“What? You want me to stab myself with this?” she asked, waving the supposedly powerful weapon around like it was nothing but a toy as she did so. “Is that what you’re after? And then you’ll let Chak go?”
“I’m after your death. Krampus has other plans for the goat. That is, if I give it over, which I will if you are removed from the equation. That blade, your blade. Doesn’t matter.” More and more shadows amass along the walls, one more conventionally humanoid now among them. “If you refuse, then Krampus won't be getting its prize and I take the only thing that matters to you… you will break, and no one wins. Not even the hero.”
“Let go of me!” Chak’s voice yelled in a partial muffle followed by sounds of struggle which included the sound of a pulse shot ringing out.
Shadows scatter into pieces as they are blown apart from the shot. More struggling follows, but the taller, horned humanoid casually walked over, reached down into the chaos and yanked a Cali silhouette free from it, holding around her neck.
Chak’s shadow fired at point blank range at the man now choking her, but whatever damage he endures it reformed before it could present any other effect.
“Shida don’t-” Chak screamed before her air was cut off.
“Shut it, alien scum.” Bell spoke darkly as the sound of cracking chitin could be heard amongst the cheering of demons.
Still wordlessly struggling in his grasp, Chak's shadow weakened her ferocity, her weapon soon taken by one of the cackling minions.
The jeering and jittering of the demons could be heard a few moments longer, before something shot through the dark air and sunk into the horned giant’s arm. At first, it didn’t seem to have much of an effect, before everything around the stab wound suddenly began to crumble, and with pained howls the demon stumbled back while his entire arm dropped to the ground along with Chak.
Shida’s arm was still extended from having thrown the dagger, and as soon as Chak was back on the floor and gasping for air, she opened her hand again, immediately causing the magical weapon to jet right back into it from afar.
“That’s mine,” she said darkly, her voice seemingly freezing the room for a second as all noise from the demons died down while they looked at her. “You don’t get to ‘give over’ what isn’t yours.”
She then raised the dagger high into the air, right after having so brutally demonstrated its effectiveness.
“You want my death?” she loudly announced into the silent room. “Fine. Take it. And when you have it, choke on it!”
Without a second of delay, she then plunged the knife right into herself as soon as the last syllable had left her mouth. And almost immediately, she collapsed to the ground, remaining completely motionless after.
A hoarse Cali cried out in despair, but it’s quickly drowned out by the victorious jubilation of the practical army of shadows.
“Take the goat to it.” Bell grunted in pain as he stepped out of his own shadow and into the room of altered horror of parade floats. Still wearing a semblance of his officer uniform, Bell’s skin is ice-blue with jagged horns now piercing upward. His stature is taller as well, and on his back was a spear that he equipped as he walked towards the feline’s body.
The cries of Chak shrank away as if being carried off to who-knows-where.
“I’m the hero of this story, and the hero always wins.” Bell confirmed to himself almost as if he were reciting scripture. As he walked his arm wound slowly healed back up compared to the blasts from the pulse pistol.
Approaching the body he presented his spear to strike for the neck of his enemy, planning to sever it clean.
“~Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle all the way,” a tone emerged among the hooting and hollering demons, concerning none of them but the one threateningly raising his weapons. “Pat yourself on the back while you still think you’ll win the day~.”
Looking down at the body something was wrong. She wasn’t moving. Not at all. Not twitch. No breathing. Not even a heartbeat. However, there also was no blood. He had seen her plunge the blade into herself, yet the ground beneath her was completely clean.
And…if she wasn’t breathing…where was this darn singing coming from?
“~Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle all the way,” the mocking chant repeated itself, making the officer unwillingly flash back to memories of his childhood, when he had been relentlessly teased with plagiarized songs of a quite similar nature thanks to his unusual name whenever Christmas had come around. “But soon you will learn that you stood no chance either way~.”
“SHUT UP!!!” He manically screamed at the top of his lungs, aimed at everything around him. “SHUT UUUUUP!!!” He bellowed again immediately after. His eyes flicked to in ice-white and his teeth blackened and sharpened as he made his demand to the now silent shadows.
Turning around he scoured for who could be singing to deal out punishment to those kids who tormented him.
He had already enacted his vengeance by working out constantly, and attained a job that he could leverage against them for the rest of their lives. He had power over them now, no one ever gave him crap about his stupid name. He became respected. He won. And now that the town and Christmas itself was under threat by aliens, he did it all again. He made himself stronger, and achieved more power.
