Okay. You all know I'm an RPG fanatic with my obsession centering on FFIV-VII with a dash of Suikoden Tierkreis thrown in for good measure. But I also have another addiction. It's. It's. Alright, I'll just say it.
Hello, my name is Shadow's Interceptor and I am a Christmas Addict.
There you go. DON'T JUDGE ME! Yes, I'm in college. Yes, I'm over eighteen. Yes, I am obsessed with the old (best) Christmas movies like Rudolph, The Year without a Santa Clause, Jack Frost, Santa Clause is Coming to Town . . . I also enjoy the Santa Clause movies. Hence my reading of Santa Clause fanfics. Hence my random idea for this fic.
I dedicate this fic to all those who are my age and are Christmas addicts like myself. That is why my writing style will be similar to that in the later chapters in Of Sketchpads and Shadows. Mild cussing, nothing huge.
I do not own the Santa Clause or the characters from it. I do own Eileen and her team. I also make no money from this fanfic. If you have paid for it, be assured that the person you paid will be on the Naughty list this Christmas.
She was tired, wet, cold, and miserable from the trip in to the Pole. And of course, her two largest deer had to decide that now was the time to act like unbroken calves and cause a ruckus on their way into the stables. The thoroughly frustrated elf had a tight grip on the near reindeer's headstall, but could do nothing about the off animal, who was swinging his hindquarters about, kicking at nearby snowdrifts, and jerking his head with its massive set of antlers higher and higher.
They weren't scared. But everything was so different, so bright, so much energy, that it made the animals feel frisky and, in these two's case, like testing their handler's authority. The three pairs she had brought into the stable previously had not been this difficult! Her lead animals had thrown their heads up a bit and looked around, but other than that had followed her docilely. Out of her two middle pairs, only one had caused her any trouble, her high strung, but fast female had spooked when one of the elves rushing around in the square had dropped a bag of something that clattered and clanked when it fell. But this was understandable, and easily dealt with. She had paired that female with the oldest, and calmest of the team for a reason! The presence of the unflappable older animal had calmed the shaken one quickly and that pair gave her no further trouble.
The off deer suddenly dug all four hooves into the snow, jerking her, and the near animal to a stop. He flung his head back and started a jerking hop with his forelegs.
"Git up, Avalanche!" she yelled. The big male ignored her. His twin, the one whose headstall she held, made as if to fling his head high too.
"Oh no you don't," she growled, giving a warning jerk on the halter. He immediately bowed his head and stood still, a look of embarrassed shame on his long face.
"Git up!" she tried again, "Blizzard, Avalanche, git up!" Blizzard took a few steps forward. Avalanche did not. Instead, he reared up on his hind legs and pawed the air.
Dang it, she cursed inwardly, if only I could get his bloody head down! But with her control over the pair as limited as it was, she did not feel comfortable letting Blizzard's headstall go while she moved to get his obnoxious brother. Is there someone else who . . .
She looked around at the crowd of elves in the square, searching for anyone who would be tall enough to reach the big deer's halter and strong enough to drag him down. But everyone who was even close to the right size was busy with something or other, rushing off with hands full to this or that part of Santa's workshop or wherever the heck it was that the work got done at the Pole. Except for one. He was exceptionally tall, a few inches taller than her even, and his hands were empty. Sure, he was stalking off somewhere with a decidedly sour look on his face and the look of an elf on a mission, but right now that didn't matter.
"Hey!" she yelled, "Hey you!" The elf didn't even glance in her direction. Avalanche had returned to the ground, but was now swinging his hindquarters around and jogging in place, smashing his body into his tethered partner. Much longer and both reindeer would have decide they had enough and begin bucking. And once both of them got out of control . . . She didn't even want to think what would happen in a crowded area like this. Reindeer were big, much bigger than elves, and these two were the biggest and the strongest she had come across in her 500 years of working with the animals.
Letting her temper and nerves get the better of her, she roared over the crowd, "HEY! TALL, PISSED, AND CURLEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!"
Her shout effectively stopped all activity in the square. Had it not been for the pounding hooves on snow and creaking of harness leather, one could have heard a snowflake fall. No one moved. No one spoke. Everyone stared. And the elf, the one she had dubbed Tall, Pissed, and Curley, turned around slowly. His narrow features were contorted into an expression something between shock and fury. He opened his mouth to speak, but she interrupted him.
"Get over here and grab this stupid fellow's halter!"
If there were any shut jaws in the place, it was safe to say that they dropped then. Tall, Pissed, and Curley drew himself up to his full height and glared at her from across the square.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked in an irate tone.
Avalanche had started to toss his head around again, and Blizzard was beginning to dance in place despite her warning jerks on the halter. Taking out her frustration on the unhelpful elf, she bellowed, "I don't care if you're the freakin' head elf! Just get over here and GET HIS BLOODY HEAD DOWN!"
To her relief, Tall, Pissed, and Curley followed her orders, if somewhat reluctantly. Coming up beside Avalanche's shoulder, he reached forward and snagged the large animal's headstall. The big deer turned his head to stare at the unfamiliar elf with an incredulous eye. He tossed his head experimentally. The elf kept hold of the leather, but allowed the big animal to toss his head.
"Give it a jerk," she ordered, "Don't let him screw around." She demonstrated when Blizzard looked as if he was beginning a head toss. The next time Avalanche flung his head up, Tall, Pissed, and Curley jerked it down, effectively letting the reindeer know exactly who was in control.
