"Good mooooorning! Get up, Nareen!" Eternia yelled.
Nareen woke up and yawned. Her friend was standing at the wardrobe, her bed already packed away. There was no sign of Giselda and Akshi.
"Morning, Eternia."

She sat up. The necromancer felt a bit nervous. The big day! "Am I late?"
"No, but almost! Do you know the saying 'the early bird catches the worm'?"
"Yes, why?"

"I thought there might be a few clothes in the wardrobe today, so I went looking. And I was right!"
"Wait a second... You went into our wardrobe - the thing which has several exits and is as large as a warehouse - in that nightie?! What if you had run into a man like that?!"
"Actually, I was hoping for that." Eternia grinned.
"Oh, you're just terrible!"

"Pah!" Eternia grunted and took something out of the wardrobe.
"Well, I didn't find a man, but I found this instead!" She showed Nareen a red and black pullover. "Is it okay if I wear this today, or do you want it?"
Nareen was just about to ask whether there were any other clothes in stock when there was a tremendous rumble and a yell from the corridor.
"What was that?" she gasped.
Eternia paled. "Wasn't that Giselda's voice?"

"It's okay, I'm alright." The wingling came in, her face contorted with pain. She rubbed her bum. "Luckily I can fly, so I absorbed most of the impact."
Nareen was on her feet. "But what happened?!"
"I stumbled over a package in front of the door. It wasn't there when I left the room, so I didn't pay attention when I came back."
"A package?" Eternia wondered. It wasn't time for presents yet.
"Yeah, here!" Giselda went outside, then came back with a box and two pairs of feathery wings. She gave the box to Nareen. "Here, it has your name on it!"

"A present? For me?" Nareen took the box, her eyes shining with disbelief. Carefully she opened the gift. "There's a card! Dear Nareen, since you're always feeling cold here's a hand crocheted pullover for you. It's a little bit... experimental, but I hope you like it. Love, Eph Aw, this is so nice!"
Giselda forgot about her pain and took a curious look. "It's rather a tanktop sweater, huh?"
"I bet she can't do better. Never heard of Eph crocheting before." Eternia teased from her place on the sofa.
"But I like it!" Nareen cut her off.
"Didn't say you mustn't! Hey, if we're expected to be Christmas angels today I'll take these!" She grabbed the crimson wings. "I'll be the bad, sexy angel of Christmas!"
"Oh my!" Giselda laughed.

Giselda left the women with their new stuff and went back to the kitchen. When Eternia was done dressing up, she followed to check on things. Tamara was already up and about.
"Oh, hey! I'm glad you're still alive!" the blonde sighed with relief.
Tamara raised an eyebrow. "Of course I am. I told you I'd be fine."
"Wow, and you were busy this morning!" Eternia added when she noticed all the cakes and cookies on the table.
"Yes, we were!" Giselda chirped cheerily.

"I have another cake here and we also have pudding and more cookies are in the oven! Libra brought fresh fruits too," the wingling announced. She seemed to have fully recovered from her fall.
"Nobody will go home hungry!" she promised.

Eternia pointed to a smaller basket with oddly shaped cookies. "Those cookies though... they look kinda burnt. And misshapen. Compared to the others, they're terrible. You don't want to offer those, do you?"
"Do you mean these wonderful, delicious cookies with the truly unique shape? The ones I spent all morning making, my first cookies ever?" Tamara's voice was even, almost emotionless.
"Oooooh, no, of course I didn't mean those! I meant... oh, where are they? Did Filou just run off with them?"
Tamara just gave her a cool stare and said, "Make yourself useful and distribute the sweets around the house and garden, will you."
"On my way!" Eternia grabbed some plates with cookies and ran off as fast as she could.

Dolltopia Archive 39 <-- # --> Dolltopia Archive 41