A/N: (Yay! It's December! The chapters I post around this time will be mainly Christmas-related. I'm sorry if you don't celebrate Christmas…this isn't discriminatory against other holidays, anyway. So, I hope you'll keep reading no matter what you're doing this month!)

"Woohoo!" Della yells, running around. "Christmas time, Christmas time!"

Eliwood and Hector look at each other blankly. "…Christmas?"

CHAPTER TEN—Merry Christmas…?

"Let me get this straight…" said Legault, suddenly very very happy. "FREE…presents."

"You bet!" chirped Nino. "Isn't it wonderful? Everything is changing now…" she twirled around and around, filled with Christmas joy. "It's a time for giving…and caring…and peace for all mankind!"

Legault put his hand on her head to stop her from spinning. "Don't do that."

Nino sulked.

"Besides," Legault continued, "Who cares about all that stuff? All that matters is FREE PRESENTS!"

Matthew shrugged. "You can't argue with that logic."

"Oh, you guys are a couple of Grinches," Nino sniffed, walking from the room.

"Grinches…?" Legault and Matthew asked each other. They were still rather new to this whole "Christmas" thing. Della hadn't really been good with the details, she had just rushed in screaming "IT'S ADVENT!" and told Eliwood and Lyn a whole bunch of stuff about something called "the holidays". Eventually the lords had told everyone else what they knew.

"Wait," said Legault, "Nino said Christmas is about giving…does that mean we're going to have to buy presents for EVERYONE?"

"I don't think so. Even the lords don't have that kind of money. I guess you just give presents to your friends, and the people you love."

"Ah," said Legault. "In that case, I'm off to find Heath—"

Matthew grabbed Legault by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "Legault. No. Just no."

"Sheesh! Can't anyone take a joke?" Legault slipped away from Matthew's grasp and ended up by the door, something all thieves are good at. "Well, I have to go anyway. I've got things to steal…"

"What was that?" The ever-honest Eliwood poked his head into the door.

"Uh…I've Got Green Blue Teal," Legault lied smoothly. "It's the new song for our band." Legault waltzed out the door, singing, "Greeeen, the color of Nino's hair, bluuuueeee, the color of Hector's hair, Teeeeaaal, the color of……um……Crayola Crayons!" His voice faded away.

"That was…odd…" said Eliwood, moving on his way.

Lyn stood on a hill and looked off to the horizon, off to where she knew the Plains of Sacae were waiting for her. She missed them so much.

A few yards away, Sain and Kent were on guard duty. They too, were looking over in Lyn's direction…

"Talk to her," urged Sain.

"No!" cried Kent.

"Why not?"

"I can't just go up and talk to her!"

"Sure you can, you do it all the time! 'Lady Lyndis, I must make sure you're okay'!" Sain waved his hands in the air, imitating his partner.

"Not funny," Kent growled. "Stop it, Sain."

"Come on! Why won't you just talk to her?"

"It…it's not proper!"

"You know you want to…"

"No, I don't."

"You're lying…"

"So what?"

Sain sighed. "You really are hopeless, you know that? But it's okay…because this is the season for…?"

"This is the season for peace. If I'm hopeless, that's fine. I can't…she can't…it won't work."

"You moron, you missed my hint!"

"Is this not the season for peace?"

"Well…yeah, but it's the season for HOPE!"

"I thought I was hopeless."

"Time to change all that!"

"What?" Before Kent could react, Sain had kicked Chivalry (Kent's horse) and the two galloped away.

"We're going to find you some hope, man!"

"Wait! Sain! What about guard duty?"

"Oh man…" Wallace sighed, finding their post deserted. "This is the twenty-fourth time I've had to take over! Those two owe me BIG TIME."

"Young tactician?" Canas asked. Della swung down out of Crei.

"What's up, Canas?"

The shaman eyed Crei uneasily, then beckoned Della over to him. The two walked away from the tree.

"Young tactician," he whispered, "I must know…what do you get a tree for Christmas?"

"Ohmigosh!" Della gushed. "Are you serious? That's so sweet!"

"Not so loud! I want it to be a surprise."

Della nodded and lowered her voice. "That's awesome, Canas. But…honestly, I don't know what to give Crei. I wanted to get him something, too."

"Then we shall have to go present hunting together!"

