Twelve Lords of Venus A-Leaping

A Golden Sun Christmas Story

The village of Vale sat nestled in a valley towards the north of Angara. Some people might say that this would shelter them from the coldest winds and greatest storms of winter, which just goes to show that some people don't think long enough before they speak. Vale was in a cradle of the earth, and once snow fell it never left. Nearing the end of some of the strongest winters, the Mars Adepts of the village had to be called in to carve tunnels from house to house.

The light of the dawn sun had just crept over the valley walls, flooding Vale with brightness and forcing those who lived there to accept that is was indeed a new day.

Garet awoke reluctantly, hanging onto the warmth of sleep for as long as he could. Until he remembered what day it was, at which point someone watching his bed might have thought someone had cast Supernova Psynergy. The entire thing surged once and then Garet burst out of it in a flying leap, leaving the covers to settle back down from the rafters. He rocketed down the stairs in a whirl of clothes and flung open the front door, leaping forward into the snow, arms raised towards the sky.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE!" he shouted at the crisp, blue sky. There was a moment of silence, except for a tree full of birds fleeing the apparent madman.

"Garet…" said a voice behind the open door, "you know how you have this thing about water?"

"Yes?" he responded, slowly, and started turning back towards the door.

"Then maybe you should avoid standing in a huge pile of snow right after smacking a Mars Adept with a door!" yelled Jenna, flinging the door shut and rising from her place against the wall.

"Are you okay?" he said, concerned and apologetic. Not that Jenna cared.

"Beam!" she shouted, and launched a concentrated stream of flames into the snow, which quickly started melting. Garet, who was well aware of the proverb involving scorned young women, turned and ran. Jenna followed, keeping up the blast as she ran, carving a line through the snow. They shot downhill past a few villagers, the small number who didn't mind waking before dawn, even in the cold months.

"Those two…" said one of them.

"To be young again," said a woman, as wistfully as she could while hauling hot water from the spring. "Not a care in the world." Her husband looked up at her.

"Those were Garet and Jenna," he said, glad to know the trump card was in his hand this time.

"Really? The Defenders of Mars?"

"The same."

"His hair's shorter. Smoking, too."

They raced past Ivan, whose Whirlwind Psynergy had been very welcome in the village when the snow started falling and people didn't feel like toasting their houses with stray fireballs. He was staying -temporarily, of course; Hammet said he wanted him back home as soon as possible and Ivan was always agreeing he'd have to leave very soon, just not today- in the Aleph Inn, since hardly anyone else ever did. At least, he was supposed to be. At the moment he was clearing away the last of the snow that had blocked the door after someone closed it too hard the night before.

They would have raced past Mia as well, except that she had seen them coming and quickly restrung a string of holly in the village plaza. As the Mars Adepts ran through the snow Mia pulled on the end in her hands, bringing the line taut and up to knee level.

There were a few sounds of resigned protest, and then Garet was dropped with amazing speed face-first into the snow, followed quickly by Jenna. The last of her Beam struck the massive Psynergy Crystal at the plaza's centre, which glowed like magma for a moment before absorbing the blast.

"Decided to get a head start on decorating, huh?" said Garet thickly through the snow.

"You know me, Garet. Can't get enough Christmas," said Mia, brightly and with the kind of innocence that was totally fake while completely irrefutable at the same time. "Besides, the celebration is supposed to be all day, so we really should get ready early. More time to party."

"So I suppose you're the one who hung those mistletoe sprigs all over the place?" asked Jenna, already standing and trying to get the snow out of her hair before it melted.

"Why would I do that? It's poisonous."

"Well, don't look at me. I guess someone likes the look of it." asked Jenna. "Hey, those are Sol Wreaths! Where'd you get them?"

"Another unexpected talent of Picard's. Apparently they're the most important part of Lemurian winter celebrations," said Mia, picking up one of the ornaments. They were in the usual shape of a wreath of branches, but were mostly woven out of what seemed to be green, red, and silver metal. Equidistant around the circle were four crystals, which would be quite spectacular once they had been charged.

"Who was talking about me and my many talents?" asked Picard, stomping through the snow with another armload of decorations.

"The girls, naturally," said Garet. "Ooh, garlands. Can I do this? I love doing this."

