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.

Author's Note:: With Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon now out in Europe, there has been a huge possibility of the game's characters' names and settings' names changed. (like Malik being Merric and so on and so forth) I will so forth change these names as well on this fanfic, as well as on Fire Emblem Gx.

FIRE EMBLEM Gx - Winter Dragon and Christmastime
Chapter 4: The Christmas Legend

The sun shone brightly on the later afternoon of Christmas Eve, and there were a lot people coming from all over, swarming the castle town of Melior as they were making their way to Castle Crimea gardens where the event was being hosted.

Eliwood was all fancied up in his white Marquess garments and saw many familiar faces and fresh new ones crowding the gardens and some anxiously waited for the foods to arrive.

"Lord Eliwood!" came a familiar voice. Eliwood turned to face Marth.

"It's great to see you, my friend." said Marth.

"Prince Marth." Eliwood greeted him, "It's great to see you too. How fares the kingdom?"

"Peaceable. More peaceable than before." replied Marth, "Hopefully this time there won't be any disturbance here in Lycia."

"Hopefully." Eliwood said, "I mean it's Christmas! What better way to celebrate peace on Earth than this holiday."

"True." Marth agreed.

Eliwood then looked around, "By the way, have you seen Ike?"

"Funny coincidence! I was just about to ask you the same question!" Marth said, "I haven't seen him since I got here."

***

The Royal Kitchen unlike the Castle Gardens was chaotic. Gatrie was batting hard on some dough, while Shinon stood there watching him suffer and sweat.

Mist was in charge of carrying the ingredients around. Some were quite heavy, she couldn't keep up with time. She almost spilled some on the floor but Soren cast a wind attack on it, raising it up.

The brothers Oscar, Boyd, and Rolf were dumping uncracked eggs and lots of milkshake on a blender, trying to make some more old-fashioned eggnog. They examined the buttons before Rolf pushed one of them, without closing the lid. The liquid splattered everywhere, and one huge chunk of it landed right on Mia's shirt and her honey-baked ham. Boyd slipped a finger on the liquid and tasted it. It was good. He tried to take some more from Mia's shirt but Mia slapped his hand away.

Titania and Rhys managed to cook the perfect turkey and were right about to put it on the table when Rhys tripped on his robe and pushed Titania. Titania quickly regained her balance. Then a dough from out of nowhere smacked her in the face and she let go of the turkey. The turkey fell right on Ike's head. Everyone in the kitchen panicked.

"Ike!"

"Hey, what's going on here? Why is everything dark?" Ike exclaimed.

"There's a turkey in your head!" Rolf cried out.

"Then get it off me!" Ike shouted, trying to pull the bird off his head.

The mercenaries, except Shinon who was laughing, were all trying to pull the turkey off Ike's head. After countless attempts they succeeded, but the turkey flew off their hands and landed right onto Elincia's arms, who was coming in the kitchen.

"Oh dear. The place is a mess." Elincia stared at the kitchen's condition.

"I swear I tried to keep everything under control!" Shinon lied.

"You didn't gave us any control? Heck, you didn't even help!" Gatrie complained.

"Oh, so you're calling me a liar?" Shinon provoked.

"Gatrie isn't calling you a liar." Mist added, "He's calling you a fraud! A defector! A fake!"

"Is that what it is?" Shinon snapped and the kitchen turned into a different kind of chaos. One that involved nasty fighting.

Elincia whistled, silencing the group.

"People! I have an entire country to feed before Christmas Day! So move it or get out of the kitchen!" Elincia sounded off before storming out of the kitchen.

All eyes turned to stare at Ike. Ike shrugged, "Hey don't look at me. I'm not the one who were so eager to come!"

"And we ain't the one who proposed to volunteer for this." Oscar countered.

"That was you."

"Oh."

The mercenaries heard a loud noise coming from a distance. They all looked outside to see what it was, so did the guests at the party. All heads at the castle turned their attention to a parade of Laguz waltzing down the capital city on their way to the party.

"Oh no! Sub-humans!" one citizen exclaimed.

"They're here to scare us to death! On Christmas Eve!" another citizen said.

The guests started panicking, but Elincia and the Royal Knights quickly eased their tension.

"People! Please relax! Apparently the Laguz are also coming to the capital to attend the dinner gala as well." Elincia said.

"But why would the Queen invite the Laguz?" someone else said, "It's supposed to be a Lycian gathering only!"

The guests quickly noticed one Beorc riding the back of King Tibarn: Galen. The guests looked surprised.

"It's the Baron Hero!" they declared.

Then murmurs started spreading around the castle. What was Galen thinking? Bringing Laguz off their dwelling place at this time of year when they're supposed to be there miserably celebrating the dreaded fright of Beorc that is Fear Day? Somehow he managed to pull through.

"What up, party people!" Galen greeted heartedly, "Don't be screaming in terror now, but the Laguz have agreed to leave Fear Day behind and celebrate Christmas with us!"

"We never agreed to leaving Fear Day behind!" Lethe said before she eyeballed a woman. Suddenly she went up on her face and hissed. The woman screamed in terror and fainted.

"Lethe, be nice!" Ranulf said, "They're fragile."

***

Both Tibarn and Naesala were both staring at a bowl of eggnog. Boyd came to see them. He was taking a break from all that kitchen duty.

"Hey guys! Surprised to see you!" Boyd said.

"What's this?" Naesala asked, pointing at the eggnog.

"Ehh, it's eggnog." Boyd told Naesala.

"Uch, that is sick!" Tibarn exclaimed, "Who drinks egg? People! We're Laguz for crying out loud! Respect our nature!"

"You haven't tasted it yet." Boyd said.

Tibarn and Naesala gave Boyd a cold look. One that says: "Did you not hear us?" Boyd quickly backed away.

"So, you're a Laguz?" Merric asked Lyre who was licking on a bottle of punch.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" Lyre said.

"I always thought Laguz were… well… well-mannered."

Lyre shot him a glare. Merric quickly said, "In a good way!"

Galen came into the scene, "How are we doing? Great? We bonding?"

Lyre smiled, "Oh, we're bonding all right." Lyre turned to leave but she suddenly jumped on Merric's face and yelped "Boo!"

Merric jumped in fear and accidentally cast a powerful Blizzard magic, freezing Lyre ice-cold. There was a brief silence as Galen and Merric both stared at the new ice sculpture.

"Well… guess I was wrong." Galen said before walking away. On the way he is stopped by Ilyana.

"Ah, Master Galen. You're here. Safe and sound." Ilyana said.

"Ah, Ilyana." Galen suddenly looked angry, "Yeah, I have a bone to pick with you and your fellow merchants for abandoning me in the woods two days ago."

"Yeah, before we get to that, I would like to say that I am happy to see that you are still living."

Galen raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"See, rumors have been spreading around Lycia that you became Laguz lunch since you never showed."

"Laguz Lunch?" Galen exclaimed, "I didn't became Laguz lunch!"

"Master Galen!" Muston's voice caught both Galen and Ilyana's attentions. Muston, Aimee, and the twins approached him.

"Since when did I became Laguz lunch?" Galen asked the merchants.

Muston faced Ilyana, "You told him?!"

"I couldn't help it!" Ilyana yelped, "Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret on an empty stomach?!"

On cue she spotted the table full of appetizers and snacks, and rushed for it. Aimee sighed before facing Galen, "Well, the rumors happened on the next day. Which is why people are surprised to see you here safe, sound and intact."

"But we've heard something else." Daniel said, "The rumors didn't come straight from the villagers. It turns out it came from the Legion of Beasts populace. The Laguz themselves."

"So, they're so eager to eat me that they're spreading out lies about it huh?" Galen narrowed his eyes at a couple of Laguz.

"Ah, Galen. Just the person I want to see." Hector came into the group, along with Eliwood.

"Yo, what's up, Marquesses?"

"Have you seen Roy and Lilina? They didn't show." Eliwood asked.

"Well, actually they did show, but they… disappeared." Hector said, "I shouldn't be worry since it's a big gala, but…"

Galen shrugged, "Haven't seen them since I got here."

Hector and Eliwood then faced the merchants for hopefully a positive response. They all shook their heads. The marquesses sighed.

"They gotta be here somewhere in the castle." Eliwood said.

"By the way, good to see you alive, sport." Hector patted Galen on the back before taking off with Eliwood.

Galen sighed, "Great. I feel like I just came back from the dead."

Meanwhile, Ike and Oscar who were off kitchen duty, spotted Kieran, Geoffrey, Lucia and Elincia reading a book by the fountain, and decided to join them.

"Hey guys!" Oscar greeted.

"Whatcha reading?" Ike asked.

"Only the greatest book in the entire Lycian League: 'Legends of Christmas'." Kieran said before facing Oscar, "And you're not getting it."

"It says here that Lord Kringle would travel the world to deliver gifts to humans and Laguz of all ages with just a wink of Christmas Magic, whilst riding the skies on a magical sleigh with wing-sporting reindeers." Lucia read.

"Wait, reindeers with wings?" Geoffrey blinked.

"You didn't know that?" Lucia looked surprised.

"I knew about flying reindeers, but I didn't know about how they flew."

Ike scoffed, "The Legend of Lord Kringle is preposterous. This is only believed by kids and kids only."

All surprised eyes turned on Ike, "Ike, how can you say that?" Elincia asked.

"Lord Kringle stops giving gifts to adults like us because we grow up too fast." he replied, "And if he truly gave us gifts, I would've have gotten that Alm Sword I wanted when I was sixteen."

"Maybe you were naughty." Kieran said, " 'Cuz on my sixteenth birthday, I got me a fine-looking expensive gauntlet."

"Oh Kieran, don't gloat." Oscar chortled, "You know full-well that you got that gauntlet from me."

Kieran stopped smiling. Typical of Oscar to reveal every truth to his lies.

Lucia then turned the page and suddenly her face went pale at this next picture on the page. "Oh no." she said, "I pray this day never happens in our world."

"What is it?" Ike asked.

"Only the most frightening Christmas legend that is yet to live," she replied, "The Winter Dragon."

