{ELEMENTISTS OF WILLOW FOREST BOOK IV} The Day of Death

Christmas III

9:  Christmas III

 

 

 

I enjoyed watching the lion cubs grow.  Leandra became more confident.  Haider didn't become any less confident.  Sandy occasionally spoke to me, which was an improvement from the first week or so.

I did fetch the father, Leo, a few times.  (I know.  The zoo was really, really awful at finding imaginative lion names.  I'm sorry, but Leo and Sandy?  Seriously?)  I let the family spend some quality time together, play fighting, eating meat and ruining my rug once a week.

Finding Christmas presents for me to give to Mama and Gama was hard.  I never left the forest, so I couldn't exactly pop to the shops and buy them something from Poundland.  I didn't have any money of my own, anyway.  And I didn't have any helpful powers yet, so I couldn't present them with a lovely wooden sculpture.

Usually, they ended up with some awful craft project of mine which broke within two seconds.  I.e. Two sticks cello taped together so they looked vaguely like a misshapen heart when you looked at it from a certain angle.  As I got older, they ended up with a pretty picture each, which they pretended was absolutely amazing, although in reality it managed to even stretch the limits of falling into the 'abstract' category.

But this year, I wanted to give them something slightly more decent.  I'd almost been on the planet for ten years!  In books people always gave their parents lovely Christmas presents, so I could too, couldn't I?

I sat down on my bed, trying to think of some magical solution.  None came.

Haider padded up to me.  "Olivia, why are you looking so sad?"

I sighed.  "I don't know what to give Mama and Gama for Christmas."

"Easy!" Haider exclaimed.  "You can give them, er, er, er..."

"A hug!"  Leandra squealed.  She ran over to join her brother.  "Like this!"  She demonstrated by opening her front legs, and giving Haider a massive hug round the middle.

"Hey!"  Haider protested.  Leandra giggled.  Haider wriggled out of her grasp, and shook himself off.  "No.  Do NOT give them a hug.  That wasn't a very nice present."

"Then what is?"  I asked, half to myself.

The cubs sat down.  There was silence for a second.

"Ooh!  Ooh!"  Haider said.  "You could draw them a picture of me, then-"

"No."  I said.  "I gave them a picture last year.  And the year before.  And the year before that.