The door to Santa's inner workshop slammed open with a bang. North Pole turned around with a piqued look on his face.
"What have I told you about knocking?" he said, his bushy white-grey eyebrows narrowing at the yeti at the door. The fluffy figure in question grunted an indistinguishable reply - indistinguishable to anyone except a certain few. The big man paused, his eyes growing wider by the minute.
"C-could you repeat that?" The yeti grunted his message again, slower this time, and with animated arm gestures. He finished his message with pointing out the door. North stood up from his work bench and strode to the door, leaving the blinking ice teddy bear replica still on the table. After a moment, the yeti quietly picked up the teddy bear and brought it with him.
"It's not that I don't like you, but what on earth are you doing here?" The other four guardians looked up from their positions around Santa's workshop. Elves were strewn everywhere, and all the sound in the factory was barely masking the gentle jingling as the elves went about their business. Jack hopped down from a now frost-covered pillar and swung his staff about.
"What, we're not allowed to drop in and say hi now and again?"
"Preferably when it's not this close to Christmas." North said, glowering at those who really should have known better. Sandy shrugged, turning to Tooth. Tooth's wings fluttered faster as she looked pleadingly at Bunnymund. The rabbit shrugged, twirling his boomerang.
"It was all Frosty's idea, really." Santa turned and glared at Jack, who laughed nervously and flicked his staff comfortingly. The flicker of ice that exited the top of his staff ricocheted about the room, bouncing off of the tip of South America on the giant globe in the center of the room, and hitting a poor unfortunate elf who was minding his own business. The elf slid over to the group of guardians, which was where it was stopped by North Pole's foot.
"Are you not aware that I am very busy?" The man said, turning to the yeti behind him and snatching the teddy bear. The bear then turned a delicate shade of blue, with sparkling silver eyes blinking away.
"Well, we could help, right?" Jack walked over to North, smiling hopefully.
"Jack, I'm not sure that that's such a smart idea..." Tooth spoke from her position above their heads. Sandy nodded below her, a golden sanded 'X' floating above his head. Jack turned to the rest of the guardians.
"Come on, guys! We've helped each other out before, right? Guardian bonding time!"
"You are officially out of your freezing mind." Bunnymund said bluntly, examining his boomerang in great detail. North sighed, giving the teddy bear to the yeti and sending him away to duplicate the image.
"Christmas is two days away. There's not much left to do, except the flight check." At this, three of the four silent guardians winced. The other just looked on excitedly.
"What's that? Can we help with that?" Jack said excitedly, his staff glowing brighter and brighter as its charge got more and more enthusiastic. There were a few mutterings from behind him, including a 'krikey'. North's eyes narrowed.
"You really want to help with flight check?" Amongst an onslaught of protests, Jack nodded enthusiastically. After a moment, Pole's face broke into a grin as he swept Jack up in a bear hug.
"This is good news. This is very, very good news." Santa dropped Jack after a rib-crushing ten seconds. The big man swiftly turned and walked towards the reindeer stables, gesturing with his arm to follow him. Tooth groaned, following Santa through to the elevator, her Baby Teeth whizzing around her agitatedly. Sandy sighed, floating after Santa on a cloud of golden dust. Bunnymund elbowed Jack slightly as he passed.
"Let's put this into perspective: On a scale of one to ten, Pitch was a good eleven. Flight check: you can't even count that far, mate."
"Dasher?"
"Check."
"Dancer."
"Present."
"Prancer?"
A checkmark appeared.
"Vixen?"
"Still here since the last time you checked."
"Comet."
Silence.
"Comet?" North looked up from his list to where the guardians were surrounded by no less than eight fully-grown reindeer. Awkwardly shuffling about, they searched collars for the specific reindeer that was asked for.
"I don't think he's here." Jack said tentatively.
"What do you mean, he's not here? He has to be here! The saddle is all ready for him!" The guardians shrugged as they looked about for the missing buck. A chirping sound split the air as a Baby Tooth zipped up from a corner of the stable. She flitted over to Tooth and whispered in her ear. The news did not seem pleasant, and the face the fairy made after the message was delivered confirmed the suspicion.
"Uh, Santa, we seem to have a pretty big problem." Tooth followed the tiny hummingbird-like fairy to the corner of the warm, wood-furnished stable, where a tan reindeer was curled up on the floor. Santa hurried over to it and examined it expertly. The reindeer bellowed a soft greeting, breaking into a fit of coughs. Santa sighed as he stood up.
"Holiday fever. No mistake about it. Comet won't be able to fly on Christmas." The other reindeer sensed their comrade's pain, whining and stomping their hooves in a comforting rhythm.
"Can you fly without Comet?" Jack asked, crouching beside North Pole.
"No. Each harness on the chain must be filled, or she will not fly."
