[Notes] That took long enough. Chapter three will be up in the next day or two, and it should be the best of all (it was actually where this all started). Beyond that, there isn't much to say, except that in case anyone is confused, all the new Djinn here are from Lost Age (I can't, of course, guarantee the names). You probably knew that anyway. And by the way, the Mimic was mine; Vilya just beat me to posting. So, read, hopefully enjoy, and above all (including reading) review! At the very least, tell me how to make it better.
Twelve Lords of Venus A-Leaping
Chapter Two Of A Golden Sun Christmas Story
"This just isn't working," said Jenna, staring at the strangely festive thing that was probably Picard. He had managed to get onto the roof without spilling the box of decorations, she gave him that. On the other hand, the way he had immediately slipped off the roof and into a snowdrift had been less elegant. The box had followed him quite quickly.
"Where's Sheba?" asked the probably-Picard. "She's better at this sort of thing."
"How should I know? Besides, Garet's missing too."
"Which is much more important," said Picard, sounding quite amused. "I think he and Mia went to check out that weird sound."
"It wasn't all that weird," said Jenna, giving in and helping Picard disentangle himself. "It sounded… just… like… Cannon. Oh no. Where are your Djinn?"
Picard concentrated for a moment. "They're up by the frozen waterfall. Have been for a while."
"Like… more or less the same direction as that sound that was so much like an explosion?" For a moment, Picard and Jenna stared at each other. Then they moved as one toward the cliff stairs, Picard still trailing ornaments. "We have to go stop the village from bursting into flames. Get those tables out here, will you?"
"Now?"
"Go for it."
Once the small fires that had started were quickly doused, no one had been permanently hurt in the clash, and most of the Adepts were left with a few minutes of peace.
"We should get down there and help with the food," said Garet, but Isaac grabbed the back of his tunic to keep the Mars Adept from going any further.
"Oh no you don't," said Isaac. "The last time you cooked, a Djinn was born. As helpful as Chili is, I think we can do without hordes of Mars Djinn running around. Is there something less likely to cause spontaneous-elemental-being-creation that we could do?"
"I don't know. Now that more people are up, the last decorations are practically -scratch that, these are Adepts, they are flying up, and all the things with food and tables are being handled," said Picard.
"So what do we do?" asked Mia.
"Something we haven't done in a long time, I think," said Felix, and the others looked at him. "Relax, celebrate, and enjoy the fact that we're alive."
Even from high above, the Adepts could tell there was something happening in the village plaza when they got back. Music had started up from somewhere, and most of the villagers -those not involved in heavy lifting at the moment- had formed a circle. In the middle, a couple of what Isaac found himself thinking of as 'kids' -even though they were only a couple of years younger than himself- were dancing enthusiastically.
"Hey, that's Geoff and Hilde," said Garet.
"Those two? Wouldn't have expected that," said Jenna. Mia and Picard were completely baffled.
"They've been flirting for about a decade," said Isaac, grinning. "Neither one ever seemed to notice that the other was interested. Completely over their heads, somehow. I guess one of them clued in." Picard, who had started to shake about four seconds after Isaac started speaking, burst out laughing.
"What?" asked all the others, but that just seemed to send him deeper into fits of laughter.
Eventually they calmed him down, and had no sooner reached the bottom of the cliff than Abraham, who had been unfortunate enough to think that volunteering to do all the baking for the celebration would be 'fun', ran up and pleaded for help.
"If more baking involved infernos, I might actually want to learn how. Come on, Garet, we get to save Christmas. Well, part of it," said Jenna, grabbing Garet and walking away with Abraham. "How flameproof is your kitchen? Never mind, we'll do it outside."
"Okay, I give up," said Isaac. "What were you laughing about?"
"The fact that you could have been talking about those two," replied Picard, nodding at the direction Garet and Jenna had gone. Isaac nodded and chuckled. "Or yourself, for that matter."
