Author's Note: Happy December Eighteenth! =D I can't believe Christmas is already right around the corner. =) It feels like December went by so fast. XD
Here's chapter eighteen of "That Time of Year!" I hope you guys enjoy it! =D
Chapter Eighteen: Busy, Busy Workshop
December Eighteen
When North said things would be busy, he meant busy.
Jack had woken up early that morning so he could help North with whatever he could. What he wasn't expecting, though, was to see the entire Workshop crowded with yetis, elves, and almost every toy imaginable. Yetis and elves walked up and down the hallways, carrying newly finished toys and wrapping paper. Jack had to use the Wind to lift himself up the bustling, hard-working creatures of Santoff Claussen to head to North's study. Jack was about to knock on the door, but North opened it before he got the chance. The ex-Cossack looked relived to see him.
"Jack, my boy! Iz good to see you!" said North.
"Hey, North," said Jack. The winter spirit looked around at the productive Workshop and said, "Things are busy."
"Very busy," North said. He ushered the winter teen inside. "Iz only two days until Christmas Eve, so ve have to start creating the last few toys and vrapping them as well as loading them up into bags."
"How many toys do you have left to make?" asked Jack.
North ran a hand through his beard as he did the mental math. "Hmm…about ten thousand."
Jack squawked in shock. "Ten thousand?" he exclaimed. "You have to make ten thousand toys in two days?"
North chuckled. "It may sound like large amount, my boy, but it iz actually less than the amount ve had left to make last year."
Jack found that hard to believe. The winter spirit looked around the study to see that it was rather cluttered than it usually was. Papers sat messily on top of North's desk and there were a couple of ice sculptures that were unfinished.
North sighed tiredly and leaned against one of the tables. "Ve have a lot to do today, and only two days to make all of the toys. Then, ve have to start preparing for the party on Christmas Eve. Iz a lot to do."
And indeed, it was. Jack had never seen North working so hard, and the winter spirit was surprised that he was still able to keep it up after so long. The Guardian of Fun wondered if North even took breaks in between all of the hustle and bustle of planning toys, making toys, and reading children's Christmas lists. Jack looked around at the study and looked back toward the Workshop. Some yetis had already gotten into an argument with a group of elves.
Jack slung his staff onto his shoulder and turned to North. "You're going to need a lot of help." The winter spirit smiled. "And, luckily, I know some people who can."
…
With North's permission, Jack had turned on the Northern Lights, which summoned the other Guardians of Childhood. Tooth, Sandy, and Bunny arrived in record time, and Jack had a feeling that they might have known how busy the Workshop was going to be for the next few days. The Guardians met up in the Globe Room and greeted each other. Tooth looked over toward the Workshop below.
"Oh my moon, it's even busier than I thought it would be," remarked Tooth as her amethyst eyes followed the work that was going on below. "It almost looks like the Tooth Palace when things are extremely busy."
"Well, there are ten thousand toys left to make, and only two and a half days to do so," said Jack. "Which is why we called you guys here. If North is going to make it through building all of these toys, we're going to need to help him out."
Tooth nodded with a smile. "We're here to help!"
"And since we're all here, we're probably gonna want ta split up," said Bunny. "Just so we can divide the jobs up and get things done faster."
North gave a list of things that had to be done. The ex-Cossack already took the job of monitoring things in the Workshop and creating a couple of toys himself. Jack volunteered to make the ice sculptures, since he was a winter spirit and was the only other person who knew how to do so. Bunny decided to help North out with things in the Workshop while Tooth and Sandy took up the job of wrapping the toys and putting them into the Holding Room until they were to be organized into bags and placed in the back of the sleigh, ready to be delivered to children around the world.
"Great!" said North happily. "Ve should be done in zero time!"
"It's 'no time,' mate," corrected Bunny with a light roll of his eyes.
"Then let's get to it!" said Jack with a flourish, and the Guardians each headed off to get started. Baby Tooth decided to accompany Jack as he made his way to North's study to start working on the ice sculptures. Both the fairy and winter spirit entered, and Jack had to reorganize things on North's desk so he could find the toy designs that he needed to sculpt. Jack discovered a folder which contained what he needed and pulled out the first design: a toy sleigh.
