Disclaimer: I do not own White Knight Chronicles just these festive words below.
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To the residents of the small village of Parma, there were mixed feelings over the subject of Winter: long hours in front of the fireplace for the elderly; an excuse for the men to slink off to their favourite watering hole for a gut warming mug of ale while the womenfolk worry over their children not being properly wrapped up, for those who had; whereas the aforementioned young saw it as a chance to have fun and play in the snow covered grounds in a variety of winter activities and mischief.
One grinning little girl was currently indulging the latter. Scooping up a decent handful of the cold powder, the girl carefully compressed and compact the amount until it vaguely looked spherical in shape and solid enough for the next part in her childish plan. She had already picked out her target who currently had his back to her while watching the rest of the kids their age evidently not wanting to get involved with them but hanging around to step in in case things got out of hand.
Her ammo ready, the girl focused her magic into the snowball so that, when done properly, it would shoot towards him much faster than normal so that it would knock him head first into the ground. Sadly, while the idea was fool proof in her six year old mind, it fell short of the mark. Instead of coming into contact with the boy, the speeding projectile shot passed his head to connect with a tree on the far side of the clearing the children were playing on with enough force that the snow clinging to its barren branches came cascading off leaving it naked compared to its forestry brethren.
Despite not being struck, the boy still had a fright when he saw the snowball speed passed and was quick to deduce who the assailant was before seeing the tree shaken free of snow.
"Dammit, Luna!" The boy growled whirling round to face the girl only to quickly duck as another snowball came shooting his way. "You're not supposed to be using magic!"
"Oh, quit being such a stickler, Amaranth" Luna teased rolling out the 'th' so as to annoy her baby brother ever more.
"You quit calling me that! It's Amaranth! Am. Are. Ant!" Amaranth growled stepping to the side as Luna lobbed another snowball at him.
"What did you just call me?!" Luna snapped stopping in her activity and now glaring at Amaranth who, despite being a year younger than her, was a good two centimetres taller than her irking her to no end.
Amaranth could only sigh in response muttering something incoherent about selective hearing. At least this proved she was their parents' child: she had her father's potential for magic and her mother's quick temper- made all the more deadly by the fact that she was still in the process of learning how to reign in her potential and not accidentally hex something into oblivion which always happens at least once a month.
"I'm. Not. Small!" Luna cried out hurling another snowball at Amaranth with enough force to rival that of a launched cannonball.
Fortunately, while not as blessed as his sister, Amaranth still had an aptitude for magicks coupled with his father's collectedness and was able to quickly throw up a minor fire shield that evaporated the snowball before it could collide and likely do bodily harm to him.
"Get the snow out of your ears and stop before you hurt yourself, idiot!" He snapped at her readying another barrier spell for her next attack.
"Says who?! You're not the boss of me!" Luna replied forgoing the snowball and channelled her mana into a lightning spell.
Or rather, tried to. Despite feeling the mana charged up inside of her, when Luna made to cast, all her stored power fizzled out leaving her staring wide eyed with her hand outstretched clearly expecting something to have happened. Even after three more attempts, no spells slipped forth from the increasingly infuriated girl.
"Grrrr- WHY CAN'T I CAST MAGIC!?" Luna cried to the heavens causing several winter birds to take to the air in fright.
"It's because someone's obviously blocking you, genius" Amaranth sighed wriggling a finger in his now deaf ear. "Good thing, too- You were about to go all out and likely hurt some of the other brats here as well as me"
"But…But only Daddy can do that and he's not here!" Luna whined before slumping as an invisible weight suddenly pressed down on her head.
"That's what your mother believes as well" A familiar voice echoed out before a cloaked individual materialised beside Luna with one hand pressing down on her head. "For now, at least"
Instantly, Luna's mood went from upset to jubilant as she took note of the figure beside her. In the time it took to blink, she had disappeared from under her father's hand to his side practically clinging to his hip quickly followed by Amaranth the two of them knocking their father back a step in order to keep his balance.
"Jeez, your mother been making you two tackle trolls while I've been away?" He grunted collapsing to his knees to wrap an arm each round his two children the gesture quickly being reciprocated.
"Just the bigger kids whenever they make fun of Luna's height" Amaranth sniggered as he let go of his father and walking alongside whereas Luna sat on one shoulder.
"Well, that's what they get for calling me tiny" Luna huffed crossing her arms and puffing out her cheeks.
The father could only sigh. Not even half the age and already his daughter was the spitting image and personality of his wife. If this kept up, Luna would be lucky to ever find someone to court her when she got to that age- although the suitor would have to get by him first.
