-December 15-
It's morning once again in the Winter Palace, and Alice is sleeping deeply in her grand bed, a smile on her face as she dreamed of flying in the clouds. Then she half-heard voices in the distance, and she dug deeper into her pillows, wanting to ignore the distant noise, in that state of sleep taking ahold...
She then felt something move into her bed, and she frowned slightly, the bare thought that one of the servants is daring to wake her up, and then she heard not a voice, but a symphony of clucking. She woke up from the grasp of sleep, blinking away the sleep dust, and then froze, her eyes widening in surprise.
Before her is three French hens, literally sitting on her bed, staring at her and making those clucking sounds, and Alice then did the only thing she could do in this situation. She screamed, the sound so loud and shrill, echoing through the huge bedroom and out into the corridors of the royal wing, catching the few servants and Alexei's attention, and bringing out the rest of the family from their rooms in their robes and such.
Alexei entered Alice's room, "There they are!", calling to the few servants who held nets in their hands, and the servants ran to catch the hens who avoided them expertly, flying and jumping all over the place with Alice shrieking and glaring at Alexei, "Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov, what is the meaning of this?!", getting covered in feathers.
Alexei looked abashed at his aunt's tone, clearly not in the mood to hear excuses, and Alexei gulped nervously, "I just wanted to hold one of them, and I guess I didn't close the cage door tightly enough when one of the maids surprised me, shouting at me and scaring them, causing them to escape and run through the Palace. We'd been searching for them for a hour at least before you revealed their location.", looking quite sheepish, not knowing that the rest of the family had filtered into the bedroom, closing the door behind them.
"You are supposed to stay out of the kitchens, Alexei!", reprimanded Nicholas, and Alexei grimaced softly as he faced his father, realizing that he has forgotten his father's orders from when Alice told about the flour incident.
Alexei bowed his head, "I forgot, Father. Please forgive me.". Nicholas sighed softly, "I understand it's Christmas, and I will give you a reprieve, but I believe you must ask your aunt to forgive you as she has been disrupted from her sleep first before all of us, thanks to those French hens.".
Alexei nodded humbly and looked over to look at Alice who was halfway removing feathers from her hair and face, and Alice raised an eyebrow, "Well, nephew?". Alexei bowed his head once again, speaking firmly yet softly, "I am very sorry, Aunt Alice. I didn't mean for all of this to happen, and I apologize for the intrusion.".
Alice sighed deeply, and looked over at the servants who held the French hens in their nets, "Take them back to the kitchens, and keep them there until Christmas Eve. And make sure to keep a constant watch for the prince in case if he forgets again.".
The servants bowed, "Yes, my lady. Yes, your highness.", leaving quickly with the royal family parting to let them through to the door, and Alice turned to face Alexei, "You are very lucky that it's almost Christmas. But you must keep a mind upon the understanding that my job as organizer is very important. IF you do something like this again, I will ground you to stay within your room, and I am sure Nicholas agrees with me.".
Nicholas nodded, "Of course, sister. So, keep that in mind, Alexei, understand?". Alexei nodded firmly, "I understand, sir.". No words was spoken for a few moments until a giggle sounded out, "First time I have seen see you covered in feathers, Alice.", revealing Alexandra in her dressing robe.
Alice blinked, then chuckled softly, "I look funny, don't I?", and as if in harmony, the family laughed together, giggling and snickering upon Alice's unfortunate yet hilarious look, and Alice joined in, knowing that Aurora would have teased her something fierce about this.
-December 16-
Another morning, another day closer to Christmas. Alice is sleeping quite deeply once more, huddled into a cocoon of warmth, dreaming of family. Then a knock pierced the air, waking Alice slightly, causing her to groan and only dig deeper into her sheets.
The sound of a door opening was heard, and footsteps tiptoed across the floor, and a voice spoke softly yet hastily, "Aunt Alice, wake up. Please wake up!", revealing Anastasia who's already dressed for the day, and Alice only muttered, "Five more minutes.".
Anastasia shook her head softly, and she climbed softly into the bed, shaking Alice's side and shoulder, "Aunt Alice, wake up! There's something you got to see!". Alice groaned lightly, blinked her eyes to look at Anastasia, "This better be important.".
Anastasia nodded, "It sure is, in the area of unusual! We got more bird guests in the ballroom!". Alice widened her eyes, realizing what Anastasia meant by that, "Did the eggs hatch?".
"Yeah, but it's the wrong species!", claimed Anastasia urgently. Alice blinked in confusion, "What in the world are you talking about?", borrowing the phrase that she heard from a servant a while ago.
Anastasia gestured with her head, "Come on, Aunt Alice, you'll see when we get there!", tugging the blankets off Alice who sighed and shook her head wearily, "Alright, alright, I am getting up, Ana.". After a while of dressing up for the day, the two ladies made it out of the royal wing, heading to the ballroom where the eleven Christmas Trees and the one pear tree resides for the season.
And as they walked down the stairway to the floor of the ballroom and through the open hallway of the trees, Alice finally sees what Anastasia is talking about. There, near the base of the pear tree, in the nest is four hatchlings chirping and thrilling.
Now, the partridge bird is brown, a common color for their species, and having hatchlings, you'd expect them to be fluffy tan-brownish and all of them being partridges, but right now, Alice is both disbelieving yet realizing when she sees the hatchlings.
The hatchlings aren't the color or species that Alice expected to see, but actually grayish-black, and looking like blackbirds if judging their body shape right. Blackbirds are a common bird species that lives in Russia, and they are quite the singers when they feel like it.
Alice exhaled softly in shock, "What in the name of the Lord?...", and Anastasia nodded, "I told you that it's unusual!". Alice muttered softly, "You were right to wake me up...This is crazy!", finally noticing the rest of the family nearby, looking at the hatchlings from a reasonable distance, not wanting to provoke the mother partridge bird who is apparently not caring about the fact that her babies are different.
Olga chuckled softly, "I think we're to have a rather peculiar Christmas this year.". Marie nodded in agreement at her oldest granddaughter's words, "I don't doubt that especially with everything that has been happening around here, counting this, ", gesturing to the nest of blackbird hatchlings.
Nicholas sighed softly, "Somehow I have the feeling that somebody's trying to play a joke with us.", and Alice blinked in surprise, remembering Aurora's occasional habit to pull jokes on family and friends, and she realized that somehow, Aurora's doing this, but perhaps it's because everyone has been thinking more and more of her every Christmas, especially Alice.
Alice wanted to voice her theory out loud to the family, but she recognized that it might make her look crazy...No, she'd better have it with just one person, and she thinks her mother might be the best choice to talk about it. Perhaps after breakfast when her mother is alone...
Anastasia spoke softly, "Well, you have to admit, the hatchlings sure look cute.", and Alice smiled warmly, looking at the blackbird hatchlings who is now being fed by their partridge mother. Little did they realize is that the hatchlings joined their mother into singing the song that she sang for the past couple nights, having high-pitched yet loud voices, unconsciously warning the Romanovs.