“Yep, looks like a parade, alright,” Shida mumbled to her group as they approached the uncanny number of parked festival-wagons that were parked in an enormous garage of sorts, that looked like it had likey once served to house much larger vehicles for one purpose or another. She couldn’t help but notice the amount of fat old men with long beards and red suits staring down at her, their eyes appearing to harshly judge her every move, despite their made-to-be jolly appearances. Although she tried to hold back with any of her more demeaning comments, since they had so graciously been granted entrance to this apparently usually restricted place by their friends in the organizing party of this whole thing. Although she couldn’t quite help but quietly add, “Guess it’s not a real festival until the cops show up.”
An officer of the law was very obviously loitering around the place, either guarding the cars or stationed here for some other reason. Either way, Shida did not exactly enjoy his presence, as it meant that they would have to be a lot more careful of what they could and couldn’t say, especially after Dagon, in an earlier conversation, had highly recommended to her to not fall back on their native language in order to avoid eavesdropping too often, as that could apparently somehow be seen as suspicious, because of this places previously mentioned “traditional values”. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but if it meant avoiding unwanted attention, she was inclined to comply for the time being.
“Oh wow.. Look at all the pretty decorations!” Chak said as she pointed out a wagon with a life size gingerbread house made of nothing actually edible in the slightest.
“A lot of work was put into ‘em.” Dagon nodded, “Is there a specific float you need to check out?”
“I’m… not certain. Doodle?” Chak looked at the elf who’s struggling to keep up.
“Ah… no clue.” he huffed.
Before Chak could respond a coordinator with a clipboard in his hands waved at Dagon and jogged over.
“Dagon sir. We’ve had more complaints over the ‘Holiday’ banners. The town school board has even started a petition calling for you to be let go. Thankfully I doubt it’s going to do anything, but there are talks of establishing protests.” the man informed, sweat just pouring down his head.
“Well, that’s their right.” Dagon dismissed, “But as long as I’m in charge, it’s going to be a ‘Holiday’ parade. Got it? Just because Christmas is the popular kid doesn’t mean it’s the only one.” he argued before stopping in his tracks. Bringing his hand up to his chin he looked over to the two accompanying women, “Wait… could that be what this is all about? How petty can the magic of Christmas be…” he mumbled in consideration.
Shida scratched at her cheek.
“I honestly doubt it,” she says with a shrug. “Would be hard to believe that it would pick a Santa with no idea or values about Christmas if that was the case. Wouldn’t it just have gone straight for one of the protesting traditionalists?”
However, as she said that she looked around the room again, taking in the many depictions of Santa, Elves, Rudolph, and a baby in some sort of feeder. Moving her scratching up to her temple, she contemplatively added,
“But, well, as an outsider I can’t say I disapprove of the holiday-parade name, but…are any of these wagons not about Christmas? Like, I get what you are going for and all that, but just changing the name to “holiday” while still keeping the entire thing about Christmas feels…I don’t know…a bit patronizing, don’t you think? Can’t the less popular kids get at least one wagon for themselves if you’re already changing it up?”
“Well uh- huh… no…no you’re right… Weird… that should have been explicitly clear to me…” Dagon fully agreed, putting his hand to his temple.
“Well… once Christmas is saved it would be a not very Christmas’y parade if they all weren’t already Christmas.” Doodle mumbled as he sized up a lanky dude in an elf costume that had more effort put into it than his own.
“Alright. Not only is this going to be a Holiday parade, but we’re actually going to make good on it!” Dagon declared as he turned to the assisting coordinator.
In a sudden visual shock, Chak, Shida and Doodle were the only ones to see the sudden appearance of an outline of Dagon remain in place as he moved away. Like an afterimage it was a transparent two dimensional form of his visage. The border began to sparkle, but it all soon dwindled into blackened ash as it disappeared from existence.
“We’ll convert all of the redundant Christmas floats into those for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and hell why not we’ll convert some for Yule and the Winter Solstice!” Dagon chuckled like a weight was lifted from his shoulders.
“Yeah, you do that! If people give you guff, just tell them Santa approves!” Shida cheered artificially for a second, even though she had no idea what any of those were. Then, she quickly leaned down to Doodle and quietly asked, “Any idea what we just witnessed?”
