Disclaimer: Of course I don't own any of the characters from the movie.
I'd like to say thanks to anyone who reviewed, favorited, or enjoyed this series so far. It's very much appreciated. I hope you enjoy this chapter, Jack Frost is finally making an appearance!
A Frosty Problem
"Where is he?" Bernard angrily demanded from the elves gathered around the destruction in the sorting room. The room was one of the more important rooms in the pole, being the place where the toys were checked for any problem, inventoried, and sent off to wrapping. The sorting elves worked together with elves from the mail room next door to places specific toy orders for children. The sorting room was always busy and noisy, but the room had fallen quiet as the elves stared back at Bernard and the destruction around him.
"I think he already left," a young male elf off to Bernard's side answered quietly. A Christmas tree stamp pin on the elf's green and white tasseled hat marked him as being from the mail room. All eyes turned to the small elf; nervous about the sudden attention he switched his gaze down to his pointy green shoes as the tip of his large, pointed ears turned red. No one else spoke. Bernard scanned the crowd. A few of the younger elves looked to be on the verge of tears, others had gone pale at the sight of the room.
The destruction had started with the cocoa machine in the room, which had mysteriously broken, allowing for cocoa to leak all over the floor. Some of it had also been dumped across the computer station. The mixture of electrical wiring, electronics, and cocoa had caused sparks and then flames. As for the perpetrator, several elves had seen Jack Frost pass in that direction, and judging by the reports of the ice that had frozen the door handle in place from the outside, Bernard had no doubts about Frost's guilt. He knew Frost had aimed to slow production and probably hadn't meant for an actual fire to break out, but Bernard was still absolutely furious. The main room for the sorting department was a complete mess with the burnt and soggy remains of toys littered the floor and burnt carts. This mishap would put them at least two days behind schedule, which wasn't good considering Christmas was less than a week away.
Bernard's bad day had started when Jack Frost had for once actually shown up for one of the council meetings which had been held late that morning in the kitchen's at the pole. The council hadn't been amused by Frost's mid-October record breaking blizzards earlier in the year in the slightest. During the past week Frost had also caused a snowstorm in Florida and Texas. Bernard didn't know all the details, but he knew Frost had stomped out mid meeting in a fury. Less than five minutes later the computer in the naughty and nice center had been frozen, and ten minutes later the elves returning from lunch break had to melt the ice on the doorknob to get into the sorting room, only to find a small fire beginning to devour the computers, parts of the conveyor belts, and bins of toys that once cataloged, would have been sent on the train to the wrapping department and from there would have been loaded into Santa's sack. The fire elves had made it there in record time, but hundreds of toys ended up being ruined by either fire damage, water damage, or both. The computers were now just a melted and burnt mess as was pieces of the conveyor belt system.
"Okay, everyone back out! Let the mechanics and cleaning crew do their job. Go help out in other departments or if need be," he looked squarely at a young girl elf close to him that was still crying, "take a break or call it an early day. Oh, and I want the elves that work in inventory to stay," the elves slowly shuffled out while murmuring between themselves. The group was a sad lot, not even a shimmer of a smile could be found on any of their faces. Most looked depressed, angry, or some sort of mix between the two. As soon as the sorting elves were out, the cleaning crew swept into the room and immediately got to work.
Quentin turned from the charred conveyor belt to look at Bernard. His hands and shirt were covered in soot. "We will need to replace the parts of the conveyor that got roasted. I'm pretty sure we have extra computers on hand somewhere; we can have those up here today once everything is cleaned up and taken out of here. If I get my whole crew to work on this and the naughty and nice center machinery, both should be up and running within a day or two," Quentin patted the charred and melted conveyor behind him.
Bernard nodded and watched the cleaning crew work. He turned to face Holly, the head of the sorting department. "Once you can get an exact number of lost toys, let me know. She nodded her head in understanding; the remains of tears still glimmered on her cheeks. The fire had given the poor elf a good scare.
Bernard mulled over the destruction. Even if it only put the sorting two days behind schedule they would have to make up for the lost toys and with a week to go before Christmas this was one of the worst times for a disaster to happen. Making up for the lost toys in such a short time could be difficult. Bernard was tense from the stress of the day; he could feel a slight throbbing beginning in his head that was threatening to become a full blown headache. He wanted to punch something or someone, mainly Jack Frost. The legendary figure never failed to cause some sort of trouble when he came to the pole.
