The Eve of Christmas, has come.

Chak opened her eyes. The knowledge of that simple yet terrifying fact woke her up from a sweet dream, returning her to this nightmare. She sat up in the cot that Dagon purchased for her. It was pressed right up against the couch where Shida still slept.

Her Terran heart dropped seeing that her dear friend had not so much as stirred for the past few days and nights. She tried to wake her so many times, even Doodle with his influence upon dreams stated that there was nothing he could do, that Shida just had to recover from this herself.

But despite the fear, and the worry, she did as she was told. Although the Santa magic had its influence, she stayed by her friend's side, never leaving her alone for more than a few minutes. She ate fast and rushed her showers.

But it wasn’t all that bad. She had her Lens with so many memories to go through. And despite feeling the spirit of Christmas growing ever-more powerful… she remained herself, although it almost hurt to be at this point. But nothing was going to take her away, nothing was going to take Simone away. If she was doomed to exist in this place forever, then she would bear it as herself.

In the dark room, after the turn of midnight, Chak reached over to take hold of the feline’s paw. She squeezed tightly and with her groggy morning energy she willed for her friend to finally wake up.

“Shida? I’m right here. I’m still here. I know you need rest, and I don’t want to disturb what you need to feel your best. But the day is coming, and there’s only so much we can do without you. Things are looking good, but… our enemies are still out there, and I know we can’t face them without you. So, if it’s okay, I’d very much like you to wake up. Please.” she softly requested, watching the slumbering face of the Miyat for any changes.

There was something. Not on her face, but…in her hand. As Chak held it, she felt a very slight twitch of the feline’s fingers momentarily clamping down on it. It wasn’t much, but it was the first movement except for breathing that Shida had made in many hours, so the princess’ energy immediately spiked once she was sure that she had not imagined it.

However, the feline’s face remained unmoved. And soon the hand slumped again. Chak immediately panicked. Something was clearly there, but it seemed to be slipping away already. Clamping down on Shida’s hand more to try and get her to reciprocate didn’t work. Neither did talking to her.

More and more, it seemed like Shida would be sinking right back into the land of deepest dreams after her brief sign of superficial awareness. And Chak couldn’t have that.

Maybe it was time for drastic measures…

The Princess sighed before looking out the window, building up her courage.

“Okay… well I hope you can forgive me one day… because I know you don’t like it when you’re your unusual self… and you can’t really tell me to not do it… and that’s very unfair… and I’ll understand if you never forgive me… but if something like it worked in Terran fairytales… maybe it will work here…” she said before turning her gaze back down at her friend’s pretty Deathworlder face.

Slowly leaning over to get into position, Chak felt her heartbeat thunder in her chest. She really didn’t want to do it, but there was a small part of her almost excitedly anticipating committing to do it.

“You mean so much to me, I’m so sorry…” she softly whispered as her eyes closed shut, face flushing. She’s really about to do it.

She pulled the Myiat’s tail.

Smack

Before Chak had even had the opportunity to really put pressure on the spinal extension, her vision suddenly flashed with lights as her head was brutally whipped around by a sudden force and the wet sound of skin on skin rang out through the room loudly.

At first, Chak was just befuddled at what had just happened. Then, a moment later, the pain in her cheek set in like a burning fire, and her mind was stunned for a good few seconds, leaving her to look away in the direction her head had been turned in in a stupor while her eyes slowly filled with tears.

Granted, it was just a slap and the Cali had been in her terran disguise, but still, it seemed that in her condition, Shida had not held any of her near superhuman strength back, and thus Chak’s bells had been absolutely rung. It was probably lucky that the feline had not extended her claws in the attack. But still, that had hurt.

Shida herself had sat up and was clearly unaware for a moment of where she was and what exactly had happened, her hand was still raised from the strike. Only gradually did her face shift from confused anger, to just confused, to slowly realizing what was going on,

By then, hot tears were streaming down Chak’s face, brought on by a mixture of pain and some very mixed feelings bubbling up within her.