Then, she suddenly shot up, realizing what she had just heard, and added in a bit of an outburst,
“Wait, did he just curse?! And nothing stopped him?”
Doodle blinked, not quite believing what he just witnessed.
“The… the Magic of Christmas just… he… people can’t just- Well shove a lollipop up my cinnamon roll… he just shed himself of the Christmas Spirit… How?” the elf stammered, almost looking like he was suffering from an internal crisis.
“How is the right question,” Shida mumbled and her eyes twinkled as she first looked down at her hand and then over at Chak. She tried to contain herself for a moment, however ultimately, she had to give in as she burst to the side and picked the smaller woman up from her feet, twirling her around in her arms for a second. This was, in this gravity and with both of them in their humans forms, admittedly much harder than usual, however that did not deter the disguised feline. “You hear that, Chak? We’re on the right track!” she cheerfully exclaimed while twirling the Cali for a few more steps before finally setting her down again. “We can do this! We can fix this! We’ll just need to…I don’t know…keep doing what we’ve been doing!”
“But… we’re supposed to save Christmas… aren't we? Isn’t this… the opposite of that?” Chak replied as she recovered after being spun. She was happy to see Shida happy, but despite that something in the back of her mind told her that this was a terrible thing… A very terrible thing.
She then started to wonder if those feelings were her own, or the magical force that wanted to consume her. The lines between were too blurred for her to really tell.
“Yeah. This is… bad boss. It’s like you don’t want Christmas to be saved.” Doodle added as he crossed his arms.
Shida glared down at the elf.
“Christmas is what did this to us in the first place,” she said with contained but still apparent fury. “As long as we can rid ourselves of this entire ordeal, I don’t particularly care if we do it by saving it or not. In fact, if it turns out tearing it all down is the easier way to do it, I’ll be right happy to take that route. Because in that case, ‘the magic of Christmas’ signed its own death-certificate the moment it decided to mess with me.”
Then, with her features softening significantly, she turned to Chak, leaning down slightly as she put her hands onto Chak’s shoulders and looked directly into her eyes.
“The most important thing to save is you, Chak, not some strange, messed up magic,” she said emphatically. “And we’re going to do it. You just need to hold on a little longer…We’re on the right path! Just a little longer…”
“If you can hold on for that long.” Doodle countered with a shrug. “Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you’re gonna have the final call. And no one in the whole world has more Christmas magic being pumped through ‘em more than you, and I’m made of the stuff… Also, all it takes is for something unfortunate to occur to ya for the torch to pass. The closer it gets to Christmas, the more inclined the Christmas spirit is gonna be to save it.”
Chak’s red eyes looked back and forth between Shida and Doodle, eventually settling on her trusted friend.
“Then… let’s keep doing what we’re doing. I’m with you Shida.” she resolved with a nod.
Shida nodded at Chak thankfully, before standing up straight again and glaring imperiously down at Doodle.
“I grew up as an orphan on Dunnima and have been fighting in two intragalactic wars for the past year,” she grimly proclaimed with a look of cutting eyes piercing right through the elf. “It. Can. Try me.”
-
“I can’t believe you just left those kids out there…” the Sheriff sneered as she drove to the north end of town with Bell in the passenger seat.
“I know, but they just disappeared on me. And there was a lot going on with the whole incident.” Bell replied, attractively wiping his brow in shame.
The Sheriff adjusted the rearview mirror to focus on the woman sitting in the back seat.
“How much does she know?” she asked.
“Told her everything. She had direct contact with the Aliens and witnessed them use Santa’s magic.” Bell replied.
“I’m still not buying them as being ‘aliens’, but… I saw what I saw.” Mary spoke up, “But regardless, those kids need to be found.”
“I’m guessing they have the kids stowed away somewhere. Whether as leverage or for an early Christmas feast.” Bell said darkly.
“Bell!” Mary protested in disgust.
“You didn’t see what I saw, Mary! A complete invasion of the earth, devouring us like cattle. I want to find the kids too, but wherever they are I suspect we’ll find their lair. Hopefully catching them unaware we can end this before Christmas.” Bell responded passionately.
The cruiser made its way to the gathering point where forces of police, firemen and volunteers had gathered and organized. Pictures of the three missing kids were passed out as the group divided.
Parking, the three exit and approach the search and rescue. Taking command immediately the Sheriff heads away to the other lead coordinators.
