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"Not quite," called Siegell, "But I might have something for you anyway!" Shastah had landed out front, and Siegell was now heading toward the front door with a large, bulky sack over his shoulder. He shouldered the door open, shaking himself vigorously as he got into the warm living room. "Hello, hello, everyone!" he called, kicking his boots clean on the rug and heading to the tree, where he swung the large sack down off his shoulder.

"Merry Rhysmas, everybody," Siegell laughed, grinning over at Amelia and reaching into the sack. "Lemme get a feel around here... eh... aahh... ah!" He pulled out a small package, neatly wrapped in red, with Amelia's name written on it. "This is for you, my dear..." He held out the box to her. Contained within was a beautiful tsuba she could mount just above the grip on her spear.

He looked up at the rest of the room, he added, "Hm-hmm, okay, let's see... who else? Oh, Ed!" He reached into the sack and pulled out something wrapped in foil that looked suspiciously like a ham-hock.

He unwrapped it. It was, in fact, a ham-hock, which was tossed to the floor in front of the she-wolf. "Merry Rhysmas to you, too, Ed," Siegell said with a laugh, diving back into his bag and rummaging about for the next gift.

Amelia came out of the kitchen with half of a sandwich in hand as Siegell shouted from the main room. "Uh... hello!" she called back to him. She took a bite of her sandwich and watched, almost as if it was a dinner theatre production, as Siegell shook himself off, kicked off his boots, and swung a rather bulky sack onto the floor.

What'd you do, clean out a spontaneously open shop? she thought, finishing her food. The appearance of presents, however, surprised her. Oh...

"Ah... Merry Rhysmas," she laughed, taking it. "Thanks..." Amelia studied the box. It wasn't very large, but then again, size didn't matter, right? She very delicately took off the ribbon, then sat down on the floor, tucking her legs under her, and ripped into the paper with all the abandon of a small child.

Amelia breathed out a little sound of surprise as she removed the tsuba from her bag. It was just the right size for her spear, too. She traced the design on the surface with her index and middle fingers. "...Thank you," she murmured gratefully. "I like it. I really like it."

--Meanwhile, upstairs--

"...We can keep in this stare-off all day, you large, wooden dastard."

Rhys was in a mortal struggle--a deadly game of wits!
...With the bookshelf from two days ago. It was still full of books, and was still untouched.

"..." The bookshelf replied haughtily.

"...Oh, bother. I really don't want to remove every last book, but what am I going to d--"

About that time he heard the yell.

"...What? Soren?"

He turned back to the bookcase.

"I'll deal with you later."

He turned to leave. "What's going on? What happened to Soren?" he asked nobody in particular. More importantly, he wondered if younger or older Soren was in some sort of trouble. If it was younger Soren, all the more reason to hurry--after all, if younger Soren died, then obviously older Soren would disappear from a crazy time paradox!
...Or maybe that meant that younger Soren was actually going to be okay BECAUSE in three years he would become older Soren, making younger Soren's death a logical impossibility.
Well, either way, someone was in trouble!

Siegell looked up, chuckling at Rhys as he continued placing presents under the tree. For Ayra, a collapsible stroller, and some soup and tuna for poor sick Lyre. Nothing for Tibarn. He didn't like birds. A necklace for Tori, a couple of bottles of port for Vaida. For Melethia, he had gotten a new set of battle robes and an apology card for having torn up her wings at Halloween. Heath was left a Crab Nicholson action figure with real extreme oversleeping action, and FD was given a copy of Dante's Inferno. Isadora's gift was a fine silver necklace with a sapphire pendant, and Ninian received a new dancing scarf. Rei got a Zelos doll; Nino got a copy of the only photo ever taken of Leander, along with a Fimbulvetr tome. All these were brightly wrapped and looked wonderful under the otherwise empty tree, and the bag still wasn't empty. Siegell paused, reaching into the bag to rummage about some more.

"Hmm, I know it's in here somewh-- ah? No, no-- aha!" He pulled out a tiny, tiny package, smaller than his thumb, wrapped in tissue paper, and tossed it to Rhys. "Merry You-mas!" Carefully wrapped in the white tissue paper was a Guiding Ring.

But still nothing for Nils.

"Nothing's wrong with Soren? Then why did I hear screaming?" Rhys asked, coming down the steps.

As luck would have it, he came down as Siegell was finishing up on placing presents, and was soon afterward surprised.

"R-really? For me? Oh, my! I-I really wasn't expecting this! Thank you! I..."
Rhys' eyes widened. A Guiding Ring... no way...

He grinned.

"Oh my! But we haven't even been on a date yet," he joked, smiling widely at his gift. "Ohhh, Siegell, you've made me the happiest man in the world!"

He didn't take it a step further to hug Siegell, but Rhys was still obviously pleased.

Ed's ears twitched at the sound of her friend's name being shouted by Melethia, but she didn't think anything was wrong with the younger Soren. He just wasn't back from his walk! Right?

So she was more focused on Siegell. As he was unwrapping the ham-hock, Ed was jumping all around and over him, yipping and barking in that "ohboyohboyohboy" way that just screamed of doggy joy! When the ham-hock landed in front of her eyes, the wolf dived for the thing! But her aim was off so her snout smacked the ham-hock and sent it sliding to the other side of the room. Her claws scrambled against the floor as she dashed after it, accurately securing the thing in her jaws this time.

And Ed pranced around the room as if the ham-hock was a giant toy.

Blossom bounced in the room as she heard Rei shout out. "What's-- Oooh, presents!" she rushed over to Rei as began to treat his new stuffed toy as an airplane. "What's that? Show me!" Blossom sat down next to him and watched him move the Zelos doll about. "That looks really neat!"

Ed looked at Nometal, ham-hock hanging from her jaws...

...and she headbutted him from behind.