Shida looked at her for a few more moments, obviously only slowly computing the entirety of the situation, and a single, steam-filled breath escaped her lungs and wafted into the warm air as a tiny white cloud.

Then, her mind finally sprang into gear.

“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed and fully clambered up into a sitting position. “I am so sorry, Chak!”

Quickly she grabbed the princess by the shoulders, and without even thinking about it, she pulled her around and grabbed her by the head in order to press a hard kiss onto Chak’s face and tightly wrap her arms around her friend right after.

“That was- I am- .” she stammered while she held Chak tightly, still feeling the wet tears on her cheek. “I swear that wasn’t on purpose!”

Eyes wide, Chak blinked as her brain was the one now struggling to catch up.

Her mouth opened to speak, but there was too much to say. Too many thoughts and feelings colliding with one another that they all started to mesh and morph together into emotional slush.

A sharp huff released from her lips, followed by several more, and before she knew it she was laughing. And sobbing too. But it was all sourced from the very same thing.

Grasping her friend as tightly as her Terran form could muster, the princess laugh-cried partially into Shida’s shoulder. Her hands clasping as if the feline was about to be whisked away from her at any moment.

Over and over she wanted and tried to say something, but her emotion-fueled bodily function refused to allow it to happen, causing her vocalizations to be nonsensical drawn out droning. So she just squeezed and embraced her friend to show how happy she was to have been slapped at all.

After a long time, Shida finally pulled away from Chak a little bit, lifting her hand up to the disguised Cali’s red and slowly swelling cheek.

“Here, let me help with that,” she said, putting her palm gently onto the aching area, where it began to gradually turn dead-cold, cooling Chak’s skin and soothing at least some of the pain and swelling.

Seeing as Chak was apparently not mad at her, Shida chuckled sightly in awkwardness.

“Really, though, if you wanted to claim your prize early, maybe you should’ve woken me up first,” she mumbled to fill the empty air while Chak was still busy struggling to regain at least some of her composure. “I mean, I know I already consented and all, but I didn’t think me being asleep would be a factor in this. You could’ve warned me at least. Not that I’m trying to talk myself out of this, but I guess some old reflexes are still around today.”

Listening to Shida misunderstand the situation, Chak fought herself to breathe and say what needed to be said.

“The prize is you’re awake… Shida… You’ve been unconscious for days. I pulled your tail because… I was desperate to wake you up. It’s Christmas Eve. Tomorrow’s Christmas. Everyone’s okay, and the parade’s today… We haven't been directly accosted, because I don’t think they knew you were out. I’ve been watching over you… this whole time. I’m so sorry, I wouldn’t have touched you like that if you… well you know… desperate. I deserve the slap.” she stammered, wiping her non-slapped side of her face with her hand to wipe away more tears, “I’m not that type of girl, I swear… and now I know never to do that as a Cali…” she jested before fighting back another rise in her chest, “I’m just so happy you’re awake.”

Shida blinked for a second.

“So that means no fun times then, huh?” she asked in a first moment of pure coping, while her hand slowly lowered away from the Cali’s face. She looked down at herself and briefly tried to determine how she felt. “Doesn’t feel like I was asleep for days,” she admitted, feeling rather fresh and alert instead of stiff and sore like she would expect after such a long rest. Then she looked at her hand, that was still more than cool to the touch. “Guess I left quite the impression before I keeled over if there’s not been a peep since…”

She wiped some hair out of her face, and in another huff, more steam escaped her breath. Although her eyes thankfully remained their usual sharp, yellow selves.

“I feel…strange…but oddly good,” she then finally stated, also making that assessment for herself for the first time in that moment. Swinging her legs around, she tried to stand up. It went without a hitch, her legs not even so much as aching after having not been moved for so long.

“That’s… good to see.” Chak said as she sat back a bit on her cot fighting the blush brought on by Shida’s initial comment, “I was worried because we couldn’t really feed you. Although Doodle said you’d be fine without it… He did a few healing sessions while you were out too. Don’t worry, I kept a close eye on him the whole time. Do you… feel… like yourself?” she asked hesitatingly, her Terran eyes fighting to not look the feline up and down at this inappropriate time to get flustered.

