Northstar Vale Phyllis -- a woman -- has uslurped my role as Santa.

Well, that wasn't quite the reception she was hoping for. Mama seemed distracted by something, as if there were more important things to consider than the stone. Lilitu frowned. She didn't like her gift playing second fiddle to whatever else was in Ibis's brain.

Nice, she emphasized, and took the stone from her mother. She lay down upon her belly, placed the precious object upon her paws, and began to clean it once more, removing the dirt that had sullied it when her mother had so callously tossed it aside. Le gasp.

(She was well on her way to becoming a drama queen—a real pain in the ass.)

Once the rock was polished up to her satisfaction, she looked back up at Ibis. Mama, she said again, and nosed at the striations of the rock, the varying shades of red and brown fading to black. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. She really thought Mama would have liked it.