As far as Christmas and the Jungo were concerned, the holiday had always had a fan in Wendy, both before the meteorite incident and afterwards in her human-esque persona; stealing turkey and other scraps, back in the days where she was still one hundred percent fox, had been replaced with digging around for possible presents to give to her fellow clan members. She wasn't being stingy- whereas it was difficult for some humans to find work, it was beyond impossible for the likes of a fox to be offered a job.
Softly singing "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" as she carried an odd, electrical-looking something, Wendy cheerfully made her way into her clan's territory; not caring either way who saw and heard, she was surprised to see just Ronald out and about. Instead of his usual paper, he seemed to be reading a copy of "The God Delusion", which didn't surprise the fox one bit due to her clan-mate's atheist declaration and tendencies.
"Enjoying your God-bashing propaganda?" She teased, suddenly flipping the white-sleeved book out of his hands and causing the male to shake his head. However, the smile on his face made it obvious he held nothing against her.
"Enjoying stealing from the Montana?" He retorted, raising an eyebrow and thinking he'd managed to keep her quiet; but as he reached down to pick his book up from out of the mud, Wendy was far was silent, sounding rather eager and excited.
"Hate to disappoint you, Ronald, but I never steal on Christmas Eve. It's the season of giving and goodwill, isn't it? Go on, check me for bullet holes and bruises. You know I can't have just one stealing session without one of the Italian Job managing to hit me."
Observing the fox as she gave a quick spin around, the tortoise couldn't help smiling at the fact she was actually telling the truth.
"So...you really weren't stealing from the Montana," Ronald said, sounding a little pleased that the female hadn't risked her life with the Mafia for once.
"No, I found this CD player in the tip! Can you believe some bozo threw it out? It still works!" She explained with a cheery exclamation, immediately grabbing the device by the handle; however, her beaming smile soon dropped to quite a hurt frown.
"Where's the plug-in point?"
"We don't have any, Wendy, remember?"
He'd tried to make light of the situation, but it seemed that humour had been the worst way to go; muttering something along the lines of "Of course you be happy about it, atheist dumb-ass", the fox immediately, and deliberately, dropped the CD player to make a rather childish point.
"Oh, you didn't have to break it!"
"Wouldn't have been able to use it anyway," she retorted, glancing up as her hair fell infront of her face. "Stupid Ongh and his stupid fear of electricity."
"The proper term is Electrophobia."
"No one asked you!"
"Look, I'm sure the clan appreciates all these efforts to bring the Christmas Spirit," Ronald began to explain, signalling the young fox to come sit next to him. "But all these thwarted attempts seem to really be taking their toll on you. It's not healthy."
"Vegetarianism's not healthy," Wendy said, pointing at him in quite a serious manner as she made herself comfortable; however, seriousness soon turned to curiosity as the fox's expression took on a rather thoughtful position. "Hmmmm...I wonder what the hippies have instead of a turkey?"
"You're deliberately straying from the point," Ronald, trailing off when he felt a cold, powdery flake hit the bridge of his nose; soon followed by another and then another, he looked up in quite a cautious manner, unable to keep himself from silently swearing when he noticed the abundance of flakes begin to fall from the sky.
"What in the name of Richard Dawkins?"
"It's snowing!" The female squealed, sounding more than excited at the turn of weather, especially when the powder grew thicker and the flakes fell more furiously. "Man, whoever said the weather outside was frightful was talking complete bollocks!"
Climbing up the lamppost and claiming her place on top in the "sit" position, she couldn't help stretching her head out as to let the snowflakes fall onto her nose.
"Birthday's soon, baby Jesus! Praise be to your dad, and so on and so forth!"
Upon hearing those words, Ronald could feel his face bear an expression that portrayed a mixture of both disgust and disbelief; he'd never known the fox to be overly-interested in the aspect of religion, but this recent turn of theism had almost been too much for him to bear.
"For heaven's sake, Wendy, you're going to end up falling and hurting yourself!" He found himself yelling, suddenly concerned for her safety. Well, somewhat concerned. Part of him was secretly hoping she'd fall so he could mock the very aspect of God hearing her one plea to make sure she'd land without too much damage; however, when she skilfully slid back down the lamppost to the flaky, somewhat snowy ground, the tortoise found himself sighing with relief.
"You needn't worry so much, Granddad! Foxes always land on their feet."
"That's cats," Ronald retorted, raising an eyebrow at the new stranger in a slightly know-it-all fashion. However, Eduardo wasn't often phased by his clan mate's logic and promptly sniggered it off.
"I think you'll find it also applied to foxes right now," he said, trying to keep his balance as he was suddenly hug-tackled by his female clan-mate and girlfriend. "How's it going, Wendy? I bet the season's getting you all excited, isn't it?"
"Well duh! Christmas is the best holiday ever! The humans end up buying too much food and have to throw more away than usual! Before the meteorite, me and my family always raked it in when it came to leftovers," Wendy reminisced, trailing off into quite a sombre tone. "Wish the family was still here. But Stupid Face here scared them off into the Northern Mountains!"
"They were after my chickens, woman!" Eduardo retorted, but both animals were grinning at that moment.
"Won't they be trying to find a turkey though?" Ronald asked, sounding as if he'd been hesitant to interrupt the couple.
"Feck turkey," he said, almost spitting the words out in disgust. "It's about all the chicken, baby. Though according to some of the other Jungo, it's all about the tree. I was hesitant to believe Bragh at first because he's such a little bullshitter, but is it true that Hystrix collected all the needles he shed naturally since the meteorite and made the tree himself?"
"Now this I have to see," Ronald declared, immediately trying to rush off and sighing when he realised his tortoise stature meant running was a physical incapability for him.