“I WON!!! I WON!!! I WON!!!” He repeated, “I CAN’T BE MOCKED ANYMORE!”
“Poor little Jingle, giving up all he was just to desperately grasp at a victory that never belonged to him in the first place,” the voice continued, still talking sing-songy but losing all the rhythm it previously held. “It’s sad, really. Or, well, it would be, if he hadn’t turned himself into a monster in the process. He tries so hard to be all big and scary only to hide just how little he actually is. Just a little Bell, desperately trying to jingle as loud as it can, just to be noticed. Oh, he’s trying his best.”
The voice was quiet for a moment. For a second, he thought it may be over.
However it came back. And this time, it was right in his ear, hissing in a mocking whisper.
“Now jingle, little bell!” it ordered.
Roaring incoherently at the voice he turned around to the only tangible thing to destroy. Raising his spear he brought it down on the feline’s body over and over again. Blinded by rage and hate he struck down with his screaming not running out of air for an impossibly long charge of time. Again and again he stabbed to rip and tear apart the bane of his life, wanting nothing more than to prove he had come out on top. Eventually he slumped to his knees, shoulders racking as his scream devolved into horrid yelling sobs.
“Shut up… shut up… just shut up…” he demanded in begging releases of air, “I don’t care… I won… just shut up…”
“You won? Oh jingle…” the voice said into his ear as something began to move underneath him. “We aren’t even playing the same game.”
In horror, the blue demon could do little but watch on as the body of the dead -so clearly dead- feline began to move again. He looked over at his spear and…in his rage he hadn’t noticed it, but now he saw that the weapon was broken, burst all the way down to the halfway point of its pole.
“A pawn cannot win the game,” the voice continued on, while the feline’s body shifted, now exhaling a long breath that carried enough cold with it to freeze the ground it passed over, while she reached for the blade that was still plunged into her chest, releasing dark-red, slowly dripping blood from the wound that it left. “Just as much as a player cannot strike the queen.”
With the dagger loudly clambering to the ground, Bell could do little but watch on without understanding as the bleeding feline stood up to her feet, seeming stiff and inflexible in her movement, but moving nonetheless.
As she stood, she turned her head in a horridly jagged and un-fluent motion as she seemingly inspected all of the demons around her.
“I would pity you really. Something was taken from you. Something incredibly important. You think you gave it willingly, but that is not true. It was stolen from you against your will while you had wool pulled over your eyes. You’re not as bad as you seem right now,” the voice continued, now matching up with the stiffly moving lips of the feline again, although it still didn’t seem to come from her directly. After she was done with her scanning of the room, her eyes came to a final halt on him.
There was no shine in them. They were still. Dead. And quite literally…frozen over, a thin layer of opaque ice covering their surface where tears should’ve been.
“I would, but…you made a mistake,” she continued saying and she took a step towards him. As he looked straight at her while still on his knees, she gently reached out her hand. As she did so, her movement became more and more fluent, and blood started to flow out of her chest-wound more and more violently, as if her body just now caught up to the fact that it had been stabbed. Even the ice in her eyes began to thaw, leaving behind an endlessly piercing gaze that didn’t hold even a hint of empathy inside it as it drilled into the frost-demon’s eyes. As her fingers finally made contact with his cheek, her hand shot around, and the gentle caress instead turned into a harsh grip on his face, as she brought her own eyes close to his. “You tried to take what is mine.”
As soon as she had said that, it was like a wave of weakness went through the room, forcing Bell to slump even more while many other demons around him began to stumble and sway, seemingly losing the ability to stand as well.
“This doesn’t belong to you either,” he could hear her say while he felt his power draining out of him. “I’ll take it from you, and bring it back to its rightful owner. With your best wishes attached.”
“Wh… what are you?” was all the man could say before his own lungs were too weak to draw air. The last sparks of his consciousness perceived himself falling completely to the floor. His vision lacked focus as the world around him came to a close.
Meanwhile, the wounds on Shida’s body began to close themselves as the demon hordes around her began to shrivel away into nothing but dull sparks that congregated into her.
She was about to just turn and leave, however something stopped her. A pulling inside her. A resistance that wanted nothing to do with all this dark magic funneled into her. However, despite that disdain she could clearly feel for it, getting rid of it wasn’t what it tried to push her to do.
For a few seconds Shida stood firmly. Then, she released an annoyed sigh.