"I need to go have a word with Santa, I will check back in here later," Bernard excused himself. Bernard hurried off to the kitchens where the meeting was being conducted. He needed to find Curtis; he had stationed him by the meeting to keep an eye on Frost. Where had he been? Why had he let Frost go off alone? His current frustration with Curtis was almost high enough to compete with his anger at Jack.
Curtis was always complaining that he wanted to do more without Bernard hovering around him but every time Bernard gave him that chance the younger elf always seemed to botch it. Today was definitely not shaping up to be a good one.
XXX
"I want him banned from the North Pole!" Bernard crossed his arms and stared down Santa.
"Bernard, calm down," Santa looked to Curtis helplessly for some back up. Receiving nothing but a shrug, he slowly turned back to Bernard. "Are you sure it was even Jack Frost?"
"Of course it was Frost! I don't think one of our elves would go around spilling cocoa on computers and freezing doorknobs," Bernard thumped his hands onto the top of Santa's desk as he leaned towards him. "Someone could have been hurt or even killed; he shouldn't be allowed to come back here. He's done things in the past too; it's time that he is banned before he can cause more destruction here," he narrowed his eyes at Santa. "It would be foolish to disagree with me, I know Frost's antics and this won't be anywhere close to the last time he causes problems if he isn't banned," Bernard softened his voice.
"But Frost is a legendary figure and he is also invited to the council meetings held here…" Santa frowned at the hard look on Bernard's face.
"Santa, If I may," Curtis stepped away from the far wall and approached the desk. "What I think we need around here is institute some news rules. Security around here has gotten a little too lax," Curtis ignored the glares Bernard sent his way. "Instead of looking for a scapegoat to blame the destruction on, we need to tighten up security and make some new rules to make sure this doesn't happen again," Curtis patted the rule book that he held under his left arm.
"You suggest new rules for everything that goes wrong," Bernard snapped at Curtis.
"Well if we tightened things up around here we wouldn't have to worry about things getting out of control!"
"Making new rules won't fix everything! You'll just be punishing the elves for something they didn't do. We need to get rid of the main issue, which is Jack Frost. He won't follow any rules you put in place," Bernard gritted his teeth.
"Both of you quiet down," Santa held up a hand to stop them before they could take the argument any farther. I'll see about keeping Jack from roaming the North Pole unescorted, in the meantime, let's wait until things have calmed before we discuss taking any further actions. Let's get the damage taken care of and get an exact count of the lost toys first," Santa lowered his hand and stroked his beard.
"With all due respect Santa, Last time Frost was here was about eight years ago and we refused to let him go anywhere unless he had an elf with him. He locked his escort in a closet and froze the door shut," Bernard crossed his arms back over his chest with a scowl at the memory.
Santa heaved a sigh. "We'll resume this conversation some other time, Bernard. The council meeting lasted twice as long as I expected and right now I'm tired and half starved," Santa gave a tired wave of his hand toward the door in dismissal.
With fists clenched at his side and shoulders stiff with tension, Bernard whirled around and barely avoided knocking Curtis over. Santa and Curtis exchanged glances, neither spoke. Curtis silently turned to follow Bernard out.
"We really should have more rules," Curtis mumbled to himself as he left the room trailing behind Bernard.
Bernard stopped in his tracks and turned to face Curtis, his hands going to his hips. "Don't start on more rules Curtis, you don't even follow all the ones we already have! Besides, you," Bernard jabbed a finger at Curtis's chest," were supposed to keep an eye on the kitchen and tell me if Jack Frost left. So tell me Curtis," Bernard leaned towards him, towering over the shorter elf. "Why didn't you tell me when he left?"
Curtis's eyes darted around, searching for an escape route. "I, um," he fiddled with the tassels hanging down from his scarf.
"You what?" Bernard stared him down.
"I fell asleep," Curtis stared down at his pointy shoes.
"Maybe you should see if there's any rules about falling asleep on the job," Bernard spoke coolly without raising his voice. He turned on his heels and continued down the hall.
"Well Maybe I don't think you've been doing a good job!" Curtis called after him and immediately froze when he realized what he had just said. His mouth opened slightly to form a quiet "o". A few elves close enough to have heard him stopped what they were doing to gape at Curtis. One elf almost dropped his basket of tinsel in shock as he stumbled over his own feet when he turned to look over at Curtis with wide eyes.
Bernard stopped; he started to turn around but thought better of it. Without another word he hurried down the hall and was soon out of sight.
