A Scarlet Christmas
She hated the cold.
Hated was an understatement; she despised it and loathed it, yet because of Nature's cruelty, she was surrounded by it. From her very birth a mere twelve years ago, all she ever knew was the bitter frigidness. Great sheets of ice stretched throughout her world and a thick layer of snow blanketed it all. One day a year her master traveled to distant lands, where all the cursed ice had melted away and the blessed sun smiled, but any possibility of ever being able to exist in the heated utopia seemed to be as far off as the summits of the frosted mountains that dotted the horizon.
Finally, after marching nearly an entire day across the Arctic, she finally saw a remotely living thing. It was a lone, gnarled tree. It stood barely six feet tall, only two feet taller than herself. The trunk was thin, barely six inches thick, but up top was a clump of thin branches, plastered with several layers of ice. She deeply wondered how it came there in the first place, but didn't care as she laid back against it. Judging from the thin layer of ice the tree overlooked, she guessed that there used to be a pond under it. The ice was thin enough for her to see her reflection.
She was a feminine human-shaped pokemon with a sheer amount of beauty rivaled by no beast alive. Her face was round and dark purple with a giant mass of blonde hair extending from her crown and down to her hips. From her golden-lined, red breastplates was a flowing scarlet dress that covered her entire body, including her unseen feet. Completing her beauty was her white arms ending with purple gloved hands and her most prominent feature, thick, luscious lips.
Her name was Andromeda. She was a Jynx, a loyal servant to Santa Claus.
Though she despised the cold, she also despised her master. Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, all different names for the same fat bastard. He was a jolly old man with a ripe old belly and thick white beard, a symbol of happiness and holiday spirit to the greedy little human children in the sunlit lands beyond the mountains. It was the duty of the fat fontverdanab/fontastard to bring presents to children on December 25th, a day known to everyone as Christmas.
Andromeda both loved and hated that day. For one thing, she hated the day because it was the source of the monotonous misery that was her life. She also loved it because it was the day she got an extra helping of gruel (or "Christmas Pudding.") Some celebrated it as a Festival of the Winter (though Andromeda found no reason to celebrate the loss of the beautiful sun), others celebrated it as just a time of love and family, and others celebrated the birth of a powerful religious figure, Jesus of Nazareth.
Whether for religious or secular reasons, one thing remained a constant for this dreaded day. Presents.
Humans always exchanged presents to each other on the special day so that they could show "love" to each other. Nowadays, the need for presents had grown to a ridiculous point where old woman attacked each other with their knitting needles to get the last copy of Grand Theft Auto for their five year old grandsons or shopped immediately after a fall festival known as "Thanksgiving" to get their "love" out of the way. Nevertheless, Santa Claus's duty had always been to bring presents to little good children who believe in him while the naughty children were thrown into their fireplaces and chopped up by the axe Santa always carried (cutting firewood her ass…).
Surprisingly enough, millions of children believed in the man Andromeda so loathed and behaved like saints in the last few weeks before Christmas in order to get their rewards. The stupid little human children, of course, didn't care about the problems with the fat bastard delivering millions of presents in less than ten hours. While good ol' Santy Claus got to sit on his big coach in his little cottage while eating delicious pies made by Mrs. Claus (a German woman who he kidnapped as his wife five hundred years earlier) 364 days a year, his battalion of nearly ten thousand Jynx were forced to make toys in the Arctic sweatshops (or 'happy fun workshops' as her mother called them) for eight hours a day, every day.
The other Jynx were completely contempt and even happy with their pathetic lives, always smiling brightly and chattering happily as they made their toy cars, video games, and ponies. They were allowed a lot of freedom and given one month of vacation a year, sick leave, and even warm, cushy living quarters, but the thought of being under that stupid jolly man and being forced to work for him was despicable! Yet, for Andromeda, this atrocious notion was a reality she had to live every day.
At last, she was free. Santa Claus was nowhere around, and for the first time in her life, she did not have to make a single toy. As she sat against the gnarled tree, Jynx looked down at her purple gloved hands. They were very dark and calloused from constantly working, but today, they felt strangely empty. They certainly did not look empty as they were saturated with small, clear icicles. Normally, around this time of the day, she would be casting the magical "Toy Pony turning to Real Pony" spell. As if she was casting the spell once more, her hands began to wave around in circles…
"NO! I REFUSE!"
