On the twelth day of Rise of Iron, my true love gave to me:

Twelve space cootie cases!

"I don't like it. I don't like it ONE BIT." Shiro-4 voiced, glareing at the the mites that buzzed around his head. Cayde-6 looked at them longingly.

"Wish I had cooties. It'd be exciting." Cayde said lazily.

"There is nothing 'exciting' about being followed around by a bunch of bugs!" the other hunter protested, swiping at the nanites. Cayde brought out a data pad, waving it.

"You clearly haven't seen this, then." he teased. he flicked it on, and Shiro leaned in to look at the feed. It was from the Reef.

It had been odd. For a whole day, no Guardian at all had visited the Reef. Nobody! Not even one!

And then...

Two whole fireteams had set down. One was primarily made up of Hunters, the other a mix of Titans and Warlocks.

Variks had been relaxing, enjoying a quiet game of Ki, an old Eliksni puzzle. Then screaming and hollering erupting outside his tent.

Grabbing his staff and one hand on his shock pistol,he had burst into the open...

To find Guardians chasing each other. A few of them had strange bug-like object buzzing around their heads. They were the ones doing the chasing. the ones being chased didn't have the buzzing things.

"COOTIES!" a few of them were screaming. he saw Petra nearby staring slack-jawed at the scene before her. What were cooties? Some kind of disease?

"Petra, what is happening? The Guardians have gone mad, yes? What are 'cooties'?" he questioned as he approached.

"I have no idea, Variks." she shook her head dumbfounded. An un-infected Warlock panted, running up to them, seeming to have overheard them.

"Cooties," he began, putting one arm around Petra's shoulders," are a make-believe head lice traditionally spread by girls. It's a very popular game on a school playground. But those yahoos *cough*Hunters*cough*, came into contact with something on mars, and now they've all got this stuff buzzing around their heads. They're kind of going crazy."

They watched as one of the Hunters Jumped up on his friend, treating him like a horse.

"RIDE, SPARKLEPONY MAXIMUS; RIDE!" he screamed. The other Hunter neighed and took off after a Warlock.

"Or maybe it's normal Hunter behavior; it's really hard to tell." the Warlock they were talking to corrected himself. One of the Hunters halted nearby, and pointed at him.

"WARLOOOCK!" he screamed. A Titan halted next to him, the mites buzzing around him. He grinned wickedly, and the Warlock frowned.

"Et tu, Carlton?" he whimpered.

"Sorry," the Titan shrugged, "that's just how cooties work, buddy."

Petra and Variks watched, along with several other Reef natives, as all twelve Guardians infected one another with space cooties.

Ha! Cooties.

RISE OF IRON IS SO BEUTIFUL! Raise thy hand if you climbed the giant cliff yet!

There's one last little short for me to write for this... featuring Skorri. Why shouldn't the battle bard sing our beautiful Iron Song?

Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned!

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