Chapter 7: Before Toy Day

It was a beautiful winter morning in Triforce, there was a female deer with brown fur who was planning to camp in this island. When she looked around her surroundings, she saw a lot of snow covered the buildings, trees, and bushes. Then, she saw the decorated lights which they lit up only at nighttime. For some apparent reason, this somehow inspired her.

"Ah, it feels as though that I want to deliver the presents, just like Jingle, dearie..." the deer sighed, whose name was Fauna. "No matter what, I'm just going to follow my dreams and his footsteps as well!"

Meanwhile in the shadow realm, the four demons were searching for the next dreamer. Suddenly, Magnus caught an eye on one of the pictures and started to whistle.

"My, my, here's the beauty that I laid eyes on in few seconds ago," Magnus grinned. "I bet this deer will have a beautiful dream! Which means, her dream life force will belong to me!"

When the two female demons stared at the picture, they were less envy and more annoyed. It was a picture of the brown deer who was wearing a bohemian tunic dress.

"Oh, come on, Magnus, do you really think this deer is special to you?" Viridian asked abruptly.

"She's more like a-oh, I don't know, dull, I assume?" Dalilah suggested.

"Hey, you two can think of whatever you like, but I don't really care at all!" said Magnus angrily. "For now, I'm going to find that deer!"

"Okay, fine, have it your way..." Viridian shrugged, with an exasperated sigh.

Back in Triforce, Vicki and Robert were having a great time, building the snowman, just like good old times. They went to the museum and headed to the Roost upstairs. Once they greeted the old pigeon named Brewster, he served a cup of coffee each as usual.

"Thank you, Brewster!" said Vicki. "It's nice to have you in Triforce!"

"Yeah, who would've thought that Tom Nook and Blathers called him over?" Robert shrugged. "But at least, we've got to see Brewster again. I mean, it's been a while now, hasn't it?"

"Now that you mentioned it, it really was! Since Tom Nook and Blathers made an announcement not too long ago, the Roost made its grand opening!"

Brewster felt very proud after he listened to Vicki and Robert's support. When the duo finished their coffee, the pigeon took the empty cups from them and said quietly as always, "...Thank you." They immediately left the Roost and went outside once again. Suddenly, they ran into the twin brothers, Sammy and Jimmy.

"Hey there, lovey-dovey geeks, what's your hurry?" Sammy asked.

We would've asked you the same thing..." said Vicki abruptly.

"You answered us first since we asked you," Jimmy protested.

"Ugh, fine..." said Robert, rolling his eyes. "We were planning to go to, um, the Able Sisters' shop. So, where are you two going?"

"To the Roost, of course!" Sammy replied. "Now, get out of our way!"

"Yeah, get out of our way!" Jimmy repeated.

Vicki quickly moved away from the Slapjack twins as possible, but Robert got shoved by them while they were heading to the Roost. He rubbed his back when he was glaring daggers at them. Since Sammy and Jimmy were out of sight, Vicki and Robert were heading somewhere else. Instead of going to Able Sisters' shop, they were heading to the campsite to visit the camper.

"Say, Robert, why did you lie to Sammy and Jimmy that we're going to Able Sisters' shop?" Vicki asked quietly.

"I'm going to give you two reasons, Vicki," Robert explained. "One; not only we're meeting the camper, but we'll have to protect him or her from the evil forces. And two; we don't want our nosy neighbors, Sammy and Jimmy to discover our secret identities while protecting the camper and neighbors as well."

"That is definitely true alright! At least, it's a good thing those idiotic twins will never know that we're the Duo of Justice behind the scenes."

"Well, let's keep that one in mind between us. For now, Luna mentioned about the dreamer who dreams of 'following Jingle's footsteps'..."

"Huh, you don't say, do you?"

Vicki and Robert had arrived at the campsite to pay Fauna a visit. This time, Vicki entered the tent while Robert was on the lookout. She met the brown deer, Fauna and greeted her. Then, Vicki noticed that the deer was reading a book.

"Hey Fauna, what book are you reading?" Vicki asked.

"Oh, hi Vicki, I'm just reading a book called 'Jingle Is Coming To The Island,'" Fauna replied, showing the book cover to Vicki.

"Sounds like an interesting book for the season!"

"It sure is, dearie!"

While Robert was guarding the tent outside, he noticed that there's someone heading to the campsite. The boy had black hair, green eyes, brown coat, black pants, and black boots. The island representative didn't even recognize him at all. He didn't believe he just got off from the plane in Dodo Airlines, not even one second when the plane was still there idly. So, Robert decided to have a word with the mysterious guy when things were getting suspicious.

"Excuse me, may I ask you something?" Robert asked suspiciously, as he stopped the stranger's tracks.

