A/N: This was supposed to be posted yesterday but the doc manager thing was acting weird and said that this couldn't be converted into a document :T well here it is now along with chapter 27.
Rosy set her new fox plushie right next to her owl plushie. The owl was dark grey and the fox was a bright, magenta pink.
She sat down on her bed and opened her journal, writing in her secret code. The Jamaalidays were good yesterday, and I wish I could've gotten you something. But anyway, I hope the phantoms found our present. I could never thank them enough for the way they helped us that night in the blizzard.
As she closed the notebook, she heard Forest call her and Prancing down.
"Hey, you three up there," she called. "There's a random big fat box that says it's for you. We don't know what's inside it and the 'from' part of the tag is empty."
Rosy, Prancing, and Snickety rushed down the stairs and saw a large package that Medieval had put on the table.
"Says it's for you three," he said, "so I didn't open it. I'm not sure what whoever sent this was up to, though. Could've been the mysterious floating octopus you guys mentioned yesterday…" Then he laughed.
Rosy shrugged. "We'll see if we open it," she said. But she knew it was from the phantoms. She sure hoped they didn't just send the gifts from yesterday back - it was the same box and the same tag (only flipped over).
"What does the card say?" Prancing asked, detaching it from the bow.
"Read it," Forest said.
Prancing inhaled.
"'Thanks for the present,'" she read. "'And, well, helping others is our job now, I guess. We can't do anything else. We didn't want to mention who we were in here because we don't want anyone to know. But, after so many years of just standing in the corner, maybe we'll think of giving you Jammers a little surprise. We've sent something back to you. Happy Jamaalidays - but we think this present might be a little late…'"
There was silence for a few moments as Prancing set the card down.
"Well, that was, uh…" Medieval said, shrugging. "Why don't we see what's inside?"
Snickety slowly undid the ribbon that tied the box together. Rosy then lifted the top of the box off. She saw something inside - something like a Santa hat. When she reached a paw inside to touch it, it was soft. It felt like a plushie.
"What do we have here?" Medieval said.
Prancing pulled the soft dark item out of the box and her mouth fell open.
It was a huge phantom plushie with a Santa hat on it.
"Wait," Medieval said, slamming his paw on the table. "You said, an octopus on land and they wouldn't be accepted if they entered this area of Jamaa? A phantom helped you?"
Rosy froze. Dad can't find out. What can we say? Think now, Rosy… "No. I mean, an octopus has, um. Eight legs, right? A phantom doesn't have that many. Besides, why would phantoms be here anyway? They haven't been spotted for a really long time. Everyone knows that for a fact."
Medieval scowled. "Really? So a phantom - "
"Medieval, there was no phantom. Don't worry," Forest said, though Rosy could tell she as suspicious as well.
"Oh, okay, no phantoms. Totally," Medieval sighed. "Have fun with the plushie, I'm grabbin' one of those cookies now." He walked into the kitchen and sighed again. Rosy could hear him muttering to himself. "Phantoms, huh? They're going to be sorry they laid a hand on my children…"