Dancing rays of light filtered through the window, brightening the darkness behind Yuki's eyelids to a warm mango red. The black and white reindeer blinked groggily and parted her jaws in a yawn, heaving herself up in a long stretch. She shook out her smooth pelt and nudged her stall door with her antlers. Yuki knew what was coming for her today, the same as always, but today, she was bound to prove the other reindeer wrong; she had potential. She could do this.
The snow dusted roof said otherwise.
She ran dead smack into a pole, and to top it all off, a good 2 pounds of slush fell on her head. Shock and cold took over, and she gasped. From about 5 feet away, she could hear the snickering of...
Oh no.
"Hey guys, look! Short stack became an ice cream sundae!"
Yuki brushed the snow off her face and drooped her ears. "Enough, Tora."
The caramel colored reindeer she had addressed only rolled her eyes in response. "Yeah, I'll stop." She must've seen Yuki's hopeful gaze, as she added with a hint of malice, "Once your able to reach the fence."
Laughter burst from the other reindeer around, and Tora's emerald eyes glinted with satisfaction; Yuki believed she was too much of an attention seeker for anyone's honest liking. One reindeer stepped forward; The tallest of the reindeer, Shoko. Shoko's white and gray pelt rippled as she marched in front of Yuki and whipped her head around to glare at Tora. Shoko's horns seemed to glow, and her hooves caught the sun as she pawed at the snow, creating gouges in the white blanket. "That'll be enough out of you, Tora."
"Oh really," Tora pressed on, stepping forward to glare up at Shoko. "And who's going to make me? You seem to have forgotten that I'm team captain."
Shoko hardened her 'oh, I didn't forget' gaze, and an air of authority suddenly radiated off her.
Tora snorted. "But yeah, whatever. We have training to get to anyway." She strode off towards the obstacle course. "Let's go."
Yuki glanced up at Shoko with gratitude. "Thanks."
Shoko nodded with a small grin and trotted towards the course. Yuki broke into a similar pace to follow the others.
She arrived at the obstacle course, which was sort of a makeshift course made of tires and hula hoops and poles that swayed when you passed them. It worked for the most part, and Rei, the coach, was saving up for a more official course.
Yuki snorted and broke into a run, stretching her legs into each tire before springing upward through the hula hoops. The weaving bit was a lot easier given her size, so she swept past them with ease, the zigzag pattern effortless to her. She slammed her hooves on the icy ground to stop, but she swerved out of control and ran into the fence.
She could hear Tora's cackle from behind her, followed by Tsuki's, a dark gray and silver reindeer, then and indistinguishable tangle of laughter. Yuki whipped around and glared. "It's not funny!"
Tsuki blinked his brown eyes in amusement. "Keep telling yourself that shorty."
Yuki stamped her hoof. Tsuki had been teasing towards her for as long as she could remember, but he'd always been there for her in dark times. They were like siblings, yet Yuki had always had a small crush on him; his skills on the field and his beautiful self, inside and out, had caught her eye.
A red and white reindeer, Sho, called in his higher voice, "How bout you run off to the forest again, stop wasting our time for a change!"
That. That was the last straw.
Yuki thundered at him and kicked his chest, sending him flying into the fence. She spun on her hoof and charged forward to stab her antlers into the fence, leaving no way for Sho to escape. Sho headbutted Yuki and slipped away before kicking her legs, sending her towards the ground. The two locked antlers, thrashing.
The other reindeer rushed forward to drag the two apart, but were unsuccessful until the sound of a whistle blew. Rei ran towards the two, who pulled away immediately.
"What are you doing!" Rei exclaimed, his hands waving. "You are teammates! You're supposed to help each other, not tear each other apart!"
Yuki hung her head in shame. Of course she was a fool to stand up for herself. Sho, on the other hand, refused to back down. Sho reared up on his back legs and snorted. "YOU SHOULD JUST KICK HER OFF THE TRAINING CAMP! SHE ISN'T WORTH YOUR TIME!"
Now, Rei couldn't understand a word Sho had said, but he understood enough of what he was implying. Rei ruffled his black hair and squinted at Sho. "Go back to your stall. Now. You too, Yuki."
Rei stormed away and Sho trudged towards the barn. Yuki stared after him.
Tora snickered. "You heard the man. It's either stall of forest."
Yuki made her choice. She walked off towards to forest, kicking snow at Tora on the way. She entered the forest, where trees stretched tall and sunlight spilled off their leaves. Birds sang, and Yuki could catch the scarlet fur of a red panda. She breathed in. The forest always felt like an escape for her; a natural case where all her worries melted away like snow in the spring.
