Well, since it's the season I decided to do a Christmas themed fanfiction. I hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the World or any of the Tales series characters in this story. I only own Altheria.

Chapter One

"What's going on?" Altheria's eyes were wide with wonder as she stared at the scene in front of her.

For one of the rarer moments of his life, her flying companion Mormo was speechless as he gazed in amazement as well. They were in Ailily's plaza and right in front of them was a tree. A huge tree. Not as big as Terresia's World Tree, but bigger than Altheria and much bigger than Mormo.

"Uh... is there some kind of special occasion going on?" The flying cat companion said once he snapped out of his stupor.

Altheria blinked. "I don't know. Maybe. Everyone else seems to be dressed like it."

The Yaoon Descender scanned the plaza and saw what his friend was talking about. There weren't many, but several of the town's inhabitants wore red hats. The red hats had a white fluffy tassel attached to its end and a white furry band wrapped around the hat that fit snugly over one's forehead.

"Well... we're not going to find out by just standing around." Mormo shivered and then sneezed. "Achoo! Come on, let's go back to the guild. It's freezing!"

Altheria frowned as she realized that Ailily was much colder since she last visited. Her duty as the Descender of Terresia and a member of Ad Libitum took her to places far and wide, but she always had time to stop by and visit her friends. She looked up at the tree again, noticing that it was decorated by a mirage of colorful objects.

"What's with all the stuff?" She said before following her partner.

**********

When the two Descenders entered the guild, it was pure pandemonium.

Arche and Chester were at each others throats in a screaming match, Reid was eating something, and Genis and Raine. Meanwhile, Kanonno and Lloyd were working together and decorating a much smaller tree than the one in the plaza.

Altheria blinked before directing her attention towards Arche and Chester.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" The pink haired spell caster screeched. "I ASK YOU TO BUY ME FIVE MEASLY ITEMS FOR CHRISTMAS AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT??!"

'Christmas?' Altheria cocked her head to the side.

"'MEASLY?!'" Chester repeated. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE THESE THINGS ARE?! AND MOST PEOPLE GET ONLY ONE GIFT PER PERSON! NOT FIVE! YOU'RE SO GREEDY!"

"GREEDY?!"

On the other side of the room...

"And just why am I not allowed to help cook Genis Sage?" The Ailily Ad Libitum guild receptionist fumed at her brother.

"Because you'd probably end up poisoning everyone if I let you!" Her brother shouted back.

"Well why don't you just give me a chance?"

"No!"

"QUIET!" A commanding voice echoed through the room, drawing everyone's attention.

There was completely silence as everyone turned towards the owner.

Standing in the door way that lead to the weapons room was the leader of the guild, Kratos Aurion. With his arms folded across his chest and a deep frown etched on his face, it didn't take anyone with less than half a brain to know that he was angry.

"If you cannot conduct yourselves in an orderly manner," He glared, "then I will have no choice but to cancel the festivities for Ad Libitum."

That did not sit well with the younger members of the guild. Or at least with the less mature ones.

"You can't do that!" Arche glared back.

"Yeah!" Lloyd agreed, directing an agitated stare at the purple clad man.

"If you continue with this childish behavior, I will." Was Kratos' reply. The tone in his voice stated that this discussion was over.

"Grr..." Arche and Lloyd fumed, shooting dirty looks at him.

The entire time, Altheria and Mormo didn't say a word. It felt too awkward too interrupt.

"Wow..." Mormo whispered, and his partner nodded. It was amazing just how influential Kratos was over the others. You just had to respect a guy like that.

Turning his head towards the entrance, Kratos' red-wine eyes locked with Altheria's rose pink ones and the Descender smiled back. The man unfolded his arms and walked until he was standing just about two feet away.

"...You've returned." He finally said.

Even if she was supposed to be a powerful Descender, she couldn't help but feel intimidated by the human's stare. "Yup!" She chirped.

"I trust there were no problems?"

Altheria cocked her head sideways; frowning a bit. The job he assigned her was that she deliver important documents to Doplund. Normally, messenger birds were used to deliver letters to another city. However, it was too risky to use messenger birds as they could be shot down and the documents would fall into the wrong hands.

The Descender shook her head. "No."

It was a lie. The only sleep she had gotten that week was when Mormo stood guard to make sure she wasn't assaulted by mercenaries paid to retrieve the documents or the dangerous monsters that attacked at night. Not to mention the injury the thief dealt when he tried threatening her into submission.

But it was mission. And with missions usually came injuries, so Altheria found it unnecessary to tell anyone about her getting hurt.

Kratos held her gaze before he sighed. "It would not be in your best interest to lie."

Altheria's frown deepened and she looked away, a manner similar to a child being chided. "...Okay, maybe I did run into a few problems." She admitted reluctantly.

CRASH!

The noise made Altheria jump and Kratos grunt. The two directed their attention towards the source of the noise. Apparently Lloyd had dropped a box while he was stepping up the ladder.

"Aw, crap!" The red swordsman grimaced.

"Lloyd, watch it!" Genis ran up to the tree. "You nearly broke the decorations!"

Kanonno bent down and checked the box. "They're okay!"

"Oh yeah." Mormo blinked. "I'm kinda curious... what's with the tree? We saw one in the plaza but it's so much bigger than the one you have here."

Lloyd made a face at the flying creature. "It's for Christmas of course!"

Altheria cocked her head again. "What's Christmas?" She and Mormo asked at the same time.

At that instant, everyone froze and the two Descenders found themselves the center of attention.

"Um..." Altheria glanced around nervously, afraid that she said something wrong.

"You don't know what Christmas is?" Lloyd's jaw dropped.

Altheria rapidly shook her head and then hid behind Kratos as she waited for the onslaught. She didn't have to wait very long.

"How could you not know what Christmas is?!" Arche shouted, looking completely and utterly pissed.

"Um..." The Descender said weakly.

"Look!" Mormo snorted. "In my world I don't have whatever this Christmas is and Altheria obviously wouldn't know about it because-" Mormo cut himself off and both Kratos and Raine realized that he was going to say something along the lines of, "Because Altheria was born months ago!"

"You don't?!" Arche and Lloyd gawked. Reid and Chester looked mildly interested.

"How come?" Reid asked as started eating popcorn. It looked suspiciously like the popcorn that was supposed to be strung on the tree's branches.

"Well... it's not like every world shares the same holiday." Mormo sighed. "Mine, for example, doesn't have this Christmas."

"Come with me!" Arche placed her hands on Altheria's shoulders and began dragging her out the door. "We cannot let this travesty continue!"

"Where are we going?" The Descender yelled in alarm as she tried to get out of the girl's grip. She really didn't feel like going anywhere with Arche because whenever she got herself involved with the pink-haired half elf, it always left Altheria more traumatized than before.

"I'm going to explain to you what Christmas is all about!" By then the two were out the door and there was no chance of escape.

"..." Silence filled the entire room before Mormo turned to the more saner members of Ad Libitum.

"So what is Christmas?"

Yay, I'm done! What do you think? Hopefully, I can get this done by Christmas.