Lifting her hand, she briefly collected some of her own, ‘light’ magic in her palm, before carelessly throwing it back on the ground behind her, causing the cold, dark concrete to almost instantly swallow up the unconscious form of Officer Bell.
Feeling the resistance in her disappearing, Shida rolled her eyes, however then she walked on in the direction she had heard Chak disappear in.
This had been nothing but a distraction, and it had never been intended to be anything more. Bell had been just as used and discarded as countless Santas and Rudolfs had been before she and Chak had arrived here.
-
Through dark, snowy woods, Chak’s will to fight those carrying her through the maze of trees was spent. It was over. Shida made the same mistake the Cali tried to accomplish, but succeeded in going through with it.
Her captors genuinely wanted to bring her to their master alive, as they cradled her cracked neck with more care than she suspected possible from them.
She felt the cold, despite her suit trying to compensate. With all the icy, magical demon hands holding her, she wasn’t surprised. Though she can’t quite tell how long she is carried off for, as time holds little meaning. It didn’t matter how close to Christmas it was, there’s no fighting this anymore.
Activating her Lens, she pulled up the library images of her family. Simone, Essjay, Jamie, Chucknuq, Seven, Vin, the bounty hunters, James and-
She paused at the image she had of the feline. She took it while staring up at her friend after the race at the festival. The sun above made a beautiful effect around her head. And her expression was so soft and amused, maybe even proud. Chak forgot that she even took it, and wanted to share it.
The Princess’s eyes flicker a glowing red. She will see her family again. She will make all this struggle mean something.
Shida would want that.
With her Lens she commanded her powersuit to increase its strength output to borderline dangerous levels towards her own body.
She felt the group carrying her start to slow, and took the chance to violently thrash.
Loosening her arm she wailed her augmented strength against the dense monstrosities. More hands clasped to hold her still, but she didn’t let up.
She heard her blows cracking the beast’s bodies and one by one her limbs were fully released. As she dropped to the snow below her she squirmed as scampered up to her hooves ready to continue to fight.
But the demons scatter and disappear into the darkness, seemingly abandoning their mission.
Until she sees it.
Krampus stood facing away from her at a cliff edge, staring up into the dark void of sky.
“I swear to all the stars above… I’m going to kill you!” Chak promised as she started to charge the entity, but as it turned around it revealed its face for the first time.
Coming to a stop, Chak wasn't sure if this was a trick, a mockery, or something else completely.
But the yellow eyes staring back at her were undeniably hers. As was the rest of its neutrally set face. The rest of its body in its hulking hunched form was still certainly not who the face reflected.
“Reflected…” Chak’s mouth spoke without her intention.
This wasn’t Shida, obviously. Merely Krampus’s assumed form when her friend became Santa.
-Remain-
“No! I’m going home! I’m going to get Shida’s body and take her-” Chak began to say before something clicked in her mind, “She’s alive?” she realized in a soft cry.
Never had she thought she would be so happy to see a monster wear the face of her dear friend.
-Remain-
Chak put a hand to her injured neck, wincing.
“I’m not. I’m going back, and I’m going to save her from that magic.” she told it, “I don’t know why you haven’t killed me yet, when you could have so many times… but you want to hurt her, and that’s something I’ll never allow. You can’t control me anymore. I know I can’t hurt you back, but I will ensure that you are stopped.”
Krampus’s head tilted, face eerily blank from emotion.
-Choiceless-
With that the creature stepped off the cliff, but there was never a sound of flapping fabric or a landing. Chak knew better than to look over to see where it went. It was gone, plotting whatever it had next in store.
Looking back, Chak could still see the steps through the snow her captures made. Deciding to remain defiant, she refused to ‘remain’ and started to walk back to where Shida was.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
There were no markers as all the trees might as well have been carbon copies. Only the disturbed snow led the way. And yet, no matter how long she followed it, she never came to a destination. At first she figured it was because her pace was much slower than the demons’, but enough time had passed that she came to an eventual conclusion.
“There’s no way out…” she whispered in a stiff shiver.
Her suit was active and supposedly giving heat, but her body felt otherwise. This place, whatever it was, intended on keeping her here and she had no magic of any kind in her to escape with. So she just kept walking, with nothing else to do.
Until her legs refused to move, too cold to budge through the snow. Her center of gravity then betrayed her as she fell over, the rest of her body too frozen to prevent it.