"Sorry, Red, I don't have time for this!" said the boy arrogantly, as he pushed Robert away. But the island representative immediately grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't be such an ignorant! I am just asking you nicely!"

"As I said before, I don't have time to answer your dumb questions!"

Once the boy transformed into his true demonic self, he turned out to be Magnus in disguise. Robert widened his eyes in alarm, so the ox demon gave him a punch in the stomach and knocked him out by one of the palm trees. When the island representative was in the bad shape, Magnus continued walking to the campsite. Suddenly, the demon spotted Vicki who was peeking through the tent. As soon as he sniffed the scent, he started to grin when she was not alone. She immediately went back inside to protect Fauna before Magnus was approaching. He opened up the tent and found the human girl and the deer camper who was hiding behind her. He quickly grabbed and pulled Vicki's long green hair, which it made her scalp hurt a lot.

"Let go of my hair, you hideous monster!" Vicki cried, while putting her hands on her painful head.

"And this is what I'm planning to get rid of you first!" Magnus exclaimed, as he tossed Vicki out of the tent, like a doll.

Robert could barely stand up after he got punched by Magnus. When he suddenly heard a scream, he saw Vicki got thrown out by the ox demon. He quickly ran up to her while he was still in a big pain.

"V-Vicki, are you alright?" Robert asked, while he was moaning in pain.

"Y-Yeah, I'm alright..." Vicki answered, while she was massaging her head. "And what about you? Are you alright as well?"

"Y-Yes, I'll get the hang of it..."

Suddenly, Vicki and Robert heard Fauna screaming and saw the dark aurora appeared from the tent. They knew that something's going to happen next. So, they began their transformations since nobody's around. After the dynamic duo transformed, the nightmare monster appeared right before their eyes. But that's not all, Magnus showed up and got the hold of Fauna's dream life force.

"Ha ha ha! Well, well, look who finally showed up!" Magnus grinned. "If it isn't the duo of meddling kids, you two are about to get your tidings wrapped up by this greedy, frosty deer!"

"Dude, just so you know, we called ourselves the Duo of Justice," said Phantom Angel, reassuring Magnus. "I'm Phantom Angel, and this strong-willed knight is Masked Swordmaster."

"And I am Magnus if I haven't introduced myself yet...But anyways, my beloved monster, attack the dynamic duo now!"

The heartless nightmare deer gave out a loud screech and a roar before preparing for an attack. The dark, shady ornaments appeared in her hooves and threw them at the Duo of Justice. Phantom Angel and Masked Swordmaster quickly dodged the hazardous ornaments. Then, the nightmare monster summoned the medium-sized gift box. She threw it at the dynamic duo this instant. By the time the box was dropping closer, Masked Swordmaster quickly shoved Phantom Angel aside in order to save her life. When the box hit the ground, the shady lights appeared, wrapped him up, and electrocuted him. After he got zapped by the dangerous lights, he fainted and collapsed to the ground.

"Masked Swordmaster, are you okay?" Phantom Angel gasped, as she quickly approached to her ally after the lights disappeared.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be alright..." Masked Swordmaster replied weakly, as he started to cough.

"Oh, how very touching...not!" said Magnus mockingly. "Finish them off, my faithful monster!"

The nightmare monster roared in response as she delivered another gift box. This time, it's the rectangular-shaped box. When she was aiming at Phantom Angel, tears were streaming from the monstrous deer's eyes. This was the first time the angel witnessed it.

Is the monster...crying? Phantom Angel thought, as she blinked her eyes. Although, she is still Fauna behind this hideous monster form. But I will save her no matter what it takes!

The nightmare monster suddenly dropped the gift box if surrendered, and it contained the dark, prickly garland, which it began wrapping around herself. She felt the pain by the prickly garland and started to cry out loud. Magnus wasn't very happy about this after the monster failed to attack the Duo of Justice. Phantom Angel quickly used her dream rescue staff to turn Fauna back to her normal self. The ox demon was very furious when the angel saved the deer from the nightmare curse.

"Ugh, what insolence this turns out to be!" Magnus shouted. "But I'll have you know that I still have this deer's dream life force! And there's no way that you can stop me!"

"Just shut your mouth, you foolish demon!" Masked Swordmaster shouted, as he took out his sword. "You'll regret it once I'll slice you in half!"

"Sorry, I don't have time for this. Bye!"

Magnus vanished into thin air before Masked Swordmaster took him down. Phantom Angel looked down at Fauna, who was unconscious, and was curious of what just happened before she returned the deer back to normal. That was a mystery to her that she couldn't even figure it out.

The next day, Vicki was reading the book that Fauna recommended before she left the island. It was called "Jingle Is Coming To The Island," which it was a Toy Day story. She looked up at the snowy sky and waited for Jingle to show up at the night of Toy Day.