“So uhm… you have a fiance huh?” Bell asked out of the blue.
“Oh… yes. I am. I mean I do. I have a fiance.” Mary confirmed sheepishly.
“Lucky man. He some big-wig you met from the city?” the man pressed as he kicked at a chunk of gray snow slurry.
“Something like that…” Mary nodded shyly, though she painfully looks like she wants to say more.
“But?” Bell granted.
Mary shrugged.
“I don’t know, it’s stupid… but… coming back home and seeing the pure magic of Christmas again… it’s really making me regret leaving when I did. You know how it is in the big city, just no time for Christmas… and… maybe I want to move back some day to settle down. But Dagon… he’s…” she trailed off feeling terrible about it.
“He’s not one for Christmas.” Bell finished for her in a ‘sexy’ low tone, giving her an understanding and longing glance.
Her pale cheeks lighting up like Christmas lights, Mary swayed her shoulders.
“Something like that.” she uttered with a small smile.
“Mind if we paired up?” Bell asked.
Mary’s spine erected, completely flustered by such a bold proposition.
“Oh-ah, what?” she replied in shock.
“The search? For the kids? Mind if we paired up? Since we know what we know.” Bell cluelessly clarified.
Now red from embarrassment the woman sharply inhaled.
“Right! Sure! Let’s do that!” she agreed.
“You feel’n alright?” Bell asked, putting the back of his rugged manly hand to her exposed forehead.
“Y-yep! Yep-yep!” Mary pulled away to get the necessary things they’d need.
-
With a crinkle, a sudden pressure appeared in Shida’s sleeve as she skulked around the parade looking for any other things she might be able to point out that would tell the Christmas Spirit to stuff it.
Annoyed and confused, she pulled the knitted fabric back, and revealed a deceptively small, folded up piece of paper that was pressed to her skin by the tight article of clothing.
Unsure of herself, she took the peace into her hand and unfurled it, wondering for a second if Christmas itself was about to write her a threatening message here. And indeed, it almost seemed like that for a second, because when she opened the paper, there was a single, large word written on it in old letters and a fancy, headline fashion.
Naughty - it read.
Shida titled her head. Seriously? Was THIS supposed to impress her? Guess the ‘christmas magic’ didn’t know the kind of stuff she was usually called by the people around her. Naughty was a compliment.
However, while at first the message had been unclear, suddenly, the paper changed, and it immediately clicked for Shida what was going on here. Because slowly, a spark ignited on the paper, slowly spreading in glowing, smoldering lines, that left behind a trail of coal-black, carbon writing.
“Mary D. Light”
Shida’s eyes opened slightly wider as she read the name.
“Oh darn,” she mumbled, some dark precognitions coming over her on what might have earned their driver a new spot on this list of hers. She had actually been joking about it earlier, after all…but that didn’t mean she had wanted to be right. “Poor guy…”
Once again, she was confronted with the dilemma of to tell or not to tell. Then again, was she even interpreting this right? Theoretically, there could be thousands of reasons for her name to appear like this. Then again, if she was right…
Shida sighed unsurely and shook her head, putting the paper away. However, despite her moral uncertainty in the situation, something else felt much clearer to her.
This had to be some kind of lead, right? For it to show up like this, and right after they had gotten her fiance cut loose from the magic…there had to be something to it. Well, given what Doodle had said earlier, it might have also been a trap. However, leaving a trap to linger also didn’t feel like the best idea. Might as well spring it. Show this magic-crappery who is boss here.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
She looked around. Dagon still had to be running around here somewhere.
“I know what we’re doing next,” she announced as she finally spotted him and turned to meet him halfway as he was about to cross the garage.
Having at some point pulled out a pair of reading glasses he adjusted them on his nose as he looked over actually legit looking budgetary numbers.
“Well no fucking duh we were going over budget… so many of these floats are made as if they were going to go down Beverly Hills itself… How did I not-” he mumbled aloud to himself before looking up at the woman approaching him, “Hey thanks. I can’t believe it took an alien with Santa powers, but I'm starting to actually think with reason now… this budget is an absolute mess!” His voice was still his, however it lacked that super-rich edge that made him sound like a demon trying to tempt.
