Holiday Short Stories

A Valiant Thanksgiving 2017

"And then the defense tries to stop the other team from getting a touchdown," Jace finished explaining.

Jared, Shinji, Mythix, Peyrce, Aidan, Keizo, Skull, Ronak, and Kanan all stared at him, some - like Peyrce - with blank looks and others - like Mythix, Skull, and Jared - with looks of anticipation.

"Let's play ball!" Keizo said with a grin.

They divided up into two teams - Jared, Shinji, Skull, Mythix, and Aidan on team one and Keizo, Peyrce, Ronak, Jace and Kanan on team two.

Jace, to be fair, threw the ball high into the sky and then they all chased after it. Not traditional, Jace thought, but he brushed it off.

Mythix waved his hand, catching the ball in mid-air with a levitation spell and then tossed it into team one's goal.

"Mythix, no magic!" Jace yelled.

Mythix teleported to the ball before he heard, picked it up and then teleported it to the other goal. "This," he said, teleporting back to the other goal, "is way too easy."

Skull growled and formed light around him and teleported to where Mythix was at team two's goal and tackled him to the ground. "He said no magic!"

"Why not?" Mythix lifted an eyebrow, throwing Skull off him as Jared sped faster than Jace's eyes could follow. Before he knew it, Jared had made a touchdown.

"No magic! Jared, stop speeding!" Jace scolded.

"Okay, okay, okay! No magic!" Shinji placed up his hands, using light to snatch the ball away from Skull, who had been running it toward the other goal.

"Team one's goal - " Jace started, gesturing to the left of the tree, where Mythix had conjured a massive, jade stone archway. "Team two's goal," he finished, gesturing to the right where they had the same thing.

He threw the ball into the air again.

This time, Shinji caught it and began runninng down field, before Kanan, Peyrce, Keizo, and Jace all piled on top of him. They stood up, pointing out where the ball last was and then set in their positions.

Jace grinned, ready to hold back Jared, who was across from him. Shinji had the ball and was going to pass it to Skull, their quarterback.

Skull got the ball, took two steps back as Jace and Jared locked arms in a mini-wrestling match. Mythix evaded Peyrce and caught the ball and started down field to score team one a touchdown.

*****

"Mmm!" Sakura said with a smile. She had her eyes closed as she sniffed the pumpkin pie Akari had just pulled out of the oven. "Smells delicious!"

"I prefer apple." Lynia held two pies in her hands and twirled around the kitchen, placing them on a long, formal dinning table in Akari's kitchen. Since Lynia and Mythix had graciously hosted Halloween, Akari had strong-armed Shinji to let them host Thanksgiving.

"Ugh, this turkey won't finish cooking! I've had it in this stupid crystal oven for three hours now!" Nsi stomped her foot, slamming the oven door shut.

"Did you charge it?" Lynia strolled over after setting down her two pies and checked behind the oven in the center, where the crystal powered it. Just like she suspected, the crystal had lost its glow. "You don't have enough magic energy in it to power it! Without that, the oven won't get hot, which explains why your turkey isn't cooking!" Lynia giggled and Akari and Sakura joined in.

Nsi groaned, smacking her face. "Guys, I'm new to the whole magic thing, okay?"

Akari shot her a look. "We have been using light magic for... thousands of years now. Is that not enough time to be used to it?"