Posted 31 December 2008 - 09:14 AM
Cal had sort of noticed the Christmas decor that adorned Xanth's Quadrangle, but hadn't really paid much attention to it. A couple of Earth-based Christmases and he already had total command of the knack of tuning out all Christmas nonsense and calmly going on his way. Not even Cal could ignore a snowball to the side of his face, though. He jumped, squeaked in a rather undignified manner, and then started to laugh. It was another hot summer's day and if you could get past the delivery method, the cold snow felt quite wonderful. Curious now, (not to mention encouraged by the idea of cooling off for a few minutes!) he stepped inside and reveled in the cold as he wandered through the ice maze.
The summer sun sparked and glinted through the ice, dazzlingly bright, and surrealy beautiful. A whimsical little smile played about Cal's lips as he admired it all. He just wished he'd registered that this was a real ice palace earlier! He'd assumed, not paying close attention at all, it was just some fakery, and now it seemed it would be gone very soon. Still, better late than never.
On reaching the throne and the pile of presents, he murmured a soft thank you to Xanth and took a smallish box, wrapped in an appealingly shiny cherry red wrapping, and tucked it into his pocket, before slowly wandering back out through the maze, still marveling at the display.
Thank you for the doll, Emma!