*December 24th, 2013*
Hello, everyone! In honor of my most successful fan fiction story on this site, The Story of Farlo, this is a short Christmas story featuring Farlo's companion, Snow the Glaceon. Just as the Christmas season consists of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so shall this story be published in two chapters on the consecutive days.
Fans of Farlo and those new to the story, I hope you enjoy this special!
The Story of Farlo: A Christmas For Snow
Part 1: The Heart
Glittering snowflakes descended upon the city, blanketing the twinkling lights of the buildings in the soft white flurries of winter. The growing morning light illuminated the cloud cover in golden rays, and as the sun rose the city seemed to murmur and yawn as it, too, awoke for the day. Windows opened and the faint sound of music tinkled through the central square, where puffy-coated people shoveled snow out of the walkways while others spread salt on the cobblestones, revealing the beautiful pattern that formed the center mural of the square. Children's laughter echoed through the streets as they built snowmen out of the snowy piles in their front yards and occasionally smacked each other with snowballs.
On the rooftops, various flying-type Pokemon stirred to the sounds of the children, looking down and smiling fondly before stretching their wings and warming them up for a day of wintry flight. Most of them had shed their summer feathers and were now pristinely white, just barely outlined on the snow-covered chimneys and gables. Storekeepers let loose their Pokemon as they opened their doors for business, dark green wreaths and candy canes lining their doors and sitting in the windows. The smells of laurels and baked goods filled the air, permeating the wind with sweet scents and attracting the early risers of the city to their tantalizing goods.
Further down the cul-de-sacs of neighborhoods outside of the center square, the large estates and homes of the public officials were also beginning to awaken; gardeners shoveled driveways, housemaids beat rugs on the front porches, and chimneys puffed smoke heartily into the atmosphere to alert the world that the inhabitants were awake and ready to start the day.
Within one of these houses, a young girl's curtains shivered with a breeze, a stray snowflake blowing into her room and landing gently on her nose. Stirring from the cold, the girl opened her crystal blue eyes and looked at the wet spot on the tip of her nose, smiling sleepily and yawning before sitting up in bed. She spotted the open window, and sliding onto the wood floor she walked toward it, looking out into the cityscape and the white Christmas Eve morning. Akira Matsume sighed contentedly as she rested her elbows on the windowsill, taking in the smells of winter air and baked goods with a smile of pleasure.
A couple of windows to the right of Akira's, the same wintry breeze quivered another set of windowpanes. The cream-colored curtains behind said window parted to reveal a Glaceon; her paws pushed insistently at the glass until she heard a small click as they opened, and she relished the crisp breeze that tickled her face as she, too, rested on the windowsill.
Sighing, Snow smiled out on the world below her, so new and unfamiliar to her eyes that she almost couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. She had seen small towns and villages before, but they were nothing compared to the massive buildings and noisy traffic of this city. Not to mention the massive house she was staying in now, with all of its comfort and vastness.
After Akira had invited Farlo, Jet, Garrett, Maston, Charlie, Luke, Blaze, Lovell, Dott, and her to her expansive mansion for the winter season, the mansion had become a hive of warmth and activity; various housemaids were busy setting up big rings of pine boughs; the floors were swept, the windows washed, adorned with dark red curtains tied back with white bows. Snow could hardly get used to a cityscape, let alone all of the hustle and bustle that was going around.
However, what Snow took to be an odd time to remodel the house was actually the excitement of the holiday rush; Christmas was right around the corner, but to Snow, it was just another normal—if not peculiar—wintry day in December.
After another moment of sitting by the window, Snow hopped off the sill to face the other Pokemon sleeping in her room. At the moment the plush room, full of pastel pillows shaped like various Pokemon, was housing Snow and a few unfamiliar Pokemon that belonged to Akira. One was a Bayleef that was currently sprawled on her back on a Blissey beanbag, the leaf on her head blowing up out of her face with every soft snore. The other was a peculiar cat-like Pokemon that Snow had never encountered before, sleeping soundly on a dark blue Pokemon bed in the corner. Snow had been shown to this room when they arrived their first night, and while Snow found it odd that she was in a separate room from the guys she'd been traveling with for a long time now, she politely obliged.
