Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-29637681-20171215023942/@comment-29637681-20171216230543

HAPPY HALLO—er, merry early Christmas, people.

Or, as Plants vs Zombies nerds like me say, Happy Feastivus.

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The moon shines bright in the sky, and after a large “family” feast, everybody goes to sleep. The fire dies and snow starts to fall.

Well, everybody except Adder sleeps.

Instead, he jumps up to the top of the tallest tree in the clearing, watching the Rift. Balancing on one foot, he watches the landscape.

It was devastated and twisted, true, but what was there in it? The stars glow in the midst of the darkness.

It was within these stars that he started seeing the events of his past.

Before, he’d been terrifed of the dark, scared, timid. He’d always hide behind Cinder when a thunderstorm arrived, and they’d both hide under the tree canopy, telling horrible jokes to each other. Those days were a few months ago, and a lot of time had passed.

Now, they’d taken more people into the family. Lucious had always been there with them, but eventually he brought along Rover, that Titanoboa. He and Adder loved to hang out in the trees, doing absolutely nothing except snarking about what was going on below them.

Their old friends came and went, like Stalagmite. Bastion was caught by Bonesaw, and Lone Chieftian took an arrow to the lung(no, not the knee). Randall and Radnad were captured by the “Outlaws;” only Randall escaped. Stalagmite was captured as well a few months before that as well; Cinder followed afterwards.

Within a week of her being captured, Adder tried to act nonchalant. But inside, there was a part of him that didn’t want to see her suffer, that wanted her to be safe.

By the second week, he had tried to find her, to no avail. He started to give up.

By the third week, he got bored without her to lighten up his day.

By the fourth week, Adder was certain that he’d never see his closest friend ever again.

Eventually, the group shrank and diminished. Soon only Adder and Lucious were left. Thankfully, Cinder, Stalagmite, Rover, and later Randall escaped their prisons and reunited with the two. That day, they met Wraak and Exedfa. They seemed unassuming at first; just another Velociraptor and Triceratops living in the jungles and deserts, but they grew to trust the Rebels. Eventually they too became a part of the circle, the family, the place they called home.

The Great Bandit...no, Midas. He was a former spy for the Outlaws, but he joined as well. General Vulture caught and killed him, but before that he’d built a solid friendship with the others. His last words still lingered in his head.

There are criminals and felons...They are captured and punished...But truly evil people...Don’t exist anywhere...

Well, with that wretched Avalon on the loose, he could call that bull. But what about the Emperor? Wasn’t there something redeeming about him? He didn’t know; all members of the Empire were commanded and forced by “law” to revere the Emperor as a God.

And as a former one of those members, he wasn’t sure if everything he’d been trained to think of him was correct or not.

The Majungasaurus brothers and Major Logmor joined us, though we lost multiple friends prior, Randall being one of them. While he was away, wandering the Silver Castle, Monsieur Sun and Glory joined as well, and new opponents went on the run. Ishmael joined the group later, and Visory the next day. Rover was killed.

Now, they had three children to take care of.

That little one. Grimrose. She was the youngest one, and Adder pretended not to care about her, but inside, he feared for her safety. Not just for her safety, but for his friends’ as well. Because after losing too many people through his short life, after losing at everything, after nearly dying at least three times...

...he just couldn’t not care about the others anymore.

Jumping down from the tree, he lands in a pile of snow and sees Drift by a tree. Putting up Christmas lights—assorted glowing crystals tied to vines. He gets tangled multiple times, but has a fun time assorting the lights.

“So, wheredya get all those lights?”

“Smuggled them from the Empire, courtesy of me. And Cinder.”

They laugh.

“You sure you okay without them fancy-pantsy-prancy-dancy-ugly Christmas sweaters!?”

“Yep.”

More laughing.

“So, what was I saying about Grimrose? Oh, yeah, now that I look back on it, don’t tell anybody this, but I’ll take care of her. No need to worry. I need to take some lessons in parenting, after all.”

He smirks.

Drift chuckles as well. “You and Cinder would probably make great par—“

“Don’t say that again, will you?”

He doesn’t get a response, because suddenly Drift leans in close to him. “Quiet! Ya hear dat? ‘Tis the sound of a rare specimen, a Herrerasaurus ischtiagowhateveritis.” Drift whispers in his ears. “DO YA HEAR IT? DO YA HAVE EARS!?”

For the first time, Drift checks if Dilophosaurus have ears. Hopefully Adder hadn’t lost his from the radioactivity.

They do.

“You mean the Herrerasaurus right there?”

They turn around and see a Herrerasaurus slowly advancing forwards, through the snow. It’s purple with black stripes, glassy blue eyes, and multiple green and blue scars on its chest.