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[2021 BONUS] CANCEL CHRISTMAS!: EPISODE 8: THE GIFT OF CHANGE!

Ricven returned to the shop with the elves and sleigh with flawless performance. Stuffer guided the reindeer back in, slowing up the sleigh until it rested on the launch pad, and the reindeer were released from their harness. Ricven kick-flipped off of Aethra Exalt, the greatsword shrunk back into a crystal shard, where Ricven stuffed it into his Santa-themed trench coat.

"HO!" Santa happily bellowed with Carol peacefully hooked on his arm. They stood on the higher platform where several other reindeer rested. "Impeccable timing." He checked his intricate watch. "Earlier than anticipated, splendid!"

"Wanted to impress myself." Ricven ascended the steps to the platform where Santa and Carol awaited him. Stuffer and the two elves followed behind Ricven. "Figured I'd set a record to break the next time I'm needed to play Substitute Kringle."

"That being said, there's an important gift that awaits you back at Cruxhaven! An interesting gift, I might add."

Ricven gave Santa a blank face that animated into something oddly suspicious. Grin included. "Snuck a package under my nose, eh, big guy?"

"Oh, ho ho!" Santa chuckled. "It wasn't me. More like a shift in the fabrics of time and space itself spoke to me during your arrival and time delivering gifts across the lands. Your heroics know no bounds. A bit unorthodox here and there, extremely absurd in some methods, but the reward is well-deserved. Fitting for one such as yourself."

Ricven slightly turned his head and tilted it just a small inch. Santa's words struck a puzzled cord within. "Should I inquire further or just see for myself?"

Santa smiled warmly. His smile matched the warmth of Carol's telling smile as well. They were telling enough for those who knew what she and Santa knew. Completely strange towards Ricven, who found the whole secret funny.

"I believe it would be in the best of your interest to discover this gift for yourself, dear boy. Naughty you are, but the goodness of your heart works in the most mysterious of ways."

The whole time Ricven walked towards his portal, he quickly calculated Santa's SOS with the elves. To call it an SOS meant volumes. To chop it up in simplicity, here were Ricven's thoughts that wove their way into a conclusion while Santa wished him well:

Okay... Check it. I'm getting high with the pix gang while on hero vacation, and somewhere in the dimensions of time and space, a Santa needed my help. How or why is undetermined, but I heed the call, kick it with the Mrs. Fine Ass Carol, lead a suicide party of elves into the jaws of Christmas Mordor and sleighed the one of the Grand Prix of the mythic veils to rescue Santa from Kram-puss over a deal gone wrong for the greedy. It makes no sense how Santa couldn't clobber him with a mallet or something. The two can't do without the other—a balance in the mythic veils that correct themselves as long as their origins remain. Sort of like my roots. Sure, it took a few wars to bring us to a race of one, but planet Eirtha is now stronger and prouder than ever.

His thoughts were complete. Long they seemed. But as one believed time mattered in the case of Ricven, they would be faced with the raw ability of his quick thought process.

He thought the whole time Santa spoke and finished before Santa completed his last words.

"Ayo, time out for a bit." Ricven gestured a T with his hands as he whipped around to face the grinning Santa and gang. "Someone or something is up to this." He waived a funny finger of assumption in the midst of it. "I just know it."

Santa and Carol laughed. All the while, Stuffer and Tinsel, and Snickerdoodle quickly shoved the blabbering Ricven into his portal.

The three elves went off chattering and cracking jokes about their adventures with Ricven, knowing now that they would be the talk of the shop. Santa and Carol followed far behind them. Carol snuggled into Santa's big boy frame as they walked arm in arm.