A cool breeze blew through the windows, showering the room in a sudden flurry of snowflakes. The Bayleef's snores skipped and faltered, her nose crinkling with discomfort and her eyes blinking open. She shook a few stray flakes off her muzzle, looking at the open window.
"Morning, Snow," The Bayleef yawned, her voice hoarse with sleep. She shivered, standing and shaking herself; the flowery green buds around her neck rustled, and the scent of persimmon and oak leaves wafted toward Snow, immediately giving her energy and zest. The Bayleef shivered, walking past Snow toward the window; however, instead of moving to close it like Snow had expected, she instead took a deep, contented breath.
"I love the smell of winter in the morning, don't you?" The Bayleef murmured wistfully, turning around and giving Snow a smile. Snow returned it, still feeling a little shy around the new Pokemon. The Bayleef's name was Sunny, which reflected her bright and optimistic personality.
"I don't," a voice grumbled behind them. Snow and Sunny turned around to see the cat-like Pokemon sitting up on her beanbag, rubbing her eyes. She smoothed down the golden, curling fur on the top of her head, her white tails twitching as she awakened. Her red irises were dull with sleep, and she pulsed a calming psychic aura. Akira had introduced her to Snow as a Pokemon called Meowstic, but that didn't make her any less unfamiliar-looking.
"Aw, come on, Eve." Sunny chided, bumping her hip playfully on the Meowstic's as she stumbled out of bed. "You don't like anything!" However, Sunny went back and closed the window anyway in consideration.
"That's not true," Eve countered, grasping her tails and looking down in embarrassment. "I like breakfast. That's something, isn't it?"
Sunny sighed, stretching and puffing out her chest. "Mhm! I guess so! Speaking of, I could go for some Christmas pancakes right about now. You girls think Akira and the others are awake yet?"
Eve shrugged but smiled, and Snow hesitated before replying, "Probably. Let's go check the boys' room." She ducked quickly past the two girls, hiding the concern furrowing her brow. There was that word again: 'Christmas'. It seemed to be popping up everywhere Snow went these days, either appearing on banners throughout the town or floating in music through the hallways. Unfortunately, each new emergence of the word sprouted a new worry seed in her chest; just what was this 'Christmas', anyway?
Shaking her thoughts away, Snow opened the door to their room and peered out into the hallway. The carpet was as dark a red as the drapes, and currently being tread upon by a few maids carrying fresh linens or cleaning supplies, getting ready for the day. On the other side of the hall, Snow saw that the door to the boys' room was wide open, with the familiar hulking shape of a Swampert and Buizel chatting in the hallway.
"Jet! Maston!" Snow called, bounding down the hall with Sunny and Eve at her heels. She weaved around the feet of a few maids, making them stumble with their bundles and glare at Snow with annoyance before moving on.
"Snow! Good morning." Maston rumbled warmly; unexpectedly, he gathered Snow up into a hug, and she let out a wheezing 'hello' as she was crushed in his embrace.
After a few seconds of crushing her windpipe, the Swampert released her as she tried to catch her breath. He let out a hearty laugh. "Ah, sorry Snow. Forget my own strength sometimes." Maston flexed his muscles vainly, and beside him Jet rolled his eyes.
"I think she was just winded from all the ugly on your face." Jet teased, punching Maston in the rubbery leg. His fist bounced off Maston's skin, and Maston ruffled the fur on Jet's head playfully in response.
"Hey, Jet, Maston." Sunny greeted them. She knocked heads with Jet and gave Maston a high five with the leaf on her head, making Snow smile. "You guys heading out for breakfast yet?"
"Actually, we were! That is, if Charlie would just get his lazy arse out of bed!" Jet shouted the last bit over his shoulder and into the bright room behind him, where Snow saw the brown bare feet of Charlie the Infernape hanging off the side of a yellow couch. Charlie started, blinking his eyes open and rubbing them as he sat up.
