The Seekers Celebrate Christmas – A Holiday Story by Sydney JadeHammer

Hey, guess who totally wasn't lying when they said they'd post again soon? :D

Alright, so this post is about Sydney JadeHammer, my fabulous friend, who has made herself a blog. It's called A Psycho Pyromancer. The other day we were talking on the bus about The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze because one of my friends, who's had the printed version for, like, a year now, finally returned it and I was taking it home. I was browsing through it and rereading random passages, and I was looking through a part of Part 12 that made it super obvious that Rowan was the Life Seeker and then told her the same rant that I had on my post yesterday. And then we started talking about Christmas, which at the time was still upcoming. So she decided to start two stories based on my own: one about Christmas, and the other about Sierra's obliviousness.

She hasn't started the obliviousness one yet, but she finished the Seeker Christmas one. Unfortunately, it was a couple days late due to laptop problems and idea problems and etc. Soo... uh, yeah, it's kind of past Christmas now. But hey, it's here, and I really like it!

She constantly liked to stress that a lot of the people here are somewhat out of character, so keep that in mind. Still, it's a really amusing piece of writing. She asked me to post it here, and I'm gladly obliging. I hope you guys enjoy it. ^^

-------------
The Seekers Celebrate Christmas

By Sydney JadeHammer

‘Twas the night before Christmas,
And all through the house,
Not an enemy was stirring,
Not even a… uh… Scrounger? They’re rats, right…?

Anyways, you guys get the picture. It’s Christmas Eve and the Seekers decided to get together for a little party in celebration of another year without being killed by Malistaire or his minions. We’re really not sure of the outcome of our epic final battle, so for now we’ve been pretending to be dead and trying not to die in the process.

This is Sydney, by the way.

Personally, I’m more of a summer person, but the cold doesn’t bother me all that much. I am the fire seeker, after all. Unfortunately for Hunter, he has no affiliation to fire whatsoever.

“I’m cold,” Hunter complained. Earlier, we had stopped in Marleybone and bought new outfits for the occasion; Sierra asked that we dress up. I wore a Sleuth Hat, Brigadier Uniform, and Swashbuckler boots, all red with white trim. I held a Glowing Ruby Wand as well. Sierra informed us all that there would be no dueling, so this gave me an opportunity to dress up without worrying about statistics. After a lot of complaining, arguing, and trying on, I had finally gotten Hunter to put on a dark blue Swashbuckler Hat, Sleuth Outfit, and Noble Shoes, all with white trim as well to match my own outfit. He had a Glowing Peridot Wand from the Marleybone wand shopkeeper. We trudged along through the snow, Hunter leaving regular footsteps and me leaving splotchy, half-melted ones. The snow swirled around us as we traversed the wintery landscape.

“Why couldn’t we have taken Felix?” Hunter asked. Felix was my fire-dragon.

“Because, Hunter,” I replied dully.

“Because why?” he questioned. I sighed and turned to face him.

“Because you aren’t a Pyromancer and you may get burned,” I replied, not even knowing if that was true or not. Hopefully it would suppress his curiosity.

Apparently not. “Or we could’ve teleported. It is near-ish to the commons, after all.”

“I am not teleporting with you around. Remember what happened last time you tried to teleport?”

“That was a long time ago! Besides, I haven’t even tried since then.”

“No, Hunter. Look, we’re there anyways. Congratulations, you did not freeze to death,” I said. I was very relieved to see a moderately sized, castle-like building come into view at the end of the street. We were in Colossus Boulevard, and for some odd reason the snow was coming down hard. Probably Sierra’s doing in order to ward off wandering low-level wizards that might still not know the difference between a lit window and a dark one. Sierra had promised to cover them so at least anyone with common sense would think that it was closed-off and empty. That’s just how it worked, don’t ask me why.

I reached the door and went to touch the handle, immediately recoiling when I saw the frost and vines on it. I guessed that it wouldn’t be too smart to touch them. Instead, I knocked on the door and waited.

“It’s only me,” I called, and in a flurry of snow and shadowy movements, the door flew open, hands flung out and grabbed us, and we were pulled inside. I tripped and fell on the way in, and the door was hastily pulled closed before lights came on around us. “Sheesh,” I said, “You could’ve just answered the door like a normal person.”

