Disclaimer: Although not mentioned by name, this short Christmas story is about Dash, Kiri, Aki, Miri, Sam and Cory from my original stories "Ignorance is Bliss" and "It's a Turtle Life", as well as the crossover "Star Turtle Voyager", so once again I don't need to disclaim anything as they are my own creations.

I'll still warn about gay turtles, so if that's not your thing, don't read this, but this short little splooorp isn't enough to offend anyone's sensibilities, I don't think.

This is kind of a sequel to "It's a Turtle Life", although you don't really need to have read any of the stories about Dash and Kiri to read this little... turtle Christmas tale.

This was inspired by and written for, as pretty much everything is lately, my beloved. Hope you'll approve of it, himechan.

Feedback would, as always, be greatly appreciated at rosmari.karlssonfaltin@telia.com

A Very Merry Turtle Christmas

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by Carola "Ryûchan" Eriksson

Once upon a time there were a pair of turtles.

One turtle was slightly bigger and had fluorescent yellow dots on her head, while the other was slightly smaller and nicely red. They were two very happy girl-turtles in love, had a nice big tank home, and a pair of good and well-trained humans to tend to.

They were also new parents of two inquisitive little turtle hatchlings.

These hatchlings, one red and one green and yellow, were very lively turtlings, and very very curious about everything they saw. And while they were still very small, they did notice that their humans were acting strangely, and that the world outside their tank looked different.

Finally the little turtlings asked their daddy what was going on. The red mommy turtle tucked her little babies into their straw beds, and then lay down to listen with them to daddy turtle's story.

Daddy turtle told the hatchlings that it was something called Christmas. That was why the world outside the tank had gone all red and green and silvery, with lots of bright and shiny things, and why there was a bigbig green thing in one corner near the tank.

Daddy turtle told the hatchlings that the green thing would be magically covered in bright and shiny things too, when the turtlings awoke next morning, and with big bright balls in which the hatchlings would be able to see funny images of themselves if the humans held them up next to them. Daddy turtle also told the turtlings that on Christmas, a magical turtle called Sandy-turtle would come, riding on a laughing human and wearing a funny thing on her head, bringing extra good foodstuffs and presents for all good turtles.

The turtlings got very excited and wanted to hear more stories, but mommy turtle reminded them to be good turtles and go to sleep, so that they too would get presents by Sandy-turtle at Christmas. Obediently the two turtlings curled down to sleep, turtle-whispering a little to one another about Sandy-turtle before finally falling asleep.

In the morning when the turtlings woke up they found that their daddy had been right... the bigbig green thing had turned all sparkly with magic, just as daddy turtle had promised. Of course, the turtlings were convinced that daddy knew everything, and so they quite excitedly waited for Christmas and Sandy-turtle to arrive, even telling their darkhaired human about Sandy-turtle bringing gifts for good turtlings when she picked them up to play for a while.

The turtlings felt kind of bad for their humans though, wondering if Sandy-turtle ever gave gifts to good humans, since their humans were rather well-behaved and mostly did what they were told. Mommy turtle then told her babies that Sandy-turtle's human usually brought some things for good humans too, so their humans would probably get something for Christmas. The little hatchlings were pleased about this, because they wouldn't want their humans to be left out of any funfun things.

The days felt long although they were filled with excitement for the two turtlings, until finally Christmas arrived.

Daddy turtle was gone when mommy turtle woke the babies up after their nap, and they noticed that their tall, yellow-coloured human was also missing. They asked their mommy about this, but mommy just smiled and told the turtlings to wait.

Then suddenly the turtlings heard loud human laughter, and look, there came Sandy-turtle in her little red head-thingy, carried by a tall human in another, bigger, red head-thingy. Sandy-turtle crowed merrily from behind a piece of silvery stuff that the turtlings had been good little hatchlings, and then had her human fill their foodbowl with lots and lots of fancy treats. The little turtlings eyes got big and round at the sight of all those funny and yummy looking foodstuffs, although one of the turtlings wondered if daddy wasn't going to come back soon, before she missed Sandy-turtle.

Sandy-turtle reassured the turtlings that their daddy would get presents anyway, and then gave the hatchlings little turtle toys, and even had her human bring two new brightly-coloured fish to the tank. The turtlings bounced happily at all these goodies, and when the new fish were added to the tank they finally forgot to worry about daddy, and instead chased the fish around in the tank, doing their best to do loops around the swift little fish, just like daddy would.

When the turtlings grew tired of the game and came back to the surface to eat some of their Christmas foodstuffs, their daddy had returned and was being nuzzled by their mommy. The excited turtlings bounced up and down as they told their daddy about Sandy-turtle and all the gifts, but their daddy just smiled and puffed herself up in her shell, not looking the slightest bit disappointed that she had missed Sandy-turtle.

A little while later, when the two now very tired little turtlings was preparing to go to sleep, they first spent some time with their mommy and daddy, looking at their humans doing funny things under the bigbig green and sparkly thing. The humans were giving one another all kinds of sparkly things, which looked fun to the little turtlings, but then the tall yellow-headed one gave the smaller dark one a tiny pink thing, well, tiny for humans anyway, that made the dark one cry and then hug the yellow one for a long long time.

Then mommy ushered the turtlings over to their bed, so they didn't get to see what their humans did next, but they did ask their mommy why the pink thing made their dark human cry. The mommy turtle then explained to her young that she had been talking to the dark human for a while about getting little human hatchlings of their own, but that the yellow-headed one had hesitated for some time. The pink thing, mommy explained, was one of those soft human shells like the ones their humans wore, only it was made for human hatchlings.

The pink shell, the mommy told her turtlings, was the yellow human's way of telling her partner that she wanted a hatchling too, and that made the dark one so happy she cried. Humans are funny that way, mommy said, that they cry when they are very happy sometimes.

Satisfied that all was well in the world of humans, the little turtlings snuggled down into their bed. Once their mommy had left them, believing that they were already asleep, the little turtles whispered for a while about humans and hatchlings and soft shells and Sandy-turtle, and just before they went to sleep, about what a human eggie would look like.

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