Chapter 1 – Kidnaps Mr. Sandy Claws?!
Oh, happy day! It's that time once again.
It's Christmas Eve around the world! All across the globe, little children are brushing their teeth, slipping on pajamas, and getting ready to be tucked in all snug in their beds, only to listen intently for the sound of sleigh bells in the air before they finally, finally, you're welcome, Mom and Dad, drift to sleep while visions of sugar plums dance in their heads.
From the sunny coasts of Honolulu to the hustle and bustle in the streets of Manhattan, to the cheerily decorated shops and lanes of Dublin to the frenetic hum of Tokyo, magic is in the air.
And nowhere more so than the North Pole! It's cold and clear on the top of the world tonight. The Ice and snow of the Earth's frosted crown is shining like a diamond, and the stars twinkling down on its beauty and serenity... or seeming serenity for as we draw our focus down, down, down, closer to the pole, and wind our way to Santa's workshop, things are anything but calm.
Just like every year, Santa's workshop is a flurry of activity in these final hours before old Chris Kringle takes to the skies, but for the first time in centuries, almost all of the denizens of Christmas Village are down for the count.
A particularly virulent strain of the flu has ripped its way through the population and almost every single sprightly-eyed elf here s been emptying their bowels from both exits for days.
The good news is, the production line has been ahead of schedule all year, but that lead time has dwindled away over the last week teetering dangerously close to falling short at the final hour and there has been a mad dash in the last several days with a hodgepodge skeleton crew of eight who have been thrown together out of desperation to finish up the year's toy supply in time for Santa's big night.
One of them being Holly Snowflake, a young elf who works in the baking factory and shop but with everything done early before everyone got smacked with the flu and wanting to see what it was like, she volunteered at the toy factory to help out as best she can. Though she was not super cheerful or jolly like some of the elves Holly is known to be kind and helpful wherever she goes, it does help though that she sneaks broken or leftover cookies to everyone including the jolly old elf himself.
Now though she is at the toy shop with seven other elves; there was an eighth elf, Bell Mistletoes but she to get caught with the flu as well.
The first to catch Holly's eye was the local legend Cranberry who of course is famous in the sports but also had a very festive beard and is hard not to notice plus they come to the shop for some eggnog and peanut butter blossoms. There was her meek friend Bundlestein, Bundles to her who hesitantly volunteered after Holly did and seemed to be doing well with making toys though he wouldn't believe it if she told him who had a weakness for Nutella swirled meringue cookies
The third elf in her surprise was Klaus, the head of security that came by the bakery factory to make sure that someone hasn't been running away with the chocolate or any other expensive spices, though he will accept a super spicy ginger cookie from Holly if he was in the mood but she could guess with the workers out of commission, Santa probably had to call him in. Now Ellory maybe a newbie in the toy factory business and Holly didn't know her well but she sure makes up for it with the cheer in her heart and voice that Holly didn't really look forward to super early in the morning, and never says no to sugar cookie cut-outs in the form of Santa or Christmas trees.
Now the elf that no one remembers, Nutmeg Gingersnap, comes in daily for a strong cup of cocoa every morning and angels on high if you dare ask her how she is. Apparently, she lived in New York for a while and well she started becoming local. Of course, everyone knows Chutney Chocolatecane and if you didn't you were told exactly who he was be it from himself or anyone else. He never comes to the shop once since she has worked at the baking shop and even her boss Aloicious Fizzlebottom has never seen him come in.
Speaking of Mr. Fizzlebottom. She thought as she looked over to her side of the toy-making table.
There sat her boss's son, Arthur Fizzlebottom, out of all the elves in the factory aside from Nutmeg and Klaus; Arthur looks absolutely miserable and definitely didn't want to be working at the toy factory. Holly didn't see him all that much but he always has a frown on his face and when she did, she always felt her heart flutter and her face warming.
Holly has had a crush on Arthur since they both started St. Nicholas High when she saw him climb the cliffside on the edge of Christmas Village just to get his mother some flowers that she likes that grew only there, now in their last year. They were friends Holly has yet to say anything about her feeling for him but it didn't help that he was pretty much running in a different crowd than her and got into a lot of trouble. Now here he was sitting beside her sulking and muttering to himself as he works on a toy and Holly didn't have the courage to say anything.
