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The Scholar tensed up as he felt someone tucking themselves against his scaly green haunch. His claws dug into the snow, but he soon relaxed and looked over his shoulder at Umbra. "Oh, not at all," he said amusedly. The dragon's body exuded a gentle warmth--not as hot as his breath, but pleasant nonetheless. "Are you cold?"

"Well, it was always snowy in the winter, but this time it was SUUUPER snowy... I could barely leave my house! Apparently, the snow princess girl was trying to freeze the food supplies, starve the academy, and take over all of the land! I don't remember everything though..." He explained, before going back to his tale.

The chilling of the eggnog is accomplished by a sort of laying on of hands. Indeed, it seems that making things cold is a much faster, easier process for those in the Duchess' service than is heating things up. One it is properly cooled, the cauldron is suspended on a large stick, and carried over to the dragon by two pairs of servants, one at the front and one at the back. Set down before him, he is invited to say "when" as the rum is poured and nutmeg is grated.

Na'aiyah couldn't help but chuckle at how everyone was talking about the cold and the snow. "Where i come from, we rare see anything but snow." Before she could say more, the ferret from her hood made some dooking noises upon seeing the chickens, then quickly climbed down and began to chase them excitedly, running in between guests. "Not again!... I didn't tell you to do that.." She sighed, her shoulders lowering as she rolled her eyes at the little creature.

"... And then he almost froze to death, but luckily with the help of our lava magic, we warmed him back up! We didn't use fire magic, cause that's normally used by people from our enemy kingdoms..." He paused. "Wait where was I again? I think I forgot a little...."

Umbra gives the dragon a gentle smile, then replies "right here no, not at all..." her hands gently caress the pleasently warm drangon skin "I've never been so close to a living dragon, it's quite comfy~" she continues "how may I address you, kind and warm sir? you may call me Umbra, or Uma for short!" the sorceress introduces her in a cheery, friendly tone.

White Demon was a bit shy being around the people helping him, but he was thankful for them.
He glanced at his hands, realizing the bruises were gone, and then he smiled.

White Demon quickly adjusted his masquerade mask, which was trying to slip off of his face.

"A necessity in my field of work.... several fields of work", Cris replied with a good humored laugh. As Rosy went into a new flurry of jubilant exclamations seeing the nuts scatter in the air, she shook her head indulgently. "And maybe something that my little kit here has inherited... at least judging by how chatty she is being tonight", she said.

With a swift reach of her grabby little hands, Rosy got ahold of a candied nut and turned it around, inspecting it, little black nose quivering curiously. Then she turned to her mother and showed it to her, tilting her head curiously, before pointing to the sky.

"No, sweetheart! It didn't _snow_", Cris laughed, understanding the childish misconception.

The dragon looked away from breathing on White Demon with his hot--if smelly--breath. His spaded tail began to wag as the eggnog was carried front of him. No less than a dozen nutmeg seeds and a whopping bottle of rum were emptied into the eggnog before, finally, the dragon signaled his contentment. "My infinite gratitude, friends!" He grasped the cauldron as if it was a mug and lifted it to his mouth. His pinky claw stuck out. "Oh, by Bahamut--it's delicious!"

After his first sip, he glanced back to Umbra. "I am--oh, hmm, we are at least somewhat anonymous here, no? Well, I am a scholar of many disciplines, so 'Scholar' will serve as a name as good as any other, methinks." He dipped his chin and let out a soft rumble of contentment as she rubbed his scaly hide. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Umbra!"

A crack of hard light, and a rumble of thunder just a moment after announces the appearance of a patch of storm in the sky, perhaps a mile distant from the clearing. And from this abruptly appearing patch comes what looks, at first, like a large bird. But as it approaches, skating on the wind that is now blowing hard and fast from the west, it resolves itself into a massive wooden galleon, cloth sails billowing. A host of short, green folk lean from the rails, clutching swords and shouting battle cries as the air ship comes bearing down on the party.

The Duchess turns toward these intruders, her normally smiling face cracking into a snarl, her hair whipped around her by the wild wind. "Party crashers!" she cries, outraged.

Tairloth turned towards the Dutchess, surprised at her sudden outburst, and couldn't help but smirk a little when she saw the Galleon. "Well, things just got a lot more interesting..."

"WHA-" Aggles exclaimed before grabbing a hold of the staff on his side and, with a wave, several blue, slightly see-through blades appear above him. "I'll take care of these meanies!" He says cockily before charging up his next spell.

The Scholar reared his head back against the increasing fury of the wind and pointed his snout off to the west, where he could see the airborne galleon making its way towards them. "The audacity!" he boomed at the top of his lungs.

White Demon looked up at the galleon, and realized that the green folk were here to ruin the masquerade.
Though he wanted to help try and get rid of the air ship party crashers, he was afraid that he only had a small knife hidden under his blouse, strapped to his waist.

Plus, maybe violence wasn't the answer?
How was he to truly know? This was his first masquerade and didn't recall hearing that fighting was involved in one.

Alfred drew his revolvers and said "They'll regret trying to crash this party though!" As he tried to make out the galleon and its crew through the clouds

The Nameless One peers up at the skies, wind blowing the skirt of her dress and fanning her wings. "My, is that a... ship?"

Indeed it was. A wooden galleon inhabited by little green folk. They were all armed with swords and looking to crash the party!

...Unfortunately, Nameless was not in the mood for battle.

"Hmm, well, it was a pleasure to meet you all," Nameless stepped away, spreading her wings out once more. "But I came for a gala, not for a battle. Perhaps we shall meet sometime later on? Assuming you all survive? Yes, that sounds lovely.~"

In the blink of an eye, Nameless shrunk back to her natural size. "Farewell, you all! May Lady Luck smile down on you all!"

And... that was it. The fairy suddenly took off without any further warning, disappearing into the pine trees...

Aggles thrusts his staff upwards as it gets covered in a bow shaped magical aura that he holds out in front of him. Then, three magical arrows appear on the bow as he shoots all three of them into the sky after a moment.

... huh.

Cris turned in the direction of the noise andm seeing the galleon fly down on the party, her eyes narrowed. Did she just jinx this talking about her field of work? Ah, it seemed job would not leave her even a party's time off!

Except these party crashers, as the Duchess had named them, were going to find out that you just didn't plunder a party that an ex-pirate was attending. "It seems duty call", she sighed, turning to the Nameless One. "Will you excuse me?" Then she approached the Duchess and murmured very quietly: "My friend, is there any of your staff that may watch after my little girl while I... have a word with these guests?" The warmth was gone from her eyes, replaced by a sardonic determination. The crashers were NOT going to have a good time!

Green air-sailors cast down ropes and come boiling down to the ground. Some draw their swords and menace the party-goers, providing cover as others of their party race to grab the food off the buffet tables, the decorated trees, one even running away with a chicken held high over his head. The Galleon, meanwhile, swings around, and seems to be trying to line itself up for a broadside with the giant dragon, the most obvious defender of the place.

Meanwhile, the Duchess extends a wordless hand to Cris' child, beckoning her over so that she might be kept safe.

The dragon snorted and pawed at the snowy ground. Trickles of smoke began to waft from his nostrils, and his wings unfurled. "Who is brave enough to take to the skies with me!" he roared, bowing down low so someone (or two, or maybe three!) could climb onto his back.