“Yeah I - or actually - humm…” Shida replied, chipper at first, but then turning a bit more thoughtful towards the end. “Actually, I’m not sure,” she then admitted while reaching up to inspect her face. “I mean, I’m aware and I feel in control, but I do feel…different. Not exactly sure why and how though. Just an odd feeling.”

However, as she then noticed the Cali’s struggling focus, she also looked down at herself again. And to her surprise, she looked down at her own chest. Granted, it was mostly covered by a loosely fitting shirt that was draped over her, however from her angle, she could stare right down into it, seeing her own well toned and striped skin and muscle underneath.

She was perplexed as she took in the sight.

“When…when did the costume come off?” she finally asked the all important question and began to turn on the spot and fully inspect herself. The Santa costume wasn’t glued to her anymore. Instead she was draped in some way too baggy and questioningly fitting human clothes, that had seemingly been thrown over her more as a necessity. “I’m…I’m still Santa, right?”

Chak looked away, forgetting that this was a topic of discussion she wasn’t privy to having once Shida woke up.

“Later that day after laying you down… they kinda just… faded away. So Mary and Dagon donated some things to keep you covered… well mostly Dagon because… his stuff was the only things here and Zithra had already left to get them and… So I… you know, covered you. I hope you don’t mind. Doodle was still busy with the floats so don’t worry about that. As for being Santa… I guess that’s for you to prove, right?” the Princess continued to stammer through her words.

“Ah,” Shida said, slightly surprised and a little bit annoyed that Chak still pretended like she was going to murder her for seeing her naked. “In that case, thank you, I guess…”

She then once again inspected her hands.

“Well I don’t think I’m usually this cold, so something still has to be going on,” she mumbled, although the costume disappearing was strange. She thought about it for a bit. “I’m not sure what that means for Santa but…I think I may have an idea where all that extra power came from.”

She looked up at Chak unsurely, not certain if her unsubstantiated musings about that would be welcome right now.

Clearing her throat and glancing back up at the feline with a focused demeanor.

“You do?” she simply asked curiously if not a bit skeptically, “Where?”

Shida exhaled slowly.

“Ms. Claus,” she simply said. “And…maybe Rudolph. That is just a theory though.”

She moved back towards the couch and cot so she could sit down as she explained her thought process.

“After I removed the old Claus from her duty, the title and magic were supposed to be inherited by my current lover - meaning James,” she explained as she leaned back in the seat. “But…what if it couldn’t find James? He exists, clearly, and my feelings for him are just as real, but what if the magic can’t leave the planet? Or at least not reach however many lightyears he is away? What then? Would it just vanish? Or can it just decide to take someone else, no matter my feelings on the matter? Maybe, but I don’t think so. Again, I don’t really have anything to base this off of, but I think everything that he was supposed to get with it…may have returned to me. Or, maybe it would be more accurate to say that it all returned to Santa, after it couldn’t find who it was looking for. That would make the most sense timewise if you ask me. And also answer some other stuff…like for example how Krampus seemed so much more magical than me even if I was supposed to hold the most power. Maybe mine was split up between me and her somehow…at least that’s what I think. I could be way off base, but I can’t think of anything else that changed between the moment I struggled to rescue you and the moment I apparently tore apart an entire room of demon-things.”

Chak tilted her head in consideration.

“That does line up… and it makes a sort of sense.” she granted with a nod, “If that’s the case… I’m curious though… why were you and Doodle so drastically affected but… I’m still no different. I can feel the presence of Rudolph, but… I’m still me, and look like me. What’s separating me from that surge of magic?” she questioned before reaching up at her Lens, almost too scared to even pose a possible answer, “I… did put my Lens on before you two experienced that… but… I don’t know how that would affect magic so astronomically powerful.”

Shida exhaled.

“That may be part of it, but…well it’s all kind of hazy, but if I remember what I saw back then correctly, I think after Santa got back to - or at least close to - his actual power again, he did something to Doodle. The change didn’t directly affect him. Only after Santa said so. Or maybe pulled him in. Maybe…just maybe…he was willing to still let me have you,” she mumbled without sounding like she had much hope for that. “That or, well you haven’t gone full Rudolph yet, so maybe your magic is also still stored away somewhere else. Or maybe it was your lens. I can’t be sure.”