"It's about time you woke up!" Maston added as Charlie shambled off the couch and over toward the group at the door. "We're starving."
Charlie rubbed his eyes and frowned grumpily at Jet, but his eyes sparkled with amusement. "It's not my fault I was kept up all night to the sound of, 'Tell me another story! Get me a glass of water! I can't sleep!' from Jet's little momma's boy." Charlie raised his voice to a high, squeaky pitch and clasped his hands to his chin as he did his imitations, and Snow doubled over in laughter at the look on Jet's face in response to Charlie's ridicule. Garrett, the young Eevee that Jet had rescued in the valley, still clung to him like a child, and according to Charlie he must have been an irritating roommate for the past few nights.
"Oh, shut up. He can't help it his sleep pattern's all off, he's in a new environment!" Jet protested, crossing his arms indignantly. However, upon realizing how motherly he sounded, his face turned a deep shade of scarlet and he turned his back in embarrassment to the sounds of his friends' laughter that followed.
A rustling sound inside the room responded to the group's laughter, and a brown blur darted out of the room and slammed itself into Jet's stomach, knocking him over.
"Speak of the devil…" Maston said, watching as Jet was lost in a smother of Eevee fur on the ground.
"Good morning, Mommy!" Garrett squealed, nuzzling into Jet as the Buizel attempted to stand up.
"Get your paws off me, Garrett! I'm trying to make a point!" Jet spluttered, scraping cream-colored fur out of his mouth as Garrett hopped off of him and began bouncing around the group.
After another round of laughter, Luke the Lucario and Slash the Zoroark emerged from the room, both with half-smiles on their faces. Blaze, Dott, and Lovell stumbled out behind them, roughhousing as they usually did, and Snow gave them all warm greetings as the troupe headed for the breakfast hall.
"Hey, have you guys seen Farlo and Akira anywhere?" Snow asked, looking up and down the hallway as she walked. She couldn't quite remember where Akira's room was, even though it was relatively close to hers.
"Yeah, I saw them go down to the breakfast hall already," Lovell replied; his Luxio mane was messy with sleep, and Snow giggled at his failed attempts at fixing it.
"I'm so hungry I could eat a whole Camerupt!" Blaze exclaimed, his stomach growling in emphasis; the Flareon placed a paw on his stomach and groaned, pretending to faint in the middle of the hall. Dott, who had been walking behind Blaze, yelped with surprise and tripped over Blaze, both Spinda and Flareon tumbling together in a wrestling match.
"Come on guys, not in the hallway." Eve said quietly, coming to stand beside Snow as the others went ahead; she concentrated her psychic power and lifted the two off the ground in pink light, separating them and giving them equal smacks on the cheek with a psychic hand. "It took a lot of hard work to make these carpets clean without you guys tousling."
Snow sighed and watched as Blaze and Dott apologized before they dashed off to catch up with the group. "They're a handful sometimes, I'm afraid." Snow said to Eve, who was looking in front of her thoughtfully with her tails in her arms. Upon receiving no reply, Snow shrugged and raced to catch up with the group herself.
Sunny and Eve, although in the midst of all these visitors to their home, blended rather well with Snow and her friends, despite the little tousles here and there as just observed. Snow noticed how Sunny, Charlie, and Slash hit it off right away at the head of the group, swapping stories of battles and journeys and contemplating what was for breakfast; Jet hung back and waited for Eve to catch up, who was quiet and still wary of the group. Snow smiled as Jet spoke animatedly to her, obviously bragging about something or other, with Eve smiling shyly behind her tails.
The hallway opened up into a grand foyer, with sparkling white tiled floors and two light wooden staircases leading down on either side into the main room. A golden chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling, and a large pine tree stood decorated and shining in the corner of the room beside a white piano. The room was spacious enough to contain their whole troupe of rowdy Pokemon and then some, and Sunny took the lead down the right flight of stairs and into the hallway below the staircases toward the kitchen. Snow still felt intimidated by all of the largeness of the estate, but she was calmed by the smells of sweet bread and bacon as they entered the dining room.
