Disclaimer: The Fire Emblem series elements (characters, settings, series, etc.) belong respectively to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. The only character I own for this fic is Galen Sage. My other original characters Fancy, Jibs and Zenner, and the invited original characters who appear in the original Fire Emblem Gx do not appear in this fic.

FIRE EMBLEM Gx - Winter Dragon and Christmastime
Chapter 2: Elincia's Christmas Invitation

You are cordially invited to attend this year's Round-the-World Christmas dinner with the Crimean Royal Family and Knights of Order. Come and enjoy an international feast imported from all over as we celebrate the world and the rest of our lives. Citizenry is also invited.

Yours Truly,

Elincia Rydell Crimea

Queen of Crimea

xXx

"So Eli, did you get your invite?" Lord Hector of Ostia asked his best friend Lord Eliwood of Pheraef as they were strolling down the immense castle hallways.

"What invite?" Eliwood asked.

"Why, the Christmas dinner at Melior Castle at Crimea of course." Hector replied excitedly, "The queen sent to the entire Lycian League invitation to her annual Christmas gala."

"You mean Castle Crimea?" Eliwood corrected Hector.

"Please." Hector said, not appreciating this comment.

"I wish I could but I can't. Too busy." Eliwood said.

"Busy?" Hector blinked, "Who the heck gets busy during the holidays?"

"Uh… everyone?"

Hector then stopped his paces to stare at his friend, "Eli," he began sincerely, "When was the last time we hung out?"

It took Eliwood a minute to respond, "I'm guessing last month?"

Hector raised an eyebrow at this comment. Eliwood smiled uncomfortably, feeling like being interrogated, "Two months at least." he said, "Three?"

Hector continued to stare at him. Eliwood's smile faded quick, "Four?"

Hector shook his head in disbelief. Eliwood finally gave up, "Dude! You gotta tell me! Six months? A YEAR?"

"Dude?" Hector gave him a questionable look.

Eliwood sighed, "Don't blame me, blame Galen. I don't even know what that word means."

"Eli, even if I tell you how long it has been since we haven't done something together, you won't believe me." Hector said, "But nevertheless, we've got to go to this party. Together. Hey, we could bring our kids with us. Maybe bring some of our loyal knights. They deserve to spend Christmas with us."

"You're right." Eliwood finally said, "Just the thrill of going to spend Christmas at another kingdom in Lycia is quite exhilarating, I must say."

Unknown to the two lords, Roy and Lilina overheard their conversation and both of them shared mixed feelings about it.

"Great. More Christmastime with Father. How fun." Roy said dully, "Worse part is, it's in Crimea."

"Roy, there's no problem hanging out with the ones you love on Christmastime. It's quite fun!" Lilina said.

"I know." Roy sighed before finally admitting, "It just that I wanted to take you on a magical carriage ride down Ilia's Frozen River for a winter picnic and ice-skating. I heard from the Lycian Quarterly that it's the best hotspot for the holidays this year."

"Aw…" Lilina felt moved at Roy's surprise, "A romantic winter soiree over a Christmas dinner at another kingdom? I like that. That's so sweet."

"Will you still like it? Hey, how about we leave our dads alone at the party and then we sneak out to Ilia for our time together?" Roy proposed with a smile.

"A little risky, but I would love that." Lilina replied.

xXx

Ike was running down a steep forest, dodging arrows and dribbling obstacles along the way, until a group of knights clad in dark armor surrounded him: two mounted knights, two axe-carrying knights and a sword-carrying knight.

He ran toward the sword-carrying knight who jumped out of the way the moment he swung his sword at him. Then by surprise the two axe-carrying knights took swings at him sideways with their axes. He back-flipped and the knights' axes landed on each other's helmet, gashing them.

Ike then glanced back at a mounted knight charging from behind with his lance. He turned around and blocked the attack with his sword. The mounted knight then lifted his horse up, aiming the lance directly toward Ike again. Ike blocked it again.

