CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
That night, I dreamed of finding a cute little log cabin in the jungle and settling there with my dragon. He was now a lively toddler with a vocabulary of a few hundred words. In the way of dreams, the cabin had everything we needed and restocked itself with clothes, shoes, linens, and so forth. It also had electricity, modern plumbing, and a fully-equipped kitchen which wasn’t of much use to me since I burned everything I tried to cook.
Every morning, woodland animals left an offering of fruit, nuts, and herbs at my doorstep. Those were for me since Eggy only ate fish.
One morning we were doing our usual morning routine when something strange happened. I was lying in bed on my back with my knees up. Eggy was clinging to my calves and urging me on.
“Up, Mom, up!” Eggy squealed in delight when I lifted my feet up until he was parallel to the floor. He spread his arms out in the flying position. I was only able to hold him up for a few seconds. “More!”
I tickled his sides and made him laugh. Then I continued my weight exercise. He was small and light enough for the leg exercises to work, but heavy enough that I had to stop after eight lifts.
“No more, mom’s tired now.”
“Me, me, me!” Eggy hopped off me and stood beside the wooden bench that was his designated exercise “machine.”
I lay down on it, holding on to the sides, and Eggy lifted the whole bench with me on it with both his hands. “Good boy!”
He gently put the bench down and then lifted it a few more times. “Up, Mom!”
“Wow, my baby is so strong.” I got off the bench and lifted him up for a few kisses. I was going to suggest that we go for a bath in the nearby hot springs when a System message unexpectedly popped up. It was in an eye-watering flashing rainbow font.
[MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!]
Christmas? There was Christmas in the dragon jungle? That made no sense.
Eggy turned into his dragon form which was three handspans long and flew up to the pop-up screen, poking it with his claws curiously.
The message disappeared and reappeared two more times.
What was this about?
I was still scratching my head when Eggy suddenly screamed. “Mom, look!”
He was pointing at the window. I looked outside and saw an amazing sight. Dozens of [Christmas Crackers] had appeared outside. They were on the grass, bushes, vines, rocks, and even nestled among the branches of the trees.
I ran outside as fast as I could. “Eggy, get them! I want those crackers.”
Using my skirt as an impromptu basket, I gathered as many of them as I could. Eggy helpfully flew everywhere and dropped the crackers on my skirt. We got eighteen of them before they disappeared.
Eggy turned back to human form and looked up at me with his huge blue eyes. “Gone?”
“Don’t worry, baby, they’ll be back.”
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Once I saw the [Christmas Crackers], I realized what was happening. It was the Adventure Incarnate Christmas event. The crackers should appear twice more today.
I went back inside and dumped the crackers on the dining table. “Here baby, let’s play!”
Moving our chairs to face each other, I put Eggy’s hand on one end of the cracker and told him to hold on. Taking the other side of the cracker, I pulled until it fell apart with a loud snapping sound, leaving us with half a cracker each.
“Merry Christmas!” I said.
“Kri mas?” Eggy gave me a quizzical look for a second before nudging the items that had fallen from the cracker. There were four paper items, one box, and one magician's wand.
I unrolled the blue paper party hat and put it on his head. Then I smiled and handed him the box with a big red button on it that had “Press Me” written on it.
Eggy nearly jumped out of his chair when the box expanded, turning into a [Christmas Coupon Machine]. It was made of plastic and was in the shape of a red and green box with a festive wreath motif. Eggy opened the box and peered inside, but it was empty. “Huh?’
“This is a magic box. Watch…” I put the coupon labeled “Food” inside the box and put the lid on before waving the magic wand over it. “Abracadabra!”
There was the sound of a firecracker going off, and when I opened the box, there was a [Christmas Pudding] inside in place of the paper coupon.
“Magic.” Eggy’s eyes became even bigger and sparklier than before. “Mom magic.”
He took another coupon and handed it to me, watching with great excitement when I did more “mom magic” for him.
Putting the pudding on the kitchen counter for later, I placed the “Drink” coupon inside the [Christmas Coupon Machine] and waved the wand again.
“Me, me, me!” said Eggy when I moved as if to open the lid of the box.
“Okay, you open it.”
There was a [Hot Chocolate] drink inside.
Eggy clapped.“Yay! Magic.”
I put the drink on the counter, too. “One more time?”
“More!”
The third coupon was the “Toy” one. When I took off the lid, I was enchanted by the sight of a cute wind-up tin snowman toy. I set aside the box and showed Eggy how to wind it up and watch it walk across the table.
“No.” Eggy wasn’t interested in it at all. “Want magic.”
I picked him up and twirled him around. “Oh no, I’ve created a monster who can’t be pacified unless I do more magic.”
“Yes, magic!” The boy unrepentantly asked for more.
I put him down and saluted him. “Sir, yes, sir.”
He saluted me back saucily and we sat down again to pull more crackers. The next time we did “magic” I had him do the magic himself by waving the magic wand and saying “Abracadabra” over the box. I also showed him that just putting the coupon inside the box did nothing without the wand and magic word.
Eggy magicked us up a ton of drinks, food, and toys. The drinks were mostly tea, coffee, chocolate, and fruit juices since wine and other alcoholic beverages were deemed inappropriate for Adventure Incarnate. The food was a lot more varied. We got roasted turkey, ham, beef Wellington, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, mince pie, roasted chestnuts, Christmas pudding, a Yule log, and a gingerbread house.
The toys were super cute, but Eggy ignored the wind-up car, wooden building blocks, teddy bear, spinning top, marionette, dolls, tin soldiers, music box, jigsaw puzzle, coloring book, crayons, and kaleidoscope in favor of the magician’s wand, which he waved all over every single item in the house, waiting for some magic to happen.
As for me, I liked the steak and mince pies. I ate them while Eggy played with his new favorite toy. He was a little bundle of energy the whole day.
When the next System message appeared, he flew out of the house and roared. Dozens of birds and animals came out of the jungle picked up all of the Christmas crackers and dropped them at my doorstep.
“This is insane! There are like two hundred crackers,” I said after the birds and animals left.
“Moooooore magic.” Eggy grabbed my hand and waved his wand around.
“Gosh.”
We spent the whole day gathering the event drops, pulling crackers, and magically making Christmas food, drinks, and toys appear.
By bedtime, I was exhausted but happy.
I lifted him up and swung him around while singing the directions together so he would learn all the right words. “Up, down, left, right, and round and round!”
Then I put him on the bed and counted his toes, kissing each one as I said the words. “One little dragon, two little dragons, three little dragons…”
Eggy screamed in delight when I tickled his foot after I finished all ten. We counted his toes together, and then I lay down beside him and I pulled the blanket over us. “Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas.”
I turned off the bedside lamp and we fell asleep.