Chapter 14

Back down in Pure Heart Valley's town areas at night, Adorabat was flying towards a particularly decorated shack. She was able to make it to the shack's front door where a dressed lady Sweetypie was currently closing and locking up, being literally about to leave. "Excuse me," she said to the grownup, getting her attention. "Is the Gift-Saint still here? It's really important that I talk to him."

The lady pointed Adorabat to the street across from the shack. "He's about to get in his car. If you hurry, you can catch him." Adorabat nodded and thanked her before taking off for her target destination.

Next to a car that sat at the curb, an adult male Sweetypie heavily dressed in showy robes had just about opened the driver door of his car. He was thinking a jolly tune to himself when he noticed Adorabat coming up to him. "Excuse me!" Adorabat called to him. "Mr. Gift-Saint?"

The guy closed his car door. "Yeah, kiddo? What can I do for you?"

Adorabat was about to tell him when her eyes trailed down to the robe he was wearing for a moment. "Nice outfit," she complimented. "You look like a really jolly man."

The guy dressed as the Gift-Saint smiled back. "Why thanks. Tonight's been a good night. At least there's no sheriff around to give out parking tickets at this time of the year."

Adorabat frowned a little at the way the guy talked about Mao Mao, but let it pass since he didn't say anything remotely disparaging. However, she was curious. "He gave you a ticket before?"

He was rather nonchalant. "Eh, he gave me a ticket just last week just for parking in the park, but I was just making my landing for the pre-Eve dance. Getting a ticket for something so small but nice, what's next? Rabies shots on Spring Sweets Week?"

Adorabat decided to ignore the guy's miniature rant to get back on topic. "Well, that's hard. You got a minute?"

The Gift-Saint man replied to her, "Sure, but do make it quick. Gift-Saint here has a gathering he's gotta make it to on time."

"Okay," Adorabat began, "First up, I know you're not the real Gift-Saint."

The Gift-Saint man raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"I'm old enough to know how it works," Adorabat explained, but continued before the guy could say anything else to further bring down the mood, "but I also know that you work for him, so I just want you to give him a message for me."

"Lay it on me," the guy told her invitingly.

"Okay," Adorabat began. "This is extremely important, so please listen. My name's Adorabat and I live at the Sheriff's Department HQ just out of town. I like you to tell him that instead of presents this year, I just want my family and friends back. Mao Mao, Badgerclops, my dad Eugene, and my classmates Chubbum, Ketchup, Plippy, Kevin, and if he has time, Lucky too."

The man slowly nodded as he took in the bat's request, surprised that the girl is connected to the sheriff he just complained about. "Okay…I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks," Adorabat told him, but before she could leave, she was stopped by him calling her.

"Wait, hold on," he said to her. He hurriedly shuffled a hand in one of his pockets to look for something. "I usually hand out candy canes, but I gave away the last one a little while ago." He fished out a little tin box of tic-tacs. "I hope you don't mind these."

"That's okay," Adorabat politely tried to refuse.

"No, no, don't be silly," the man jested, "every kid should get a little something when they see the Gift-Saint." He gently took Adorabat's wing and sprinkled a few tic-tacs onto it for her to grasp. "Here you go. Happy Snowfest to you. Just don't spoil your dinner now." He winked to her as he said that.

Adorabat smiled. "I won't. Thanks." With that, she turned to leave, allowing the guy to finally go back to his car, getting in and starting the engine. He didn't get far though, having shortly ended up getting stuck in a snowbank to his verbal chagrin.

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As Adorabat gently flew through town, she happened to take a side glimpse at a nearby house, prompting her to land on the ground to look through the warmly lit windows for a moment. Seeing inside, there were a number of Sweetypies, young and old, gathered together, talking and laughing as they got ready to seat themselves around a dinner table. There were even a few others who took a moment to add an ornament to their Snowfest tree.

