A Present for Falcon

"Hey, where is everyone? Not even my owner's up yet!" A Christmas Anubis was running around the christmas tree in excitement as the 6AM hour started creeping nearer.

He was in the largest, most central room of the Virtupet Space Station, which was decorated in true christmas style. There was sprigs of mistletoe over all of the entrances to the room, 6 wreaths, each decorated by a different Neopian citizen and presents, six to be exact, surrounding the large pine tree that threatened to touch the ceiling.

He barked as he heard the sound of hooves coming down a set of metallic stairs, a sound that excited him. "Yay! Yoleinan's awake!" In a snap, he rushed up to his owner, a green, female Ixi with a golden hoop in her left ear. She was surprised to see the doglike petpet jump up into her forehooves as she came into the room.

"Falcon! You're up pretty early!" She placed the little Anubis on the ground and got on all fours herself, so that he could get on her back instead.

"Why else would I be up early?! It's Christmas!!!" Yoleinan tapped a hoof at that little outburst. She didn't know how, but Falcon sure had a set of lungs that rivaled even the Monoceraptor on occasion.

"Falcon, do you REALLY want Uncle Sloth to wake up in a bad mood today?" Falcon whined slightly at this. He liked Dr. Sloth, because said doctor always treated him nicely.

"Alright, I'll be quiet...is that Karivanan I see?" She jumped off of Yoleinan's back and jump-tackled a female, red Lupe that was coming toward them from the same set of stairs Yoleinan had used. The two rolled down the stairs and landed at the bottom, where Yoleinan had to move out of the way to avoid being landed on.

"Falcon, you little blue Lupe! I just hope that didn't wake up all of the station!" Karivanan stood up on all fours and shook off the shock of the landing. She wore a blue, one-piece mechanics suit and wore gold bracelets around each of her legs. Falcon barked as he also shook off the shock. If you looked at him carefully, you really could mistake him for a small Lupe.

"That was fun! Up for Round 2?" Karivanan narrowed her eyes at Falcon.

"No...I think I sprained one of my legs..." Karivanan limped over to the tree and laid down, waiting for the others to come down the stairs. That when she noticed something different about the Christmas Anubis. "Hey, where's your scarf? You're not wearing it." Falcon lowered his head at the mention of his favorite scarf.

"I got too close to one of Uncle Sloth's machines. It got caught and was torn to shreds..." Yoleinan and Karivnan winced at this. Falcon had that scarf ever since he was painted in a Christmas color and had never taken it off since then, even if it was too hot. Having it taken away from him like that was like him losing the world.

"I'm certain Santa worked a little magic this Christmas just for you, I can promise you that." All three looked up toward the source of the voice to see Dr. Frank Sloth, fully awake and dressed in his normal atire. Falcon jumped up and down at the sight of him and jumped up into the doctor's arms.

"Yay, you're awake! Time to open the presents!" Dr. Sloth couldn't help but chuckle at the silly Anubis. He didn't know why, but he could never get mad at him. Then again, maybe it's because Falcon never judged him by his past.

"No, not yet, Falcon. You have to wait until the other are..."

"Spoke too soon, Dr. Sloth!!!" He turned around, Falcon still in his arms and saw a Dark Faerie and a purple Grundo standing at the top of the staircase. Dr. Sloth blushed at this sight. He just hated speaking too soon, like he had just now did.

"Okay, NOW it's present time...where's Tigravian? Or is that blue Kougra acting as DJ Prof. T again?" The Dark Faerie nodded at this.

"Yep, he's got Jet Set NeoRadio up and running for the day, so we're going to have to give him his present later." The female, purple Grundo jumped down from the top of the stairs and landed at the bottom elegantly, as perfectly as any cat-like Neopet would have made the jump.

"Are we going to open the presents or what?!" The Dark Faerie rolled her eyes at the sillyness that her Grundo was displaying.

"Meteoritan, could you wait until I get down?" With a flap of her wings, she floated toward where the tree was and landed beside where Karivanan laid. "Karivanan, what's wrong? You look like you sprained something." Karivanan nodded at this.

"I'll give you just one guess as to why my leg's sprained, Talen." Talen looked over toward the Anubis, who had just jumped out of Dr. Sloth's arms and started to run around the tree again.

"Present, present, present, present..." Falcon continued repeating the word 'present' as Meteoritan turned on a nearby radio and set it to a secret station.

"Yo, yo, yo, yo, YO!!! DJ Prof. T is back with a whole lot a Christmas cheer to spread on Jet Set NeoRadio, the only underground radio station set to please!!! Citizens of the Music Nation, circle around the radio, because it's time to par-TAY!!!" Christmas-themed music with an upbeat started playing over the radio, while everyone gathered around the tree.

Yoleinan was the first to open a present. When she opened it, she screamed in joy. "DRAIK PLUSHIE!!!!!!!!" Yoleinan hugged her new Pirate Draik Plushie tightly, growling at anyone who asked to even get a better look at it. Talk about a Draik obsession...

Meteoritan was next. She got a Balthazar Plushie, which she held onto tightly. "I got BALTHAZAR!!! YAY!!!" She LOVED Balthazar, no doubt about that!

Karivanan was next. She slurped as she picked up a juicy Silver Negg from out of the silver-wrapped pakage, which she had been craving since forever. "Ooh, yes...time to chow down and enjoy." Talen turned pale at the sight of the Negg.

"Just don't get that near me and we'll be fine..." Now was it Talen's fault she was fatally alergic to Silver Neggs?

Talen opened up her present next and gasped. It was some sort of golden potion in a container modeled after a Light Faerie. She looked up toward Dr. Sloth, who was smiling.

"Didn't you once tell me that you wish you could be human again?" Talen smiled and shed a tear in joy, before giving him a great big hug...well, as great as any Faerie could give.

"Thank you, Frank, for answering my wish." As they held onto each other, Karivanan cleared her throat.

"Do you think you two lovebirds could do that when you two are alone?" They slowly broke the embrace, blushing the whole time.

Now Dr. Sloth opened his present. It was a simple thing, a picture of the six in front of a fully awake Snowager, who had agreed to let them take their picture in his lair as long as he was in the picture, too.

"If I recall correctly, you also wished that you had some sort of family, Frank? Well, why not us?" Dr. Sloth shed a tear at this. Just less than three months ago, he had laughed at her for being turned into a Dark Faerie against her will by Jhudora and was a total jerk. But if anyone was here to witness what was happening her, they would have sworn he was some sort of imposter.

"Thank you, Talen...Falcon, are you going to open your present?" Falcon was looking up toward a small blue present on top of a green present taller than him.

"I can't reach it..." Talen giggled slightly as she placed Falcon's present in front of him.

"Here you go, Falcon. Open it." He grabbed onto the green ribbon and pulled it, which allowed the box to open up by itself, revealing what looked like...

"MY SCARF!!! MY SCARF'S FIXED!!!" He wrapped the red scarf around his neck, enjoying how fuzzy it was. "But how! It was beyond repair, and yet it looks brand new!" Like any dog-like petpet, he could tell between something that was brand new and something that he's had for a while. And this scarf was most definately his. Talen and Dr. Sloth winked at each other, unaware that an outside force was watching over them. It was Queen Fyora watching them through a Crystal Orb, smiling at the scene.

"And to think that this scene would have never been possible if it weren't for a certain Christmas Anubis."