Clenching her hands in a tight fist once more, she began to march forward once more, desperate to reach the Land of the Smiling Sun and be freed from Jack Frost and Santa Claus permanently. Though she clamped her eyes shut to keep the fierce blizzard winds out, she felt a tiny tear droplet building up inside. No matter where she would go, misery would always follow. It was her curse. Part of her wished that she would be back in the warm sweatshops, even if she would be under the tyranny of the fat fontverdanab/fontastard. Outside the safety of Santa Claus's domain, the blizzards would constantly rage and the ice was sharp and jagged whereas in her home it only snowed gently and the ice was smooth….
Earlier that day...
"Andromeda! Wake up! Christmas is only a week away, and we have to finish up the toys for the Dutch children!"
Andromeda did not care; she was tired and her arms were sore. She did not feel like working. Grasping hold of her Stantler-skin blanket tighter, she snuggled herself into a nice, comfortable position while her mother continued to shout and demand her to wake up.
"AHHH!"
As she did nearly every other day, Cassandra, Andromeda's mother, had thrown a bucket of boiling hot water right into her poor daughter's bed, instantly causing her to leap from her warm confines. Andromeda's body began to burn with pain, and she gripped the scorching spots tightly, in order to freeze them with her own ice element. While she did this, her mother laughed her head off as she put on her own mauve gloves and took hold of her lucky hammer, ready to work cheerfully as she did all forty years of her life. Upon seeing her guffawing mother, a blazing beast immediately erupted inside of Andromeda, roaring and clawing desperately for escape. She could not take this anymore.
"NO! I'M NOT WORKING ANOTHER DAY! I'M SICK OF THIS! YOU'RE SO MORONIC TO SEE HOW PATHETIC YOUR LIFE IS BECAUSE OF STUPID SANTY CLAUS! I HATE HIM MOM! I HATE HIM!" Andromeda cried, throwing random things in their small hamper around, enjoying the way they shattered against the wall.
She then ran to the wall and began to punch it as hard as she could, until her knuckles couldn't take it anymore. Her mother just watched silently and solemnly, simply staring at Andromeda awaiting her to finish. Clutching her sore hand, Andromeda slumped to the floor and began to sob, not attempting to hold back her pearly tears or wipe them away. Fantasies of a life in the Land of the Shining Sun that she dreamed of every night flooded her mind once more, making her sobbing only intensify. Her mother finally moved from her spot, walking briskly toward her daughter, lips pursed and eyes emotionless.
"Andromeda, we have been through this more than enough times. I am not going to explain it to you again. Get yourself together, put on a nice big smile, and march to the workshop right now!" She demanded, pointing at the door, her face flushing with pure fury.
"No. I don't want to." Andromeda stopped crying and instead stared at her mother with an expression colder than any glacier in the Arctic circle.
"You brought this upon yourself. I am very sorry I have to do this Andromeda."
Cassandra's eyes began to glow blue and her long blonde hair began to fan out behind her. Andromeda began to crawl back and retreat in fear, whimpering at what her mother would resort to doing.
"Please Mamma…no…please…"
Cassandra ignored her daughter's pleads as she raised her hands in front of herself, and they slowly began to vibrate. Her lips sneered in a disgusted countenance while her blonde hair stopped fanning and instead stood up erect, while her blue glowing eyes erupted in a rainbow light. Andromeda shut her eyes tightly and grasped her head as tightly as she could, hoping that some how her mother's attack would fail.
But it didn't.
"Noooo!"
An invisible force began to tighten around Andromeda's body and slowly compressed it tighter and tighter until she felt like a mere ice cube. As quickly as the tightening force came, it immediately went away, leaving her entire body in a painful tingling sensation. While the Jynx shuddered and gritted her teeth as tightly as she could, she knew that the aftermath of the attack would be twice as work. Her stomach sunk with dread as the tingling sensation she experienced far too many times ceased abruptly. A few seconds of painful silence followed while Andromeda opened her eyes to look at her mother. Her hair had fallen to her sides once more, but her eyes still shined with a bright rainbow color and her hands still rotated in mid air while she silently muttered a few dreaded words.
