Christmas Special!
When the air turns into a plush white, when the sky turns into pale fur, when the nights grow long, it's time to celebrate.
Unless that’s the cause of a natural disaster like a volcano or fire, but right now it isn’t so… time to have fun.
Vein Xinyuai and its nearby pools bubbled warm heat into the air. In the middle of this frigid night, Florato and Vega used this warmth to prepare a surprise. To be honest, it was more Vega’s idea because she can’t really sense heat. Florato was shaking like a wet dog.
“T-this better be worth Vega. I’m freezing here!” The actress chattered out, using an entire rug to cover herself. There were no more blankets since Vega was making a hut out of them.
“Don’t worry-worry. I promise it will be something to remember.”
“Why didn’t you want to do this ‘celebration’ back in the hotel? Where is it warm?”
“Because that’s how the Mayor did it back in Cold Cavern. And that’s how I’m going to do it.” Vega finished setting up the hut and ushered in Florato.
The skin breaking winds of the blizzard disappeared as the actress entered inside, looking up at the walls of the structure. Vega appeared to be quite the architect to Florato, as it was big enough to be a dance hall and featured a makeshift chandelier made from glued together rocks. Each rock had a wide candle with wax dripping delicious smelling ooze.
“Wait… you did all of this in one night?” Florato questioned, amazed by the accomplishment.
“Technically I started in the evening, but yep.”
“Huh… is that a bad thing?” As Florato asked, one of the wooden poles holding up the hut untangled from the wall and collapsed onto Vega.
“Uh. Maybe?” Vega said, missing a beat. Florato helped lift the pole off her.
“You know, I was going to say something nice, now I’m reserving judgment. But now what?” Florato walked around the hut, seeing a lack of things to do.
“Yeah, ya right. I never really got to the part of actually celebrating stuff. Hmm.” Vega put a finger to her mouth as she tilted her head. Florato, not wanting to complain without offering any help, went outside to grab Vega’s tools. Upon reemerging, she struck into the ground with a pickaxe.
“What are ya doing?”
“Where you built this hut ain’t too far from the water. Only ten yards, so why not bring some steaming hot water in here?”
“Oh. Good thinking!” Vega’s excitement rose, taking the pickaxe from Florato.
“Why do you want to do it?”
“I’m not made of flesh bits! I don’t tire-tire!” Vega answered she dug a trench outside. Using this newfound drive, Florato sped outside to gather food and drink. Using some of her savings, the actress grabbed many dishes. Vein Xinyuai on this night was a restless town, with folk praying to ancestors and giving thanks to family members.
Because of this, finding enough food for the party wasn’t a tough task. In fact, the only hard part about it was finding fine enough alcohol.
Florato entered into a local winery covered in frost grape vines. Barrels full of mashed grapes and grape juice were stacked high on shelves. And most of the selection was cheap wine meant to flavor water. She searched for a drink that would have some power to it.
Men turned some of the frost grapes into a thick paste, mixing it with sugar and ice. And a mysterious clear fluid that wasn’t water. All of it was being stirred in a wide tub atop a platform, overlooking the entire winery. Approaching the working men, Florato made herself known by clearing her throat.
“Yes ma’am?”
“I was wondering what’s this?” She said, pointing to the paste.
“That there is Iceberg ice cream. A silver a pound.”
“Got it!” Florato’s eyes sparkled, glad to have found a standout alcohol dish.
She handed two gold pieces to the foot of one of the men and took off with her all of her groceries.
“Hey Vega I’m bac-” Florato stopped as she saw the whole party was already there. Amir collapsed on the ground. Valiato was trying to steal the fireworks stashed in his pocket. Vega, using a trowel, put the finished touches on the hut’s pool.
Oh yeah, Skaldi and Bolato were taking a bath together. Not naked! They are not savages.
“Uhhhh…”
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“Hey Flo!” Valiato ran up to her and hugged her leg. The actress was surprised by such an action and was stunned.
“Oh… hi… what’s happened?” Florato stuttered out.
“Amir fainted at seeing Skaldi and Bolato without their shirts on. And I’m trying to light the fireworks Skaldi got me!” Vega, using some flint, was aiding the effort of igniting said fireworks, which raised Florato’s concern.
“Right. Because that would make sense.” Florato tried to turn her gaze away from the couple in the pool, who were of course, being very lovey dovely.
“Trust me, the only thing that makes sense about this is that we have a heated pool.” Skaldi snickered at Florato. He laid his head against the side of the pool. “If this wasn’t here, I’d be complaining.”
“Speaking of which, want to head inside?” Bolato offered. “Well, after we get out.”
“But we just got in here!” Skaldi pouted.
“Come on, let the girls enjoy the water.” Bolato lifted Skaldi off his feet and into an adjacent room meant for changing. When they finished putting back on their clothing, the couple immediately ransacked Florato’s stash of food. Much to her restrained anger. As she rolled her eyes, the actress heard a hiss followed by a pop.
What broke her out of her sour mood was Vega, who was currently dancing.