Adorabat felt she should be happy for them, but she mostly looked on sadly as she remembered what she was missing at this very moment. She turned to fly away.

After a while, she thought about stopping by Town Square for a bit when she noticed a large gathering of Sweetypies there. When she landed, she saw that it was indeed the case. Many Sweetypies were present and standing together around the decorated tree that stood in the middle of the plaza, just meters from the main fountain. Everyone there was caroling, singing a gentle and graceful Snowfest song. Adorabat felt the melodies complementing the strong colorful lights that hung around the tree and reflected off the other assorted shiny ornaments. She thought to herself that it was indeed a beautiful, peaceful, and comforting atmosphere…up until she noticed someone whom she knew all too well to be the last person she hoped to see: Orangusnake.

Her eyes widened, her body tensing as she felt ready to go at him again, but she froze as she knew what was going on right now, the overall mood. She didn't know what the scarfed Sky Pirate was doing there, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to ruin the mood of tonight just for a fight. As if to complicate her dilemma further, Orangusnake had noticed her too and slowly began walking towards her. Adorabat clenched herself even further the closer the pirate came to her, and once he stopped to stand next to her, she was just on the verge of exploding with aggressive energy. The silence between them amidst the other Sweetypies' singing was almost too much.

"Uh," Orangusnake opened his mouth, prompting Adorabat into a defensive pose, "Happy Snowfest."

Adorabat blinked. "Huh?"

Orangusnake knelt down closer to her level. "So, what do you think I'm up to this time?" Adorabat didn't know how to respond, just shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders without saying a word. Orangusnake looked back at the tree. "You like the tree? I actually helped set it up along with the ones in the junkyard."

That made Adorabat feel even more confused. "I don't get it. Why are you suddenly doing non-evil things?"

Orangusnake thought over what words to use. "Let's just say that with these temperatures, I was willing to call 'timesies' for now."

Adorabat figured that now was as good a time as any to get to the bottom of this paradox. "So why even do nice things in the first place? Are you trying to get the Gift-Saint to give you presents this year? You need to be better than that."

Orangusnake frowned heavily. "What? Of course I'm not trying to be a good boy…not really anyway. It's freezing back at the ship and my fellow pirates are too cold to do anything on their own, so it's been left to me to hold them up until spring. And I'm not gonna get any warm and yummy stuff just from trashing the holiday cheer. Your people were so nice to even let me do stuff for them in exchange for the winter goods that it's unreal."

Adorabat couldn't quite figure out if it was her imagination, but she was sure that Orangusnake was looking proud of himself as he continued talking. "Thanks to the work I've -ahem- 'lowered' myself into doing, I've been getting food, blankets, and even some gear for heat to keep my crew going. But since however much I bring back to the ship for us all never seems to be enough, I wonder how much longer I have to keep doing this until the snow melts…"

"So…you're not trying to steal stuff?" Adorabat asked for further clarification. "Not even the Ruby Pure Heart? Does this mean you're not pirates anymore?"

"Hah! You wish!" Orangusnake scoffed with a flick of his wrist. "I'll always be after the Ruby Pure Heart, just as I know you, Mao Mao, and Badgerclops will be here to try and stop me. But as much as I want to steal it while it's just you around, it's way too cold for that." He took a breath and let it out like a frustrated growl. "I'm already swamped from helping out with mopping up flooded houses as is. It's hard enough getting every inch and corner dry and not knowing why it's even happening."

Adorabat waited, but then flapped her wings to fly right up to Orangusnake's eye level and then land on his shoulder. She didn't need to worry about him swatting her off, even though his teeth-bared face told her that he didn't like her invading his space like that. "So, 'timesies' like you said?"

Orangusnake sighed. "Yeah, so how about we call 'timesies' for now, at least until Mao Mao and Badgerclops are back? Then, it's on." He held up a hand to Adorabat. "Deal?"

