Chapter 12: Adventures in Toyland

Without thinking, the cows sprinted on the man, knocking him out of his chair and wrestling him onto the floor.

"I got him!"

"No I got him!"

"Don't let him get away!"

Then Maggie began to pull firmly on the beard, believing that it might have been a fake. She pulled repeatedly, but the man would often grunt from the force.

"Why won't this beard come off?"

"LADIES!"

The girls stopped wrestling the man whom they believed was Alameda Slim and turned to see Rudolph behind them frowning. They had never expected him to ever raise his voice in any other way.

"What do you think you're doing attacking Santa Clause like that? Is this how you show respect to someone welcoming you into their home?" said Rudolph. His voice was calm but his expression seemed stern. "I can't believe you."

The cows took one look at the so-called Slim again and finally realized what a shameful mistake they had made in lunging out at him; especially since the beard stuck to his chin. Moving slowly off of him, the girls stared down on the floor in shame as the man dusted himself off. They had waited for him to yell at the top of his lungs, but instead heard him bellow out a laugh.

"Ho, ho, ho, I never thought I'd see the day when three heroic cows would be standing here in my cabin."

The cows raised their heads up in bewilderment. Santa Clause appeared to look a little similar to Slim. With the same round belly, same fat arms, legs, eyes, face, and the same beard and mustache with the exception of it being white. The beard was foamy like a waterfall covering his neck. He was a huge jolly man wearing the exact same red suit, black boots, belt buckle, square spectacles, and a red hat with soft white fur trim. He didn't sound the least bit upset about what just happened recently and already knew surely well who they thought he was.

"What, how did you about us?" asked Mrs. Calloway still puzzled. It was to find out if he really was who she thought that she would never see.

"Why I'm Santa Clause of course; I see everything that goes on in the mortal world. And I'm also pleased to see that Rudolph was kind enough to lead you all through Candy Land instead of allowing you to travel by yourselves. Ester told me everything that happened; now he's out in the stables helping the reindeer be prepared for tonight's sleigh ride."

"We're awfully sorry, we thought…" Grace wanted to apologize for what she and her friends did, but Santa held up his hand.

"I know very well you thought I was young one," he said with the same smile. "Normally when I see people go about hurting others through their own selfish deeds that is what makes me sad as well. But when you all put your heads together, teamwork is what makes a great accomplishment towards completing a mission. And despite all your past errors, you've all been good this year and deserve to spend a wonderful Christmas back home with your family."

"Does that mean you'll be able to take us home?" Mrs. Calloway just remembered what it is they were to do once arriving here.

"Sure, that won't be a problem. But I'm afraid it will have to wait till tonight since there are still a few wish-lists to go through."

"Oh, so that's what you were reading in your hand," Maggie predicted.

"Indeed," Santa replied as he walked back to sit on his seat. "These are letters sent in from children all over the world. With every name, I keep a list of all those who have been naughty or nice. And when every list is complete, they are to be checked twice before I decide who deserves to receive a special Christmas gift."

The cows gathered around Santa for him to show an example of each child's wish-list. One was from a boy who desired a toy train, another wished for a china doll, and there was one letter from a another little boy asking for Santa to give a new teddy bear for his brother and a new pair of pants for his dad. Although most of the lists required for Santa to bring toys, there were also quite a few other letters that were asking for nothing more than to be with their families and friends on Christmas Day. To these folks, love and friendship were the greatest gifts of all.

"Wow, I never realized how many…selfless folks would be asking such…favors for those who need help the most," Maggie stammered in trying to keep herself from uttering a sweet sob.

"Yes," agreed Mrs. Calloway placing her right hoof under her snout to keep herself from doing the same thing Maggie might have been capable of doing. "Such a pleasure that they don't think only about themselves."

"That is beautiful," Grace had already been sniffling from what she read. Who would have thought there is more kindred spirits out in the world with a gift that comes from the heart of love? Not even the most difficult of times ever changed them.