"It's alright, Granddad, I'll carry you," Eduardo said, with a genuine wink and grin as he offered his own slender back as transport. As the tortoise edged himself up the weasel's back, the latter was pleasantly surprised that the former was not as heavy as he initially looked.
They began to wander deeper into their own territory with no further conversation, but after a few moments, despite the fox's continuous eagerness, it was the weasel who broke the silence.
"So what exactly do you like about Christmas, Granddad, if anything?" He asked, his question sounding a little insulting in writing but his tone was nothing but slightly eager curiosity.
"Oh, I accept and appreciate the whole aspect of family and community," Ronald said, explaining it calmly and somewhat more slowly than usual as to make sure the two younger Jungo could keep up. "But I just don't believe in the whole thing with Jesus-"
"That Jesus guy did exist, you know! There's historical and skeletal evidence!" Wendy interrupted, only to be silenced by the tortoise's somewhat irritated stare.
"You didn't let me finish as usual, young Wendy," he said, shaking his head in slight irritation but as if he'd expected it. "I don't believe in the whole thing with Jesus being the son of God. I accept he existed, but I see him as a normal man who probably suffered from a few hallucinations and people were wanting enough for a saviour of some kind that they considered his supposed tricks to be miracles."
"I hate to say it because you're such a nice guy and that, but you're so going to hell when you die," Eduardo said, shuddering a little and almost causing the older Jungo to lose his grip. "Still, it could be worse. You could be a complete Scrooge about the holiday season, refusing to celebrate altogether and..."
He trailed off, completely taken by surprise (and allowing Ronald to slide off his back) at the visual feast of brown and green and who-knew-what that stood before them. As the trio couldn't help but stare at the tree in silent awe, they were soon joined by it's very creator; smiling in quite a satisfied way, Hystrix couldn't help letting them stare for a little while longer.
"So, what do you think?" He asked, finally breaking the silence. "Quite adequate for the season, wouldn't you say?"
"It's more than alright, it's absolutely perfect!" Wendy squealed, immediately approaching it in quite a giddy way and beginning to stroke the needles; however, she found herself stopping in shock when she remembered they were Hystrix's, just as she'd managed to prick herself.
"I'm going to need a medic! Niva! NIVA!"
"It's ok, Wendy, it's ok!" The porcupine retorted, quite frantically; it often took a lot to make Hystrix lose it infront of his enemies, but just one minor emergency regarding his clan mates meant guaranteed panic. "Remember, my quills have to be freshly picked from my body for the poison to have any real effect. These ones are as useful as, what the humans would say, a chocolate teapot."
"Still bleeding though," the female pouted, as she began to lick the scarlet mess from her finger. Realising just who she might have resembled with her tongue lolling a little, Wendy couldn't help having a little fun; noticing that Hystrix had decorated the "tree" with bits and bobs the humans had thrown out, she gently pulled off what looked like a piece of cutlery and wore what seemed like a crazed, hungry-looking expression.
"Hey guys, guess who?"
"You're too short to be one, too tall to be the other and too slim to be either," Eduardo said, grabbing hold of her hand and kissing her on the forehead. "Plus you're not an ugly-ass guy. Don't insult yourself by comparing your foxiness to those two disgusting monsters from Italy."
"Just to be sure, you are talking about Mr Martinet and Mr Corradi, right?" Ronald asked, looking a little confused; however, thanks to his question, the three younger Jungo were looking even more confused as a result.
"Mr Corradi? Who the feck is Mr Corradi?"
"Spiaghi, of course," the tortoise said, as if it was a well known fact throughout the city. He often seemed to forget that not every member of the Jungo had the time or patience to get themselves as clued up as he was about every single human out there.
"Well, let's just hope they both leave enough food for the rest of their family," Eduardo said, grinning like an idiot at his own spot of humour.
"Aaaaah, once again with the family. Well, despite all the religious connotations, the humans got this whole holiday season right with the whole family thing, that's why I accept it. It'll still be wonderful to have all the clan together for the big day," Ronald mused, even sounding a little soppy; his sudden affections causing weasel, fox and porcupine to shoot him a slightly off look, the tortoise couldn't help averting his gaze in quite an awkward manner.
"Sorry," he muttered, almost inaudible but the scarlet in his cheeks were loud enough to prove his point.
"That was actually rather cute," the female said, smiling as she attacked him with a tight hug. "Merry Chris-sorry. Happy holidays, Ronald."
"Same to you, young Wendy," he replied, gently patting her on the back and almost getting tickled in the face by her tail.
"Merry Christmas, Hystrix."
"It isn't until tomorrow, you complete Aldo," he retorted, but he gingerly returned his fellow clan member's hug all the same, careful not to poke her with his intact, still poisonous needles.
"MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHICKEN LOVER!"
There'd been little reason for her to shout or call him "Chicken Lover" but alongside humans, love also made the animal-esque beings of Clint City do crazy things too. Despite the slight ringing in his ears, Eduardo still managed to reply with a rather heart-felt "Merry Christmas, darling" before sealing the deal with a gentle tap on the nose and a not-so-gentle snog; when it came to the more physical affections, the Jungos' animal sides still dominated.
"Oh stop it, you! There's not even any mistletoe about!" Wendy exclaimed, suddenly pulling away from the weasel and raising a eyebrow when she noticed the sprig of said plant hanging above the two lovers.
"Thanks, spine boy."
"No problem," Hystrix chuckled, managing not to fall from his place on the tree as he twiddled the mistletoe between his fingers. "Don't worry, me and Ronald will leave you two lovebirds alone. Though you may want to be careful you don't eat each other, you'll have more than enough tomorrow and it's unlikely your faces will be on the menu..."