-Ten Minutes Earlier-

“Let! Us! Go!” Ash shouted in a resentful demand at the green monster blocking the tower exit.

“After you answer my questions.” Zithra countered, his furry arms crossing firmly, “What are these ‘aliens’ you mentioned? Be absolutely clear with descriptions.”

The three kids looked to one another with uncertainty, but as his friends locked onto him to take the lead Zach cleared his throat.

“We watched them step out of their U.F.O after they… crashed into Santa…” he explained.

“Like one of those tacky rooftop Santa’s? Or an inflatable lawn one?” Zithra asked as his long curling eyebrows bunched at his brow.

Zach blinks, a bit surprised an alien would know all about Christmas decorations, let alone who Santa even referred to.

“Uhm… the real one. They took his magical sack and everything.” the teen elaborated.

A tired thrumming released out of the monster’s chest as he rolled his eyes.

“You all seem a little too old for- Whatever. So some poor mall Santa got squished. What did these aliens look like? Like me?” Zithra pressed, pointing a tail claw at himself.

Zach shook his head, which immediately granted Zithra an immense noticeable sense of relief.

“We weren’t super close… But one kinda looked like a normal person, but with a cat-like tail. The other looked like… a…” Zach said, struggling to think of something comparable.

“A cow?” Ash offered up.

“I thought it kinda looked more like a sheep. You know, because of the white hair.” Tony said as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Cows can be white too, boogerfart…” Ash grumbled.

“Cows are spotted!” Tony argued.

“Cartoon cows maybe!” Ash snapped.

A loud Thump rattled the floor from the monster’s tail.

“Quiet. Cows can be a variety of colors. Glad to see that the local school system is doing just fine.” Zithra mumbled as he racked his mind to recall any species that matched those basic descriptions.

“So aliens do abduct cows! Like in the movies!” Tony accused.

“No, we don’t. I’ve had to steal one or two to survive over the years, but that’s besides the point… And that has nothing to do with the current situation so again… be quiet!” Zithra growled in annoyance by the incessant noise.

The cat-tailed human-looking species rang absolutely no bells, but a faint recollection of a species that semi-resembled what these teens were describing came to mind. Some sort of mammalian-insectoid right?

“Wait. Years?” Zach interjected into Zithra’s train of thought.

“I’ve been here since the sixties, you see. Living as a resident of this world. There was nowhere else for me to be. It was a plan I long ago unfurled.” Zithra explained in annoyed frustration, the sensitivity of his ears hitting him in the nerves harder than usual.

“Uhm… Nice rhyme?” Zach said to the unnaturally formed sentences the monster just made.

Before Zithra could respond to that, the child with the extra poofy coat blurted out once more.

“The sixties!? Does that mean you were what crashed at Roswell!?” He asked excitedly.

Now just feeling bad for the kid at this point, Zithra took a moment to center himself.

“No. Roswell was in the forties. Nothing to do with me. And it was probably just a stupid balloon.” he replied bluntly, more so to ensure his words didn’t get forced into a lazy rhyme structure, “Seriously, have you not opened a single book?”

“Can we go now? We answered your questions, right?” Ash asked.

“Yes. But I have one quick question that I doubt you can answer. But on my GPS I’ve noticed that this whole area and town are not-” Zithra froze in place like a statue, his ear plumes twitching. The blank expression on his face swiftly turned to concern just before a window to his side shattered.

A bullet from a hunting rifle just glanced by his torso and through his wing’s membrane. His rageful shriek accompanied by the screams of the teenagers rang out before more shots came hailing in.

“Get to the floor!” he shouted as he casted his wings above them to help the kids drop.

Focusing in, he could sense a wide surrounding force of armed humans positioning themselves around the tower at a distance. Many of which were officers of the law.

Cursing at the encoding as the culprit that probably set off this ludicrously violent behavior, Zithra suddenly smelled distinct caustic burning… and fresh human blood.

“ZACH!”

-Present time-

Bang!

Bang-bang!

Skidding down a snowbank Zithra narrowly dodged whizzing bullets from behind him. In his arms was one of the three children that had invaded his temporary home and spoke of others from the stars. The humans seemed to not hesitate to open fire into his tower, and his wing-membrane was a poor shield for the youth named ‘Zach’.

He had to abandon the tower to draw the danger away from the other two, but only he was fast enough to get this child to a medical facility in time.