"All three of you are selfless do-gooders who care about those close to you," Santa assured them, setting the papers on the small table next to his chair. "Even though some of you had a few follies with one another…" Maggie and Mrs. Calloway glared at each other for a moment then back to him. They wondered if he might have been talking about their first meeting on the farm. "…you've all managed to pull yourselves together through facing many unusual dangers. But don't worry; all good folks have their ups and downs from time to time. That is life for everyone." The cows glared up at him with smiles and he returned the same thing.

"Wait a minute, that reminds me," Mrs. Calloway remembered another thing after Santa had mentioned the word dangers. "There has been this ice woman on our trail trying to turn us into her servants."

"Yeah, and she almost turned Grace into a block of ice," Maggie added. "But Rudolph put a stop to it, so she won't come back. Won't she?" She turned to Rudolph who was standing by the fireplace.

"Well for now, but it's possible that she might be back again anytime," Rudolph responded with a worried expression.

"Crystal?" Santa guessed surprisingly. "So it seems she's at it again."

"At what again?" asked Grace curiously.

"Crystal is an Ice Empress that lives on Stone Cold Mountain. From there it is her duty to create snowstorms in the northern part of the world every winter season. Because everything about her is made out of ice, including her heart, she had once tried to transform this workshop into a frozen wasteland; almost ruining Christmas for everyone in the mortal realm. But at that time, she was unaware that fire and bright lights was the key to weakening her ice powers. Upon stepping foot in the fireplace, she fled and we haven't seen her since."

That left the cows thinking for a while. Is it possible that Crystal might be too fearful of the fireplaces and decoration lights to even think about stepping foot in the North Pole to claim the three cows? And would they still get home even with her on the loose?

"I will take you back home tonight. But until then, would any of you mind helping me in the workshop?" Santa, not wanting to leave the three of them worrying about Crystal believed that Christmas cheer is what they still needed to feel. And whatever the Ice Empress was plotting to do with them, he knew he had to make sure that they stay inside where it was warm; while he delivered an urgent message to the grand elf requesting that he keep a close eye on things.

"Really?" the cows said altogether at the same time. Santa Clause, the head elf of Christmas was asking three heroic dairy cows to help him in his workshop.

"We'd love to help Santa," Grace replied joyfully. "What kind of help do you need?"

In Santa's workshop

"Little Bobby wants a small rocking horse," Mrs. Calloway read off every person's wish list while Maggie picked out the best type of toy from the pile on the table. It wasn't too complicated with trying to find a toy as Rudolph was an expert with giving a helping hand. Whenever Maggie had trouble finding something, Rudolph would be able to point it out and sometimes pass it to her.

"I think this one will do," Maggie said cheerfully, staring at a miniature rocking horse painted like a carousel horse. She passed it to Grace whose job was to place each toy in a beautiful gift box and place the lid on top tightly to throw down a chute where all the other gifts go to be placed in Santa's sack. Not a single elf could be found wandering around in the workshop at this moment since Santa mentioned that the elves usually help Mrs. Clause out in the kitchen with baking cookies after finishing with the toys.

When the box stack grew lower to three, Grace volunteered to go fetch another bag in the storage room where boxes never run low. In other words, they just keep on piling. Rudolph pointed that the room was down the hall and to the right. All she had to do was go straight until she reached the end.

"Hmm, go straight until you reach the end," she reminded herself as she eyed every room with different labels above the doors. "There sure are a lot of doors here." Grace continued moving past doors with signs either labeled vapor room, mail room, china dolls, cookie jars, boots, work suits, ornaments, or reindeer hay. The hallway was starting to feel rather endless, but Grace was more satisfied than troubled as she still kept on walking forward.

"Ugh!" Grace felt the same jolt of pain from when she and her friends boarded the train. She dropped on the ground and clutched her stomach. Not only was it hurting, but somehow a different wave of emotions was tearing into her mind. Feelings of disgust, nastiness, and selfishness seeped through. Then she threw her hooves over her head as if she were suffering from a major headache. For a few moments, she moaned in pain. After a while, it had vanished. She was feeling like herself again.

