Bernard yawned for the millionth time since he had gotten up this morning. His head felt cloudy and he couldn't concentrate on what he was doing. He was trying to figure out a toy design that one of the elves had come up with and that Santa wanted him to make. As he kept working, images kept flashing in his mind.
"Bernard. Bernard! BERNARD!" Curtis yelled, finally getting his attention.
Bernard glanced up at him. "What?" he said..
Curtis sighed. "Are you alright? You've been staring at that toy for about half an hour."
Bernard mentally gasped. Had he really been staring at the toy? "Yes, I'm alright." he said in a hard voice. "I'm going to get something to eat." he said, even though he wasn't hungry. He just wanted to get away from Curtis and his questions. He stood and walked away.
Unfortunately for him, Curtis followed him. "Hey, Bernard. Can I ask you a question?"
Bernard sighed. Curtis wouldn't give up until he said yes. "Fine." he said in defeat.
"Why are you not like us?" Curtis bluntly asked.
Bernard came to a complete stop. "What?" he said.
Curtis faced him. "We all know that you are a bit different than us and we want to know why."
Bernard didn't answer. Instead, he turned around and ran back down the hall with that sort of limp run that he had.
Curtis stared after him. "Was it something I said?"
Bernard didn't go back to the area where he and a few other elves slept. Instead, he went down to the stables. He always went down there when he had to think. Only a couple of people actually knew that he went down there.
"……….." one of the reindeer said in their language. "Are you alright?" was what he had said.
Bernard looked over at him but didn't talk to him. He went to one of the empty stalls and laid down on the hay that had been put in it. He hit the wall next to him.
Why did they always have to ask that?
He let his mind drift a bit as he started to remember…….
A small twelve year old boy in ragged clothes stood out by a door, shivering. He didn't know where he was but he did know that it wasn't his home.
The people that were walking around looked strange. They had pointed ears and they dressed strangely.
He knew that his ears were slightly pointed but even if you looked directly at them, you could barely tell.
None of them even seemed to notice him. Just as he started to get even more afraid, a man broke away from the people that were walking and he walked over to him.
"Hello there." he kindly said. "What are you doing out here, all alone? Where are your parents?" he asked.
The boy's face fell and he sat down in the snow and started crying.
The man had noticed the boy's ears but he didn't say anything. The man wrapped his arms around the boy and let him cry into his shoulder.
A bang brought Bernard out of his thoughts. He looked out of the stall and saw that one of the elves that knew he came down the was cleaning up around the stalls.
Soon, she came to the stall that Bernard was in. She smiled at him. "They asking you questions again?" she said.
He nodded and the girl passed the stall. Bernard fell back into thought.
Time quickly went by but Bernard didn't noticed. When he got like this, he couldn't really tell what was going on around him. How he had been feeling today wasn't helping either. He yawned a bit and leaned back on the straw. Soon, he was dead to the world.
Curtis hadn't really thought about Bernard running off like that. He had done it before. But when he didn't come back after two hours, he got a bit worried. Everyone had been asking him if he had gotten an answer but he just shook his head no.
Abbey came over to him. "Curtis, Santa wants to see you."
Curtis winced a bit. That couldn't be good. He hurried to where Santa and Mrs. Clause were waiting for him. "Yes Santa? You wanted to see me?"
Scott looked over at Curtis. "Curtis. Where is he?"
"Where is who?" Curtis asked.
Scott sighed. "Curtis, you know who I am talking about."
Curtis started to get more and more nervous. "Specify who."
"Bernard! Where is Bernard?" Scott said in defeat.
Curtis sighed. "I don't know. He just ran off."
Scott knew that he was telling the truth. "And why did he run off?"
Mrs. Clause decided to step in now. "Curtis. Could you please tell us what happened?"
Curtis sighed. "We have always known that something was different about Bernard and we want to know why. Every so often, one of us asks him about it. And each time, he runs off." Curtis explained.
Scott sighed. "That explains it."
"There is also one more thing." Curtis said. "He was attacking really strange today. He kept yawning and his face looked pale."
Scott frowned. "Can elves get sick?" he asked Curtis.
Curtis shook his head. "Since we are immortal, we can't get sick or even bleed."
Scott frowned. What was wrong with Bernard? "Well first, we need to find Bernard."
"I know where he is." a girl said from the door. She was one of the stable cleaners.
Scott turned towards her. "Where is he?" he kindly asked.
She sighed. "He told me not to tell but he doesn't look so good today and I am worried." she said.
Scott knelt next to her. "We'll make sure that he is okay. Now, where is he?"
The girl led them down into the stables and to the stall where Bernard had dozed off in.
Scott frowned. Curtis was right. His face was flushed and he was sweating slightly. He breathing even sounded a bit raspy. Scott quietly walked into the stall and lightly laid his hand on Bernard's forehead. It felt warm.
Bernard opened his eyes and sleepily looked around.
Curtis and the girl had left. Scott and Mrs. Clause were left.
"Are you alright, Bernard?" Scott asked, worry in his voice.
Bernard stood up and stretched. "Santa, I'm fine. Just a bit tired." he went to walk off but Scott stopped him.
"Bernard. Something is wrong. You don't seen yourself." Scott put his hand on Bernard's shoulder.
Bernard shrugged. "I am fine. Elves cannot get sick so I'm fine." he said before moodily walking away.
Scott sighed. "I've never seen him like this before."
"Its going to be fine, hon." Carol said, but she wasn't too sure herself.
