Christmas Eve

Rachael rose early in the morning. The last three days were hectic for Rachael as she was busy shopping the first two days for the festive clothes and decorations and the rest of the time she spent helping her mother with baking the Christmas plum cake and prepping up for Christmas feast.

After Christmas there would be hardly six days left for new year and she had planned to finish all the preparations including the parlour visit atleast 2 days prior to the new year eve. This way she could catch up on the much needed rest.

The one thing which was bothering her was with so many guests at home, would her mum be able to manage them. Not that her mum could not manage but her parents had grown old and this new year party shouldn't be a burden on them.

Ray had suggested to pull out the old Robo assistant lying in the garage which he had designed a few years back with the technology available at that time. As the Robo was not used for a few years now, Rachael was wondering if it would function properly and if it did, would it meet the current day requirements.

Ethan had stepped in to volunteer to help get the robot into working condition along with adding many features to ease the load of Rachael's mum. But they could not do all these with their parents around as the new year party was a planned surprise for them and if they saw Ethan meddling with Robo, they would get a doubt.

To avoid arousing any suspicion from her parents Rachael had suggested, to rent a place close by for 2 days and fix the Robo out there. This advice made complete sense to both the men. Ray went ahead and booked a room in the same lodge for 2 days immediately after Christmas.

It was Christmas Eve today and after an early breakfast Ethan and Ray headed to the forest to get the Christmas tree. They were excited to see how Ray's magic had worked. They had rented a mini truck for transporting the tree.

Although Ray had the knowledge of all his powers, he had not made a practical use of most of them. So even he was curious to see the results. As they neared the tree they had marked, their excitement only grew.

Once they reached the tree, Ray removed the concealment just in time for a forest patrolling officer to come by. When the officer approached them, Ray showed him the receipt of payment done for the tree.

The officer got a doubt when he looked at the tree which looked young, green and healthy. He suspiciously looked at Ray and while he did that Ethan stealthily chanted the illusion spell which made the tree look like it's original form.

"The record says you are chopping an old tree but I see you are not following it ?" the officer raised his brows while questioning.

"What are you talking about officer? We are just chopping an old tree as per the permission obtained. I am not sure how can this old tree be called a young tree" said Ray.

The forest officer turned his head to see the tree had completely changed now. Was his eyes playing tricks? He was still not ready to believe his eyes and looked at both of them suspiciously before handing over the receipt back to Ray. He then walked away to continue his patrolling.

After the officer left Ethan winked at Ray and then whispered

"Ray, let's not remove the illusion spell till we reach home. Let's not take any more risk. People may see the tree while transporting as well" to which Ray nodded his head in agreement.

After chopping the tree down they loaded the tree to the truck and headed back home.

Once they reached home, they set up the tree a little away from the fire place in the main hall. They had planned to remove it only after the new year.

The three of them got together to decorate the tree. Rachael's dad also lent his helping hand in decorating the tree. It took them close to 3 hours to plan and to finally decorate it. They had taken additional time for the detailing especially with the guests arriving for new year they wanted to make sure it looked beautiful.

The tree was decorated with mostly white and silver with gold and red bells shimmering here and there. When there was a light breeze coming in from the window, next to the tree, the bells would ring in unison giving a pleasant note. The tree sparkled when light fell on it. A bright red star adorned the top of the tree.

Figurines of elves were placed around the presents which was neatly stacked underneath the tree. The presents which were placed at the bottom of the tree were packed in glitter papers of red, green, golden and silver. A small set up which depicted Bethlehem with Mother Mary holding Baby Jesus was placed right next to the presents. As a final touch Ray had put a spell to last until new year. This gave it a magical aura along with creating an artificial breeze to gently blow on the tree when the windows were closed at night.

The entire set up looked mesmerising and breathtaking. When Rachael's mom came out she was awed to see such a marvellous set up. The kids had done a wonderful job. This was something that the family looked for every year and this year the tree looked most beautiful of all these years.

All of them finally got up to have lunch. The decoration of the tree had squeezed out all their energy and all of them were starving and dying to have lunch. In total it was a job well done and everyone were happy about the final results. Although all of them had super powers they behaved like a normal person on earth and had decorated the tree.

As usual Rachael's mom had laid a lavish spread on the table. She wanted to pamper her daughter and son-in-law as she knew that they may have to leave after new year, although the actual dates were not confirmed. But no one knew things were to change.

After a delightful lunch, it was time for usual nap. Ethan was waiting in the room for Rachael who was helping her mom in the kitchen to cleanup.

He was finding Rachael's behaviour strange and odd especially since the time he had arrived on earth. She was perfectly normal while she was on Zon.

Ethan had received abundant love from her family and he was very happy about it, but he had failed to decipher her thoughts to understand what was going on in her head. He was not feeling ok about how she had been behaving with him, but had not shown any hint of his displeasure on his face. He had tried remaining cheerful in front of everyone.

Rachael's family knew Ethan was from the Royal family and now their daughter was a royal too. Ethan got used to the culture of earth within days and behaved like any other normal human being earth. He did all the common things which any person on earth would do. This had easily won her parents heart. Ethan had planned to take few of the ways and culture of people out here back to his planet and implement it there.

In Zon, people in the Royal family had many options where they could remove all the important thoughts and decisions and keep it in sealed books which was then safely hidden. As everyone on Zon could easily decipher anyone's thoughts including that of member of Royal family, the royals had no other way but to use these options to keep Royal secrets off the common public.

Ethan was invited for Christmas and New Year this year by her parents, as this was his first time joining Rachael's family celebrations after their wedding, Rachael could not stop him from coming down to earth as she knew her parents adored Ethan. They were so proud to have a handsome son-in-law. And her doubts about Ethan which she was still not able to prove, she couldn't do much about it at the moment.

The only one thing she did was as soon as she had come to her parents home from Zon, was to seek help from Ray. She knew that her brother was the most powerful being in multiverse and she had convinced him to give her the semi-thought concealing spell.

This spell would selectively conceal certain thoughts of hers which she did not want anyone to know, including Ray. She did not want to conceal her entire thoughts just in case someone sneaked through her thoughts it should look normal. She was aware her parents often sneaked into her thoughts and she did not want them to know about her worries.

Also as Ethan had come down a little later than her, she had grabbed the opportunity to get this spell from Ray. Now with Ethan and Ray hanging around as best pals, there was no way she could take his help.

Ethan knew that Rachael had got a hint about the things which was happening in his family but that secret had been kept away from her. And he perfectly knew this was the thing which was bothering her and she had not shown her insecurities while on Zon. But earth being her parents home she was allowed to show all her displeasure.

Ethan sensed Rachael was coming to the room and hid behind the door of the room. As soon as she entered he hugged her tightly and kissed her and Rachael got annoyed.

She said "Ethan I am extremely tired, mum and I still have loads to cook for tomorrow and I really need to nap. Please if you can excuse me, I need to nap."

With this she pushed him away and hurried towards the bed to lie down and nap.

Ethan loved her to a lot. She was the only woman he had ever loved in his life. But in the last one year things were slipping off his hand. He had tried everything he could but was unable to fix it.

When Rachael's parents had invited him, he had jumped at this opportunity and accepted the invite much to the displeasure of certain members of the Royal Family. Ethan was desperate to get Rachael back in his life before he lost her completely.

If he ever lost her the

consequences would be disastrous.

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