This... this was ridiculous.
But I wasn’t backing out of my end of the deal. This was the easier part, as hard as it was. Finding how to free Kye...? That would be harder.
It sounded overwhelming. I didn’t even know interdimensional prisons existed, yet he wanted me to jailbreak him.
Could I comm-search that?
I’d try later.
“Tree first,” Kye suggested, pulling my everlasting fir out of storage like it weighed nothing. My jaw slackened, ball ornaments dropping from my hands into my lap as I tracked him.
It always took three of my cousins to help me setup that tree, yet Kye shouldered it as if it were a small child.
“How about that corner? In front of the window?” He turned. “Holly?”
Oh, right, words. “Sure...”
“You alright?”
“Yeah, it’s just... isn’t that heavy?”
He grunted, proceeding to prop it near the window and set up the base. “Little bit.”
Little bit.
This guy wasn’t human. Literally and figuratively.
I picked up the ornaments and tucked them away, sure that I didn’t want to use the pink ones this year.
Pink.
No idea what possessed me the Christmas I used pink ornaments. Instead, I pulled out the smoky blue and shiny gold and silver ones, realizing I had shapes of every kind.
Insane, I tell you. No wonder the marketing clerk at Comet’s Christmas Collectables always sent me ‘we miss you’ spam messages. Judging from all my ornaments, I’d spent a ton of credits there.
Ugh.
I pushed the tinsel aside, keeping it out of Skully’s reach, before scratching behind his fluffy ears while we covertly watched Kye finish the base and steady the tree.
Something nagged at me and I chewed the inside of my lip.
“Why do you like Christmas decorations so much? I thought Krampus hated Christmas.”
Kye’s grunt sounded irritated. “That’s what the nikolins wanted humans to believe. And that term is considered offensive by some of my people.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Doesn’t bother me.”
Tapping the bell ornament, I handed it to him. “Nikolins?”
“Santa,” he drawled sarcastically, taking the bell and adding it to the tree.
“Everyone loves Santa!” Well, everyone but me. Current me. Not old me. Old me loved Santa too.
Again, he grunted, none-too-pleased. “That’s what they love hearing.”
“So we shouldn’t love Santa?” That seemed... unheard of for a Christmas lover.
“I didn’t say that.” He stood back, checking the tree for any untoward limbs, straightening the fluffy foliage in spots. It took up so much space, I forgot how big and beautiful it was.
Not beautiful. That’s something old me would say. Current me hated it. Hated Christmas.
“Enlighten me?”
“It’s just an old feud between the kramps—my people—and the nikolins.”
Kramps. I inwardly chuckled. What a weird name.
“We both came across humans well over a millennia ago. Back when your people were still on Earth using primitive weapons, covering themselves in clanky armor, and using animal dung as a contraceptive.”
I gagged.
“Anyway, the nikolins are an arrogant race. They love admiration and don’t like sharing it. My people enjoyed the celebrations of the winter solstice early humans observed. They were similar to the old ways of my people.” He shrugged and crouched nearby, looking through my obscene amount of ornaments.
“The nikolins became jealous that my people and the humans got along. They hijacked it you could say. Vilified us. Easy to do when we have these features.” He gestured to his face and horns... basically all of himself.
“We became the nighttime story parents told their wayward younglings to scare them into behaving. Meanwhile, the nikolins appeared more human, trustworthy, and garnered fondness. It morphed over the centuries, but Santa is what you know them as today.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “You’re saying there’s a whole race of Santas?”
He nodded sagely. “And a race of elvshkin who serve them.”
Elvshkin!
I leaned in, my gears ticking. “Are elvshkin short?”
Nod.
“Green skin?”
Slow nod.
“Pointed ears and super cheery dispositions?”
Kye tilted his head. “You’ve met them?”
“Chyeah!” I shot to my feet, disturbing Skully. “They come to the school every year. For as long as I can remember. Even back in my grandparent’s day. That’s how I got the cube!”
Now I really had Kye’s attention. He stood. “An elvshkin gave you the crystal? Are you sure?”
“Positive. What was her name...” I snapped my fingers in the air, trying to remember, but it wasn’t coming to me. “Shit. I’ll think of it. It’s on the tip of my tongue...”
Kye scrubbed his horns, seemingly frustrated, like nothing was making sense. I’d been in that same boat the past couple days. Nothing made sense. Everything was skewed.
A knock at the door drew our attention.
Skully barked.
“Shhhh!”
I was about halfway to the door when panic caught up with me. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit!”
“What?”
“This.” I gestured to all the decorations. “That!” I pointed at the tree. “You!”
No one could see this. How was I going to explain the tree? What was my excuse for all the Christmas decorations strung about?
What would I say about Kye? No one knew he was here yet! I had it planned in my head that I was going to make a big show of him knocking on the front door and, surprise! My boyfriend (that no one had ever heard of) came for Christmas.
This wasn’t the plan!
Another series of knocks, louder, and Skully barked again.
“Coming!”
Arrrrg! The worst timing.
I stood against the door, glad I locked it. “Who is it?”
“It’s Gretta! Open the door, I want to see you.”
I turned, plastering myself to the wood, my eyes bulging as I tried to telepathically convey to Kye that my favorite aunt was right on the other side of my door.
He raised his hands like, what?
Clearly the telepathy failed.
“Aunt Gretta!” I exclaimed cheerily through the door, not daring to open it. “When did you get here?”
“Last night. Why aren’t you opening up?”
“I-I...” My brain raced. “I’m naked! Yeah, I’m naked. Sorry, you caught me at a terrible time.”
“It’s the middle of the day?”
“I uh,” fuck, “enjoy walking around naked occasionally. It’s very freeing. You should try it sometime. With your doors locked.”
Kye rumbled a laugh and I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t think of anything better? If my aunt didn’t think I was a weirdo, she would now.
There was silence on the other side of the door. “Aunt Gretta?”
“Alright, Mouse...” Her nickname for me. “If it helps your energy, then be free. I’ll be prepping third meal with your mother. Come visit me. I even brought my ullek disks! I’ll do a reading.”