Bernard went to where all the other elves were eating but he only ate a little bit. Then he went directly back to work. He stayed up really late and was exhausted by the time he went to bed.
He dragged himself to the shared room and collapsed on the bed. He didn't even get changed before he fell asleep. Unfortunately, he didn't have good dreams………
Bernard glanced around. He couldn't tell where he was. He was at a large house where four people were playing outside. He looked closer and gasped.
"Isn't that…….me?" he gasped out.
The child looked a bit like him. The same color hair, a smile he remembered, and a laugh that he remembered as well.
The child suddenly turned and looked around. Two shadowy figures came up behind the other two people. The fourth one had noticed and ran and hid. She was smaller than the others. They reached their arms out and two shots rang out. The boy screamed and tried to run away from them but they shot him in the arm and leg.
Pain shot into Bernard's arm and leg, right where the boy had been shot. He tried to scream but his voice wouldn't come out.
The boy still ran and the men just ignored him. He would probably die soon anyway.
Bernard, still in pain, started to put in darkness. He tried to fight it off but it was no use. The darkness hurt even more than the pain in his arm and leg. Suddenly, the floor fell away from underneath him and he fell into the darkness.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" he screamed as he kept falling and falling and……..
THUD!!
Bernard grunted in pain as he woke up and realized that he was on the floor with pain shooting through his face. He groaned slightly and stood up. He suddenly got dizzy and he fell back onto his bed. He felt his forehead and his cool hand felt really good. His head felt like it was going to explode and he was shivering and felt warm at the same time.
"What's happening to me?" he quietly said as he fell back onto his bed and fell back to sleep.
Curtis hurriedly ran around, trying to find out what was going on. Bernard wouldn't wake up and there were about five different problems at the same time. He ran up to Carol, who was helping out the elves.
"Do you need something, Curtis?" she kindly asked.
He nodded. "I need you to look at Bernard. He looks worse than he did yesterday."
Carol nodded and she hurried off to where Bernard was laying. She felt his forehead quickly. He was burning up. She shook his shoulders, trying to get him to wake up. It was then that she noticed something. His ears weren't round now.
"mmmmmm……" he groaned as he opened his eyes. "What?" he manages to croak out.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"Like a monster truck is inside my head and……" was all he got out before he leaned over the side of the bed opposite to Carol and threw up. He didn't speak but he just laid there on the edge of the bed.
Carol sighed. She knew what he had but she had thought that elves couldn't get sick. She looked at his ears again and saw that they were now pointed. She rushed down the hall to where Scott was. "Santa." she said, remembering not to use his real name.
"Yes Carol?" he said.
"We have a problem." she said and she went on to tell him about Bernard.
His face was pale when she finished. "We don't have the right medicine here."
Carol got what he was saying. "I already got the spare sleigh hooked up and a couple of guys were supposed to move Bernard to it."
"Which reindeer are you taking?" he asked.
"Comet and Dasher." she said. Those two were dependable.
Scott nodded. "Go on. Take him to where Charlie lives. We'll be fine here."
Carol nodded and she quickly ran off towards the stables.
Laura was very surprised when Carol appeared at their door. She knew about everything that had went on with her and Scott getting married but they were friends. "Carol, what are you doing here?"
Carol quickly explained. "Can he stay here to get better? We don't want the other elves seeing him like this."
Laura agreed. "We can put him in the guest room. Where is he?"
Carol smiled a bit. "We didn't want to attract attention so they dropped me off here and then flew out back."
Laura nodded and they went around back.
Carol grabbed Neil on their way back there.
"What's going on?" he asked.
They didn't answer him. When they got out back, he got his answer. "I'll carry him to the guest room." Neil offered.
They put him in the guest room and Laura went to get some of Charlie's clothes. The ladies waited outside while Neil got him into the spare clothes. He left the room and Carol walked over to the side of the bed.
Laura came up behind her. "Don't worry. He'll be alright." she said.
Carol sighed a bit. "I'm not so sure. Curtis said that elves can't get sick and so did Bernard but now look at him."
Laura frowned. "His ears aren't as pointed. When he wakes up, I'll give him some medicine. And you need to get back to the North Pole. You have a job to do."
Carol nodded and walked out the door. She was gone as quick as she had come.
Laura looked over at the sick boy in the bed. He did look awful. Hopefully this didn't get too serious.
Charlie ran upstairs as soon as he came home.
Laura was just closing the guest room door when he came around the corner.
"Hey mom, can I have two friends stay over tonight?" he asked.
Laura didn't think that it was a bad idea. "Sure. Go right ahead."
Charlie was glad. "YES!" he said. "Oh yeah, can we use the guest room? Its bigger."
Laura shook her head. "No, we have someone in there." just as she said that, Bernard started moaning a bit.
Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Who?"
Laura went in and Charlie peeked in the door.
His eyes widened. "What is Bernard doing here?"
"He is sick. Carol brought him here because they didn't want the other elves getting sick." she answered.
Charlie frowned. "I thought that elves couldn't get sick."
Laura shrugged, grabbed the medicine, and closed the door, keeping Charlie out of the room.
Bernard groaned as he started to wake up. He looked around but couldn't focus his eyes. He saw someone moving but he didn't know who they were.
"Good. You're awake. Open your mouth and swallow." they said.
He opened his mouth to ask why when she pushed a spoon into his mouth and he didn't have a choice about not swallowing. He coughed and looked up a the lady.
"Get some rest. You'll feel better soon." she said before turning off the lights in the room and closing the door.
Bernard didn't have to be told twice. He turned over on the bed and was immediately asleep again.