The worst part? She didn’t feel like she was going to die. Her consciousness was as sharp as ever. This freezing didn’t offer death, only imprisonment.
She was to remain here until found or needed. And seeing that this place was endless, she figured being found was a longshot.
She then saw bare feet step in front of her sight.
“Boss is coming for ya.” Doodle informed, “I’d get you out, but I need just a scrap of time. Sorry, but she really is coming for you and it’s to help her. Listen… I’m going to need your help.” the elf said as he leaned down and placed a healing hand onto the Cali’s neck.
“She’s losing herself. And if I don’t do something dramatic, everything will be lost, too. The parade has started, protesters are gonna try to block it at city hall. When the boss takes you back, that’s where Krampus wants you to go. To stop its minions from ruining the parade. But it's all just to waste your time. I’m going to meet it at the very top of the nearby mountain. Let boss know that’s where Krampus will be.”
Chak felt a comforting warmth fill her body.
“It ain’t over yet.” Doodle assured in a tone that almost sounded like a goodbye before his visage disappeared once again.
Chak laid there, thinking about the elf’s words for some time. However, eventually, there was movement coming into this endlessly still forest, as the treetops and their branches began to sway and bend, as if caught in a strong breeze.
However, different from a strong breeze, the entire woods soon began to tear themselves apart. At first, it was just tiny needles and twigs breaking off and floating away from the individual plants, but soon, entire branches came loose, getting carried off by the wind as it also stripped the bark off of each stem, before even those didn’t hold any longer and got carried away as if gripped by a heavy storm.
However, where she laid, Chak didn’t feel a thing. There was no storm. No wind. Not even a breeze. Everything was perfectly still, and the wood just floated away, torn apart seemingly all on its own.
“Insufferable coward,” a familiar voice announced over the entire area with an entirely unfamiliar tone. It sounded like it was talking to stray vermin that had escaped a trap. Or maybe stains on a carpet that were refusing to be washed out.
Although the voice was extremely loud and sounded like it came from close by, it ultimately took a few more minutes before crunching footsteps came closer in the snow.
Gently and completely unfitting to the voice Chak had just heard, Shida sank down next to her and carefully picked her up from the ground, immediately pulling her into a tight embrace, that was however gentle enough to not damage the un-enhanced Cali in her current state.
“Thank goodness, you’re okay,” Shida announced as she held the Cali, and the princess almost felt a bit like a stuffed animal-toy as she was cradled and slightly swayed around in her mostly limp state. However, what was a lot nicer was the immediate flood of heat that seemed to congregate around her, bringing even more life back into her stiffened body than Doodle had previously provided to her. “I’m so glad to have you back, Chak.”
“I… think I know why Krampus hasn’t killed me…” was the first thing Chak responded with before she pressed her head into the side of Shida’s, “The parade is going to be stopped by protesters… but I know where Krampus is right now. The top of the mountain. It just wants to keep us distracted…” the Cali informed as directed in a tired voice, “Shida… I’ll always be your friend. Always. But… right now I’d very much like to hear you say it back. That you’ll always be my friend. That you’re mine too.”
Shida pulled her head back slightly to look at the Cali, curiously tilting her head to the side. Then, her face lit up in what Chak could only equate to a strange sense of…endearment?
“Awwww,” the feline uttered before already pulling her back into the tight hug. “Of course I am. I’ll always be your dear friend, Shida.”
However, as she nuzzled against Chak’s face, her fingers seemed to suddenly find the Cali’s neck, and she paused for a second. Stopping dead in her motion, her padded fingers gently glided along the exoskeleton below Chak’s head, until they reached all the way up to the princess’ chin.
“Someone healed you,” she said in a tone barely above a whisper, and Chak couldn’t identify the expression her voice was carrying.
“Someone did.” Chak didn’t bother hiding, “Someone that knew you were coming for me, and I understood why I had to wait for you. Shida, do you believe you own me?” she asked outright, the suspicion of such having easily blossomed.
Shida let go of Chak, allowing her to stand on her own again as she took a step back.
“Do I think I own you?” Shida repeated the question, and it almost sounded like she had to really think about that for a moment, which was disturbing enough by itself. The fact that the thought wasn’t even absurd to her. Ultimately, after seemingly mulling it over for a bit, she brought her eyes back onto Chak. “Well, let me answer your question with a question. I just told you that I’m yours, didn’t I? Do you think you own me? You wanted to hear it, after all.”