"Very well," said Picard, dropping the heap, but keeping one end of each garland in his hand. He pointed at the chimneys of the surrounding houses. "All of those."

"Release!" called Garet, using the unusual Psynergy to throw the loose ends of each garland out to the chimneys, where they tied themselves. "You know, sometimes I think all the Psynergy we used to save the world was invented for housekeeping. You ever think that?"

"I think you should stop philosophising and help me with the heavy stuff," said Picard, stomping off towards the village storehouse again. "There are about a dozen tables to set up, and someone apparently though the safest thing to do was carve the things out of anchorwood."

"Oh, stop that. It's Christmas Eve!"

"Don't I know it."

By the time Isaac awoke, having the usual Venus tendency (or perhaps skill) of being able to sleep through any number of natural or unnatural disasters, most of the rest of the village was already up and in the midst of what could really only be described as enjoyable chaos.

The entire population of Vale was outside, totally oblivious to the cold. They had to be, since it was traditional for the feast and celebrations to take place outside, laughing (and singing, and drinking, eating, and dancing) in the face of the bitter cold. Of course, the fact that there were so many fires being laid and torches prepared that it looked like Mount Aleph had exploded again probably had something to do with making it bearable.

It was as Isaac was hanging upside down from the edge of the roof, trying to firmly attach the strings of decorations without losing his grip (which was mostly from his feet now) and breaking something, that the trees flew by.

Isaac watched for a moment before letting go in sheer disbelief. "Vine!" he called. An area of the dry, frozen thatch sprang to life again, quickly sprouting thick creepers that tied around his legs. The rest of him kept falling, and Isaac swung to a stop about three inches from the ice. "Thanks," he managed.

"No problem," said the Venus Djinni, peering over the edge of the roof. "Could you quit playing around and get up here? There's a bit of trouble with the other Djinn."

Eventually, holding back comment, Isaac managed to swing himself up high enough to grab the roof edge again. Vine's vines let go of his legs, and Isaac scrambled up onto the roof. No one else was there. He looked down at Vine.

"See?" she said.

"I don't see anyone."

"Exactly! I had all the little ones up here two minutes ago, I turned around to keep an eye on you, and voom! They're gone!" Vine shook her head, or at least made an attempt. Venus Djinn are about half head, so it tends to be difficult.

"Wait… little ones?" repeated Isaac.

"Yes. Iron, Chili, Fog, Blitz, just about all of them."

"Oh no!" exclaimed Isaac. In his mind he Set all the Venus Djinn he could, aligning them into a Psynergy conduit. With the power of a Lord (Bane and Quartz were still asleep somewhere, and couldn't be called on), he flipped backwards over the edge of the roof, landed feet first in the snow, and sprinted off toward the place he knew they would be.

Even though Isaac was right, he didn't find them first. That wonderful experience fell to Felix, who really didn't deserve it. He was trudging through the village with the sombre expression that said he was feeling quite upbeat. (When he was depressed, one glance could make people burst into tears.)

'Upbeat', however, is quite different from 'beat up', which is more or less what happened when he was standing on the cliff overlooking his old house. He was staring out reflectively at the village, thinking about everything that had finally led them home, when a voice broke the near-silence of the winds.

"ARR! It be a landlubber with not enough sense ter steer clear of our here territory! Mr Sleet! Fire at will!" screamed Hail. There was a pause.

"Will? You mean Felix?" said Sleet.

"Arr, I do, me hearty! Fire!"

"You know, this isn't exactly pirate territory. I mean, the river's frozen over. So's most of the pond," Sleet continued.

"Get into the spirit of it," said Fizz, and suddenly Felix's view was filled with whiteness. The next clear thought in his head came after the impact, when he was lying flat on his back at the bottom of the short cliff, staring into the face of a Mercury Djinni.

"Now what do ye mean by ent'rin' our waters uninvited, I muight ask?" demanded Hail.

"I'm not in your waters! I don't want to know anything about your waters! Now get off my chest!" snapped Felix. Sleet shook his head.

"Not a good plan. You should have just played along with her," said the Mercury Djinni.

"Now ye'll be payin'!" screamed Hail. "Prepare the-" but although he sometimes wondered, in the middle of bad nights, what was going to be prepared for him, what might be called a counterbattlecry filled the air before anything could happen to Felix.

