KrakenKid

As the Atlantean guard left my sight, my heart rate began to return to normal. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and peeked out again. Checking left and right, there was no one in sight. I was allowed to move forward again. It wouldn't be long before I finally reached my destination.

Why am I doing this? No matter how much time I thought about it, I couldn't come up with an answer and yet, here I was, doing it anyways.

From the farmlands of Atlantis, I worked my way up to where I was now, on the edges of the city through a lot of hiding, then moving to find another hiding spot. It was pretty easy when everyone wasn't looking out for me, so it guess it could be worse. However, it could be a lot better too...

Shoving the distractions out of my head, I focused on getting there first. If I got caught then I'd have to have them break me out and I know they'd hate to do that.

On the outskirts of the palace and the city surrounding it, I moved stealthily, fast enough to get this over with while also trying to make as little noise as possible. Tough and unnerving when you feel like someone's going to come out on their porch at any second and catch you in the act. What seemed like a hundred of the similar looking houses passed before one was drastically different. The piercing color of red stuck out.

I was so close.

I scampered over to the ledge off of the house and used the suction cups on my tentacles to pull me up. Grabbing the rail, I hoisted myself up and onto the platform and huffed. That took a lot more energy than I hoped. Maybe I should work out more... Nah. I'm too busy.

I gazed into the house.

It was standard for an Atlantean home. Marble for the structure, some windows here and there. Small upstairs, large downstairs, some wool on the roof for decoration and finished off with the balcony, the thing I was on now. There were two ways I knew of getting in without causing an explosion. Front door, which was a huge no, and the back door, the one I was at now. All the windows in the house were shut, as for the blinds on them. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door.

But no one answered.

A sigh escaped my lips as I tried again, harder this time. When it wasn't answered immediately, I rolled my eyes. "Where the heck is she?" I hissed.

As sound of the door of the house next to hers started to open, I began to frantically pound on her door as light as possible, careful not to draw attention. I pressed my body up against the door, trying to see if force would open it but it barely budged. Glancing over to the house next door, a figure began to emerge.

As my heart quickened, the door supporting me opened and I fell.

Landing on the ground with a 'Oof!', a loud thump echoed throughout the room. The one who opened it slithered outside. "Hey Mrs. Jitters! Sorry about the noise, I just dropped one of my boxes. Trying to move stuff around! Sorry, sorry! Bye!" Quickly closing it, the female let out a breath. "Oh boy that was close."

"Yeah, no kidding. Next time you ask me to come up here, please be ready. You'd save me a heart attack."

She just giggled in response. "Sorry, I was trying to do what I could before I got your advice." The hybrid helped me up. I dusted myself off before asking what I had been wondering this whole time. "So Tanith, why'd you ask me to come up here anyways? You said something about advice and... Something else. You were talking pretty fast there."

Tanith rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, a small smile forming. "Well... Apparently, there's some sort of holiday coming up that's really important and I was trying to understand it so I was hoping to get a second opinion on what I'm doing." I thought for a moment. "Do you mean Christmas?" She nodded. "Why not ask Cody about it or something. It'd be a lot easier than me having to sneak into Atlantis."

"Well, the thing is, the last holiday what was it... Gratefulness or something?" I blinked at her words.

"Thanksgiving?"

"Yeah! That! On Thanksgiving, Cody explained the whole thing to me and even after it I asked a lot of questions. Needless to say, he got more than a little annoyed with me. So, I was hoping I could spare him all the trouble and maybe you could help? Please?" I hummed. "I don't know Tanith..."

"If it helps, I set up a little bit. I just need help with some parts."

Eventually, I sighed, giving her the 'Okay' that she wanted. Her hands clapped together, her snake tail curling at the ends. "Perfect! Let's get started."

The hybrid zoomed to what could only be the living room and sat down on the couch there, speeding through a book on the coffee table. I followed behind a lot slower than her. Peeking over her shoulder, I noticed the book was on Christmas itself. "What do you need help with?" I asked.