Pressing the wound securely, Zithra snarled as the spreading fire greatly covered over the sounds of his pursuers. Limiting his range.

“I know it hurts, I’m sorry. It’s okay Zach. No need to worry. I’ll take you back.” he assured as the teen cried out from the jostling dive.

Before he could be pinned down, he dashed onward. Instantly more shots followed after him. He hadn’t been pursued like this since the 80’s, but he was resourceful if not stubborn.

Bounding up with a flap on his wings he lurched up into the trees to disappear in the blanket of haze and smoke. Branch to branch he cursed the humans who accidentally set his tower ablaze. The other children got out in time, but something caused the flames to spread as if the cold and snow meant little. It made no sense, but here he was in the thick of it.

His ears twitched as he heard something slice through the air above him. What was that?

Dropping back down into cleaner air the kid started to cough and gasp. But at least they lost whoever was shooting at them so recklessly.

Dashing through the snow, with the assist of his wings he felt a bitter sting. But he had to keep going. Town wasn’t that far. He could make it, drop this pipsqueak off at the hospital and run like mad. He can do it. He can-

He stopped in his tracks as he saw something he never expected to ever see through a patch of smokeless sky… A flying pallet truck…!? With a Santa dressed cat woman at its helm!? Death must have been near, or the smoke suffocated his brain more than he expected it to.

Before his very eyes, the strange sight began to turn in mid-air, behaving like it was always meant to fly as it levitated at the speed of a jet-engine. Now barreling straight towards him, he could do little more than stare, as his limbs had no time to catch up to his brain’s realization of danger. However, before the end could be spelled out for him by a crash, the absurd vehicle was once again torn around, almost immediately coming to a sideways halt, with the deceleration causing a shockwave that sent a near tidal-wave of snow crashing into the surrounding trees, extinguishing big parts of the fire and leaving behind a hazy mist of water vapor, smoke and aerosolized snow. Yet somehow, that very same shockwave had somehow spared him and the kid its wrath.

From up top the hovering truck, piercing eyes glared down at him, seeming to somehow be more surprised at his sight than he was at the flying cat-Santa.

“A manarian?!” the strange feline yelled out at first, before her eyes apparently found the child in his arms. Her face turning to anger, she loosened the grip of one of her hands on the handle of her unreal vessel, swinging it around to point what was clearly some form of firearm in his direction.

“I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you will leave that kid alone!” she announced threateningly, leveling the sights of the weapon right onto his head.

“And you are not one, nor are you of Earth. I beg you this is not my fun, help this child he is more worth!” Zithra pleaded, lifting the teen up, still keeping pressure on the gunshot wound, “Humans here are insane, completely without reason. They shoot with nothing to gain, take this mother’s son!”

In a bit of panic and a lot of frustration that his words now of all times weaved in poorly constructed rhymes, he snarled and used his tail to hit his own bullet wound to send a surge of sobering pain to his brain. In a sharp screech he tried again.

“I don’t know your species, but you clearly know mine! But listen. I am partially at fault for this, but these kids came into my hiding spot and I tried to tell them to leave but then they mentioned ‘aliens’ so I held them to question. I thought my people returned, you must know the gravity of my concern. The humans found us and just started firing their guns like mad! The other kids are fine if not scared a tad. Please, I didn’t want youths to actually get hurt! But this one is of the highest alert. Take him to the hospital! You seem nominal! H-his name is Zach, h-he is the more dire victim of this attack.” he pleaded in perfect human English -rhymes aside- as he held the child out.

Shida found it a bit hard to believe as the scourge of the galaxy pleaded to her. However, the kid had been shot, and he didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons.

She also couldn’t overlook the protective way in which the Manarian had carried the child…or his own wounds.

Torn between her options for only a moment, she quickly sighed.

“Doodle!” she ordered with a snap of her fingers and pointed at the kid. “Make sure he’s alright.”

Then, she stuffed her weapon away into the recesses of her costume, before leaning low and reaching out her hands.

“You don’t look too good yourself,” she said, as the elf floated the kid up with a snap of his fingers that caused sparkles to carry the wounded child to the safety of the ‘sleigh’. “Hop on. Maybe I can’t take you to the hospital like the kid, but we can at least have a look at your wounds. Staying here likely wouldn’t end well for any of us.”

