A Completely Normal Christmas Festival... Hopefully

Oh, no. It was that time of year again. That supposedly wonderful time of year where everything just seemed better. People were more cheerful, at least when they weren't stressed over finding the perfect gift, festive decorations covered nearly every inch of every town and village, and the music of the season was all around whether it was being played on an instrument, a recording, or just being sung by random people as they went about their day. Yes. A supposedly grand time of year.

Unfortunately, there was a certain Goddess of Ishgar that had become cynical about the whole thing. She enjoyed the festivities, of course. She wasn't one of those people that became unreasonably grouchy around happy people that were celebrating. It was just that every year something always happened to ruin it all. Once before it was Santa Claus gone crazy with little evil elves and dangerous less than friendly living Christmas trees. Then there was that time a yeti creature and some other creatures spontaneously appeared to ruin the festivities. What sort of crazy would happen this time? Samira secretly wished that she didn't have to find out, at least not by having to deal with it herself. For once she would like to have a normal uninterrupted day to enjoy a simple Christmas themed festival.

Having made the trip to Rose Garden the night before, Samira was able to start her day early right where she wanted to be that day. Once again festivals were being held everywhere to celebrate the holiday and, unlike the last Christmas festival, she had picked a perfectly normal town to spend it in. More importantly though, it was a town that had many interesting shops and shopping is what she had, had in mind to start her day.

A couple of hours had passed by since Samira had left the hotel room she had stayed in the night before. So far, the shopping thing had been a mild success. Already she held a couple of small shopping bags in her hands. Presents for others, of course. Easton, Jacobs, Maisy, Allen. She had yet to figure out what to get her spirits as gifts. They were, after all, considered friends and family instead of just magical tools so they deserved something too. It was just a real pain trying to keep any ideas a secret surprise when they were connected with her mind and knew the gift ideas as they came. There was also the idea of getting Zachary and Astral something. And Leona too! The latter though would have to wait a bit though. She didn't find anything in the free time that she had that she considered as a good gift for her friend, and now time was up.

It was tradition at that point to spend time together at the various festivals held throughout the year to catch up and hopefully not get into weird scenarios and fighting strange creatures. That normal get together activity rarely ever happened and usually always ended up turning into weird jobs and circumstances, but eh, might as well keep up with the tradition and maybe be pleasantly surprised when nothing out of the ordinary occurred. To keep up with that tradition, Samira had invited Leona by sending yet another message through the Galactigram a few days ago. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see if the Wizard Saint of Courage could muster enough motivation and bravery to put herself into yet another holiday festival that may or may not yet again turn into a weird chaotic mess. And well, it wasn't normal to shop for someone's gift with them standing right there, was it?

As the time to meet up approached, Samira made her way to the center of town where the tree decorating contest was being held. She hadn't had the mind to participate in it just yet. The idea to stand there and wait was just that it was a very hard to miss location for them to meet up. Although she wouldn't mind if Leona wanted to jump right into that as soon as she got there! Either way, Samira wouldn't be too terribly difficult to find. She was busy watching the tree decorators with fascinated awe in her eyes. Her outfit was different though as was her hair style. To celebrate the festival theme in her own way, she decided to wear a coloring of red and white, and of course gold. Instead of her normal shorts and boots she wore a short red skirt and red knee high velvet boots with that Christmas white fluff along their design. Patiently, she waited for Leona to arrive at the meeting location. Who knew? Maybe Leona had been doing her own bit of shopping before then as well!

(Word Count: 802)

-Rose Garden-

Wearing her green, white, and gold outfit with bike shorts underneath the skirt and Ses Revanche in her right boot in case trouble came up, Leona entered Rose Garden to find that it was a bustling center of holiday activity. The numerous shops of Rose Garden were decorated with Christmas lights and people were patronizing them, going in with empty hands and coming out with at least one bag, if not more. Leona looked around her and saw that most of the people in Rose Garden were dressed for the occasion while she was in her same old outfit. She had tried to find a Christmas-themed outfit, but the few outfits that she had found that fit her tended to show far more skin and cleavage than she was comfortable with showing. Considering how often her clothing tended to get damaged, Leona decided to just wear a normal outfit so that if it got torn she would not be showing too much skin.

Leona had been invited here via Galacticgram by her old friend Samira Nassar to spend some time together in a holiday setting. Since the Wizard Saint did not have much else to do and had no idea what gifts to get for Sophia or Leonidas, Leona decided to join her old friend the Goddess of Humility for what she hoped was a normal holiday event. However, the blonde did not have very high expectations for a normal holiday event because the past two had involved some sort of weird happenings and bizarre creatures. Based on past experience the Wizard Saint of Courage expected some kind of unexpected twist to occur before the day was out. Maybe she would be wrong for once and she could have herself a merry little Christmas event in the company of one of her oldest friends.

Leona made her way towards the center of Rose Garden, where a tree decorating contest was supposed to be held. Instead of being excited about the contest or hopeful that it would be an ordinary contest with no twists Leona was concerned. She shuddered to think about the numerous ways in which a seemingly innocuous tree decorating contest could go terribly wrong.

The tree itself could come to life and terrorize people to get revenge for it and its brethren for being harvested in order to make humans happy.

The ornaments and decorations could come to life and terrorize people out of revenge for being confined in boxes and bins for most of the year.

The trees and the decorations could come to life and form an unholy alliance to terrorize Rose Garden and avenge the numerous injustices inflicted on them by uncaring humans.

Leona wanted to shrug them off as the unfounded suspicions of an overly suspicious mind, but past experience could not be ignored. The last two holiday events had had some kind of twist and some kind of danger, so why should this one be any different? The Wizard Saint took a deep breath and continued walking towards the center of town, navigating through the holiday shopping crowds and hoping that this would be a normal holiday event with normal holiday contests and normal holiday activities.

After a bit of walking Leona found Samira dressed a lot differently than she normally dressed. Samira was wearing a color scheme of red, white, and gold, the last of which appeared to be her signature color like green was for Leona. Instead of her normal shorts and boots Samira wore a short red skirt and red knee high velvet boots with white Christmas fluff... whatever it was called. Leona, on the other hand, wore her signature green, white, and gold outfit with no concession to the Christmas holiday. The plainly dressed blonde stopped to the right of the more festively dressed teal-haired mage.

"Hey Samira!" Leona greeted her old friend.

