Christmas Misfits
A DeAngelo Christmas Chronicle
By Michael and Rhianna DeAngelo

“How am I supposed to tell this story?” Michael asked, a weary smile stretching across his face.

The trio of pups all snuggled together on the couch in the human-sized dog bed—one that was not originally intended for them, mind you—and had no energy left for that cold day.  Maisie was safely tucked under a blanket, just her nose sticking out, while Luna leaned against her, the dog’s eyes drooping as she gave in to fatigue.  The only one who still had some semblance of energy was Zelda, the older dog rolling over on her back as Michael aimed his phone camera at the trio of animals.

“That’s right Zelda.  You’ve got to get your glamour shot practice in for all your Christmas posts on social media.”  He hummed to himself and turned to the kitchen then.  “Hey Rhianna, do you think we take some videos of them talking once the Christmas magic kicks in, and post that?”

“No,” she called out from the kitchen.  “At best, the internet just thinks we’re hamming it up and faking the voices with one of our own.  At worst, they try and take our dogs and put them in the circus!”

Michael chuckled to himself.  “Well, Luna is as big as an elephant.”  He ruffled the fur around her neck, and she yawned in response.

“You’ll give her a complex,” Rhianna said.  “Here, distract yourself with this.  I think it’s done!”

As Michael turned around to head toward the kitchen, his wife emerged from there, holding an ornate wand in her hand.  It had all the elements of Christmas there.  Nestled at the base was a large quartz point that looked at a glance like an icicle, and it was surrounded by sculpted holly leaves with red berries.  Small, glittering rainbow tourmaline crystals were haloed by shimmering paints that seemed to set the evergreen color of the wand handle aglow, a nod to the lumibugs of Tellest.  The shaft of the wand was carved in a spiral and painted in bright red and white.

“Wow, that’s beautiful,” Michael said, his eyes glowing from the sparkle of the crystals.

“Do you think they’ll like it?” Rhianna asked.

“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” her husband replied with a smile.

The dogs seemed not to know what day it was.  On such occasions, just two nights before Christmas, the pair with more experience were usually a little keener on what was happening.  It was not often those days that the family stayed up that well into the evening, with even Michael seeming to tap into some energy that he had on reserve.  Luna, however, had made a habit that year of growing incredibly tired long before Michael and Rhianna had even had a thought about beginning their nighttime routine.

But as soon as the wind whipped about just a bit more than normal, Zelda popped up her head.  Though she was the smallest of them, that action was the biggest and loudest that any of the trio had made in the time since they had snuggled up in the oversized bed.  Maisie sat up then, the blanket draping over the top of her head, leaving her looking as though she was wearing a cloak.  Luna, meanwhile, tilted to the side, looking bleary-eyed and caught halfway to oblivion still.

“All right, doggies,” Rhianna said, drawing a little closer with her yuletide wand in hand.  “Think about all the things you want to say, because in just a few moments, Christmastime will officially be upon us.”

She pointed at Maisie with the wand then and raised her voice a few octaves.  “Please, authorities, arrest this woman.  She’s starving me.”  Then, returning to her own voice, Rhianna swept the blanket back off the pup’s head, and gave her a few loving pets.  “Oh, but Maisie, you’re looking so good, and it’ll help your bum leg a lot in the long run.”

“We need someone to make sure we’re eating the right amounts,” Michael said, smacking his stomach.  “Otherwise, what’s going to help us with our bum legs?”

Rhianna pivoted on her heel and pointed the wand at her husband.  “Silence,” she said with a feigned deep, wizardly voice.  The wand crafter turned back to the trio of dogs then, and pointed her Christmas wand at Zelda then, switching up her voice again.  “I demand that every inch of this house be constructed of the same material as this bed.”  She moved on to Luna then, pointing the wand at her.  But before she could say a word, Luna licked the gemstone at the end of the wand.

Michael pretended to gasp, then.  “A blessing!” he cried with mock exuberance.

Luna didn’t react much to that exclamation of her sacred duty, her eyes lightly shutting as her mouth opened for another big yawn.

“So sleepy,” she said, and her eyes grew wide at the sound of the translated words squeaky out from her throat.

“Yay!” Rhianna shouted then, waving her wand.  “The magic works.”

Maisie and Zelda were the first to pry themselves from the bed, immediately exploding with energy that seemed like it might not have arrived.

“Here’s the food I want,” Maisie said.  “A leg of lamb, some cheesy crackers, a dozen—”

“Give me my medicine!” Zelda shouted.  “My bones are creaky!”

“Oh,” Rhianna said, turning about to hurry to the kitchen.  “I had been working on the wand for so long today, I completely forgot.  You have to remember to tell me these things, Zelda.”

“I couldn’t speak until ten seconds ago!”

Luna was ready to descend from the bed and the couch then, and the largest of the trio seemed to ooze from her comfortable spot.  Once her front paws were on the ground, she stretched out as far as she could.

“Will there be naps where we’re going?” she asked.

