Hey ho! Soooo sorry I wasn't able to update… my Galaxy Nexus stopped tethering, so no wifi for me till now. Gasp! I know. I'm still not sure how I survived. Anyhoo, here's the next installment of the Emissary Clause. And thank you SO much, to those who reviewed and followed. I know that this is a pretty small category so even a few followers counts exponentially, right? Plus I'm just getting started.
Editing is mine…*cringe* Don't have my head on a spike for it! I need my head! To write!
Did you see the Cover art? Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you...Ellington Connelly!
Oh and THE SANTA CLAUSE 1, 2 & 3: If I owned it would I be here?
(Insert typical disclaimers here.)
Well, here goes! Let me know what you think.
Cheers,
etiquette-faux-pas
2. Arrivals and Introductions...of sorts
It was a surprisingly short ride to the North Pole. Once they had ascended over the cloud cover (where the temperature dipped considerably, much to Kyle's relief), they were really flying.
The entire trip seemed to only take about forty five minutes. Then the clouds thinned out, and Ellington could just see, in the light of the moon, the ice and cold looking ocean. And then it started to snow. Ellington, in her thin, brown lace shirt, was surprised that she wasn't freezing, and figured it was by some magic of the elves. The snow felt soft, and kind of tickled; but it blew off of her so quickly that she hardly had time to feel anything at all.
Soon, Mackenzie warned her that they would be descending soon. She pressed a glowing red and white button on her wristlet. Far below, a red and white glow responded. Mackenzie swerved and dipped, pulling Ellington down with her. Kyle and Annise weren't far behind.
When they had nearly reached the surface, Mackenzie reversed her jet pack. Hovering several yards above the ice, Ellington could now see that the red and white glowing object was the North Pole itself, easily recognizable from the movie.
"It's real!" cried Annise in delight.
Kyle smiled. "You haven't seen anything yet."
"Yeah, like I haven't heard that line before." Annise giggled.
"What now?" Ellington asked, trying to ignore how Annise's comment faintly resembled a dirty joke. She shoved it out of her mind. Mackenzie just pointed downward, where the ice was breaking open, floating downwards in the shape of a circle. Warmth floated up from below the ice. And as the circle disappeared, they went down after it.
Into the North Pole.
It had taken every minute of twelve hours to prepare for the girls' arrival. Bernard couldn't remember sitting down even once. But now, the rooms were prepared, the clothes sewn, the elves briefed on why they were having three human girls come to stay in the Workshop for over four months.
"The Emissary Clause is very important," Bernard had said, wearing his normal 'I'm giving an upbeat speech' face, "because it ensures that the True Spirit of Christmas endures in the world. Today, we have a chance to share what Christmas really means; so let's give the girls a warm welcome during their stay, okay? Okay, thank you everybody. Back to work, please."
It really ticked him off how Santa and Curtis had played innocent about the Clause. They knew why he had put off it off—and no, it wasn't because he was busy. St. Nicholas had used that Clause to trap him, force Bernard's hand. No way was Bernard going to uphold such a devious plot. He may have been a saint, but Nicholas had had a mischievous streak, as well as a stubborn one. It had been why they worked so well together...and why they had clashed. Bernard wasn't about to let that stupid Clause control him. He was forced to let it direct him far more than he liked already, under orders from Scott. He wasn't about to let it have mental sway as well.
And that girlfriend joke Curtis had made? Grrr…. He'd been hung by his suspenders from hooks on an assembly line for that one.
Now, the select few who had been chosen to welcome the girls at their arrival were waiting expectantly in the Sleigh room. Santa was there, of course, and Mrs. Claus; and Abby, the adorable elf who was perpetually dressed like a princess. Santa had asked Charlie to stand in as Dorothy's chaperone, since he knew as much about the Pole as anybody could. Charlie had agreed to this reluctantly, as his friend and love interest Danielle had moved away to the west coast. And of course, Bernard and Curtis were there as well.
"I hope she's not ugly," said Charlie. "That would be just my luck."
Mrs. Claus frowned disapprovingly. "Oh, come on, Charlie. Don't be like that. Don't create preclusion before it shows up."
Charlie looked confused, and annoyed. "What the heck is preclusion?"
"Are you sure Charlie was the best choice?" Bernard asked Santa privately. "I know he's your son, but he seems a little down in spirits himself."
"My hope is that they'll help each other," Santa admitted, then gave Bernard a sideways look. "Kind of how I feel about choosing you, ya know?"
Bernard scowled and shook his head.
Curtis was standing beside him, holding a device that tracked the current location of both E. L. F. S teams. "Team One is approaching fast," he cried. "They'll be here in less than three minutes!"
"Okay everybody, places!" Santa called, and everyone formed a half circle, as planned. Abby was holding three Connelly packages in her hands, smiling excitedly.
"Are you ready?" Bernard asked Curtis, glancing at him superiorly out of one eye as he stood rigid, hands behind his back.