"This shouldn't take so long," said Jack as he turned to Baby Tooth. The mini fairy twittered and looked over the toy design as the winter spirit pulled out his ice pick and created a block of ice. Jack began chipping away and Baby Tooth helpfully held up the paper with the toy plan, so Jack was able to look back and forth between the sculpture and the plans. The winter spirit finished in a reasonable amount of time, and Jack placed the first sculpture aside and moved onto the next one.
"What's next?" asked Jack. Baby Tooth chirped and pulled out a castle. Jack blinked.
"I take back when I said this wouldn't take so long," said Jack. Baby Tooth smirked and then pointed to the number that had to be made.
"Forty?!" spluttered Jack. "Yeah, this is definitely going to take a lot longer than I thought it would."
Baby Tooth shrugged and handed Jack the castle plans and proceeded to continue organizing all the papers that littered North's desk as Jack created another block of ice and got started on the first castle sculpture.
…
Sandy and Tooth flew into the Wrapping Room and were immediately blown away by the sight. It had been a long time since the Sandman and Tooth Fairy had last been in the room, and both were surprised that they remembered where it was. North seemed to have a room for everything.
"Wow!" exclaimed Tooth as she looked around the large room. Long tables were placed in a way that could host an assembly line. Rolls and rolls of wrapping paper hung from the walls. Bows, ribbon, stickers, and scissors were stored in the large wall of drawers. Tooth fluttered inside and looked around; her mini fairies curiously explored the place as well.
"Where are the other yetis?" asked Tooth. Sandy shrugged and pointed behind him.
"So, they're all working in the Workshop?" said Tooth. The Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies flew around the room. "It looks like a large group of them work in here." Tooth suddenly realized how high the stools in which the yetis sat were. Tooth cocked her head curiously.
Strange, she thought. The yetis don't seem like the type to sit while they work. Tooth flew to the wall of drawers and pulled out a pair of scissors.
"Okay, Sandy," said Tooth. "I guess it's just you, me, and my fairies. We should start receiving finished toys soon, and once we do, I'll do the cutting and you can do the wrapping. Girls, you're going to do the decorating."
Tooth's extensions squealed in delight.
"But don't go overboard," said Tooth firmly. The mini fairies' smiles immediately left, and they sighed but nodded. Sandy was trying to get Tooth's attention, but the Tooth Fairy was trying to calculate how long it would take for them to wrap the required number of toys for that day. Both Sandy and Tooth had to head back for their own jobs once night fell, and as much Tooth would have loved to stay and help North, she couldn't risk skipping a night. Neither could Sandy.
"If we can wrap at least fifty presents per hour, we should be able to get to a thousand in at least…hm…twenty hours," Tooth placed her scissors on a table and tapped her chin. "Oh, but we'll need to be faster than that. We need to be done by nine…"
Sandy sighed. Why was he the silent one? Sandy flew up to Tooth and tapped her shoulder.
"Not now Sandy, I'm calculating," said Tooth.
One of Tooth's mini fairies chirped loudly, which snapped Tooth out of her contemplation. She turned to Sandy, who had a lightbulb over his head.
"You have an idea, Sandy?" said Tooth. The Sandman nodded and pointed to the extra seats.
"But the yetis are working in the Workshop," said Tooth. Sandy shook his head and created the image of an elf.
Tooth finally understood. "Oh! The elves work in this room! That explains why the stools are so high. They could definitely help us out since there's so many of them." She trilled to one of her fairies and asked her to get Dingle and the rest of the elves and tell them to come to the Wrapping Room. The mini fairy nodded, and she dashed out of the room to try and find the elves.
Tooth picked up her scissors and snipped them. "While we're here, we can start picking out wrapping paper." Her eyes fell on a beautiful shade of pink wrapping paper. "Do you think North would let us use pink?"
Sandy shook his head and pointed to the Christmas-y wrapping papers. "Let's stick to the Christmas themed ones."