"Well, I guess this means we can't do flight check, so-" Bunnymund began, a grin spreading across his face before Sandy smacked his arm quite hard. Jack stood up and began pacing, getting up farther and farther into the air. Just before he was about to run into the ceiling, he plummeted back to the floor of the stable.
"Santa, you said that every harness needs to be filled, right?" The big man nodded, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
"But does it have to be a reindeer in the harness?" A glint appeared in Santa's eye, and a slow smile spread across his face.
"Alright girls, and a one, two, three!" Tooth called out, clapping her hands together in encouragement. Ten Baby Teeth drew their eyebrows together in concentration as they began to lift off, slowly but surely pushing the reins off of the ground. The guardians clapped and cheered as the little fairies lifted with all their might, their wings fluttering so fast they were a blur. Suddenly, the harness dropped as one by one, the fairies became tired out and plummeted to the floor, panting and wiping sweat off their tiny brows. The cheers became groans as Tooth tended to her tired fairies.
"They can fly a long time if the harnesses were lighter." Tooth murmured as she scooped the fairies into her arms. Everyone took a moment to thank the fairies for their work, and then were silent to brainstorm new ideas. After a very pregnant pause, the Sandman stepped forward, an exclamation point above his head. After some hand gestures, he had created a golden replica of the reindeer. It galloped about gleefully, and everyone cheered as Sandy went to saddle it up. Reaching out, he grabbed the harness and put it over the golden reindeer's head, then encircled its body. Letting go, Sandy turned and raised his arms to the rest of the guardians. They did not applaud as expected, but tilted their heads to one side to look around Sandy. The little man turned around and, to his dismay, found that the harness had fallen straight through the reindeer as though it was made of air. A golden cloud appeared over the small man's head as the reindeer disappeared from existence.
"Well, it looked alright." Santa commented, patting Sandy on the back as he trudged back in line. Jack stepped forward.
"I got this." He said, pointing his staff at the harness. With a flash of icy light, an ice-reindeer appeared in the harness, its frosty breath shooting out its nostrils. A cheer went up from all in the room, including some of the elves who had decided to get in on the action. One of these elves had the bad etiquette to bring in a mug of steaming warm hot chocolate, and had not bothered to offer any to anyone else. Karma struck this cold-hearted gesture as the mug the elf was carrying was knocked out of its hand by one of its cheering comrades, and struck the ice buck with full force. With a splash, the front legs of the animal melted into a slushy puddle.
"Heat would be a problem." Santa sighed, sitting down on a nearby stool. Everyone paused, then looked to Bunnymund. After a moment, he realized who the target of all the staring was.
"What? All I have is a hard-boiled egg. It doesn't fly, it doesn't look like a reindeer, it does nothing." After a moment, the glint came back into Santa's eye.
"Just because it doesn't fly doesn't mean it can't be useful."
Soon North Pole's creation was complete, and he stepped back to give it a critical glance. It wasn't the prettiest thing he'd created, but it served its purpose grandly. The golden buck stood in the harness, to which it was connected by two eggs on either side and a collar of ice in the middle. To either side of the ethereal beast were the fairies, who were much happier to not lift the heavy harness all by themselves. Santa turned to the rest of the guardians.
"Alright, now to test out." he said, getting on the slay himself and looking back at the other guardians. Sandy and Jack nervously entered the sleigh, and Tooth flitted in beside them. They all looked back at Bunnymund, who raised his hands defensively.
"Uh, no. I'm not getting on that death trap again. Remember what happened the last time I went on flight check? No. Just no."
"But we need to make sure it works. You have to come." The rabbit sighed, running a hand over his face as he made his way towards the sled.
"You're gonna pay for this, Jack." he muttered as he slid onto the bench, glaring at the silver-haired boy.
"See? That went wonderfully! Thank you friends." The guardians groaned as they exited the sled, the reindeer panting happily as North hopped down from the sled and unhooked the reindeer from their sleds. Jack leaned heavily on his staff, his face a pale shade of green. Tooth swerved about in the air, dipping lower and lower to the floor. Sandy almost fell right out of the sled; only being saved by the golden sand, which stopped him an inch from the floor. Bunnymund did not exit the sled whatsoever, so intent was he on not throwing up. North laughed happily, sweeping anyone he could reach into a bear hug.
"Glad we could help." Jack muttered, struggling to breathe.
"OH! I almost forgot." Santa dropped the crew abruptly, rustling within his jacket pocket. "Merry Christmas to you, Tooth." He pulled out a plush white incisor with a smiling face and tossed it to Tooth, who caught it with a laugh. "Happy Holidays Sandy," a gold and purple dream catcher flew through the air, landing in the smiling little man's arms. "My holiday is more important but merry Christmas anyways Bunny", an egg-covered boomerang holder was tossed into the sled. "And a very Merry Christmas to you, Jack." Santa reached into his coat and handed Jack a light blue form. Jack took it, and smiled as the bear's silver eyes blinked up at him.
"Right back at you, Santa."