Then Ike felt something coming from behind. It was another arrow! He nimbly dodged the arrow and the arrow went right into the horse's knee causing it to cry in pain. Ike seized that chance to push the lance off the mounted knight's grasp and swung at the horse. The horse dodged and took off in fright, forcing the mounted knight to fall off.

Another mounted knight charged toward Ike from behind with his lance dragging on the soiled ground, causing a short sandstorm around Ike. Ike couldn't see and was coughing. In a split-second he saw that same lance traveling right toward him. He quickly missed the attack.

The sandstorm wasn't clearing off and Ike barely saw the axe-wielding knight landing his axe for his head. He quickly blocked with his sword and pushed the knight off him. The knight ran toward him again but Ike took a swing at him, knocking him backward.

The sword-wielding knight also came from above and took a swing at Ike, but Ike took a swing back and both swordfighters got their swords into a clinch. Ike finally pushed the sword-wielding knight off him then began to twirl in place, causing his sword to emit a radiant green glow before unleashing a crescent-shaped wind force that stroke his enemies and the forest in a giant blow.

The sandstorm quickly cleared up from that attack and Ike saw his enemies down on the ground, defeated.

"Are you done with your training?" A perturbed voice caught Ike and the others' attention. It was Rhys.

"If you are, then let me tend to your injuries. And can you make sure you keep the blood away from my sight?"

The knights removed their masks revealing their faces: Titania, Oscar, Boyd, Gatrie, and Mia. Shinon and Rolf jumped to solid ground from above the trees.

Boyd glared at Ike, "Dang, Ike! That move was cheating!"

"And you kinda damaged my helmet bad!" Gatrie said, while holding his head and examining his helmet for any dent.

"Sorry guys, I can't help it." Ike said, out of breath, "and it's not my fault. It's the sword."

"Nevertheless, great job today, Ike!" Titania complimented.

"Yeah, you are improving by the minute." Oscar said, "I'm impressed!"

"At least you went easy on me." Rolf said.

"Me too!" Mia winked at Ike.

"So what?" Shinon scoffed, "I went easy on him. That's why he's good at this." he then eyeballed Ike, "Wait till next training and I will do you good!"

"Wanna bet?" Ike grinned.

Just then Mist came in the scene waving a letter excitedly, "Guys! Guys! Listen to this! We got a letter from Queen Elincia!"

"Ooh! A mission?" Boyd sounded ecstatic, "I hope it's a mission!"

"Better. It's an official invitation to Crimea's Round-the-World Christmas dinner!" Mist exclaimed.

"The Christmas dinner?" Rolf was thrilled, "That's awesome! We've been wanting to go there for like a long time!"

The group immediately agreed, sharing their excitement for the invite. They never got invited to the Christmas dinner for some reasons unknown. Even when Greil was still living.

"It is better than a mission." Boyd said dreamily, "I could eat all the gingerbread cakes, candies, and drink all the eggnog in the world I want. And then check out the gifts… ooh! The gifts."

"Don't forget to bring your teeth after." Shinon mocked and Gatrie grinned, stifling his laughter. Boyd gave them an angry look.

"What do you say Ike?" Mist asked her brother.

"No."

His response didn't surprise the group but it got them completely bummed. Ike was never comfortable around the royals.

"Wh-why not?" Mist asked.

"It's not like we're holding anyone back." Rhys said.

"We're not royals, remember?" Ike reminded them, "We're mercenaries. And mercenaries can't be invited to Royal dinners, especially during holiday time. That's the lowest of low for all royals."

Mist then read Ike the last sentence, "Citizenry is also invited."

"How about first thing in the morning?" Ike freely said.

"Yes!" the group said in unison.

"Hey, since Elincia is a good friend of ours, how about we repay her by volunteering in the Royal kitchen?" Oscar proposed and immediately Boyd and Rolf agreed.