Flipping through, she answered. "Okay, so I have the lights up," I glanced around to see she was right. Colorful lights were hung up all around the house, lighting it up. "Good, good. You got that right." As I kept searching around, I detected a couple things, some correct and others... Very wrong. "You have the cookies and though you need some help on the Gingerbread House," I nodded at the lopsided treat on the kitchen counter. "That still looks pretty good for the first time. Man, you should have seen Blooper's first Gingerbread House. That was a disaster and then some!"

A smile cracked on her face. "What happened?"

 I chuckled at the memory. "Like you, he didn't put enough frosting so it didn't hold together right. Unlike yours, it collapsed in under two minutes after completing it. I would have thought I'd be dealing with a crying child but instead he raged and just burnt the whole thing down with a candle I had out. Blooper left a mark on the counter that if you look for it, is still there."

Tanith stifled a laugh. "Must of been really mad." I snickered with her. "Oh he was. I'm just glad he didn't find a rocket launcher first."

My yellow eyes drifted from the candy house, to the snipped paper on the floor. "What's that?" I pointed to it. Her head shot up then once processing it, went back to what it was doing. "Oh, just my snowflakes. They said to fold a piece of paper a bunch then cut it up but I don't think it worked."

"You're not supposed to cut the whole thing! I-" I sighed. "I'll show you later, okay? It's hard to explain without showing you first."

Finally, there was something that surprised me. "Did you make your own chimney?"

Off to the side nearby the back door, a stone column was built all the way up to the roof and probably out. I couldn't believe I didn't notice it before. Though it wasn't fancy, the flame was a bright green color.

The hybrid grinned wildly. "I did! It took a lot of trial and error, but I did it! I even put the socks in the fire! I had to buy them and everything."

I nearly choked. "You did what?" She blinked. "Well, I didn't have any because I don't really have feet and I have no idea how to make it so I just bought them." I shook my head. "No, no, I get that. You did what with them?"

"I hung them in the fire."

"Tanith... It's supposed to be over the chimney!"
"Oh."

I chuckled. "Yeah, you hang the socks over the chimney so they don't burn and then stuff them with candies, toys and other stuff. Where did you get the 'burn them' part?" The female shrugged. "I mean, I thought that's what it meant. Anyways, I found what I needed help on!"

Turning back to her book, she pointed to the middle of the page. "This."

Leaning over, I snickered. "The tree? Really?" She nodded. "Alrighty then, you chop down a tree, put it in your house and decorate it. Was that so hard?"

"Where do I get a tree?"
"Doesn't Atlantis sell them?"

Tanith made the 'Oh' sound, nodding to herself. "That would explain why there was so many trees in the shops... Okay but how am I supposed to get a tree in my house?"

As I sat on the bed impatiently, eventually Tanith said goodbyes and the door closed. "Okay, he's gone! You can come out now!" She hollered. Grumbling, I descended down the stairs and back to the first floor. "I can't believe you had to get his help." Her blue eyes only rolled in response. "I know you hate Cody but I needed someone who had a car and could drive a car. Besides, both of you are my friends! Besides KK, I got the tree."

By the front of her house, she set up the green and fluffy pinetree. I nodded in approval. "Nice choice. Okay, now you decorate it. Got any more lights?" She nodded, and after digging through some boxes, she pulled out a long string of lights.

"Great, great. Now you take this string and wrap it lightly around the tree like so." I started to demonstrate it, circling the tree. "And then when you run out of lights, connect them and keep going until you reach the bottom." After show it off a bit, the half snake joined in. We were done in no time.

"There!" I exclaimed grinning. "Just look at it! Isn't it beautiful?"

We stood side by side, a little ways away to admire how it looked. The sparkling lights on the tree were dazzling and only reminded me that I still needed to do the same at my home.

"It really is! Though I must say, this is a weird customs. Who comes up with this stuff? Also, what's a "Santa" and why is it okay for him to come into my house when I'm sleeping?"

"... We have a lot to talk about."

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So I decided that after that little thing I did in Sea Serpent, I'd give you guys something a little more lighthearted with this. Since Tanith doesn't know anything about the normal holidays you and I might celebrate, and since Christmas is one of the more weirder one's I thought I'd make this.

This is part one out of... Three? I'm still deciding on the last one so not really sure yet...

Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter, even if you don't celebrate Christmas! Be sure to comment and farewell!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter