Chapter 17: Day 5 - Snowfest Day

The light of the sun returned to Pure Heart Valley the following morning. Snow was falling from a radiant overcast sky in heavy amounts. It looked as though white feathers were being poured from a giant pillow up above or big white flakes dancing in the water of a snow globe. Either way, the packed clumps of snowflakes drifted down to the snow-covered ground, which was covered in a flawless and untouched layer of white like a blanket.

Adorabat was hanging from her spot on the bunk bed in the bedroom, gently and softly snoring away. But her slumber stopped soon enough as her eyes slowly opened, allowing her to drift awake and take in her surroundings. Seeing how quiet the place was and also the snow falling outside the window, she immediately realized what today was.

Releasing her hanging grip, Adorabat instantly flew out of the room to make her way to the living room, hoping to find who she wished for standing by the tree.

"Mao Mao?" she called happily. "Mao Mao? Dad? Badgerclops?"

She got the lit and decorated Snowfest tree in her line of sight with an anticipated smile, but the smile dropped when she saw none of the story. It looked exactly the same as she left it last night. She turned away from the tree and landed back on the floor with a tap. Going to the front door, she opened it to look outside, still hoping to find anyone out there. There was just snow. Disappointed, she closed the door. With nothing else left to hope and wait for, the little bat turned and walked back to the bedroom.

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As soon as the ground bus stopped in just within Pure Heart Valley's main border, Mao Mao and Eugene were already off it. Not stopping to notice that the bus left in the same second it took for them to get off, they sprinted with all their renewed energy in the direction of HQ.

Mao Mao ran and Eugene flew until they got to the elevator platform at the bottom of the cliff that HQ sat at the top of. Mao Mao twitched his legs as he felt progressively antsier from having to wait out the slow trip up, being the one riding the elevator after all. Eugene, on the other hand, flew up to the top of the cliff and waited for Mao Mao to arrive. As soon as both were together in front of HQ, they rushed to the front door. Being the one who was in charge of the residence, Mao Mao hurriedly unlocked the door and stepped into the main atrium. Upon re-entering the house for the first time, both the bat and cat were out of breath as they looked left and right.

"Adorabat!" Mao Mao called. "Adorabat?"

"Little gem!" Eugene called as well. "Are you here?"

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A little while before Mao Mao and Eugene got through the door, Adorabat was sitting in the bedroom, sitting on her bunk with a picture frame in her wings. She was looking at the photo – the family photo – that was taken of herself, Mao Mao, and Badgerclops, thinking of them and the memories she had of them the whole time. She kept her eyes on the photo until she heard noises, particularly a click from what she was certain was the front door. Then, it was when she heard two of the voices she longed to hear for the whole week. Her eyes widened, her ears perked up, and a gaping jaw-drop that soon turned into an anticipating smile once again graced her features, prompting her to put down the picture and fly back to the main atrium.

Before Adorabat came out, Mao Mao saw that the house still looked the same as when he left it a week ago. He would have started to worry again if it wasn't for Eugene tapping him to look over to the side of the living room. The sight of a little tree next to the window, decorated in ornaments and lights, and with a glass of milk and plate of cookies sitting at its side, warmed his heart as it did the bat's. It made him happy that Adorabat was still able to keep to the Snowfest spirit, but at the same time, he felt bad that she had to do all this alone, that she had to work that much because he wasn't around because of his oversight. The smile didn't leave his face regardless, same with Eugene.

At the same time they were both looking at the tree, Adorabat rushed out and gasped in joy at who she saw. She landed onto the floor to compose herself, and soon enough, Mao Mao and Eugene turned to see the little bat standing across the living room from them. Neither side could have been happier their whole lives at that very moment.

Mao Mao fought to keep himself from hyperventilating in total joy, his eyes already beginning to water. Eugene already beat him to the waterworks though, but also couldn't contain his voice any longer. "Happy Snowfest, little gem," he told her tenderly.

Adorabat returned the gesture with a look of warmth, but soon faltered into a bit of disappointment, a faint frown and disappointed eyes being evident on her face. All three of them knew why that was.

"Oh Adorabat, we're so sorry," Mao Mao said to her, regret refilling his heart. "We didn't mean to leave you, but we're sorry. I promise I'll never do that to you again."

Adorabat kept her long face for a moment, but in no time, her smile returned. "It's okay," she said. Without another word, she took off into the air and went right for Mao Mao, flying at a speed test enough to give the black cat an 'oof' when landed into his embrace.

Mao Mao didn't mind it one bit. In fact, he was laughing and crying at the same time as he held her in his arms in a strong affectionate hug after catching her in her flying dash. He held her tight and even nuzzled his cheek against her own as he felt like crying tears of joy already. Eugene joined in on the emotional embrace as well by jumping and wrapping his wings around Mao Mao's arms which held Adorabat, locking in the warm hug as he held on. Like a cherry on top, he too was letting out joyful sobs of his own.

The group hug lasted for a minute or so before they broke up to give each other room to breathe. Adorabat got right to it first. "Where's everybody else?"