Michael tousled the fur on her head then.  “You all seem a bit quieter this year.”  As the words seemed to descend from his lips, he bowed his head, and let his gaze draw toward the stairs.  “Come on then.  Aren’t you excited to see Santa and all your friends?”

“Will they want to take naps when we get there?” Luna asked, failing to stifle a yawn.

Rhianna chuckled and reached down to pet the other two pups, who had made their way into the kitchen.  “You might be tired now, but remember, it’s always a good time whenever Santa sends us on our adventure.”

Almost as soon as she spoke, she could see a few flurries begin to form outside the rear door of the house.  They swirled about slowly, spinning above the grass, with no other signs of snow having fallen.  As she neared the sliding door, she could see that the snow hadn’t come from the sky, but from below.

“The portal is forming!” Rhianna said with glee.  She slid the door open and hurried outside, eager to take their annual trip to Tellest.

Zelda and Maisie were quick to follow her, with no hesitation about heading out into the unseasonably warm night air.

Inside, Michael tried to encourage Luna forward, but she let a little grumble slip from her mouth, and she rolled to her side instead.

“We can’t stay here,” Michael said.  “You don’t want everyone else to have all the fun without you.”

Luna rolled on her back, then, and thrust her arms into the air.  “I’m in a grumpy mood!” she said in an almost singsong tone.

Michael smiled then, grabbing her by her outstretched arms and gently pulling her toward the kitchen.  “That’s okay.  We’re all allowed to have those.  You’re just going to have yours in the snow at the North Pole!”

As Michael reached for her, the biggest of the DeAngelo dogs shook her body, flailing her arms unceremoniously.  It didn’t serve her well enough, for she was scooped up in the next instant, and rolled to her feet before Michael placed her on the ground.  Once there, it was as if all the grumpiness subsided, and she skittered forward, across the living room and kitchen floors, and out the sliding door to meet the rest of the family.

Rhianna waved her on, and then waited a moment later to wave her husband closer as well when he emerged from the house.

Michael hesitated at the door, keeping it open for a moment.  He shook his head though, seeming as if he drew himself from a trance.  When he spotted his wife there, a bright smile appeared on his face, and he shuffled forward.

“One good thing about the warmer night,” he said.  “My legs don’t ache nearly as much as they normally would.”

“Well, I don’t mean to give you any bad news, but I suspect we’ll be playing in the snow in just a little bit.”

He remained smiling and grabbed his wife in a loving embrace.  “It’s all right.  These kinds of trips are all worth it.”

While he spoke, the ground seemed to crumble away, and a growing sinkhole appeared instead, a radiant white light spilling up and out of the aperture.  The quintet could see the portal spinning and they looked a bit hesitant to take a step closer.

“Why is it that this looks a bit different every year?” Rhianna raised her voice as the vortex churned and grew louder.

“It keeps us on our toes?” Michael wondered aloud.  “Maybe Santa is experimenting with new technology all the time.  “This is the Santa-Portal-Twenty-Three.”

“Patent pending,” Rhianna said.

Maisie sniffed a little close to the portal then, and Luna hurried on ahead, shepherding the little black and white dog back.  “If we’re going in, we’re going in together!” the big auburn-furred dog shouted.

“That’s right,” Rhianna cried, though her voice could barely be heard over the sound of the portal then.  “We stick together!”

Zelda did not seem inclined to listen to that mantra then.  The oldest of the dogs burst forward, leaping into the air.  “To adventure!” Zelda cheered, and for a short while, she hovered in the air above the portal, until the pull of the magic spun her about to face her family.  “See you when we get there!”

With a fwoomp, Zelda disappeared into the depths of the portal, fading out of sight.

The rest of the DeAngelo family took turns looking at one another, and then, in unison, sprang forward, to jump above the portal as well.  They watched as more puffs of snow seemed to greet them from the other side, but before they could focus on any flakes in particular, the magic tugged them through time and space, toward an enchanted place far, far away.

*          *          *

Zelda, first to leap into the pull of the portal’s magic, was the first to arrive at the snowy North Pole.  She landed with grace and poise, prancing forward as though she was one of Santa’s majestic reindeer.

Behind her though, the portal announced its activation once more with a subtle hum.  She turned around to see the rest of her family arrive together, and they did not land with the same elegance that she did.  The four other DeAngelo family members landed in one jumbled mass, tumbling in the snow until they came to a stop as a tangled mess.

“Ooh, ooh, charley horse!” Luna groaned as she pulled herself from the group.

Michael, Rhianna, and Maisie all glared at Luna as they rubbed their legs or lifted it off the ground in order to alleviate the pain that came from old age and disagreeable limbs and joints.

The portal had brought them far closer to Santa’s home than in their most recent Christmas trips.  Indeed, they could feel the warmth—if not from the burning hearth within, than from the legendary figure of the season himself.  The burly fellow stretched his arms out wide in salutation.  Luna thought it was an invitation, however, and she leapt at Santa, landing across his broad chest.  Even the powerful Norse god-turned-holiday figurehead stumbled backward a step. In shock and surprise, he erupted into a big belly laugh as he lowered the dog back to the ground.