Not the best of circumstances, but hey, it is still Christmas and it's hard not to feel a little spring in her step even if the clock is ticking, and quotas are on the line. However, a fire crackles in the corner, the sound of tools, hinges, and sandpaper going to town fill the room with a quiet chatter of activity while the smell of a fresh-cut tree and candy canes wafts through the workroom... but you know quiet tension still radiating throughout the group as the countdown clock on the wall is reading.
"35 MINUTES TILL GO TIME!"
No pressure or anything.
"Oh fuck." Holly hears coming from Chutney as he turned goes back to work.
The other look to the clock as well and react with distraught gasps and tired groans while Holly herself gives a sigh and turns back to her painting another cat figurine playing with ballet slippers with words written 'Live the Dream.' in gold paint. She gave a little snort and catching movement from the corner of her eye looks over to see Arthur looking away from her and concentrating on a basketball.
Holly blinks in surprise that Arthur is even looking her way to begin with maybe he was just thinking of something.
"We are never going to get everything finished, ugh my dad is going to kill me! After he is done puking anyways." He jeers as he rolls the basketball away from him and reaches over for the almost finished plush of Edward 'Edge' from FFIV, sewing the rest of the scarf around the ninja's neck.
Holly frowns at this as she places the finished cat figurine to dry. "You shouldn't say things like that Arthur, it is Christmas after all, you should have more faith in the spirit of Christmas."
Arthur snorts. "With Miss Lantern over there I am sure the spirit is as strong as it gets."
Lantern being Ellory, a nickname she had gotten in school for her bright personality and her strong faith in the spirit and Santa himself.
She rolls her eyes, throwing leftover fluff in Arthur's direction. "It doesn't mean you have to be such a Krampus besides with the top shelf elf leading the way there won't be problems."
The fluff mere floated down in the middle of them making Arthur smiling in amusement then turned his eyes to hers. "I bet you all your snowball cookies something is going to go wrong in the next few minutes Holls."
"I bet your mother's red velvet hot chocolate recipe that everything will be just fine and we got a deal!" She counters with a grin bringing her hand out.
Arthur hisses playfully then shakes her hand. "Oh now you playing dirty Holls, but deal!"
From beyond the heavily frosted-over windows the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow outside. Klaus is immediately on high alert going straight for his candy cane swords and looking at the door ready while everyone turned to it. The door clatters open with a jingle as a blast of frigid air swirls over the elves, shaking the Christmas tree in the corner something fierce, making everyone shiver from the cold, and in walks the oldest elf in all the North Pole, Bigsby Quimberump.
Surprisingly Bigsby is Chutney's senior, he served as the right hand of the Claus for centuries, and while frail in frame, he is the engine that keeps the operation going year after year. He is only the other elf besides the seven that were in the factory now who does not have the flu, and he is showing a little weariness after a week of tanking on this Christmas.
Arthur and Holly disengage their hands and started back on work before the boss could see that they were not getting things done.
He cheerfully closes the door laughing as he asks. "How you all hanging? Everybody still of good cheer?"
"Oh yeah!" Cranberry crows with Ellory sighing in admiration beside them.
"Eh." Klaus shrugs alongside Nutmeg.
Holly catches Arthur rolling his eyes, crossing his arms frowning in annoyance.
I swear he could be the Grinch's son if he were green. She thinks shaking her head and looking back to Bigsby.
"It's cold out there." he says as he warms himself up by the fire. "That air is biting straight through my bony old ass."
If Holly could spit take she would have; elves were not allowed such language at this time of year, bad juju and all that. Plus she had never heard him swear in all her life!
"Listen, Santa will be coming over shortly." Bigsby announces. "He's just stopping in to check on the missus right now to see if she's able to keep any food down yet. I think she was worshipping the porcelain alter all last night poor dear."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Chutney grumbles sadly.
Holly cringes in sympathy for Mrs. Clause and reminds herself to make some hot apple cider for her when she gets better.
Bigsby points at Chutney nodding "You and I know what's that like, but that comes with the later centuries."
"That's right, yeah, I usually catch it in my pants first thing in the morning." Chutney says in agreement, making everyone around him wrinkle their noses in disgust.