"We must rise against them to save our valiant warrior!" shouted a voice in the nearest tree. "Sir Duo, Lady Ground, let us crush the battlements of these despicable rogues! At them!" And suddenly it looked as though it was past time for this year's Venus Djinni harvest as they rained out of the snow-covered trees.

"Why would knights be fighting pirates?" exclaimed Felix in confusion, but they took no heed. Just before the first assault began, a third force decided it was time to make things less orderly.

"Hold it right there!" said a familiar voice. "Put your weapons down and back away. This is the City Watch!" Felix raised himself onto his shoulders to see who was speaking.

"Flash, do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?" he asked, too late. The Venus and Mercury Djinn looked at each other, then back to Flash and the Mars Djinn. Then the snowballs started to fly. On the side of the Mars Djinn, of course, was their power to melt enemy projectiles. On the other hand, the Mercury Djinn could keep up a barrage of snow for hours if they felt like it. And in the meantime, the Venus Djinn were more or less impervious to anything that could be (and therefore was) thrown at them.

Within minutes of the beginning of combat, fortresses had been built out of whatever was within reach. The snow had been quickly crafted into a veritable palace by the Mercury Djinn, who had -with considerable smugness- also added turrets, a moat, and were currently working on a catapult.

Hail was sprinting around on the battlements, shouting "Arr, ye be thinkin' we're mere pirates! Well, we'll be showing ye a thing or two about land war as well! Fire!"

"No quarter!" shouted Duo in reply, heralding another assault from the Venus Djinn. "Dame Quartz, lead the charge!" And from the stony blockade that was serving them as a castle, a band of Djinn marched on their foes, hurling snow with the efficiency of catapults with their tails.

"Let's see just how noble you are on the battlefield," said Excel, stepping to the front of the Mars Djinn. He was armed with a massive icicle, which he lowered into a sort of jousting position.

"How on Wayard are you holding that?" asked Felix, but he was ignored. Flint had located an icicle of his own, and was preparing to charge. They were just starting at each other when a thunderous voice echoed across the battlefield.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" demanded Isaac. The fighters skidded to a stop. Snowballs propelled by Psynergy halted in mid air. "Quake!" The Mercury Djinn's ice fortress collapsed in a cloud of snow. The Mars Djinn started to laugh, until there came a cry of "Spire!" and a stalactite flew into the tree behind them, causing an avalanche of snow to fall from the laden branches.

The only untouched force left were the Venus Djinn, who rejoiced in victory for about half a second before a pair of stern figures appeared before them, towering about twenty feet and casting a shadow as black as night.

"If I may repeat myself," said Isaac, arms crossed. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Duo, don't you know better than this?" said Felix, in exactly the same sort of immovable stance.

"We're sorry," Duo muttered.

"And Ground, I'd expect better from you!" continued Isaac.

"It won't happen again…" said Ground, sheepishly.

"Haven't we taught you anything?" said Felix. "Everyone knows you only go into a full assault when the enemy is off their guard!" And with that he and Isaac spun around, launching a pair of snowballs at high speed toward the Mercury and Mars Djinn, who had gathered into one big group.

"You… you…" spluttered Corona, snow melting and sliding off her as she shook with rage.

"Brilliant tacticians?" suggested Isaac, packing another snowball.

"Masterful leaders?" offered Felix. The Djinn of Mars and Mercury looked at each other, considered the eternal opposites that they embodied. On the other hand, they were facing a pair of sneaky little Venus Adepts who had just teamed up against them.

They looked back at Isaac and Felix, who were aiming their next shots.

"RUSH 'EM!" yelled Chili and Fog, which was really all the encouragement the others needed.

In the village plaza, Picard paused in mid hammer. He looked at Jenna, weighted down with masses of ornamentation. "Did you just hear an explosion?"

And in another place…

"Are we ready?"

"Just a few more, hold on. Okay. Let's get to it."

[Notes] And so we have the first part of my contribution to the Golden Sun Christmas fic crowd. Two more chapters are to be expected, I think. A few warning, having seen the reactions these things got: the Official Approved Relationships for all my Golden Sun fics are Isaac 'n' Mia and Garet 'n' Jenna. And yes, they will be featured in this, so try to keep complaints to a minimum on that front. Beyond that, all reviews are welcome, so go to it.