[Post Word Count: 646]
[Leona's Word Count: 646]

"Hm?" Samira popped out of the distraction of watching the tree decorators in action as soon as she heard her name. The voice was immediately recognized as the woman she had been standing there waiting for, but it was best not to get too excited until she could actually confirm that with her eyes. Her head turned to fixate her emerald eyes on the blonde standing there, wearing a less than festive outfit compared to some others and even herself, but Samira didn't mind that. A happy and bright smile spread across her face instantly. "Leona! You made it!" The rest of her body turned and leaned forward, her arms wrapping around the fellow Wizard Saint to give her a warm hug of greeting between friends. They were close enough friends for that by that point, right? The hug was short, a few seconds if anyone bothered to time it.

Samira pulled herself away and she chuckled. "I know I cannot be one to judge when it comes to using lacrima technology, but we really need to get you an iLac sometime to make communicating long distances much easier." And probably less annoying. Samira knew well enough that the Galactigram shouted messages in a very less than pleasant way. Besides, what if something came up or there was a delay? Samira could have been waiting there all day if that happened without knowing.

"It has been a while since we last got together. I believe the last time was that Urban Nights gathering that the Magic Council commissioned. How have you been? Has anything exciting happened to add to the adventures of Leona Jarnefeldt?" Yes, Samira was making conversation and even alluding to the last time they talked about Leona writing down her life's story for the masses to read. The festival around them was calling, no, begging them to partake in all of its activities, but that's not how things worked! They at least had to say their hellos and stuff first!

(Word Count: 333
Samira Total: 1135)

Leona let herself be embraced by Samira and watched the teal-haired mage pull herself away after the hug. She then listened to Samira speak about how the blonde really needed to get an iLac so that the pair could communicate more easily than they could by Galacticgram. Leona understood that the iLac was a communication device that was fast becoming ubiquitous, but getting one had been a low priority for her. Some other adventure or project always came up and took priority over making the trip to the Neutral Grounds to get an iLac. The irony of the Guild Mistress of a guild that valued technological knowledge not having an iLac was not lost on Leona.

"I'll get an iLac soon, Samira. I'll have to make it a higher priority on my to-do list. Something always keeps coming up, so I'll just have to get one after this event." Leona promised her long-time friend that she would get an iLac some time soon. That was not an empty promise made to placate Samira. After this party was over the Wizard Saint would go to the Neutral Grounds and finally get an iLac so that she and Samira could communicate a lot easier than they could by Galacticgram. The Galacticgram tended to shout its message and the response time to it was best described as "glacial" even if Leona was expecting it. With an iLac Samira could dial up Leona and vice versa, making communication and coordination for events like this a lot easier.

Leona set that topic aside when she heard the teal-haired mage ask if the former had done anything exciting to add to the "Adventures of Leona Jarnefeldt", which was presumably the name of the blonde's autobiography. Leona was not aware that she was going to write an autobiography... the subject had been brought up during one of the festivals that the Wizard Saint and the Goddess of Ishgar had attended together, but as far as the blonde knew nothing was officially decided. Maybe it was an inside joke between the pair who had had a lot of strange adventures together.

"I've done a few exciting things since Urban Nights, Samira." Leona confirmed that she had had a few exciting adventures worth including in an autobiography. One of them was the first trip to Nebdoui she had made since Chief Eljah had died. On that trip she had watched the very first adobe buildings in Nebdoui be made with the help of masons from Berreb. Leona had also learned to use her very first gun, a semi-automatic carbine with a lot of kick for such a small weapon. Her accuracy with it was not very good, but she had managed to help repel a Golden Band raid on Nebdoui thanks to it and the village militia. Perhaps the most exciting part of the trip was taking the first steps towards making peace with her mother and brother.

"For example, I took a trip to Nebdoui where I finally got to talk to my mother and begin making peace with her. She realized that she had been pushing me away by constantly asking for grandchildren and said that from now on it's my choice as to whether I give her any or not. I conceded that I might have been acting too recklessly when carrying out my duties as a Wizard Saint. It sounds like a cliche, but I felt like we took the first steps towards understanding one another." Leona told Samira the most interesting part of the trip to avoid leaving her hanging. It spoke volumes of Leona's experience when she treated her very first gun battle with slavers like a trip to the mall when most people would be talking about it non-stop. She would have to tell Samira that later... right now she wanted to see how Samira would react to news of Leona making peace with her mother.

[Post Word Count: 654]
[Leona's Word Count: 1,300]

Rolling for Christmas Tree Decorating

The member 'Samira Nassar' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

"I understand that all too well," Samira said towards Leona's reasoning about not yet having an iLac. She too was often busy with her own agenda so fitting in a visit to the Neutral Grounds now just for obtaining the small device would have been difficult. The only reason she even had one was because she got one a long time ago as a newbie mage. It seemed to be a useful tool at the time, even though she barely used it for its true function. "I will give you my information before we leave the festival so you can add it once you do get one." It was a shame that the devices were only sold in the Neutral Grounds. Now would have been the perfect time to grab one. It was what it was though and Samira accepted that. There was no need to rush it, after all.

With great interest Samira listened to Leona as she answered the question. Honestly she expected some form of humor as a reply, but instead got a serious one instead. Not that it was any less significant or interesting. Quite the contrary. The summoner recalled the conflict Leona had with her mother and had even attempted to give some advice for it, although she really lacked experience with that sort of thing. The woman's eyes widened slightly upon hearing that there had been success in mending the bond between Leona and her mother. Both of them had acknowledged their faults and had begun the process of correcting them. "That must have been quite the conversation." A very powerful and mature one if it led to actual results so quickly. "I am glad to hear that the relationship between the two of you is finally improving. It might be, as you say, the first steps in the process of understanding, but they are also the most vital and difficult to take. I hope you two continue to take further steps on mending the mother and daughter bond." Samira's smile never faltered even if her words took on a more serious tone.

The music and people around them took away Samira's attention from her friend just long enough for her to look around and remember about the Christmas tree decorating activity. Winning the contest wasn't really something she had in mind or wanted. Just to take part in it sounded fun in her mind. Never had she really done so in the past. Perhaps Leona never had either since she was brought up in a desert land where those sorts of trees were hard to come by. Then again, it was possible Silver Wolf decorated trees every year. She wasn't sure. She didn't ask. It was not important. What was important was doing so that day. It was an event they could do together. "Would you like to participate in this contest?" She asked Leona, looking back at her with curiosity in her eyes. "It seems like a relaxing enough activity that we can take our time and discuss more about what has transpired between our previous get together and now." Honestly if Leona said no Samira would likely still participate by herself. Her fellow Wizard Saint could remain comfortable and watch while they chatted if it came down to it.