"That's why Santa invented elf diapers." Bigsby grins.
"Okay, or he could retire some elves or I do not know make doctors a profession?" Holly mutters to herself.
Of course, there are healers around the village but there wasn't a doctor who could help the elderly elves which annoyed Holly a little since there were many seniors still working in the shops around them.
She hears a snort beside her before they said. "If all the old koots in this joint retired nearly all the factories would be down including the old man."
Holly looks over to Arthur, her face turning red again as she stutters. "I- I just think there are better ways to fix those types of situations that is all."
Arthur smirks at Holly shaking his head and turning back to Bigsby, leaving Holly to squeal in her head in happiness that he talked to her and horrified that he heard her.
"Let me see your progress." Bigsby's voice sounds over her internal squealing. He looks about at everyone's work before muttering. "Aww, jiggling jingle bells, we're cutting it close here. Stay on task, people! I'll tell ya what, I'm gonna go to the kitchens and grab some of that nice Holly's cocoa from the stove for you lot. Keep at it."
Holly blushes as everyone looks to her the moment he is out the door before everyone is all returned to the final stages of the current toy they're building; Vox Machina action figures with vestige grip. She had seen a few episodes on her laptop and she quite enjoys them so she surprisingly has no problems working on Percy De Rollo III.
(Performance Check:
Chutney: 9
Nutmeg: 8
Klaus: 6
Bundles: Nat 20
Cranberry: 8
Ellory: 19
Arthur: 20
Holly: 18)
Holly smiles at the finished figurine and looks around to see that Ellory, Bundles, and Arthur's own figures were just as excellently done... the other three on the other hand.
"Listen." Nutmeg exclaims seeing the youngsters look at her not so well figurine. "I don't make toys, this is too hard!"
"I never watch Dice, Camera, Action, I don't know what the fuck that is." Klaus swipes the toy to the side in frustration.
"Told ya Holls you owe me." Arthur whispers while smiling victory.
Holly on the other hand blinks at Klaus but says nothing as the doors open again and Bigsby reappears, carrying a heavy tray of cocoa, and does a double-take looking at the tree in the corner seeing ornaments falling all over from his earlier entry.
"Oh, cripes, weren't any of you gonna tell me the star has fallen off the top of the tree?!" he exclaims looking at all of them. "Holly come over here and help give the lot their hot cocoa since you made it yourself."
"Of course Mr. Quimberump." She gets up from her seat, walking over to the old elf, and takes the tray.
"I hope not, I cut down quite a strong one over there.." Cranberry boasts.
Holly pauses in her giving Klaus the cocoa looking over her shoulder to them. "He said the star Cranberry not the tree itself."
"Me think Miss Three-time winner has pine needles in her ear." Klaus comments quietly taking a sip of his bitter cocoa, the way he likes it.
Holly gives him a smirk of amusement before moving to the next of her fellow workers.
"Well, no wonder nothing's going on in here." Bigsby says as he shuffles over to the tree and picks up the familiar, to everyone in the room, clockwork star from the ground.
The star of Pure Intent; has a decent sized ruby set at its center and golden cogs ticking quietly behind the latticework design of its outer shell, and the ruby is pulsing subtly.
"How do you expect to get these toys finished in time without this blasted star on the tree?!" He scolds look at the lot of them before looking over to Arthur in the corner who didn't look like he was listening at all. "Get this back up there Fizzlebottom! Get this to the top of the tree, do you."
Arthur rolls his eyes as he gets up. "Oh, fine."
"You listen to him, he's been here a long, long time-"
"Whatever, old man." Arthur scoffs as he takes the star from Bigsby's hand.
With a sigh of annoyance and shake to his body to loosen up, Arthur with his eyes closed does the craziest tricks climbing up the tree, and places the star at the top, without even looking at it, and dabs on the way down.
Holly watches on in awe, holding the tray to her chest. "Oh wow, that was amazing."
"Yeah! You are so good!" Ellory cheers, smiling widely at Arthur. "You're so good! I've been waiting to watch you do that and that was amazing!"
Holly looks over the cheerful elf and frowns slightly as Arthur shakes off the compliment. "Thanks, I guess, but you know, just keep it cool."
