A year after Grandmaster Nizmo had been defeated, and the Gotha family had bigger problems to solve:

Christmas.

For Parry and Madchen, it meant unwrapping presents and being surrounded by their loving parents and friends. Oh, and dealing with a bratty Kendrick, maybe some of Parry's fans who wanted to give him their appreciation for saving the world and everything. But that was besides the point.

But when you're the parents like Bianca and Madason, or servants like Sancho, you often spend a little too much decorating your entire castle with mistletoe, stars, and Zenithian angels. You get a little too wrapped up in wrapping the gifts and ruling the country at the same time. After all, all of the loyal subjects had their own families and gatherings to worry about as well, and it wouldn't be of much use to bother them.

For our sake, however, let's focus back on the twins. It was the night of Christmas Eve, and like any eleven year olds, the two were whatever they could to find their presents from mom and dad. Despite Bianca's lectures, the two had guiltily not learned their lesson.

"Are you sure we checked that cabinet yet?"

"Yeah. All I found was that bell that summons Dr. Argon."

Madchen giggled, "I wonder why he still has that. It's not like he really needs it now that Dr. Argon lives here in Gotha, right?" She closed the tall cabinet doors shut. "Anyway, we need to check mom and dad's bedroom. I'm pretty sure that's where they were hidden."

Parry gulped. There was only one thing he was more scared of than some of the mean monsters that they had to fight; his mother. "B-But, the last time we tried to check there, M-Mom almost cancelled Christmas!"

"Hmm…" Madchen sighed, "I guess we'll have to look when they're sleeping or in a meeting or something. Wait… I remember now! They said they'd been in the kitchen for a while!" She tugged her brother's sleeve, "Let's go now!" The two starting running down the hallways of the lifeless castle. Everywhere they went, there was plenty of green and red in sight, and lots of wreaths hanging on doors they didn't even remember being there. They were approaching a sharp corner when they saw a small glow appearing before them. "H-Hey… Parry, what's going on?"

"I-I'm not sure! I-It looks like a monster or a ghost or something!"

"What should we do? It might attack us!"

"Hey! I know I appeared out of nowhere and all, but I'm no monster!" The small glow shrieked. It slowly started to shape itself, revealing an older fairy woman, "It's just me, your old friend Honey from Faerie Lea."

"Honey!" The twins cried. They didn't know her too well, but she had always been nice to them and had known their father for quite some time. Madchen delightfully gave her a hug, "What brings you here, Honey?"

All the smiles on Honey's face faded, and her twinkling eyes dulled. "I-I'm afraid that… Christmas is going to be cancelled this year…"

"What!"

"If you could come with me, I'll show you why." She waved her arm to create a large, glowing staircase and portal at the top, "This way," she gestured. The twins looked at each other in confusion before agreeing to go. When they reached the portal, they felt the teleportation to the Faerie Lea. The last time they were there, there were lots of flowers blooming and water flowing freely about. Now, snow covered the ground and nothing was blooming. It was even chillier here than it had ever been back at home.

When they reached the top of the great tree, they saw Treacle sipping tea in her usual spot on her throne. "Treacle, I've brought the twins like you've asked." Treacle nodded.

"Thank you. It's nice to see you two after all this time." The duo nodded in agreement, "But I'm afraid that this is not a social call. A terrible thing has happened."

"Before Christmas?" Parry squeaked.

"Yes. Perhaps you know the story of Jolly Old Saint Nick or as you may know him, Santa Claus?"

Madchen squealed, clapping her hands in delight, "Yeah! He brings all the good kids presents that they've wanted, and punishes the bad ones by giving them coal! And he rides around in a sleigh with reindeer!"

Treacle smiled gently at the girl's knowledge, "I thought you two would have outgrown him by now," She said that to herself, "But if that's not the case, then you may be able to help. You see, Santa Claus is actually one of us… a faery."

"Really?"

"Yes. But this year, he fell ill and can't get himself out of bed. Not only that, but none of the reindeer are able to make the rounds needed to deliver the presents."

"Oh no!"

"I'm afraid that's how it is."

"No!" Parry exclaimed, "There's gotta be somebody who can deliver the presents! I mean, if Santa can do it, there's gotta be somebody who can take over for him!" He beamed proudly, "And if there's no one else, then we'll do it!"

Honey had to stifle a few giggles at the bold statement, while Treacle was smiling warmly, "I'm glad that you want to help, O Great one. But you still need someone to pull the sleigh."

Madchen rose her hand, "I can do it. I can use Puff and pull the sleigh myself."

Parry grimaced, "A-Are you sure, Madchen? I-I mean, what if your run out of magic while we're in the air? We can always have Dr. Argon pull us, you know?"

"It's ok, I've been training with Dad! And I've eaten a lot of seeds of magic too."

Treacle applauded the two, "It's settled then. You two will take over for Santa tonight."

L A T E R . . .

Parry was staring at his sister, who was now a large yellow dragon with a green bow around her neck. He had always found her intimidating when she was in this form. But when he remembered the reins around her neck and the bright red sleigh he was sitting in, he found his concentration again.

"Be careful you two. If Madchen starts running low on magic, I packed you plenty of magic water in her sack." Treacle waved the duo off as they parted into the skies and through the portal back the human world. Honey smiled at them brightly as they did.

The first stop was in Coburg. Parry grabbed the list of names and found only three for Coburg: Kendrick, Susie May and Billie. Kendrick was of course, under the naughty list. "Heheh. Serves him right for trying to take my sword!" He grabbed some brightly wrapped boxes that had chimera wings attached. "Wow, that's so cool!" He dropped the boxes, and they started floating down to their destination.

"Parry, where should we go next?"

"Whealbrook! Or…or maybe Roundbeck! Let's go to whatever's closer!" The pattern continued throughout the night. Parry dropped the boxes out of the sky and they found their own way to inside the houses. Parry and Madchen never really thought that Santa would have such a convenient delivery stystem! And while they didn't have the time to go back and revisit all of the places from their journey, it was still nice to see them again.

C H R I S T M A S M O R N I N G . . .

"Madason..? Madason? Madason!"

"Huh!" The king of Gotha flashed his eyes open, glancing over at his wife, "Bianca, what is it?"

"Something is terribly off. Parry and Madchen are usually jumping up and down and screaming for joy until the cows come home, but they are actually sleeping!" She gulped, "You don't think they found their gifts yesterday when we were cooking, do you?"

Madason shook his head, "They probably just wore themselves out trying to do so…" he stifled a yawn, "They'll be up eventually."

"Yeah but-"

"G'morning…!" The twins' voices echoed from down the hall in a sleepy tone. "Mom, Mom, can we open up our presents now?"

Bianca sighed, "Maybe they're fine after all." They had both gotten on the bed and started jumping up and down, disturbing their father.

"Hey, you guys are eleven now… don't you think you're a little old to be waking me up on Christmas?" Madason groaned as the two continued to play. They didn't give a proper response but just continued to bounce on the bed until they wore themselves out.

Meanwhile with Kendrick…

The young green haired prince sat at the table where his Christmas breakfast was served. An obvious pout was planted on his face. "Kendrick, buck up! It's Christmas! What seems to be the problem?" His father asked him innocently enough.

"I don't want to talk about it." He grumbled, staring at the black piece of rock that sat in his hand. "It doesn't mean anything." Unfortunately for him, this didn't go unnoticed by Harry.

"You played too many pranks again, huh?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" He squealed in embarrassment.

But for the most part, even Kendrick was fully able to enjoy Christmas with his family. And as for Santa, he thankfully had a full recovery in no time. Of course, it wasn't like it actually mattered now that he had nothing else to do for the next year…

~FIN~

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

So it's my first DQ story, and I think it's also my first Christmas-centric one as well… What do you know?

Well, even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I still hope you enjoyed this little story of mine. I'm hoping to write another twins-centric story focusing on the girl learning the Puff spell. I might use a different wife in that one (probably Nera's daughter) and another focusing on the twins meeting Kendrick (using Debora's kids.) Maybe I'll get to it over break now that I actually have time and stuff. :D

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.