And little did Rei know, Yuki had snatched his phone.
Yuki sat and tapped the screen, unpausing what she read as "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by "Darlene Love"
Yuki bobbed her head to the rhythm, her tail swishing and her hooves tapping the ground.
What she didn't notice was the rumbling under her.
She jumped to her feet with the phone in her jaws, hopping and skipping to the beat, as she'd seen Rei doing. She had to admit, this "dancing" was pretty fun.
She, at this point, was jumping and spinning, kicking her front hooves every few beats. It was after a leap that she noticed something was off; the ground had sunk and was shaking like thunder.
She opened her eyes; she was grabbing the edge as the sinking ground fully gave way into a fissure. Panic surged through her as she realized what was happening. She screamed, "EARTHQUAKE!"
She dug her horns into the earth, and her head was rattling. If she let go, she would fall to her death, but if she didn't get up soon, she would probably suffer some head injury; why else did she hear Rei laughing at the "Don't Shake The Baby" comedy skit days back.
Rocks fell from the edge she was holding on, and through her shaking vision she saw...
"BINGO!"
Rocks had given out in just large enough holes to fit her hooves, and using that and her miraculous small size, she heaved herself up and away from the fissure. She didn't look back before she thundered back to the training camp.
Or what was left of it.
By now, the earthquake was gone, and so was the camp. It was all ruins! The fissure had stretched far enough to swallow the camp, and debris lay everywhere that was left. The reindeer were crowded around the fissure, staring down mournfully. A baby reindeer, who had barely made it from the barn, ran up to Yuki, her brown pelt rippling.
The baby, Aoi, was staring up at her with her wide sapphire eyes, her fuzzy young horns barely sticking from her head. She was bleeding from her shoulder, and she was shaking. "Yuki, c'mere! Quicky!"
Yuki followed the baby to the fissure, and Yuki turned her head to look at Sho. "What happened?"
He was too disturbed to be snotty, so he answered, "It's Rei... He's down there."
Aoi's eyes glazed in grief. "Rei was reawwy good coach." She hung her head.
Tora shook her head. "We need to split up."
"What?" Yuki was bewildered. "But we have a duty to Santa!"
Tsuki shook his head. "Training camp is gone, we'd never be able to get in without a wild card. It's over Yuki. I'm sorry."
"But-"
"Goodbye..." With that from Tora, the reindeer split up and ran separate ways, with Aoi following Tsuki. Aoi glanced back at Yuki with sympathetic wide eyes, mouthing "Super sowwy" before trotting to follow the male reindeer.
Yuki's ears flattened against her head. No, I refuse to accept this.
With that, she ran into the forest.
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She didn't know how long she'd been traveling, but she definitely knew she'd traveled to the opposite coast. It hadn't been long, but the days seemed to last forever. All she wanted now was to come across some other training camp by dumb luck.
A sharp whistle pierced the air, and against Yuki's better judgement, she turned to look. Almost immediately after, she felt something pierce her shoulder, and she felt drowsy. Perfect. Just perfect.
She hit the ground, and her vision faded to black.
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Yuki groggily blinked herself awake, not able to stand because she was locked in a wooden crate. "Ugh, my head... What happened?"
The crate top was thrown open, and a younger man was hovering over it. He looked worried. "Oh my God, are you ok? Good thing the police intercepted the crate, otherwise I don't know where you'd have ended up."
Yuki wobbled and rose to her feet, shaking her head.
"Woah!" The man exclaimed. "You're shorter than I thought. That would make a really good advantage if you were pulling the big man's sleigh."
Yuki lifted her chin. "See Tora! I have an advantage!"
"No idea what you just said, but sounded important!" The man gave a thumbs up. "I'm Walter Whittick, and I'll be taking you in."
Yuki grinned and motioned to herself with one hoof. If he can't understand me, I'll have to make him. She drew a hoof across the snow, spelling out her name with a backwards K.
"So your name's Yuki?" Walter nodded. "You must have traveled a long way. Well, you don't have to travel any more, you'll fit right in here." He walked towards a field, with three barns and a tire course. They stepped under an arch, with words Yuki couldn't catch written into it. Walter smiled. "Welcome to Whittick's Witty Bitty Farm!"
Yuki's eyes went wide. Seven reindeer were training on the tire course, and after, they went back inside their barn. Yuki followed them, nodding back to Walter. Maybe she would fit in here.