"Shut up," Isaac suggested, trying to avoid letting Mia see his face.
"He's got a point," said Flint from the top of Isaac's head.
"You too," Isaac added, pointing at the Djinni. But somewhere in the back of his mind his subconscious was lurking, and it always thought all the things Isaac didn't want to. It told him quite clearly, too.
She'll have to leave eventually, it said. You know that. This isn't her home.
Are you going to make me repeat myself again?
I'm just trying to point out that reality of the situation.
This isn't a time for reality. Christmas is about fantasy.
Which is no doubt why you're talking to a voice in your head that's supposed to be you anyway.
"I'm freezing," said Mia, shivering. "It's so windy here. Even Imil wasn't usually this cold."
"Well, there won't be any food for a while, and the stars go up at sunset, so why not join the others?" suggested Felix, jerking his head at the crowd. "Music and dancing sounds like a good way to stay warm to me."
"Yeah, yeah," said Isaac, rushing Felix off. "You're waiting for us to leave so you can go talk to Rica without anyone noticing."
"Sounds good to me. Go. Go!" said Picard, waving Isaac and Mia off toward the other villagers. "Kids these days." Felix nodded for a moment, then looked at Picard in exasperation.
"How old are you?"
"Never really bothered to count," Picard replied after a moment.
And suddenly Isaac found himself standing beside Mia at the edge of a twisting and twirling crowd of celebrating villagers. He took a couple of deep breaths, then focused for a moment, trying to gather the courage that all Venus Adepts were supposed to have.
Isaac turned to Mia. "Do you wa-AAAH!" he yelped as Mia grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him into the dance. In the safety of his head, Isaac sang a few rounds of the Hallelujah chorus.
It won't work forever.
But maybe for long enough, Isaac thought, and he surrendered to the dance.
"So what's the usual thing with presents here?" asked Picard, leaning against a fence and watching the dance with a sort of amused and gratified look.
"I thought you got rid of them so I could go and…" Felix trailed off.
"What? No. I just wanted to get to annoy you on a more personal level," said Picard. "You do do the thing with lighting all the Wreathes at the same time, right?"
"I can't remember a time when we've had enough Sol Wreathes to do anything like a tradition. Of course, I forgot a lot after the storm, and for three years there really wasn't much to say about Christmas…" Felix trailed off again, but Picard was smart enough to notice the difference. This wasn't stopping himself before he mentioned something that could be called (at least by non-Lemurians) embarrassing, this was the sound of someone walking down Memory Lane and getting mugged.
"Maybe- Felix, duck!" said Picard, effortlessly performing the difficult task of cutting himself off.
"What?" Felix muttered. "Why?" Then he vanished under a massive pile of snow.
"It works, me hearties!" exulted Hail. "Load the next shot!" Felix emerged from the new drift in time to see the large snow-contraption the Djinn had constructed at the edge of the cliff, along with some impressive mechanics (in the form of stacked logs that fell apart properly) to turn the arms into launching devices. At the moment they were loading a snowman.
"Fog, really, no more. And Hail, if one more piratical word escapes your mouth there will be-" there was a sound like thunk and the snowman was airborne "-oh, very well." Picard raised his arms. "Catch." A Psynergy hand appeared in midair and snatched the snowman, which stopped. "Force." Another Psynergy hand appeared, turning into a fist and crashing through the first hand, launching the snowman back at the sort of unsafe speed usually associated with Jupiter Adepts.
"Arr?" growled Hail uncertainly. There was a snowy explosion on the cliff top that went by completely unnoticed by the villagers. Picard studied the devastation, found it good, and then was immediately diverted by the smell of lunch emerging from several houses.
"Is that Imil chili?" he muttered, hopefully.
"Nope, just me," said the Mars Djinni at his feet. "But I think they'll be serving that at dinner. Nice shot, by the way."