“Uh, no problem. I was just babbling anyway,” Shida said with a dismissive handwave while studying the changed man for a second, before shaking her head and refocusing. “Anyway, strange question, but do you happen to know where Mary is right now? I, uh, I think I should probably talk to her next.”
“I tried calling her several times, but no dice.” Dagon replied in a tired sigh, “My poor assistant has been having to take the workload for her… But here, “ he pulled out his phone and sent a text to Shida’s phone, “There’s her number. Hopefully you have better luck getting through to her.”
Shida sighed as she hesitantly checked the message.
“I’ll tell her to get off her butt if I do,” she said thankfully and nodded at him. “We’ll get out of your hair so you can do your work in peace. There’s a lot to do for just five days, but try to still take it easy a bit.”
With that she waved him goodbye and made her way towards the exit, deciding that she would have a chat with Mary and, depending on the outcome, then talk to Dagon.
She left Chak and Doodle to say their own goodbyes, going ahead and looking at the number.
“Oh, you better not pick up right away…” she thought grimly as she put it in to make the call.
“Hello, Mary D. Light speaking!” the woman answered right away in a splendidly cheery if not breathy voice. As if she had been exercising, her breaths could be heard in the silence outside of her voice.
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…,” Shida mumbled at first, before finding her bearings again and continuing with a more steady voice. “Hey, Mary, hi! This is uh…this is Shida, one of the performers from yesterday. We’ve been going over the whole parade stuff again and it turns out that we need you to sign off on some stuff, but we’ve been missing you at practice…or planning…or anything, really. Where are you right now? Time is kind of an issue at the moment as you know.”
“Oh no, did Dagon not get my message through his assistant? Well I’m on the side of a mountain in the northern woods right now… I’m volunteering to help find those missing kids-Eeep!-” the phone sound scuffed for a moment.
“Gotcha! Hehaha! Careful there now.” an unfortunately familiar man’s voice could be heard.
“Thanks… wow… the roots under the snow must be slippery or something huh?” Mary replied, following a long pause.
“You can… get off me now.” the man chuckled.
“Right! Right. Sorry. Uhm ah! There’s my phone.” more stuffed sounds erupted, “Yes, you still there? Hello?”
“Yes, I’m still here. You better watch out, though. Sounds dangerous where you are,” Shida gave back, feeling compelled to use that specific wording by something in the back of her mind. “But we’ve been trying to reach you for a while actually, so, yeah, uhm…Well, if you can’t come here to sign it off for us, we might as well pack it up for today, and also join the search efforts. The more the better, right?”
She glanced over at Chak and Doodle as they came out of the garage as well and nodded in the direction of an unseen side-way that wasn’t far off, before beginning to walk in its direction herself.
“Who knows? Maybe we’ll run into each other,” she said in played cheerfulness.
“Ohhh.. well it’s a big forest… but maybe! Heheh…ehhh…” Mary trailed off before going silent again, “Oh wait…” she said nervously as if coming to a realization, “You’re… at the parade practice?... Uhmm… okay… Well maybe you should stay there in case they need… uhm… packing up tables! Yeah, those things are finicky!”
“Who you talking to?” Bell’s voice said.
“Ohhh…. uhmmm… certain friends of mine from yesterday…” Mary replied in an obvious ‘you know who’ tone, following another silence and indistinguishable hushed talking, “You know what, never mind with the tables! Go ahead and meet us- me. Meet me at the regroup point at the northern end of town. A bit into the treeline.” she said as if relaying someone else’s instructions.
Shida was so baffled that she removed the phone from her ear for a second to look at it in disbelieve. She…couldn’t be serious…right?
Clearing her throat, she decided to let reason prevail, and also that she wasn’t all that interested in games.
“So the gig is up, huh? Well, not all that surprising I guess. Would’ve expected you to catch on way sooner, but I guess your policeman boytoy finally did the trick,” she said, dropping any cheery pretenses and switching to her usual conversational tone. “So, what does he want? What exactly does he seek to accomplish with that cute little attempt at an ambush? He’s right next to you, so you can ask him, or just hand him the phone, I don’t care all that much. Just promise he won’t scream in my ear this time, okay? They’re pretty sensitive.”
“Where did you take those kids!” Bell’s sudden demanding voice bellowed through the phone, “Alien scum! We know you took them!”