“If it was Santa sparing me… perhaps that’s a good sign.” Chak responded before laying her still rattled head down on the cot. Staring up at the ceiling she sighed, “Tomorrow's Christmas… meaning today may very well be the big final push. Now that you’re awake I feel better… but still… big day. I don't think we really have a plan outside ‘Defeat Bell and Krampus, then get out of here.’ heh… hope it’s enough… Oh!” Chak turned slightly to look at Shida, “Dagon brought back expensive steaks as a ‘we didn't die yet’ celebration after getting you back here. But since you didn’t wake up yours is waiting for you, still wrapped and ready to cook. If you're hungry after not eating anything for a few days, it's there for you.”

Shida exhaled slowly.

“I guess I should try to eat something,” she said hesitantly, not really feeling all that hungry, but seeing it in Chak’s face that it would definitely put her at ease. “I hope it's not seasoned with anything but salt. I’m not a human anymore. And maybe we’ll have some scraps for broth left over…”

“Nope, and salt is in the cupboard on the left above the oven. He was going to preseason them all but I caught him in time before getting to yours. And broth is always a good idea!” Chak assured as she touched her stinging face, “It’s weird… this hurts and it wasn’t pleasant, but it feels like my brain is almost exhilarated like… adrenaline… Do you know if that’s normal for Terrans or humans? Or am I just weird?” she asked the feline.

Shida loudly cleared her throat while she quickly walked over towards the kitchen.

“That is something you should definitely discuss with Simone and not me,” she mumbled in a half-understandable mutter and clearly declared the topic as over with that, while she tried to familiarize herself with the utensils at her disposal as well as the meat in the fridge.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m weird…” Chak concluded in a groan before crossing her arms over her face.

“Weird’s good!”

Like a horror monster from a terrible movie, Doodle stood at the base of the stairs out of nowhere, causing Chak to jolt from a heart attack.

Snickering, the elf walked around into the kitchen eagerly to greet the awakened feline.

“Boss! Glad you see ya up on your feet again! The dreams of me too good to give up? Well, as much as it hurts my pride I’m glad you finally managed to resist and joined back with us in the waking realm!” he greeted, butting his head onto his hands as he leaned on the counter, not so subtly showing off his new stature.

“So you haven’t changed all that much,” Shida mumbled without even dignifying him with a look in his direction while she started to prepare her food, her tone artificially icy. “One would think you would show more dignity after I rescued you from gingerbread and peppermint, elf.”

“I’ll have you know I’ve matured quite a bit. But it wasn’t the peppermint making me swoon, boss. You’re just that epically ravishing. The dignity of the gods themselves wouldn't stand a chance. Love the look by the way!” he replied before pulling a WW2 grenade out of his pocket, “By the way I figured out how this works! You don’t just throw ‘em! You hold this lever down and pull the pin, then you throw it. Crazy…”

“Your wisdom clearly knows no bounds,” Shida mumbled to herself as she waited for the pan to get hot, having placed a tiny bit of oil in it just to prevent sticking, hoping it was little enough to not ruin the meat. However, even as she held it directly over the stove, there seemed to be no reaction. She wondered if she was doing something wrong, but couldn’t see any problem with what she did. And so she waited. And waited. Eventually, something finally happened with the oil! It hardened…and then froze. Shida’s eye twitched slightly as she looked down at the pan, before she audibly sighed, another visible wave of cold escaping her lips. “I’ll probably have to learn to control that better,” she mumbled at first but then set the pan down. “Would one of you mind taking over? I think it might take till the heat death of the universe for it to be done this way…”

“You got it boss!” Doodle volunteered.

“Do you even know how to cook steak…” Zithra grumbled as we walked into the kitchen towards the stove, his spiky hair somehow even more messy than usual.