The dining room was smaller than the foyer but contained a long dining room table, complete with a number of chairs. A separate, smaller table stood beside it, with many plush pillows surrounding its base and even miniature place settings; this table is the one the Pokemon headed towards, each of them taking a seat at their respective places but somewhat disregarding the silverware as they tucked into pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Snow's heart leapt at the sight of Farlo sitting at the head of the table; his creamy fur glowed with health and light, his eyes full of happiness and a sense of serenity Snow had never seen before.
"Snow! Everyone! Glad you guys finally rolled out of bed." Farlo teased, and everyone hollered their own greeting in between mouthfuls of food. After greetings were exchanged, Farlo stood and approached Snow, who was still standing at the edge of the dining room taking in the scene. They touched noses in greeting, Farlo giving Snow a glowing smile as they walked to the table together.
"Here, you can sit next to me." Farlo gestured with his tail to a seat on his right, where a pastel blue pillow sat. Snow smiled at him and sat down, looking at the other faces around the table and realizing with a rush of heat to her face how sloppily everyone ate their food.
"I hope we haven't been a bother to Akira," Snow said quietly to Farlo, leaning in to him to make sure she was heard over the chatter of the other Pokemon. "We're…well…we don't have the best manners, I'm sure."
Farlo waved his paw at her, shooing away her words. "It's fine, she understands. Plus, that's why we have people looking after us. Isn't that right, Charles?" Farlo winked at Snow as the graying butler, who had been standing over them all with a look of contempt, rolled his eyes and gave Farlo a smile.
"Anything I can do for you?" Charles said, bending down to speak to Farlo. On Farlo's other side sat Slash, who was checking his teeth in the back of a silver spoon. At the mention of assistance, he grinned widely and slapped Charles on the back with a paw, making the butler lurch forward and shaking his glasses askew.
"That's my man, Charles. Please bring extra syrup." Slash said, speaking perfect human English. Charles sighed and stood upright, no longer surprised with Slash's talking ability as he had already experienced it the first time Farlo and Slash had visited.
"Of course." Charles sighed, fixing his glasses and giving a small bow before exiting the dining room.
Slash winked across the table at Snow, his eyes flashing with mischief. "Gotta love the service here, eh, sweetheart?" Snow smiled, chuckling at the glare Farlo gave Slash for the comment, which clearly stated, no one gets to call her sweetheart without my say.
"I should hope the service is good," Charlie chimed in on Snow's right; he was sitting cross-legged and seemed to be the only one using silverware. Even though he was the only one with the thumbs to hold the fork and knife, it didn't make Snow any less surprised to see him using them. "I mean, what would Christmas Eve morning be without impeccable breakfast?"
"I remember some good Christmas breakfasts." Luke sighed thoughtfully beside Slash; he touched his paw to the bandanna over his right eye, the other twinkling with nostalgia. "Charlie, remember when you, me, and Riddle used to go to that park in the snow and throw snowballs at the café windows after Christmas brunch?"
Charlie laughed. "Yeah, that was great." He turned to speak to the rest of the table, who had stopped chatting to listen in. "See, our trainer Riddle was always buddy-buddy with the managers of the café after that, seeing as how she was their niece and all, but even though she was family we still got in trouble."
"Gods, doI have stories to tell about family." Maston thundered, his great chest heaving a heavy sigh of embarrassment. "One Christmas, my older brother put icicles in my bed at night, so that when I woke up and my bed was wet he could tell my parents I peed myself in the night and couldn't open presents."
"At least you got presents," Blaze grumbled, swallowing his last bite of pancake as the rest of the table roared with laughter at Maston's story. "Whenever the holidays rolled around at the Golden Gracidea camp, we would just have extra training sessions to keep our muscles warm. Our presents came from stealing them from humans and…" His voice trailed off as Charles the butler gave him a scrutinizing look, and Blaze cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Of course, we don't steal things anymore. We're on a different path now."
