The Misty, Purple Cat

Chapter One-Twenty-Seven ✎ - A Merry (Ziixi) Christmas

Now, this isn't cannon with my Mysterious Realms books. This is just something fun I decided to do for Christmas. Enjoy, and have a merry Christmas!

     Myrkr was shaken from her bunk, and, if she hadn't had her Ci'mehia reflexes, she would have fallen flat on her face. Instead, she landed on her hands, her arms bending to lessen the impact on her bones. She looked up to see her familiar, who she named Esmyr, sitting on the floor near her head, with Shimmer and Luna. Myrkr groaned irritably as she pushed herself up from the floor, her voice a groggy rasp. "What? Why did you two idiots do that?" she asked. "Today is a day off, right?" She started to climb back into her bunk.

     "That is true, Myr," Luna agreed. Luna is a human, or at least in her human form, wearing a dark purple jacket with moon and music symbols on the back, gray eyes, midnight-black hair, and two dark purple- black wings sticking out of her jacket's wing slits. On the back of the wings were white scales in the shapes of music notes and clefs.

"Then give me the damn reason you woke me up." Myrkr looked at Esmyr sharply. "And you'll pay for that, Es." Esmyr made a trill, too happy to care.

Shimmer spoke up. "It's Christmas! Remember? It's a gift-giving holiday. That's why we have a bit of training off." Shimmer was an ice dragon, though she was in her human form, and she dressed in a pale, blue-silver scaled jacket over a black tee with two wing slits in the back, where her pale blue-silver wings were, silver-white hair, normal jeans, and icy-white irises that almost couldn't be distinguishable from the white part of her eyes. "And that was why, yesterday, we made you got shopping with us."

     Myrkr sighed. "Fine. Where are the guys and the familiars?"

     Esmyr piped up. "The other familiars are playing in the courtyard."

     "Why didn't you join them, Es?"

     Shrugging, Esmyr replied, "I just didn't want to. Plus, I wanted to see the look on—" Myrk pounced from her bunk onto Esmyr. "Okay, okay." Myrkr's eyes were now awake and aware, with a bit of alarm in them. She stood up and looked down, to see Esmyr indignantly glaring at her. "What was that for?"

     "Oh, just be quiet about that," Myrkr hissed, not unkindly. To Shimmer and Luna, she said, "Well, where are the guys?" She glanced around, and felt fear rush through her as she didn't see the gifts she had bought for everyone. Where did I put the damn gifts?!? she thought, frantically.

     "They're a floor above us, in the common room. We took all the gifts up to see if you wouldn't wake up on your own," Luna said. "Come on, they are waiting for us."

     Myrkr nodded, then glanced down at her left hand. The hand that had the Mark, an arrow that is the center line for a treble clef. I hope my gifts were good. At least when I bought them, no one could tell what I was going to do. Though, it was taxing on my energy... "Alright. Lead the way."

      Esmyr, with her small yet functional wings, darted between the three Mythics, trilling every few steps. When they arrived at and climbed the stairs up to the common room, Myrkr was surprised by its size. Easily, there were ten different trees with groups of five to ten around them, and that was only the first level of the rooms. Near each live pine tree was a fireplace, each one buring, keeping the place warmer than the rest of the stone castle. Chatter was everywhere, bouncing off the decorated walls.

     Without noticing, as Myrkr was absorbing everything, Luna and Shimmer led her over to where Sanguine and Cedric were. Sanguine looked similar to Shimmer, except his scale jacket was blood red, as were his wings, his eyes had yellow irises, and he had blond hair. Cedric was the only one of the group who looked human fully. The lycanthrope was dressed in an emerald green shirt with jeans, his emerald eyes watching Myrkr as the three approached.

      Myrkr saw the gifts she had wrapped the previous night under the tree, to her relief. Thank Ysamaldri, she thought. And the Immortal Oak. Her cheetah ears twitched, as did her tail, as she sat next to Cedric. "Merry," What did they call it? Oh, right. "Christmas, Cedric and Sanguine," she said, smiling.

     "And to you, Myr," Cedric replied, returning the smile.

     Esmyr ruined the moment, not that there was a moment. "Let's open the gifts!"

     Sanguine laughed and hugged Myrkr. "Merry Christmas, Myrkr!" She hugged him back while echoing him.

     Myrkr grabbed the gifts she made, and handed them to the correct person. She had color coded them as to make sure no one could tell what one was for who until she got there. Cedric's was wrapped in green, Sanguine's in red, Shimmer's in silver, and Luna's in an iridescent purple.

     Sanguine opened his first, and he gasped in delight. Myrkr had formed a block of ruby into the figure of a fighting, roaring red dragon with small bits of gold for his eyes. Gold lined his claws, wing skeleton, and tail. "Myrkr, it's amazing! It's flawless!"

     "It's nothing," she said, suddenly self-conscious. She didn't like the attention.

     Shimmer opened hers next. It was similar to Sanguine's, though a different fighting position. It was made of clear crystal, with silver for eyes. Silver also lined the claws, wing skeleton, and tail. A similar, if more unimpressed response came from Shimmer, though when Myrkr replied she saw Shimmer was overjoyed by the gift.

     Luna was after. She was quiet, but Myrkr saw all she needed to in her expression to see that Luna was just as satisfied and happy. Her statuette was made of amethyst, moonstone in the wings for the music symbols and in the back for the moon phases. Ebony lined the wing skeleton and tail, along with being the eyes. The position was calm and elegant, since Luna didn't fight or get angry as often as Sanguine or Shimmer. "I couldn't find a gray mineral," Myrkr apologized. "But I hope you like it." Luna shook her head at the apology, a smile on her face.

     Last was Cedric's. He unwrapped his, hidden worry in his eyes as he saw what she'd done. "Maple helped me, a little," Myrkr said. "She said you would look nice with Ci'mehia parts."

     The statuette was two people, Ci'mehias, holding hands. One was female, with it's long hair of gold with ebony cheetah spots. The other was male, it's hair was the opposite with colors and shorter, but the same design. "Myrkr," Cedric said, stunned. "I love it. Thank you."

     "I'm glad," she replied. "Merry Christmas everyone."

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     The rest of the morning to mid morning was spent giving the gifts. In the end, Myrkr received a pouch of six potent ice bombs from Shimmer, pouches which she gave to everyone, Luna gave a music/silence enchantment rune with a music note on one side with a quarter rest on the other, Sanguine gave everyone a rock of obsidian with lava inside making it warm, and Cedric paid for a huge breakfast for everyone. Esmyr was darting around, grabbing a rune, bomb, or lava-containing obsidian, though she never broke or dropped them.

      The rest of the day, the five Mythics went to the courtyard to play in the snow with their familiars, as so many other students did. Instructors were on the second level up, supervising, though a few times they teleported, flew, or normally made their way down to the ground level in order to chat with older students and familiars.

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I think I'll keep the gifts in this story in my real story, but I don't think this can fit in very well, since in the chapter I'm currently writing, things are happening between people, and the courtyard that is mentioned is in full bloom. But the gifts could be useful and cool to have (once the Mythics learn how to do alchemy and enchanting and stuff).