“Thank you… Honestly the bullets hurt real mean… but I’m more mad that I’m green.” Zithra cackled in relief as he accepted the strange savior’s offer.

“I KNEW IT!” a voice echoed out, followed by more gunshots.

Zithra expanded his wings to provide a visual cover for the others of this magic piece of labor equipment. A few holes tear through his left membrane, thankfully missing the others.

“Let’s go!” he snarled, biting back the pain.

His command was of course unneeded. Amazingly as Zithra looked back for a second, he could watch how one of the bullets heading for them seemingly slowed to a crawl in mid-air, and then apparently began to fly backwards. Of course, the projectile was not really losing speed. They were simply moving so incredibly fast that its momentum was like less than nothing when compared. And yet he felt barely any force pulling on him as they sped along.

Within mere moments, they had left the forest behind them and circled towards the town.

“Can you get him inside?” Shida asked, turning towards the elf who still held the human boy. Doodle simply nodded and snapped again, before jumping off the sleigh along with the child while covering himself in some sort of glimmering mist, concealing most of his presence as he went to sneak the wounded boy into the medical facility he had been a patient in himself just a while ago. At least he seemed to be taking this seriously.

“I also never signed up to be Santa…” Shida mumbled as a comment on the Manarian’s earlier statement, while she quickly pulled out her phone to warn Chak and Dagon not to go anywhere near the mountains, and to meet her at Dagon’s rental instead. “Could be that the darn magic somehow got you as well. Unless you recently fell into a huge kettle of hair-dye.”

“Magic?... Heh… Now ain’t that something.” Zithra responded in panting breaths, the rhyme-attack seemingly passed, “I frosted my tips in the 90’s… but this is a bit much, even for me.” he huffed, wrapping his tail to the flying ‘craft’ to secure himself in an upright position.

Shida exhaled slowly.

“Do you have any idea how little ‘the 90’s’ narrows anything down?” she asked with an agitated shake of her head, feeling torn between relief about getting the kid to safety and absolute burning fury at the humans who had put him in danger in the first place, although the weird reins that the Christmas Spirit had on her of course kept her from completely freaking out.

Still, she really wanted to yell at the idiot who just shot at her. And she was seconds away from reaching for her phone to do just that. However, after a moment of contemplation, she decided against it. It would do noone any good if they got themselves killed in that fire, as deserved as it might have been on their part. So she would refrain from distracting them for the time being, until she felt enough time had passed that they would’ve gotten themselves to safety using the opening that her stopping ‘sleigh’ had created for them.

Instead, she decided to further distract herself with her new guest.

“Well, anyway, I won’t lie: You’re a pretty unwelcome sight, if I’m being honest. Not that I have anything against Manarians on principle. Even got a manarian friend. Or, well…acquaintance. And yes, I know how that sounds,” she rambled on for a moment, before recentering herself and deciding that she didn’t need to justify herself to this guy. “Anyway, most of the time it still isn’t a very good sign to run into one of you. A bit of context as to what you’re doing here would therefore be pretty nice. I’ll refrain from threatening you with the fact that my aim is a lot better than that of those guys for the time being, because it seemed like you genuinely cared for the kid’s safety. But I’m still going to assume you have some hand in the planned invasion for the time being, unless you can give me a reason not to, how about that?”

“Short version? My name is Zithra. About sixty of this world's solar cycles -They just call them years here- ago, on what was supposed to be a stealth operation, me and another came to check on the human’s technological development. They far surpassed expectations, but I didn’t care. I fought like hell to have that career so that I could ram our ship into this planet and escape the Empire. I succeeded. Hasn’t been smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination, but I found a life here. A life that’s hard, but at least I’m free. I get hostile run-ins with stray humans from time to time, but I have no real quarrel with them. I even try to keep up with their media entertainment.” the Manarian reported in a pained chuckle, before his mood shifted, “Clearly, something about this town is wrong, very very wrong. I was in the pacific northwest forests of the north american continent when suddenly it felt as though I walked right into northern canada. Suddenly there’s snow and my GPS stopped working and the most disturbing part is the further you try to go from this town, the less survivable it is. Less animals, trees, roads… just snow covered plains and I assume farmlands. Ah, right! Green. That just happened yesterday. One moment I’m setting myself up in a firewatch tower, the next I start sparkling and poof! Green!”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Shida exhaled slowly.

“You wouldn’t have happened to hear a loud crash right before that, would you?” she joked for a moment, before shaking her head and taking this more serious again. “Well, assuming you’re telling the truth, I guess I can respect that. I’m just not going to ask what happened to your partner. Also, I’ve been to Earth once so I’m not sure where…well then again, considering you’re here, this probably isn’t Earth but Terra instead…which was destroyed decades ago, if not centuries. I think saying something is wrong might be an extreme understatement.”

She made a snapping sound through clenched teeth while she thought. However, in the meantime, Doodle was already coming back.

“Did everything go well?” Shida asked, and the elf almost immediately nodded as he floated back onto the sleigh. Nodding back at him, Shida turned towards the discolored Manarian. “I’m not exactly sure about specifics around here, but I know someone who knows a lot more, so we’ll continue this conversation in a moment once we reached our current hideout. I can also take a look at your wounds there.”

Without waiting for much in terms of confirmation, Shida started to move the sleigh again, starting slow to give her passengers time to hang on before speeding off in the direction of the outskirts of the town.

The ocean of fancy lights between them rushed by in the blink of an eye, and soon they hovered on the outside of a lone house standing on the side of a wide road. Surprisedly, Shida noticed a very familiar car was parked in the driveway. She had no idea how in the world Dagon and Chak had managed to somehow arrive here before them, but at this point, she wasn’t really going to question it either.

Wordlessly, she ordered everyone to get off. Once the pallet truck was empty again, still hovering around Shida’s height in the air, she lifted her hand to gently tap against it with the tips of her fingers.

“Go home,” she ordered, and without a moment’s hesitation, the thing suddenly flung itself into the air and sped off into the night.

“Let’s go,” she then announced to her group. Although, as they reached the front door, she stopped for a second. “Actually, wait a moment.”

Leaving the now confused looking Zithra behind, she opened the door and hurried inside. Chak, who seemed to already be waiting for her, stood up in excitement, however Shida ignored her for the time being. Instead of greeting anyone, she merely reached out a flat hand, yelling ‘sack!’ into the room, which instantly made the little replica of the magical christmas sack that sat on a sideboard in the living room jump up from the surface and leap into her hand across the room. Easily catching it, she turned on the spot and swiftly walked outside again.

“Hold your breath,” she announced briefly while digging into the sack with her hand, and after giving the Manarian just enough time to comply, she threw a handful of the glittery powder at him, immediately covering him in a thick, sparkling cloud of magic, before doing the same with herself.

Zithra’s ears pulled back as he allowed it, scrunching his face at what looked like weird glitter being thrown at him. Having his own hatred for the stuff from his experiences in the 80’s. The horror of it never fully coming out and irritating his plumes for years afterwards.

“What is this?” he exhaled in a voice that resembled his but lacked its usual thrumming depth.

Dressed in a now quickly red-staining white shirt and dark red plaid jacket stood a human male looking to be in his late 30s or early 40s. His baggy jeans dragged through the snow as he sidestepped in growing pain.

His head and bearded facial hair remained green and spiky, but now in a much darker shade that could be mistaken as black at a squinted distance. Opening his eyes they are revealed to be a light almost golden brown with a hint of bloodshot in the whites.

He attempted to hug his aching torso with his wings and tail, but no such appendages currently existed.

“Wha-what? I feel… deafened…” he groaned as his white shirt’s two wet red strains grew more and more, pulling a pressing hand away he witnessed his blood coated hand, noticing the presence of a pinky digit, “Ahh… okay?”

Shida, now back in her human from with tanned skin and wavey hair, stepped out of her own dust-cloud and offhandedly threw another fistful of powder at Doodle, before stuffing the sack down her collar and taking Zithra by the wrist.

“Disguise Magic,” she informed as she began to drag the Manarian along. “Hope it helps against the encoding, at least a little bit. Looking like a Terran doesn’t always do much for it. Also looks like you’ve been hit worse than we thought.”

With that, she pulled him along into the house. By now, Chak had stood up and walked closer to the door while obviously trying to figure out what was going on, but Shida simply dragged Zithra past her and into the bathroom, where she could start trying to help out with his injuries.

“Who… Shida what’s-” Chak began to say before shaking her head and dashing with the others to help swiftly to help in any way possible while ensuring she wasn’t in the way.