“Nah, but I’m a being who existed since fire was first used by people squatting in caves soooo… I think I’m more than qualified.” Doodle argued.

Zithra just gave the elf a side glance before addressing the Miyat.

“I gotcha, how do you prefer it done? Rare, medium, just seared?” he offered.

Putting the pan down, Shida crossed her arms and almost coyly averted her gaze for a second.

“Why do Manarians always think I would eat raw meat?” she mumbled more to herself than to anyone else, before shaking her head and removing herself from the front of the stove, half-heartedly ordering, “Just make sure it’s cooked through.”

“Medium. You got it.” Zithra nodded before he reached into the fridge, pulled out a cheap stout bottle, popped the cap with his teeth and assumed the position in front of the stove, “And steak tartare is the bomb, just say’n. Put an egg yolk on top… divine. Good to see you finally awake by the way. Almost missed the big day” he chuckled before taking a sip as he let the pan heat up from its magically cold state.

Chak stood from the couch and ran her hand through her hair accompanied by a drawn sigh.

“I think I’m going to enjoy one last long hot shower as a Terran while I have the chance.” she notified as she thought it would also be a good way to shake off her nerves for whatever’s about to come.

“Sure, you do that,” Shida said, before stumbling a step after a piece of rug that laid on the ground stuck to her foot, the fuzzy parts sticking off of it having quite literally frozen solid and thus trapped the appendage. After making a few hopping steps while dragging a large part of the carpet along and unelegantly waving her arms around so she wouldn’t meet the floor face-first, she caught herself and cleared her throat while laboriously removing her foot from the floor covering. “I think I might just go outside for a moment and try to get a grip on…whatever this is for a moment.”

With that she moved towards the front door, careful not to step onto anything else as she walked.

“I can help you get a grip on- ahhh nah… too easy…” Doodle piped up before his shoulders slouched, “But seriously since what’s happening to ya is actually in my wheelhouse maybe I should tag along?” he said as he pushed himself free from the table.

Shida looked back at him, commenting,

“I thought you were more the ‘sun and spring’ guy. This is…well I don’t know what exactly this is, but it’s not that. My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I’m pretty sure I somehow managed to get ice to freeze over which is…something I’d rather not try to think about too much if my sanity is concerned.”

“Frozen squared. Easy.” Doodle said and shrugged in a tone that made it seem like he just solved world hunger on a limb, “And this is Earth boss, no matter the time of year it’s sunny somewhere and snowing elsewhere.” with a flick of the wrist he made a few pathetic snowflakes fall onto Zithra’s head, “But… yeah you’re still a bit above my paygrade if I’m being honest.”

Shida momentarily glanced back and forth between the Elf and the now even grumblier Manarian.

Pretending that the previous topic didn’t exist, she lifted a finger and pointed from one to the other in even intervals, tilting her head a she asked,

“Did something uh…something happen between you two while I was out? I can feel a certain tension in the room.”

“No.” Zithra said a bit too quickly before planting the alcoholic beverage in his mouth.

Looking back at Shida Doodle’s smile curled deviously before he slyly shrugged. But then he did mouth the word ‘Maaaaaaayabe’.

Shida smacked her lips at first and then exhaled through hollow cheeks.

“Oh-kay then,” she said, drawing the words out very slowly before turning back towards the door, deciding to just not ask about it any further. “Just don’t let it keep you from working together.”

Then, she wordlessly waved Doodle along with one hand while she stepped outside, determined to at least get all this so far under control that she wouldn’t accidentally freeze everything anymore, leaving Zithra alone for a moment to cook the steak and stir in his own…well whatever was going on with him.

Doodle cackled as he followed Shida outside.

“I’d gossip but… bat-boy’s got good ears. Among other things..” he said before inhaling a deep breath of the crisp dark morning air, “Oh wowza that hits different now… So, having performance issues with your new magic-stuffs are we? Well if you want to call it magic, which it is, but that’s such a broad blanket term for the manipulation and bending of the natural world to your own whims. Unless we’re dealing with deity-level stuff which throws all that out the window because you’d be the natural world, or at least a part of what it is.”