"Anything warm sounds good to me," said Felix, trying to brush off the snow before it melted, and mostly failing. "Why do they keep going after me?"
"I don't know. Venus and Mercury aren't even opposing elements," said Picard. And then a flaming shape shot into the sky and exploded like a firework, raining sparks on the villagers. They turned to the circle of tables. Jenna was standing on top of the nearest one, her arms stretched wide to encompass the laden tables.
"Lunch is served," she declared, and barely managed to get off the table in time. In the rush, no one noticed the strange motions at the top of the cliff.
"And now?"
"Wait a few minutes. Then we really kick it in."
When lunch was over, the entire population of Vale nonchalantly excused themselves and headed home to get the presents out from wherever they had been hidden. Isaac and Garet found themselves sprinting, since their homes were at the top and back of Vale.
"So, how's it going with Mia?" asked Garet, energetic enough to run at full speed and still keep up a conversation. Isaac looked at his friend questioningly, but eventually relented.
"Just fine."
"You know she's going to leave eventually, right? In the new year, I'll bet." Isaac said nothing. "So, know how you're going to keep her here?"
Isaac was surprised, but realised that he wasn't exactly subtle in the way he acted. "I guess it's pretty simple. I need to convince her that I love her." They ran in silence for a bit.
"You know, I might not be the brightest of the group, and I might be totally lost with Jenna, but I can tell you this: she knows you love her, Isaac. What you need to do is convince her that she needs to stay. That's harder. Vale isn't her home." Isaac veered off to the right and dashed through the front door, while Garet charged on, kicking up a cloud of snow.
After retrieving the gifts, Isaac waited outside Garet's house. There seemed to be some activity inside; figures kept running past the windows. Eventually the door burst open, and a large wrapped box shot past, running on four legs. Garet emerged just after it, but couldn't move nearly as fast in the deep snow.
"Aaron is going to pay for this!" he growled.
"What the heck was that?" asked Isaac, who had jumped aside to avoid the thing.
"The little punk gift-wrapped a Mimic!" Hearing no response, he looked at Isaac, who was sprawled back in the snow, laughing too hard to draw breath or make sound. "Be serious, Isaac. This thing could cause trouble!"
"Oh, come on," said Isaac, pulling himself up. "It's Christmas Eve."
"That's why I'm worried."
"You're starting to sound like Picard."
But when they returned to the plaza, Garet's demeanour would have seemed more likely on Jupiter Adept- considering their power to see the future. At the chaos that lay before them, Isaac was at a loss for words. Garet wasn't quite so lucky.
"What the hell is going on?!" he blurted.
It was like a festive riot. Mostly dancing, though somewhat competitive or downright aggressive, but a small food fight had also erupted in the northwest corner, and a couple of Adepts were running around throwing attack Psynergy at each other. As they ran past, Isaac heard "Insult my soup, will you?" "It wasn't an insult! You said it was a hundred-year-old delicacy!" "And you said that was what it tasted like! Flare!" "AAAGH!"
"That is so not in the spirit of the season," said Isaac, shaking his head. His friend ignored him.
Garet took a couple of steps forward, then hesitated before dashing over to the top of a tree that reached up past the cliff's edge. He started to climb. Isaac ran over and grabbed his friend's thick tunic.
"What are you doing?" he demanded. Garet paused.
"I have no idea."
"Okay, what were you going to do?"
"I think I was going to climb this tree and shout that I… Never mind. That's weird."
"Yeah," said Isaac. "Something is definitely… oh, no," he gasped, a figure in the crowd catching his eye. Isaac dashed down the stairs, muttering "Why me why me why me?" Garet watched him in confusion until the gift on legs shot past at high speed. He rushed after it.
"Come on, mom, get down," said Isaac. "Mom, really, stop dancing and get off the table. Ow!" This last exclamation was due to the way a random kick in the Highland dance Dora was doing had clipped him along the ear. "Where did you get those socks, anyway? I thought I hid those."
