Chapter 76
Ambrose came in carrying a huge vial of silver liquid. “do you have everything for the stockings?” Nodding I point to a few crates of toys and treats. Putting gloves on we start pulling toys out and setting them on tables next to the trays of hard candy canes. Take the top of the vial and put a spray nozzle. Spaying the potion on everything. Once everything looked dry we carefully start adding them to stockings. The stockings are then dropped into the bag. To make sure all the contents stayed in mother added a small snap to the top of each stocking.
Hours later I’m exhausted. Dragging myself to my room I barely acknowledged anyone on my way to drop into my bed. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve so again I will be up all night helping to hide gifts and Christmas treats around the training floor.
Tomorrow we will have a large get-together. A feast and holiday stories. When you enter the training floor you draw a name from a bucket. If you pull your name you draw again. Then we make personalized cookies for that person along with a card. Once finished you place the cookie in a small box and tape the card on top with the tag attached. You then place the box under the tree in the center of the ground.
At dusk, we all gather to light the tree and hand out boxes. Making our way to the tree I see my mother talking to a young pup. This must be the tree lighter.
Getting to my mother I see her smiling ear to ear. She loves making pups happy I can’t wait to see you as a grandmother. I know the pups will be spoiled greatly but also taught to stand for our values.
“Okay Timmy dear are you ready?” she asks as I get close. Well, ain’t that the way fate works Trevor’s mini-me is our tree lighter. “hey little dude.” “Hades!” Timmy squeals grabbing a hold of my leg and giving me a young kid hug. Kneeling down I give him a real hug. I can see some sadness deep in his soul. “why are you so sad little dude?” “well, I’m still sad cause my Cassie was one of the cows that died. I was gonna show her next year. I miss her” hugging the little guy hard. “I know it hurts. Tell you what your dad is still working on buying some yearlings. So when they get here me and you will go through and pick one for you to work with and when she’s old enough you can pick what bull will breed to her and her first two calves will be yours two show.” “really like any of the bulls.” Smiling I nod. “that includes shadow.” “yeahhhhh” he shouts and takes off to excitedly tell Trevor what I said. “you got a soft spot for pups. Your parents raised you well.” Crell chuckles. Nodding I look at the old fighting master. He no longer runs the training program on the floor he watches to make sure the younger instructors are following his drills.
Setting off the bells getting everyone’s attention. Once all gathered at the tree Timmy runs back over to my mother. She's standing next to the switch waiting for Timmy.
“Welcome friends and family. It’s that time of year again when we put all hard feelings making room for the light of love and joy. In a tradition from when my family started this pack. Back then they didn’t have the funds we do but they had love and flour. They started baking cookies for the holidays when an idea struck him. Not every wolf has money to buy a gift. Wanting to make sure everyone was given a gift he asked the cooks to make a lot of sugar cookies but leave them blank.
The next night alpha Samuel gathered the small pack to decorate the cookies. They were then wrapped and put under a tree. On Christmas Eve he would randomly grab a box and hand them out. Over the years we started drawing names to personalize the cookies. But how to make sure everyone still gets a cookie we started to draw a name from a hat.
With that small history lesson what do you say we get to hand out cookies?” the crowd cheered.
Motioning for Timmy. “this year Timmy Haulk has been selected to light the tree. His essay outlined how he started training his yearling, Cassie. He planned to show her. Sadly she was taken from us. I know we all lost a lot. This recent attack but through it, all Timmy kept a smile on his face. So with our any other delays. Timmy would you light the tree.” Stepping forward he flips the switch. The tree comes to life. A small railroad train is going around and up the tree. Coming down the other side. The tree is covered in handmade ornaments the pups made last month. At the end of the season, we hand the ordainment back to the creator.
We had out the boxes when one box is still under the tree I pick it up and see Ravenana scribbled on top. Setting it aside I realized there wasn’t one for timber. I will make one for her so she doesn't feel left out and familyless.
Trevor comes up to me raising a brow I wait for him to speak. “I believe my boy but the other hands do not. So with that did you give Timmy breeding rights and we’ll possession of a heifer.”
“to answer your question yes Timmy will get the first pick of the by cattle.” He’s nine but smart as it and one you’ve ever met if he had a familiar it would be up it would be the owl. Smart wise and hidden in darkness. As if I cue Momo screeches as she swoops over us before landing next to us. “Momo what are you up to?” She hops from foot to foot, clicking her beak. Reaching into my pocket I pull out a large piece of jerky and toss it to her. Shaking my head as she makes happy chirps while eating.
