(I'll edit this when I actually know what Peanut Butter says-)
Bleached white snow settled against the ground like sugar, barely disturbed by reindeer hooves.
Yet.
Yuki glanced restlessly out the window of the sawdust scented stables. The sun barely showed its radiant face, but its rays seemed to stretch forever, gaining height to monitor the world with warm wings. The dark reindeer stamped her hoof and dragged it around, tossing around beaten hay. This was the day. After eleven long months of training here, it was finally December 21st. It was finally time to show North Carolina what she was made of.
"Psst!"
Yuki's head perked up, ears swiveling to search for the voice.
"Over here!"
Aha... Yuki craned her neck to look into the next stall, where DJ was glancing down at her with sapphire eyes. She smirked teasingly and waved a hoof, earning a light scoff from the taller male.
"I think we're the only ones awake." Yuki observed, trying to see into the other stalls. The branching, twining antlers of her peers were out of sight.
"Yeah." DJ confirmed, antlers laced with blazing sunlight as he turned his head. He looked back to Yuki. "Ready?"
"Um, duh!" Yuki exclaimed, bouncing on her back hooves. She fell back down and locked her front hooves onto the wall between her and DJ to give her a boost. "I was born ready! And what's it to ya, big brute?"
"Don't call DJ a brute!" He snapped, stamping a hoof. "And I'm just making sure my competition is ready. Then, I can DESTORY you and I'll know it's because I'm better!"
"Good luck trying to destroy me!" Yuki retorted boldly. This training camp had awakened a new confidence in her, like a rose in full bloom.
"I won't need it." DJ boasted, stepping back arrogantly.
A sharp whistle pierced the shivering air, and Yuki straightened like a soldier.
"Relax, short stack." DJ rolled his ocean eyes. (His EYES. As he rolled them, the color would shimmer and flip and play like tumbling waves. It was memorizing, like spiraling ice columns in arctic caverns.) "He's calling out the goats."
"The goat run!" Yuki bursted. The thing Elliot had told her about a year before. She'd seen the amusing, tumbling goats practice before, and she had to admit they were quite adorable. Yuki propped her front hooves on the window sill to get a better look.
"...For a chance to tell them, that they may take our goats, but they will never take our goat run!"
That voice was Peanut Butter's. His thick Irish accent cut through the air like the wings of a hawk as thundering hooves sounded through the air like landslides. Millions of diamond shards flew as the goats kicked up snow, trampling and tumbling around the course. An itty-bitty black and white goat ducked her head and weaved through the much larger crowd like a dolphin through waves.
"Nice duck and weave, Blueberry!" Hazel praised from next to Elliot, who was running close behind the thundering crowd.
"Thanks!" Blueberry squeaked gratefully, voice full of bouncy enthusiasm. She hopped onto the back of a light brown goat, which Yuki learned earlier in the year to be named Dusty. "Yeehaw!"
Yuki grinned, ears lifting like her spirits. There really wasn't anything like seeing others have the time of their lives. Taking part in it usually lead to a disaster anyway, at least in her case.
"W-WOAH!"
Blueberry had tumbled backwards, loosing grip on the other goat. The tiny goat was now plummeting towards the snow, and from Yuki's experience, it wasn't as much like a soft blanket landing as one would expect.
Just as Blueberry was about to crash, Elliot lunged forward and gripped her horn in his teeth. The mini horse set Blueberry back down, and she turned with a thankful, lopsided grin. "Thanks, Elliot!"
The crowd of spectators erupted into cheers and clapping, the sound riling Yuki. Confidence filled her like liquid sunlight. Maybe someday... those people will be cheering for me as I make Santa's team!
Suddenly, an invigorating tune drummed through the speakers. DJ perked his head up. "It's our turn."
"What?" Yuki whipped her head around. "What do I do?"
"When the stable doors are fully opened, kick open your door and strike a pose." DJ explained. "Then line up at the entrance."
"How do I know when it's open?" Yuki pestered. "What pose do I strike? When do I line up? Single file or-"
"YUKI!" DJ hushed, an irritated tone in his voice. The two had somewhat warmed up to each other and had a more friendly rivalry, but they definitely still had their... times.
Then the doors swung open. The oddly comforting sound of wood sounded as the doors slammed into wedges to hold open. This was it. Yuki swung her legs and kicked the door open, then took on the sideways pose of a territorial wolf. Standing her ground, she painted a determined expression on her face.
The reindeer began to march armylike, side by side, to the entrance, and Yuki followed. By the time they'd reached the entrance, Yuki was near the middle, second only to DJ and next to a light brown reindeer, who she'd learned was dubbed Ruby.
A sharp sound screamed from Walter's rusty whistle, and at once, the reindeer bolted towards the obstacle course.
DJ thundered through the tires, hooves lifting and smashing into each hole like an oil derrick. Yuki copied, speeding over the tire holes, slightly slower due to her smaller size.
"Aw, do you see how small she is?"
"Big things come in small packages."
"Fast too. She's going to pass DJ!"