"Yeah, well I think his dad paid for parkour classes for him anyway." Nutmeg sneers taking a sip of her hot cocoa.
"Oh my god! That's amazing!" Ellory exclaims her eyes sparkling as they gaze at Arthur.
Arthur on the other hand frowns at Nutmeg and well immaturely says. "Well your dad id, whatever man."
"I don't have a dad." She interrupts, not looking away from her cup.
Everything goes quiet.
"... That's cool." he says awkwardly as he walks away. "All right maybe."
Everyone looks at Arthur weirdly at his words as he takes a seat back at his station.
Holly waits till he sits down before turning to Nutmeg and says. "Actually, he practices a lot in the gym and outside, the classes are a bit low level for him."
Nutmeg raises an eyebrow at Holly. "And how would you know that?"
Nervously Holly shrugs. "We do parkour class together and I have seen him climb up the houses and lampposts. Heck back when that strange dark tall shadow was disturbing the Village a few days ago, I saw him following the tracks all over. It was really amazing to watch."
Klaus gave an impressed look, looks over to Arthur with consideration while Nutmeg just shrugs and returns to her seat as well after placing the tray on the table. She sees Arthur give her a little nod, she can only assume it is for sticking up for him and so she gives a smile back as she sits down.
Just at that moment, a little brass medallion tinkles on Bigsby's belt and he mutters. "Oh, for the love of-"
Pulls it up on a chain and eyeballs it, and Klaus tilts his head at it in curiosity.
"Oh, what you got going on over there?" he asks.
Bigsby snaps. "Ah, sit tight, Prigman, these old bones ain't done yet, probably some penguins or something out on the lawn. Keep working!"
Klaus shrugs. "I don't know, you were complaining about the cold out there, you been in here long enough, you haven't adjusted and maybe you're not fit for the outside, you know, maybe someone like me could go ahead and take up their post again and not worry about this fucking present bullshit!"
And he is at it again. Holly thinks with a tired sigh, fiddling with one of the dresses a doll was going to wear. Klaus has been trying all month to get out of the toy factory and back to his post, noting liking the whole sitting and fiddling with toys he had no experience with and would rather be outside than inside.
However, it seems his complaints are making Bigsby very frustrated. "Listen to me, I didn't get to be head elf by sticking my dick in tree holes."
... okay didn't need that image, ew.
"Well I did that too, but I did a lot of other things!" He shouts making everyone look at him in horror. "So you sit there and I'll do my job."
Klaus puts his hands out in front of him. "I'm not disrespecting your ability to vanish into various shrubbery, but what I would like to do is not be dealing with this fucking thing!"
In frustration he breaks the toy on the table, Chutney looks over at the angry elf and wags his finger at him.
"Listen, crafting toys is an honor, it's a privilege!"
Holly and Arthur pretty much synchronize as they lean their faces on their left hand watching in boredom, Bundles and Cranberry were staring in a daze, Ellory is looking worried over the raised voices and Nutmeg kept looking at Chutney in confusion.
Klaus frowns at the old elf before taking a piece of labeling stick. "Look at this, I fix it right here; some assembly required, there, go, ship it, we're done!"
Chutney scoffs. "Assembly, I remember when toys were one piece of wood!"
"Might I just remind you that some of us are very happy to be indoors doing anything and not out in the stables shoveling the excrement of Vixen." Bundles speak up for the first time, adjusting his glasses. "I think you should appreciate what we're doing here. I mean, it's an honorable position... I'm sorry-"
"Then go ahead and fix it for me." Klaus deadpans, gesturing to the broken toy.
"Okay." Bundles didn't even argue.
"Wanna fix mine too?" Nutmeg asks. "This is why I don't, I got demoted from making toys, I don't know how to do any of this!"
"Sure, if you want me to, I will." Bundles say as he holds Klaus's broken toy.
Holly facepalms at her dear friends' pushover behavior. "Oh, Bundles."
Chutney didn't look impressed. "Oh yeah, you're just gonna take on the workload of everybody, Bunglenotch?"
Holly now frowns. "Hey one, his name is Bundlestein! And two for your information Arthur and I have worked very well without any assistance!"