Shida exhaled a cloud of steam as she sighed.

“So I should probably mention that myiat mythology works a whole lot different from what humans came up with over the years,” she threw out there as a side-note. “In our belief systems stuff exists because ancient ‘first ones’ had a competition about who could collect the best shiny-things out of the primordial soup that was all matter before they came up with the idea, so there’s that.”

Lifting her hand, she looked down at it.

“I guess right now, I’m a collection of ‘cold’,” she mumbled in addition and swung her palm around slightly to see if she could actually force said ‘cold’ to happen willingly.

A streaking patch of the surface of the snow solidified into solid almost reflective icy sheen.

“Ohhhh I didn’t think of that…” the elf granted, “The mythologies ‘round here don’t technically apply to you. I mean they can apply themselves to you, clearly. But you're not made from this soil, this air, this water… Like… ahhh…. What’s a good wise elven metaphorical analogy… ahhh… screw it. It’s like software trying to work though similar yet very different hardware. Like playing Doom on a pregnancy test or something like that. Or… not… anyway, yeah now I’m curious if that’s playing a part with your magic at the moment.”

Shida hissed slightly.

“Well, you’re the expert,” she grumbled and threw her hand out in a quick, wide ark, causing the freezing snow to expand in that direction and forming a sort of line of ice. Which was pretty neat that she could do that, but still didn’t exactly help with controlling it. Especially since this was all nothing compared to what she knew was somewhere hidden behind those powers. “And…how do we figure that out?”

“Well… do Miyat have more myths centered around the elements or cold specifically? Or something of note that is unique to those myths that you could replicate here?” Doodle asked as he crossed his legs in mid air but before he could fall, snow rose up to form a tall comfy mound underneath him, “I mean, if you can re-freeze frozen… that might fall under the ‘collection of cold’ thing.”

Shida pondered that for a bit. She had never been hugely into mythology or any of that, so her knowledge was rather limited to the most popular stuff.

“Our history goes back hundreds of thousands of years, so there’s a lot,” she mumbled mostly to buy herself time, even if it was true. If there was one thing myiat were exceptionally good at, it was keeping their history around. They had stories reaching all the way back to the first people who ever huddled around a fire together because there simply wasn’t enough room for multiple territories in their neck of the woods. “But I guess that could make sense. I mean, in our belief system -if you buy into it- everything that we know today is as it is because stuff that was never supposed to be concentrated got concentrated and stuff that was never meant to be separated got separated, and basically everything was forced to interact with everything else in ways it wasn’t supposed to, creating new things in the process…so uuuuh, yeah, snow and ice aren’t actually one thing. They are an interaction between ‘water’ and ‘cold’, which is technically correct, I guess, but water also isn’t really a thing, it’s just oxygen and hydrogen, and those are made up of even tinier things, and cold isn’t really a thing it is more the absence of a thing, that thing being movement, so-”

She paused for a moment to take a deep breath, lifting and lowering her hands to emphasize the calming action.

“Okay, Shida,” she then corrected herself. “You have been turned into a jolly red clown for the past few days and Chak can fly because she got a red nose, do not try to think about this scientifically.”

Letting the breath out with yet another stream of steam, she nodded.

“Right, so yeah, I guess in that case, pure cold would beat out combined cold…or something like that. There are some stories about that, I think. About times when some of the pure things weren’t properly mixed and therefore resulted in strange results, like uhhhh, right there was that time in one story when a tree had ‘too much light’ in it and made really weird fruit because of it…although I don’t remember how that one ended…Buuut anyway, am I not still supposed to be Santa? Like, I mean, I wasn’t turned into some myiat thing. I was turned into Santa by a magic sack. Shouldn’t that still be what we’re concerned about?”

Doodle pressed all of his fingertips to his chest.