The Jynx's screams could be heard all around Santa's domain as her mind was smashed open. Whispers and mutters poured all into her brain as her thoughts and memories slowly began to swirl around her head. Cassandra had entered her mind and was determined to destroy the part of her that hated her life. Before anything else could happen, Andromeda blacked out.
"Andromeda? Andromeda sweety, wake up. We're already late to go to work. Andromeda?"
The Jynx's eyes immediately flashed open, and the first thing she saw was her beaming mother looking down at her. She felt strangely numb and ignorant to everything around her, lying still, completely devoid of any emotion or feeling. Her life was back to its normal monotonous routine, with no backtalk this time. Standing briskly and brushing the dirt off her back, Andromeda put on her gloves and followed her mother silently, ready to work once more.
Climbing down several ladders of their barracks, they stepped outside into the frigid cold and trekked across the plush snow to their designated workshop where they would be building teddy bears. Andromeda kept her face down as she walked; only concerned with getting to the workshop, for she was unable to think or use her mind. Lifting her face to brush the snow off of her hair, she caught sight of the gate to Santa's Domain. The entire domain was under a transparent dome, and the only exit was the big marble gateway that stood right in front of the first workshop. In fact, its official name was indeed "The Marble Gateway". The only person that would be able to use this blessed passageway was Santa Claus himself when he got on his reindeer-harnessed sled and left on Christmas Midnight to deliver presents.
As she saw the Marble Gateway, something began to click in Andromeda's mind. She had desires outside of working for Santa Claus and that gateway was her only way to those desires! The Hitmonchan gateman had left to go to the bathroom or do something, and for the first time in twelve years, it was her chance to be free. She looked at her mother who was staring at her irritated.
"Come along now Andromeda! You already delayed us once today!"
The blazing beast inside of the Jynx awoke once more and spread white hot fury throughout her entire body. Cassandra thought she could control daughter with her psychic powers, but Andromeda had a few powers of her own, and this time, she was refused to take her mother's abuse once more. Her blood began to boil, and closing her eyes tightly, Andromeda focused all of her anger into her right hand, which began to burn white hot with the power of ice. Soon, her very fist itself began to quiver with excitement, desperate to release the anger stored inside of it. Cassandra finally caught sight of her daughter's glowing hand, but it was too late.
"ANDROMEDA!"
Raising her glowing white hand as high as she could, Andromeda fired a powerful beam of ice from her hand, which immediately struck her stunned mother and froze her in her angry snarl. Firing her Ice Beam at any other nearby passerby, Andromeda screamed with rage as she watched walking Jynx turning into immobile statues by her own hands. Many of the Jynx had never raised their hands to battle in their entire lives and ran away screaming, leaving only Andromeda and several ice sculptures behind.
Grimacing with madness, the insane Jynx drooled with greed and the beauty that was the great arched gateway to the world beyond. Panting heavily she began to break into a sprint toward the blessed site, unaware of the fact that a huge coat of ice stood inside the gateway, blocking her way. Staring in disbelief, Andromeda cursed vehemently; angered at the fact her one chance to be free was snatched under her nose. Looking back, she noticed the ice that coated her mother beginning to crack.
"Oh damn it! DAMN THIS! I didn't come all this way for nothing!" Andromeda began to pound the enchanted ice wall that filled the gateway madly, in hopes that it would crack or do something.
The desire to leave the cursed land filled Jynx once more as she pounded and punched the ice wall to the point that her knuckles began to bleed profusely. Splattering the ice with droplets of blood as she continued to punch the wall, and as her mother was about to burst free from her icy prison, Andromeda gave the wall one final punch, doing nothing but causing her knuckle bones to shatter. Clutching her bloody, aching hand once more, she rested her head against the wall and slowly wept as she heard her mother yell in rage as she began to move once more. It was the end of the line. Any Jynx that attacked another Jynx was never heard from again… A single, pearly tear fell down the Jynx's cheek and struck the wall not too far from the stains of her blood…
"Woah!"