(Word Count: 548
Samira Total: 1683)

"I'll get an iLac some time after this event." Leona repeated. She was not going to promise anything, but if nothing more urgent like business pertaining to her home village, Crocus Magicka University, or Mister Burke came up, Leona would make the trip to the Neutral Grounds to get an iLac. Now that that was taken care of, the blonde moved onto the topic of her beginning to mend fences with her mother Sophia.

"To be honest, the conversation went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would, mostly because I managed to remain calm and keep things from going into a screaming contest like my mother expected they would. I was also honest with her and didn't take cheap shots at her. That approach worked a lot better than I thought it would." Leona gave an opening statement on how the conversation between mother and daughter had went.

"I'll spare you the whole story since it's really long, but in the end we managed to talk to each other as equals instead of jockeying for position like we usually did. I went straight for the honest approach and told her that I felt like my only worth to her was how many grandchildren I could have. She told me that she felt I was taking way too many risks just to live up to my Wizard Saint title. She said that it looked like I didn't care about my life." Leona continued and listed the main point each Jarnefeldt was trying to make. She decided to keep the story about her brother to herself for the time being because she did not want to drag the festive mood down with her family problems that were not quite problems any longer. It was best just to let the matter drop for the time being, but not before one last comment.

"Yeah, the first step was really hard because neither one of us wanted to admit that we were wrong, but I feel that we'll be OK. It'll just take time." Leona gave an optimistic appraisal of how the mother/daughter relationship would go from here. And with that she decided to let the matter drop. Now she could focus on participating in the Christmas tree decorating contest... whatever that was. Samira had invited her to participate and Leona would be glad to, but the blonde was not sure how that worked.

"I'd be glad to join you, Samira." Leona stated her willingness to join the activity despite not fully knowing how it worked. Leona had grown up in a remote part of Desierto and her contact with Christmas trees was nonexistent. The only contact she had had with Christmas trees was in Fiore and Leona honestly could not remember the last time she had seen one. However, Leona was sure that the Christmas tree decoration contest was self-explanatory. Or maybe not... it would be safer to just ask Samira how the contest worked before she went and did something stupid.

"Ummm... how exactly does this contest work again?" Leona nervously asked Samira.

[Post Word Count: 512]
[Leona's Word Count: 1,812]

That was an interesting story indeed. Naturally not every detail was given for more reasons than it just being a long story. It was a personal conflict, after all. Samira allowed it to drop without asking anything more about it. Her curiosity about that had been sated, and more than anything she was just glad the whole mother daughter issues Leona had been having had come to some sort of solution. It'd still take some time, but they were off to a good start in her opinion. More important at that moment was that Leona had agreed to the tree decorating activity. Samira was absolutely delighted that she would not have to do it alone with Leona standing there watching. It'd be awkward and admittedly perhaps a bit rude. "Perfect!" Samira stated excitedly and then taking the time to drop her small shopping bags off on the ground beside them and near one of the boundaries that surrounded the activity zone. They'd be okay right there. There were trees right near them that had yet to have a decorating party cover them with lights, ribbons, and other various ornaments so the mage wasn't exactly worried about theft with them likely remaining close to the bags.

After doing that and focusing back on Leona Samira blinked her eyes at the question that was asked of her. It was a strange question, but Samira quickly moved on from its strangeness after recalling where Leona had lived the majority of her life. Granted, she felt by that point Leona would know most traditions by now due to the length of time she had been away from her home country, but it was what it was. Everyone had their own pace of learning and she was positive there was a high possibility that her fellow mage had just been too busy with much more important things than trying to understand some holiday tradition. That didn't mean that wasn't the perfect opportunity to learn right then, as well as learn a highly valuable trait. Samira smiled and moved her arm to gesture over towards the rest of the people around that were participating in the contest. "Leona, there are times when you can learn and answer many questions by simply observing those around you." It was simple. A Christmas Tree decorating contest worked just as the name of the contest implied. Those around were busying themselves with having a jolly good time decorating their trees, and there were many others going up to contest organizers to receive a box of decorations just for the event. It was very self explanatory. Samira's intent wasn't to make Leona seem stupid by pointing out something so obvious. It was just something she felt Leona needed to work on. That had not been the only time the Silver Wolf Guildmistress had overlooked something very obvious or asked a question with a very obvious answer. There was a worry within Samira that one day Leona would end up getting herself into trouble because she failed to observe her surroundings for answers and understanding.

"The contest is simple, but should be fun and allow us to be creative. We just pick a tree and start decorating. The contest organizers over there have the supplies we will need." Samira nodded in the direction of the costumed people that wore identical outfits and were giving out the boxes. "I will go get them. You pick out a tree for us." And with that said, the green-haired mage went to go fetch the supplies before they were all gone. The process didn't take long. She was given a fancy box that was actually kind of heavy. Just how much was in it? There couldn't have been THAT many ornaments and decorations inside. Carrying the large heavy box, Samira looked around for Leona and then slowly made her way towards her. The box was set down, followed by Samira taking a breath after carrying that large thing. Magically she was strong. Physically not so much. "All right then. We have the decorations." And surely Leona had managed to pick a tree she liked. They could get started! Although, once the box was opened they'd find that compared to some of the other boxes other people were given theirs was jam packed with tons of fancy and beautiful decorations. Making their tree look perfect would be easy mode.

(Word Count: 732
Samira Total: 2415)

Leona's face turned beet red when she heard Samira politely explain that she could have learned what a Christmas tree decorating contest was just by looking around her. The blonde took a look around and saw that the activity was self-explanatory. People were decorating Christmas trees they had picked out with boxes of ornaments that they picked up for that express purpose. The Wizard Saint of Courage had made so much progress over the months before ruining it all by putting her foot in her mouth like she had done when she complained about the state of her skirt during the Recheeserator's rampage. After seeing enough people decorating trees to learn what the activity was about Leona then looked back towards Samira and apologized.

"You're right. Sorry." Leona meekly apologized, not even bothering to make up an excuse for sounding so stupid. Leona had expected there to be some unusual twist to the event and was hoping to find out what it was. This time there was no unusual twist. Sometimes a Christmas tree decorating contest was just a Christmas tree decorating contest.

Samira indicated that she would go grab the ornaments while Leona was tasked by her companion with picking out a Christmas tree for them to decorate. Leona was not going to argue with that. Picking a tree was so simple that even Leona could do it... so the latter hoped. It should not be that hard, but sometimes the Wizard Saint found ways to complicate the simplest tasks.

"OK, I'll go find a tree." Leona said to her esteemed companion the Goddess of Humility. She walked away to find just the right tree while Samira walked to where the contest organizers were to get the box of ornaments. The blonde walked about ten meters to the right before going a meter forward and found a strong and sturdy-looking tree with all of its branches and healthy-looking greenery. That kind of tree should be exactly what Samira was looking for. Leona faced forward towards the path where she predicted Samira would come from and waited for her teal-haired companion to return with the box of ornaments.