“Look at me, and think of everything we’ve been through. I could never own anyone, you know that. Just like I know you couldn’t own anyone else either.” Chak replied as she looked down in sad disappointment, “But… I’m not talking to just Shida right now. Dearest friend of mine, regardless of how you're feeling right now, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Would Shida, the woman who’d give her life for me, the person who gave me advice on love and what it means to be my own person and a ruler… own me as if I was some pretty trinket? Now… I don’t have to hear it, but I want you to hold on to your answer and think of where you think this is all going… especially with how long you had to think about it.” Chak turned away and released a preparatory breath, “Let’s end Krampus once and for all, and see where this goes.”
After a moment of wait, Chak felt a hand lower onto her shoulder, holding it firm but not tight.
“I’m with you, Chak,” Shida assured her, before she lifted her hand to open another portal back to their own world. Although it wasn’t the thing to think about right now, it was sort of amazing how easy that had become at this point, although it was also frightening how much magic by now must have been congregating in just one person.
Not letting go of Chak, Shida started to gently guide her into the portal, and they were gradually swallowed up by the ground beneath them, feeling like their world flipped in on itself.
A gust of lively cold wind brushed past the Cali as the light of day almost blinded her from the stark contrast. The distant echoing sound of holiday music was carried in the air, with people clapping and cheering. But it was far away. All the way up here, near the very top of the mountain, the town of Flakeville could be seen in the midst of celebration.
But the most noticeable thing by far, was the massive impossibly grown tree resting at the mountain peak.
At its base, branches tethered a defeated Krampus in place while a battle-worn Doodle held his hand to its forehead. The still neutral myiat eyes dragged themselves over to the newcomers, expressing not an ounce of surprise, fear, anger, contentment… nothing.
“Just a moment, boss.” Doodle spoke over the gusts of wind, “I almost have it. You can have the rest when I’m done, it won’t matter.”
“That’s my face,” Shida said at first in an unexpectedly wrathful moment, before her gaze turned to Chak, almost entirely changed to a pleasant curiosity at an instant. “What’s going on here?” she asked with the tone of someone who had just been sprung on by a surprise party in their office.
“Intervention I guess. And don’t blame Krampus for the face. Not really a choice on its end. I’m just grabbing a little something that used to be mine.” Doodle answered for the Princess.
The elf gasped as his form reverberated. His skin turned gray and hair paled to a off greenish white
Krampus’s eyes became tired and closed shut.
Doodle then sighed, looking at his blacking arms.
“Elf-king… been a while.” he noted before reaching a compassionate hand to Krampus’s still face, “Rest easy, kin of folklore.” he whispered.
Then, turning to face Shida and Chak the elf revealed a face that was fixed to be somber. Holding a deep knowing and expectation.
“I’m going to take that magic away from you, Shida. Fight against me if you wish, there’s plenty of me to collect. But I warn you… that which lies behind my boss… I won’t make it easy for you.” he informed as something more than mere energy of fae arises within him. A seed of something different.
Then with a flick of his wrist, Shida felt something within her buckle and twist. Not her actual body, but an aspect of the magic within her. Like glued velcro being ripped at.
Releasing a strained breath at first, Shida chuckled.
“Doodle, Doodle, Doodle,” she slowly said with a darn near playful glare up at the elf. “You really want to take away what is mine?”
She then very briefly turned her eyes over to Chak.
“Did you have this planned for me?”
Chak shook her head.
“He said he could help. But didn’t tell me what he was planning to do. I’m… putting my trust in him, and that he knows what he’s doing.” Chak replied honestly.
Shida chuckled mildly to herself and slowly stepped over to the princess, coming to a halt right in front of her. Gently, she reached out, cupping the Cali’s face in between her hands and lowering her lips onto her friend’s forehead, planting a very brief kiss there, before pulling away again.
“It’s fine,” she assured Chak with a soft tone and a smile. “This won’t take long.”
“No… it won’t.” Doodle agreed before flicking his wrist again causing another internal tearing within the feline, then with his other hand he clenched it before opening it again almost as if waiting for a high-five. But this gesture seemed to have no effect on Shida in the slightest.
“You’ll get outta there boss.” he said with a reassuring nod.
“I think so as well,” Shida replied and took up a neutral stance. At first it didn’t seem like anything happened on the outside. But Doodle could feel it. The pull. The grasp. As if the very forces of nature themselves, or maybe even something older than those, were taking a tight hold of a part of him and ripping it away with overwhelming might.
