𝕬 𝖍𝖚𝖌𝖊 𝖘𝖓𝖆𝖐𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕹𝖊𝖜 𝖄𝖊𝖆𝖗!

      Fiona had already finished sewing a large beard out of cotton wool, which Scourge tried on for himself and it suited him very well. Looking at himself in a suit, hat and beard, he slyly looked at his reflection and said: — Ho-ho-ho! — No, that’s what Santa Claus does, not Father Frost. — Doesn't matter! It's show time! While there was still time before midnight, they went to bed early at sunset and set the alarm after midnight so that they would wake up late at night and not want to sleep. They did so, waking up at about zero thirty. While the naga and the fox were pulling their sleigh out of the house and onto the street, it was already midnight, everyone celebrated, quarreled with their children and went to bed. At that moment, someone flew from the sky. It was a man in a blue fur coat. He was called Father Frost with a horse instead of reindeer on his flying sleigh. He gets up from the sleigh and sings: — From the snowdrifts, from places where there is always a blizzard, from the distant city of Veliky Ustyug, Father Frost came to you and brought you gifts. Taking the bag with him, he used a rope to descend and penetrate to everyone through the window. Scourge and Fiona watched him through binoculars and waited for him to finish leaving his gifts and fly away. Father Frost finished by almost one in the morning. — The old bagman in blue should be finishing up by now! — Scourge said to himself about Father Frost. — He seems to be doing well. — Fiona suggested about him. — He appears only once a year, only after each holiday, but he is not criticized for this. And he lives in the north in a certain city of Veliky Ustyug, so as not to pay taxes! While they were discussing it, Father Frost managed to visit each house and leave a gift. Even those who quarreled with their parents. After all, they mostly behaved well all year and even tried to protect another family. He even visited the rabbits themselves and gave them something they didn’t expect. After completing the task, he got into the sleigh and shouted: — HAPPY NEW YEAR, MOBIUSTOWN!!! According to the plan, Father Frost was supposed to fly away, but suddenly Father Frost flew straight towards Scourge and the naga fussed a little. — “Why is he flying towards me? I behaved badly all year! This is not according to plans!” Father Frost himself checked his letter from Cream. Although Scourge has behaved badly all year and even yesterday, for the sake of one kind and obedient girl he will do everything he can. At this time, the fox told the snake what to do by whispering in his ear. After that they went to their house. At this time, Father Frost, unsuspectingly, descended on a sleigh next to the house of a large naga and slowly entered through the door. Suddenly he hears a woman's voice: — Grab it! A fishing net immediately appeared underfoot and grandfather fell into the trap. A naughty man, or rather a creature that did not deserve gifts, was able to catch him. He couldn't believe it. Scourge and Fiona themselves emerge from the darkness, dressed as Father Frost and the Snow Maiden. — So you got caught. — the snake-hedgehog hissed slyly. — This, of course, was not part of my plans, but we not would have you as a witness. We don't need witnesses. Father Frost, looking at their costumes and knowing in advance what they were up to, was not at all afraid of them. He was proud of himself and boldly said: — Your attempts to steal the New Year from the whole world are useless, Scourge and Fiona. — Why is this? — the fox doesn’t understand, raising his right eyebrow. — You don’t even understand that the essence of the New Year is not at all about Christmas trees, not about gifts, and not even about me! This is... — Before he could finish, Scourge rolled his eyes and interrupted him: — Why are you listening to this old fart, Fiona? He didn’t even really give us anything in all the years. — This is because someone... — Before he could quickly explain that someone behaved badly every year and did not deserve gifts for it, the naga sharply brought his muzzle closer to the old man and growled: — SHUT UP!!!... We are not interested in why you didn’t give us anything. The whole of Mobiustown treated me badly as a child. Even that creep Knuckles, who became mayor. He doesn't deserve this. They don't deserve any gifts from you, because they made fun of me, laughed at me and never loved or respected me. And you stupidly lick their asses and give them something they don’t deserve at all. You never even took pity on me or gave me anything. You think why I hate this nasty New Year every year. And I don’t know why you just now decided to fly to me... But it’s already too late. I will take away the New Year from all of you and take revenge on all of you. Since you all made fun of me, laughed and made me cry, then I will make you all suffer and will laugh at you all myself. With these words, the naga crawled out of the house first. The fox looked questioningly at Father Frost in the net and shifted his gaze, then to the exit, then to Father Frost. She didn't know what to do. Who should she trust? Scourge or Father Frost? — Fiona the Revenge! — Father Frost called the fox by her name and real surname. — Please! At least you listened to me! Scourge crawls into the house and takes Fiona with him, taking her hand with his tail. — Let's go, Fiona. I don’t want to listen to his lies anymore. And don't listen either! Father Frost, sitting in the net, looked at them from the exit and sighed