"It shall be a Noble Quest!"

"Indeed!"

"Quite!"

The two set off arm in arm to go find Merlinus, both feeling very British.

"D-dame Vaida…" Merlinus stammered, "I don't have any silver spears left! The new shipment hasn't arrived yet!"

"I don't care if it's arrived or not!" Vaida screamed. "Go get me a silver spear!"

"Dame Vaida! I can't do that—there are none left!"

"Go get some, then!"

"The shipment is coming soon; can't you just wait until then?"

Just then Della and Canas showed up. Ignoring them, Vaida grabbed Merlinus by the collar and hoisted him off of the ground.

"Look here, merchant," she snarled, "You'd better pray that your shipment comes soon, or I'll make sure my old steel spear works just as well as a new silver one—by testing it on you!"

Merlinus gulped. Vaida shook him.

"Tell me! When does the shipment come?"

"The…the day after tomorrow, Dame Vaida!"

"AAAAAHHHH!" Della screamed upon hearing that, running around. "GLOBAL WARMING!"

Vaida was so confused she actually let go of Merlinus.

"Young tactician?" Canas called, "What are you doing?"

Too late. Della was running around in circles, flapping her arms and yelling things about something called a Greenhouse Effect.

Canas tried to stop her, and almost got run over for his efforts. "I say," he declared, adjusting his monocle, "We really do need to stop you from being so bored."

"I'm BORED," whined Ephidel.

"Great, you can clean up my football mess," said Nergal.

"WHAT?" Ephidel stared in shock as Nergal whipped out a football.

"It is my patented Football of Doom—even more powerful than my old Ping-Pong Ball of Doom! MUAHAHAHAHA!" Nergal laughed maniacally. Ephidel laughed maniacally too, because that's what good evil servants do—they just go with it. Or else. Except Ephidel went with the flow a little too long, and choked and fell over.

"Only Masters of Evil should attempt The Laugh," Nergal informed Ephidel as he stood back up.

"What are you talking about?" Ephidel cried. "I AM a Master of Evil! I am THE Master of Evil! I'm the evilest master that ever—ooh look, a chipmunk!" Ephidel scurried over to pick up and cuddle a cute, fluffy rodent that was wearing a red Santa hat.

"I don't know you," Nergal said quickly, turning to walk away.

"Come on, Master! Where's your Christmas spirit?"

"It DIED," Nergal retorted firmly. "I shot it. A lot."

"You're no fun," said Ephidel. Too late. Nergal was on a Monologue:

"And then I buried it. And then I dug it up, reincarnated it, shot it again, cloned it, killed the clones, burned it, and cremated its ashes. Just for good measure."

"You make me sad," said Ephidel.

"Good." Nergal expertly spiraled his Football of Doom off into the distance. For a while, all was silent.

Then a huge mushroom cloud billowed up over the horizon.

Ephidel caught Nergal's meaningful look. "Oh no, Master, not again…I just finished cleaning the Ping-Pong Ball of Doom mess!"

"Too bad."

Wailing like a little kid, Ephidel sulked off to go clear away some nuclear damage.

"Hehe," Nergal cackled. "Merry Christmas, loser."

"You know what I think?" asked Nino.

Jaffar said nothing.

"Oh, don't pretend like you don't care." Nino put her hands on her hips.

Jaffar said nothing.

"No…muffins are better than pancakes. But waffles DO beat them all, that's true….HEY!" Nino scowled. "You got me off topic. I was going to tell you what I thought!"

Jaffar looked straight ahead.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, mister. I was going to say…we need to give Nergal some Christmas spirit!"

Jaffar said nothing. Nino squealed and hugged him.

"Oh, I KNEW you'd think it was a good idea! Come on…let's go find him and spread some joy! Christmas is coming soon!"

The two left, passing Matthew on their way out.

Jaffar said nothing.

"Yeah, that's right, practice is at eight," said the thief. "I'm glad you asked—we had it rescheduled and Legault didn't know if you got the memo. See ya then, man." Matthew waved as Jaffar and Nino walked out the door.

"One red suit!" Della ordered Merlinus. The merchant looked baffled.

"A…a red suit?"

"Yeah! A big one for a fat guy! With white trim!"

"Erm…I don't have anything fitting that description…oh dear." Merlinus fussed and fretted, walking into the back of his caravan to look for something like that. He emerged with some red and white cloth.