"So, bullies aside, what have you two and your mother been up to?" He inquired as the family, sans the matriarch, made their way towards Parma and their humble abode on its outskirts.
Amazingly, whereas before he became a parent he would have growled at the amount talking going on in his presence, the father merely chuckled as Luna told him of how Amaranth had helped out the daughter of the local tavern owner the other day while Amaranth told of how his sister had attempted to levitate several full barrels of wine only to spill their contents over herself among other things. And that was both of them speaking at the same time, to boot.
By the time they had reached their snow covered cottage, the two children had ran out of stories to tell and were now, with their father between them, walking hand in hand towards the front door.
"Mom! We're back!" Luna called out as she burst through the door followed by her brother and father at a more sedated pace the latter pondering on whether he should start reinforcing the door with magic the way she practically kicked it down as he closed it behind him.
"Already? Which of you two's done what this time?" Their mother called out to them from somewhere further inside the cottage.
"This time?" The father whispered curiously.
"You don't wanna know" Amaranth quickly whispered back.
"I swear, if one of you has levitated Raus to the highest branch of a tree while he was napping again…" The mother grumbled as she came into view from round the corner only to stop in her tracks upon seeing who was standing with her children. "Alastor?"
Alastor could not help but grin at the shocked look on his wife's face. While he could easily surprise her eight years ago they first went on their adventure to save the princess, years together plus parental instincts allowed her to take whatever he threw at her and barely bat an eyelid these days.
"Though I'd come home early this year" Alastor told her seeing as she was unresponsive at the moment. "Surprise"
"That's…nice" Yulie eventually got out nodding her head slowly as she took in all the facts. "Kids, get changed into some dry clothes and get the table ready for dinner. Me and your father need to have a...little talk"
Luna and Amaranth needed no second telling. The moment the word talk was mentioned, the two kids practically disappeared as if by magic not wanting to be around for whatever happened next. Even Alastor felt a little uncomfortable when it was just him and Yulie especially with that look she was giving him. The look that even he could not read thus not warn him of his wife's mood be it happy or sad- it was usually the latter.
"Did I come at a bad time?" The mage inquired only to receive silence in response as Yulie slowly made her way over to him. "Come on, Yulie. You know I don't like it when you give me the silent-mph!"
Fed up of listening to him speak, Yulie grabbed Alastor by the front of his cloak and pulled him down far enough for her to seal his lips with her own in a passionate welcome home kiss.
"That's why I do it" Yulie grinned once she finally pulled away looping her arms around his neck as she leaned against him.
"Would it hurt to actually act like a little girl when you see me after a while? Our son showed more emotion when he saw me outside" Alastor scolded her half-heartedly embracing the woman in his arms and relaxing now that he knew what kind of mood she was in.
"Maybe next time" Yulie teased standing on tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek before turning slightly more serious. "Why are you home? Normally, the Magician's Guild has you doing so much work, we're lucky to see you the day after Christmas let alone before"
"Ah, the Guild can do without its Archmage for a few extra days- almost everyone there has a loved one or two they want to see that day anyway" Alastor shrugged ignoring the shiver at how much paperwork he was likely going to be facing when he returned. "Besides, Azalea was the one who created the Guild and only used me as a figurehead to get the boulder rolling. If she has any problems with that, then that's what they are- hers"
Yulie's smile widened at his words. She was beginning to get disheartened as the guild seemed to be taking up more time of the man she had loved and married often or not seeing him two or three days a week at best to say nothing of how their kids probably felt about it. Still, even if he meant what he just said, she had the perfect trump card to claim more of his time for their family.
"Well, you tell Azalea, the next time you her, that your presence is required more at home for your wife and three kids than some guild for magic users" She whispered in his ear.
The next thing she knew, Yulie found herself suddenly at arm's length from Alastor who was staring from her face to her stomach and back a rare look of surprise and shock etched onto his face as he quickly pieced together what she had just subtly told him.
"Th-Three?" He asked eventually. "As…As in…As-As in"
Unable to keep it in, Yulie let out a girlish laugh as she leapt at her flustered husband being kept from landing by the two strong arms that wrapped subconsciously around her middle as she kissed him passionately.
"I was going to surprise you when you got home after Christmas but…surprise!" She finished meekly as Alastor put her back down on her feet. "Guess we both surprised each other this Christmas, huh?"
Alastor could only chuckle as he held Yulie tightly one part ecstatic about being a father to a third child and one part glad that he had decided to take Christmas off this year even if it meant the possibility of extra work to deal with when he returned a few days later.
Definitely worth it no matter how it was viewed.
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Hope you all have a very merry Christmas with your loved ones & until next time
Watch this space, peace out & Merry Christmas!