I sighed as I walked into the bathroom the next morning, the sugar skull and black markings Mom and I have aren’t makeup nor are they tattoos, I was born with these markings and Mom says she’s had hers as long as we recall, the patterns however change and shift as we want it do, we can change them as we want throughout the day, changing up the colors, the patterns or styles they depict. I pulled all of my hair in front of me as I just absentmindedly brushed it, my hair is ‘round my hips when fully lose, because I just woke up there were no markings on my face or any other of the areas of my body that show off the markings: the skeleton markings are from mid-nose up, my limbs and my sides, basically only the midline of my torso to the bottom half of my face. My arms and legs are solid black with just depicted bones along them ending at my hip and shoulders joints, my collarbone and throat have showing bones and of course my face. I sighed softly as I just did what little makeup I do wear, just painted my lips black as I looked at myself before I tilted my head over, letting my mind just kind of go blank as various patterns showed up along my cheekbones, my temples, around my nose and eyes about the rest of my face and larger bones like my collar, shoulder blades, hip bones and my ribcage.

As I was getting dressed, I ran my hand along my shelf of heels of all sorts of styles and shapes before I sighed and shook my head a little grabbing a pair of chunky boots as I started getting dressed, I’m not like her where I can casually wear high heels in snow and ice, she can ice skate in pumps…that’s insane. I pulled a jacket on as I was walking out my room, it felt a little odd…walking around as my natural height, I’m almost always wearing heels in some way, shape or form so…I’m used to being at least an inch or two taller, even the chunky thick soles of my boots were short for me. As I walked through Mom’s massive castle/factory, the scent of baking pumpkin bread made me smile as the deep groans of one of Mom’s zombie cooks soon followed as I walked into the tectonic sized kitchen, dozens upon dozens of stovetop burners roaring with various toned flames as they got various food ready for myself, Mom or the various people about the castle.

“Prince…Gabriel…” one of the zombie’s groaned as they handed me a large tray of my usual breakfast making me smile as I cantered off into one of the usual parlors or other sun rooms that I usually eat breakfast in or spend some time in.

My phone went off making me look over to see Viktoria had sent me a text:

Tell me when you’re about to leave, it is far, far easier for me to get around than for others, it’ll be easy for me to go to you then take you back then for you to try to get here.

What do you mean, it’s easier for you to teleport twice than for me to shadow travel once?

Is there a fireplace by you?

Yeah

Is it lit?

Yes

Give me a second

Literally, not even a second later, the wall seemed to rattle as the fireplace expanded upwards and outwards, the lime green flames instantly shifted to stark white as…Viktoria walked out of the fireplace, softly patting the white fur of her coat where the flames across her coat faded back to fur.

“Morning” she said with a laugh, her coat was open for the most part letting me see these high waisted and just…destroyed black jeans, they were more frayed and hole than together fabric, knee high bright red velvet boots with a wide folded top and high, thin heels with black buttons down the outside and a cropped black turtle-neck adorned with a goat skull wearing a Santa hat on it, her black hair twisted back with some pieces loose around her temples, a wide brimmed black hat back and a pair of coffin shaped sunglasses low on her nose, her usual gothic makeup and all of her spiked and shiny jewelry on.

“…morning” I said a bit surprised, “How…how did you do that?”

“My Dad’s Santa…traveling through fireplaces is something I do extremely easily” she said with a laugh, “Oooh, pumpkin muffin” she said just grabbing one of the extra ones on my breakfast tray making me laugh softly as she just leaned against the mantle as she bit into the muffin, “I’m tellin’ you, I have never had better pumpkin baked goods an’ shit than the stuff from here.” She said making me laugh.

“We do make really good pumpkin baked goods.” I said

“I have like the world’s most overstocked kitchens and bakeries at my disposal and the world’s biggest sweet tooth…and I still can’t make stuff like this”

“Maybe my Mom’s chef will give you the recipe”

“Hopefully…maybe I can trade some gingerbread for it.” she said with a soft laugh, “So, you wanted to talk to me about all of that shit with the warlords?”

“It’s just…a lot to think about.”

“It is, but I do see the reasoning behind wanting us to be their wardens and all: all of us probably do have minor aspects of our parents form of…proportional growth, so their thought process is valid in that respect.”

“What do you want to do about it?”

“I don’t mind working with the others…save for Rynold, they are never going to get on an aligned page with the rest of us because of how militant they are with their views on people using animal products or consuming animal products.”

“I mean, you do always wear that coat too” I said making her laugh, “What kind of leather even is that?”

“Oh, dragon turtle” she said resting her hand over her chest where the coat was, “My uncle made this for me, the dragon turtle had…” she said before sucking her teeth a little, “Disrupted our progress of trade and the exporting process we use, it was attacking a lot of boats and demanding ransom for every ship that he let out of the Glacier Sea, every ship that passed, he wanted a massive amount of gold. When we tried to get rid of him through more humane ways, he kept returning and resisting before…he ate an entire ship, killed…dozens of people, so…Uncle went out and killed it, the entire body was used for various things, but the hide of the dragon turtle’s head was used to make this.” She added

“Your…uncle?”

“Krampus”

“The demon? He’s not like…in the Christmas prison people talk about?”

“Darkfrost Keep? Him? No, no, no” she said, surprised that I would ask that, “Krampus is…a bit like myself, he’s a bit of a dick, he’s always been like…the fun uncle in my life, taking me to places I shouldn’t have been at my age, teaching me how to smoke, drink and get the best weed, getting me in all sorts of crazy trouble an’ shit, plus he’s not really that active in his traditional jobs, so…he’s pretty much harmless.”

“So…who is in…Darkfrost?”

“Jólakötturinn, Frau Perchta, Belsnickel, Hans Trapp, Father Whipper, all of the 72 Yule Lads and their mother, Grýla, Zwarte Piet, Straggele, Mari Lwyd, Der Klown, Knecht Ruprecht, La Befana, Tomten, the Grinch, the Grither, gremlins, Lussi, the Karakoncolos, the Kallikantzaroi…those sorts.”

“…who’s that first one?”

“Oh, the Yule Cat…she’s…so annoying to be around, her whole deal is that if you don’t wear new clothes to Christmas mass, she’d hunt you down and eat you. We don’t need those kinds of beings out there anymore, so…” she said, resting her elbow on the mantle as she flicked her other across her throat a few times while clicking her tongue. “Gotta keep her locked up. I mean, Krampus wouldn’t kill you, he’d beat you with birch branches, rattle chains at you and or kidnap you, but he wouldn’t kill you or eat you like the rest of them.” She added

“Do they ever…get out?”

“No, of course not, Darkfrost is entirely encased in a glacier, the only way in and or out is if you’re escorted by Dad, myself or the warden of the prison. So…ready to head over to Everwinter?”

“Even though you’re here already?”

“I could sense a lot of tension on your text to me, this is the most we’ve ever talked, I thought it’d be nice to show you around my neck of the woods and…show you a bit about myself.”

“Oh” I said as I felt my cheeks warm and in a mirror on the wall saw the markings along my cheekbones shift to tones of pinks and reds making me blush even more at how visible my emotions are.