Mao Mao thought she was going to show her disappointed face again. "Oh Adorabat, they couldn't make it. They wanted to come, but –" Before he could say further, to his surprise, he thought he could hear multiple voices coming from the other side of the closed front doors.

Eugene and Adorabat could hear the voices too, and they got louder and closer until the doors opened, prompting both of them plus Mao Mao to turn and look at the source. Eugene and Mao Mao looked surprised while Adorabat, on the other hand, was amazed and overjoyed. Despite the loud bickering and just-as-loud attempts at mediation that was happening, Adorabat was happy to see the actual faces of whom the voices originated from as they all were walking in.

"Hey! I wasn't snoring that loud on the transport!" argued Chubbum who was talking to Kevin.

"Yes, you were!" Kevin loudly refuted. "Nobody else was sleeping!"

"Yes! We're back! This vacation was so boring!" Lucky exclaimed.

"No, it wasn't! It was a disaster!" Ketchup corrected Lucky's claim.

"Hey kids, take it easy! It's Snowfest!" Badgerclops tried to sedge his way into their conversations while moving them along fast enough so he could get inside too and close the door. "But yeah, this trip was still kind of a total drag."

The moment all of them got their sights on Adorabat, their previous bickering turned to elation and relief. All the other kids crowded around her, saying her name loudly as though they would have a party any moment. Even Badgerclops got in on it by grabbing her in both of his hands and lifting her up like a newborn baby before pulling her in for a hug.

"Oh, Adorabat! You're okay! You're still in one piece!" the badger happily cried as he rubbed his cheek on the little bat in his arms just as Mao Mao did. He held her for a second longer before putting her down again. "I gotta tell you: It's crazy cool you stayed this long without bringing the place down."

Adorabat smiled at the badger's humor and flew up to sit on his shoulder. "Thanks, Badgerclops," she responded, leaning on the side of his head as she took in the sweet affectionate essence of the other person she missed just as much all week.

Mao Mao was already in mild shock about Badgerclops and the kids being back just when he was talking about them all. The same could be said for Eugene. "Hold on. How did you all get back?"

Badgerclops answered that question so relaxingly as though it wasn't even a chore. "We took the morning flight, dude. You know, the one you and Eugene didn't wanna to wait for?"

Normally, Mao Mao would have tried to make a stronger and more aggressive comeback, but he was just too happy with everyone being all together again on top of reuniting with Adorabat that he just hugged Badgerclops. After releasing the badger from his hold, the sheriff pretended to dust himself off.

"Well then, now that that affair's in order," Mao Mao took on an exaggerated mock-business tone, "We should probably check if there's an open store in town. The fridge's already out of milk."

That appeared to slightly sour Badgerclops's mood. "What? We just get back and you already want to make us go shopping? You know it's Snowfest, right?"

Luckily before Mao Mao could give an intense retort and start an argument between himself and the badger, Adorabat used her quick-thinking to step in. "It's okay. I already went shopping yesterday."

Everybody turned their eyes to her, completely stricken silent, complete with Mao Mao, Badgerclops, and Eugene with stunned and beguiled looks on their faces. It was understandable, given that she was a 5-year-old kid. "You went shopping?" Eugene asked her, pausing in between each word to show just how stunned he was.

Adorabat nodded with the utmost confidence, even holding her wings behind her back to look even better. "That's right. I got milk, bread, and even a few microwaveable dinners."

There was instant amazement written all over Badgerclops's face. "Whoa, that's so cool! You're so amazing!" At first, he had gasped, but then it turned to an opportunistic giggle. "Really, Adorabat! That's a great job you did!"

"Don't even think about it, Badgerclops," Mao Mao cut him off sternly. "You're still doing your chores." Ignoring the badger sticking his tongue out at him, Mao Mao focused his attention back on Adorabat. "So you went shopping by yourself," he reiterated like he was doing a hero's assessment, but said it like it was all in good fun, "What else did you do while we were away?"

Adorabat, keeping her lighthearted smile, shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, "Just hung around."

Everyone, both the adults and the other kids, laughed at the statement. With nothing else to discuss, the grownups got right to getting the other kids settled back in, transferring all the luggage in a proper place in HQ while making arrangements to have the kids sent home to their families later in the day. Adorabat could only watch them pass by, remarking to each other about how they couldn't believe she actually went out shopping by herself and speculating among themselves about other grownup things she might have done over the week. Among the words they spoke, she could make out ones like, "She's 5 and she went shopping?", "She took care of the house for a whole week!", and so on. After some small last shows of affection from Mao Mao, Eugene, and Badgerclops before they went off, Adorabat decided to take a little stroll out to the dojo.

While she went, Lucky thought he spotted a familiar thing crawling near one corner of the house. "My spider!" he happily remarked out loud, hurrying towards it. "There you are! How have you been, my little sweetie?" he tenderly asked it as he scooped it up into his hands, giving it the goo-goo-eyed look.