Tooth nodded. "Well, at least one of the Christmas colors is white. The color of well-brushed teeth!"
An odd way to look at the color white, but this was the Tooth Fairy, so Sandy just shrugged. He, Tooth, and the other mini fairies then began to start sorting things out in the present room and while they waited for the first toys to be dropped off so they could start wrapping.
…
Out of all of the places in the North Pole, the Workshop was the busiest. Bunny and North weaved through the hustle and bustle, and Bunny found that the Workshop was definitely a lot busier than it usually was, which was a contrast to the quiet calmness of his Warren. Bunny ducked under a wooden plank before it could whack him in the face and was rather surprised that North was already ahead of him, easily dodging the yetis carrying completed toys, wood, and tools.
Since he's done this so often, I guess he's got a good hang of navigatin' through this craziness, thought Bunny as he dodged an airplane that was being tested by a group of mischievous elves.
"Keep up, Bunny!" called North.
"I'm tryin'!" said Bunny. He yelped when another plank of wood almost hit him. Bunny switched to all fours and quickly bounded after North, dodging everything that came in his way. Bunny stood up when he found himself at North's side.
"How do ya manage ta get through all of that with no problem?" asked Bunny.
"Practice," said North simply, and he continued down the halls as Bunny followed not too far behind. "Of course, you vould not understand since Easter doesn't get this busy."
Bunny's ears twitched. "Oi, North. Easter is just as busy as Christmas. I have billions of eggs ta paint!"
"But no matter how much you paint, it iz still egg," said North.
Bunny was about to respond when he shook his head. For the first time in centuries, he didn't continue the argument. He and North had lots to do, and they didn't have time to get distracted.
First, North stopped by certain tables, telling the yetis to either fix up a simple mistake or repainting a toy. Bunny mostly helped out with the painting, but he was equally helpful when it came to the building.
Bunny was helping a yeti finish painting a racetrack when he heard a crash. Bunny ran over to the noise and saw that an entire tower of toy airplanes had crashed over and broke. Bunny looked down at what caused the crash. A group of elves slowly began to back away. One was holding a remote control, and a drone was sitting in the middle of the table.
"Ya bloody little drongos," said Bunny as he glared at the elves. The elves smiled sheepishly, and then ran away. Bunny shook his head. He didn't know how North lived with them.
North walked over and looked at the pile of broken airplanes, and then he turned to Bunny, who simply said, "Elves."
North sighed. "Vell, ve vill need to get these all replaced and rebuilt. I'm sure I have plans somewhere in office."
"I'll start gettin' this cleaned up, and then we can get started," said Bunny. North nodded, and then left to go grab the airplane plans, hoping that the elves wouldn't destroy something else while he was gone.
…
Jack let out a long sigh when he added the last finishing touch to the last castle sculpture. He wiped a hand across his brown and smiled proudly.
"Looks like we did it, Baby Tooth," said Jack. He looked around the study, which had forty different princess castles sitting on either the tables or the floor. "Forty princess castles in record time."
Baby Tooth chirped happily and then she pulled out another toy design that needed an ice model. Jack looked it over.
"Wow, a robot," said Jack. "This will be fun." He looked at the number. "Oh, moon, fifty of them? Seriously?"
Baby Tooth giggled and Jack looked at her. "You're not giving me toys that require a lot of ice sculptures to be made on purpose, are you?"
Baby Tooth only trilled a response, but Jack didn't miss the impish glint in her eyes.
The winter spirit smirked. "You know, maybe I should ask Tooth to give you extra work to do in the Tooth Palace. How would you like that?"
Baby Tooth shook her head.
"Exactly," said Jack, but he still conjured up a block of ice to get started on the robot sculptures. He was about to start chipping away when North opened the door. Jack turned around and acknowledged him with a smile.
"Hey, North," said Jack. "What's up?"
"Hello, Jack," North said. He looked around at the sculptures of princess castles that sat on the floor and tables. "You made all of these?" he asked in surprise.
Jack nodded. "If you could send some of the yetis who are supposed to make these into toys up here, that'd be nice."
"I vill," said North. He walked over to his desk. "Have you seen toy plan folder anyvhere?"
