Gallus: (taking a seat in front of the Hearth’s Warming Tree, sighing as he reclines) …….. You know they only show up if you’re asleep, right?
Cozy Glow: (sighing, coming up from her hiding spot behind the cookies and milk table)
Gallus: There’s like a whole song about it and everything.
Cozy Glow: I would ask how you even knew I was there, Gallus, but that party trick is getting kind of tired.
Gallus: Cozy, I know that you want to stay up and make sure they got you what you asked for-
Cozy Glow: A hookpoint Buck 110 foldable hunting knife is incredibly hard to procure, and I just want to make that they’re not gonna be pawning off some cheap Benchmade on me like some kind of plebeian-!
Gallus: I know, I get the temptation. Really, genuinely, I do. One year, Trixie had to bribe me with a mug of her special secret stash of hot cocoa just to make sure I went to bed before sunrise.
Cozy Glow: I’m sorry, her what?
Gallus: But one thing I have learned from being around as many wizards and unicorns and rainbow friendship lasers as I have? Sometimes, you really just gotta let the magic happen.
Cozy Glow: …. Can I have some secret cocoa?
Gallus: Coze, if I knew where Trixie’s stash was, I’d be five pounds heavier and you would have never even heard of it. Now, off to bed with you, c’mon.
Cozy Glow: Fine, but only because I’m already tired! That knife better be pre-sharpened, or I’m having Luster Dawn teleport me to their Grove.
Gallus: I will make sure the message gets passed along. Now bed.
Cozy Glow: Goodnight, Gallus. Happy Hearth’s Warming.
Gallus: Happy Hearth’s Warming…… Okay, she’s gone. How long did she have you wait for?
(Aurora, Bori, and Alice suddenly pop into existence, gasping for air.)
Aurora: *gasp* That girl had us hiding inside that tree, holding our breaths, for three hours!
Bori: We are running so behind, we’re going to have to air-drop these gifts to the entirety of the East Coast!
Gallus: Yeeeaah, but… Ya stuck around, which means that even after all that, she actually managed to make the Nice List this year.
Gallus: Those better be hookpoint, by the way. She wasn’t kidding about that.
Alice: There is something seriously wrong with that child! I don’t think that she blinked the entire time we were here, the whole three hours! That was terrifying!
Gallus: Oh yeah, the eye thing. Uh, yeah, she does that when she’s focusing. You get used to it.
Aurora: (hastily drinking the milk) Ugh, these cookies have been taunting me. (shoves the cookies in her mouth) Okay, we’re good! We’re gone! We’re running so behind!
Bori: This makes us even for that thing in the South Pole, by the way!
Gallus: Oh, not by a long shot. You still owe my friends and me for that thing with Grogar.
Alice: Yeah, whatever, bye. (magics up the fireplace in a sparkle of snowflakes)
Luster Dawn: (watching the whole thing) ……. You told me they weren’t real!!
Gallus: …. (sighs) You asked them for three straight years for a prototype supercomputer, that you designed, that you were too busy to build. They’re great at making toys and shit, they’re not miracle workers!
Luster Dawn: Oh! Oh, I get it! So the Gift Givers are real, but you still read all the letters? I see, I see how it is!
