Disclaimer: Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones is a belonging to his respective corporation and creator: Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.

Ephraim and Eirika – The Sacred Twin Life
—The One with White Renais—

"Innes!"

The joyous scream of King Hayden of Frelia caught his son Innes by surprise. Innes was in the Castle's Family room decorating the snow white colored Christmas Tannenbaum when he nearly fell off the ladder. But he quickly caught a branch and knocked down a few ornaments.

Hayden entered the room to see him in an awkward position on the tree.

"Oh hi father." Innes grinned, "Is something amiss or is it just me?"

"Oh something's amiss all right." Hayden remarked Innes's awkward posing, "You're decorating, not tree climbing."

Innes jumped off the tree and onto solid floor.

"Anyway, guess what I snatched up from the home shopping bazaar downtown?"

"A new wife?"

Hayden stared at Innes, not amused, "No." he pulled out a small pack of tickets off his pocket, "I got free two front seat tickets to the classic theater play of the masterpiece 'Holy War/Sword of Seals Orchestra'!"

"No way!" Innes grabbed the tickets, "Sword of Seals and Holy War? At an orchestra?! Boy, do we look good when we're spoiled brats?"

Tana entered the room. Seeing his sister pushed Innes toward her in a rush, "Tana! Guess what we've snatched? Our Christmas present!!" he showed her the tickets, expecting a cheery response from her.

Instead, the usually-full-of-life princess of Frelia sounded depressed, "Uh. Uh. Yeah. Sure." She said in a hollow tone before heading down the hall into her chamber.

Innes and Hayden looked at each other questionably.

"Is it just me or did I offended her?" Innes asked.

A loud door slam resounded in the castle.

Hayden nodded, "Yeah, you offended her."

"Whoooooooooo-Hoooooooooo!!"

Ephraim and Lyon crashed hard on the snowy mountain ground. They screamed as they slid down the mountain hill at a fast pace on their woody sleigh. The sleigh left the hill and slowed down the solid mountain plateau.

"That was fun!" Ephraim yelped.

"Let's do it again!" Lyon cackled.

"What do you say Eirika?"

No response. Ephraim and Lyon looked around the snowy foggy land for the Renais princess, but she was nowhere to be sighted.

Ephraim began to fret. After all, Eirika was his twin sister. He would blame himself—mostly her—for whatever happens to her. Lyon was both the twins' best friend since they were just kids. He was worrisome too, but unlike Ephraim, this prince from the Grado Empire was very emotional.

"She's gone." He murmured.

Ephraim barked, "How am I supposed to find that darn-tooting twin sister of mine when this time of day at this exact period should be our playtime?"

"Don't remind me." Lyon replied, "First she says she has no time for sleigh riding and then she said she's going to rehearse." Lyon faced Ephraim, "Rehearse what?"

GROWL!

AAAH!! Ephraim and Lyon jumped.

A colossal abominable snow yeti stood right in front of them. Its eyes fixed on the princes caused it to salivate. The princes screamed and hugged in fear…until the yeti ripped off his mask. It was Eirika.

She had a huge grin on her face, "That was awesome!!" she exclaimed, "You should have seen your faces!!"

"You call that rehearsing?" Ephraim furiously jumped on Eirika but she dodged. Ephraim tripped on a rock and cascaded down a steep hill. He screamed so loud as he kept falling down, down, down… his scream faded through the foggy wind.

POOF!

Eirika and Lyon panicked at the harsh landing sound.

"Ephraim!!" Eirika shouted.

"Are you all right?" Lyon asked.

"I'm okay." Ephraim sounded hurt, "My leg broke my fall."

-Castle Renais-

Seth, Kyle, and Franz stared proudly at the eight foot Christmas tree installed right in the middle of the castle throne room.

"We have the tree, we've installed the lights, now we're ready for the fun part." Seth looked over the throne room, so does the two knights. The Renais knights watched Forde struggling on his fragile legs into carrying a heavy crate of ornaments and decors.

He slammed the crate on the ground and collapsed on his knees, out of breath, "Would it kill you all to put these ornaments in small crates?"

"Careful Forde!" Kyle ran toward the crate, "This box is fragile, and so are the ornaments!"

"I'm fragile too, and you're not worried that I'll break?" Forde wheezed.

"Unless you want to accept you being a weakling, I heard from women that they're looking for tough manly knights in red armor to date." Seth pointed out.

Forde's face lit up, "Really?! Then that means I'm qualified!"

"Actually that's where you're wrong Forde." Kyle grinned, "They're looking for tough manly knights in red armor, nor feebly womanly ones like you."

The door to the throne room swung open, cutting off the insult Forde was about to inflict on Kyle. Lyon dragged a wounded Ephraim, laying on the wooden sleigh. Eirika was guiding them through, still suited in her yeti costume but without any mask.

"I'm so, so sorry Ephraim." Eirika whimpered, "If I knew you would have jumped like a scaredy cat or a whiny little five-year old, I wouldn't have jumped on you."

Ephraim's face darkened. With Eirika, there was absolutely no level of support.