"Oh no." Elincia felt her heart aching, "When I was only a child, Father would always tell me this story of how the Winter Dragon would someday be revived by Christmas Magic and would destroy every town and kingdom in the world around Christmas Eve. It would always scare the living out of me."

"What does it say?" Kieran asked.

Lucia read, "And it shall come to pass, that by the end of every 1000th year, a great calamity will befall on our beloved world. Peace will be shattered. Joys will be woes. People will see no light from that day forward. Christmas Day."

And then it shot through them like arrows. This year marked to 1000th year. And the 1000th Christmas Day was tomorrow. A pale silence fell in the group. It's only a matter of time till the Christmas dinner gala turns into a deserted place of despair and end by the Winter Dragon.

"Do you think the end of the world is near?" Ike broke the silence.

"I believe so, Lord Ike." Geoffrey responded.

Lucia closed the book and stood up, "Come on, we cannot linger on legends like this! Let just get on with the big night that we have and make it last and fun for all of us. What do you say?"

The little speech perked up the group.

"You're right!" Kieran replied, "No Winter Dragon's gonna ruin my appetite."

"I'm heading back to the kitchen! Come on, Ike!" Oscar took off in haste.

"Right behind ya."

Lucia and Geoffrey started to head out for the party as well. Kieran was long gone already.

"We should be leaving too, my Queen." Lucia said, "To greet some more people. I heard Galen is in town, still alive."

"I knew the whole Laguz thing was a rumor." Geoffrey laughed.

"Sure. I'll be right there." Elincia smiled, "You go on without me."

The duo left. Only Ike and Elincia remained.

"Elincia." Ike asked, "Is the whole Winter Dragon thing still bothering you?"

"What if this is it?" Elincia said, "What if the Winter Dragon brings judgment, powerful cruel judgment on this beloved world tonight?"

"Elincia." Ike began, "It's only a legend. There's no such thing as a Winter Dragon."

"But you believe in Lord Kringle when you were a kid. You received gifts from him."

"But do I still? Do you still? We're adults now. He only give gifts to kids. So if a legend like this is a lie, then no doubt the Winter Dragon one is a lie too."

That calmed Elincia down a bit, "You're right. I should forget about this whole thing and… well, head back to the party."

"And I should beheading back to the kitchen." Ike smiled, "My people are waiting. The foods are waiting."

Ike turned to leave when both Eliwood and Hector found the couple.

"Sorry to interrupt your chat guys, but have you seen Roy and Lilina?" Eliwood asked.

"Lord Roy and Lady Lilina are here?" Ike asked. The marquesses nodded.

Elincia shook her head, "We haven't seen them all night. Why? What's wrong?"

"Well… " Eliwood tried to speak, but Hector finished for him, "They disappeared. Poof. Nowhere to be found in the Castle Gardens."

"Have you checked the castle?" Elincia asked.

"Yes." Eliwood said before shaking his head, "Not there."

Elincia and Ike looked worried.

***

Roy and Lilina were somewhere by a large frozen river reclining besides a shady frozen tree, having their picnic and watching the sun slipping through the snowy blanket as night was coming.

"Oh, Roy." Lilina sighed, "This picnic is absolutely magical."

"I'm glad you're enjoying this." Roy smiled.

"Do you think people are getting worried about us not being at the dinner gala?" Lilina asked, feeling a knot on her stomach.

"I'm thinking they are getting worried. Since it's getting late." Roy said, "We should head back."

"Good idea."

Roy and Lilina gathered everything in the picnic as they were getting ready to head back, but then they stopped to stare at each other, and were just leaning toward each other for a kiss.

"Ah, young love. So young. So interesting."

The voice of Nergal caught the couple's attention by surprise. They saw him approaching and looking vile and pissed.

"Well…" he continued, "I spit on young love!"

"Who are you?" Lilina asked.

"Why, aren't you supposed to be at the gala?" Nergal asked.

"We ditched." Roy said, his hand rested on the hilt of his sword.

"Ah, ditchers." Nergal said, "Well, to you and all ditchers and meddling fools out there, here's what I want to give y'all for Christmas."

He snapped his fingers and on cue, an assassin appeared behind Roy and twisted his neck. Roy collapsed.

"Roy, no!" Lilina screamed. Then another assassin appeared behind Lilina and does the same thing to her. Lilina collapsed.

"Dispose of their bodies where I don't want to see. My ceremony shall start here and here only." Nergal ordered the two assassins and they disappeared with Roy and Lilina. Nergal approached the frozen river, raised his arms in the air, and chanted.

"O Come, All Ye Dreadful, Fearful and Grief-Stricken!"

The frozen river started shaking violently, then the entire land followed. Nergal continued his chant out loud.

"O Rise and Rise from your Slumber and Strike Judgment on the one and only World we Live in. Initialize it with Lycia!"

The frozen river cracked and exploded. And coming out of it was a large snake-like body covered in blue-arctic skin and full of frigid winds. The Winter Dragon had risen. It let out a massive roar as his gleaming golden eyes fixed on Nergal. Nergal smiled.