"Hey, Felix," said Jenna. "Dora found your-"
"Shutup," he hissed, quietly. "Picard, duck." The Lemurian did so, and a rogue fireball sailed over him. He straightened up and sighed.
"I knew it. Balance Day."
"What?" asked Felix, on the lookout for more random attacks.
"Let's get away from the chaos for a moment, shall we?" suggested Picard. He gathered the others and made a dash for safety. When they were out of range of the shouts and wayward Psynergy, he continued. "Look, Christmas is a great day, right?" The others nodded, as though someone had asked them if the ocean was damp. "Well, Lemurians believe that everything has to balance out. If something bad happens, something good has to happen, somewhere or when else. So if there's a whole good day-"
"Then it has to be balanced out by a bad day," said Jenna, sighing.
"In short, yes. Usually the day before," Picard added.
"So you think it's actually happening? That's a… bit…" Garet trailed off as he saw the Mimic dash past again, hit a tree, shake it head clear, and keep on charging. He ran after it with a shout, and Isaac followed.
"I think that goes in the 'evidence' pile," said Mia.
"Where's Ivan? I haven't seen him all day," said Jenna.
"Where's Sheba?" said Felix, in the voice of one throwing another question onto the pile. He paused and looked at his sister. She looked at him.
"No," they said as one.
"I wonder which pile that would go in," said Picard, thoughtfully. Then a snowdrift jumped on him. A moment or two later it burst apart, revealing the Mercury Adept looking very not amused. "All right, which one of you was that?"
"Not me," said Mia, but Picard wasn't listening to her. He was vengefully scanning the snow around them, searching for something.
"Hail?" he asked, in a deathly tone. Nothing happened. Apparently, to his view, something twitched, because Picard then leapt to his right, as through he was tackling something. He rose again a moment later, clutching something victoriously. Brushing it off, Picard found himself not holding the Mercury Djinni he expected, but a carrot.
"What?" And then a nearby stick stood on its end, twigs grasping the carrot. Holding on firmly, it then fell over again and started wriggling away under the snow, like a bad wood carving of a worm.
"That's just so far from right," said Mia, drifting somewhere between shocked silence and just plain shocked. The arm emerged from below again, stabbed the carrot point down, and started gathering snow. The Adepts watched, without even twitching, as it rolled two large snowballs. These were stacked, and into the upper one it placed the carrot and two stones. The arm stabbed an end of itself into the lower ball, grabbed another stick, and attached it to the other side.
"Did we just watch a snowman put itself together?" said Jenna, like she was trying to decide whether or not to be sick. It was just snow and stones, but there was a sort of organic quality to the process that defied description, and Jenna didn't like it any more than she would have wanted to watch a person put themselves together.
"Right," said Felix. "Jenna, Mia, you two go tell the elders that something weird is going on. Picard, we're following that thing." Already the snowman was moving away at a surprising speed, up the slopes of Vale. They followed. Jenna and Mia started back toward the chaos.
"I think it's wearing out!" shouted Garet as he ran alongside Isaac after the wrapped monster. They had chased it up past Kraden's house, over a couple of bridges, and back down to the plaza. Currently it was skirting the edge of the celebration quite quickly, coming back around toward the cliff.
"Keep it from going left!" called Isaac. Garet moved to block its escape, and Isaac flung Clay Spires at it. The Mimic dodged the stalactites and, seeing no other solution, barrelled straight on into the cliff face. What surprised Isaac wasn't that his plan had worked, it was the way the thing had vanished into the snow and apparently kept going. There was now a hole left where it had struck.
"Cliff caves!" said Garet, slapping his forehead. "Let's hunt that thing down before it causes any more havoc." He ventured into the shadow. Isaac followed, but was surprised to find that the light faded and then quickly grew brighter again as he entered the cave.
"What?" said Garet up ahead. Isaac caught up with him, and really hoped he misunderstood what he saw.