"Yeah, thanks for the concern," he then formed an insulting smile, "but it's not your fault. It was your unshaved hairy legs. I was so shocked; I lost sight of where I was going."

"Oooh!!!" the knights couldn't help but laugh at Ephraim's comeback. Now Eirika's face darkened. She angrily lifted the wooden sleigh up then slammed it hard on the floor. CRASH!

Ephraim yelped in pain, "My leeeg!!! My leeeg!!!"

"Princess Eirika! It's okay to be angry but don't take it out on your brother's leg!" Seth blurted.

"Yeah, Eirika. Don't take it out on my leg!" Ephraim whined.

"Well you deserved it." Eirika blurted out back.

"For insulting your beauty?" Ephraim sneered. Eirika was about to jump on Ephraim again but the knights restrained her before she could reach him.

Fado along with Vigarde came in the scene, "What is going on here?" Fado shouted, "Eirika! Let your brother be! Ephraim! What happened to your leg?! You know we gotta go to the mall and do some men shopping!!"

"I'm sorry father." Ephraim said, "I would have been fine if it wasn't for Eirika!"

"Oh-Oh!" Eirika formed a fist. Just as she was about to go rampage on her brother, Hayden, Innes and Tana arrived.

The gang stopped to greet their guests merrily but Tana simply greeted without even forming a smile. Eirika wondered what was up with her best friend but that wasn't too much of a concern for her.

"Guess what father and I got: tickets to the Holy War/Sword of Seals Theatre Play!" Innes waved the tickets oh-so-proudly.

"A musical?" Eirika raised a brow.

Innes frowned, "Not a musical," he smiled again, "A battle musical. And it's happening today at the shopping center!"

"What more reasons to head down there to do some holiday stuffs," Ephraim beamed, "shopping and two corny musicals."

"HEY!" Eirika and Innes shook fists at Ephraim.

"And what's the holiday without people helping out on decorations?" Forde got everyone's attention as he waved the tinsel around. He really didn't want to decorate all by himself and his fellow knightly colleagues wouldn't help out either. "There're plenty of ornaments y'all!" he said.

"Let it go Forde." Kyle said, "You're decorating and that's that."

"Sorry, knights." Ephraim said, "Love to help but my leg has gone numb thanks to an ape." He said the word 'ape' when throwing Eirika a glance.

"You say ape again and you'll get a leg ache." Eirika threatened.

"Y'know knights." Fado began, "decorating the tree is part of spreading the joy of Christmas here at Magvel. In fact, there's an old folklore that proves this with the Christmas star. It is said that the person who's in charge of putting the star on top the tree, will be blessed with joy and fortune all year long."

"But then again, that was something our parents would told us every Christmas when we were infant and naïve." Vigarde said.

"Yeah, I remember that. How foolish we were to believe in our parents." Hayden sighed.

"You told us the same thing too!" Innes said.

Hayden froze, "Did I?"

"Yeah, father!" Eirika faced Fado, "So what are you saying? We didn't get joy and fortune when it was our turn to put the star on top?"

Lyon didn't say anything. He only eyeballed Vigarde with a stare of total submission. Vigarde gulped.

"Well, would you look at the time?" Fado squawked, "Our cookies must be done!" He fled, so did Hayden and Vigarde. The teens chased them into the kitchen.

"Who knew the star would give joy and fortune all year long." Forde could picture himself drowning happily into a sea of gold, "What great motivation!"

"Great indeed." Kyle faced Forde, "Say Forde, you must be tired. How about I take over the—"

"I don't think so pal!" Forde barked, like he was about to rip Kyle's head off, "You said it yourself that it's my job to decorate, so a job it'll be."

"You're just in it for the fortune." Kyle said.

"You're just in it for my joy and fortune!"

"How about we split the decoration fifty-fifty?" Seth proposed, "That way it's half the joy, half the fortune, half both. And besides, there's no such thing as joy and fortune for a whole year. You heard the emperor. It's pure fiction."

"If you think so, how come you're holding the Christmas Star close to your chest like it's your wife?" Franz exposed Seth, holding tightly on the star like he was not willing to give it up without a brutal fight.

"Put the star down, general." Kyle said.

Seth hissed, "NO!"

The monarchs and the teens were at the castle halls when they took notice of the white-blanketed courtyard grass and the flakes falling gently without the blowing winds.

"Isn't the snow beautiful?" Eirika sighed.

"It sure is…but something's not right." Fado said.

"What?"

"I don't see any doors."

Innes chuckled, "Okay, just because you don't see a door, doesn't mean that we're snowed in the castle. Imagine that."

A blow horn sounded all over the castle. The city majordomo boomed.

"This just in! The entire kingdom of Renais is now experiencing an endless possibility of snow. All residents, stores, villages, and schools have been closed down due to the snow and will remain at this state for at least three days."

"Three days?!" The gang shouted.

"But tomorrow's Christmas Eve!" Lyon said.

"And what about my theater plays?" Innes cried.

"And my musical?" Eirika balked.

"And our last-minute shopping spree and our free caroling?!" Fado, Hayden and Vigarde replied, "Our musical number is 'Gloria'!"

"We're doomed!" Eirika muttered.
NEXT CHAPTER...