Piper's Boutique || Dafont || Beyond Tonight || Aethereality || Photo
As always, Jenna wasn’t sure what she was doing in Alexshire. She vaguely remembered wanting to do
something, but by the time she got to the town she couldn’t remember what. Her eyebrows twitched in frustration as she tried to recall what she had come to do, but a bright sparkle caught her eye just as the memory came and ripped all thought from her. Swearing loudly, the Therian turned to face the object from which the glisten had come from. As she did, her mouth dropped in awe as she discovered a beautiful ice structure. What was that doing there in the middle of summer, perfectly intact even in the light of the sun? It was made of real ice, right? It sure looked it.
Curious, the shifter sneaked over to the ice castle and peered inside. The sign at the entrance didn’t catch her attention, so she remained oblivious to the structure’s purpose as she crept into the maze. As she walked, she was almost instantly greeted by a freezing ball of snow in her back. With a startled yelp, she instinctively started to morph into her dhole shape. Before she could finish, though, another snow ball struck her in her half-changed face. A moment later, she completed the transformation and agrily whirled around to face her first attacker.
”Welcome! Merry Christmas!” chuckled a moving snowman above the entrance. Breathing heavily for the effort it had taken to change shape, the ginger puppy blinked without comprehension at the figure, not at all seeing its purpose. Then, two more slushy projectiles smacked her hard on either side of her head, making her feel very dizzy. Yipping in protest, Jenna furiously glanced around the path. Finally, she discovered two tinsel-covered snowmen wielding snowballs while a third giggled a little further down the maze. Barking angrily, the Therian shifted back to her human form as quickly as she could, receiving several more snowballs to various parts of her body in the time it took to morph. Then, she scooped up as much snow as she could carry in one hand, shaped it into a crude ball and chucked it at the third snowman. Then, without waiting to see his reaction, Jenna bolted forward and began to find her way through the maze.
"There better be something worth my while at the end of this maze… After that ridiculous encounter, there has to be something!" she seethed, swinging clumsily around a corner. Her bad leg started to ache terribly in the unusual cold, and her running didn’t help. Jenna decided to ignore the pain; she was used to it, anyway.
After a few minutes of navigating, the shifter finally came across the centre of the maze. A magnificent throne sat there, looking fit for Xanth herself. A huge tree stood nearby, its branches hanging in an almost graceful matter. Many pretty and colourful ornaments decorated the fir, their shine distracting Jenna for a moment. It was only when the Therian spotted the vibrant presents at the base of the plant did it occur to her what all this was.
Xanth’s Grotto! Christmas! Jenna had only heard a few things about the holidays from random conversations she had eavesdropped into, but she knew that gift-giving and decorations had something to do with it. Eyeing the presents greedily, she wondered if anyone would notice if she were to snatch one. She probably wasn’t Xanth’s favourite subject, but the shifter couldn’t recall doing anything particularly bad lately. Of course, as she experienced quite often, her memory wasn’t that great. But what could Xanth put in a present to punish her? Jenna wasn’t even sure if these were laid out by the goddess, anyway. Deciding to take her chances, the shifter chose a package wrapped in steel blue paper and hurried out of the maze.