Shida flinched and held the phone slightly away from her luckily not quite as sensitive disguised ear.
“Okay, rude,” she said, not letting herself be dragged to his level by losing her temper. “First of all, the proper term is ‘Offworlder’. Second of all, I have no idea. When would we even have had time to ‘take’ anyone? Weren’t you right on our tail the whole time until we got into Miss Untrustworthy’s car? You did see our escape pod exploding, right?”
She tapped her finger onto her arm to keep herself centered as she spoke, deciding the direction and speed of the conversation herself.
“Sh-shut it! There’s no lying out of this! Those kids were with me when you crashed after hitting Santa! You think we would think that it would be a coincidence that those very kids just happened to go missing!? Yeah, nice try! I guess us earthlings are just too smart for you!” Bell roared.
The tapping of Shida’s finger suddenly stopped at his words, and her eyes opened a bit wider.
“Wait…you lost those kids?” she said slightly breathless, the realization hitting her. At least that explained the bravado. However, it wasn’t like Shida had a mind to focus on that right there. “You’re kidding me…they were with you!? Really? And you have the gaul to yell at me here? What happened? Were they around at the explosion? Did they touch anything? Any of the remnants? Were they okay? Don’t tell me you just left them alone after something like that! Do you have any idea how disorienting even a small explosion can be?!”
She had, officially, lost her cool here.
“Please tell me at least the area of the crash-site was checked first,” she added when she managed to slightly calm herself by strongly pinching the ridge of her nose.
“And risk you zapping us all up in one place!? No way! Don’t-” The wavering strong manly voice of Bell responded before there was an electric crackling, it was hard to make out voices from it, but Shida managed to hear ‘Kids’, ‘Tower’, ‘Pursuit’ ‘Green’, ‘Evacuate’ “Ten four…on the way.” Bell replied, “We found them! Ha! And your green freak friend too! I knew it! I knew it! Come on Mary! They’re heading we- throu- ha!” the connection was starting to break as he seemed to be booking it.
Shida exhaled slowly. Although she wasn’t sure if he could still hear her, she said,
“Good. Don’t lose them again.”
Then she hung up and looked at her current company. What did he mean, green freak friend? Well, whatever it was…it couldn’t be good. And with these people around here all punch-drunk on magic…it wouldn’t end well either.
“We’ve got a job to do,” Shida said firmly and lifted her hands. Driven by a sudden certainty that it would work, she clapped her hands twice. Out of thin air, the magical sack appeared with a puff of strange-looking smoke, that almost immediately dissipated again.
Catching it in her hand, the feline immediately turned it to its side.
“My rifle,” she commanded. And despite the magical word of ‘wishing’ being missing from the order, the closed sack slithered open for a moment, dropping the weapon into her hands.
Then she looked at Chak and Doodle.
“Something or…Someone’s got these kids. Can’t say if it’s magic crap or something that came to the planet with us. Either way, we’re likely the closest thing to an authority for dealing with it,” she explained in short terms and focussed in on Doodle. “There’s gotta be a way for this thing to transport us somehow, right?”
“Well… our old sleigh would get us there in a jiffy. Problem is, you happened. In the case that Santa’s sleigh is destroyed, Master magical dwarven carpenters craft a new one out of the wood of the tree of yggdrasil. Then there’s this whole ceremony of Santa christening it with the magic of Christmas to imbue it with the powers of speedy gravity defying flight. But crafting a new one would take a few weeks at least, so throw your sparkles on anything I guess and hope for the best? Or you can ride your noble steed reindeer right here!” he replied, making a presentation gesture to Chak, who lifted her hand up to backhand him but thought better of it.
Shida shook her head decisively.
“Not happening,” she said firmly. “I don’t want any of that Reindeer-Magic anywhere near her.”
She then looked around. There had to be something they could use. Finally, after dismissing multiple ideas, her eyes landed on a nearby pallet truck that was likely used for some heavy lifting around the place.
Maybe not ideal, but…
“Use my magic on it, huh?” Shida asked as she walked over to it and took hold of its large handle. “Well, here goes nothing.”
Taking a deep breath, she tried to relax, pushing some of her conscious decision making aside. Instinctively, she began to rub her palms together, and the more she did it, the more it felt like some sort of powder or crystals was forming in between them. Once it had reached a good mass, she opened her eyes. Had someone looked into them right then, they would’ve seen pale blue orbs staring back at them, instead of the slightly yellow-green of Shida’s human form. Luckily, she stood with her back directed towards Chak.