“Remember, we’re in hiding. Those Gobblers are such gossips, so if they see us, there’s no doubt we’ll be found out,” Sierra said in a matter-of-fact tone. I stood up, but nearly lost my balance once again as I was tackled/hugged by my psychotic Theurgist friend, Rowan Willowleaf.

“Yeah,” Rowan piped up. “Besides, since when are we normal? What is this normal you speak of, Sydney?”

“Alright, I won’t argue with you there,” I joked. We weren’t normal in any sense of the word. We had cool abilities, we were ‘destined’ to fight Malistaire, and we were just a seriously crazy group of wizards overall. Normal was the last word anyone would use to describe us.

“So, does anything else need to be set up?” I asked, scanning the room for anything that may need to be fixed, tweaked, revamped, or any of the other things my OCD caused me to twitch at. Like I said, we are definitely not normal.

“Well, we need to move some of the furniture and tables around still; some of it was too heavy for us. Also, Sydney, you can go ahead and light the fireplace and help decorate,” Sierra said. I nodded and walked over to the fireplace, but paused for a moment.

“What about the chimney? Someone will notice the smoke,” I said, knowing that smoke would be a dead giveaway.

“Rowan already covered that. There are plants in the chimney and… well, I don’t know exactly what Rowan did, but apparently those plants are specially grown to suck up the smoke. It doesn’t sound too safe or logical, but she’s Rowan, so I’m just going to go with it,” Sierra replied. I nodded, still unsure, and tapped the logs with my wand. The tinder caught fire fairly quickly. I stood, turned, and looked around. We would have enough time to finish before everyone else got here; I had dragged Hunter out the door early to make sure we got here in enough time to help Sierra and Rowan set up.

Hunter had summoned a Golem minion in the corner and was trying to get it to move a chair, but the poor wooden creature couldn’t manage it. “Hunter, a Wooden Golem won’t help. Summon something else,” I said, and he gave me a pouting look not suited for a person of his age or a wizard of his level.

“But I love my Golem,” he stated stubbornly.

“Yes, we all do. Now please summon something else to help the poor guy,” I said.

“Fine, I’ll summon a Minotaur—“

“No! Do you remember what happened last time?” I exclaimed.

“It wasn’t that bad,”

“Yes, it was,” Sierra, Rowan and I said simultaneously.

“Whatever.” Hunter waved it off casually and pulled out a treasure card. Before I could see what it was, he had drawn a moon symbol in the air with his wand and clapped his hands together. He transformed into an Ice Colossus and, along with his Golem, he pushed the furniture around the room.

I lit the candles that were encased partially in a glass lantern around the walls and tied bows to the metal holding them up. We put a wreath on the door (inside, of course) and set the food out on the table. Rowan picked up a bag of ornaments and walked over to the empty corner of the room.

“Hey, Frosty,” she called, and Hunter turned around. He had finished moving furniture but the polymorph hadn’t quite worn off yet. He lumbered over to where Rowan stood and pointed to the floorboards in the corner, saying, “Pull these up, will you?”

Hunter pulled up the floorboards in just that spot and Rowan stepped onto the dirt. She pulled an elegant green wand out of her cloak and drew the life symbol in the dirt, then a matching symbol in the air. She tapped it with her wand and a tree sprouted out of the ground, growing rapidly right before our eyes. She turned to us with a satisfied smirk. “Cool, huh?”

We nodded in agreement. By the time there was a knock on the door, we had made the place look like it was never abandoned. A fluffy rug rested in front of the fire surrounded by eight chairs. Against the opposite wall was a table lined with food and drinks, and in one corner of the room there was a full-blown Christmas tree with ornaments and a star; even presents under the bottom branches. All of us had decided to do a secret Santa-type thing. As Sierra, dressed in her Santa robes and hat and Rowan, dressed in a light-green dress and long, dark-green cloak went to answer the door, I went to go get the present I had brought out of my bag. I opened the backpack to find the present, but also Sir Romeo curled up on top.

“You little stowaway,” I muttered and set him on the ground. He immediately dashed towards the fireplace, curling up on the soft rug. I pulled out the present and set it under the tree. After I had done that, I went to go and greet the next guest, Victoria. She had on a frilly purple dress with yellow trim. Soon enough, Liam and Vanessa arrived, squabbling as usual. They wore similar outfits—well, they were the same color at least.

“YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE!” Rowan bellowed, pointing a finger dramatically at Liam.

“But… It’s a Seeker party…” Liam whined.

“Too bad! You betrayed us…” Rowan said as she kicked him out into the cold, dark, lonely streets of Colossus Boulevard.

“Come on, Rowan. It’s Christmas,” Vanessa said.

“Fine…” Rowan said in an annoyed tone as she swung open the door, dragged Liam back in, and slammed it shut again. I heard Sierra hiss from the darkness behind me.

Mark arrived last, claiming that ‘Necromancers are always late,’ and ‘yes, the pun was intended.’ He was wearing a black top hat with a red ribbon around it, as well as a black and red suit.

“Yay, everyone’s here now!” Rowan exclaimed, finally releasing Mark, the last of her bear hug victims. “Let the party begin!”

Note to self:

Christmas parties are awkward when there is a traitor in the room,

When one person goes to sulk in the corner, it spoils the entire mood,

Christmas trees with faces tend to unnerve people (Cough cough ROWAN cough cough),

And putting a bunch of teenagers and one almost-teen in a room together is not always considered ‘fun—‘ in fact, it is often considered ‘awkward.’

That just about sums up how the party went.

So here’s how it happened:

The moment we gathered around the fire, it grew extremely quiet. It was so tense in the room that it was nearly like being in Celestia; a large, pressurized dome that could crack at any moment. Finally, Sierra spoke. It seemed like an attempt to break the silence, but ended up starting World War III—Seeker style.

“So, Liam, are you thinking that you want to join us again?” Sierra said.

“What do you mean, ‘join you?’ I am a seeker, after all,” Liam replied.

“Yeah, well, you may be a seeker, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re part of our team,” Sierra informed him.

“Why, because I wasn’t on your side for the entire time?” Liam remarked.

“Exactly.”

Liam and Sierra stared daggers at each other from across the room, each of them waiting for the other to make a move towards their wand. Sierra was the first to attempt to grab her wand, but Mark’s calm, sarcastic voice made her freeze in her tracks.

“And who was it who declared there would be no dueling?” Mark asked, and Sierra sighed.

“I didn’t expect the traitor to show up,” Sierra mumbled.

“That’s it!” Liam shouted, snatching up his wand and drawing a balance symbol in the air as he pulled out a card. He tapped the symbol with his staff and I watched as a sandstorm grew in the room, blowing across and smothering Sierra. When it cleared, the Thamaturge was covered in sand and coughing. She gave him an icy glare before pulling out a card of her own and casting it—a simple, yet apparently effective Icy Touch card. Liam shivered as his feet became encased in ice.

“Th-that all you got?” Liam taunted, though his words had less effect due to the fact that he was shaking. He reached for another card, and I caught a glimpse of it. A Hydra? Really?

He made a move to cast it, but was promptly smacked by Vanessa. Victoria snatched the wand from Sierra as well, seeing that this was getting worse by the minute.

“Well, that escalated quickly,” Mark said sarcastically. The room seemed to be about ten degrees colder than before the argument, but no one said anything. Sierra simply returned to her seat.

The next few minutes were quiet and tense. That seemed to be a pattern here. Finally, Rowan made the decision to speak up.

“Why don’t we do the gift exchange now?” She asked excitedly. Sierra smiled at her and nodded. Everyone else—except for Liam—cheered excitedly as Rowan carried all of the presents over. She picked one up and read off the first name.

“Victoria!” Rowan announced. Victoria took the present and sat back down. “Mark!”

Each Seeker was called (even Liam, much to Sierra’s dismay) and once all of the presents had been distributed, Rowan signaled for everyone to begin opening their gifts.

“Hmm, I wonder who this is from,” Sierra said as she unwrapped her present. I smacked my palm to my forehead. I had wrapped it in red, flame-pattern wrapping paper.

Once everyone had opened their gifts, we played a guessing game to find out who gave who what gifts. We finally managed to figure out who gave who what, though Victoria was the last one left. “So are these from you, Rowan?” Victoria asked skeptically.

“Yup! Do you like ‘em?” Rowan asked happily.

“Yeah, they’re really nice,” Victoria said. She looked over the storm-school boots with a grateful smile. “I guess I just didn’t think it could possibly be you because I thought you were a much lower level than you actually are.”

Rowan stared at her blankly. “Oh… um… ok.”

“No, wait! I didn’t mean it like that!” Victoria said. “I, um, just meant I didn’t know that you were that skilled of a wizard, that’s all—no, wait! That didn’t sound good either…”

“It’s ok. I get it,” Rowan said as she walked over to the corner of the room and sat down under the branches of her tree. Victoria followed her, trying to apologize but only making it worse. All of a sudden, she stopped dead in her tracks.

“Uh, Rowan? Why does the tree have eyes?” she asked cautiously. Everyone’s gazes fixed onto the same spot at once. How did we all miss that?

“Uh… because?” Rowan answered sheepishly.

“Because why?” Hunter chimed in.

“Because it’s not a regular tree and it might be sort of part Dryad?” Rowan said quickly, causing us all to take a moment and process that last statement.

“So it’s just been watching us?” I asked.

“Yes?” Rowan answered nervously. Victoria backed away slowly after that, and the room was now fully aware of the Dryad watching us all and the sulking Rowan.

Vanessa looked like she was going to attempt to start up the conversation again, but quickly thought better of it and closed her mouth. Time passed in what seemed like slow motion, no one daring to move or speak.

“Alright, it’s too quiet, even for me,” Mark said. “And that’s quite an accomplishment considering the fact that I hang around in graveyards.”

“Yeah, I agree. What should we do?” Sierra asked.

“We could play a game,” Hunter suggested.

“Or we could just leave,” Liam said.

“Go ahead,” Sierra replied with a hint of venom buried within her words.

“Wouldn’t you just love that,” Liam said.

“Well, you guys keep fighting, so maybe you both need to chill out,” Hunter suggested. I was a bit surprised at his statement—it seemed out of character, but then again, everyone did tonight.

“What do you say we throw out the shrimp here so we can have an actual conversation?” Liam said as he glared at Hunter, who shrunk back. I decided that it was time for me to take part in the conversation.

“You touch him and I roast you,” I told him.

“Yeah, and you’ll probably end up burning down the whole building while you’re at it,” Liam said. I fingered my necklace and glared back at him.

“Ok Sierra, I’m with you. Let’s kick him out,” I said.

“Finally, someone agrees,” Sierra sighed.

“I second that motion!” Rowan piped up from her spot in the corner.

As you can probably predict, the rest of the night did not go all that smoothly. Sierra, while dressed in her Santa robes, chased Liam out using her broomstick mount. Vanessa pretended not to notice and Victoria tried—and succeeded—to coax Rowan out of the corner. Mark, Hunter and I played cards for the rest of the night and were eventually joined by the others.

Overall, when the death toll of zero wizards was taken into account, the night went pretty well after all. It was just one more night of survival in the Spiral, but this time we were able to spend it together rather than trapped in some crazy villain’s lair or being chased around by some minions. For the Seekers (except for Liam), it was a very merry Christmas indeed.

-------------

Her first draft was funny. Liam and Vanessa just showed up like nothing was wrong. And then I read it and said, "Uh, Sydney? Why is Liam at the Christmas party?" And then she replied with, "Oh. ...He betrayed them, didn't he." Haha, guess she hasn't read my story in a long time, if at all. I know Hunter has read TToSW, since he actually did a book report on it about a year ago (BEST MOMENT EVER: when someone does a book report on your story. Awesome time to be an author. :D). I don't think Sydney ever did, though, but I tell her all my ideas anyway...

Yeah, so she kind of fixed it, but then after she fixed it, Sierra was the one telling everybody, "Oh, it's okay! He can stay!" And I told her, "Sierra HATES Liam. That doesn't even make sense." So now we have this beautiful gem of a fanfic. ^^

Anyway, you guys should go check out her new blog. In the likely case I don't get to posting anything tomorrow, I'll just say this now: have a fantastic New Year, everyone! ;)