What had basically been his very essence if not his entire being until just less than an hour ago was taken away at barely more than an instant. Of course, now, that wasn’t enough to put him down.
Still, the ease with which it happened was indeed frightening.
“What tricks did you bring for me?” Shida asked loudly and with a bit of excitement in her voice. “I’ll gladly take them.”
Breathing in deeply, Doodle’s self reconstituted itself around the seed of something else within him.
“A well’s worth…” Doodle huffed with a smirk still holding up his open hand. With a punching motion of the other the feline’s mind was skewered by an unseen force. In a mere moment she realized her entire life. Everything she experienced, she felt, she knew, she lost, she found. Her whole existence replayed before her, until the catch up to present his like a ton of bricks to the back of her head.
Breathing heavily, Doodle stood straight again.
“I’m ready for another good suck-off…” he tiredly chuckled mischievously with a wink.
Shida smirked slightly.
“What an eventful life mine has been,” she said after the flash of memories ended. Then she tilted her head at the elf. “Well, if that’s what you want…I’m not going to give it to you.”
Instead, she turned towards the ‘lifeless’ form of Krampus still hanging on the tree.
“You know, I’ve still got a promise to fulfill,” she said, before she lifted her hand, with Doodle immediately seeing an enormous sphere of near pitch-black magic collecting above it. “You can have this back,” the feline announced as she tossed the orb over at the hanging body that had stolen her face. “With best wishes from Officer Bell.”
Doodle tried to react, but the toss was impossibly fast, even for him. As soon as the sphere had made contact with the limp body, it was immediately absorbed inside, shrinking more and more from moment to moment. At first, it was unclear if something had happened.
But then, the head lurched backwards with a deep breath, right before letting out a guttural roar of primal rage.
“I don’t need your malice,” Shida confidently announced. “Give it to someone else. Doodle seems to be missing something at the moment.”
As she spoke, pillars of icy horns erupted from the Krampus’ own body as its drained essence was reunified with its own, dark power that it had lent out, not only to Bell, but to hoards of Demons and Mimics as well.
The horns and claws cutting through the branches holding it, the roaring beast fell to the ground, focussing sharply on the elf.
“You didn’t think you defeated it on your own merits alone, did you Doodle?” Shida then asked the elf mockingly, as he prepared for the charge of the monstrosity. “I had taken a lot from it before you two faced each other.”
“Except what I needed…” Doodle said as he used his free unlifted hand to point at the Krampus as it charged. With a purposeful shutting of his eyes, the being collapsed in front of him. Though instead of sleep coming to the monster’s being, only death arrived. Tears rolled down Doodle’s face as he whispered shushes.
“I am creation, I am death. Upon my arrival will you know when it’s time to cross…” he said softly before refocusing on Shida, “But it’s not your time Shida, I will not weep to your passing, not yet.” His eyes then turned to the collapsed body of Chak, “Will you weep for her as I will soon? You don’t have to Shida. Let it go. I’m sorry I encouraged this, I didn’t know… You care for her Shida? The real Shida? Prove it. I linked her soul with mine. The more you take from me, the more you take from her. You can give it back, but if I drop my hand… she’ll be lost beyond my power. So even if you somehow steal everything that I am… you won’t ever… ever have her.” he warned in a dark growl that stenched of decay and rot.
“Let it go for her. Or let go of her. What’s more important? What have you been working towards this whole time? Are you going to throw it all away, because some magic thinks it owns you? I’m sorry… I can’t overpower you Shida, I can’t even pull you free. I can remind you of your will to pull yourself free, then strip it. I know you hear me… is Chak something you're willing to throw away?” Doodle said as he then pressed an intense focus, preparing for an answer he didn’t hope for.
Shida began to gradually press forwards, approaching the elf in simple, tender steps without giving an answer. Soon she had crossed half of the way between them. Then two thirds. Then four firths. And the elf hesitated.
“Oh, Doodle,” Shida said as soon as she was in a range that allowed her to reach her hands out to him. Her voice was sweet and…almost motherly. “You’re talking like I’m going to kill you. You know I could never do that to you or Chak.”
Her hands gently made contact with his chin and softly glided up to his cheeks as she held him.
“I have taken nothing that you have not willingly offered,” she said as if she was reminding him. “I couldn’t hurt my dear friends.”