Curtis looked up at him as if unimpressed. "Are you? I haven't seen you look this nervous since you got that really bad haircut three hundred and fifty years ago."
"I told you never to bring that up again." Bernard raised his chin in irritation. "If you say stuff like that to make me look stupid in front of the girls, I will have my revenge, Number Two."
"Okay." Curtis shrugged as if it couldn't possibly matter, and tucked the Santa Handbook more tightly under his arm. "Whatever you say, Bernard."
Boy, was that irritating.
As they descended through the ice, the first thing Ellington noticed was how warm it was. She had expected it to be colder. But then she saw why: they were lowering into a building, not outdoors. She could see a group of people waiting on the ground, two rather large and dressed mainly in red.
"Who do you think is waiting for us?" Annise asked, from just above her.
"I don't know," said Ellington, which was true. She didn't know for sure; but she did have certain ideas of who would be there.
And her heart skipped in excitement when she saw she was right, yet again.
Mackenzie landed them directly in front of the half circle of onlookers.
"Great job, guys," said Santa, clapping his hands in admiration. Mackenzie and Kyle, who had just landed with Annise behind them, took a bow.
"Thanks, Santa," said Mackenzie. She stepped forward. "Please allow me to introduce—"
"Annise Connelly," said Ellington, pushing her little sister forward in hopes of attracting attention away from herself. She felt rather self-conscious after a flight in the open. Who knew how awful she looked? "She's the one who wrote to you, sir."
Actually, both she and Annise looked as lovely as they had when they left the house—which seemed a remarkable contradiction to their open air flight. Charlie nudged Bernard, saying, "So much for ugly, after all."
Annise stepped shyly forward, hand extended. "Hello, sir. It's...very nice to meet you."
Santa smiled at her. "It's very nice to meet you too, Annise." He took her hand in both of his. "And I promise," he said seriously, "we're doing all we can to help your father."
Annise nodded sadly. "Thank you. Thank you very much."
Charlie walked up to Ellington with his hands in his pockets, and a slight swagger. "Why, hello," he said, in what was meant to be a cool kid tone. "You must be Dorothy."
Ellington raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "If you think I'm stupid enough to find you attractive after that, you've a hard lesson to learn." She eyed him up and down, hands on her hips. "And you'd really better hope you're not my chaperone."
Charlie scowled. Bernard tried to hide his smirk, but Ellington caught it. She gave him a small, sideways smile.
"This is your chaperone, Curtis," Santa was telling Annise. "He's here to help show you around the Pole, and answer any questions you may have, okay?"
"Okay." Annise shook hands with an awkwardly blushing Curtis.
"H-hi there," Curtis stuttered, scowling when Bernard gave him a smug look. Then he pulled himself together. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Annise."
Now it was Ellington's turn to smirk. That is, until Annise turned and said, a bit crankily,
"You were right, Ellington, okay? The shirt does look like Curtis'." It did. Eerily so. Just minus the bunny buttons.
Charlie stepped back, relieved. "Well, at least you're not Dorothy after all."
"And why's that, Casanova?" Ellington crossed her arms in mock surprise.
"Who did you say you were?" Bernard asked, stepping around the scowling Charlie.
"Actually, I didn't say. Annise did," Ellington corrected. "But no, I'm not Dorothy...thank God. I would never want to be so blonde. Ever." She sighed, drew herself up and tossed her head, shaking her dark curls. "I'm her older sister. Oldest sister. I'm Ellington Connelly."
There was a challenge in her eyes, as if waiting for Bernard to say something stupid.
"Then I guess you've been paired with the only chaperone who can put you back in check, Smart aleck."
"Ooh, was that a rhyme? How witty."
Bernard frowned. This wasn't starting out very well.
With a sigh, Ellington said, "Don't worry; I'm not always like this. Mr. Swag over here just put me in a bad mood." She glowered at Charlie.
"I'm Bernard," said Bernard with an acknowledging nod. He returned Ellington's steady gaze without flinching.
"I know." The corners of Ellington's mouth jerked upwards. "I've seen The Santa Clause." She cocked her head. "Wait a minute... I thought you retired or something! Why weren't you in the third Santa Clause movie?"
Bernard cleared his throat. "It's...a long story," he said, somewhat crossly.
Ellington crossed her arms. "Well, I'm all ears."
A sigh. "I'll...tell you some other time."
"Hi there!" said Abby, trying to stop the two from having some kind of an argument on their first introduction. "Then you must know I'm Abby. Here." She handed one of the boxes to Annise, and one to Ellington. "It's a bit colder here than what you two are used to, so these should help."
Ellington tore off the emerald colored wrapping paper to reveal a silver and gold gilded box, embossed with leaves. "What's this?"
"It's a virtual closet," Abby said. Annise had unwrapped her own blue wrapped box to find a similar box, all gold. "Open it, and your clothes will magically be changed into the perfect outfit for your surroundings. "
It's every girl's dream," said Mrs. Claus with a smile. She took Ellington's hand and shook it.
"Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Claus," said Ellington, so beautifully polite and sincere that everyone was surprised.
"Please, just call me Carol," said Mrs. Claus—that is, Carol. "And welcome to the Pole. I'll be helping you girls adjust to life here. Are you excited?" she asked Annise.
"Oh of course!" cried Annise, very enthusiastically. "But, uh...will we end up dressed like you guys?" Ellington cringed.
Abby just laughed. "It depends. The box will match your mood and personality, so if you're feeling elvish, you just might. But you might end up surprising everyone, with what you're really made of."
"The clothes will just...appear?" said Ellington slowly. "So you're saying...we're safe to change here?" she pointed to the floor. "Right here?"
"Well, yes. But if you'd like some privacy, we could..." Abby turned as if to go, the others mimicking.
"Oh no! It's fine," Ellington said quickly. "I just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any...gaps, between outfits or anything of that sort."
Abby reddened. "Oh no no! I wouldn't have given them to you here if there were, silly!"
"Right. My mistake," said Ellington, blushing herself. "Well, here goes then!" She looked to Annise. "On three?"
"One," said Annise.
"Two, three!" said Ellington, and both girls vanished behind clouds of smoke. Annise's was light purple, like lilacs, but Ellington's was the dark crimson of a blood red rose.
The crowd watching them exchanged looks. How utterly different were the two sisters.
And they saw that when rays of light shone out of Annise's cloud, bright golden sparks shot out of Ellington's, cutting through the red like satin. Both were beautiful; but in different ways. Annise was sweet, and lighthearted, while Ellington...well, no one quite knew what to think about Ellington.
Then Annise appeared out of the lilac smoke, hair falling in long blonde waves around her shoulders. She was wearing a short, lilac colored coat over a light blue satin dress. "Oh!' she gasped, looking down at her sparkly silver shoes. "They're like Dorothy's, from the Wizard of Oz!"
Mrs. Clause frowned. "Weren't Dorothy's shoes red? Ruby slippers?"
"Only in the movie. In the books, Dorothy Gale received a pair of silver slippers from Glinda the Good, the same pair that later flew her home. Yes, I said flew. Dorothy later lost them while flying over a desert," said a voice.
It was Ellington, of course.
She had emerged from her own smoke cloud, and her outfit could not have been more different from Annise's. She wore a dark green velvet A-line skirt with a thin black belt, a white blouse with a folded V-neck collar, inset with lace, and a long, knee length crimson red pea coat, with black buttons. A pair of almost knee high black boots were on her feet, and her jade pendant hung outside of her blouse. It's bright green hue seemed to glow in contrast with the crimson of the coat. And she wore makeup: her eyelashes had been blackened, lips tinted a deep red, skin paled. Her hair was still up, but now in some sort of elaborate twist, with curls hanging down around her face and neck. The effect, she discovered, looking across the room to a full length mirror mounted on the wall, was quite stunning.
"What?" Everyone was staring at her, including Bernard, which, for some odd reason, made her blush furiously. She dug her hands deep into the pockets of her coat in agitation and looked at the floor. Somehow, being pretty made her feel incredibly awkward.
"Nothing," said Bernard, and the others all muttered in agreement, that it was nothing, nothing at all.
"You just...look lovely, dear," said Carol, reaching over to brush aside a stray curl from Ellington's eyes. "Why don't we go to your rooms now, and get you two set up?" Ellington looked up, her light blue eyes shining gratefully.
"What about Dorothy?" asked Charlie. "I thought she was coming tonight too." He even seemed a bit disappointed, despite his former skepticism.
Curtis checked his Tracker, but before he could say anything, Ellington said, "Oh, she wasn't at her mom's house. Dottie bounces around between her grandma's, her mom's and her brother's dad's houses. It's taking them a while to find her."
Curtis looked up surprised. "Yes, actually. Flight Squad Two just sent a message with those very details." His brow furrowed. "Hey, but how did you..."
"Don't ask," Ellington said abruptly, holding up a hand, "because I can't tell you. I just... had a feeling, that's all." She shrugged. "Now, can we please get settled in?"
She really didn't want to talk about it.
Well, there you have it! Bernard didn't just let the Clause slip his mind…he avoided it. For shame!
Sorry if I was overly descriptive with the clothes, but I personally like it when authors do that. Makes it easier to imagine correctly. Or something :) And for those who went *gag* girly crap, well, sorry. Girls will be girls. ;)
What do you think of the girls' personalities? Sorry if this chapter or the last is scattered…been having some…family health issues of late, and my writing hasn't been on par. It may be like this up to a certain point in the story. Apologies. Hope you can still find it enjoyable.
And please please please! Feedback! Reviews, as you may know, are author candy. And I loooove sweets.
All the Best!
etiquette-faux-pas