Snow listened as more Pokemon exchanged holiday stories, and the food on her plate grew colder and colder as her appetite waned with each word spoken. The words 'Christmas' and 'holidays' were being tossed back and forth at every turn, and all of the new information about traditions and food and gifts and family was giving her a headache.
After a particularly embarrassing story from Jet about his failed holiday prank on one of his sisters, Snow stood from the table and excused herself to go outside.
"Are you feeling okay, Snow? You've hardly touched your food." Farlo asked, his voice filled with concern.
"I just need some air." Snow said, feeling as if another minute in the stuffy room would make her physically melt.
Farlo stood from his seat, grabbing the attention of a few Pokemon. "I'll come with you."
Snow shook her head. "No, I'd like to be alone for a bit. Besides," she chuckled, trying to make her voice sound cheery and lighthearted, "you'd freeze! It's snowing Meowth and Snubbul out there."
Farlo sat back down, somewhat crestfallen but no longer worried. "All right. See you later, I guess."
Snow nodded in gratitude, bounding out of the dining hall and finding her way to the gardens in the backyard.
A fresh blanket of snow had fallen since Snow had last looked outside, and she sighed in contentment as the fresh powder soaked through her paws. She padded softly over the snow, wandering through the white hedge mazes and skeletal berry trees under the milky winter sun. She saw a few Piplup and Cubchoo sliding down an icy slide in one of the courtyard fountains, and a bundled up Leavanny sitting beneath a gazebo with a Grovyle, who was leaning back nonchalantly in his chair and chatting with her.
After a bit of walking, Snow found herself calming down as the sky grew slightly darker; a new round of snowfall began to dispel from the clouds, and Snow found a space on a snowy lawn beside a marble statue of a Gothitelle where she settled down to relax.
She hadn't realized how much she had craved alone time since she got to Akira's mansion until that moment. Sitting on the lawn, with nothing but the icy wind at her back, Snow felt the most relaxed than she had in months.
However, with the next gust of wind fluttered in all her recent worries about this Christmas holiday business. What was she going to do? She seemed to be the only Pokemon who didn't know what Christmas was.
All of Snow's memories of spending winter with her family weren't as happy as her friends'. With her three other Eevee siblings during her early days, winters were always the hardest; her mother being a Vaporeon and her father a Jolteon, neither of them were properly equipped for the weather and struggled to make ends meet during the hard months. As the eldest, it was up to Snow to try and provide for her family; to rise to the challenge of the harsh winters, Snow made it her goal to evolve into a capable Pokemon so that she could forage for food when her family couldn't.
Snow frowned at a smudge of green peeking out of the snow at her paws, and she pushed some of it aside to reveal a small flower; the petals were light pink and wilted, but its stem was green and strong. Captivated by its perseverance in the cold, Snow reached to touch the petals with her paw, but her icy aura—amplified by the weather—encased it in ice in the instance before she could touch it. Snow sighed mournfully and set her chin on her paws, staring at the now crystalline and dead flower before her.
The last night she had seen her family was the night she had set herself to evolve, when the Fights Group took her. She had been out training in the snowy hills of their mountain home, about to turn in for the night, when she heard the rustle of bushes behind her; when she turned around, it was to the sight of a cage coming down over her. She had screamed and kicked at the metal bars, but no matter what she did she couldn't break free.
Snow poked the crystallized flower in front of her, admiring how the feeble light reflected off its now multi-faceted surface. The flower inside was preserved, it seemed, its petals encased and unmoved in its icy prison.
She always wondered what had happened to her family that day. She had seen a second man, darkened in black winter clothes, carrying a tranquilizer gun as he approached Snow's family cornered in their cave when her captor caught up to him. She had watched her dad fight his hardest, trying to stun the man, but the man nipped him with a dart before he could do much damage. That was when Snow had felt her body begin to change, her legs growing longer and her body temperature dropping to below freezing; she wasn't quite sure what happened, but the next thing she knew she had broken out of her cage and knocked her captor over. However, just as she was about to sprint toward her mother and siblings in their cave, she felt the second man drop a bag over her head and pin her down, everything going black.