Chutney squints his eyes at her but Holly gives it right back now crossing her own arms for extra oomph to her glare. Arthur too had his own frown and staring over at the three elders that were acting more like young-lings than the actual young-lings in the room.
As the glare was on Bundlestein tries to fix the toys but only got one arm fixed, he then remembers Bigsby has a wand of mending and was getting the courage to ask him but Bigsby was cursing the lot of them and lifting a list from his pocket.
"All right, so the next one on here is Mighty Nein, I guess there's nine of them, well get to work on that! I'll be right back." Bigsby ordered before he is out the door.
Disheartened Bundles sits back down looking at the toy, fiddling with its arm a little. Thankfully Cranberry came to the rescue before Holly could get up.
"You know, I got a mending cantrip." Cranberry says to Bundles. "I can actually, here I-"
Bundles hesitantly smile at Cranberry. "You can? Oh, thank you, bearded one."
Cranberry grins before taking the toy. "Uh huh, you wanna touch it?"
Holly suddenly had a feeling she should be dragging her friend away from Cranberry.
Thankfully Bundles is a smart elf and lies quickly to get out of the situation. "You might not want me to, my hands are covered in fecal matter."
Cranberry, still smiling backs away as the toy reforms magically, now a mildly happy Bundles skips over to Klaus.
"It's all fixed for you." He hands it to unenthusiastic Klaus.
Before Klaus could be too sarcastic he caught sight of Holly's glare before looking back to Bundles. "Thank you, I appreciate it."
"Sure, w-whatever you want." Bundles replies before going back.
As he walks away, Klaus begins wrapping it haphazardly in kind of a sack that's crumpled together, the ribbons sort of wrapped around and then taped on. "Hey congratulations Steven."
Everyone didn't really know what to say about the present so they got back to work, feeling more confident with the star on the tree.
(Performance Check:
Chutney: 13
Cranberry: 13
Nutmeg: 22
Klaus: 6
Bundles: Nat 20 Again?!
Ellory:20
Arthur: 15
Holly: 18)
Everyone's toys turned out perfect! Well except for Klaus but Holly figures it's to do with his lack of Christmas spirit and not wanting to be here in the first place. Klaus gives a sigh before putting the toy in a horrid wrapping ball.
"Here, Sam? Sam Hogg wherever you are, congratulations," he says tossing it away from him.
Once again a jingle at the door and Bigsby appears with a sigh. "Okay, listen, listen to me, I have been effin' elfing this workshop for well nigh 400 years. I'll be damned if we're gonna miss a kid, you understand? We need a little music for the extra edge."
With that, he pulls out the list again this time with teddy bears and or honey badgers with an assortment of hats in ten minutes which sounded insane to Holly until Bigsby went to the emergency cabinet and took out a fiddle that had holly leaves and berries dangling from it and beautiful green sigils all on the sides of it, and he begins to play a rapid ditty on it and as he does so suddenly Holly's fingers begin to move impossibly fast, looking around Holly could see that everyone else's hands were doing it as well.
Suddenly she is sewing bear parts together with an alacrity that is not natural.
(Performance Check:
Chutney: 9
Nutmeg: 11
Klaus: 14
Bundles: 5
Cranberry: 16
Ellory: 15
Arthur: 13
Holly: 23)
The teddy bears and honey badgers turned out fine though Bundles were a bit off never the less everything was done.
Bundles shrugs. "All I know is reindeers, I don't know any other animal anatomy."
Ellory looks over Cranberry's shoulder and tries to cheer him up. "I think it looks great."
Arthur smirks at what was supposed to be a honey badger in front of Bundles. "That's a great Elvis you got there."
Holly elbows him in the stomach making his cough and would have said something but Bundles spoke first before he could.
"Thank you, that's nice, but I know that you're just humoring me." he says looking away.
"No I like it, even mistakes can be beautiful." Ellory says with a gentle smile.
"Oh well, now you're just calling out my mistake." Bundles sighs dropping even lower. "I get it, I get it."
Cranberry looks thoughtful and says. "I feel like that guy would smell like cabbage."
Bundles looks from the toys to Cranberry before smiling a little. "Heh yeah, probably, He definitely has a Fosteresque."
