A Christmas Tale

Chapter 1: Gathering Festivities

"Did we have to come out here for the Christmas tree? Why can't we just use an indoor one?" Ol sulks as he shivers in his boots. "Calm down, you're not gonna lose your toes over this; we do it every year so why not now?" Luke pulls down his scarf to speak before covering himself up again. "Easy for you to say, you're wearing... like twenty layers!" He punches Luke in the back softly but he doesn't even notice through all the padding as Ol rolls his eyes. "So what, I came prepared? It's not my fault that you refused to put on a jacket." Luke's voice is kind of muffled through his layers as Ol continues to shake. They make it to the frozen river bank as they begin walking alongside it. They begin jogging as they see the tree, hands stuffed in pockets as their sledge tails behind. "There we are! The fire is just ahead!" A couple of metres in front of them is a blaze of light, flickering everything around it with perfect warmth as three people come into view, each with adequate clothing on hand. The boys approach them quickly, tugging the sledge filled with boxes along with them.

"You been waiting long?" Luke shouts over at them as Mischief shakes her head at him "Nah, we've basically only just got here too, Kie is just a wizard with fire making." She throws a coat at Ol as he jumps onto a nearby log, still freezing half to death. He stuffs himself inside almost immediately, becoming a turtle as he retracts his head inside to warm his ice-cold skin. "How did I know he'd forget to wear something warm?" She sighs, throwing a giant blanket over his back and wrapping it over his head. "He didn't forget, he just refused." Luke chuckles as she only gets more confused. "How did you manage to live until this age?" She turns to Ol who quickly raises his head, nose and ears turned bright red as he speaks "Skill, luck, and determination!" Mischief just rolls her eyes and walks to Cb who is unpacking the sledge by the oak tree, making sure that they don't end up sliding into the frozen river. She grabs one of the boxes and carries it back, placing it onto a flat part of the log as she grabs a stick. The stick has several prongs near the end which are promptly covered by marshmallows and stuffed into the flames. Luke moves to grab a paper plate and sits down by the box, stuffing his hand inside to grab something to eat as he waits for everything to be prepared. He's quickly joined by Kie as she walks over to Luke and grabs a stick and some marshmallows of her own. She places her stick into the ground by the fire, leaving her food to heat up as she turns to Luke "You brought decorations as well as food right?" He nods, his mouth full of food as he points at the pile of boxes that Cb's sorting through. He notices Luke and calls over "Hey, can I get some help with the lights?" everything is silent for a moment before everyone shouts at once "Not it!" "Not... Damn it!" Mischief lifts her branch out of the fire and places her marshmallows onto a plate as she walks over to help, climbing up onto the lowest branch as Cb only rolls his eyes at everyone's blatant laziness. She grabs the end of the lights and climbs higher, breaching the top as she begins to wrap them around each cluster of leaves. "Anyone know when everyone else is getting here?" She yells down at us. Another voice replies from behind us "I'm afraid it's just me for the moment, the couple is running a little late." Kie turns to face the voice "Oh hey Tet. Yeah, that sounds like them." She throws a wrapped up sandwich in her direction as she moves to sit down by Ol. Ol lifts his blanket for a moment "Why are you so late yourself." She smiles lightly, "My boss had a bit of a word to say to me after what happened." We all think back to the incident we caused and awkwardly laugh "Right... sorry about that" Cb walks over, holding a button in his hand as he tosses it to Tet "As an apology, would you like to turn on the lights?" She smiles again "I'd love to..." She exaggerates the button press as the lights flicker on, glowing almost as bright as the gigantic fire that warms their hands much like that sight warms their hearts. A light yelp erupts from the tree as Mischief slips off of the last branch to the soft snow below. "Thanks guys... You blinded me." She gets up and brushes herself down, not noticing the small amount of snow on her head as she walks back over to us. Kie turns to Luke once again "only lights?" He shakes his head and looks over at Cb as he realises what they've done "You want to wait for the others to get here don't you?" Cb nods as he wolfs down a sandwich "Yup, only seems fair." "They're gonna be a while, are you sure?" Tet teases the fire with her sandwich's bag as she glances over at them. "Sure, there's