The snow was falling steadily now, the flakes piling gently on Snow's back like a soft blanket. After another moment, Snow stood and shook off her pelt; padding past the crystallized flower, Snow walked silently back up the snowy path toward the house, looking up at the snowflakes spiraling down from the clouds.
That winter was the first she had spent at the Fights Group; she had even earned her nickname, Snow, from the way she had carried a blizzard around her during her first week in captivity, still getting used to her evolved form and storming about her family. However, there was nothing she could have done about her situation, so she had ended up isolating herself in a self-created icy prison.
Snow glared at the sky, her eyes sparkling with determination. Well, this year, she wasn't going to cower in the snow any longer. She was going to find out what this Christmas business was, and she was going to make it the best holiday Farlo had ever seen. She wouldn't let anyone down like she had that winter day, and she certainly wasn't going to let the day pass her by without leaving her mark.
"All right, 'Christmas'," Snow murmured to herself, feeling heat rush up at her as she reentered the house, "I'm coming for you."
Once everyone had retired to their rooms after breakfast, Snow asked Eve and Sunny if they would go out to the city with her to help her figure out what Christmas was.
Sunny, who had been admiring her red and white scarf in the mirror, made a surprised look and looked back at Snow with wide eyes. "What? All this time and you've never known what Christmas was?"
Snow looked down at her paws in embarrassment, feeling her face grow warm. "W-Well, no…My family was never in a place to celebrate anything…"
Eve smiled at Snow, gesturing for Snow to sit beside her in a beanbag. Snow obliged, blinking at the Meowstic curiously. Eve's eyes twinkled. "Well, Christmas is a holiday some humans enjoy celebrating. Apparently, there was this baby who was born, and he was, like, the son of the human equivalent of Arceus, and he did all these miracle things in his life. Christmas is the holiday where they celebrate his birthday, you see?"
"No, no, no!" Sunny exclaimed, butting in between Eve and Snow on the beanbag and giving Eve a withering look. "Don't tell her the boring story." She turned to face Snow, a twinkle in her eyes. "Christmas is the holiday where a chubby man comes down human chimneys and leaves goodies for the good people and Pokemon, and leaves coal for the bad people and Pokemon. He has a Pokemon called Stantler that he rides around, and it takes him all over the world on Christmas Eve night spreading joy to the world!" Sunny panted, out of breath by the time she finished.
Snow blinked, her eyes furrowed in confusion. "So…this fat man…he is the baby?"
Sunny shook her head, laughing. "No, silly! He's Santa Clause! Duh!"
Eve sighed irritably, crossing her arms. "Sometimes, Sunny, you can be so uncultured in the ways of how history took place…"
"Oh, poo you." Sunny stuck her tongue out at Eve, who rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows it's all about the presents, anyway."
Snow stood, pacing the floor in front of the girls. "So…I should get presents for everyone on Christmas? That seems like a big task…"
Sunny paused a moment, thinking. "Well…you could do some sort of fancy trick? Make a cake or something?"
Snow thought a moment. A special trick…she looked out the window at the snow falling quietly outside, and suddenly an idea graced her mind, setting her thoughts on a wild spin. She felt a thrill of excitement, and the room dropped three degrees in the process.
"I've got it!" Snow exclaimed. She didn't remember the last time she felt so excited over something. "It's the perfect gift!" She looked to Sunny and Eve, who were smiling at her but were also shivering due to her sudden icy blast. A few snowflakes drifted through the air around her feet, where the wood floor was partially frozen over.
"Oops…" Snow grumbled, feeling embarrassed. "Sorry about that…"
"It's okay. What's this idea of yours?" Eve asked, blinking curiously at the Glaceon.
Snow smiled. "It's gonna be a little tricky, so I'm going to need you girls' help. Do you think you could do that for me?"