"Huh, what just happened to me?" she said breathlessly. Slowly removing her hooves, she rose up and started moving down the hall again. The spell placed on that bonbon was starting to take effect on her and Grace still did not know about it. Grace didn't stop until she noticed a sparkling trail of shimmering little people with butterfly wings carrying red bags from one nameless room to another labeled pixie dust. They must have been fairies, not elves. She had never seen one before in her life. Naturally she would have loved to stop and say "hello" except right now she felt that the others were expecting her back anytime now. To her surprise, the fairies paid no attention to her as she passed below them. Grace didn't mind though; there was one thing in this hallway she still had to do without having anymore time to waste. She began to sing a Christmas song.

That was when one fairy paused after a brief moment of glaring sourly at Grace walking down the long hallway. What was she doing here and how did she get such a wretched voice?

"Oof!" she felt a fairy bump into her unexpectedly after another and another. The force was so intense that it caused her to release the red bag as it hovered in the air and shower the pixie dust all over Grace.

"Oh what fun it is to ride in a…" Grace sang hoarsely but was unable to feel the dust despite hearing a few shimmers. She imagined that those were sleigh bells jingling to the tune of the song she still sang. Grace did not notice anything unusual until she had finished singing.

"This is new!" she said as she looked around find the doors and walls at an extremely high altitude; even higher than the average rocky canyons. "Did I take a wrong turn or something?"

The pixie dust that had showered over her was the kind that would shrink a person or object into the size of a small toy fit for a dollhouse. She kept pacing around in circles wondering where she was or if she went the wrong way.

"Hey you there!" a small high-pitched voice called out to Grace from above. "Are you alright?" It was the same fairy who took notice of her. She had long brown hair, green eyes, and a pink flowery dress.

"How did you get so big?" Grace asked to make sure she wasn't just hallucinating.

"I haven't gotten big!" the fairy shrieked in a panicked tone. "You have shrunk to the size of a toy by a shower of pixie dust!"

"What?" Grace gasped from having to hear this. "I've shrunk; how did it happen?"

"It was my entire fault," the fairy replied with guilt. "I accidentally threw a bag of it over you while you were walking. But if you come with us, we'll change you back to normal size with another type of dust."

"You can do that?" Grace asked almost feeling relieved. Throughout this magical adventure, she was still smart enough to already know that things in this realm are not always what they appear to be. And there was someone here to lend her a helping hand.

"I will help if you let me and my friends carry you to the pixie dust room," she replied with a smile as three more fairies zoomed by fluttering above.

Grace could not blame the sweet innocent fairy for what happened since she knew it was an accident. There was simply no use complaining over something she couldn't change, even in this realm. And she was not the type to hold a grudge. Nodding her head in response, she began to walk closer to them but failed to notice a hole below the wooden floor where she had slipped through. Screaming in a panic, Grace flailed her legs wildly as she watched herself plunge into a bottomless space.

"Hold on!" the first fairy that had spoken to her cried out. She dove into the hole afterward to try and save her from falling. The other fairies followed her.

"AAAAAHHHHH…UGH!!" Grace ceased screaming when she felt a yank on her tail which slowed her fall slightly.

"I got you!" the brown-faired fairy cried out. But even if she did hold on to Grace, the dairy cow turned out to be nearly heavier than a teabag filled with too much powder. With that much weight, they were both falling.

The other three fairies dove below Grace to slow down her fall by pushing her upward. It worked but she was still too heavy to push all the way up. So far, they could only succeed in hovering her above in midair. Everyone found that they had entered the kitchen filled with a scent of sugared cookies.

"Are we in the kitchen?" asked Grace as the fairies carried her over a few silver tin counters with bowls of baking dough were placed on top. There were a few elves wearing aprons and hats mixing the dough with a wooden spatula. An elderly woman with short grey hair wearing a long red dress with a white apron was walking around making sure everything was in perfect order. Grace figured that she would be Mrs. Clause.

"This is the kitchen where all the best Christmas treats are baked according to Mrs. Clause's own special recipes," a curly blond fairy in a green petal dress replied softly.

"Every treat is prepared for the elves and the reindeer," added a fairy in a blue petal dress and red wavy hair.