"That's a compliment though yeah." Cranberry smiles.
Bundles looks surprised by the comment. "Is it?"
Cranberry nods. "Yeah."
"Oh okay..."
Puts the fiddle down and walks over to Bundles station. "Oh, oh jeez look at that hair!"
He then pulls out this long, thin, green and red swirled wand and waves it over, and it does largely does what Cranberry did with the wand and with a poof the beard falls away and covers up the bare patches that were left of the sallow man's form, and it looks a little bit more like a honey badger.
"Well, okay, that did the trick. Congratulations elves! We just did the impossible, we have finished the year off; understaffed among a sea of puke! That's some good work their folks." He announces with a grin as everyone cheers.
Holly turns to Arthur with a smirk. "Your mom's hot chocolate recipe is mine now!"
Arthur narrows his eyes and was about to speak when someone comes through the door with the sound of bells and a belly full of laughter; If it wasn't the man of the hour himself; good old Saint Nick!
"Santa!" Ellory, Bundles, Chutney squeals.
"Ho ho ho ho!" he laughs smiling at all of the elves.
Poor Chutney chokes in his excitement, Nutmeg aided her station neighbor in patting his back.
"Chutney, are you alright?" Santa asks in concern for the elder elf.
"It is such a privilege!" Chutney coughs smiling up at Santa.
Santa tries to help by patting Chutney's back with his giant meat hand before looking back to the group. "Merry Christmas, one and all! I can't tell you how much I want to do the whole thing like Brian Blessed."
Everyone laughs, even Claus had a bit of a chuckle.
"But I won't do that." He assures them. "Bigsby tells things have been going swimmingly, and from the looks of it, he's absolutely right! Fine works elves, fine work!"
He once again pats Chutney's back before walking away and brings all the elves to him with his hands on Holly and Klaus's shoulders. "I know the last week has been hard trust me, this is one for the record books. I don't want to tell you what's inside of my master bathroom looks like right now! Rainbow sprinkles everywhere, ho ho ho."
The elves were horrified and disgusted at the image and once again sent a prayer to the missus for a swift and easy recovery.
"But!" he shouts waving a hand before taking out his mighty sack of holding. "We all got through this flu season and hopefully it will have finished going through us by New Year."
He starts to pack up the final toys that everyone had done, looking at the Foster honey badger he chuckles before stuffing it in the sack. Holly hopes the toy finds a right home where it will be loved and played with, if not a beloved toy for someone's pet.
Santa does the last of the packing, tosses it over his shoulder, and says. "Bigsby! Blitzen is ready to go, got fetch the rest of the reindeer; it's almost time!"
Bigsby does as he is told and walks to the door pulling out that brass security medallion again muttering. "Ah, if it's not one thing it is another!"
Santa grins down at Chutney once more. "Chutney, ho ho ho you spring chicken! How's arthritis treating those knees?"
not really wanting to hear this conversation, Holly goes and starts picking up the cocoa mugs, a little excited to finally have the red velvet hot cocoa recipe in her hands at last!
"Is everybody feeling good?" Santa asks bringing Holly back from her delicious thoughts.
Everyone but Klaus and Nutmeg shrug and nodded up at him.
"Yeah, all due respect, sir, we've all done a fine job." Klaus comes in. "I've watched and supervised these fantastic elves and doing it, we have completed. Uh may we please return to our original posts, sir?"
Well, Holly had to give credit to where it is due, Klaus certainly can be stubborn.
Santa sighs, apparently this isn't the first time Klaus asked this. "Klaus, almost, tomorrow we'll reset anew for the future year alright? Just stay here you never know when dropping something out of the bag just hang tight."
Klaus nods looking away.
Nutmeg on the other hand raises a hand in question. "Do-Do I- Do I have to go back to New York, to the Macy's or-"
He shakes his head. "No, that's all done, Macy's all done Nut. You can't go back there anymore."
Nutmeg sighs in relief. "Thank you Santa, thank you."
Bundles tilt his head in curiosity at Nutmeg. "What happened at Macy's?"
"You came back weird." Arthur added.