Sunny and Eve exchanged a look, and then both broke into wide grins and nodded vigorously. "We'll help out in any way we can!" Sunny cheered.
Snow smiled. "Then let's go to town, girls. We've got work to do!"
The fresh, icy wind breezed through the plaza streets, forcing passerby to bundle up in their coats as they browsed the shop windows for last-minute shopping. Sunny, Eve, and Snow, adorned in snowy weather gear, strode down the street, waving greetings to fellow Pokemon playing in the street and allowing children to pet them as they walked by. Snow took in as much information as she could, noting the wreaths and candy canes and jingling Christmas music at every storefront.
"What exactly are we looking for Snow?" Eve said, her voice muffled by the dark blue scarf draping her neck and shoulders. "We don't necessarily have means to buy anything for what you're planning."
Snow, unabashed by the weather, kept walking forward without glancing back as she replied. "I'm not really looking for things to be bought, per se. I'm looking for information." After a few more moments of searching, Snow spotted the store she was looking for. "This way!"
Darting across the street and weaving her way through the forest of legs around her, Snow slowed at the front of a bookstore, where a snow-covered sign reading, 'Tamara's Tavern of Timeless Tales' hung in the doorway. In the shop window stood stands of open books of fairy tales, along with little Pokemon plush toys wearing red hats with white furry trim.
Panting, Sunny and Eve scrambled behind her, looking at Snow's eyes dart back and forth over the items in the window. "What do you need with books?" Sunny said, her tone irritable.
Snow nodded to herself, seeming to not have heard what Sunny had said. "This is perfect. Come on, let's go inside." Snow, silent as her namesake, snuck in the doorway as a human left the store, propping the door open and waiting for Eve and Sunny to follow her inside. Exchanging excited looks, Sunny and Eve hurriedly followed her into the warm atmosphere of the store.
The store smelled of nutmeg and cinnamon, the bookshelves a dark glossy brown and containing volumes stacked as high as the ceiling. Snow began heading down the aisles, her eyes darting down the spines of the books as people gave her curious glances as she passed. Her eyes fell upon a book labeled, Holiday Fables by Helga Hasselhoff, and grabbing it delicately with her teeth she pulled it off the shelf and let it fall open in front of her.
"Easter…St. Patrick's Day…Thanksgiving…Chanukkah…aha!" Snow flipped the page to a picture of a pine tree decorated in colorful baubles, and her heart soared as she recognized it. "This is the same kind of tree that's in Akira's house! Let's see…a 'Christmas tree'. And these things…called 'ornaments'? People put them on the tree with decorative lights to make it look pretty after cutting it down. How bizarre; decorating the dead shell of a tree." Snow thought she must look silly talking to herself, but she pushed the thought aside.
"Um…Snow?" Eve said, her voice quiet and tentative. Eve glanced around at the people giving Snow dirty looks, as she had plopped down right in the middle of the aisle and started reading. "We should probably move to the Pokemon area or something to look at that…?"
Snow's eyes flew over the pages, absorbing as much information she could. "Let's see…I'll need something like that…and then…what the hell? 'Fruitcake'? That looks wholly unappetizing…"
Snow felt something wrap around her torso, and with a yelp she felt herself get squeezed and raised into the air. "Hey!" Snow exclaimed, looking down at Sunny who had her caught in a vine grip.
"Snow, calm down," Sunny said, her voice wavering with laughter. Eve grabbed the book off the ground and together her and Sunny carried Snow and the book over to a small group of cushions in the corner of the bookstore, where a few other Pokemon sat relaxing while their trainers browsed the store. As soon as all of them had settled into the cushions, Sunny continued, "We've still got time before you need to pull off your stunt. We can research together, okay?"
Snow took a deep breath and nodded, feeling her nerves calm down somewhat. "Yeah, okay. Sounds better."
"All right." Eve clapped her paws together, rubbing them. "Sunny, why don't you and I look for some decorating books while Snow does her research?"
Sunny nodded, and with another amused look at Snow poring over the book, she bounded after Eve into the aisles.