Well, she was running.
Well, she was on fire.
The scarecrow fucked with the fireworks.
“Burning! Everyone! I’m on fire!” Vega yelled out with terrible fear in her voice. This caught everyone (except Amir) off guard, with each person making attempts to both calm her down and extinguish her.
Skaldi threw beer at her. Didn’t work.
Bolato smacked her flames with a blanket. Didn’t work.
Valiato threw water on her. That just made more fire, go figure.
And finally, Florato grabbed Vega and dunked her into the pool. The spray of steaming water splattered over the whole party, leading to Amir finally waking up.
“~Huh? What happened kid? What am I doing here?~” Amir lifted himself off his knees and stumbled towards Valiato.
“~Oh, we’re celebrating.~”
“~Celebrating what?~”
“~Stuff.~” Valiato shrugged. Amir raised his finger as he planned on making a big statement but he couldn’t muster up the drive to do it.
Florato swam out of the water with droplets of water turning into thin steam. When Vega got out, she was missing an arm along with her stomach bleeding… Well, hay.
“Vega… if this pool wasn’t warm… you’d be a dead scarecrow…” Florato swung open the door to the changing room and pulled off a towel to dry herself with.
“Florato, how do you kill what’s not alive?” Vega chuckled out, now repairing herself using a sewing kit from the same room.
“Ha. Whatever.” Florato gave up her anger and a toothless smile came across her face. The two exited, now seeing the party sitting around the table, passing food and drink to each other. Valiato wasn’t quite happy since she didn’t get to use any fireworks, but she wasn’t unhappy.
As for Amir, he seemed to be enjoying the Iceberg Ice cream. It might have been the fact that Florato didn’t tell them that they were alcoholic, but she wasn’t going to tell them now.
“Want to eat-eat?” Vega asked, pulling Florato with her one arm.
“Not yet. I want to do something for this… celebration.” Florato looked a tad mischievous as she wandered over to her many instruments.
“Kay! What about ya Kaliba?” Vega looked at her shoulders and became surprised that she didn’t see the crow. This surprise turned to worry then back to surprise when she saw Kaliba feasting with the party. In fact, Bolato had taken to petting him.
“Mind passing over the garum?” Bolato requested.
“Got-got it.” Kaliba pushed over a bowl of the condiment.
Vega took a few steps back, to fully take in the sight. It had only been a month ago where she was content to stand in a field and ‘help’ people. But now, Vega had really gained something. Something she couldn’t quite find the words for. Family? Friends?
“Nah.” Vega said to herself. “Company. I am no longer a lonely body.” Vega’s smile shifted from being cartoonishly large and shrunk down to a smirk. A scarecrow with friends… You know, I’d be laughing right now at the absurdity of this, but I can’t bring myself to make this moment less than it is.
The scarecrow cleared her throat, making sure everyone saw her. For a moment, she felt frightened at the party staring at her, but her confidence returned.
“Hello everyone. I know I sometimes cause-cause trouble. And I know sometimes I’m annoying. But, I know that ya guys are kinda like me. In the ways that most people don’t like ya for something that was never your choice.” As Vega spoke, Skaldi’s eyes stood open, not blinking.
“I know life-life is tough. But, I wanted to celebrate, Our survival. Because some people don’t survive. But we did, despite what other people put us through. So thank ya for being my friends.” Vega bowed before her audience and skipped over to Florato, who was playing a song on her guitar.
“If anyone else had said what she said, a tear would be coming out of my eye.” Skaldi snickered out, but he immediately felt regret for saying as a sharp pang struck his heart. Bolato however liked the music Florato was playing as his foot started to tap on the ground.
“Hey sweetie, want to celebrate our survival?” Bolato stood up over Skaldi, handsome as he could be. Skaldi blushed for a moment but offered his hand to the soldier. The couple quickly got in the motion of the song and danced in rhythm to it.
Valiato laughed in joy as she saw the couple sway, but Amir was having none of it.
“~I’ll show those sodomites how to kick it.~” With a spin, the Tripol scooped up Florato from off her feet.
“~Amir! Ha! What are you doing?~” Florato was shocked but heartwarmed by Amir’s energy. Her face blushed an autumn red. She tried to keep on playing but Vega quickly took the guitar from her and kept the song going at a rapid pace.
“~Florato, I’m gonna do the best I can!~” With that, Amir lowered her feet to the ground as he led her in the movements. Most of the time, Florato’s eyes were on the ground, making sure to match up with Amir’s movements.
Valiato’s hands came up to her mouth, as bits of laughter came out from her. “Wow, I didn’t know Amir could bust it down!” Skaldi and Bolato weren’t ready to give up so they kept the motions, spiraling and hopping around.
Vega didn't seem to harbor any ill emotion. No fear. No anger. No pain. Just a genuine appreciation for the people around her.
She held up her head and whispered.
“Thank ya voice. Ya are the best.” Turning back towards the whole party, she leapt into the air.
“Now-now, let’s party!”