The sweet scent of Christmas cookies filled the air all around them. It was so tempting that Grace could feel her mouth water with a desire for a taste of those cookies. Yet doing so right now would be impossible since she was still small.

"But I don't think we should be here," advised the brown-haired fairy. "We've got to move her out of here before someone sees us."

Evidently, an elf passed by them as he walked through a different room. To their relief, he never even noticed them fluttering about as the entire day had been rather busy. The fairies entered through the door before it closed.

In the toy room

"This is where the elves test each toy to determine whether they're safe or need to be improved," the red-haired fairy pointed her head toward a few porcelain dolls, moving trains, marching soldiers, and horses on wheels.

"Every child should learn to play safe at all times," added the blond-haired fairy.

Grace was starting to feel a little edgy from floating up higher than she can ever imagine. But if she were to struggle from slipping, the fairies would surely drop her and might possibly blame themselves for her death. And if she panicked or demanded to be dropped off, the fairies might think of her as nothing more than a selfish crybaby. So if she was going to make it through this, she would have to be patient and try not to look down.

"Huh!" Grace gasped the moment when a scary-looking jack-in-the-box that made a shrieking cackle popped out. The blond heifer couldn't help herself from shivering with fright at the sight of that clown toy. This time the fairies were having trouble attempting to calm her down. With their arms growing tired, Grace finally slipped from their grasp and had fallen once again. She closed her eyes and waited for the end.

BOING! Grace opened her eyes to find that she had luckily landed on a big rubber ball and bounced. When she plunged back down, she landed a wooden horse with wheels, went rolling toward a few train tracks, swooshed through a great tunnel, then when the horse on wheels hit the end of the track, Grace flew off the horse and into a medium-sized parachute basket.

"Somebody please help me, I'm stuck!" she cried as the parachute swept her over toward a table with a spectacular, well-made toy train set. Was this parachute safe for a small child to play with? Maybe it was, but not for someone her size. However, the parachute floated her safely to the model set.

"Wow, look at the size of this station!" Grace gazed in wonder at the sight of the fantastic designed area all around her. From a mile away, she thought that she saw the train enter a small tunnel leading to some unknown area. The tracks were made of real iron; there was a water tank close to the station, trees, mountains, canyons, towns, and native villages seemed almost like the real thing back at home. Surely if this were real, it may seem rich, pleasant, and even more adventurous. The only unreal things on this set were the fake cowboys, conductors, mine diggers, Indian warriors, and all the other townspeople. Every folk was designed from plastic.

Pushing the parachute off her body, Grace rose up and made a few slow turns like a barrel being rolled over on the side. She wanted to know which part of the set she was on before thinking about where she would head next. Grace discovered that she was surrounded in a grassland area of wooden cabins stacked with fake tool supplies and plastic townspeople all over the place.

"Maybe if I climb up to the mountains, I can attract the fairies' attention so that they'll know where to find me," Grace said to herself hopefully.

The sweet dairy cow began to tread through the town of cabins to head straight where she had set her eyes on the tallest hill on the set. But when she took her first step, she didn't notice that the strings attached to the parachute from which she floated from had somehow entangled all four of her ankles. She figured it must have happened when she was struggling to find her way out from under there and couldn't even feel it. Because of this, Grace was now having trouble keeping her balance teetering as if she were trapped in a windstorm.

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!" Grace shrieked the moment when her front left foot stumbled on a tiny pebble flayed across the ground. She fell backwards and started tumbling over a hill close by from where she had landed. There she went rolling, rolling, and rolling all the way down to the tracks with the strings still entangling her feet.

"Oof!" Grace cried when her chin hit the iron tracks. Miraculously, no bone in her body was broken and she received no scratches anywhere else. But now all four of her ankles had been bound together and worse yet, she was lying on the train tracks. Grace couldn't rise up or move out of the way because of the ropes also being caught somewhere within the tracks.

"Help someone; I'm stuck on the tracks!" Grace hollered as loud as she could. A small glimpse of hope filled her heart when she heard a shimmer from somewhere above.

TOOT, TOOT! The sounds of the toy train could be heard coming closer.