“This hurts way more than it usually does…” Zithra grunted in a chuckle as he was laid down and helped with removing his upper clothes. His human body looked as though the frame was naturally lanky, however it was covered with burly musculature and higher than average density of body hair. His two bullet wounds didn’t appear to have struck anything vital, but also didn’t have exit points. Smacking Shida’s shoulder to get her attention, he rattled his satchel which thankfully remained in his transformation.

“I have a medical kit. Including bullet removal equipment. Forceps thing. Forget what it’s called.” he informed as he attempted to open it with a single shaking hand.

Already on it, Chak sat by and opened the back, swiftly digging through the mess of contents. She then pulled out a semi translucent rectangular plastic box and popped it open.

“Found it!” she chirped as she removed the tools and bandages, “I like your cute kitty cartoon bandaids by the way!” she said in hopes to keep the situation calm.

Zithra chuckled as his chest panted up and down, as he nodded.

“I can do it, unless either of you are medically trained? I’m not, but I’ve done this before.” he proposed, reaching his and out in offer.

“I’m afraid I’m not… “Chak admitted, “But I understand Terran physiology to a fair degree!”

“What’s a Terran?” the man asked, a bit confused.

Shida sighed and pushed down on Zithra’s shoulders to make him lean back.

“Okay, step one, stop the bleeding, step two, everything else,” she announced as she began to rifle through the supplies looking for anything that was going to help her in that endeavor. “And getting the bullets out is like number 6 on that priority list. These disguises are so effective that we might even have to worry about infection.”

Finding some rudimentary supplies both in Zithra’s satchel and the surrounding closets, she quickly began with crudely cleaning and dressing the wounds.

“Terrans are what the humans of this Galaxy will come to be known as in a couple of hundred years from now,” she explained while she pressed down on the man’s wounds, hearing him heavily inhale and grind his teeth against the pain. “Easiest distinction: Apes with a living planet equals humans, apes with a dead planet equals terrans.”

“Sure. Tack time travel on top of the growing list. Cool. Got it.” Zithra seethed through his teeth. His neck-long beard caught spittle as he fought every urge to not remain still, “Anything else I should know while we’re at it?”

“There are multiple universes converging together. Shida and I are actually from completely different original realities.” Chak informed.

“Okay…” the man accepted with a shake of his head.

“And we may have accidentally killed ‘Santa’…” the Cali added quickly.

“That… I gathered…” Zithra mumbled.

Chak then turned to Shida.

“Do you need me to leave to get anything or ask Dagon to go shop for more medical supplies?” she offered.

“I think we’re fine…” Shida mumbled while inspecting the wounds some more before starting to seal them up. “At least humans usually heal pretty well from something like this…and from what I gathered, most manarians should be similarly enhanced. Let’s just hope that carries over to the disguise as well.”

Standing up, she then turned to Chak for a moment.

“Though if Dagon is around, maybe ask him if he has some painkillers or something. Anything human-grade,” she said with a nod in the direction of the door.

“Got it.” Chak replied as she swiftly stamped out to find their human ally.

After a few minutes she returned with him in tow. Upon seeing the bloody but contained mess he took a moment to look away to mentally fortify.

“Right. I have generic aspirin and my prescribed migraine medicine…” he said, turning the small bottles of pills in his hands to read the backs, “I have nighttime cough syrup too but I doubt that will be of any use.” he added just to talk and keep his composure.

Shida grit her teeth.

“Don’t think any of that will help us,” she said, turning to Zithra. “Think you can tough this out? Or should we go get you something?”

“I toughed out a nasty bear trap for twelve hours once. I think I can manage if I have to.” Zithra grunted with a nod, “I just wish humans didn’t feel this dang sensitive to pain…” he added in a grumble before reaching for his satchel, “But I had some special occasion we- wee…. Uhh… canna-cann- what the heck?” the man stammered as his tongue tied itself, “Zone-out-happy-plant-chemical?” he tested, “Right, I wouldn’t say no to a lil bit of that. I was saving it for a special occasion, but this outta count.”

Shida nodded and pushed his satchel over to him, before standing up and helping him to his feet as well.

“Yeah, you do that,” she said, before turning around and looking at Dagon. In a sudden onslaught of raw emotion, her eyes narrowed furiously as she reached for her phone, while also pulling the man along by his collar. “In the meantime, we’re going to find out what the heck’s wrong with your crazy ex,” she grumbled.

“E-Ex?” Dagon stammered confused as he was dragged along, seemingly absolutely out of his depth in the situation he found himself in.

“Soon to be,” Shida corrected herself admittedly maybe a bit too harshly, however she also wasn’t exactly in the right condition to be pleasant right now.

After a few inputs into the device, she listened as the call was ringing. By now, the idiots would’ve had more than enough time to drag themselves to safety.

The phone on the other end rang and rang to the point it nearly went to voicemail. But the other end picked up to heavy rageful breathing. Despite it being Mary's phone it was clear that it wasn’t her to have picked up. The man’s breathing didn’t say anything, instead only listened in seething fury to get any clue of the caller’s location. In the background the sounds of many people talking in a commotion created a buzzing background white, but one stuck out among it all.

“Who is it?” Mary said in the distance.

There’s a following sharp and ‘silent’ shush from the holder of the phone.

“Bell, is it them?” Mary asked in a hushed but still audible voice only to be met with a harsher shush.

Though with this pushing him over the edge the man darkly sighed.

“Where did you take the kid?” he coldly demanded into the phone.

Dagon helped guide the bandaged man over to the nearby couch. Once sat, Zithra popped what looked like gelatin candies into his mouth and thanked Dagon with a thumbs up.

“To the hospital,” Shida replied, with the officer’s rage instantly paling in comparison to her own, as the room seemed to drop several degrees at just the sound of her voice that swept through it like an icy wind. “Where else would he be after you idiots shot him? And now, you better pick a god and pray that he’ll live through this, because there is not a force on heaven or Earth that will be able to save your soul should he not.”

The other end was without Bell’s voice for a while.

“What’s wrong?” Mary asked.

“You dare shift the blame after taking them as hostages!? No, you are responsible for this. The only reason you would bring the kid to hospital is because he would be too much of a liability! You’re not going to trick me… You’re the villains here…” Bell’s voice rationalized in a near-manic conspiratorial tone, “I’m the hero, you hear me? I’m going to stop you, no matter what it takes. You will not destroy Christmas! I’m supposed to stop you!”

“Bell… I think you need to sit down…” Mary’s voice said in surprising clarity, as if shocked at what she was witnessing.

Shida’s first instinct was to yell at the man, however she was overcome by an icy grip taking hold of her as she opened her mouth again.

“Well, here’s a promise,” she said in an exceedingly calm tone. “If you get close to me or any of my friends while toting a weapon one more time, I will personally make sure that you will not ever hurt any more innocent people. That I swear by the stars.”

There’s a screech and crackle as the other end’s phone was thrown into something with great force. Ending the call in dramatic fashion.

“Who was that?” Dagon cautiously asked, not hearing specific words but making out the masculine voice.

Chak carefully walked up next to Shida and gently placed a hand on her back. Massaging it smooth circular motions she hoped to help calm the tense air.

As Shida turned her gaze towards them, her eyes were just in the process of flashing back to their yellow-ish self.

“That was your fiance’s ‘Friend’,” she informed with cold words. “Don’t bother calling her. He broke her phone.”

Then, she shoved her own phone into the man’s hand.

“The Sheriff,” she harshly commanded, and after he only looked at her in desperate confusion for a moment, she clarified, “Get me the Sheriff on the line.”

Then she turned to Chak.

“Keep your gun on you at all times,” she said, putting her hands onto both of the Cali’s shoulders. “If that Officer guy gets anywhere close to you, don’t hesitate to shoot him. If he doesn’t think twice about shooting at children, he won’t even think once about shooting you. If I’m not around, you’ve got to be quicker than him, got it?”

“I understand.” Chak affirmed quickly, “We have to do what we must and I’ll prioritize that above all else.. I just… if he’s cursed by the Christmas magic like everyone seems to be to some degree, I can’t help but feel distraught for him along with anyone harmed by his actions. Not excusing him of course, he’s a clear danger. It’s just… terrible circumstances all around. Could you refresh my disguise?”

Dagon listened grimly, as he searched up the local police department and found the Sheriff's contact number. He handed the phone back with the number inputted, ready to call.

“I should go find Mary… get her away from that man.” he said as he stood up from the couch.

Shida nodded while rifling through her clothes for the sack of disguise powder.