"I think Baby Tooth might have put them somewhere on the shelf," said Jack. Baby Tooth nodded and she fluttered over to a shelf and patted the folder that North was looking for. North thanked the little fairy and he flipped through the folder and pulled out the airplane design that he needed.
"So, how are things going in the Workshop?" asked Jack as he began to chip away at the ice block.
"Things are going great!" replied North. "Ve only have 9,000 more toys to make."
"Only nine-thousand more toys," repeated Jack. It was still a lot to the winter spirit, but it was pleasant to know that 1,000 toys had already been made.
"Anyvay, Bunny and I have to replace tower of airplanes," said North. "So, ve are still around the 9,500 toy range."
"Well, if we keep at it, we'll be able to meet the number of toys that need to be made," said Jack. He blew off a few leftover crumbs of ice and said, "And hopefully, I'll be able to get all these sculptures done."
North chuckled and he patted Jack on the shoulder. "You are doing good job already, my boy," he said. "Keep up good vork."
Baby Tooth chirped from the desk.
"You are doing good job too, Baby Tooth," said North with a small laugh. Baby Tooth grinned, satisfied, and then resumed to organize papers. North left the study, leaving Jack and the mini fairy. The winter spirit turned back to his ice sculpture and continued to sculpt.
…
The mini fairy that Tooth had sent out to fetch Dingle and the elves had returned but without the elves. Tooth asked where the elves were, and she chirped that they refused to help with wrapping presents unless…
"Unless we promise them cookies?" said Tooth in disbelief. It sounded an awful lot like the elves, but Tooth still couldn't believe that they wouldn't help them out unless they gave them cookies.
"I thought North said that the elves were helpful!" said Tooth.
Sandy shook his head and the words, "When they want to" appeared over his head.
Tooth frowned. "Still, I think the elves should give us a hand without having to be rewarded or paid. This is their holiday after all."
The Wrapping Room already had toys that needed to be wrapped, and Tooth, Sandy, and the mini fairies had to get started on decorating them with the bright, Christmas wrapping paper.
"I'm going to go and talk to the elves," said Tooth. "You guys get started with the wrapping."
Sandy nodded and he along with the mini fairies began the process of wrapping the toys. Tooth fluttered out of the Wrapping Room and through the halls of Santoff Claussen, keeping her eyes peeled for the elves. With her bird-like vision, she managed to spot Dingle and a group of elves standing in the corner, fumbling around with old Christmas lights and ornaments. They didn't seem to be doing much, which meant that they would have lots of time to help out with wrapping presents. Tooth did not understand why they wouldn't help out.
Tooth fluttered down to Dingle and smiled. "Hi, Dingle. We kind of need you guys' help in the Wrapping Room with wrapping presents. Do you think you can come and give us a hand?"
Dingle seemed to think for a moment, and then he turned to the other elves and babbled something in their language. The elves shrugged and then Dingle nodded. He turned to Tooth with a smile on his face, and then shook his head.
"But why?" asked Tooth. Dingle pointed to the kitchen and Tooth immediately knew that they were asking for cookies. She crossed her arms.
"We're not going to give you cookies unless you help us," she said. The elves shrugged and then turned back to what they were doing. Tooth felt a small flash of irritation. The elves, who were said to be the ones who made the toys, couldn't even help out with wrapping gifts. Tooth suddenly got an idea.
"Fine," said Tooth. "If you won't help us, I guess Sandy, my fairies, and I will celebrate wrapping all the gifts with cookies and milk." The Tooth Fairy slowly began to fly off. "I would invite you, but since you don't want to help, we'll just—"
Tooth cut herself off when the elves suddenly dropped everything they were holding and bolted to the Wrapping Room. The Tooth Fairy smiled.
"What the elves will do for cookies," she said. And then she followed the elves to the Wrapping Room.
…
Bunny and North stared at the airplane parts that laid before them. All they had to do was assemble fifty toy airplanes before sundown. No problem, right?
Bunny pulled out the instructions that North had given him and looked them over. North had said that they were really simple to follow, but the pooka found that they were a lot more complicated than he thought they would be.