But of course, she couldn't. Stay in line. Follow the leader. That's the only way not to make a fool of yourself. Then I can watch what he does and do it TEN TIMES BETTER.
DJ lunged through the hula hoops, his muscles rippling under his well groomed dark coat. He grinned and winked smugly at the crowd watching. Yuki snorted. I can do better than that. She leaped forward, flipping and twirling through the hoops like a football. Cheers were drawn from the crowd, and DJ smirked back at Yuki. He thinks it's for him.
Then, the realization sunk in, and DJ whipped his back backwards in a hostile glare.
Then came the weaving part...
DJ sped through the flags, weaving and dragging his massive self around them. Fast, but not fast enough. Yuki zipped through the flags easily, and at the last one, she gripped one in her teeth. The momentum sent her backwards, then forwards, spinning. Using that, she threw herself over DJ, barely missing his horns. The reindeer halted, skidding to a stop on the ice.
DJ seemed to be foaming at the mouth with anger, but kept enough composure to present himself. He bounded up the snowdrift and slid down to a spectator. He tossed her baby into the air (Why would you DO that?) and caught her comfortably in the dip of his horns. As he handed the child back, the crowd clapped and whooped. The cocky reindeer trotted back up to the others. "It's true. DJ is fabulous!"
Yuki rolled her deep eyes and sat back on her haunches with an amused snort. The other reindeer huddled together, but a small animal squirmed through their legs. The cream mini horse popped through into the middle, right before DJ, and requested, "C'mon guys, make some room!"
Elliot?
"Yo, mini man!" DJ greeted icily. "I thought I made myself clear yesterday: no crashing our show!"
"Let him join in DJ," a black and white reindeer, Yuki's odd look alike, Taylor, assured, "we don't mind."
"Well I'm team captain," DJ hissed (he never refers to himself as I!), "and I do." He stalked up to Elliot and dipped his head down to glare into his eyes. "When you gonna give up, runt? Because DJ's getting tired of this."
"Oh, I'll never give up," Elliot retorted determinedly. "So DJ better get used to it."
Yuki lifted her head with an amused laugh, earning a warning glare from DJ. He locked his gaze intensely with Elliot's again. "Is that so?"
"Yeah," Elliot pushed. "It is."
"I'll say this, mini man." DJ straightened up, summoning some sort of faux friendly tone in his voice. "Persistence is an admirable quality. It's real admirable."
"Why thanks DJ," Elliot smirked. "I appre-" He was cut off by DJ, who kicked him across the field out of the circle.
"FOR A REINDEER!" DJ shouted back, earning a chuckle from the group. Yuki rose to her hooves and trotted over to Elliot.
"Stupid reindeer." Elliot muttered. "Think they're so special." He shook the frozen powder from his light coat as he stood up.
Hazel, who was next to Yuki, patted her lightly with a hoof. "He doesn't mean you."
Yuki glanced down at her, feeling somewhat attacked by Elliot's words. But she knew what he meant. "It's true though. And no offense was taken, so you're all good."
Elliot turned to notice Yuki, a startled look overtaking his features. "Crap! Didn't see you there! Sorry..."
"You're fine." Yuki assured with a giggle. "When you're as short a reindeer as I am, you develop some thick skin."
Hazel's eyes, however, were fixed on someone outside of the fence. "Um... don't look now, but-" She quickly noticed Elliot and Yuki turning to look, and made an agitated and panicked bounce on her hooves. "What- why are you looking?"
It was a tall girl, dressed with black and a striking shade of alarming violet. She wore a top hat and glasses, and her hair seemed to glow with neon twilight. "Hello." She had a thick Russian (?) accent as she spoke, and fixed the three with an unnerving stare that sent chills down Yuki's spine. She tore a piece of beef jerky from a blue wrapper, not breaking her cold eye contact, and tossed the rest to the three.
Hazel leaped for joy and immediately gulped down the jerky, much to Yuki's disgust. The goat immediately spat it back out onto the crystal snow with a startled look. "Yuck, that is the worst beef jerky I've tasted in my life!"
"You've eaten beef before?" Yuki gagged. The thought of eating another animal made her sick, but of course there was the whole predator-prey chain. Being prey, that absolutely wasn't for her.
"Guys, beef had nothing to do with it." Elliot pointed out, squinting over the wrapper.
"Why?" Hazel leaned over his shoulder, squinting down at the foil wrapper. Through Yuki's time here, she'd learned that Hazel was illiterate, which made sense for a goat, but didn't help her motion make much sense. "What's it say?"
"Ludzinka's llama sticks..." Elliot read slowly, earning a puzzled look from a nearby llama (Ignacio, Yuki remembered).
Yuki continued trying to read it, and being here as long as she had, she'd picked up a thing or two. "Raised by Mama Llama in Peru..."
"Dehydrated by Ludzinka in Duluth?" Elliot finished, his suspicious peer immediately shifting to puzzled horror, an alarmed, concerned flash in his caramel eyes.
And then the rusty speakers screeched to life.