"Ok, I'll be the first one." Dargon stated after no one spoke up right away. He stuck his hand in the bag Triad held wide open, and took a small slip, making sure no one saw the name. He glanced at the name on the paper carefully. It simply read "Triad". Dargon grimaced. He somehow got the unnerving feeling Triad was playing a joke on them. . . yet he saw him write everyone's name down differently. It was probably just dumb luck.

"Who's next?" Triad said.

"My turn!" Garet shouted eagerly. He quickly reached into the bag and pulled out a strip of paper. He looked at the paper as soon as he drew it, and his eyes went wide. "Umm, Triad. . . I drew myself. Now what?"

Triad looked to Sheba, who motioned for Garet to put his name back in the bag. The Mars Adept did so, and Triad shook up the bag again. Garet stuck in his hand again, and produced another slip of paper. He glanced at its text, which read "Garet." He burst out laughing, figuring how dumb that luck was.

"Okay, put it back in and we'll try again." Triad said. Garet did so, and he reached in again after Triad shook the bag once more. The Mars Adept pulled out another slip of paper, and hoping the third time was a charm, he read it. The paper's lead scribbled letters read: Garet.

"DO'H!" Garet exclaimed.

"Dammit, this I getting really old really fast!" Triad shouted. "Okay, this time set the damn paper on the table and draw again!" Garet stuck his hand back in the bag and withdrew it a moment later. "If it says 'Garet' one more time, I swear I'm going to start saying some four letter words to color up my dialogue!"

"Don't worry, it doesn't." Garet sighed, reading is slip. It read "Felix", so everything was going to be okay, and Triad wasn't about to use several inappropriate expletives. Triad sighed in relief and slipped Garet's name back into the bag.

"Okay, I guess I'll go now." Ivan stated. He reached in, and found the slip marked 'Dargon'. Simple enough.

"May I go now?" Mia asked, politely. Triad nodded, and Mia's hand slipped into the bag, and she produced a slip marked for Jenna.

"Your turn, Sheba." Triad stated. "Pick a good one."

"Certainly." She replied. Reaching in to the small sack, she secured the slip marked for Isaac. She smiled inwardly; she could really have some fun with this.

"Next?"

"I'll go now." Jenna replied. Jenna's hand slipped into the bag carefully and she produced a slip in her hand. Keeping it hidden, she read the name to herself. Garet. Quite ironic, she thought. She was going to have a good time messing with his mind this Christmas; her revenge for the fiasco two years before. . . She may have loved Garet, but that didn't stop him from being a target.

"Felix?"

"Sure." Felix sighed, quietly. He reached in, hoping to get his little sister; she was easy to buy for. He produced the Ivan slip, and he sighed in mild relief. Ivan was quiet, and he would be easy enough to buy for. The Venus Adept already had a good idea what to get the young Jupiter Adept.

"Isaac, you're the last one besides me." Triad stated.

"Right, right." Isaac fingered one of the remaining two strips and pulled it from the bag. He looked carefully at the name, and found what he hoped and expected. Mia. This was going to be a piece of cake. He couldn't help but smile at the irony of such a thing, but he decided to keep a poker face to avoid incriminating himself.

"All right, I have whoever's left." Triad removed the final slip from the bag and looked at it covertly. Sheba. No problem at all. "Well, that's everyone. Anything else we should know, Sheba?"

"Yes. You can share with others who you have, but I wouldn't recommend it. This is a perfect time to enact a policy in which you use caution in letting others know anything. If you see someone shopping, don't pester them if it can be avoided."

"Well, let's get ready to eat! Our food is coming!" Isaac pointed out.

"FOOD!" Garet shouted, obviously excited. He proceeded to bang his fork and knife on the table in anticipation. "FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!"

"Batten down the hatches. . . Garet's going to pig out." Jenna sighed.

***********************************

"I'm so stuffed. . ." Garet moaned, as he lay in the bed across from Isaac.

"If you hadn't eaten enough food to feed ten people, maybe you wouldn't be having indigestion, Garet!" Isaac replied. "If you stuck with your original three times ration, you'd be fine." The room was dark, so all they could make out of each other were silhouettes.

"Stop ridiculing me! Just because you can eat like a bird and survive doesn't mean you have the right to make fun of me!"

"Garet, I eat quite a bit, you know."

"Still, you eat like a bird!"

"Chicken or crow?"

"Dodo is more like it, Isaac."

"That's it!" Isaac shouted. "I'll make sure you get a nice big lump of coal in your stocking this year, Garet!"

"Good! That means I have something to burn!"

"Maybe just a rock then."

"Aww! I want to burn something!"

"Burn yourself!"

"Next time, I'll share a room with Triad! At least he knows when to shut up!"

Isaac burst out laughing. "No, he doesn't, Garet! He couldn't figure out when to shut up if his life depended on it."

"Damn! You're right again, Isaac." Garet replied, stifling his laughter. They were silent for a few moments before Garet continued. "Isaac. . . what are we going to do after we finish adventuring?"

"I don't know, Garet." Isaac answered after a long pause. "With Vale gone, there's no home for us to go back to. . . Mia and Dargon could always go back to Imil, while Ivan could go to Kalay, and Sheba back to Lalivero. I don't know where Triad would go, and you, me, Felix, and Jenna have nowhere to go."

"Isaac. . . you know darn well if Mia goes back to Imil, she'll drag you with her. You have a place to stay! Mia loves you so much it makes even my fat head spin."

"That takes some doing, doesn't it, Garet?"

"Indeed."

"Triad definitely won't want to go back to Tolbi. . . it seems like there are too many sour memories there for him. . . to be honest, he hasn't been quite the same since we went there on our way to Titanus."

"He's been more reserved, that's for sure. You don't see as much of him. I wonder what's been bothering him so much."

"He's never said anything to anyone." Isaac paused. "Well, you, Jenna, and Felix could always come to live in Imil."

"Yeah, right. I don't want snow up to my ass half the year around, Isaac. I hate the snow!"

"Garet, it's not that bad. . . you were there when it was pretty bad."

"Yeah, but the steaming blood from those centaur probably melted most of it!"

"Don't remind me." Isaac stated, thinking back to the centaur's siege of Imil. He, Dargon, Mia, and many of the inhabitants of Imil defended the town from the fortified walls using composite bows. The whole ordeal was a nightmare come to life, although in the end, it drew Isaac and Mia much closer than they were before, but at great cost. Isaac's mind wandered to the Mercury Adept he became so fond of.

"Hey! Quit zoning out on me, Isaac!"

"Huh?!"

"You were thinking about her again, weren't you?"

"She's always in my head, Isaac."

"You're hopeless, Isaac." Garet paused.

"Thinking about Jenna now, Garet?" Isaac prodded.

"Huh?! Sorry. . . Yes, I guess I was."

"I knew it. You're as hopeless as I am, Garet."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Oh wait, I know what you're doing! You're going to try to trick me! It ain't going to happen, Isaac!"

"Me? Trick you? Why would I do such a thing, Garet?"

"Because you're a sly and sneaky devil."

"Damn right I am!"

"Well, I'm going to turn in. . . we have some busy shopping days ahead of us now. . . it's only five days until Christmas, you know."

"Yeah, you're right. Good night, Garet."