For those who have nothing, even the smallest of gifts and the littlest of gestures can mean the world. Kyrah expected nothing again this year, as she wept from underneath one of the bus’s wrecked seats, this was her least favourite time of the year as yet again, she was alone. She KNEW that the other Azuri’s would be together having a wail of a time but what was she doing? Nothing. She was alone, again. Like every christmas. Angrily bitter, frustrated and extremely depressed, she kicked the bottom of the chair with her bad ankle in protest to yet another lonely christmas. The hot tears running down her face sharply contrasted the otherwise bitterly cold air that was whistling through the bus. She stayed under that chair for hours, just repeatedly kicking the metal until she finally fell asleep, curled up in an awkward ball around the central column of damaged metal and shivering from the near Arctic winds that plagued the scrapyard this time of year.

Yet alone she wasn’t destined to be, not this time. The universe, its people, had not forgotten about her. Not this christmas. Someone had found her, finally. A singular male Fox, standing atop of one of the many piles of scrap found his way to the bus and pulled the sleeping girl out from her little hidey hole. She was too tired and food deprived to wake up, her body remaining sound asleep as the lone fox carried her from her „home“ and towards his awaiting ship. He travelled far and fast, to the arranged meeting point where Mehzal was waiting with her own ship, to take them both back for a proper Azuri christmas.

Kyrah awoke on top of a small ship bed, with a light blanket placed across her, for once she wasn’t shivering when she woke. Initial confusion took hold of her but she decided not to question it, as she was rather enjoying the warmth, she really missed being warm. She rolled around for a while within the semi-comfortable sheets, feeling like a princess in the rather small and uncomfortable bed until something else caught her eye. A small metal table joined to the wall next to the bed with a glass of milk and a swiss roll on it, a little note labelled „Kyrah“ placed on the table too confirmed her thoughts that it was for her. Her eyes went glassy and the smallest of tears could be seen in them as her perfect christmas dream was coming true. Yet she held them back and reached out to the table, sipping the milk down slowly and nibbling at the roll to savour every moment of its glorious taste, producing a very quiet „mhm...“ from her with every little nibble she took. Soon enough she was trying to licking the excess chocolate off her lips, mostly failing at it too but wondering who had done this. The room was other small and plain, just being an average singular bunk room on a ship. No one else was in here which further confused her. She decided to stay in bed but didn’t want to fall asleep, lest this was all a cruel dream her mind had played on her to make her reality seem less shit. She couldn’t help herself though as the warm bed was too nice for her and soon enough she was delicately sleeping away again, wrapped up in the grey sheets, nuzzling against them gently.

She had a nightmare about being back at the bus, the torturous image of being alone, wet and cold ever running through her mind, ruining what should have been a peaceful sleep, she stared to wail and whine in her sleep, feeling a rush of cold air against her skin but awoke suddenly to not what she expected. Indeed, her perfect christmas was happening, and no nightmare would ever change that. The rush of cold air she felt was Mehzal opening the door, she’d accidentally kicked off her blanket as she slept. Mehzal ran over to her and comforted her, seeing the distraught look on her face as she awoke from her nightmare.

„Hey hey hey now, its alright kyrah, you’re ok.“ Mehzal spoke softly to her, stroking her messy hair and bringing the semi-panicked Kyrah down to a happier state again. „You’re having a proper christmas this time, with us.“ Kyrah throwing her arms around Mehzal for a heartfelt hug.

„H-how did you find me?“ She asked with a quiet and wobbly voice.

„I didn’t, he did, he wants to see you if you want. He’s just around the corner, down the corridor a bit.“

„o-ok.“ Kyrah gave a shy smile and attempted to get out of bed, as she put weight on her damaged leg though, it gave away and she collapsed, or at least she would of if Mehzal hadn’t caught her. All that kicking she did earlier had very much ruined her legs ability to take her weight. And it was bad enough as it was.

„We’ll take a look at in a sec, looks worse than usual Kyrah, did you hurt it again?“ Mehzal helped her stand and let Kyrah lean her weight on her to walk properly as they began to make their way towards the mysterious stranger.

„Y-yeah... i hurt it m-myself.“ Mehzal looked heartbroken at Kyrahs words but reminded herself that she was fixing this and she was fixing Kyrah. It didn’t take the duo too long to reach the room where the Fox was at. He was standing towards the window, looking out at oncoming planet they were going to land on. The two of them hobbled in together as Mehzal announced their arrival.

„Kyrah, this is the gent who found you, i don’t know how he did it, but he did and he brought you to me.“ Kyrah looked on at him with a shyest smile one could imagine, she was completely baffled as to how he’d done it but easily the most grateful person in the whole universe at this point, he turned to them and showed himself, smiling back at Kyrah with a kind and gentle face. Kyrah was utterly lost for words at this point. Before she could do anything though, he spoke.

„I’ve been trying to find you for months now, i’ve been collecting those little statues for make for people, i didn’t think i’d get to you before christmas but i got lucky. And here we are. I can’t join you at your homeworld, i have my own family and friends to see, but before i go, i need to give you one final gift Kyrah.“ He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small decorate box wrapped up in a silver ribbon and passed it to her and standing back to give her a little space.

Mehzal helped her get the ribbon off as she seemed to struggle with it, her hands were all shaky from emotion and she couldn’t undo the bow herself. As the ribbon came off, she popped the lid off to reveal a bracelet inside, a small but beautifully carved diamond in the middle of it. Kyrah was unable to pick it up properly as yet again, her hands were quivering too much, so Mehzal pulled it out again and gave it to her, she gripped one of the sides of it with her whole fist so she could actually hold it properly.

„You’re going to be getting clothes and food from everyone else, i wanted to get you something to remember me by. You’re always making those ungrateful bastards on that Orion planet stuff so i made that for you. I found the diamond and carved it myself, sometimes all a rough diamond needs is some love and a bit of polish. Please keep it safe Kyrah, and stay safe yourse-„ His words were cut off by her emotionally driven hug, she couldn’t take it anymore, all her feelings just burst out of her, reducing the girl to a sobbing mess, she lerched forward from Mehzal’s grasp and practically collapsed onto him, crying into his clothing and hugging him as tightly as she could. Clutching the bracelet with her shakey fist behind him. This was more than she could have ever imagined or ever wanted. She wept and cried nearly endlessly onto him, but this time, with happiness. This was going to be the best christmas ever for her, all thanks to him, why he’d done it, she didn’t know, how’d he’d done it, once again she didn’t know. But he had. And this marked only the beginning of what was sure to be an amazing new start of Kyrah’s life, one she’d never forget and always be grateful for.

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Fox ©  thepolishone who won my christmas raffle. Story written by me.
Kyrah, Azuri's and pretty much everything apart from the Fox © of me  beta_krogoth

Art done by  toughset with additional shading from  iayem

I am aware that the picture differs slightly from the story, but it has the same message! Enjoy!