It began less than two months before Christmas. The stress was already settling in. Wasn't as bad, though. After long practice, I was finally learning to handle it. Having Scott Calvin as the new Santa helped a lot. He was a good worker, and had taken much of the previous pressure off my shoulders.

A new problem had arisen, though. Curtis.

We had gotten along really well before. He was and attentive listener and protege, if a little thoughtless at times. But then a more greedy ambition took him. Curtis was no longer content to wait till I had moved on. He wanted to be Head Elf now. And he was convinced I wasn't teaching him fast enough, especially in the fields of magic. Eventually he quite his training with me, saying he'd learn better on his own. Who'd once been my friend was now my bitter competitor.

...

It was the end of a trying day. A conveyer belt had stopped abruptly, sending puzzle pieces flying in all directions. I was tired, and trying to keep back frustration.

"Sir!"

I turned. It was Judy, looking tired as me.

"Sensors are detecting an unknown device just outside the dome." she said.

"Any idea what it is?"

"No, sir. Hence the word unknown."

"Now don't you start too."

She gave me a sympathetic smile. Sometimes Judy seemed older than me.

"I'll check it out." I said. "Probably just a jet-pack the E.L.F.S. forgot to take in. Curtis?"

He was to the side of the room, working on some new gadget. At least his talent for the technical hadn't left with his manners.

"Tell Santa when you see him, that I'm outside of the dome and should be back in a few minutes."

Curtis scoffed. "What, you already expect yourself to get lost?"

Under normal circumstances, I'd take this as brotherly teasing. But there was no mistaking his tone.

I rolled my eyes. "Just do it, will you?"

...

The elevator doors opened. I stepped forward eagerly for the hatch. It wasn't often that I got out of Elfsburg. It opened, and there was the sky. So different from the ceiling of ice I knew. Snow was falling lightly, and the northern lights, those ribbons of color, were shining beautifully. They were the only natural beauties I'd seen besides in pictures. Though, from what Sarah has told me, magic could be considered a natural beauty.

The search for the jet-pack to twenty to thirty minutes. I was shivering by then. Elf or no, I was still used to the Workshop, with it's warm fireplaces. The jet-pack had been hidden by a block of ice. I picked it up, and remembered when I had worn one to stop a weed as big as Godzilla. But that's another story.

There was a hiss of air. What made my brain pick it out from the normal? It was more like escaping air than Arctic winds. If it was gas I needed to get back, and warn the elves. Then there was a scream. It pierced shrilly through the air.

"Who's there?" I called. "Are you alright?"

There was no reply. I ran forward, dropping the jet-pack. The ice underneath creaked dangerously, and I stopped at once. It groaned its protest of my being there. Then it broke. I fell, air whistling past my ears. And then I hit my head on something hard, and blacked out.

When I woke up my head was throbbing with pain. I felt it with my hand. It was covered in a warm liquid. Rather than believe it was blood, I told myself the floor of the pit had melted snow. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference anyway. Next to my head, I found a box. A tape player I guessed, as it was repeating the scream I'd heard. Feeling for buttons, I switched it off. Darkness surrounded me. A thin beam of light was all there was. It came from a small hole above. Words echoed in my brain, words Sarah had said.

"Are the sides even or jagged?"

They were even, a perfect circle. A machine had made the hole under the ice. Someone wanted me dead.

On cue, the silhouette of someone appeared over the hole. The light shone in a way that obscured the features of the person.

"Hello?" I called. "Look, send help! I can't get out on my own."

No answer. The shadow left. Why hadn't I held on to that jet-pack? There was a sound of creaking metal. The hole was closing.

"Hey! Don't leave! It's closing!" Pointless, really. They were probably the reason why it was closing. It shut, and all light cut off. Would they leave me here to suffocate? Or to die of starvation?

The answer came via sound. Escaping air again. They were going to gas me to death.

Walking around with my arms outstretched, I looked for a door, a ladder, anything. Suddenly my foot went numb. The gas was paralyzing. Paralysis, again. But this version was much faster. My legs went next, and I collapsed. There was one last hope. A spark of golden magic lit my fingers. If Sarah still had the glass ball I had given her, she would know to come. The gas effected my lungs, and breathing stopped. I passed out.