While she waited she looked around and saw that a lot of people were here with their families just walking around and looking at the numerous lights and decorations. They were also decorating trees with their families. Leona had never decorated a Christmas tree with her family and was not sure that she would ever get a chance to. Her mother and brother were too busy trying to keep Nebdoui alive to even consider leaving Desierto for a festival like this. Part of Leona wanted her mother and brother to see Fiore, but she knew that they would never leave the desert country they had been born in unless a catastrophe forced them to move.

While it was unspoken, that was another source of friction between mother and daughter and brother and sister. They probably felt that Leona had been "tainted" by her time away from Desierto and no longer wanted to remain in Nebdoui. They felt that the only thing keeping her tied to Nebdoui was the vow she had made to Chief Elijah on his deathbed to protect the village and its allies.

They would be right on both counts.

Leona no longer wanted to live in Nebdoui because she had seen too much of the world to be satisfied with living in a remote desert village. Aside from her family, the only thing keeping her tied to Nebdoui was her vow to the late Chief Elijah. Leona had experienced too much and had seen too many wonders to return to the desert village to live out her days. The Wizard Saint should not feel that way, but she did. Nebdoui had very little attraction for Leona anymore.

Leona saw Samira return with a box of ornaments. Having learned her lesson from earlier, instead of asking a dumb question Leona looked around at the trees of other people and quickly learned that the ornaments were to be hung from the tree in order to decorate it. Judging from the other trees, the pair were free to hang the ornaments in any way and combination they saw fit. Leona just hoped that the ornaments within the box were in good shape and had enough variety to give them a decent chance of winning the contest.

[Post Word Count: 734]
[Leona's Word Count: 2,546]

"Oh my, this is quite the array of supplies," Samira stated with surprise after leaning down to open the box on the ground. Inside were fancy and expensive looking decorations. A far cry from the average set she was expecting considering all of the participants that would be involved in the contest. Was it even a contest at that point? How would the judges even judge? The young woman began pulling ornaments one by one to get a look at them before putting them back in the box. She was genuinely impressed. It was then that she overheard some of the other nearby participants. Her gaze darted up and over towards the complaints she had heard. Apparently someone had gotten a box of broken ornaments. Others had old and worn out ornaments. Some even had string lights that had no working lights! Samira pretended to not hear the complaint and confusion over a pickle being in a box. That was simply strange and such a thing being there was not something she wanted to wonder about.

"Well, I think we are supposed to start with the lights as a base," Samira explained, standing and straightening herself while grabbing hold of a roll of stringed lights. She held onto one end and allowed the rest of the roll to drop and unravel itself. Wow, it wasn't even in twisted knots. Leona and herself really had some luck that time around. Although it was luck that Samira was a bit uncomfortable with. It was a bit unfair to the other participants. "I do not think we will need to use everything in the box to make our tree," she added on as she started her attempt at putting lights on the tree. It was true enough in her opinion. Sometimes less was more and if everything in that box was used the perfect tree would end up looking quite silly and over the top. There were even three different types of tree toppers inside! "Anything left over we should allow some of the others that were less fortunate with their decoration boxes to use. If you are okay with doing so, of course. It will make obtaining a win more difficult, but I myself am doing this more for fun instead of the idea of winning the contest. I have my doubts on it being a true win anyway when others have less to work with than we do." It was just a suggestion that she felt needed to be made. Leona rejecting the idea didn't seem realistic to her, but Samira still wanted to let her have a say in it regardless.

Either way, the summoner would continue on with her decorating, taking her time as she did so and also letting Leona add her own decorations and ideas to the tree. "If I recall, I believe I heard it mentioned earlier that the results of the contest would be announced later in the day so we have time to go do something else and come back to see who won. Was there anything in particular you wanted to do while here?" Honestly she wasn't even sure if Leona had the time to look at everything the festival had to offer before coming to find her. It was best to ask anyway before she offered some suggestions of her own.

(Word Count: 559
Samira Total: 2974)

Leona watched Samira open the box of decorations and found that luck had been on their side. They had an abundance of good decorations, unlike others who had not been so fortunate. Leona looked around and saw some people complain about lights that did not work and others complained of broken ornaments. She quickly looked back at Samira and back towards the box while listening to Samira explain that a string of lights was the starting point for any well-decorated tree. The teal-haired Goddess of Humility unrolled a string of lights and let them fall to the ground... there were no duds in the lights.

Leona watched Samira begin to put the lights around the tree and the blonde walked over to the box of decorations to see what they had to work with. The blonde peered inside and saw that what Samira said was no exaggeration. There were three different kinds of tree topper and the ornaments were all shiny and new. Leona risked another look around and saw that someone people had been dealt a bad hand by the less-than-stellar quality of their decorations. Leona listened to Samira suggest that the pair finish decorating their tree, then help out others by passing the excess ornaments to people who had gotten crummy ones.

Doing that would mean that they would lessen their own chances of winning the contest. Samira stated that she did not care about winning the contest and was doing it for the fun of it. The blonde crossed her arms and thought about it for a moment.

Leona was not particularly interested in the outcome of this contest. She had already eked out a draw in the dance contest at Urban Nights, so she had gotten her big event victory for the year. Wizard Saints were supposed to be the best of the best, but she could let this contest go without the thought of losing being a crippling blow to her self-esteem.

Leona would pick her battles carefully. She could afford to not win this contest. Having made her decision, the blonde then spoke to Samira to let the latter know what she had decided.

"I don't mind helping other people out, Samira. This isn't a must-win for me either, so let's pass out what we don't use to people who weren't so lucky." Leona said at a volume that only Samira could hear so that their plan did not seem like a publicity stunt. The blonde was on board with Samira's plan and not because she was deferring to the senior mage. Leona genuinely did not feel like she needed to win this contest, so if she did not win she would be fine with it.

The conversation then turned to what activity Leona wanted to do next. The blonde drew a blank.

"I don't know what other activities there are at this festival, Samira. I didn't get a chance to look around at everything before I found you. Aside from this contest, what else can we do?" Leona asked Samira. Leona was probably asking another dumb question that could be answered simply by looking around, but in this case she was willing to bear Samira's polite criticism for asking that question. She honestly had no idea what else there was to do because she had not gotten a chance to look around before finding Samira.