Adorabat, after silently assessing him while he explained himself, felt safe enough to decide that he wasn't a threat for now. In fact, she felt a little bit of a newfound respect for the Sky Pirate who himself respected the boundaries of a social celebration. "Deal," she told him, putting her wing on his hand in a touch of mutual agreement.

The two let out a breath they both held for a little too long, relieved that the tension between them was over. Adorabat figured that now was as good a time as any to hurry on back home. She flew back into the air, but before she went in the direction of HQ, she took another glance at Orangusnake. "You know, you could always go to the king for gifts. He's always excited about giving out the craziest gifts on Snowfest Eve."

"Are you talking about the clown?" Orangusnake asked incredulously. "Well, I guess that's an idea. But I highly doubt he'd want to hand over his precious presents to a pirate like me. He'd probably freak out the first second he sees my face. I'll pass."

Adorabat frowned, but perked up as she suddenly had an idea. "Alright then." Before she left, she spoke to him with a smile one last time. "Happy Snowfest, big meanie."

Orangusnake smiled back with a wink. "Happy Snowfest, little brat."

Adorabat returned his smile with a bigger one of her own and finally flew away. As she passed over the town gate and made her way in the direction of HQ, she heard the chiming of a distant clock tower, making her panic a bit and fly faster. She had to hurry home.

Once she finally made it back, she got right through the front door and slammed it shut behind her. She rested her back against the door inside to think of what to do next. But she shortly pulled herself together, knowing better than to idle for another second just thinking when she had to do it on the fly. She steeled herself for what she had to do.

"This is my house. I have to defend it."

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On top of Mao Mao's office desk, Adorabat cleared away the surface to unroll a map of the house, floor plans hand-drawn in crayon with several parts having little drawings of various contraptions she had in mind. Adorabat carefully reviewed what she drew, making sure that what came next was directly according to the plan:

On the main living room floor of the house, Adorabat carefully placed a down a number of toy cars and then a bunch of her toy paratrooper soldiers on the edge of a few rafter beams.

Outside, Adorabat carefully poured buckets of water onto the front porch and steps, doing the same with the ones leading to the dojo and also the tunnel floor connected to the basement garage. On the porch, she made sure to pile lots of junk between the front door and the pathway to the waterwheel.

She went through a few shelves of maintenance supplies in the garage to pull out several bottles of gardening spray, not noticing Lucky's spider watching her do that. She taped the spray bottles together into a pair of towers facing the front sliding doors in the middle, tying each bottle's nozzle handles to both doors with string.

Adorabat went on to smear globs of tar on the steps of the staircase that led from the garage back up to the main floor. She added a small sheet of sandpaper with a nail embedded in it on top of one of the steps, making sure the nail's pointy end stood upright.

She went outside the house, flying from the rooftop to the top of the dojo with a loop of elastic rope tied to her waist. She had two ends of the rope tied to the house roof while she stretched the middle to go just around the top tip of one of the logs that composed the center top of the dojo to hold it tight. Once it was finished being set up, it looked like a slingshot.

Adorabat then proceeded to place several ornaments underneath the rear window in the bedroom. She made sure every one of them was the fragile glass type, even adding a few pointy star-shaped ones for good measure.

She set up bath bombs and tied them with long ropes to the other remaining beams in the main atrium's rafters, remembering how she and Mao Mao set them up one time to clean Badgerclops when he once stank so bad. Once she was finished setting them up, she moved on. Lucky's spider passed by that spot from behind her.

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Once Adorabat was finished setting up her contraptions around the house, she finally decided to take a rest. She took some time at Mao Mao's office desk to use the phone to call King Snugglemagne, talking to him for a little bit. After that, she turned on the colorful lights around the tree she set up.

Adorabat then waited until the microwave had finished its job, opening it to remove the microwaveable dinner she bought in town earlier in the day. Mao Mao, Badgerclops, her dad, and the rest were not going to be back until the Gift-Saint heard and granted her request, so tonight, she was on her own for Snowfest Eve dinner.