Present Opening
The next day, Rayla excitedly wakes me up, “Morning, oki!”
“Hmm? Morning, ane.”
“Come on, everyone is already awake, Holly gave you a present.”
“Really!?”
“Yep! Now come on!”
Quite excited, I leave the room. Everyone else is already sitting on the floor waiting for me. And just like Rayla said, under the tree are…Two presents?
“Two presents? Did you guys get me one as well?”
John answers, “Nope, we’re as intrigued as you are, come on open them up. There is a letter too.”
I then sit down at the tree. There are two presents one is addressed to “Thoma Ahad/Rose” and the other is addressed to “The one that slumbers within”.
Rayla then pokes me in the cheek, “Please read the letter out loud, I want to hear it too.”
“Oh, sure!” I open the letter, “Uhum…Dear Thoma Ahad/ Rose and the one that slumbers within, I have looked through your life this year with one laughing and one weeping eye. You have lived a dangerous and dreadful life and yet you have been a very good kid this year. You very much deserve a present, so I decided to give both the you of now and the you of the past a present. The one addressed to Thoma Ahad and Rose is a toy that you might still be a bit too young for but I’m sure if you use your boost again you will be able to play with it just fine. The one addressed to the slumbering one is a piece of your old life. I’m sure it will soothe the one that sleeps within.
But despite you having been a wonderful kid this year, I still want to give you a warning. I have noticed you trying to appease others at the cost of yourself. I have also noticed that you have been training a lot without playing around. It’s not healthy to work all the time and not play, so please try to work on being a bit less diligent and enjoying yourself more.
Also, please don’t feel like you need to appease others all the time, you’re still a kid! It’s okay to want things and it’s okay to be selfish from time to time as long as you don’t overdo it. So, for next year, try to be a bit more kind to yourself. You deserve as much kindness as you give to others, never forget that!
I hope that the upcoming year will be better for you than this one and that you take my advice to heart. I also hope that you will pray to me again next year.
With Love,
Holly”
Rayla then wipes away a tear from her eye and says, “That was a lot more personal than I expected.”
John scoffs, “Yeah, who could have known that there is a kind God out there.”
Scarlet interjects, excitedly, “Who cares about the letter? Come on, Rose, open the presents!”
I put the letter aside for now and open the present addressed to Thoma Ahad/Rose.
Inside, is a little cloth ball that fits into the palm of my hand. It jingles when I pick it up as if there is a bell inside and it smells really nice.
“Hmm? What is this for? Do you guys know?”
Scarlet seems to get really excited, “It’s a toy for hatchlings! The bell makes it so we can play with it even though you can’t see.”
“Huh, I guess that could be interesting, I’m not a little kid though, I’m not sure if it will be that exciting.”
“Pfft, don’t worry I promise you’ll like it. We’ll play with it after breakfast!”
“Okay…”
I then open up the other package addressed to 'the one that slumbers within'. Inside is a slightly used looking stuffed toy in the shape of a bunny.
—------------------------------------------------------------
“Hoppy!? Hoppy is that you!?” Thoma Ahad starts to sob and gives the toy a hug. “I’ve missed you so much, Hoppy…”
Sher Aka asks, “Who is Hoppy?”
“He’s my bestest friend in the whole wide world! Wait…Aren’t you the storybook lady?”
“Are you… Not, Thoma Ahad?”
“No, I’m-”
Thoma Ahad then passes out.
“Rose!? Are you okay? What happened to her!? Answer!”
Sher Aka says, “His curse made him pass out. It seems this toy caused his personality before the curse to surface. It’s not the first time this has happened, he should get back to normal in an hour or so.”
Rayla then picks up Thoma Ahad and Scarlet asks, “Where are you taking her!?”
“Just to bed. It’s better than lying on the floor.”
Rayla places Thoma Ahad in bed and comes back to the group, “So, we pretty much have confirmation now, right?”
John nods, “It seems he is both a child in this body and his previous one. I doubt Holly would have addressed a gift to his previous self if it wasn’t also a child…”
Rayla lets out a deep sorrowful sigh, “Fuck…If he’s just a kid, then even if he’s okay now he’s probably traumatized for life from all the bullshit that happened so far…But we can’t just leave him somewhere either.”
Scarlet answers confidently, “You can leave her with me.”
“If you think you can convince Thoma go ahead. But we can’t make any decisions without him.”
She lets out a sigh and crosses her arms, “I don’t think I can yet. But I’m sure the time will come, I just need to try a bit harder.”
—------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening my eyes again, I’m lying in bed with Rayla hugging my left side and Scarlet hugging my right, while the plush toy rabbit I got is lying in my arms.
“Uhm…What is this?”
“Oh, morning oki, how are you feeling?”