Nutmeg shakes her head sighing. "Just, it's too much. I mean, I got put in wrapping not even wrapping anymore, just to the bows cause I had a problem with the tape. I had an accident and just, the kids there, it's awful and all you know, fake yous Santa."
Santa very uncomfortably says. "Well, it's just about that time everyone! Sit tight a moment, I'm gonna toss the sack into the sleigh and check on Blitzen, but I will be right back! Christmas is here and you've all earned a little R and R, especially you Klaus you need to take a break."
Klaus looks at the Santa oddly before looking thoughtful.
"We're gonna have a toast in a second to a job well done! don't move a muscle."
And he is gone with the jingle of the bell.
As Santa exits the room they can all hear him on the other side. "Blitzen you beautiful buck! Are you ready to tear things up?! I'm in desperate need of fresh air after this week of misery and i-"
Suddenly his was gone and all of the elves froze.
"what was that?" Holly wonders.
Nutmeg looks over to the other elves. "Why's he stop talking?"
"I don't know." Ellory answers looking nervous.
Cranberry looks over at Bundles. "Hey, you know reindeers, was that Blitzen? Is he alright?"
Holly and Arthur tried to sneakily look through the windows but it was heavily frosted from the weather they were having.
"That doesn't sound like a good sound." Bundles reports, his ears twitching at the noises "I've only heard that once before, and it was when Rudolph was being mercilessly teased by the other reindeer. They used to call him names, it was awful."
"That was a bad time." Ellory agrees as the others muttered in agreement.
Arthur and Holly looks at one another and made their way to the door to see what the hell was going on. Bundles seeing his friend Holly runs after her followed by the others and Klaus readying to take his candy canes out just in case. Seeing this Arthur picks up a fire poker and Holly picks up her bow and arrows she kept by the coat hanger since she was going to go with the hunting group, what was left of it anyway to find food and maybe herbs, after work.
Peaking out of the door sort of like the dwarves in Snow White with Arthur on top, Holly then Nutmeg.
Perception Check
Arthur: 10
Nutmeg: 3
Holly: 11
Through this crack of the door that Arthur opened, Holly could see the sleigh about 30 feet away from the front door, overturned and on its side, and some snow just smeared and stirred up.
"Sleigh fell over!" Arthur tells the others over his shoulders.
Chutney frowns getting up shakily from his chair. "What do you mean it fell over?"
Arthur huffs looking back over his shoulder. "I don't know! It fell over."
"Where's Santa?!"
"Go and help the guy!" Klaus demands trying to push Arthur out. "Come on."
"We can only see the sleigh Klaus." Holly states.
"Oh come on, we could all lift a sleigh! Come on just a little bit of teamwork!" Cranberry eggs the others on.
Relaxing once again all the elves headed outside chattering among themselves as Arthur opens the door fully. Both Arthur and Holly see three-toed tracks in the snow front of Santa's workshop, making them both pause and look at one another with Arthur asking with his eyes that if Holly knew what they were, she could only shrug. Following the tracks Holly could see a few feet away from a, well a basin or something, there's a giant sack in it, and it is moving rapidly away into the trees.
"Where is Santa?" Bundles ask looking around.
"Are those Santa's presents?!" Ellory squeaks in horror.
Chutney blinks. "Are they stealing Christmas?"
Klaus rushes ahead to the sleigh and inspects over the edge of it... or he would if it were not the cackling they could hear above and behind them.
"Hahahahaha the fat man is ours!" the laughter shrieks.
"Hey! Holly shouts turning around and pointing at the voice. "Santa is Fluffy!"
What Holly saw made her gasp, followed by the other elves as they look upon the roof of the workshop; a witch.
"Elf flesh, so fresh!" She hisses as she leers out from under the brim of a tall purplish hat and purple filthy robes.
Her eyes hang sallow underneath, the teeth look mangy, brown, and covered with filth as she licks them staring at them all. Suddenly she makes a coughing sound and that was when off to the sides in the treeline are two more guys; there was a red dark-skinned figure with horns and a tail lashing behind them carrying some sort of metal staff with what looked like octopus tentacles, raking it across the snow menacingly.
The next guy, stumbling through the snow... was an undead guy with a long raked, grey sword dragging through the snow and the other hand just hanging limp and half of his ribs are gone just snarling towards the elves.
