The Gingies

In the full day since Dani escaped the cave, the sky never darkened. It stayed frosty and snowed a few times. Miami folks were used to the tropical weather. Isekai Game players were accustomed to winter themes at this time of year. They enjoyed tossing virtual snowballs at each other. Vanessa, however, was feeling homesick.

She sat in the sleigh looking up at the frosted sky sprinkle its fake snow down across the forest. This kind gesture of the developers only reminded her of the real snow she got in Italy. Mina, who was snuggled between Jaivva and Vanessa, noticed her sad expression.

Mina rose her ferret to give Vanessa a charming kiss, "Why are you sad"?

Vanessa shook her head and hands, "Oh no no no. I was just tinking about how we have snow in Italy".

"Is that where your accent comes from?" asked Mina.

Vanessa nodded, "I can't wait to visit my grandparents soon. I miss them vary much".

Jaivva lectured Mina as she pouted, "Don't start moping on us again".

Mina used her long brown hair to hide her reddened cheeks, "It was scaaaryyy. Those ghosts were sucking out my sooouul. It was my brave ferret who was defending me. Then I started seeing my own body and it was too scary for me".

Jaivva gave her a warm hug and kiss, "You did great though".

Mina looked up, "When will we get to play with each other again"?

"We can play next month," answered Vanessa.

Jaivva also confirmed, Yeah, we can hang out a bit for each month until June".

Mina smiled, kicking her legs up, "Good. And I wish you all good luck making it to pro".

Vanessa did well to keep a lookout for enemies. most of the enemies were minor enough for the remaining gingerbread men to handle. But a little further in the distance was a strange girl with long black hair. The girl faded right when Vanessa got Jaivva's attention.

She reappeared showing her face. It was the same girl from the train and Dani's Slumber Party. This girl was wearing some pretty skimpy Christmas attire to be wearing in the cold. Oddly, she only pointed in a different direction than where they were going. Calling the sleighs to stop, Vanessa watched the girl disappear again.

Jaivva grabbed her blade, "Wait a second Vanessa. You're probably under a spell. Every time you saw her prior you were under a spell".

Vanessa looked where the girl pointed, seeing nothing unusual. Something about the girl was trusting.

Mina rose a finger to her face, "We should send two gingerbread men to investigate. That way, only they get hurt".

An unexpected plan from Mina caused Jaivva to wonder about both her girls. She woke up Jeff from the bottom of the sleigh and threw him into their plan.

He sat up in his sleigh with his gun on his lap. t took a minute for him to order the gingerbread men to search the forest. Jaivva smacked him to look in on his scope to see what was going on.

He observed the gingerbread men walking into a halt. Their movements became bore defined and less stubbly than before. Kinda like regular people.

He observed through his scope, "Did something happened while I was asleep"?

Jaivva realized as well that the gingerbread men were now acting differently. They each had actual facial expressions as opposed to their normal aloofness. The two gingerbread men in the woods were looking far and wide for anything abnormal.

One of the gingerbread men turned around, Our team is near".

It was the first time anybody heard the gingerbread men speak. Mina was scared completely clueless about what was happening. Her ferret remained completely calm, resting her nerves.

"Since when can they talk?" asked Jaivva.

Though just as nervous, Jeff followed the scouts with his two sleighs. They said the "Team" was near. Yet nobody was seen. Riding through the forest felt like an ambush was coming.

A flurry of snowballs hailed on them. Jeff and his team attempted to duck into the sleigh. The gingerbread men also began tossing snowballs at them.

Dani's evil laughter ended the ambush to claim victory.

Jeff jumped out grabbing a ball of snow.

Dani stepped out with a platoon full of snowball wielding gingies, "You better put it down"!

Mina poked her head out, smiling, "Why are you attacking us"?

Dani smiled big, causing Jeff to drop his snowball, "Cuz it's fun".

"Where is everybody... And why does it smell like fried chicken?" asked Jeff.

Dani pointed to a nearby bush, "The boys and Leira are in there eating fried chicken... I don't know how you missed that. Don't worry, you can have mine though".

He and the girls stormed into the igloo. Sure enough, Logan, Andres, and Leira were huddled around eating chicken.

Jeff grabbed Dani chicken from a small Ice counter, "So what yall been up to man"?

Dani walked in, laying herself down on a body pillow. The gingies were hiding everything outside.

Andres handed Jaivva some chicken as Leira did Mina, "Bro, we took a castle and signaled yall".

Vanessa watched the chicken pass around before locking eyes with Logan. He stared back, chewing a leg dipped in what looked to be a mixture of sauces.

Vanessa pouted, "I wish we could relax in a castle. Then we can take pictures and pla-".

Logan shoved her his remaining chicken, "Don't worry. Once we become pro, battling and sleeping in castles will be a normal thing".

Mina shoved an entire thigh in her mouth, "Really"?

Vanessa squealed, "Oh my God Mina. You look a little hamster".

Annoyed by her Digression, Logan turned to Dani, "Explain the story".

Dani laughed at his attitude, "So basically we need to battle The Angel of Death Samael. We know he has a wife here. But Andres says he has a bunch of wives and the one we're hearing about is his hoe. So we don't know how many we have to fight. But wife or whoever used to own the castle, until we took it, apparently used to suck out souls and turn people into slaves. We took that castle! So it's ours. But we never fought her. We had to fight the envy demons who were this guy and girl. They're dead though. Aaaaaaand, let me think. Oh, they want to kill Mina and Leira to restore faith in God".

"What you guys got for us Jeff?" asked Andres.

Jeff rose his mouth full of chicken, "Let me tell you. Those ghosts tried to suck out our souls. The girls killed them. Lifted the curse. I took a nap".

"Exciting!" exaggerated Andres, "Are you gonna come with us to attack the enemy compound ahead"?

Jeff smiled, gesturing his arms, "Why not"?

Andres hugged him in, "That's the holiday spirit"!

"So what's going on with this enemy compound?" asked Vanessa.

The excitement in Dani's face dropped, "We don't know. We just know they're over there somewhere in a base. We found a map of the forest that's better than the one Andres had".

Jeff nodded his head ready to lead his team to victory. He had no clue how he was going to accomplish this. Nevertheless, he knew his team was going to give it their all.