"Nothing to look at here, get back to work!" Curtis flailed his arms out as his sides. The elves around him got back to work while Curtis slowly moved on, heading, well, he wasn't really sure where he was heading. He just wanted to get away from the elves that were still sneaking glances at him and whispering to each other. Curtis scurried out of the hall, not liking the displeased stares a few elves had decided to give him when he ordered them back to work. They never listened to him the way they listened to Bernard. When he made it back to the workshop he had only one goal in mind: avoid Bernard.
XXX
Bernard leaned back in his office chair and stared up at the ceiling. The ceiling had been painted with a blue sky and some fluffy clouds with the sun in one corner. The painting had been done before he had become head elf, but he had no objections to the ceiling, he rarely looked at it anyway. His guess was that the ceiling had been painted to brighten up the room seeing as there were no windows. He closed his eyes and let himself drift off into his thoughts, reviewing his mental check list. He had received the report from the head of sorting; just over a thousand toys had been lost in the fire or had been ruined by the water used to put the fire out. He had already pulled Larry from the stables for a few days to pitch in with the toy departments along with a few of the baking elves and another ten elves from wrapping. The small research and development department had also shut down for a few days to help pitch in with making up for the losses.
A few of the departments had asked to play some Christmas music to keep spirits up and he had acquiesced as long as they didn't play the music too loudly. The mood in the workshop had been somber after the fire and he had just been relieved to see morale improve with the music.
Bernard opened his eyes back up and glanced down at the short report on his desk from the sorting department. They could make up the lost toys but it would be difficult since this was their busiest time. But that wasn't the issue that had him worried, what he really worried over was the toys being made to make up for the losses. They might not have enough time to customize every toy to the specifications that some of the kids wanted. That bothered him. The children deserved to get what they wanted, not whatever they could make in time.
He stood up and began pacing across his office with his hands clasped behind his back. Curtis had been invading his mind since their argument an hour ago. Maybe I don't think you've been doing a good job. Those words kept popping up in his mind, haunting the rest of his worries. Was he doing a bad job? Had he screwed things up? He paused in his pacing and glanced down at his watch.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Bernard murmured to himself for assurance more than anything else. Last Christmas Curtis had been the one to create the toy Santa after all, and look where that had gotten them. He crossed his arms over his chest and glanced up at the pictures on the wall next to him. He didn't look at them so much as stare off into space lost in his frustrated thoughts.
Toy Santa had been a complete mess and all Curtis's idea. If they had listened to Bernard there never would have been an issue. There had been many years he had run the pole without any help from Santa, of course he didn't want to tell Santa that and offend him. Curtis could be very inventive when it came to speeding up production or helping to create new inventions, he had worked in that department before becoming elf number two, keeper of the hand book. But sometimes, well, most times, he seemed to be more trouble than he was worth in his new position. Bernard was always butting heads with him.
"We don't even need a keeper of the hand book," Bernard went back to pacing his office and tried to direct his thoughts elsewhere before opening up that old can of worms. It would do nothing but frustrate him further and add to his already soaring stress levels.
He looked over at the calendar hanging behind his desk. "Five days. Five days before Christmas," he lifted his hat up to run his hands through his curly hair as he studied the calendar. His mind switched to thoughts of the annoyance known as Jack Frost.
Ever since Bernard had become Head Elf Frost had been causing him grief. The first time Bernard became aware of Frost's animosity towards Christmas and the pole had been when Frost had shown up to one of the council meetings that had been held at the pole. Before the meeting Frost had accomplished "accidently" knocked over the huge Christmas tree in the middle of the workshop. It had been Bernard's first year as Head Elf and the fiasco had certainly tested his ability in his new position and gave him a heads up on what he had gotten himself into. The tree had come close to landing on a few elves, a little too close for comfort. The sound of the large glass bulbs shattering on the floor had been heard all through the workshop and spooked the reindeer. A young Comet managed to break through the wooden gate to his stall and went running through the stables. It had taken three elves to eventually calm him down. A few departments had panicked at the loud noise and went running through the workshop in the opposite direction, others hid. Frost had been sent away from the Pole before he could cause any more destruction.
Bernard had eventually learned that Frost only bothered attending the few meetings held at the Pole, he never showed up to any of the other council meetings. Every time he showed up at the Pole he managed to botch something, which is why had he stationed Curtis at the meeting to keep an eye on Frost, which hadn't worked out too well. Christmas was close by and Bernard had too much too attend to without wasting precious time sitting in on a boring council meeting. Unfortunately, Curtis had fallen asleep which allowed Frost to roam freely after the meeting.