"We're supposed ta build all of these in just five hours?" said Bunny.
North nodded. "Da. It vill be simple! Just follow instructions."
"But these instructions," Bunny gestured to the paper he was holding. There were numbers, arrows, and lines, all of which he couldn't understand how they went together. "Look like one of my googies took a dip in the mud and then rolled all over it."
North laughed and patted Bunny on the back. "That iz very funny, but they are not that hard to follow. See?" North started assembling his airplane, and he was done in less than five minutes. Bunny stared.
"How—" Bunny started.
"Practice," said North. He started on his next airplane, leaving Bunny with the craziest set of instructions he had ever seen. North made them sound simple, he made it look like they were easy to follow, but as Bunny stared at the steps, pictures, multiple lines, and arrows, he saw anything but simple.
Bunny shook his head, and he decided to give the directions a try. Bunny read through them the best he could, and if he couldn't figure something out, he simply made his best guess. Bunny's first airplane hadn't come out the way it was supposed to. The wings were backwards, the propeller was on the other end, and the wheels were on the roof.
"Crikey," said Bunny.
North looked at Bunny's airplane. "Are you having trouble?"
Bunny frowned at the obvious question. "What does it look like?"
North took the instructions that Bunny was using and then he chuckled. Bunny tapped his foot impatiently.
"What is it, North? And if ya're goin' ta say that the instructions aren't that hard, don't," said Bunny.
"That iz not vhat I vas going to say," said North. He handed Bunny his instructions and the Pooka snatched them out of his hand. Bunny looked them over and he realized that they were different from his. In fact, they didn't even seem at all like the ones he had gotten.
"Bunny, I gave you vrong instructions," said North with a small laugh. "I am sorry."
Bunny shook his head. "And here I thought that ya were playin' with me. Do ya mind sharin'?"
"I vould," said North. "But I am already finished."
"Ya're already…what?!" Bunny looked over on North's side and found fifty perfectly constructed airplanes.
"How in the…crikey!" exclaimed Bunny. "And it's only been what?" Bunny glanced at the clock. "Forty-five minutes!"
"Like I said. Practice," said North. "Anyvay, ve need to bring these to Sandy and Tooth for vrapping."
Bunny was still shocked as he followed North to grab some boxes. "Fifty airplanes in forty-five minutes…How…?"
…
"And that's it! That's the last one!" said Jack triumphantly as he backed away from the last ice sculpture he had to make. It was a guitar and he only had to make twenty of them, which was less than the number of sculptures that he had to make before. Jack had managed to complete the amount of ice sculptures that were needed for that day, and some of the ones that would be needed for tomorrow. The winter spirit was quite proud of himself. He turned to Baby Tooth, who had finally finished organizing North's papers.
"So, what do you say we go and drop off this last sculpture and then we can go and join the others?" said Jack. Baby Tooth nodded and the two went off to drop off the last ice sculpture and then headed to the Wrapping Room. Jack opened the door and ducked when a roll of tape nearly hit his head. Jack looked around and saw Tooth flying amongst the wrapping of the toys.
"Use red wrapping paper for that doll! And make sure to tie it off with a nice, big bow!" ordered Tooth. Three elves nodded and began to do what she said. Tooth turned to her fairies, who were dumping glitter on a wrapped gift.
"Girls, calm down with the glitter!" said Tooth. The mini fairies were saddened at the thought of no more glitter but did as their queen said.
"We only got twenty more toys to wrap, you guys! Keep up the good work!" Tooth turned to the table where Sandy was sitting. "Sandy, wake up!"
Sandy jolted awake and immediately continued wrapping a toy rocket. Tooth smiled, satisfied, and then she turned to Jack and Baby Tooth, who were standing in the doorway.
"Hi, you two!" greeted Tooth cheerfully. She fluttered up to the two of them, and Jack was surprised that Tooth was still vivacious and active after hours of working in the Wrapping Room. "How did the ice sculpting go?"
"It went pretty well," said Jack. He looked behind her as the mini fairies, elves, and Sandy were wrapping toys. "How are things going in here?"
