THE AMAZING DIGITAL SHORT STORIES!!!!

5. Christmas (part two)

[Caine POV]

This past week has been one of the best out of the entire year. Keeping everyone happy had never been so easy and relaxing. I truly grateful for the holiday season. 

During the past few days, the humans had eaten their body weight in sweets, sang until they lost their voices, decorated, told the story of Hannukah, filled each other's stockings, started a fire (it was Jax and it wasn't in the fire place), played in the snow, made paper snowflakes, and countless other festive activities. But tonight would be the best of them all. Christmas night!

The day had started with a ginormous breakfast buffet. Their adventure of the day was to save the elves from Santa's workshop. Jax 'helped' Ragatha 'distract' Santa while the group snuck the elves out of the ware house. (Jax tortured Santa) They came back excited for the gift exchange tonight.

On Pomni's request, I changer her color scheme to green and red. Ragatha was dressed in winter garments such as mittens, a beanie, and a scarf despite there being no temperature in the digital world. Gangle wore an elf hat with elf ears and elf shoes. Zooble was decorated like a Christmas tree with the help of the others. Kinger had been wearing Worm around like a scarf and had changed his robe color to red. It was nice to see the circus so invested in the holiday spirit. Even Jax wore a bow on his overalls. (the others made him)

And now it was time. Time for everyone to receive their gifts and stockings. Spirits were high.

"GATHER AROUND, HUMANS! IT'S TIME FOR THE GIFT EXCHANGE!", I called out. Everyone ran in my direction and took a seat in front of the fireplace. They looked like dogs right before they were going to be fed. I was doing my job of keeping them entertained well!

"Alright! Who wants to go first?", I asked. Ragatha's hand immediately shot into the air. She was typically the first to jump at opportunities. I gave the green light for her to get her gift from under the tree and hand it to her chosen friend.

"Well, this year I got Kinger for Secret Santa. Sooo . . . I hope you like it!", she said as she handed the wrapped gift to Kinger. He took it from her and opened it up. 

It was a small terrarium filled with digital critters moving out. Beetles, Leaf bugs, Lady bugs, Stick bugs, caterpillars, rolly pollys, and probably more. It was cute and shaped like a miniature castle. It was the perfect gift for Kinger. He squealed as his eyes became fixated on the bugs in their habitat. "Oh, Thank you, Ragatha. This is perfect!", he said before putting it aside. "I guess it's my turn.", he said.

He got up and got his gift from under the tree and walked over to Pomni who looked surprised. She took his gift and unwrapped it carefully. "Oh wow!", she said as pulled out a bag. It had cotton balls, bells, jacks, stars, hearts, and a few other shapes she could put on her hat or buttons to customize her outfit. She smiled and looked at what else he got her. A journal, pen/pencils, stickers, and a few other random items. Kinger spoke, "I got you a journal to write in. It helps a lot of newcomers process things. And I got you the rest because . . . well I don't remember why. I just thought you'd like them."

"Thank you so much, Kinger. I love it. I think I'll put on the stars right now!", she said was she replaced the buttons on her shirt with stars as well as her hat. She seemed like she really liked it.

"It's your turn now, Pomni! Don't be shy!", I said. She walked over to the tree and made her way towards Gangle. 

Gangle unwrapped it and started crying. "This is perfect, Pomni!", she sobbed out. She held an easel in her hands. Other items in the bask included, books, charcoal, pastels, fresh colored pencils, a paint set, canvases, and fun-shaped erasers. It was an amazing attempt for someone's first digital Christmas.