He looked back over at the calendar hanging behind his desk. Five days before Christmas," he lifted his hat up to run his hands through his curly hair as he studied the calendar. A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts. He bounded across the room and opened his office door. Abby peered up at him from the other side. "Santa needs you in his office, Jack Frost is here."
Bernard fought against the new wave of anger threatening to surge over him at the news of Frost being back at the pole. He nodded stiffly to Abby and left his office for Santa's. The only concern on his mind while he made the short trek was how in the world he was going to refrain from punching the overly annoying legendary figure. Did he even want to stop himself? Not really, but he knew Santa wouldn't be very thrilled if his fist just happened to land square in Frost's face.
When he entered Santa's Frost didn't even turn to acknowledge his presence. He sat in the chair across the desk from Santa, arms crossed across his chest with a look on his face that was very similar to something reminiscent of a young, pouting child. Santa waved Bernard over.
"Jack has admitted to what he did and he has assured me that it was an accident. He has offered to help out to make up for the damage," Santa informed Bernard, who gaped at him. Bernard snapped his mouth closed.
"I don't think that's a good idea. The elves have everything under control," Bernard couldn't believe Santa was gullible enough to believe Frost. Santa needed to learn that not every legendary figure could be trusted, some were even worse than Frost. Bernard had more than enough experience with Frost and his antics to know that trusting Frost and giving him more access to the workshop would be a very bad decision. "I don't want him here at all," Bernard dead panned.
Santa protested, "I am not going to have him banned, Bernard. Jack Frost is a legendary figure and a member of the council."
"You want to ban me," Frost looked at Bernard and feigned a look of hurt.
"I won't have him going anywhere in the workshop and that's final," he glared daggers at Frost. "Now if you'll excuse me, there is work to be done," Bernard turned and headed for the door.
"But Jack-" Santa started
Frost cut Santa off. "I know when I'm not wanted. Bernard is Head Elf here and it would be disrespectful of me to be a burden when he already has more than enough to deal with here."
Frost's fake politeness was testing the limits of Bernard's control. Of course Frost would try to appear polite and understanding to Santa, he could see perfectly that Santa did not know his reputation. He was just trying to get his foot in the doorway to gain access to the pole at some point. Bernard would have to have a long talk with Santa later, but right now he needed to get away from Frost and calm down. He didn't bother closing the door behind him as he left Santa's office and headed back in the direction of his office and the workshop.
"You don't always have to be so rude to me, you know," Frost chided as he followed Bernard down the hall. Bernard gritted his teeth and ignored him. He felt annoyed that he hadn't heard Frost follow him out. "See! I'm talking to you and you don't even have the decency to answer me, so rude!" Frost scoffed. Bernard stopped and whirled around to face the irritating legendary figure.
"I'm not rude, I'm just sick of dealing with the messes you enjoy causing," Bernard rested his hands on his hips as he glared at Frost. You can act as innocent as you want to Santa, but I know you well enough to not be fooled. I should have had you banned long ago."
Frost turned his nose up. "Maybe you should learn to forgive and forget. I thought Christmas elves were supposed to be cheery, your just rude and hold onto grudges for way too long. " Frost crossed his arms across his chest and scowled.
Bernard balled his fists at his side, something he had been doing way too much of lately. He could feel his anger beginning to wash over him again in a giant, unstoppable wave that threatened to finally consume him this time. "You're not the one that ended up with a concussion last time," he hissed through his teeth.
"That's because I'm not the one that slipped and fell down the stairs," Frost looked off to the side as if deeming Bernard unworthy.
"The stairs that you iced over right before you let out all the reindeer in training and sent them stampeding into the workshop!" Bernard yelled at the older man. He glanced around the empty hallway, internally grateful that there were no other elves around to witness the argument. By now the elves were probably already gossiping about Curtis's outburst, he didn't need anything else fueling or adding to the gossip.
"You just can't appreciate someone having a little bit of fun. If you would have watched where you stepped more closely you wouldn't have fallen," Frost's calm, cold tone only aggravated Bernard even more.
"You really think I'm stupid enough to not be able to see what you're always trying to do when you come here? You always destroy something or at least attempt to when you're here. You're not trying to have fun, your trying to ruin Christmas. I'm sick of your antics Frost; you have no reason to be here except for council meetings, which you rarely go to any way. I don't care what Santa says or believes I'm banning you from the North Pole.