“Ho…Ho…Ho…,” she said quietly but firmly, before unfurling her hands and allowing a rainbow of strange, unreal looking sparkles to escape her hand and engulf the truck, almost immediately causing it to lift a few inches off the ground.
With another exhale, Shida’s trance-like state dissipated, and she stumbled back a step, but managed to hold onto the handle and thus catch herself.
“Alright,” she said, and her voice lacked its usual strength at first, before she refocussed herself with a firm headshake. “Everybody get on. And hold on tight. It might be a bumpy ride.”
“You got it boss!” Doodle giddily climbed aboard, having no quarrel with the new ‘sleigh’.
Much less enthusiastic, but trusting Chak stepped on and held on tight with her eyes sealed shut. Sparkles swept up around the Terran Chak having no initially noticeable effects.
Her eyes then opened cheerily before giving Shida a jolly dancing nod of affirmation.
“Ready, Santa!” she cheered as her face lit up from a free floating red twinkling light that tracked in front of her nose.
All color drained from Shida’s face.
“No,” she breathlessly said and let go of the enchanted truck, causing it to immediately crash to the ground again. “Nononononono.”
With quick steps, she moved over to Chak, basically stumbling along since her legs refused to properly carry her.
“No. Chak!” she yelled, her hands sinking onto her friends shoulders as she pulled her in closer. “Chak! Come back to me! Chak!”
Why had this happened? She had specifically avoided involving Chak so this wouldn’t happen! Had she made a mistake? Had she accidentally hit her with some of the crystals?
Darn, this was all her fault.
“Come on, Chak, don’t leave me like this!” she repeated, desperately trying to shake the Cali back out of the illusion.
“S-Santa! Did I do something wrong? I’m sorry, do you need it to be brighter? I’ll do bett-” the reindeer said, a bit scared of why Santa was so upset with her, until something snapped in her mind. Along with the twinkling red light in front of her face, as it dissipated into invisible dust.
Blinking hard, Chak looked back and forth completely confused and bewildered until her mind fully caught up. Grabbing Shida, she pulled her close in a comforting hug, unsure if the rising fear was for herself or her friend, probably both.
“It’s me! Shida it’s me!” she assured, wanting her friend to calm down, “I’m still me! It’s okay!”
Doodle who had fallen off from the sudden drop sat up rubbing the back of his head.
“Well we ‘all’ couldn’t pass driver’s ED…” he grumbled.
Shida’s entire body shivered as she held tightly onto Chak.
Then, with a scattering of lighter than air sparkles, her disguise burst off of her, leaving behind her true form. Feline, dressed in a Santa outfit, and scared out of her mind.
Despite the human tear-ducts disappearing with the guise, her eyes were still red and wettened as she looked into Chak’s.
“I messed up,” she said, before falling around her friend’s neck again. “I’m sorry I- I messed up and you- you nearly were-”
She couldn’t quite get the words out, only managing to hold on tightly to the huma-cali.
This just wasn't fair. Attempts on her own life, she could handle. She had confidence in handling everything this magic could throw at her personally. Her earlier bravado had stemmed from that. But going for Chak like this… That was just cheap. If everything she tried recoiled right into her friend every time… no matter what she did, she just couldn’t stand up to this. Whatever she tried, it turned out wrong. And what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t reason with this. She couldn’t outrun this. She couldn’t fight this. What else was there left to think? How could she protect Chak from something that flowed right through her?
Chak placed a hand on the back of Shida’s head as her disguise bursted as well, thankfully her power suit kept her from being suddenly crushed from the feline’s embrace.
“It’s okay…” she whispered earnestly, “I’m so incredibly lucky that I have a friend like you fighting for me. You’re kind, strong, intelligent, loving and very cunning. But just like any fight, you’re not going to get in or catch every blow. I understand and accept that. That isn’t to discredit you, or my trust in you prevailing. I wish I was as strong-willed as you, because I don’t wish to burden you with my safety.” she paused, staring back at the powered down sleigh, “You’re doing great. Amazing even. But I’m just as responsible for myself thinking these things through, and in that way I messed up too. As a ‘reindeer’ I shouldn't have touched the magical ‘sleigh’. I’m sorry. I’ll put more cautious thought into this… wacky, crazy rule set we’ve found ourselves in. You have enough on your shoulders as it is.” Chak cranked up her suit just a tad to secure her hug that little bit more with all four of her arms.