heavily. Not because he was stuck in this trap, but because these two did not want to at least listen to him and did not really understand anything. Scourge and Fiona boarded their jet sleds and prepared to take off. Fiona looked thoughtfully, then at the house, inside of which the real Father Frost remained captive, and also at Mobiustown, where they would fly. She was still wondering who to trust. Scourge put his hand on her shoulders and said: — We're doing the right thing, Fiona. Believe me! Father Frost only powdered our brains. Don't listen to him, listen only to me. Don't forget, I'm your father! The fox was still tossing around in her thoughts, not knowing what to do? However, her father's words still convinced her to still remain on the dark side. She looked sternly and said: — Forward! Naga presses the red button in the center, the sled launches rockets, flies up to the top and flies down at the speed of a bullet. The lights in all the windows of the houses had long gone out. All the people and Mobians, boys and girls, as well as their parents, had pleasant dreams. Only a cool breeze gently blew snowflakes through the air outside the windows. So they flew to the first hut and stopped above the roof. Scourge, without hesitation, immediately jumped to the ground and, opening the window, crawled into it. He got stuck only halfway. Or maybe even two. — Either I’m too big, or the window is too narrow. And what kind of habit does this old man have, like a thief in the middle of the night, breaking into other people’s houses even without the keys to these very houses? — he complained out loud about Father Frost himself and remembered that he could reduce the size of his bones and slightly temporarily flatten and inflate his body parts with skin, like a balloon, in order to temporarily become the size of a person. So he did, after which he finally climbed through the window and, once inside, he again assumed his gigantic height, pouting. At the same time, when he was inside, he accidentally made a noise and fell on the floor. Vanilla and Ice, since this was their home, woke up immediately from what they heard and did not understand what the sound was. However, remembering that today after midnight it was the thirty-first of December, they immediately guessed who made such a noise. — Father Frost has come! — Ice was delighted, and Vanilla put her index finger to her lips, shushed and whispered: — Let's pretend we're sleeping! The husband agrees and they close their eyes again so as not to scare Father Frost by the fact that they are not sleeping. Scourge himself looks around at this time and sees stockings and socks above the fireplace. It was these that he first took, removing them from the nails that were driven into the fireplace. Then the naga crawled into the kitchen. Like a jackal, he climbed into the refrigerator and took out chicken, duck, apples, oranges, tangerines and pears. He even took cold drinks, like champagne, and the remaining New Year's raisin cookies. The snake-hedgehog even decided to eat one such cookie during the theft and it was very tasty. Then he returned to the corridor and took away chess, sneakers, bicycles, books, skis, skates, candy, drums and magazines. What remained were the boxes wrapped in packaging and tape. These were gifts from Father Frost himself, judging by the fact that they had stickers with the inscription “Do not open until the first of January, after the New Year!” He even took them and put everything in a red and empty bag. The bag was full and the naga threw it outside to Fiona so she could load it onto the sled. Scourge at this time took out another empty bag and put garlands, tinsel, lights, flags, snowflakes on the walls and bells there. The bag was also full and Scourge threw it out the window as well. Only the tree remains. He grabbed the tree with both hands and dragged it to the window himself. But suddenly he hears someone's steps. It was the rabbit Cream herself who came downstairs from her room because she wanted a glass of water at night. On the way, she noticed that there were no New Year's decorations or gifts around. Moreover, the tree stands in a different place and is held by someone’s huge green hands with claws and in a blue fur coat. Cream immediately realized it was Scourge. The rabbit was smart and very cunning. She realized from the blue size of her hands, color and claws that this was the same hedgehog-snake from the mountain, who probably dressed up as Father Frost and stole all the decorations from their house. Scourge himself was hiding behind the tree at that time and was afraid that it would discover him and catch him, then his whole plan would go down the drain. Cream, smiling slyly, thought not to give Scourge to anyone for now, and also to pretend that she had not caught him. She pretended as if she knew nothing and as if she saw the real Father Frost behind the tree and turned questioningly to the naked man: — Father Frost? I'm sorry that I scared you, but... Why are you taking our tree? In his thoughts, the snake sighed with relief, deciding that this stupid girl did not recognize him, and even more so only paid attention to the fact that he was taking the tree, although the room was empty, because he took almost everything before the tree. There really was a question. How can he get out of this mess? But he quickly came up with a suitable lie. Naga crawls out of hiding, appearing in all her glory in a hat, fur coat and a beard made of cotton wool, and also with her arms stretched out to the sides. Scourge