Frost made a "pscht" noise. "You can't do that."
"Head elf! I want you out of here, now."
"So what, are you just going to give me the cold shoulder now? I'm allowed to be here as long as Santa okays it," Jack reached towards Bernard, a small swirling ball of snow and ice forming beneath his palm.
Bernard felt his heart speed up in fear at the sight of Frost's cold, icy ball heading in his direction. "Don't touch me!" He wouldn't put it below Frost to freeze him into a living statue and leave him there to be found by some other unfortunate elf. Frost wasn't someone that Bernard saw as being dictated by a conscience, he wasn't even sure if Frost had a conscience.
"Stop!" Bernard screamed at Frost. A burst of gold light and sparkles burst from Bernard and slammed into Frost. Upon contact Frost went sliding back across the floor until he slammed into the wall. His jaw fell open and he stared at Bernard with wide, surprised eyes. Horrified, Bernard stared back at Frost. Without another word Frost disappeared in a whirlwind of icy air, leaving behind ice crystals in his wake. The ice cold breeze from Frost's teleportation magic slapped Bernard in the face, roughly snapping him back to his senses.
He turned and ran. He didn't even bother to check to see if anyone had wandered into the hallway and saw what happened. The hallways were empty, not that he would have noticed if he had even run past another elf. Everyone else was in the main workshop catching up on their toy schedule which left the empty hall of offices all to Bernard. His mind was occupied with playing the image of Frost sliding across the floor over and over again, so much so that he almost ran right past his office. He flew inside and slammed the door closed behind him.
He leaned his back against the door and stared blankly across his office, all he could see in his mind was the image of his magic bursting out of him and slamming into Frost. Beneath him his legs suddenly felt numb, he let himself slide down the door and to the floor where he hugged his legs and rested his chin on his knees.
As a Christmas elf and the head elf at the pole, his magic consisted of teleportation, being able to acquire the names of children (as well as adults but only when speaking to the adults face to face, Christmas magic was strongest with children and the believers), on a good day he could use his magic to make Christmas decorations appear or already made toys. As with every other elf, Christmas magic also kept him alive and young for hundreds of years. As head elf his magic was stronger than the other elves, but he didn't have defensive and offensive magic. He had heard stories of Christmas elves having performed defensive or offensive magic, but only when their emotions were running extremely high. Stories weren't necessarily the same as the truth, and only once had he seen an elf perform that kind of magic.
He had seen it back before he was Head Elf, during head Elf Albert's last year in charge. At the time Bernard was the department head in Research and Development. The head had retired five years earlier and the job had been offered to Bernard even though he bounced from department to department when needed. The department head had liked Bernard's management skills and knew he had the smarts to run the department. Bernard hadn't expected the job at all, but had been glad to take it. That year everyone knew the Head Elf Albert was due to retire, he had already started to go a bit mad, but that issue wasn't spoken about openly in the workshop. It was up to Santa to let Albert go, but the current Santa spent little time at the pole and didn't hold much interest in the issue.
Streaks of grey had started appearing in Albert's hair, something that only happened to elves when they began to lose their Christmas spirit. That had only been the first indicator of Albert's madness. The second came when he started carrying around a teddy bear with him that he talked to it. After a few weeks he had an argument with the bear and tore its eyes off before ripping the bear to pieces and leaving the mess on the workshop floor for the terrified witnesses to clean up.
Bernard had been looking over a prototype for a new toy while one of the kitchen elves handed out fresh cookies to the department when Albert had shown up while making his rounds. The kitchen elf had offered Albert a cookie. Albert swiftly declared that he didn't like thumbprint cookies and made a motion with his arm as if to wave her away. Instead, he sent the platter of cookies flying out of her hands and into the nearby wall where it smashed to pieces. The kitchen elf ran away crying while Albert commenced ridiculing the next nearest elf for wearing too much green.
Maybe this meant he was becoming like Albert. Bernard couldn't help but to shiver at that thought. "I don't think you're doing a good job," Curtis's words rang back through his mind and he shook his head angrily.
"I need to get back to work, still a lot to be done," Bernard mumbled to himself as he stood back up on shaky legs. He took a few deep breaths to steady himself and checked his watch. His arm fell back to his side limply. He felt defeated. Maybe Curtis is right after all. I squashed the thought down but it was too late, the idea had already surfaced and now he would have trouble forgetting it. "Five days until Christmas," he started slogging back through his mental checklist to distract himself.