Stepping onto the dojo's veranda, Adorabat thoughtfully took in the view of Pure Heart Valley, from the town area in the distance below to the Ruby Pure Heart that stood so high up even further away. As the snow fell from all around outside, Adorabat pondered about the Sky Pirates who rescued her from Rufus and Reggie last night. She hoped that King Snugglemagne would follow through on the request she sent to him over the phone – twice – as she understood, or at least had a good idea of, the seriousness in how he regarded the holiday. She wondered how the Sky Pirates were doing on their own.

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Over in another corner of Pure Heart Valley, in a grove of barren trees surrounding a downed airship covered in snow like everything else, things were a little more crowded than expected. Orangusnake and his crew planned to spend most of their Snowfest Day inside the ship, making due with whatever amenities the captain was able to earn during his volunteer labor over the week. The Sky Pirates even thought about starting a bonfire in the ship to try and have a little party with any food earned, though Orangusnake would have an objection or two first.

However, they were all interrupted by disturbances coming from outside, so they looked out from the top to investigate. As expected, Orangusnake was in front to represent his crew. "Who goes there?" he called down to whoever was intruding below. He and the other pirates were unable to register the looks of surprise on their faces when they recognized the king's guards making up the visiting group. Their surprise even doubled when seeing those guards surrounding several giant loads of things carried on sleds.

One leading guard at the front of the group was the first to answer back. "Present delivery by decree of the king! Can you verify the pickup?"

All the pirates looked at each other, none of them remembering having a talk with the king about some request for things. Wondering if there was a mix-up, Boss Hosstrich thought he'd do the courteous thing and be forthright about this matter. "Well, there must be some kind of mis –" He was promptly tackled by Orangusnake, Ramaraffe, and Ratarang before he could complete his statement, being additionally pulled from outside view for discussion.

"Boss Hosstrich, those are free goodies!" Orangusnake hissed quietly, "I don't know why they're here, but we're not turning that away! Heck, don't even ask why they're giving it to us!" He waited until the ostrich nodded his head in compliance to release him. Everyone made their way down to ground level, exiting the ship to greet the guards and receive the goods.

Addressing the senders, Orangusnake cleared his throat. "Well, uh, thank you!" he tried to be formal. "Those are some nice goodies. You can just put them in the first room ahead." He pointed his arm to the entrance, allowing the guards to start moving the deliveries into the ship. As every guard moved on, the pirate captain thought he'd snag the main messenger guard for a last quick question. "Hey, uh, so any reason your king decided to give us all this?"

The guard answered the pirate captain's question like it was just small talk like any other. "Oh, well you know, the king likes to give out cheap goodies close to Snowfest and wanted to be done last night…" Orangusnake nodded in affirmation as he waited for the guard to get through another verbal trip-up, "…but he got a couple calls from a little kid pestering him to do it again for you today."

Orangusnake raised an eye ridge. "A little kid pestered him?" He had a good idea who that kid was, but though he'd ask anyway. "Did he say who the kid was?"

The guard playfully rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don't know. We just heard him talking on the phone, mostly holding the phone away from his ear when loud girly screeches came out of it and then talking about knowing the sheriff and whatnot…"

Orangusnake heard enough. He turned to go back inside the ship, passing by the guards leaving after having dropped off everything. He felt pleased as he observed Ramaraffe, Boss Hosstrich, and Ratarang jumping around and helping themselves to the giant pile of things, letting out cries of joy at the same time.

"There's so much yummy food here!" Ramaraffe exclaimed joyfully in childish guile.

"It's so beautiful!" Ratarang concurred. "We can be warm all through winter!"

"Hey boss, did you win all this stuff?" Boss Hosstrich called to his captain.

Orangusnake would have answered by saying the name of the child likely responsible for this episode of good fortune, but he decided to just let it be for today. It was Snowfest, after all. "Eh, some friendly Sweetypie neighbor wanted to wish a Happy Snowfest to the poor folks with little, those folks being us. We'll get her next time."

He stopped right in front of the present pile to pull out a packaged box holding a still-warm pie. He let out his classic pirate-like announcement voice. "Who's up for Snowfest lunch today?" In no time at all, the three other pirates were loudly and excitedly telling him that they most definitely were up for a warm meal.

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Adorabat allowed a smile to form on her face as she looked in the direction she felt the Sky Pirates' ship might be. She normally didn't do nice stuff for criminals like them, but for the sake of the spirit and cheer, she felt the need to spread the kindness to at least some people. After all, again, it was 'timesies'.

The peaceful joy she felt would have lasted a lot longer if it weren't for two familiar but startlingly loud voices resonating from the basement, making not just her but the other kids and Eugene jump. The loud indignant voices sounded like they were speaking in unison, making Adorabat's recognition of hearing Mao Mao and Badgerclops all the more acute:

"ADORABAT! WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE GARAGE!!?"

Adorabat gasped with wide eyes, then thought it might be a good time to take another mini-flight into town right about now. With a flap of her wings, she was out of the dojo and flying through the open valley air.

It was definitely a 'Happy Snowfest' today.