As the day wore on, more and more people began bustling through the store, and a few employees occasionally glanced over Snow's shoulder as they walked by, saw what she was 'reading', and chuckled, thinking that Snow was just a Pokemon interested in the pretty pictures.
However, what they didn't know is that Snow could most certainly read, and that she was ankle deep in what she deemed 'the Christmas spirit'. "Snowflakes…White Christmas…Angel Gabriel…the Three Wise Men…" Snow murmured to herself as she read. Who knew there was so much information regarding a single holiday! She licked the tip of her paw and turned the page, where the painted picture of a decorative box tied with ribbon greeted her.
Snow sat back, looking at the book and trying to wrap her head around the concept of this holiday. Eve, who was looking at a shelf of Delibird plush toys, saw Snow rubbing her eyes in exhaustion and walked over to check on her.
"How's it going over here? Did you find what you're looking for?" She asked, sitting beside Snow and looking at the picture in the book curiously.
Snow sighed, shaking her head. "I guess I can't really make much sense of the holiday traditions themselves…but I at least understand what it's about." Snow smiled at Eve, her eyes twinkling. "And I have enough information to make my gift to everyone."
"Great." Eve smiled back, although she wrung her paws nervously in her lap. "But…your plan…it's a little extravagant, from the way you described it. Are you sure you don't want to buy a gift or two, instead? Make them a fruitcake?"
Snow thought a moment, feeling doubt creep into her. Could she pull off what she wanted to do? Then, she remembered the crystallized flower in Akira's garden, and the glowing smile on Farlo's face when he talked endlessly about spending his first Christmas home with her.
"No. No fruitcake." Snow said, standing and giving Eve a determined smile. "I need to make this the best Christmas Farlo has ever had. He deserves it after all he's done, and I'm not going to let him down."
Eve opened her mouth to reply, but just then Sunny trotted up to them carrying a hat—a 'Santa hat', Snow recognized proudly—held aloft between her vines. She placed it carefully atop Snow's head, and Snow pushed the trim out of her eyes with a paw and gave Sunny a questioning look.
"Here! The store clerk over there told me to give this you." Snow looked over Sunny's shoulder, where a store clerk with short blond hair waved at her with a grin. "He said to tell you he admires your reading skills."
Snow blinked at Sunny, then a bursting bark of laughter poured out of her. As she caught her breath, she beamed at her new friends, feeling happier than she had been in a long time.
"Come on, let's get back to the house; it's getting late." Snow giggled. She returned the book to the shelf where she found it and began walking toward the door, where the blond clerk stood handing Christmas flyers to the people walking into the store.
Snow turned to look up at the man, who crouched down to meet her eyes.
"I hope you were satisfied with our collection today, miss." The clerk said, smiling with amusement.
Snow smiled in response, and she took a step back from him; holding out her paw in front of her, she blew a gust of snowy air over it, and a small ice heart formed perfectly sculpted in her paw.
The man blinked in surprise, adjusting the circular glasses on his nose and looking at Snow with wonder in his blue eyes and his mouth slightly agape. Snow held her paw out to him, and with delicate fingers the man took the heart from her paw and held it in the palm of his hand, where it shimmer and sparkled with reflective light on its multifaceted surface.
Pushing open the door with her head, Snow turned to look back at the man, who was smiling at her in awe. "Thanks for the hat." Snow said, speaking human English; she then pushed her way outside with Sunny and Eve bounding after her, all three of them running down the street and back home.
The man stood in the doorway of the bookstore, the heart still sitting cool in his open palm. He looked at it, smiled, and walked back inside, closing the door behind him.
*UPDATE: as of December 25th, 2013* - So, since it's Christmas Day, I haven't had a chance to work on the next chapter all too much. Instead of publishing it today like I promised, I'm going to publish it sometime in the next day or two. I'd rather take my time and write a wholesome, well-rounded chapter for all of you than rush the rest of it because of a due date.
Which means, Part 2 is coming soon!