XXX
Curtis stared across the empty workshop. Today was Christmas Eve and Curtis had found himself at the workshop and hour early. He was surprised to see lights on in the teddy bear department. "Who is here so early," he mumbled to himself as he squinted trying to make out the lone figure sitting at a table. "Oh, yeah," he frowned remembering about Santa telling him last night how Bernard had been spending most nights making toys instead of sleeping.
Curtis stood there a few seconds longer debating on whether to go on or turn back and maybe go to his office or back to his rooms. With a sigh he stepped into the workshop and made his way across to the teddy bear department. He needed to get this over with sooner or later so might as well do it now while there was no one else around watching.
"Bernard?" Curtis spoke as he approached the elf from behind. Bernard jumped at the sound of his voice. He turned around wide eyed and tense.
"Oh, I didn't realize anyone else was here yet," Bernard's shoulders relaxed as he turned back to the teddy bear he was holding. Curtis moved forward to see what the Bernard was doing. He silently watched as Bernard fitted a blue winter hat on the bear before tying a knitted blue and white striped scarf around its neck.
"Nice scarf. Did you make it?" Curtis asked quietly.
Bernard shook his head without looking away from the bear. "I don't knit."
"Oh, of course not," Curtis felt silly for asking the question, he already knew Bernard didn't knit. All the knitted scarves he wore had all been gifts. "Who's it for?"
"April McAllister."
Curtis scrunched his brow in thought. "But isn't she in her late twenties now?"
"Yeah. She has a daughter that's five but somehow she still believes in Santa. She helped her daughter send a letter to Santa and sent one of her own asking for this bear," Bernard adjusted the scarf. "She had a similar one when she was her daughter's age. With the time crunch this year there's no way April would get a present from us, so I decided to make her the bear myself," he held the bear up towards the light to inspect it. Curtis stared at him in amazement. Bernard had a way of thinking of everyone, not just the children like everyone else. Bernard liked to include anyone that still believed. A few times he had even included a few that didn't believe, but that changed after they received their gifts Bernard had made sure had been sent.
"I'm sorry," Curtis blurted out.
Bernard gave him a puzzled look. "What?"
"I'm sorry about what a said a few days ago," Curtis fiddled with the tassels on his scarf. "I didn't mean it. I think…I think you do a great job around here. Better than I ever could. Bernard's eyebrows shot up and Curtis took notice of the dark circles under his eyes. "I wish I had your job sometimes. The elves always listen to you better than me but I guess it's probably a good thing that you make the decisions and not me," Curtis picked up a teddy bear wearing a tux and a top hat. "Anyway, sorry." Curtis watched as an emotion he couldn't identify passed over Bernard's face.
Bernard slowly nodded. "It's okay." They both jumped at the sound of a sudden beeping to the tune of jingle bells. Bernard lifted up his wrist and inspected his watch and shut off the beeping. "I'm going to go take a nap," he stood up and stretched.
"Sleep a few hours, Santa has been complaining about you not sleeping enough."
"He complains about that every Christmas."
"True," Curtis admitted.
Bernard headed off slowly. He hadn't slept at all that night and the few nights before he had only grabbed a few hours of sleep each night. He had been working nonstop and it was catching up to him big time. His mind was sluggish and even now he found himself too tired to think hard. He had felt that way the last two days but it was probably a good thing. But now he felt better than he had been. He found some of his worries were already disappearing, he probably had Curtis to thank for that but he didn't want to admit it, especially seeing as he had also been the cause of some of those worries.
As tired as he was, he found himself walking with a bounce in his step that hadn't been there four days ago. He felt better about this Christmas. Even if things didn't go 100% like he wanted them too, next year there would be another Christmas that he could use to make up for it. He couldn't remember which Santa had said it, but after a Christmas that had been plagued by bad luck Santa had simply said, "Ah well, there will be another Christmas next year." It really was true, Bernard mused. No matter how bad Christmas got it wouldn't be the last, there would be another one to replace the bad one. Not every Christmas could be perfect no matter how hard he tried. He really needed to remember that
He paused on the stairs outside the workshop to look out at Elfsburg. The early risers were already beginning to bustle about. He took a deep breath of the fresh air hoping the chilly air would wake up his senses a little more.
"It's Christmas Eve!" a young elf screamed as he ran past the stairs. Bernard couldn't help but to smile at the young elf's excitement. Another year, another Christmas he thought to himself. The young elf's excitement was beginning to catch onto him, but for now Bernard needed some sleep. He'd save the excitement for when he woke up.