22 Travel Log Xmas
[Another chapter that ed did not edit nor review... how sad...]
"What are you looking at?" Iledoya asked Nicholas curiously. The sun was still out, so they were still on horseback. Nicholas was staring at a circular object strapped onto his wrist. "Hm? Oh… hahaha it's a neat device that I made. It's called a watch." As he said that, he showed it to Iledoya "I use it to tell the time". "Hee this is pretty cool" Iledoya observed the watch and tried to understand how it worked.
Unfortunately for him, even simple mechanism that doesn't involved magic is out of his league. Even after 10,000 years, magic, has always been the focus of development. With people who didn't know magic being very rare, technology didn't undergo any revolution that could make it advance. Giving up on trying to understand how it works, Iledoya decided to just look at what the watch can do.
"De… cem… ber? What is that?" Iledoya asked. On the watch, he saw a spot that displayed some text. Written there was 'December 24 XXXX'. It was a word that was very foreign to Iledoya.
Hearing the question, Nicholas sighed. "It's how the place I came from recorded time. The names are just different". "I see… I never really keep track of time, so this is pretty cool!" Iledoya remarked. But still, he was more amazed by the mechanics of the watch.
"But why do you look as if the life has been taken out of you when you looked at your watch?" Iledoya noticed how Nicholas looked down and sad while looking at his watch. He felt like it was really out of place.
"Well… It's like this… At the place I came from, December was a very special month. With our system, It was the last month of a year. So, almost everyone there would became really festive. They would decorate their houses, shops would also decorate their place and make very enticing deals, families would make so much delicious food to eat together…" Nicholas now had a warm smile from reminiscing some good memories. "It was a full of joy for a lot of people. The festivity would peak on the 25th of December, they call it Christmas day"
"Christmas day? I've never heard of it." Iledoya said.
"Me too. I don't think i've heard of such a day either. Sounds fun!" Geronya was also listening to Iledoya's and Nicholas' conversation. After the second day, they have gotten quite close and are no longer just simply co-workers.
"So what else do they do on this 'Christmas'?" Kirigya asked.
Hiruta was also listening to Nicholas, though not giving any remarks.
Seeing that he has gotten everyone's attention, Nicholas hid his mood and showed an expression that was looked like it was brimming with excitement. "Well let me tell you more then…"
He kept telling them more and more about Christmas until the sun went down.
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At night, in the earthen abode, at one of the rooms, everyone except Nicholas was gathered.
"Okay. So I call everyone here to propose an idea" Iledoya said.
"Yeah we should celebrate Christmas! I think it sounds soooo fun!" Geronya said excitedly.
"W-Wha… But I haven't even… Well, yeah that's what I was gonna propose. So what do you guys think?"
"Hm. I agree to help." Hiruta gave a short answer as per usual
"I'll join in too" Kirigya also decided to join in
"Well then. Let us begin our preparation!" With those words from Iledoya, everyone stood up and quietly left the place.
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The next morning, Nicholas who just finished his morning prayer heard a knock on his door. "Coming!" he responded.
When he opened the door, he was greeted with 4 people in some strange looking grey clothings shouting out "Merry Christmas!"
"..." Nicholas was left speechless
"..." And so was the others
Geronya whispered to Iledoya "hey umm… he doesn't look so interested in this… you sure this was a good idea?" He whispered back "yeah… hmm" he tried thinking where they might have went wrong 'Hmm… nothing comes to mind'
Nicholas only stared at them with mouth agaped. But when he heard Iledoya and Geronya whispering to each other about what went wrong, he bursted out laughing. "Hahaha… thanks…" he realized that they were doing this for him because he was looking sad when looking at his watch.
Finally hearing Nicholas sounds happy, everyone started feeling hyped again. "Come come, there's more than just a morning greeting!" Geronya dragged Nicholas outside and everyone followed along.
Outside, there was a tray full of skewered meat and makeshift grill. "This is?" Nicholas asked.
"Christmas meal." Hiruta answered while holding one of the skewered meat. He is really looking forward to the meal. Kirigya used his magic to light the grill and soon, the meat was being grilled.
"Hear, a santa hat" Iledoya put on a strange grey looking hat on Nicholas. "Santa… hat? Pfft." Nicholas can't help but find it hilarious. "Hahaha… santa… grilling meat… what the hell did you guys do?"
