(Ha!) Marco laughed. (Come on, Cassie. You believe in Santa Claus? You think the yeerks believe in Santa Claus? You think they're trying to ruin Christmas?)

Marco collapsed into fits of laughter.

"It all fits!" Cassie said.

(Who is this Santa Claus?) Ax wondered.

(Aw, Cassie.) Tobias sighed. (Santa isn't real.)

"Yes he is!" Cassie said. "I believe in him!"

(Please, Who is this Santa Claus?) Ax asked loudly.

(Didn't that book we give you say something about Santa Claus?) Tobias said (You know, delivering toys around the world...)

(I do not recall one called Santa Claus doing that.) Ax said. (I believe the one who does that is called Saint Nicholas.)

(That's just another name for the same person.) Tobias explained.

(But he is illogical!) Ax exclaimed. (Human technology is far too primitive to allow one man to visit the whole world in one night. That task is beyond even Andalite technology.)

"He's magical!" Cassie snapped.

(Magic is illogical also.) Ax said. (I am surprised that humans believe in it. Even with their crude, inaccurate science, they should be able to logically eliminate magic as a force in the universe.)

(We don't believe in magic!) Marco yelled. (Just certain people who don't know anything about anything!)

"Please be quiet." The deer coughed. "You're very loud."

"Okay." Jake said, pacing back and forth. "You dragged me out of bed, had us sneak Rachel out of her room, and gathered us all here at 1: 30 in the morning to tell us that this deer talked."

(It did, Prince Jake!) Ax said. (We all heard it.)

"It did." Marco nodded. "I don't know why, or how, but it did."

Tobias bobbed his hawk head up and down.

"Deer cannot talk!" Jake said. "That is a fact. You were all up too late or something."

"Reindeer!" Cassie said.

"Okay." Jake rubbed his temple. "Let's say this reindeer did talk. What does this have to do with me?"

"I need your help." The reindeer croaked.

Everyone spun around.

"What was that?" Jake said, looking around wildly.

"I believe that was the deer that cannot talk." Marco said smugly. "I believe that it was talking."

Jake swished his finger around in his ear and leaned close to the deer "Come again?"

"Would you idiots listen to me!" The reindeer bellowed. Jake jerked backwards. The deer hacked and coughed. "Now listen. My name is Donner. The yeerks attacked us. They managed to break through the nondetection aura we put around the workshop. A bunch of bug fighters destroyed the workshop."

(Wait.) Tobias interrupted. (How do you know about the yeerks? Why did they attack you?)

"An elf was a controller." Donner groaned. "When she tried to get to the yeerk pool, she got lost in a blizzard. By the time we found her, the yeerk had died. She told us. The elf was an important controller, and when she didn't come to the yeerk pool, the yeerks figured she was freed and had told us. They have been trying to kill us for years, so that secret would remain a secret."

"What's this got to do with us?" Jake said.

"We managed to get the Claus' and a handful of elves out on the sleigh." He said. "We were shot from the sky by a bug fighter. I was injured, and crashed in the woods near here. That girl's father-" He motioned to Cassie. "Found me and brought me here. But I will die."

(What can we do?) Tobias said quietly.

"The others." He coughed. "They have made it away. They have probably already started to rebuild the workshop. But we won't make Christmas this year. There's not enough time. I have only one request."

Everybody looked at the deer. It gazed at them with glazed eyes.

"If you can somehow manage to do it." Donner said weakly. "I have seen you morph. I know you are the 'Andalite Bandits'. Take my DNA. If it is within your power...Could you...please...Save Christmas."