All around expected more screams of agony to erupt, however none came. There were slightly strained noises coming from the elf, but nothing that would tell of actual pain.
“The demons have come, yet you stand before me in such a pathetic form?” the icy voice out from the mist asked again. “Rise and stand with your brethren. We will not take this offending declaration of darkness and fire lightly.”
The mist around Doodle slowly faded out, and inside it, the silhouette of a much larger figure could be seen.
“It has been a long age, Fae. I hope you haven’t lost your formidability to time,” the voice then mocked before the mist entirely faded away. Meanwhile all horned beings who held bows or other ranged weapons had been enveloped by choking ice, leaving only those too close to human or alien standing on their own.
“What is going on…?” Zithra mumbled in awe as he gazed around.
“Long… long… time…” Doodle’s voice agreed, but it sounded out with the addition of musical songbirds and a lengthy babbling brook. The smells of spring, summer, fall and winter twisted around his form in the pattern that had been known since the dawn of human conception and awareness.
Doodle’s figure lifted his hands with his palms uplifted, as a glimmer flickered and snapped akin to sunlight reflection of the surface of disturbed water flocked to him. A deeply sourced yet light coy giggle escaped him as his form was lit up for all to see. Much like his altered appearance when he dipped into Santa's sack, his features held both a youthful slant while still acknowledging the age far beyond any history book. His ears lengthened and sprouted little wooden branches, the now bare skin across his chest and upper arms gnarled like knots of wood while his eyes opened into black voids with speckling starlight.
“Winter always comes, but even so, the awakening of spring is forever just around the corner.”
Rain began to drip all around, the aroma of morning dew and frost invaded the senses of everyone present. Clouds appear to block the ceiling above, but only to allow patches of brilliant breaking beams of concentrated sunlight to emerge forth. Each god ray carried the swirls and dancing of pollen and breeze.
“That is until the last of winters comes in the ax age, the sword age, the wind age, the wolf age,” the voice from the mist finished the sentence for the elf, as icy winds spread through the room, freezing the water left by the rain and turning it into crystals that sparkled brightly in the light of the emerging sunbeams that seemingly shone through the roof of the building without effort, turning the entire room into a bright, twinkling place of colorful yet white wonder.
“In other words… eat shit and die.” Doodle cackled and he closed his hands in a violent clenching. At his beckoning the frozen shards of rain zeroed in on the remaining demons in swarms of piercing projectiles, spreading the frozen element across their forms in rapid fashion. Rainbows flicker against all surfaces as the swarms reflect and bend light in their murderous intent.
There is no squealing, there is no cries of agony, no whimpering of the reaper’s call… just statues of ice, frozen in awe of the true masters before them.
Doodle didn’t look around at his assisted handiwork, rather he looked down at his long, almost delicate looking hands. Tears roll down his face, but they do not smell of peppermint, rather the filtered water from ancient moss.
“I almost remember…” he whispered with a growing sad smile, “No… there’s nothing to remember… it always has been.” he chuckled as he felt through his lengthened greenish-blond hair, “I… am… an elf. Bringer of dreams, wielder of nature, maker of shoes, trickster of the naive, resident guardian of Alfheim…. Santa’s servant… I’ve been them all and many more. A spirit born of Fae… Forever changing, but always the same.” he then turned to his master, a wide almost euphoric smile spread across his face, “I wonder… am I to return to gingerbread and toys… or may I stay… if I could be so bold to request… Boss?”
Out of the mist, the feline form stepped with her usual grace, leaving the ice and wind to slowly melt away as her focus veined, the room’s heat quickly overtaking the eternal ice again once it was no longer fed into.
“You know the risks. I will leave you to decide,” she replied, her icy-blue stare scanning over the elf with the same mild curiosity she had shown ever since her sudden change. However, then her upright demeanor was shaken a bit, as she stumbled back a step and reached for her heart, coughing out another glob of blood. “Though I’m afraid I’m not at the same mercy. It seems I’ve overstayed my welcome already.”
She cleared her throat and rightened up again to look at the elf.
“Thank you for sticking to me,” she said with a gentle smile. “Until we meet again.”
Then, the blue in her eyes faded and was once again replaced by her typical yellow, before Shida lurched forward with an aggressive scream of primal rage that almost seemed like she was intent on attacking the elf. Although, ultimately, she managed to take less than a step before her legs gave out under her and she collapsed to the wet, slowly thawing ground before her, that was still riddled with cracks from the unforgiving cold.