Shida listened closely to her words. But they couldn’t quite reach her all the way as she sunk deeper into her own thoughts.
Finally, after a few seconds, she pulled away from Chak, drying her eyes with the sleeves of her costume.
“Alright…” she mumbled, before making one last, sobbing inhalation, and then standing up straight again to refocus herself. Her lips shifted and quaked slightly as she looked back at the sleigh. “Learned our lesson. No more magic,” she said and tried to calm the quiver in her voice. “I guess I’ll have to go on ahead in that case…yeah. I’ll go ahead and scout out the situation and you…you go tell Dagon that you need a ride. Tell him it’s an emergency. With Mary there, I’m sure he’ll listen.”
She encouragingly patted Chak’s back, trying to motivate her to go.
“Shida…” Chak said, her lower limbs scratching the sides of her head as she tried to dredge up something from their shared past together that she could say to make her feel better, but her memory failed her on specifics.
Taking a breath she poked Shida’s chest with a lower limb.
“I’ll do that. Good-” she paused before she recalled something, “Success to you. That was a saying from your side, right?”
Shida froze up, her eyes becoming wide as can be for a second, before her face quickly relaxed again and she smiled softly.
“Yeah,” she whispered slightly and pulled the Cali’s head closer, planting a kiss on her forehead. “Success to you, too, Chak.”
Then she turned Chak around and playfully smacked her bottom with an amount of strength that only the power armor allowed her to use on the Cali.
“Now get going, or you’ll never catch up!” she laughed and pushed her friend the first step, watching as she began to walk by herself.
“A Cali catching up to a Miyat? In my dreams!” Chak squealed as she hurried back into the garage.
Shida smiled after her for a second longer, until the Cali was well and truly out of sight. Then her face fell into a glum yet determined expression, her jaw tightening and eyes becoming fiercely focussed.
With a turn, she imperiously raised her hand at the improvised sleigh, immediately making it come to life again as it basically leapt off the ground. With quick steps she marched towards it, grabbing Doodle by the scruff as she went and pulling him along, before basically shoving him onto the sleigh.
With her hands gripping onto the handle tightly, she too brought both legs up upon it.
“You said I have more magic than anyone else, correct?” she immediately began to talk without any preamble or niceties, as the pallet-truck magically elevated higher into the air and wind began blowing around her ears as they moved.
“More than Odin himself, second to the Bible-Boy, boss!” Doodle said, giving the feline a salute, “Gotta love cultural erasure and assimilation!”
Shida shot him a venomous glare, her eyes flashing a pale blue once again for only a moment. However then she turned away again, completely avoiding any vision of his face as she continued.
“Let’s say I were to become Santa,” she said as the wind of their amazingly fast flight whipped into her face but was magically dispelled from tearing up her eyes. “Is there a chance I could use the magic to reverse the whole Rudolph curse? Like I can choose a new Ms. Clause?”
“You are Santa!” Doodle declared, “But I don’t see why not, this role and everything around it is eternal but ever-shifting. I bet you could swing something like that, sure!” he replied with enthusiasm that gradually faltered into more of an act as he observed the feline’s face, “But… you know… uhhm…” he trailed off, “Surprised you don’t want to destroy Christmas more, is all. I mean, I’m bound to it by my very existence, but if I were you? I’d raise heck itself to burn it all down. Like that!” Doodle pointed forward to the forested mountain side, where billowing black smoke rose up to mix into the snow clouds above. Streaks of flaring reds and oranges interspersed among the frosted trees.
“I don’t have time for that…” Shida mumbled under her breath, before steering the sleigh around and towards the inferno.
Her magical costume protected her from heat just as well as it did from the cold, and the rising, toxic smoke also seemed to be completely alleviated as they barreled through it on the magical piece of equipment.
Her eyes easily peering through the thick blackness of the sooty smoke, Shida scanned through the pines, looking for any signs of life in this mess while racing through the air at ludicrous speeds, covering vast amounts of area in almost no time.