“Look at me boss, mythologies new and old bend, alter, change, evolve, advance, regress, rewritten, forgotten, found, reimagined, erased, simplified, elaborated. I am and have been countless things, and yet I’m a drop in an ocean. I’m whatever is believed that I am. Santa has also been many things both in the major and minor scales. For example, there are entire human mythologies that were lost or rewritten in another religion’s lens, and even those have rippled and changed in uncountable variations in all the ways I listed. Heck, with every movie about Santa and Christmas the mythos gets totally rewritten, sometimes it doesn’t even follow the same beats. Santa is just an idea that can be shaped. We can be concerned and ask ourselves what it is or what it means but…” Doodle leaned in as if to tell a secret, “What does it mean for you? What do you choose to shape it into? You’re Santa, sure… but you’re Shida first. The magic tries to trick you to conform you, because it knows exactly how easily you can conform it.”

Shida shrugged her shoulders and looked at the elf annoyed.

“I don’t know,” she gave back. “I was never into any of this stuff, and I have absolutely no connection to Santa or Christmas, nor do I have any interest to make it into anything, I just want to be rid of it, alright? I’m not trying to become some…I don’t know…cold being. Certainly never entered my mind before it suddenly happened by itself!”

She frustratedly groaned and mildly stomped her foot, immediately causing a ripple of ice to grow through the snow around her, forming the nice symmetrical shape of a snowflake.

“And myiat mythology isn’t really about things that have wills and wants -that’s all reserved for the living beings- so anything that would be comparable to ‘magic’ here is usually just an accident of things not mixing right and throwing the more or less natural order out of whack because of it,” she lamented and dragged her hands through her hair while looking up.

“As a resident of Álfheimr once, I didn’t see myself one day making children’s toys in a frozen wasteland where my diet consisted of candy and surgery deserts… I’m a being that is a part of it, I get molded to fit. You have the choice not to. You have no connection to Santa? Then don’t have one. Don’t give a darn about Christmas? Don’t. Dig into your own people’s belief systems, or disregard them. If you want to, you can just consider it a nebulous force trying to trap you here, and although you can’t cast it off quite yet, you have the ability to use what is given you against it. Maybe to you it’s just a tool, and you want to be the wielder of it until you are able to be free of it. Rationalize how it’s expressed through you in any manner to deem useful. Boil it down to it being that simple. It sure as heck won’t like it, but we’re way past caring, right?” Doodle suggested.

Shida grumbled some more as she stared at her hand once again. Then, she suspiciously glanced up at Doodle, asking,

“But in that case, what was all that just before I went out? Clearly something was happening there that was more than just a tool. I mean, it made you…like that, and ‘I’ or ‘Santa’ or whoever talked to you like he…it…they? Like they knew you. That’s not even mentioning what the hell is going on with Krampus or those horned things that attacked us. Do they have a choice too? Or are they shaped by the magic? Because in all the Christmas stories I don’t remember reading about huge horned ice-demons with broad head axes.”

“The power is sourced from somewhere. Greater concepts that one can’t fit into a box no matter how hard one were to try. ‘Santa’ is merely an attempt to do so. The magic you're packing right now is powerful stuff, more than someone should be handling. I don’t know if you can ‘control’ it as much as you'd like. Like a beaver can make a dam for a river, but in a mighty flood the dam means little. But as the wielder, you can still give it a label and direct it as well as you can. As for how I know it… It’s… hard to describe… if I’m to be poetic about it, a sunflower knows the sun, knows it’s what gives it energy and life, it can even follow it across the sky while it’s there… but the sunflower does not know that the sun is a enormous ball of plasma in a void so vast that there’s more ‘suns’ than sunflowers in number. I’m like that, I see it, feel it, receive energy from it… but it’s beyond me in ways that I have no method to perceive.” Doodle pauses for a moment, looking up at the sky, “Uhm… ice-demons… that’s one word for them, back in a specific time I would have called them jötunn… though they look a bit different now… as I did as a toy-maker… but they are beings much like myself. Bent to be something. Krampus… is also like me but… different… It is a reflection of Santa, a response even. It’s not like an evil twin situation, it’s not the opposite, it’s… consequence. Mythology around it is that it takes naughty children in the dead of night on Christmas to devour them. Though it’s grown a bit past that. Broadened, I suppose. Honestly it’s hard to tell what it is with you as the effective ‘Santa’. We would have to approach and ask it I suppose. Regardless, it wants to persist, and that means persisting ‘Christmas’. But I am concerned about the lengths it’s going to take to make that happen. The more you stray from what the ‘Christmas Spirit’ wants you to be, the more reach it has outside of it to stop you, such as those ‘ice demons’. You know all this is like, a shell has been cracked, allowing whatever outside of it to leak in. Perhaps you and Chak were the initial crack, or maybe I’m getting too metaphysical with it. Hard not to do.” the elf entailed before scooping up a fist full of snow from his mound.