Suddenly, Tall, Pissed, and Curley seemed to realize that they were still being watched.
"Get back to work!" he yelled to the other elves, who were standing around, staring gape mouthed at them. The flurry of activity resumed, although quite a bit more frantic than it had been before.
She decided that it was time to give her unwilling assistant some more orders. "When I tell this one to 'git up' you do the same to yours. His name is Avalanche. Keep hold of him, and walk him into the stables. I'll set the pace." Tall, Pissed, and Curley nodded, even though his face was formed into an awful grimace. She thought (correctly) that he was thinking about how he had better things to do than drag around some large uncooperative reindeer and take orders from an elf he had never met.
"Git up Blizard," she yelled and simultaneously jerked the deer's halter forward.
"Git up Avalanche," he said, with slightly less force.
Together, they walked the two deer towards the stable. She continued to shout orders at him, like, "Keep his bloody head down!" and "Don't walk so dang close or he's gonna step on you." or "Didn't I tell you to keep his bloody head DOWN!" They made it the fifty yards to the stable and finally entered the large airy building. Tugging the pair down to the nearest set of cross ties, she wasted no time in hooking up Blizzard's halter. When he was secure, she dashed between the two deer and unhooked the connecting piece between their harnesses.
Now, she could have taken Avalanche from her unwitting assistant and allowed him to go on his way. But as it was, she wanted nothing more than to find the quarters that Santa had assigned to her and settle down for a long winter's nap (it was always winter at the pole, you couldn't have any other kind of long nap) as quickly as possible. So she decided to use him for a little longer.
"You see those ties?" she asked as she pointed to a set of cross ties further down the aisle.
"Yes," he answered.
"Good, hitch him up like I did Blizzard and start taking his tack off."
"What? But I-" he started to sputter.
She fixed him with one of her angry death glares that could scare the fur off a polar bear. "Just do it."
Deciding that messing with the obviously short tempered female was not in his best interests, Tall, Pissed, and Curley did as she said, leading Avalanche, who had calmed down significantly, away and cross tying him in the aisle.
"Now just do what I do," she told him as she started to unbuckle and remove the simple leather harness. He watched her, then, with fumbling fingers, copied her actions with Avalanche's tack. Soon both deer were standing 'naked' in the aisle and their harnesses had been neatly (in one case) and not so neatly (in the other) hung on hooks beside six other identical sets of leather trappings.
Tall, Pissed, and Curley opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly interrupted him, "You're not done yet."
Pulling a stiff bristled brush from a coat pocket, she tossed it to him. He caught it, barely, and looked at it with a blank expression of confusion.
She sighed; did this fool know nothing about reindeer?
"Brush him down," she ordered. When he looked at her incredulously, she gave him more explicit directions, "Start at the neck and move down. Go with the hair, using short, fast strokes. When you're done with one side, do the same on the other."
When he opened his mouth again, she growled at him, "And don't complain. The faster you get this done, the faster I'll let you leave." His jaw snapped shut and he offered her a death glare to rival her own. But he got to work. After a quick looting of another grooming box (she was sure Prancer wouldn't mind his dandy brush being borrowed), she got to work as well.
They finished about the same time, despite Tall, Pissed, and Curley having started before her. After returning the brush she had borrowed to its box, she reached up and unhooked Blizzard from the cross ties. She motioned for Tall, Pissed, and Curley to do the same. He did, and took Avalanche gingerly by the halter.
"They go in those two stalls on the end, across from the male with the scar on his neck and the one with an irregular grey star between his antlers." She led Blizzard down and into his stall, while Tall, Pissed, and Curley did the same with Avalanche, leading him to the next stall down. She removed Blizzard's halter and ruffled the big animal's thick mane as he investigated his surroundings. Stepping out of the stall, she shut the door and slammed the bolt home. Next to her, Tall, Pissed, and Curley had done the same thing with Avalance, minus the mane ruffling and with considerably more nerves.
Hanging the halter on a peg outside the stall, she finally allowed herself to relax. She leaned herself against the stall door and closed her eyes to listen to the sounds of her contented team. Someone cleared his throat nearby, and she opened her eyes. Darn it all, she had forgotten that he was still here.
Pushing herself off the door, she strode over too where he stood. Wiping her grimy hand on her equally grimy pants before offering it to him to shake was a useless, but courteous gesture in her opinion.
"Name's Eileen, call me Lee. I'm handler of the new team. Who're you?"
Tall, Pissed, and Curley looked her over from head to toe. Then he did it again. And again. Her hand stayed empty, suspended in the air between them. He stared her in the eye. She didn't blink. Neither did he. Then, miraculously, as most elves who knew him would say, the corner of his mouth turned up in a weird half smirk half sarcastic smile.
"I'm the freakin' head elf."
So, this could be a one shot, or it could be something more. Reviewers will make or break it! You want more? Let me know. Review!
So sorry for you non-horsey people reading this. I used a lot of horse terms when referring to the reindeer. Okay, short vocab lesson: Near=Left, Off=Right, Dandy brush=a stiff bristled brush used to remove dirt and loose hair, Tack=harness, saddle, bridle, etc, To Spook=to react in fear, often by bolting or attempting to bolt, Headstall=part of a halter. And yes, reindeer do have manes, it is the thick fur around their neck, more like a lion's mane than a horse's.