In my upcoming release, Cry Havoc, we get a little taste of a Dorendan holiday season. Specifically, our brave hero takes the girls holiday shopping during the Light Carnival where they celebrate Tempest as the winter snows move in each year. Aiden is one of the kids you met in Home from the Hill.  Enjoy!

He approached Tolly where she examined a brown one carefully. “Geris has grown. Do you think this would be a good fit for him?”

Aiden took the hat and settled it on Tolly’s head. “Yeah, it’s pretty close I’d say.”

“Oh, stop,” she huffed.

He grinned back at her, noting over her shoulder that Dix was hanging very close to the two young Dorendan girls they’d come with.

He gestured to the small group. “Either one of them a rancher’s daughter, by chance.”

“Lessie, Why?”

He grinned again. He shook his head with amusement as he watched the man dance around the smaller of the two women.

“So, what do you want for your Tempest gift?” Tolly asked him suddenly.

He brought his eyes back to Tolly’s dark ones. Soulful eyes. He always thought more poetically when he was around Tolly, he thought with a small smile.

The crew of the Delta spent a lot of time on battlefields, out in a firefight, and there wasn’t time to think in those situations, but, back on the ships, after the fight was over. He, and every one of his crew, thought of family, and Aiden found himself thinking like an artist, in flowery prose and soft brush strokes. It was part of being a soldier, he imagined.

“I don’t need a present.”

“Yes, you do. All good little boys and girls need a present,” she insisted.

“Oh, well. In that case, I don’t qualify.”

---

Happy Holidays Giveaway

To thank my readership for a great year, I’ve been giving away a few freebies. For this special post, I’m handing out freebies of Brother Mine from my Brother assassins series. Grab your copy by clicking the image.

Jolie Mason writes youth science fiction and science fiction romance.

She is a member of the Science Fiction Romance Brigade, and a huge fangirl of almost every major scifi series out there, even the obscure ones. You can subscribe to her newsletter to keep up with new releases and awesome SFR news HERE