Shida grimaced.

“I still feel like there has to be more to it than that…” she said at first, but then she sighed dismissively. “But I don’t have time to argue about it all day, so I’ll let it go for now.”

She then got into a bit of a wider stance, as if she was getting ready for physical activity.

“I don’t think just using it as a tool is going to work. Last time I tried that it didn’t exactly work out…” she remembered, thinking back to the way the magic had slowly and subtly poisoned her mind the more she had tried to casually use it at the start of all this. “But the problem is, stuff from our mythology is not really something that is supposed to be controllable. Usually it is quite literally the loss of control. Unless, of course, you’re one of the first ones…but I don’t think that the powers this magic gives me are quite that cosmic just yet…but, well, maybe if it's just one thing instead of everything…”

She looked down to her hand and opened her palm, holding it out almost as if she was trying to catch rain or something.

“Just cold,” she said to herself and tried to concentrate on that impossible concept. She had to do away with the notion that cold was not something that really existed. It may have only been a concept, but to the people once upon a time, it was real, because they could feel it on them. “Cold is not less warm,” she mumbled to herself. “Cold and warm are different things.” She had to convince herself of it, and in near childlike imagination, she began splitting hot and cold in her mind into red and gray. Right now, around here, there was a lot of red and a lot of gray. Sure, it was cold, so there was more gray than red, but red was still there. She didn’t want that. She only wanted gray, only cold. Like Serrikromeh wanted only light and Ohimatomai only wanted sand, she wanted only cold. Guyastai may have collected everything here -although that also wasn't right since she wasn't on Dunnima-, but whoever had brought it here, she wanted only the cold he had gathered. And she imagined bringing it all together.

Her eyes had been closed for a while at that point, and when she opened them again, she at first couldn’t see much difference. The space above her hand seemed to be as empty as before. However, Doodle still looked at it like there was a lot more to it. And when Shida glanced around, she noticed that, while her hand was seemingly still empty, something else had changed.

All around her, the snow had melted, revealing empty wet stone as well as luscious green grass underneath, while water droplets twinkled in the light as they were slowly absorbed into the no longer frozen ground.

She looked at her hand again. She didn’t feel anything, and yet she did…Cold still didn’t bother her as she was now, and so she couldn’t really notice the difference, but…something was there…probably. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

Then again, Doodle’s eyes told of something that he noticed yet she did not.

“Whoa…” he uttered rather impressed, “That was legit… pretty. The cold moves away as if it were chased by warmth… and…” his black star-speckled eyes looked up at what’s around and above Shida’s hand, “There’d be a lot more wind and temperature fluctuations if I tried anything like that, but you’re moving it as it’s master, not it’s wielder… Wow…”

Shida exhaled slowly.

“Right now, I’m just collecting it,” she explained and moved her eyes to try and see anything of her own accomplishment, although she didn’t manage to find any visual clue on her own hand. “Not sure I can do much more than tha-” she said, and as she spoke, she had let her hand drop down, expecting the cold to just…scatter back into the atmosphere now that she didn’t focus on it. Instead, it took a moment, before the ground below her suddenly shattered as if something incredibly heavy had dropped onto it, burst apart as the material couldn’t handle the sudden change in temperature, and white, ice-like lines spread over the entire surface of the previously exposed stone, while blades of grass instantly froze into nothing but icicles as a wave of literal sheer cold washed over them. “...-at.”

Luckily, despite standing in the center of it, Shida was largely unaffected by the sudden effect apart from losing her balance slightly as the ground under her burst apart.