"Um, we do have this, if it helps any."

Della shrugged. "It's better than nothing, eh, Canas?"

Canas looked confused. "I say, whatever is that cloth for?"

"For Hector!"

"I thought you said it was for a 'big fat guy'?" Canas felt strange, saying such outlandish slang words.

"Yup, that's Hector!" The tactician paused. "Uh…just don't tell him I said that. See, the plan is to get him to dress up like Santa Claus. But he won't do it if he knows that the job requires a fat guy." She turned to Merlinus. "Ok, well…I can't sew to save my life. Do you know anybody that can? Like Louise? Or Rebecca? Isadora, maybe?"

"Ooh! Ooh!" Merlinus squealed, raising his hand. "Pick me!"

Della raised an eyebrow. "You sew?"

"Lots and lots!" said Merlinus, jumping from foot to foot and clapping his hands. "It brings out my feminine side!"

"If you promise to never ever EVER say that again, I'll let you sew this." Della handed him the bundle of cloth.

"YAAAAY!" Merlinus cheered, running to the back of the caravan to commence his girly habits.

"He…frightens me," Canas admitted.

"Yeah, me too."

"Wait!" Canas frowned. "If Merlinus is busy…NOW what are we going to get Crei?"

"We're going to get him--" Della froze. "Uh…good question."

"Are we to go Nobly Questing again?"

"Yea verily!"

"Who are you getting Christmas presents for, Lucius?" asked Farina.

Lucius smiled. "All of my friends and family. I'll make sure to get you one too, Miss Farina."

"LUCIUS!" Raven yelled, stomping over to them. "What are you DOING?"

"Um…being nice to people?"

"That's not 'people'!" Raven pointed a finger at Farina. "That's my ARCH NEMESIS! You're fraternizing with the enemy, Lucius!"

"The…the enemy, my lord Raven?"

"YES!" Raven yelled. "How could you? I thought you were loyal!"

Farina put her hands on her hips. "I remember you, Raven. You're that jerk from Chapter Three!"

"That jerk from Chapter Three who can beat you to a pulp!" Raven retorted angrily, his hands clenched.

"The one who boasted so AFTER he was already pinned to a tree by MY spear!"

"Yeah, well—" Raven paused, unable to think up a retort.

"Can't we all just…get along?" Lucius asked quietly.

"Oh, go comb your hair or something," Raven snapped to him.

"Lord Raven!" Lucius cried, deeply hurt. He started to sniffle.

"Oh man," Raven groaned. "Come on, Lucius…"

Lucius' eyes got really big and shiny. His lower lip stuck out.

"Lucius, really…come on…you know I didn't mean that…"

Lucius was on the verge of bursting into tears.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! There, happy?"

"Yes!" Lucius chirped, all signs of sadness suddenly and randomly gone. "You're such a good friend!" He dove to fling his arms around Raven's shoulders, but Raven stopped him with one hand.

"No, Lucius. No. Never again." The mercenary turned his attention to Farina. "And YOU…as soon as Lucius isn't around to stop us from fighting, you are SO going down!"

"Bring it on, freak!" Farina screeched.

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"…Not fine…" Lucius whispered.

Raven whirled around. "Go home, Lucius. You LOSE. You're a LOSER. You LOST."

With a scream of rage, Della came hurtling out of nowhere, smacking Raven on the head and knocking him out.

"Don't you DARE diss Lucius," she seethed. Then she smiled pleasantly, waved to Farina, and ran away.

"Young tactician!" Canas huffed, chasing after her. "Wait for me!"

Lucius sighed sadly and went to go ask Serra to heal Raven.

Farina waited patiently until Lucius was out of sight.

Then she ran over to the fallen Raven and started kicking him.

Hmm…this chapter didn't seem to have the same tone as the last chapters. Perhaps that's just because I'm starting off another arc—you see, in the other chapters, even though it was random, I still had an idea of where I was going. Now I am completely and totally making things up as I go along. Hopefully I'll figure myself out soon…

And if you've seen the movie The Day After Tomorrow, you'll know why Della starts ranting about global warming. I BROKE THE DAM (hahaha, don't worry about it—that's an inside joke.)

Please remember to review, and thanks to everyone who reviewed last time!