“Good morning Rose!”
“Why are you…Both here?”
“Isn’t it normal that I sleep next to my lil bro?”
“It’s also only natural that I get to hug my baby sister.”
“Sure, but…You two don’t like each other.”
“We like you though, oki. But if this makes you feel uncomfortable we can stop.”
“Uhm…It feels very nice I’m just worried about you two.”
“Don’t worry about us, Rose. That letter said you can be selfish, right? So be selfish!”
“Uhm…Okay.”
“...”
“Are you guys drunk?”
“Gee, of course not oki. If this is too awkward for you though, we can go eat breakfast.”
“No…I…Can we stay like this a little longer?”
“Of course!”
We stay like this for about fifteen minutes before I ask, “Hey Scarlet… It really didn’t hurt when I bit you yesterday, right?”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Did it make you feel uncomfortable?”
“Nope.”
“Then…Can I ask you something weird?”
She grins at me and playfully pets me with her tail, “Kikikiki you wanna bite me again don’t you?”
“H-how did you know?”
“Because all kids do that with their family and friends! You wanna do the arm again?”
“Sure.”
I then sit up and Scarlet offers me her arm. I hesitate for a second but Scarlet says it’s fine so I bite her arm. It feels both fun and relaxing. I’m not sure why but being able to bite her as strong as I can without needing to be afraid that I’ll harm her somehow makes me happy.
“Hey Rayla, wanna see something fun?”
“Sure.”
Scarlet lifts her arm until I’m hanging off of it by my teeth alone, “She has such great bite strength, she’ll grow up strong!”
“Huh…Thoma, is that comfortable for you?”
I let go of Scarlet’s arm and fall back onto the futon, “Yeah. It’s both fun and relaxing!”
“Hmm, do you want to try biting me too then?”
“I don’t think that’d be a good idea, ane. Your skin isn’t as thick as Scarlet’s so it would probably hurt a lot.”
Ane seems really confident, “Well, who knows? Try me!”
“Uhm…Okay.”
I then carefully bite down on her arm putting more and more force behind it until suddenly, it feels like my teeth pierce through and the taste of blood fills my mouth causing me to let go of her arm instantly, “I’m so sorry ane!!! Does it hurt!?” I say as I lick at her wounds.
Rayla looks at me without any pain or discomfort on her face and answers, “Nope, I’m completely fine. But you were right, I guess my skin is a bit too thin for this, haha.”
“Are you really sure it doesn’t hurt!? You’re bleeding!”
She waves her hand dismissively, “It’s probably just a bit of scratch but if you’re worried I’ll go get John to look at it.”
“Yes! Please do!”
Quickly, we leave the bedroom where John looks at Rayla’s bleeding arm, “Holy shit, what happened to you!?”
“Oh, it’s just a small scratch.”
“Small scratch!? That looks pretty bad!”
“Oh but it doesn’t hurt at all, here it’s probably just bad lighting let’s go to the other room.”
—----------------------------------------------------
In the other room, Rayla reveals a pained expression, “Don’t tell Thoma about this. This is just a small scratch and an opened pimple you understand?”
“Fine, but what the hell happened? It looks like you were bitten by a mountain lion.”
“I…I asked him to bite me.”
“Why the fuck would you do that!? Don’t you remember when he ate the pork bone as if it was nothing?”
Biting her lip, she answers, “I was being stupid, okay? Scarlet said that Dragons bite their family and he enjoyed doing it with her so I got jealous…”
“Come on Rayla, we talked about this! Opened by injury, close what is not to be open, clean what is not to be dirty. Minor heal.”
Emanating from John’s hand, rays of light slowly stop the bleeding and close the wounds.
“You’re so lucky that this didn't scar. Thankfully, it looks like Thoma Ahad really tried to hold back.”
“Yeah, yeah I know. Just please don’t tell him. I don’t want him to get self conscious over this.”
—------------------------------------------------------------------
Rayla and John then come back out of the room. Rayla looks completely fine.
“Are you okay ane!?”
“Yup, like I said, it wasn’t that bad. You just accidentally scratched open a pimple that’s why it bled so much.”
“Are you sure? There was a lot of blood!”
John clears his throat, “That sorta thing can happen with Fox-Beastfolk. They have naturally high blood pressure so sometimes even small wounds can bleed a lot.”
“I see…I got really worried.”
“Pfft, what are you getting worried about? I’m fine!”
“Are you sure…”
“Yep, a hundred percent, come on, let’s eat breakfast!”
—---------------------------------------------------
Meanwhile in a kingdom far, far away at the same place that Hoppy used to be now lies a letter giving off a golden hue. Its contents are:
“Your child is still alive and well.
Holly, Goddess of children”
—--------------------------------------------------------------