I walked through the darkening white snow covered streets of the 18th floor. The sky was covered in layers of thick white clouds which were dropping a heavy load of snow which fell to the ground in the fashion of a snowstorm whipped up by the cold northern wind. As I walked through the town centre I saw that a huge fir tree, ornately decorated with everything possible and a large glowing and spinning golden star stood in the centre and lit up the town square with the thousands of multicoloured fairy lights which winded around the deep green pines of the tree. Around the town centre groups of celebrating people could be seen talking and laughing merrily while others were throwing snowballs around at each other playfully.
The first Christmas in Aincrad had been the complete opposite to what I was seeing now. People were in dark and sad moods of being away from their families and friends and in a completely different world compared to what they would usually expect at this time of year. There was no joy, no laughing, no singing and the snow just formed a reason for people to stay in their warm houses for the whole day. But now people had begun to get used to life, excepted it, found new friends, formed new families and most of all still had the will to get into the seasonal cheer and celebrate.
The houses I passed were adorned with decorations and all the lights were on and glowing through the drawn curtains of the white cottages. As I came up to Andrews house I looked into the horizon and saw the golden and orange glow of the sun behind the thick clouds low in the sky as it began to fall below the horizon. I walked up towards the thick wooden door as the icy snow crunched down beneath my feet leaving deep footprints behind me as I walked and knocked on the door loudly creating a loud booming noise which echoed through the stillness of the darkening night.
The door opened inwards to reveal Aurora standing there with her hair loose down her back and wearing simple white dress which fell down to below her knees and with the biggest smile I had ever seen on her. She looked at me and my clothing for the night, a black jacket now wet from snow, a short sleeved red t-shirt, black trousers and brown leather boots which were covered in snow. She looked back up at me and said "Always dressed for the occasion, aren't you Steven." She says sarcastically with a laugh. "Hang your jacket up and take your boots off before you make the whole place wet and cold with the snow out there." She says as I walk through the door and into the porch. She then promptly shuts the door, blocking the cold wind and snow which had been blowing in through the open door into the warm house. Once the door is closed I can hear the loud laughs and voices of three other people coming from the dining room down the hallway.
I quickly hang up my coat and take my boots off and begin to walk down the hallway as Aurora hurries off to the kitchen, obviously halfway through preparing food for the night. As I walk into the dining room I see the usual mahogany table surrounded by its oaken chairs, but tonight three of the chairs were currently occupied by both Andrews and Oliver who were all wearing casual clothes for the occasion. Andrew sees me walking into the room and with a smile says "Took your time getting here didn't you."
"Well I do live a couple floors away and anyway I wanted to finish some stuff up at my forge before coming down." I say indifferently, not really bothered about being the last to arrive. I sit down in one of the oak chairs and ask curiously. "So what have you three been talking about in my absence?"
"Oh just about random stuff we remember from the real world, nothing to important. But did you hear what happened last night with the event boss? As we haven't been able to find much out on it." Oliver asks me in interest.
"All I know about it is that the Holy Dragon Alliance and the Fuurinkazan guilds fought it out and that Kirito was able to solo the boss, apart from that I know nothing more. You'll have to ask Klein or Kirito about it as I doubt the papers will find out what actually happened." I say slowly as I lean back in my chair and begin to relax. As Oliver begins to open his mouth to continue talking the door from the kitchen abruptly burst open and Aurora rushed through it holding a massive silver platter which held a huge golden brown cooked turkey surrounded by crisped potatoes swimming in a dark brown gravy. When she reached the table Me and Oliver moved our chairs aside so that she could place the silver platter down gently in the middle of the table.
"WOAH! THAT LOOKS AMAZING!" Andrew B shouts after he had got over the initial shock of the exquisite food which now sat in front of us. From Andrew B's reaction I assumed that, like myself, he had never seen food such as this in the virtual world before and was once again completely immersed into the world we were now stuck inside of. He then looked up at Aurora and asked. "How long did that take?!"
"To catch it, about 10 minutes and to cook it properly, most of today." She says modestly knowing that her skill with foods far surpassed our skill combined. She then pulled out a chair next to Andrew and sat down next to him. She then brought out 5 plates with full sets of cutlery from her inventory and passed them round to us all. Andrew then looked at Aurora, who quickly nodded, and started carving the turkey and began passing bits round to everyone. After a minute or so our plates were full and the turkey was nearly down to the bone. Andrew placed down his carving knife and holding fork and looked at us, astonished that we hadn't already started stuffing our faces and said. "Well dig in then".
As we began to eat the Christmas dinner the sound of carol singing could be heard softly resonating from the town square around the town as the sun completely set below the cold horizon and the bright white moon rose from behind the clouds creating a soft white glow throughout the whole floor. The food itself, which had to be the best thing I had ever tasted in a virtual world, didn't take to long to finish but the conversations and jokes that passed across the table lasted for hours yet only seemed like minutes. In this time life was almost back to normal with no worries or sadness about the future within this virtual world so far away from our families and practically everyone we knew from the real world.
After the carols had faded away and the night had truly set in Oliver, who had obviously got into the Christmas spirit, brought out gifts for everyone. A rare full, quick heal crystal for Aurora, A shield spray for Andrew B, A pair of buffed, comfortable and practical gloves for Andrew and for me he heaved out a huge lump of pure white metal from his inventory and passed it over to me.
"Wow a lump of metal thanks." I say with a laugh. "But seriously what metal is it." I ask curiously not recognising what element it was.
"Palladium, took ages to get, but my forging skill is nowhere high enough to make anything with it so I thought you might be able to do something with it." He answers my question before receiving thanks from everyone for the gifts. He then goes on to say. "Well, has anyone else bothered with gifts, or am I not getting one." He says accusingly but not with much seriousness. He looks to both me and Andrew B but we shake our heads slowly, caught out by this. He then looks to Andrew.
Andrew awkwardly shuffles in his seat before taking a large velvet box from his inventory and saying while looking right into Aurora's eyes. "Here, I got this for you in thanks for being here to make this home less lonely and for helping me out on the field." He says with a slight blush as he gives the box to Aurora who looked completely taken by surprise at this. She opens the box to reveal a pure silver chain necklace with a small rain drop shaped ice crystal attached at the bottom. Upon seeing it she gives out a gasp of shock at its beauty before she places it around her neck and fastened it in place.
"Looks perfect on you." Andrew says with a shy smile. I roll my eyes knowing exactly where this is coming from but get surprised when Aurora looks down at the necklace, back up to Andrew and then leaning closer to hold him and kiss him for a very long time. Once she pulls away Andrew is completely flustered and has lost all of his composure which he had yet been able to keep. He looks across to us three and sees that we are all smiling and suppressing laughs. But Aurora just takes Andrew's hand tightly with a smile across her face.
I look out the window and see that it's pitch black darkness, I then open up my menu to see that its nearly One O'clock in the morning. I look up at the others and say. "Well, I better get moving so that I can get home for the night." I say before getting up from the table saying my farewells and walking to the door. I get my jacket and boots and open the door revealing the dark and cold blizzard that had whipped up during the last few hours and began to walk back to the floor portalon the other side of the now silent and sleeping town.