“Thank you…” Doodle whispered unbothered by the faltered aggression before kneeling down in front of Shida, a warm hand beating with the wild source of life itself lays itself on her shoulder. It’s not immediate, but the feline felt her soreness and injuries take a step back and give way to a healing warmth like bathing in the light of a cozy summer day.
“You doing okay there, boss? Usually I’d be all too happy to see a pretty lady fall to her knees in front of me buuuuut… you’re not look’n all too swell.”
Chak then made it to Shida’s side, her eyes glancing at the elf unsure of his strange altered appearance.
“What was that? Are you okay?” she asked in worry, not caring that Doodle had already posed the question.
It took a bit before Shida managed to push herself up to answer.
“I’ll kill him,” she whispered, leaving it entirely unclear who exactly she was talking about. However, whatever hatred may have been driving her, it seemed to be enough to momentarily break through the spirit’s censoring influence, as she managed to spout the proclamation with all the vile venom that such a sentence should entail, and without even hesitating at the word “kill”. However, when it came to the question of the what…Shida didn’t really have an idea either, except for speculation, “I think that was Santa.”
She tried even more to push herself up, but despite her wounds and soreness being alleviated, she felt rather unsteady overall, almost like the feeling shortly after being electrocuted, when muscles and nerves still didn’t quite know what to do with themselves as they tried their best to reconstitute their chemical balances.
“I just don’t know why now…” she mumbled further, seeing as her attempts at standing had failed. “Or why he stopped.”
“You would have ceased to exist if he remained any longer. Possibly ending you both.” Doodle answered her, as he and Chak helped her up and let the Princess carry her with an arm wrapped on her shoulder, “And I’m guessing… he intervened now because…” Doodle then looked around at the statues around them, “This… is beyond a violation of ‘Christmas’… This is breaking something much older… Like… a lot older.” he finished before walking up to the nearest statue, glaring it down he gave it a little push to knock it over to shatter.
“You need rest, boss. Pronto. I’ll clean this up and… I suppose I can finish these floats while I’m at it.” he added as he laced and cracked his fingers, “Snap if you need me.”
“Not sure that’ll still work…” Shida mumbled quietly, but allowed Chak to take her away. Obviously the surrounding humans stared at them in sheer disbelief at what had happened and was still happening before their very eyes. Only after they were a good distance away from the elf, did Shida start to silently whisper to Chak. “This felt different. More powerful. Way more powerful. Something changed, and it must have changed recently. And whatever it was, it fueled ‘me’ somehow. But…at a cost I think.”
Chak nodded as Zithra opened the back door to help them through.
“Then we’ll be careful to not spend too much. Got it?” the Princess said in concern.
“It’s strong,” Shida whispered back. “I don’t know if I will have the choice.”
Remembering how much she struggled to resist Shida’s much less powerful influence to compel the Princess to do things, Chak swallowed heavily.
“Then.. maybe next time you won’t have to bear the price alone. If it’s possible, I’ll be there with you. Alright?” she compromised, wanting to say something like ‘But you’re stronger’ or something along those lines. But the gravity of the power that made the ‘Spirit of Christmas’ appear like childsplay… she was hopeful but… she understood.
“We’ll stay and help the… Doodle. After I’ll bring home food or something.” Dagon notified.
“Yeah.. we’re somehow going to have to smooth this over with the workers too…” Mary agreed.
“I can do that too, if needed. Bringer of dreams and such.” the elf assured as he waved his fingers in the air while melting and evaporating the statues.
“Just be careful, I’ll drive these two home and come by later to pick you all up.” Zithra added before closing the warehouse door and hurtling past the two women to help them into the truck.
“Guess I won’t be of any use here,” Shida mumbled while allowing herself to be taken away, her mind not strong enough to muster any resistance after all its force had been used to try and even slightly resist just earlier. Now, she was just tired.
She still felt it deep within her that something had changed. The being she had been turned into first and this ‘Santa’ now, they were the same, yet very different. Almost like her first encounter with these powers had just been an echo or a shade of what it truly encompassed, now fully filled up to its actual state. Although she still couldn’t explain what may have caused it. Although admittedly, she was in no condition to think right now. Maybe the answer would come to her after some rest.
She needed rest. She really did. Rarely was she one to admit it in a stressful situation, but right now, nothing felt more right in the world.
So much so that neither her body nor mind could wait for it, it seemed.
“Don’t leave me alone,” was the last thing she managed to breathlessly whisper, before her awareness left her in the dark.