"I can't wait, can you?" Rolf exclaimed.

"No! The suspense is killing me!" replied Mist.

Holidays. They were coming back around this year and Ike and his friends were caught in its sometimes devastating fever. They were all excited and full of energy, eager for the Holidays to arrive. This was the only time a year when they cold spend outrageous amounts of gold on small, meaningless gifts, and not get in trouble! However, every group contains at least one person who can't stand the Holidays…

Volke leaned against a wall, arms crossed over his chest. If you didn't know Volke better, you would have assumed he was sleeping. Soren was secluded in his dark room, studying some ancient tomes. Neither of them could stand the hustle and bustle that came with the Holidays. They didn't care about the special bonds that drew friends together, either. As far as they were concerned, worship was not something they knew how to do.

The only thing that Volke received through the gift giving Holidays were headaches. Besides, if he did participate in the gift giving ceremonies, he'd have to spend his precious, precious gold, and that was something he didn't know how to do. He'd feel foolish, celebrating and getting drunk amongst people he didn't entirely trust. He shuddered at the mere thought of getting drunk and poor!

He hated the Holidays, absolutely hated them! He wished they would just never happen, that they would somehow be canceled. It would save him time, gold, sleep, sanity and dignity, not to mention his pride would be intact and his ego wouldn't be bruised. That's when it hit him. An evil, diabolical idea began to sprout inside his cunning and devious mind…

Later that evening…

The sound of a quill scratching on paper filled the eerily quite room. It was incredibly dark, but not dark enough to prevent him from writing. Every once in a while, the figure shrouded in darkness would release a soft but evil laugh.

Suddenly and without warning, the door to this dark sanctuary was opened, letting a trail of light hit the person crouched over his desk. He hissed as the light hit his eyes. He turned to look at the winged figure standing in his doorway. He quickly hid the paper he was writing on with a different sheet. He turned to look at the bird man.

"Volke."

"Janaff."

Silence.

"Mist wants to know if you'll be dining with her and the rest of the company."

"No, they'll give me a headache."

Janaff walked slowly further into the room, causing Volke to crouch over his work. Janaff grinned evilly.

"What do you have there, Volke?"

"Nothing."

"If it was nothing, you'd let me see it."

"Not gonna happen. Go eat some food, or whatever it is you birds eat."

Janaff remained still, the evil grin still on his face. An uneasy feeling was awakened within Volke, and he didn't like it. Maybe it was because Janaff was standing so close to him.

"You're in my personal space. Don't stand so close to me."

Janaff shrugged and stepped back a few paces, still craning his neck to see what it was Volke was trying to hide. Volke leaned further over it.

"Go away, I said!"

"Bah. Your no fun." With that, Janaff turned on his heels and left. Volke sighed and tilted his chair back onto it's hind legs. A sudden voice threw him off balance and sent him tumbling. The sound of rustling wings filled his ears as Janaff looked at what it was on Volke's desk.

"Hey, is that a drawing of me? Wow, that's pretty good! Might wanna work on those wings a bit more, though."

"I said get out!!!"

Janaff laughed and left. Volke quickly got up and shut the door. He was immediately enveloped in darkness. He tried to make his way back to his desk, stumbling a few times. He finally found a candle and lit it. The flame gave off an eerie glow as Volke picked up his chair.

"Damned bird brain…"

He looked down at what Janaff had mentioned. In his made rush to hide his evil plans to ruin the Holidays, he had replaced it with a sketch of Janaff he had done one day when he was bored. Nothing special. He ran a hand through his thick brown hair and sighed, once again repeating:

"Damned bird brain…"

Elsewhere

Titania, Oscar and Rhys were bustling about trying to put up some decorations. They hung wreaths on the doors and hung holly on the corners. Rhys reached into the box and withdrew a sprig of mistletoe. He looked at it uncertainly, unsure of whether to put it up or not.

"Hey, Titania? Should we put this up?"

Titania glanced at briefly and hung a wreath on a door.

"Of course! It'll be interesting to see who gets snared into its trap."

Rhys again looked at it uncertainly and shrugged. He attempted to hang it on the ceiling using a pin to secure it.

"To…high…Can't reach!"

Oscar plucked it from his hand and hung it above their heads.

"There," he said, wiping his hands together. "All done."

At that moment, a tiny spark of deviousness came into Titania's mind. She let an evil smile come upon here face. Both Oscar and Rhys gulped.

"Aha! The first victims!" she pointed to Oscar and Rhys.

"W-what?!" stuttered Rhys.

"Hold on a minute, Titania. That's hardly fair." Oscar began to counter, trying to escape this evil predicament.

"Uh-uh, not hearing any of that. I'm not letting you to leave until you complete the ritual."

"Titania, you are pure evil. Evil. Very evil." Oscar sighed and glanced at Rhys whose already pale face had gotten paler.

She shrugged and motioned for them to continue.

"No."

"Fine." She got up behind Rhys, who by the time figured out her motivations couldn't do anything to prevent it. She pushed Rhys onto Oscar and their lips touched.

"Ha! That wasn't so bad, now was it?"

"Easy for you to say…" Oscar's face was redder than red and Rhys looked as if he were about to faint.

"Don't say that, you know you enjoyed it!"

Oscar looked away and continued decorating. He muttered silently:

"Pure evil…"

A few more victims later…

Volke was looking over his diabolical plans yet again, smirking to himself. Foolproof! Simply foolproof! There was no way this could go wrong! He laughed to himself, thinking about how wonderful it would be to get a good nights sleep. At that moment, a knock came upon his door. He slipped his plans under his mattress and hesitantly answered the door. Janaff stood there.

Volke's eyes narrowed.

"What do you want, feather head?"

"I thought I'd be nice and warn you. Someone's been going around hanging mistletoe in random places, trapping people and making them kiss."

"Then go away. I don't want to kiss you."

Janaff fluffed his feathers and sucked in some breath.

"Well…I don't want to kiss you either!" He turned and stormed away.

Not far away, evil eyes gleamed mischievously.

"Ha hah…my next targets have been found…" The figure laughed evilly before slowly dissipating into the darkness.

Volke closed his door when a soft thump made him do a double take. He re-opened his door, and seeing no one, closed it again. Again, a soft thump was made. He quickly opened the door, determined to catch the person behind this. A wreath fell off his door when he opened it so fast. He looked down at it and scoffed.

"Who the hell put that there?" he kicked it down the hallway and went back to devising his evil plans.