showed up and said: — It's simple, child! You see, Cream, one of the light bulbs on the garland of this very fir tree has burned out. Ho-ho-ho! But... In my cozy, warm and beautiful town, Veliky Ustyug, I will quickly fix it! Ho-ho-ho! And I will return it back to you! Ho-ho-ho! Hearing the fake Father Frost go "Ho-ho-ho!", Cream became even more convinced that it was Scourge and not the real Father Frost. After all, thanks to her parents’ stories and children’s books, she knows that Father Frost is actually a man, although old, but lives forever, like Koschey the Immortal. And she also knows that “Ho-ho-ho!” Usually only Santa Claus publishes, but not Father Frost! And Father Frost and Santa Claus, although similar to each other in character, appearance and symbolism, are still two completely different characters, who also belong to completely two different holidays. Cream looked to the side slyly, adding up all these facts and decided to ask Scourge a question: — Father Frost, explain! What is the main thing in the essence of the New Year. — "Revenge!" — Scourge himself thought in his head just to himself. However, he did not say this out loud, but instead answered with a smile: — I guess... Gifts? — That’s what I was afraid of. — the rabbit answers to herself out loud from what she heard. Scourge raises his right eyebrow questioningly, not understanding what she means? — No no! So! Thinking out loud. After this quiet and calm conversation, Scourge patted Cream’s head with his huge right palm, gave her a drink and returned her to bed on the second floor himself, so that she would certainly not return downstairs for him. As he was about to crawl away, Cream addressed him while lying in bed: — Father! — What, baby? — Scourge asks her gently, so as not to give himself away. Although it was difficult for him, because such words made him sick. — When you finish delivering gifts in our city, please don’t forget about Scourge! — she asked him specifically, hinting at him. Naga even bulged his eyes, not expecting to hear about himself. Cream, getting ready to fall asleep, finishes: — I know he’s big, angry, strange, slippery and hairy... But... I still believe that there is at least something good in him... No matter what he is It's not my fault that he became like this... And yet... I think that he... So... Sweet! Scourge suddenly got a blush on his cheeks from what he heard. The Naga in the Father Frost costume even fussed a little. — I-i-is... it really so... Do you think? — he asks her shyly, afraid of accidentally giving himself away. — Certainly. — the rabbit answers him and closes her eyes, after which she herself did not notice how she fell asleep. Scourge, at this time, quietly closed the door of her bedroom, crawled back to the first floor and lowered his head, thinking about Cream’s words about himself, holding his cap in his hands and squeezing it in thought. Be that as it may, he decided to finish what he and Fiona had started. The snake-hedgehog again grabbed the tree with his hands and threw it out the window. Fiona, grumbling under her breath, picks it up: — Finally! What's taking so long? Before he left, Scourge even took the last log from the fireplace with him and crawled out through the window. He picked up all the firewood without leaving a single log and again became poor at home with the rabbits, as before. Although he became even poorer than he was before. After all, now there was nothing in the house at all. No garlands, no firecrackers, no cones, no donuts. And among the food there were only pitiful crumbs, which were not enough even for a mouse. And then, even the mice themselves, Scourge also grabbed and ate them, like a domestic and useful cat that protects houses from harmful mice and rats from fields and sewers. That night, Scourge and Fiona easily entered every house, and they were robbed in the same way. They took all the gifts, decorations, food, etc. All that remained were bare walls in each house. The Naga made his way into every house and made everyone happy, and the fox received the stolen goods in bags and put them all in a sleigh. When Scourge entered Eggman's house, he realized that it was Mayor Knuckles' servant and decided to take a little revenge on him for one thing. He took a large and long iron chain once with hooks. One end was attached to the bed from below, and the other was carried out into the street and secured to the bumper of a police car. After that, the naga, like a real bully, laughed to himself to the side. When everything was packed and the whole city was empty, Scourge and Fiona just got on the sleigh. All the bags were piled into a huge mountain in the form of a huge bag, which was even larger than the naga himself. The snake-hedgehog and the fox were preparing to fly away, but alas, the sleigh was overcrowded due to a heap of painted gifts. There was nothing to do! Scourge and Fiona had to take the ropes, tie them to the sleigh with a bag and began to drag them up the mountain from the city. By this time it was almost eight o’clock in the morning for the two of us, but it was still dark and the sun had not yet risen, since it was winter outside. The sled and bags were heavy, but Scourge and Fiona pulled them along as hard as they could. On the way, they even felt sad, lowered their heads and wondered if they should do this further. Fiona was made to think about this in advance by the real Father Frost himself, who somehow knows her real last name, and Scourge was thinking about the same thing, lowering his head because of Cream’s words.