"Very, very well!" replied Tooth. Jack followed her inside. "We only have twenty presents left to wrap. Well, now nineteen since Sandy finished wrapping that rocket."
Sandy waved to Jack. The winter spirit smiled and waved back.
"Anyway, we could use some help," said Tooth. "Which is what I'm assuming you're here to do?"
Jack nodded. "Yep. Where are the toys that need to be wrapped?"
"On that table over there," said Tooth. "Try to stay away from non-Christmas-y colors. According to Sandy, we have to stick with the relevant holiday colors."
"So no blue?" asked Jack.
Tooth shook her head. "No blue."
"But isn't blue technically a Christmas color?" said Jack. "It represents snow."
"And pink is a tint of red, and yet, we can't use it," said Tooth. She turned to a group of elves who were messing with ribbon. "You guys, stay productive, please. Or no cookies for you."
The elves dropped the ribbon and went back to tying up wrapped presents. Tooth turned back to Jack. "Anyway, we're almost done here. So, if you could help wrap some of the last few toys that would be—" Tooth looked up when she saw Bunny and North enter. She greeted them with a smile. "Hi, North! Hi, Bunny! Did you guys finish in the Workshop?"
"Ve did," said North. "Ve have more toys that need to be wrapped."
"Ta be more specific, we have airplanes that need ta be wrapped," said Bunny. He placed the two boxes he was carrying on the back table. "Fifty of 'em."
"Oh," said Tooth. "Well, that's no problem. I'm sure we can get them all wrapped before nine."
"Uh, Tooth?" said Jack. "Nine o' clock is in thirty minutes."
"Thirty?!" exclaimed Tooth, her feathers flaring. She turned to the clock on the wall and gasped. "My moon, you're right. What are we standing around here for? Come on and start wrapping!"
And so, the half an hour wrapping session began. The elves, mini fairies, and the Guardians of Childhood each cut up wrapping paper, wrapped a toy, topped it with a bow and other decorations, and then placed it aside. Thirty minutes went by a lot faster than the Guardians thought it would, but they had managed to get all of the presents wrapped just in time.
Jack placed the last present on top of the stack. "There. That's all of them," he said with a smile. "I can't believe we actually managed to get all of this done in thirty minutes."
Tooth nodded and then she glanced at the clock again. "Well, as much as I'd love to stay, my fairies and I have to head back to Punjam Hy Loo to start collecting teeth." The Tooth Fairy said farewell and then trilled to her fairies. They dropped the shiny ribbons, glitter, and bows and followed Toothiana out.
Sandy had to leave as well. His job started around the same time Tooth's did, so he waved to North, Jack, and Bunny and then left on a cloud of dreamland to start spreading dreams to the children around the world.
Jack pulled off a ribbon that was stuck on the front of his hoodie and tossed it aside. "And I guess that means that we have to clean up this place." He looked around the Wrapping Room and realized how messy it was. Jack sighed.
"You think the yetis are going to be willing to help clean after a long day in the Workshop?" asked Jack.
North shook his head. "Nyet."
Bunny shrugged. "Well, while ya two are cleaning up this place, I'll be in my Warren gettin' ready for Easter."
Jack blinked. "But isn't that four months away?"
"Exactly. Four months, billions of eggs ta paint," said Bunny. "I'll see ya tomorrow."
Jack and North waved as Bunny left, and the ex-Cossack turned to Jack. "So, I guess that means ve vill be cleaning up here."
"Yeahhh, about that," said Jack as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm kind of late on giving Antarctica a blizzard."
"But Antarctica always has blizzards," said North.
"Exactly," said Jack. "I would stay, I really would, but hard work and deadlines."
Before North could say anything, Jack left. "I'll be back tomorrow!" he said as he left on the Wind.
North shook his head and then he looked down at the elves who were staring up at him.
"So, I guess it vill be us cleaning up in here," said North. The elves looked at each other and then slowly began backing away.
"Oh no," said North. "Ve are going to clean this mess together or you vill not be getting any cookies for the next two months."
The elves frowned but helped clean up anyway.
