Holiday Tails

Chapter 5
The Accidental Gift Of Regression

Chapter Description: Imagine getting a day after Valentine's Day gift only to find it causes you to regress...

"The over-commercialization of any holiday just to make a quick buck off of unsuspecting customers is one of the biggest parts of rampant hyper capitalism and consumerism that makes me hate holidays anymore." I sigh as Adler just listens to my rant. The droning of the TV in the background playing one of our favorite DVDs fills the living room.

"Yep. My parents pretty much refused to buy most anything they didn't need around the time of any major holiday for the same reason. It's why for Hanukkah my sister and I usually just got some thrift store clothes instead of the normal gifts you'd get from your parents. Heck, they always waited until after Valentine's Day to buy each other a gift since it was usually cheaper to buy chocolates the day after."

"Well, if we get each other gifts this year, why don't we just do something like that? Especially since you're not big on flowers or jewelry and I'm not big on getting gifts in general?"

"Doesn't sound too bad to me. Though they never seem to have the ones without cherry whenever I look." Adler is pretty allergic to cherries, so a lot of the valentine's chocolate is outta the window since that always seems to be left behind more than a lot of other types where we shop in general.

"I'd say if that Mediterranean restaurant we went to last year wasn't closed that we could go there."

"It absolutely sucks that it's closed because they had such amazing Mediterranean food that you can't really find anywhere else in Spiritrock. Plus, they had the absolute best Turkish Coffee I've ever had." The place closed up shop because the owners children didn't want to take over the place. It's the same story with my favorite Chinese restaurant that had the best authentic Chinese food I've ever had.

"Their babagannuş was to die for. Great, now I'm craving that and their hummus and we can't even get it anymore." As we sit and just chat about whatever come to mind, Adler soon gets a phone call. She answers and puts it on speaker real quick.

"Hey, so I have a bit of an odd question." It's Zach on the other end. "You know, since Valentine's Day is coming up, I figured I'd ask for your opinion on a gift for a certain someone." I'm pretty sure this is a gift for Hazel since he's been spending quite a bit of time with her whenever he can. Adler sighs lightly before responding.

"She likes very dark chocolate and doesn't wear jewelry besides the earrings she got at her sweet sixteen, Your best bet is going down to that one foreign import store a few blocks down and buying her some foreign dark chocolate. She'll love that, if you're talking about Hazel."

"Haha, I knew I could count on you. My mom was giving me advice that I wasn't sure on, so thanks for the information."

"Not a problem. Also, if you ever make her sad, you won't just have to worry about her regressing you. I'll also be on your case pretty hard." I can hear him nearly whisper yikes before he hangs up. "Us women have to stick up for one another."

"Totally. So, are we just going to wait until Wednesday before we do anything?"

"Sure. Why not?"

A Few Days Later:

"These candies are amazing!" I awe in enjoyment as I swallow. Adler went to that foreign import store close to where Zach lives and got me some Asian candy. I don't have a clue where it originally came from but that doesn't matter. It's better than what I got her since this is a package of candies instead of just a simple candy bar.

"I'm glad you like it. I figured since you enjoy Asian food that I would get you something different and unique. Also, thank you for your gift. The marzipan filling in that chocolate was absolutely perfect. I cannot believe you don't like marzipan."

"It just tastes like soap to me, so you can see why I don't like it."

"Definitely not like I would know what soap tastes like, so I'll take your word."

"Rest assured, it definitely doesn't taste all that nice. I can recall a few different times where I would say something bad by accident and would be sucking on a soap bar afterwards. You're lucky your parents never did that to you or your sister growing up." All of the sudden I start getting an intense pain in my stomach. I clutch my stomach with my paws after tossing the bag of candies off to the side of the couch, a painful wince on my face.

"Are you alright, Ulrich?" I shoot up from my seat and start running towards the bathroom. Instinctively I close the door after I'm in and kneel down by the toilet. As I lift up the seat I begin vomiting intensely. My eyes tear up as my vision goes blurry. From the other side of the door I can barely hear Adler asking something, unable to make out her words. As the pain starts subsiding I start to stop vomiting. She opens the door as my vision starts to clear up.

"Gasp!" As I get up and turn around I find that I'm now just barely eye level with her stomach. What's going on? "Ulrich, it seems like you have regressed regressed a little. Look at the mirror." I turn towards the mirror to find I'm barely tall enough to see my head peaking above the sink.

"Gasp! Eeep!" Usually whenever I get regressed I don't remember it, so I never worry about how I sound or look when it happens. My voice sounds pretty cherubic, maybe landing somewhere in-between second and third grade. Instead of what I regular wear around our home, I find that I am stuck in a bright blue long sleeve shirt with music notes doted around and a pair of very light blue denim overalls. I fell really embarrassed right now since I haven't worn overalls in well over a decade and a half, let alone make it public to anyone who doesn't already know. "Okay, did you do this or was it pure coincidence? You've managed to thoroughly embarrass me thoroughly if you meant to do this." I can feel my cheeks are blush from embarrassment without even looking in the mirror.

"No, I didn't. I'm so sorry. It was probably something in those candies I got you." We both return to the living room as we take a look at the packaging. Neither of us can make out what language the packaging is in or a country of origin. This room feels so much more spacious and intimidating now that I've lost a fair chunk of my height. My legs barely don't reach the floor as I sit on the couch with Adler. "I'll call up Hazel later and see what she has to say bout all of this. I know she's pretty busy today, so it'll probably be a long while before we can get this figured out. For now, let's just keep these candies away from you, just in case they're the ones making you younger. I wouldn't want to go into another room and return to an otter pup on the couch..."