S1.5 BE HfC P2 Ch7

Home for Christmas
Part II: More Than Friends
Chapter 7: The Elephant in the Room


By the end of the game, Fumu had decided that White Elephant was way more fun than Secret Santa.

You could bring anything you wanted as a gift, and you had no idea what you were going to get in return. Just because you chose a present to open didn't mean that you'd be stuck with whatever was inside it; someone might steal your gift, in which case you could steal someone else's or open another.

To make the game tolerable, there was a limit of five steals per item. Some of the items reached that maximum; there was an air gun that all of the village boys wanted, and was finally taken by Iroo, much to Bun's dismay; every girl was after a unicorn Pillow Pet that eventually went to Honey; and the ultimate prize, a slim red MP3 player, that everyone went after but was at last secured by Mayor Len's wife Hana. Other than that, the gifts mainly seemed to depend on who was giving them: a bottle of red wine from Samo, the bartender, a set of butter knives from Kawasaki, an enormous bag of potato chips from Tago, who ran the convenience store, and so on.

Fumu had given a candle and gotten a gift box of lotions in exchange. Bun was running around the village square playing with his new balloon shooter, and Kirby sucked happily on a giant rainbow lollipop that he had carefully plotted to steal from its original owner. She decided to go find Chuva so that the two of them could put their plan into action and (hopefully) get Knuckle Joe and Silica to stop being mad at each other.

Meta Knight was holding one of those hot-chocolate gift packs, and Chuva had a large blue geode under her arm, probably contributed by Curio (she thought it was pretty, so she didn't mind). "Hey, Chuva-san!" said Fumu. "Do we do it now?"

"I think so," answered Chuva, winking.

"What in Nightmare's name are you talking about?" demanded Meta Knight. He eyed Chuva suspiciously and tried to probe her thoughts, only to encounter something that she so rarely put up: a mental barrier. Some thoughts and feelings could escape it, but he couldn't get through. He did it often – but Chuva NEVER put up a wall that way. She definitely had to be planning something.

They went up to Knuckle Joe first. He was carefully fingering the blades of his new pocket knife.

"Let me ask you something, Joe," started Fumu. "What's with you and Silica?"

"We had a fight. You already know that," he replied impatiently, shooting a glance at Chuva.

"If that was all it was…then you must be a coward!" Fumu declared.

He instinctively clenched his fists. "What?!"

"You haven't apologized to her. Basically, you've run away. Because you're too scared to face her again! Too scared to consider the possibility that maybe she was actually right! You're a coward!"

"I'm not a coward!" Joe shifted into a defensive position. "I'm just waiting for her to apologize! Ladies first, right, Chuva-san?"

"Ladies first!" scoffed Chuva. "How about you be a gentleman, Joe? What would a true soldier do? You need to apologize to your lady!"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Silica and I are just friends, and nothing else!"

"If she's your friend, then apologize!" Fumu and Chuva chanted in unison.

Joe scowled, looked down, then glanced across the courtyard to where Silica watched the festivities from beneath the immense elm tree (once again strung with lights and garlands for the holiday). In her arms she held a small white elephant plush.

Finally, he rolled his eyes and started towards her. Fumu and Chuva high-fived and prepared to start the next phase of their plan, but before they could so much as start off, someone screamed.

It was Silica.

She had dropped the plush and was rearing back from it in shock as it began to…grow. Its seams vanished. It eyes went from cute black buttons to cruel yellow REAL eyes, and soon it was twice the size of an ordinary villager.

It turned its vicious head towards Silica and let out a trumpeting bellow.

"Silica!" yelled Joe.

Silica reached for the multipurpose weapon always dangling from her hip, but the white elephant wrapped its muscular trunk around her wrist and threw her aside like she was a doll. She crashed to the ground painfully.

The elephant turned to the rest of the village, menace glittering in its ugly eyes.

Panic.