[Post Word Count: 562]
[Leona's Word Count: 3,108]

"Hmmm," Samira thought for a moment while still busying herself with adding tree decorations. What was that list of activities again? "I know there is some gift guessing activity somewhere around here. For that I assume you are given a wrapped package and have to guess what is inside." After saying that, she went back to the box and started to rummage through it to find the variety of tree toppers mixed in. "A sweater crafting content is also around. I am not much for that sort of craft myself, but maybe you would enjoy it." Honestly for that contest Samira would likely just let one of her spirits, Neith, take over for that. Her own talents for knitting sweaters was lacking. Of course, she never actually tried it either. That would be the only reason she would accept entering the contest; to say that she tried it at least once in her life. "I think they have karaoke as well. That is all I can remember from the fliers and posters. I am sure there are other things as well, but those seemed to be the most noteworthy activities for this festival."

"First things first, though." With the three tree toppers in her arms, Samira stood up and walked closer towards her decorating partner. "Which would you prefer? We have a snowflake," as she mentioned the snowflake she adjusted the toppers in her arms and grabbed onto the snowflake topper and held it out for Leona to see clearly. "A lovely star." She did the same thing for the star topper as she had done the snowflake, causing the two to switch places and the star being the featured topper. "And finally the traditional Christmas angel." All three were elegant and fancy in design. No doubt when placed upon the tree they would shine brilliantly and give their tree an aura of divine brilliance that would make everyone stop and stare in awe. Or that could just all be a cliched exaggeration in Samira's mind and their tree would just be that, a decorated tree with a fancy topper. Either way one fact remained the same, the choice of topper didn't matter in the long run. It was just nice to have options. "I myself prefer the star, but I have to admit I may be biased towards it," Samira said with a chuckle. Parts of her magic did have a starry theme to it, after all.

(Word Count: 408
Samira Total: 3382)

Leona listened to Samira tell her what other activities were available and each of them sounded less appealing than the last. The first was crafting a sweater, which sounded about as appealing as sticking her fingers in a mouse trap. The next one was karaoke, which was a definite "no" in Leona's book and was about as appealing as doing another cooking contest. Her singing was every bit as bad as her cooking. Leona was sure that if she tried to sing the Rune Knights would show up and arrest her for the weapons-grade torment that Leona would inflict on everyone within earshot of the karaoke machines.

The gift-guessing game just might be their best bet... which was not saying a whole lot, at least as far as Leona was concerned.

"OK. Thanks for giving me our options." Leona said when Samira finished listing their options for activities after this one. Leona was presented with another choice, but this choice concerned which tree-topper the pair would use for their tree. The two mages had three of them to choose from... they could choose between a snowflake, a star, and a traditional angel. Leona looked at them all with a critical eye.

The snowflake, while well-made and an emblem of winter and Christmas, just did not elicit any strong feelings from the blonde. It was not her choice.

The angel was well-made and had a smiling face with lovingly detailed wings, but she just could not see an angel topping their tree. Leona would take a pass on the angel.

The star... the star had that certain something that made the tree feel complete. It was crafted to perfection and had a faint glow even though it was not made to glow. Something about it just caught the blonde's eye and made it appealing. That was the tree-topper Leona would go for.

"I say we use the star too. I really like the look of it." Leona gave her truthful opinion to Samira. It sounded like Leona was deferring to Samira to avoid having to make a choice, but for the second time in this event their opinions had been the same. Leona really did like the star and Samira had openly stated that she preferred the star to the other two choices, so chances were high that the star would end up on the top of their tree.

[Post Word Count: 398]
[Leona's Word Count: 3,506]

Rolling for Guess the Gift

The member 'Samira Nassar' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

And so the decision of which tree topper to use had been made. There had been some time between the question and answer so Samira was sure Leona had put some thought into it instead of just following along with what she herself liked. The angel and snowflake toppers were put back inside the box. With the remaining star topper in hand, Samira used and climbed the step ladder that she had already been using to add decorations near the top of the tree. Once on the last step, she reached out and gently placed the crystal star on the tree, completing its look for the holidays. Carefully, she stepped down from the ladder and continued stepping back to see the tree in full sight. "I think we did a good job." Yes. It was satisfactory. Could they have done more such as adding magical touches or add even more shiny stuff to make it stand out? Probably. However, Samira was content with what they had. There was no reason to go all out, and she had had her fun already.

With a final nod of approval, Samira decided right then and there the task was done. It was time to move on to the next thing. Unfortunately while Leona had thanked her for listing the other contests and such at the festival the Wizard Saint had not actually said which of those she preferred to do. It wasn't entirely fair. Allowing Leona to pick the next activity was something she had purposely made an effort to do. She had picked the tree decorating as it was, after all. It would be rude and selfish to just pick everything without inquiring about it first, and even with Leona seeming disinterested she was uncomfortable just choosing it. Alas, it seemed as if that was how it was going to be or else they would be stuck there until the day was over. Or maybe Leona's thought process had been interrupted by the tree topper topic. Either way, Samira was ready to move on.

"I will leave a spirit here to take care of our excess decorations." She stated, referencing their earlier discussion while closing the box. "As for us, the gift guessing sounds intriguing. I believe they even let us keep the item if we guess correctly. Or so I overheard from a conversation nearby before you got here." Her eyes darted around, scanning the area for something to indicate where the event was to take place. She found it in the form of a literal sign that was attached to a lamppost. There were other signs on it as well, each in the shape of a mini event or contest. A jukebox for karaoke, a sweater for the ugly sweater crafting, and of course a wrapped present sign for the guess the gift activity. An arrow below the present sign pointed in the supposedly correct direction. "It appears as if we need to start heading down in the direction of the arrow." Samira said and pointed to the sign and the arrow. "I assume it will not be difficult to find after that."

And it wasn't. After Samira called on a spirit to take charge of the decoration leftovers, she grabbed her shopping bags and proceeded to head towards the activity that was now on her mind to do. It wasn't long before a huge pile of wrapped boxed gifts was encountered, as well as other people that were either taking part or watching. "And here we are." A curious thought crossed her mind. How did the whole activity work? Was there some kind of registration process or could they just select a present from the pile and have at it with their guesses? There wasn't a line that she could see to actually sign up. How interestingly unorganized.

(Word Count: 639
Samira Total: 4021)

Tree Decorating Concluded
3/5 Peppermints

Once Samira put the star on top of the tree, the blonde took a step back and looked at the results of their work... well, Samira's work, mostly. Samira had done most of the work decorating the tree while Leona stood around and talked to the teal-haired mage. The blonde's only real contribution to the project had been to agree to distribute the leftover decorations and to agree with Samira on using the star topper for their tree. It felt like Leona had been carried through a task by someone else. As a result Leona kept her comments to a minimum.

"I like how the tree looks. You did a good job, Samira." Leona said and gave a thumbs-up of approval to the Goddess of Humility while minimizing the Wizard Saint of Courage's contribution because she had not really done anything to help. She liked how carefully the decorations had been placed by Samira's expert eye. There were just enough decorations on the tree to give it a certain flair without it looking too busy. The star topper complemented the rest of the tree's decorations... it added to the tree's appeal, at least from Leona's point of view. However, Samira would be better off trusting her own judgment because the blonde from the desert was no Christmas tree decorator nor did she have an eye for decorating anything.

Leona had not even decorated her personal room at Silver Wolf Guild Hall, keeping it mostly austere except for a wardrobe for her small assortment of outfits, a weapons rack for her sword collection, a bed, and a desk for her Daggerbook and GED study materials. She would need to add a bookshelf to her personal room because after all the book-buying she had done over the past few months the top of her desk would not suffice as a temporary storage place anymore. There was so much that Leona needed to do, but she could never find the time to do it.

Leona heard Samira describe the "Guess The Gift" contest and blushed. She had totally forgotten to make a choice about the next activity! Leona had lived up to the worst aspects of her hair color... again. That was getting to be an unfortunate habit of hers.

"I like the sound of the Guess The Gift contest, Samira. It's a lot safer for everyone involved than me making a sweater or singing Christmas Karaoke." Leona finally weighed in on the next event despite it having largely been decided by Samira because of the former's neglecting to speak up. Leona followed Samira to the Guess The Gift contest area, which had been helpfully marked by a sign with a wrapped present and an arrow pointing the way. Leona decided on that contest because if she made an ugly sweater chances were high that it would come to life and terrorize Rose Garden. If she tried Christmas Karaoke her singing was so bad that the Rune Knights would swoop in and arrest her for torturing people. All things considered Guess The Gift was the safest activity she could choose.

As long as there was not an unpleasant side effect that stole her clothes if she made a mistake.

Her mind flashed back to Winter Wonderhell over a year ago and she recalled fellow Silver Wolf mage Yuvon Mu-Myu somehow losing his clothes thanks to a malevolent and ambulatory Christmas tree that took away his clothes during that odd event. Leona thanked Ishgar that she had managed to keep her clothing during Winter Wonderhell.

A minute or so later the pair were at the event area... or so it seemed. There was no real organization to it, no sign-up desk, no nothing. That was odd.

Were they in the right place? The signs she saw said so. If they were really in the right place, how did they participate?

Was it an activity where one just walked up and took part or was there a formal registration process?

"So, um, Samira... I'm not seeing a sign-up desk and I'm not seeing any event staff members yet. Where do we start?" Leona asked a third dumb question while looking at the pile of wrapped presents and watching people walk up to them and pick out a present for Guess The Gift. Leona had no idea what was going on here. Maybe Samira could find the vital clue that got them on track.

[Post Word Count: 738]
[Leona's Word Count: 4,244]

"I am not sure how they want it to work either. In theory it is obvious. I expected someone to be organizing it however since there is a game involved and a free gift." Samira was just as uncertain as Leona. She gave a quick glance at the others there to learn from observation. Not all too much was picked up on. Many stood there chit chatting and others were shaking the packages they had to determine the best guess of its contents. Some reactions were questionable but she paid it no mind. To think there was something suspicious about the game didn't cross her mind.

Still unsure on whether they were supposed to officially sign up or talk to someone, Samira turned to her companion for a short moment. "I will ask." And so with full confidence the summoner took full control of the situation to solve the problem in the most obvious and easiest way possible. That had to be the challenge for the day. Nothing else could possibly occur to change that. If only that was how the reality of things were. Her day was about to turn her normal Christmas festival day into.... Well one that was abnormal.

"Excuse me," Samira spoke up politely as she approached one of the spectators and gently tapped them on the shoulder to gain further attention. The spectator was a random red curly haired woman that was standing there, watching the guessing event with wide eyed interest. Samira thought it was strange to have that look over a guessing game when not participating but she didn't feel the need to question it. That was, after all, not her reason for bothering the stranger. Besides, judging by her festive revelry garb it was just possible that the stranger was just excited to be there and saw you in all things that day.

"Eh?" The woman turned to face the shoulder tapper. The many bells the woman wore jingled loudly even with her small movement. A wide cheerful grin quickly appeared after her blue eyes connected with her mind and concluded by Samira's own outfit that she must be just as celebratory of the Christmas holiday as she was. Just a lot more subtle and silent due to lack of bells, tinsel, and Christmas pins attached to the outfit. "Hi. You looking to join the event here? Or are you just watching the fun?"

Samira nodded and motioned over towards Leona. "My friend and I were looking to take part actually. We were wondering if we needed to sign or at least talk to someone watching over the event. The game itself sounds simple enough, but we did not want to assume anything and so something that was against the rules or cause trouble."

"Ha!" The woman laughed. "Well aren't you two responsible? There have been kiddos running into that gift pile all morning with no one even trying to stop them! Anyway, there were some event guys hanging around, but they had to go take care of something." That something being one of the magicked gifts being a bit too magicked and causing less than favorable results for the one that was under the spell. Not that the oh so helpful stranger would mention it to those two! They seemed unaware of the prank presents and it would ruin the fun to give a warning. "Everything is simple though. They aren't strict or anything. Just make sure you pick out one present from the gift pile. After that it's just a matter of guessing and seeing if you're right. Most people that have made guesses in the last half hour didn't even bother recording them. So, like I said. Not strict. It's more for fun than trying to actually gain anything super cool from those packages." With that explained, the woman gave a playful wink of her eye. "Take your time trying to figure out what it is. That's most of the fun."

"I see. Thank you for explaining it."

The red-haired woman giggled and gave them both a thumbs up. She knew what was in store for them and couldn't wait to see what sort of prank they would get. It was probably way too soon to be thanking her, but she'd take it anyway.

Now Leona had the attention of Samira once more. It was still a weird event with the way it was being handled, but that was no reason to turn back now. "Well, let us go pick out a present for ourselves and get to guessing. Maybe we will actually guess correctly." The latter comment came with a shrug of her shoulders. How they were supposed to guess something that could be pretty much anything was anyone's guess. Surely using magic to try and cheat the system was against the rules. With that said, Samira made her way over to the large gift pile, stopping once she got to its base. She didn't take a long time to decide which one to take for herself.  They were all the same in her eyes, and so she picked out one that was closest to her. It was a small lightweight package wrapped in green and gold wrapping with a red ribbon bow neatly attached to its center top.

"This one almost feels like there is nothing in there at all," Samira stated curiously. She stared at it, blinking her eyes and being completely bewildered by its weight. Was there just a lot of air in there? Paper? A puff of Nightmarish glitter that would never come off the moment the package was opened? "Hmmmm." Samira lifted and held the package up to her ear and gently shook it, trying to get some sort of clue from any sounds rattling around in there even with its weightlessness. It was then that a thick magic cloud popped from the box, surrounding and covering her for a few short moments. She coughed as she breathed it in, and even tried to make the cloud fade away quicker by waving her free hand through it. Of course, when the cloud fully dissipated it was clear to all around her that something was not quite right. She even felt something was a bit off... in more ways than one.

(Word Count: 1047
Samira Total: 5068)

Leona, deferring to Samira again, let the teal-haired mage go and ask about the event while the blonde watched from afar. Samira spoke with a red-haired woman and motioned towards the Wizard Saint while talking and Leona pretended not to be fazed even though the blonde was worried that something unusual was about to happen. To her relief nothing bad happened and the woman gave both of them a thumbs-up, then Samira walked over and told Leona what the deal was.

As the name of the activity spelled out, the objective was to guess the gift. It was more about having fun than actually winning something, but if a player guessed correctly they won the item that was in the gift box. A player was to take one gift box with which to play the game and attempt to guess what was inside. It sounded simple enough.

"OK, that sounds simple enough. Thanks, Samira." Leona thanked Samira for explaining how the activity worked. Leona took a breath and approached the tree, then carefully picked up a medium-sized white box with blue snowflakes with a red ribbon holding the lid closed, then walked back over to Samira with her selection. Leona stepped a foot away from Samira and began to shake the gift box before stopping for a moment.

"Huh..." Leona mused to herself as she then shook the box a second time. Something inside sounded rather soft, but it could be just tissue paper crammed in there to muffle the noise of whatever was inside. Leona shook the gift box a third time and when she did a thick white cloud that was magical in nature rolled from under the lid in all directions, engulfing Leona in white smoke like it was designed to "attack" her and her alone. The Wizard Saint coughed and struggled for about a minute before the cloud disappeared on its own. Free of the choking cloud, Leona stood up straight and felt that something about her was immediately off.

She looked down at her outfit and saw that it was a lot tighter on her body. She was also a lot more muscular than normal and her muscles were well-defined. Leona was not sure what exactly had happened to her, but at least she had managed to keep her clothes, even if they were tighter than normal. The Wizard Saint of Courage looked at Samira only to see that her companion had been changed as well.

"Um, Samira, I think we've... well..." Leona started to say before trailing off in surprise and dismay. She looked down at herself again and the full magnitude of what had happened had finally dawned on her.

She had been changed into a male!

[Post Word Count: 454]
[Leona's Word Count: 4,698]

As her own magic cloud faded into the atmosphere, Samira could see Leona had been surprised and covered by one as well. As it began to fade away, Samira could see partially through it. Something.... Was not right. Leona seemed distorted. Changed. It had to be a trick of the smoke. Lighting. Something. And then the cloud was gone entirely. Samira stared. Dumbfounded. That... Was not Leona. It was a man that had somehow switched places with the Wizard Saint and took her clothes for himself! If only that made any kind of sense at all and wasn't beyond ridiculous. There was no time for someone to do such a thing, and the summoner didn't even want to imagine how a muscle man managed to get that outfit on without it tearing. How unfortunate. The more ridiculous theory was better than reality. The reality that the man WAS Leona. He did have the same blonde hair and same colored eyes. There wasn't the sense of a new magical presence there either. It was the same.

"Leona! Is that....'' Samira stopped herself from speaking anything more, having realized that her voice was not the same as before. It was... Deeper! Masculine! She gasped and covered her mouth, the still wrapped gift falling to the ground as soon as her hold on it faltered. The blonde man that had stolen Leona's clothing had confirmed the actual reality that Samira had come to realize herself. The both of them had their genders changed by a spell of some sort. How horrible! What a rude trick to play on them! Well, actually besides the obvious physical changes and the shock of it all happening so suddenly Samira felt fine. It wasn't as if she had gotten turned into a bug. She was very much still human and still with all her power and connection to her spirits. It wasn't the end of the world. For her. The future fate of the one that had put such a horrid spell in a box was debatable.

In her mind she told herself to remain calm. To be reasonable and rational. She looked at her hands and then downward to see the transformation from that viewpoint. Yep. Entirely male. In a woman's outfit. A mirror would have to be avoided from that point on just so she wouldn't be aware of how silly she looked in that new body but the same festive outfit. From what she could tell from that quick and purposely short observation she must have taken the form of the more scholarly type. Thin with no visible muscle mass whatsoever. When compared with Leona's transformation anyway. Her friend looked like she could snap her like a twig if she wanted to. Actually come to think of it Leona didn't look bad at all with her gender swapped. That was an unusual silver lining but one all the same. The look could have been much worse. Or perhaps looking handsomely perfect was even worse. How awkward would things get if they were suddenly hit on by women thinking they were eligible men? Oh dear.

Samira closed her eyes and took a breath to further remain calm and think. "I do not like this." As if anyone could like such an unexpected trick while also having a sane mind. When her eyes opened she noticed the package she had dropped a moment ago. Without a word she picked it up and started to open it. "Clearly there was a spell set to go off. I am going to guess there is nothing else actually within it." But, just in case she would check. Maybe there was a note with instructions stating how to remove the enchantment upon her. Unfortunately, there was no note of any sort within the box. It wasn't entirely empty either. As Samira pulled off the top of the small package, Christmas colored glitter shot out of the gift box and hit her face. Now she was a glittery man, apparently.

Samira's brows twitched in frustration. Next year she was just going to stay inside for the holiday just so she could avoid all the Christmas crazy things that always tended to happen. The woman turned man dropped the useless gift box and gently kicked it away. Honestly she would have preferred kicking it with everything she had to send the thing flying, but there needed to be restraint in her actions. For now. "Leona, let us see what is in your package. Perhaps yours will prove to be much more useful and have a clue on how to rid us of this spell's effects."

(Word Count: 773
Samira Total: 5841
Leona Total: 4,698
Total Thread WC: 10,539)

Tree Decorating Completed
Guess the Gift Completed
6/5 Peppermint Sticks
2000 WC each completed several posts ago

Leona looked towards Samira and saw that her friend had been afflicted by the very same condition that the blonde herself had been. Samira looked like a man as well and had a deeper voice than she normally did. The teal-haired mage's body had a scholarly look and it was a good fit for her... er, him. Her? Yeah, definitely her.

Meanwhile the blonde had gotten a muscular body that made her look like she could pick up a car and hurl it if she wanted to. The look was appropriate for Leona as well because the blonde was more of a fighter than a scholar. By some act of divine mercy Leona had not torn her clothing when she transformed, but the look of a green, white, and gold outfit intended for a woman on a muscular man was rather awkward, to say the least. Still, it could have been a lot worse. Leona did not want to think about how things could have been any worse in great detail, but she had easily come up with several ideas of how things could have gone much worse for her, nearly all of them involving clothing damage.

Since the outfit she was wearing did not regenerate unlike the special blue, white, and gold outfit Ruvel had given her a long time ago, things could have gotten very awkward very fast.

It was best not to dwell on that subject.

"I don't like this either." Leona said succinctly in a rather deep voice that surprised her now that she had calmed down enough to pay attention to it. It was another act of divine mercy that her new voice matched her new body. A woman's voice paired with her new muscular body would have only compounded the awkward feeling that she was experiencing. Leona turned her attention away from that and towards the gift box she had hung onto despite the magic cloud bellowing from it. Samira had requested that the blonde open it in the hopes that the box would contain a clue as to how to undo the effects of the gender flip magic that both mages had been hit with.

"Sure, lemme open my gift box. But before I do, I'm gonna guess that there's some sort of clothing inside. Like an article of woman's clothing. Something Christmas-themed." Leona said to Samira so that if the blonde's guess was right she got some kind of gift for her trouble. Leona steadied her hands and used her right hand to reach for the lid of the gift box. She eased her fingertips under the lid and carefully pried it off to find out what was within. Leona closed her eyes because she expected another cloud of magic to hit her and do something even worse like turn her into a child, change her into a literal lion, or give her yet another unwelcome type of transformation.

When nothing happened Leona opened her eyes and saw absolutely nothing. Nothing at all but red and green tissue paper. Leona blinked and gave a "You've gotta be kidding me!" look. She then showed the contents of the box to Samira.

"I've got good news and bad news, Samira. The good news is nothing else bad happened to me. The bad news is that there's no clue as to how we can reverse our gender flip. Unless you really enjoy tissue paper, we've got nothing." Leona told her companion in an unhappy voice. Leona searched under the tissue paper for a hidden note or something. There was no hidden note to be found. What she saw was what she got, but at least she was not covered with glitter like Samira.

Leona felt like Santa Claus had just popped out of the box and slapped her in the face before vanishing in a puff of snow while laughing at her. While she would have preferred to get some small gift like a bottle of perfume or a book, at least she had not gotten something embarrassing like a "Sexy Mrs. Claus" or "Sexy Elf" outfit because that would have been adding insult to injury. In this case it was better to get nothing at all than to have guessed right and won an awkward outfit that would do nothing but take up room in her wardrobe and never see the light of day. Fighting feelings of disappointment, Leona gently set down the empty gift box and looked towards Samira.

"Well, that was a bust. Now what do we do?" Leona asked Samira. The blonde was hoping that her companion could come up with a way to get them out of this awkward mess.

[Post Word Count: 780]
[Leona's Word Count: 5,478]

"Right." Samira nodded. "Be careful though." The warning was for far more than perhaps releasing another enchantment upon them both. There might have been another attack of glitter inside just waiting to be released, just like her own package.

The only thing left to do was watch as Leona... or maybe it should just be Leon or Leo by that point due to the gender switch... such technicalities that really shouldn't have been crossing Samira's... or maybe Sam's mind at that point. It was hard not to give those thoughts attention though. Her mind was loud now and every thought was echoing in repetition. It was distracting, even if on the outside she was being quiet and seemingly patient. Anyway, as her original thought was, the only thing left to do was watch her friend open the wrapped gift and see what was inside. Hopefully something more was inside than simply Christmas themed clothing. There had to be a note or clue that would give them a hint or some tidbit of information about the enchantment. Even something that said it was only a temporary curse would have done wonders to ease her anxiety and growing annoyance.

The look on Leona's face once the box was opened was not at all reassuring. The contents were shown to her, which was very little and very underwhelming. It was just tissue paper. That was it. Not even a speck of glitter. Leona's own words confirmed what her eyes saw; nothing. Samira reached into the box and took hold of the tissue paper for a quick second just to make sure nothing else was underneath or something had been missed. There wasn't. With a solemn sigh she let the useless and flimsy box decoration go so Leona could do what she wanted with the box. It could have been worse, but thus far it was pretty disheartening. It was going to be a long day of figuring out how to get back to normal, wasn't it?

"We will have to ask around. There must have been others that were enchanted like us. If not gender swap then something else unexpected." Samira folded her arms over her chest and looked down at the ground in thought. Unfortunately that thought process made her realize she didn't exactly have her full women's chest anymore. It was such an unsettling thought and reality. Not that she would voice her complaint, of course. Leona was looking to her to figure out what to do, so she needed to remain focused and at least appear in control with a normal thought process. Not one that centered around the lack of chest pillows.

Her mind was forcefully cleared, if only for a brief moment. That quiet moment allowed her to recall her earlier interaction. A look of optimism was in her eyes as she looked up and stared at Leona. "There was a woman earlier that I spoke to before we participated in this guessing game. She seemed to know quite a deal. If I had to guess she probably has been watching the event over the course of the morning. Perhaps she will know more details than I inquired about earlier." Yes, there was hope after all! An easy lead to follow through! Her gaze looked to the crowd that surrounded the event. Her emerald eyes locked onto where the woman had been standing earlier. Then to the left. To the right. Her gaze shifted directions until her whole body turned to get a better look around. Samira clicked her tongue. The woman must have finally got bored and moved on! What rotten luck. She should have known not to be overly optimistic about it. If only the people in charge to watch the event were actually there doing their jobs!

"It appears as if she has unfortunately moved on," Samira stated, her tone clearly not happy but still had the calm patience she was trying to keep having. She ran her hand through her hair as she spoke. It was shorter now and most likely not as feminine as she would have preferred keeping. Yet another reminder that she was not her normal self. "We will have to find either her or find the people in charge. I would prefer not asking too many random people and having to inform them of our issue, assuming they even believed us in the first place. But before we do that..." Samira realized something else that was just as awkward as now having the body of a man. It was having the body of a man while wearing women's clothing that clearly did not fit so well anymore. She looked down at her Christmas themed skirt and lightly gripped one of the ends. The choice of clothes was not one of regret, but she supposed it was somewhat better than her usual clothes. Maybe... actually they both would have looked ridiculous. There was no real silver lining. "We should think about a change of clothes before we have too many eyes on us. There is bound to be a shop here that is still open even with the festival taking place."

(Word Count: 860
Samira Total: 6701)