By some miracle of Mew, the massive wall of ice filling the marble gateway disappeared for a split second. Andromeda tumbled through to the other side, and the wall immediately reappeared, protecting her from the wrath of her angry mother. They said Hell hath no fury like a Jynx scorned, but whoever said obviously never saw Cassandra's countenance upon seeing her daughter beyond the dome of Santa's Domain. Though Cassandra was normally a very dark purple, she somehow managed to turn beet red as she stared at her daughter from the closed gateway. She screamed fervidly, but Andromeda could not hear.
She was free.
"I…did it."
The Jynx looked around at her surroundings in disbelief. The Arctic tundra was much colder, much more vicious than Santa's workplace; as soon as she stepped out; her face was immediately smothered and whipped by the brutal blizzard winds. The ground was no longer soft and plush with snow, rather hard and slippery with ice. Inside the dome, the holiday spirit managed to keep some sort of warmth flaring, but there was no such spirit outside, and Andromeda felt every single degree of the subzero temperature. She was already beginning to shiver madly, but it mattered not because she was free!
More Jynx had gathered around the Marble Gateway and stared in disbelief at Andromeda; they had never seen a Jynx step outside of the domain in their entire life. Andromeda could have very well been the first to ever leave. Suddenly, the Jynx realized that though she was somehow able to go through the wall, the gatekeeper and Santa Claus could get through it even easier and could pull her back into the cursed captivity. Driven by the love of freedom, Andromeda darted across the harsh tundra, ignoring the horrible pain in her bloody hand and staining the ground behind her with the sweet droplets of her ecstatic tears.
All ecstasy from the first five minutes of freedom died like a human child under the blunt blade of Santa's ax. Andromeda still sat silently at the edge of the pond, cold and miserable. She still had a long, treacherous journey ahead of her before she could reach the Land of the Smiling Sun. The poor Jynx began to doubt if she would ever complete her journey; it had only been a day, and she was already beginning to suffer with hunger and feared falling asleep, for she could freeze to death in her next slumber.
There had not been a single living thing in sight except for the dead tree she sat next to. Obviously the fat fontverdanab/fontastard was smart enough to place his fortress in the most desolate area of the Arctic so that none could escape him. For a moment, she considered turning back, but decided death was worth the chance for freedom. Leaping to her feet, Andromeda continued to march forward more determined than ever, toward the mountains, toward her freedom. Her hunger was worse than ever, but she still managed to walk, despite the painful sensations she had never experienced in Santa's Domain.
"What was that?"
Looking around vigilantly, Andromeda's heart nearly froze. She was not alone.
A flash of black had appeared in the corner of her eye. Perhaps it was a hunger induced hallucination or just the desperate will to see another living creature, but Andromeda definitely had seen something. Bringing up her dried blood covered fist to her side, she was ready to freeze any little beast that reared its head. Ten minutes passed by, and there was no sign of any living thing, so Andromeda had continued on forward, dismissing whatever she saw as an illusion. But as soon as she started walking, she saw the black flash once more.
"WHO IS THERE? REVEAL YOUR SELF NOW!"
She began blasting Ice Beams randomly, hoping to draw out whatever slimy creature was watching her but hit nothing but the gnarled tree and patches of the already frozen ice. The tree began to creak ominously as the massive amount of ice caking it caused the branches to begin cracking. Andromeda gazed at the small tree in horror as the branches snapped off and came crashing down into the thin ice, smashing it open and taking Jynx down into the frigid depths of the water with it.
"Ahh! Help! Somebody help!"
Andromeda thrashed violently in the chilly water as the pieces of ice drifted away, and her weight began to pull her down. As much as she lashed and thrashed her arms, frantic to try and swim, she could not bring herself to swim even in the time of desperate need. Slowly, she began to sink into the arctic waters, to only be forgotten by the world as another nameless Jynx, a slave to the fat fontverdanab/fontastard, Santa Claus. Her fortitude could not save herself as her head submerged into the waters and only her blonde hair floated ghost like in the dark waters…