I’m almost sad when they choose to stick around.
I’m not almost sad. Azar grumbles. I’m definitely upset. Our house isn’t big enough, and I really hate the Gideon one.
“Noted,” I whisper. “And for the record, blowing my mom over on her butt was the right call. Burning would have been too much, and roaring, not quite enough.”
Even a dragon can learn, it seems.
I climb up onto his back. “My dragon learns new things that impress me all the time.” And then he rips open a portal and takes us all back home so we can get ready for a full-on family reunion tomorrow.
Christmas with dragons.
My mom and dad and Gideon joining us.
I’d never have imagined it, but I bet it will be interesting.
I hope I can get through it without burning, slapping, or sobbing on my mother’s shoulder. Somehow, I doubt I can avoid all three.
Chapter 14
Azar
No matter how many times Liz explains the importance of Christmas, I don’t really understand it. “You’re celebrating the birth of a child who was born two thousand years ago?”
“Right,” Liz says. “He’s dead now, but a lot of people think he’s still alive. That’s not the only thing that makes him special, but it’s one of the big ones.”
Coral laughs. “He looks so confused.”
“If he was alive,” I ask, “would he not attend his own celebrations?”
Liz frowns. “What about this Veralden Radian. If he was alive, and you were really his children, why isn’t he here? Why hasn’t he ever shown up?”
“We don’t hold a fete in his honor,” I say.
“Look, whether you’re Christian or not,” Liz says, “and plenty of the world isn’t, Christmas is a chance to spend time together as a family and celebrate what you do believe. I heard they celebrate it in places like Korea, where a bunch of the people there aren’t even Christian.”
“But you said that you do believe in this. . .this fable about the baby.” I really am trying to understand.
“For people who believe, calling it a fable is a little patronizing.” Liz sighs. “There are some things you just believe because you can feel that it’s right, and this is one of them, okay? I believe there are things we can’t explain. Mom never believed in Jesus and Dad did, but we always spent Christmas together, and we always celebrated the teachings of someone who lived a humble life and taught us to be kind and generous with others.”
Which is why we need to leave early today. We can’t simply open the portal to bring the humans back here like we planned.
Liz sighs. Yes, because like I told you. I’m not ready for Christmas. That can happen in a normal year, but this year was not normal at all, and I’m way behind.
This part appears to be a secret from the hatchlings, though why, I’m still not quite sure. We’re going early because there’s a fat man who’s supposed to bring gifts to your siblings, but he isn’t real, so you have to pretend to be him.
The way she’s pursing her lips tells me she’s tiring of having to explain things that are apparently normal to humans.
We’re going shopping now to perpetuate the myth of the fat man who breaks into people’s homes to leave them gifts. But won’t the children know that he couldn’t possibly get past all the dragons?
It’s magic, Liz snaps. He can do whatever.
I blink. Okay, so we’ll do it now, under the pretense that we’re going there to pick up the humans and your parents.
“We will pick them up, so it’s not a pretense.” Liz sinks back into one of the chairs we’ve brought into the main room of our residence. “But yes, that’s mostly right.”
“What’s right?” Sammy asks. “No fair, secret talking.”
Liz straightens, brightening up. “I’m not secret talking. We’re entwined now, remember? Sometimes Axel just replies to my thoughts.”
