Making Fantasia (KF Prequel): The Nightmare After Christmas

Chapter 1: Twas the Night Before Christmas

sultal's note: Happy Christmas Eve! As a small gift, the video above is the "audiobook" version of Chapt 1. CLICK ABOVE to hear me read it with sounds effects. 

I hope you enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Chapter 1: Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas,

And all through the ship,

Sinbad's two favorite words

were screamed out –

"OHHHHHHH SHIT!"

Miles into the sky, the Black Hole churned, pumping energy into the Northern Fantasian Sea. The energy was white hot from the gravitational pressure, and it mixed violently with icy ocean. Waves rose like mountains, effortlessly lifting The Princess, then plunging her down. White caps ripped over the deck, grasping for sailors to feed the hungry depths.

As per usual for Captain Sinbad, things had gone from bad to worse.

That was not super uncommon on the high seas.

However, it was Christmas Eve and Sinbad was not in the mood to die.

"Smitty! Tulio! Fitz-rider-bumpkin or whatever your name is!" Sinbad threw his weight into the helm. "Secure life lines! Vlad - Eret – lock down the cannons! We're heading into the storm, it's going to be a bumpy ride!"

Splat. A wet stocking smacked his face. Sinbad flung it aside. "And Can someone please tell Miguel to take down his Christmas decorations?!"

Bodies rushed around him. Someone shouted in his ear. Sinbad couldn't see through the ocean spray, but immediately discerned Flynn Rider's voice.

"Dude!? You're steering into the tsunami?"

The Princess nosedived into the ocean. The bowsprit dripped as she reemerged.

Sinbad spit a mouthful of seawater. "It's a gale not a tsunami, landlubber! And we gotta meet it head-on to cross the waves! A blow to the side will capsize us! Plus – "

Another wave. Another mouthful of water.

"Plus – " Sinbad looked to Black Hole. It glared back with a colorless cyclops eye. "King Arthur thinks something happened to Jim and the gang up there! We're getting paid big bucks to stand by! And those are my two favorite words: big bucks."

"Hey!" Flynn paused for a moment of comradery. "Me too!"

"Super. Oh crap, head down! Here comes another one!"

The Princess tipped into a steep wave. Sinbad ducked with the motion, trying to hold his footing as water crashed over his shoulders.

"Smitty!" he called, summoning his first mate. John Smith darted through the mire, his blonde hair dark with water. Sinbad beckoned to the wheel; John had quickly become his most able-bodied sailor, despite being the team's newest edition. John had resigned from Admiral Triton's navy (he he) and enlisted with Sinbad after the Battle to Give Fantasia.

"Smitty give me a hand! Flynn you too! All shoulders – heave ho!"

Together, the three men wrestled the ocean, but the force was gargantuan.

"We – " Flynn grit his teeth. Sinbad bent an ear – he could barely hear. "We can't keep this up forever!"

John buckled. The wind snatched a prayer from his throat. "Have mercy Silent Siren."

"It's not the ocean!" Sinbad pointed, rain stinging his arm. "It's the Black Hole! It wasn't spinning before, and now it's creating a vortex! Vortex's are never good!"

"Comforting!" Flynn snarled as Miguel clamored by with Christmas decorations. "Are those your two favorite words? Never good?"

"Captain Sinbad!" Miguel flopped to his knees, suspended by his life line. Garland streamed from his arms as he exclaimed, "Do you hear them? Do you hear the sleigh bells?"

Now, Sinbad was a firm believer in Santa Clause. But he really didn't have time for this.

"Miguel – buddy – I really don't have time for this!"

"B – but! I hear them! They're ringing! Clear as day! And – "

"Wait – wait a sec – " Flynn looked skyward, the storm momentarily forgotten. "I hear them too. John?"

John didn't answer. He was staring at a rainbow ring of light. The light appeared from nowhere then spread helically beneath the Black Hole, and yes from the epicenter they heard sleighbells. The light seemed to have dimension, invaginating inward like a tunnel...or portal.

They stared, mesmerized. But, the hypnosis broke as a body dropped through the light and thudded to the ship.

"What the hell?" gasped Flynn.

"Santa?!" Miguel squealed.

Sinbad abandoned the wheel. Trusting John would take over, he seized the intruder by the scruff of his neck, immediately noticing military fatigues.

"Eret!" He barked. "Help me bring him below! I don't care if he's one of Santa's elves or an alien psychic! That light might've come from the Black Hole and – "

The intruder staggered to his feet. Spinning low, he struck Sinbad's ribs, then smashed a giant snow globe into his chin.

BOINK!

Sinbad saw stars but he was ready to fight. That was not the first time been punched with a snow globe!

(Christmas gets rowdy when you're a pirate. Don't ask).

Shaking off the blow, Sinbad sliced his scimitar free of its scabbard. He raised it over his head –

-- but the intruder had already shouldered an M27 automatic rifle.

Sinbad lowered his blade. That was the kind of gun men love to go to war with.

The rifle zeroed on Sinbad's heart. The intruder held it very steady, despite the rollicking ship.

"I've come for the fox children and king's nephew. Tell Oogie Boogie to release them – " The intruder pressed the rifle to Sinbad's sternum. "Now."

A gust knocked the ship sideways, swaying the rifle from the intruder's face. Sinbad's heart leapt as he glimpsed two aquamarine eyes through the ocean spray. Simultaneously, the intruder saw him, and just as Sinbad was about say Jim, the intruder breathed,

"Dad?"

They gaped at each other, at lost for words. However, as both men moved to embrace, they stopped.

Sinbad held the intruder at arm's length. This wasn't his son. This was a boy, fifteen or so, with Jim's fiery, blue eyes, but Admiral Triton's aquiline nose.

Sinbad searched for the nametag stitched into the boy's fatigues. Smoothing his collar, he ran a thumb over the letters.

J. HAWKINS.

He squeezed the boy's shoulder. "Jon?"

Jon Hawkins' voice could have slaughtered a newborn fairy. "You're not my dad."

"No." Throwing an arm against the storm, Sinbad lead the boy below deck. "I'm your grandfather. And I'd like to know how Hell you got out here?"