"But what if we make a mess?" Mia asked concerned.

"Mercenaries cooking?" Shinon cackled so hard he started crying, "Now that is a Christmas memory worth sharing! At the Losers' next seminar! Ha! Ha!"

xXx

"Your Highness!"

A shout echoed throughout the halls of Castle Altea. Marth, along with his fiancée Caeda, and his sister Ellis have gathered around the castle parks to enjoy a relaxing day in the sun when the shout troubled them.

"What is that?" Caeda asked.

"Sounds like Merric." Marth immediately recognized the voice.

On cue, the nobles saw Merric descending down the stairs in a hurry, but on his way down he fell down the stairs, tripped on a rock nearby and went flying to a fountain pool, with the water splashing hard on the nobles.

Merric quickly got out of the pool all wet, and revealed a soaked letter, "You got mail! It's from Crimea! The seal is on it!"

"Are you okay?" Marth asked him, concerned.

"You should be a little more careful, Merric!" Caeda complained.

"What does the letter speaks of?" Ellis asked.

"I don't know yet. I haven't opened it. Here." Merric handed the letter to Marth, "I hope I didn't ruin it."

Caeda smiled, "With an entrance like that, I'm sure you did."

Marth couldn't make out the writings on the wet paper. "Yep. You sure did." Marth confirmed.

"Here let me try something." Ellis said, taking the letter from Marth's hand and placed it on the table. She then waved her hand over the letter and it emitted a warm glow around it, drying up the paper and restoring the writings anew.

"Thanks, sister." Marth took the letter and read. Everyone else glanced over it.

"It says that Queen Elincia is inviting the entire Lycian League to a Christmas Dinner." Marth read.

"A Round-the-World Christmas Dinner." Ellis said.

"What does Round-the-World means?" Merric blinked.

"I'm thinking it's something like a worldwide gathering celebration or something." Caeda said, "One thing is for sure is that we aren't the only one invited. The citizenry is too."

"Hey, so which countries makes up the Lycian League?" Merric asked confusingly.

"Pherae, Ostia, Crimea, Daein, and of course Altea." Caeda said.

"Daein?" Merric exclaimed, "Great. Daein is going to ruin Christmas. Remember what they did to Crimea and our country?" he reminisced the invasion that had put the Lycian League at a disadvantage.

"Relax, it's Christmas." Marth reminded, "What's peace on Earth without Christmas?"

"It's not like anything bad is going to happen during the celebration." Caeda said.

xXx

A bat was seen riding the chilly winds of Daein toward a threatening cave right below its capital city of Nevassa. The bat carried a small letter with it as it reached a murky, green light-fainted, and retching space imbued with the foul odor of dead bodies and manure, where it saw its master, the sorcerer Nergal.

The bat dropped the letter onto Nergal's hand and Nergal opened the letter to read the Crimean Christmas invite.

"Ah, a Christmas dinner? With an international feast… imported from all over… in celebration of the world, our lives, our peace, our joy to our freaking priests!"

Nergal ruffled the paper in anger, threw it in the air and the paper burst in flames at will.

"I'll show them peace." Nergal approached a cauldron sitting in the middle of the stenchy room, growling. He waved his hand over the cauldron and it displayed a series of pictures describing cities in ruins and a large shadowy figure the shape of a dragon hovering above it.

"And it shall come to pass, that by the end of every 1000th year, a great calamity will befall upon our beloved world. Peace will be shattered. Joys will be woes. People will see no light from that day forward. Christmas Day. This Christmas marks the 1000th Christmas in this world. Oh wait, and wait until they get a hold of this Christmas present and then we'll see if this is going to be the best Christmas ever. Behold!"

He spread his fingers apart and the cauldron shot out a bright winter-colored smoke, and a brief dragon roar shook the chamber. Nergal enjoyed that cry. A baleful smile widely stretched out his face.

"The Winter Dragon."