“Heh… Ohh… I get it now… Heheheh… a fae of all being should know… sorry to say you already have, and you don’t like me that much. I don’t think…” Doodle sighed with a lifting smirk as his lifted arm trembled and fell slightly, “But I’m sure there will be forgiveness all around after all this. With laughter, and jokes… I look forward to seeing it, even if there’s a good chance I won’t be there in person. I can’t die… not really… can’t kill what I am, what I’ve been… at least until it’s completely forgotten. But that’s the beauty of it, things like me… we pass with those who dreamed us into existence. Regardless of what happens… remember me while flying around in those space ships will ya?”
With a classic snap of his fingers from his open hand, Chak gasped as her life restored itself.
“Don’t take anything else, please. Rather… give it to me. All of it, outside of what makes you, you. I’ll get you home with it. I promise.” the elf vows with the utmost certainty.
With the same curious interest she had expressed so often in recent times, Shida regarded the elf.
“I don’t like giving away what is mine,” she admitted freely, but without anger. “Do you even think you could handle it? The forces you’ve awakened? You hold great power now. Power over life. But this…is from a time before nature. Before death had a meaning. Creation, life, dreams,...they were all just…happy little accidents along the way. I’m not sure what it would do to you if I handed it all over.”
“I think I’m qualified, my mom used to tell me I was a happy little accident all the time, before she started leaving out the ‘happy’ part… and then the little part…” he laughed before putting a hand to one of hers, “Death… is just a concept… a meaning and explanation to the end of something. I know this very well, and I know there was a before… It’s outside me… but… I think I know somewhere I could channel it. I’m asking you to trust me with what’s yours, and that you won’t come to regret it. Allow me to have this one last great- adventure… b-before… y-you leave…” a different sort of tears began to roll down his face as the smile on it widened, “I’m… ready for it, if you are willing.”
Shida exhaled slowly, and finally she removed her hands from his face. Then, she took a few swaying, sauntering steps away, facing down at the town of flakeville.
She snickered slightly to herself, before sighing deeply. Glancing back over her shoulder, she mumbled,
“Well, I guess it’s time that I clean up my mess…”, while her eyes turned into a pale blue for only a split second.
With that, she lifted her hands up high in the direction of the town. And gradually, more and more flowing tendrils of magic came towards her, snaking through the air like ancient serpents as they all came together above the top of her hands. Bright, dark, it didn’t matter. All magic was absorbed into the enormous form she created. And it didn’t just come from her surroundings. From all over her body, it seeped out as well, adding more volume to the sphere than the entire environmental magic combined.
As one last, enormous tendril of pearly white magic emerged from her, Doodle felt like he could hear a voice echoing out of it.
“It was nice getting to relive some old times, Fae,” it announced as it swirled through the air, before combining with the rest of the sphere that was full of colors endlessly turning in on themselves.
Shida stumbled slightly, and Doodle could see that she had only a minimal amount of magic left within her, a last, stubborn bit of Christmas spirit that would not let her go.
“This is as far as I can push it,” she said through clenched teeth. “It’s grip on me is really friggin’ tight.”
Trembling on her entire body, she started to move her hands, beginning to hold the enormous sphere out towards Doodle.
“Be warned,” she said with what seemed to be the last of her power. “The first ones were…proud and…jealous…be..ings…”
“I think we’ll get along… Just tell your tall and handsome boyfriend I still hate his fuckin’ guts.” he chuckled as he reached up, but he stopped himself to quickly grab a scrap of paper from his jean pocket, “Oh, I finished that stupid song!” he informed before dropping the paper before reaching up again.
With a short breath he delved his hand into it. And like water to a sponge it absorbed into him in a near instant with such a drawing pull that his hand jerked and pressed up against Shida’s. He hesitated, but the elf gripped tightly as it braced for what was occurring.
His breathing increased in depth, speed and scope as his form shifted and threatened to pull him apart. His features couldn't agree on where and when to settle. His eyes expanded almost too big for his face as they nearly encompassed it almost like some demented whacky cartoon. But as he released a cry of overwhelming sensation, it all snapped into place.
Smiling, the ‘elf’ relaxed his grip and just simply held the feline's hand as the magic still barely clung on though them.
“Happy Holidays, boss.” Doodle said softly before tugging his hand away, stripping the rest of the magic with him. He looked down at his arms, surprised to see that he was still very much like how he saw himself. However, the stars from his eye have expanded all across his form and around him like a hovering projection all around his body. Among them were spiraling galaxies and clouds of colorful nebulae.