“Be careful. That guy’s unstable,” Shida told Dagon as he made his way to the door. “And don’t get your hopes up.”

Then she complied with Chak’s request, quickly turning her back into the white-haired human form, before pressing the call button on the phone.

“I’ll try to get someone else to see reason,” she added while waiting for someone to pick up.

“Sheriff’s office.” a tired man’s voice answered rather quickly. From the sound of it, he seemed to be pulling away from another in person discussion.

“I need to speak to the Sheriff. Urgently,” Shida informed in brief terms. “And I think she’s going to want to talk to me as well. Tell her one of the ‘Aliens’ is on the line.”

“Right… sure. Please hold.” the voice replied with an audible eye roll before cutting out to generic Christmas jingles, not even ten seconds passed before the tired man returned stiffly, “Transferring you now.”

There were additional rings before the other end picked up again.

“This is Sheriff Rosieberg. I dearly hope this isn’t a prank call.” a woman’s voice answered sternly.

Shida exhaled.

“And I dearly hope you have a lot more brains than your officers,” she then replied without even pretending that this was going to be a nice or even pleasant talk. “At the very least I would assume the head of law enforcement in an area to be capable of reason.”

Her foot began tapping the ground from wound-up energy building within her.

“I am very reasonable, but there is a line crossed when kids are taken and held captive. I hope that’s clear. Is this your way of turning yourselves in, hun? Or is there something you feel like you need to say to me directly?” the woman’s cautious tone responded.

Shida sighed.

“Nobody took the kids. They lost their way after your officer lost them in the woods while chasing after us. While looking for shelter, they ran into someone else who took care of them during the storm. Someone who your officer then shot. I don’t know if he was also the one who shot one of the kids or if that was one of your other crazed vigilantes, but either way, I brought the boy to the hospital where he’s getting patched up right now. Your officer already knows about this, but I somehow doubt he’s called it in, or going to for that matter. You should inform his parents so they can go see him. He lost a lot of blood,” she explained in a calm, slow and precise manner. “And after you’re done with that, find officer Bell and for God’s sake take his gun away from him. The guy is very clearly out of his mind. And while I would love to say ‘sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hurt’, people already got hurt, so by now it’s more about not letting the situation get any worse.”

After her explanation, Shida paused for a long moment and then added,

“I’m afraid I can’t turn myself in, and not only because there’s not anything I’d have to turn in for. I promise you, my conscience is completely clear ever since I came here. But if you want to talk without an armed mob waiting for me and lighting the forest on fire, that much could be arranged, if it helps us end this absolute madness. I, too, draw my line at children.”

The clicking of a vehicle’s turn signal was the only immediate response from the other end, as it snapped and corrected as the turn was made the driver sighed slowly.

“I’m hoping to resolve all this before the parade, so tell you what… Officer Jingle Bell has been nothing but an outstanding officer of the law for his entire career. However, the two remaining kids have said basically what you are claiming. With a big green monster that protected them as Officer Bell initiated the conflict. He claimed it was about to tear them to shreds and he had no choice but to take action.” she paused in considerate thought, “I’ll send an officer to see if the third kid can further confirm your story, and have Bell come back into the station to be held to clarify his side of the story. We’ll see where things go from there. As for you, I don’t want this town or Christmas to go up in flames over aliens retaliating. We don’t even know how many of y’all are running around or understand why you’re here in the first place. So, here’s what I’m proposing as not a Sheriff, but as a humble earthling. You choose a place to meet, and I’ll personally come and hear your side of this mess. No other officers with me or hiding around, I’m sure you have eyes on all of us anyways with your super advanced technology. I’m willing to abide by that, but I will be armed for my own protection. Would that be fair?”

“Sure,” Shida said under her breath, before thinking it over for a second. “This morning you came to a diner a couple of minutes past noon and showed around posters of the missing children. You can meet me there in an hour. Don’t look for me, I will approach you. And don’t order the grilled cheese . it’s horrible there.”

The sheriff nervously laughs, surprised to be doing so.

“I think I know the one. You know, you don’t really talk like I’d imagine aliens to talk like, no offense of course.” she replied, “An hour? Alright. I’ll be sure to walk in without my uniform so we don’t get too many peep’n eyes.”

“Yeah. Same,” Shida said. “And just so you know, if Bell shows up, I’m putting a bullet in his skull.”