No offense was meant in the creating of this chapter. If you disapprove of Christmas for any reason I suggest that you do not read ahead, as this is a chapter about Christmas. The story, however, will only be including christmas traditions, not the meaning itself. It will also be 'the birth of the first Sun Knight' for the sake of a smoother storyline. Thankyou for your understanding.
Today is a special day. Today is a day for caring, kindness, sharing and love. Today is the day of year that every servant, noble, child and elderly will come together to celebrate the birth of the first Sun Knight. It's a marvelous day filled with sweets, carols, celebration and laughter.
"Knight-Captain Sun Knight!" Adair called from outside my room.
For them, that is.
While every other citizen in Leaf Bud City was happily sleeping in on their day off, I was expected to rise at the crack of dawn. I didn't even get up this early for Church Service!
Make somebody else do it!
I rolled over and dug deeper into my blankets, breathing a sigh of comfort that quickly turned to frost in the chilly air. My line of reasoning was simple; It's cold out there, but it's warm in my bed. Who's going to leave this wonderful temperature to freeze to death?! No, thankyou.
The banging continued, but I allowed it to drone into white noise in the background. It really was a perfect day for staying in bed, sleeping in till noon and maybe getting some of Ice's hot chocolate.
I saw Ice preparing sweets last night. Ahhh I can't wait to eat them. I hope he made sure they were blueberry...
"Y-You can't go in there!" Adair's loud voice was interrupted by the slamming of my door, and I looked up just in time for Lesus to turn to me, glowering darkly.
"Get ready," He sighed in exasperation as he eyed me, "You're going to be late. Again."
"Can't somebody else do it?" I begged, wishing all the more that I could just sink further into mynblankets and block out the world.
"Grisia," He frowned, but the intimidating look was softened by the rueful smile he wore, "It's one day of the year. You slack off the rest of the year anyway, but today is special."
"What's 'special'," I grumbled, poking my feet out of the blankets as I sat up and wincing as the cold bit into them, "Today is a horrible day. Today is always a horrible day."
He rolled his eyes, "You have thirty minutes to get ready," With that he turned to leave before stopping, his hand on the doorknob, "Oh and your Vice-Captain refused to actually come into your room to wake you up, again. Have a word to him about that. I won't always be here to wake you up when you're feeling stubborn..."
"Okay," I lied smoothly. There's no way I'm doing that!
Thirty minutes later found me dressed, my hair neatly combed and inspecting my face in the mirror. Another reason that this time of year sucked for me; the lack of sleep always posed the threat of giving me sleep bags. Or worse... wrinkles! I had to be extra vigilant, which meant spending even more money on face-care products.
Screw the first Sun Knight. Why do we have to celebrate this every year...
And of course, as the current Sun Knight, I was required to give speeches, sing hymns, attend festivities and (perhaps worst of all) tour the whole city while on horseback. Every year this day rakes in loads of donations, even from the nobles. There was a rumour that if you didn't donate genorously the God of Light would descend and wreak havoc on those who disprespected his servants... It was a rumour that I suspected the Pope of starting, but it worked nonetheless. It was so successful, in fact, that the Pope ventured into other ways of profitting from the day.
"Captain!" Adair said dutifully from the door. In his hands he held a plate, "I arranged breakfast for you.
Adair is definitely the best. Wahh I'm so luckyyyy-
My praise, and smile, froze as I took the plate from him. On it sat two pieces of toast, buttered but otherwise plain. I was about to spout some very pointed guidance from the God of Light when he explained in a guilty voice, "Knight-Captain Judgment told me that you weren't to have any sweets, and Knight-Captain Ice wouldn't give me the blueberry jam... They told me it had to be plain, but I snuck some butter on..."
It took all my control not to throw the plate and go buy my own sweets, but I reigned in my annoyance. In the end I picked up one piece elegantly, feeling my smile stiffen even further as the blank, tasteless stuff entered my mouth. For somebody used to having their taste buds attacked by sweetness everyday, this was... horrible. Like eating dirt. But the thought of a full day of preaching made me choke the bread down, knowing it was better to eat than to suffer through a day of hunger.
"Which task is in need of the God of Light's guidance this morning?" I asked with a brilliant, but still stiff, smile, all the while gesturing him into my rooms so I could drop the 'God of Light' talk.
Adair answered immediately, reaffirming my praise of him being an awesome Vice-Captain. He even knew my schedule! "Riding around the city in the parade."
I felt my annoyance rise another level. It was perhaps my least favourite task of the day, and involved idling around the city while citizens cheered. It would be cold, long and it would mean I actually had to ride a horse. Apart from being vile beasts that always seemed intent on throwing me form their saddle, they stunk. And by the end of the ride, which lasted several hours, I knew that I, too, would stink. Which meant that I had to quickly squeeze in a shower before heading off to my next menial task.
"And who is accompanying me?" I asked carefully, dreading the answer. Who I rode with made the world of difference as to how the parade would be conducted. Generally only two of the Knights would accompany me for each task, and even then they were only from the Good and Warm-Hearted section. This day excluded the Cruel and Cold-Hearted faction, as they couldnt exactly go throwing negative comments about the Sun Knight, nor could they be caught praising him.
"The Earth and Storm Knight-Captains," He said, and I quickly caught the sign of hesitancy in his tone.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Alot of the knights slacked off recently, so the Knight-Captain Storm has been very busy and... well, I havent been able to wake him, sir," Adair said seriously.
I winced, but nodded, "Make sure nobody disturbs him. I'll take one of the other Knight-Captains with me..." I trailed off thoughtfully, running through my list of options. I ruled Blaze out almost immediately. His loud nature would definitely end in a headache, though his flames would definitely make the ride warmer... But I still didnt want to deal with that. If I took out Cloud he would screech about 'Brightness' so that probably wouldnt be a good idea...
The most reasonable option would definitely be Leaf, but if he was around I wouldnt just be able to ignore Earth, like I usually tried to. Leaf had always insisted we be friendly, and I didnt want tonrisk upsetting him. "Sun Knight makes Leaf Knight cry" definitely isnt a title I want to see on a newspaper.
I sighed and left the room, adopting my brilliant smile and elegant demeanour while bracing myself against the day to come.
I left this late! Way too late! T.T I wanted to upload something christmassy, but I waited till Christmas Eve to do it... Sorry. This will continue, if yous want to! I might have time tomorrow, depending on how things run. Im sorry if I made any errors. Its one in the morning. I was at work today, so im exhausted. . Again; I didnt mean to offend anybody by posting this! Im really sorry if I did.