"Well… last night, we decided that we should celebrate christmas with you. So, Me and Hiruta went hunting for meat, while Geronya and Kirigya made the grill. Oh, and I also made the santa clothes we're wearing. Isn't it cool?"
"Pfft… hahaha… Oh Iledoya… I guess it's my fault for not telling you huh…" Nicholas said while barely being able to hold in his laughter.
Seeing Nicholas trying so hard to hold in his laughter, Iledoya asked with a confused face "W-what do are you talking about?"
"Santa clothes are supposed to be red with the fluffy parts here being white" Nicholas said
"..." Iledoya
"..." The other three
"And grilling skewered meat under the bright sun makes it feel like a summer picnic rather than a Christmas meal" he added.
"..." The other four
"Hey the meat looks good to go now! Let's eat" Seeing their effort, Nicholas can't help but feel all warm inside.
After eating the grilled meat, Iledoya then said "H-hey… Decorating a tree is something you do during Christmas right? Right?" Messing up the meal has hurt him inside a little. But he was confident that decorating a tree is definitely something to do during christmas. After all, Nicholas was the one who said 'We decorate a tree to make a christmas tree during christmas'
With his Life magic, Iledoya already prepared a tree to decorate right next to the abode. It was taller than everyone present but that didn't hinder them to decorate it. Next to it, there is a pile of decorations.
"Hehehe… Actually… You usually do it before the 25th. And the decorations are supposed to have a christmas vibe to it. But this is good too…"
With that, Iledoya felt like an arrow pierced his heart. "Ughh… Yeah… Lets do this…"
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The four of them had fun until night.
Nicholas, alone in his room, mumbled to himself "I wonder how the others are doing back there"
He said that with a smile yet, a tear fell from his eyes…
"I'm sorry I couldn't celebrate Christmas this year with you all" He mumbled to himself before falling asleep.
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"Chronotia, look look! Doesn't this look delicious? And this one too! And this one!" Spatia said while bringing a lot of food.
"What are those?" Chronotia asked bewildered.
"Hehe… these are…" Spatia instantly put on a santa suit but unlikely Iledoya, it was the correct one. "These are Christmas foods! Hearing what Nicholas said, it made feel the holiday spirit inside me and decided to celebrate it too! Come on now, let's put up this tree"
Chronotia stared at the mountain of objects that suddenly appeared again including a pine tree. She was speechless for a moment before saying "Spatia. Did you forget?"
"Forget what?" Spatia asked in confusion.
"You're the Avatar of Space."
"So?"
"And i'm the Avatar of Time"
"And what does that have to with all this?"
"Spatia. It can be Christmas everyday if we wanted too"
"..." Spatia went silent.
"And we're just Avatars that do not have a mortal body. We can't eat" Chronotia added.
"..." Spatia continued to stay silent.
"..." Chronotia didn't know what to say either.
"..." The both of them didn't say anything for a while.
"H-hey. Say something. There's nothing to listen to here other than your chit chat" Chronotia decided to say something first
"..." But Spatia remained silent.
After another unbearable amount of silence for Chronotia, she gave in. "Fine. Let's celebrate Christmas here"
Hearing that, Spatia revealed a huge smile "Finally. Now here, wear this!" Chronotia suddenly had a santa suit on her.
She rolled her eyes and just accepted it. "So. You want to make a Christmas tree?"
With that, the Avatars of Time and Space celebrated their Christmas in the silent place.
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===[Bakpao's thought]===
Couldn't fit what i wanted to say in the Author's thought so I placed it here.
So... Obviously things didn't go as planned and i did not upload anymore chapters last week. Sorry about that...
Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone who celebrates it!
Christmas isn't celebrated that much here where i lived so it's hard for me to make a christmas story special chapter. So not only is this chapter probably or definitely not so fun, it's also quite shorter.
just to let you all know (in case i haven't said it yet), [Travel log] is just stuff that happened during the one week of travel from Gilrad to Ruteshia. It won't be in chronological order or i won't even say which day it happened.
Only now did i realize did i remember that giving and receiving presents is kinda apart of christmas too.... i should've put that in the story...
And again, since this is another chapter that is not edited nor reviewed by ed, do say in the comments if there are any errors!