no real rush to get them up from what I can see." Mischief carries over another box and places it on the other side of the first one, taking out a board before asking "What's all this stuff for?" Tet's ears prick as she jogs over to it "Is that what I think it is? I'm calling first!" "What?" Mischief cocks her head slightly in response as Luke chuckles "It's a storytelling game, you get a character at random and play through a story that someone suggests. It's more improv than anything else. Either way, everything is chosen by the storyteller so all everyone else has to do is act out a scene and play their selected persona..." "That sounds stupi..." "That's interesting!" Ol tries to insult the idea but is cut off my Cb who stuffs a marshmallow into his mouth before he can finish. "You better not make me evil!" Mischief raises an eyebrow at Tet who just looks around her at Luke "We're doing a Christmas theme right?" She says as he only shrugs "Go for it, you have full freedom." He smiles and Tet gains an evil look as she begins to giggle sadistically. Tet opens her mouth to speak but suddenly a marshmallow flies into her tongue "Something appropriate for our age group Tet, we don't want the Christmas special to be rated mature." Cb peers over at her, another marshmallow in hand. She looks oddly disappointed "Fine..." the fluffy mound of sugar almost disintegrates in her mouth as she grabs a piece of paper and a pen from the box. "I'm choosing everything right?" She begins scribbling something down before raising her head for a response. Luke nods "Yup, you called the role so you're controlling the story in its entirety." Her pen starts moving again, quickly flaming over the page with an uncontrollable amount of ideas. "Everyone look away, we aren't supposed to see the story before she begins to read through it. Our characters have to be on the fly as well." Kie softly calls across the campfire as everyone reluctantly leaves Tet to her writing. Mischief stands up "While that's being done, why don't we put our gifts under the tree?" Everyone looks over at her before waddling over to the sledge, placing presents inside before tying it to the base of the oak tree with the handle ropes. The final product is a three dimensional Tetris game that went majorly wrong but it's colourful and doesn't look like a complete eyesore so everyone just shrugs and leaves it, letting the abomination of shapes and colours stay in their natural landing positions. "Did someone bring the carrots, milk, and biscuits for Santa?" Ol pops up from his shell as two of them rummage through the box "We've got carrots and biscuits but I'm too far away to bring milk sorry, it'd spoil by the time it was used" Luke projects his voice to his side of the campfire as Tet looks up again "It's fine, I think that'll be enough for one man that is feasibly impossible." She smiles as Ol buries his head again "He's not an impossibility..." No one seems to hear him to respond as Kie gets up from her log "But won't Saint Nick get thirsty as he zips around the planet, giving presents to all that are good?" Everyone looks over at her, Ol's eyes glowing with appreciation as she continues "I'll go and get some; I don't live that far..." She's stopped by a fluffy pink object entering her mouth as Cb places his hand on her shoulder "he wouldn't want anyone to miss out on his behalf. Besides, I'm sure he'll get enough milk from all the other houses." He smiles and lets go of her as she sits back down "Yeah, he'll get a lot of milk so we shouldn't worry." A couple of them in the group roll their eyes but a single tear rolls from Ol's cheek "Ok I guess..." he mumbles as another marshmallow is stuffed into his mouth "Enjoy yourself, Santa is fine" Cb tries to cheer him up slightly, getting him to crack a small smile before leaving him with one last marshmallow.

Suddenly, Tet gets up, papers in hand. She flips the stack of papers towards us, showing a drawing of an old man with short white hair growing from his head and chin. He holds a wooden walking stick with a dark purple gem fused into the top. His clothing is smart and sensible, he looks like a wealthy businessman in a purple-themed suit that has not so recently retired to a life of luxury in some premium apartment that almost touches the sky. "Here I have some character sheets, though there's a twist. Everyone come here and take one, make sure not to show anyone your sheet until you've entered the story." She clears some snow off her log and places the pile face down, waiting for everyone to come and grab a sheet. One by one, everyone grabs a character and reads through their descriptions. After a couple of minutes of giggling and some groaning, they all sit around the campfire, ready to start the story...