“My friends, it is wonderful to see you again—and on solid ground to start this year, no less.  Everyone here has been talking about your escapades, and I must say, your reputation is starting to precede you quite a bit.  The five of you have become heroes of Christmas in your own right.”  He feigned a more somber appearance then and waggled his gloved finger at the family then.  “Don’t go thinking you’re at the top of that list though.  You’ve got a long way to go before you take my crown.”

When Santa noticed his mirth was not as infectious as he liked, receiving only polite smiles instead, he cleared his throat, and waved the group on.  Together, they began heading toward his house, the smoke puffing from the chimney and raucous laughter erupting from within.

“What great journey do you have us planned for this year?” Rhianna asked.  “Did another of your brothers use a mighty hammer to accidentally break a continent in two, and you need us to put it back together again?”

“Are we traveling to Alpha Centauri to deliver presents to aliens?” Michael wondered.

“Is there a feast in desperate need of eating?” Maisie piped up.

Santa turned around and tapped his finger to his nose then.  “Your little one is absolutely right with that last one.  Things are not so bad this year that we need to send you on any quests or have you saving the world.”

He opened the door to his home, and the sounds of jubilation poured out.  It truly did seem like everyone was having a wonderful time, and that there were far fewer pressing matters than in years past.

It also seemed like there was food aplenty, and the trio of dogs lifted their snouts to the air to take it all in.

“Well go on, then,” Santa said.  “We’ve got a full spread in there, and your friends would no doubt love to see you after all this time.”

Luna and Maisie, a little more inclined to search for some of the food, let their noses guide them.  But Zelda took a step in the house and tilted her head one direction or the other a few times, and then called out “Svetlana” with elongations on all the syllables, drawing laughter from the others who remained behind at the doorway.

“Before we go inside, there is something special I wanted to give to you and your wife,” Rhianna said.  She reached into her pocket then and drew out the special wand that she had crafted.  It seemed to sparkle even brighter in the presence of all the snow outside.

“My, my,” Santa said, taking the wand gently into his hand.  “This is incredible craftsmanship.  If I didn’t know any better, I would say you’re going to be taking control of your own workshop before long.  Perhaps you’ll even put me out of business!”  He accentuated his joke by slapping his hands against his broad belly and letting fly another of his loud laughs.

“Come then,” he said, clasping his hands on the husband and wife’s shoulders.  “Let us get inside and have a lovely time today.  I’d like very much to show everyone the new gift you just gave me.”  He hummed for a second and arched an eyebrow.  “You know, I’m the one who is supposed to be giving you gifts.”

“We always love receiving the things you give us,” Rhianna said.  “But we wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful things you’ve always done for us.”

Santa nodded.  “Well, I certainly appreciate that.  The season is, after all, about the cheer we can spread, not merely the presents that make our way under the tree—though they certainly help.  In any case though, spreading cheer is something that I am keen on doing for your family this year around.

“I’m pleased to say that there are no emergencies this year,” Santa went on.  “No wayward dragons, no ancient feuds gone unanswered for millennia, no villains desperately trying to stop Christmas from going off without a hitch.  This year, you’ve earned yourself some respite.  I know that it has been a difficult one for you, and you deserve the chance to heal.  After the job change and job loss, the fire consuming your childhood home, and…”  His words trailed off before he could say the final item on his list, but even Santa seemed to have some moisture on the rims of his eyes.

“Instead, today we’re going to have a lovely dinner with some good friends.  We won’t have any magically infused stones or treasures for your pups to grab hold of and cause any issues with, so you can just focus on listening to some good stories and telling some of your own.”

Michael and Rhianna looked at one another, and after a brief pause, they nodded at each other in agreement.

As they proceeded deeper into Santa’s house, they saw familiar faces—elves, dwarves, giants, and wizards—and spent a fair amount of time explaining all the different things that they had aimed to complete and accomplish that year, and all that they aspired to in the following one.

The two human visitors kept watchful eyes over the three pups they arrived with, but all three of the DeAngelo dogs seemed blissful in their time in the North Pole.  Zelda sat down in front of anyone who held a piece of food that looked as though they might be willing to share.  Maisie, a bit timid comparatively, hovered just farther back.  Luna, on the other hand, did not hesitate to stand up and try and take a few nibbles out of whatever food her snout could reach.

After a while of mingling and talking to the various friends they had met throughout the years, Michael and Rhianna finally found each other in one of the common areas.

Michael looked at his wife then and sighed.  “I’m glad the dogs are having a good time.  And I know that we had a lot of good news to share about what we did this year.  But…”

“Everyone here has gone on epic journeys and adventures,” Rhianna said, nodding.  “There is a lot of noise here, but for some reason it still feels too quiet.”

“There is something missing,” Michael agreed.

As soon as they let shared their feelings with one another, they watched as one of the elves—one they had not met during prior visits to the North Pole—hurried to Santa’s side and whispered something in his ear.  The jubilant fellow had a momentary flash of contrary emotion.  Was it fear or surprise or something different altogether?

In any case, as the elf took their leave, Santa hurried to the front of the room, standing in front of the fireplace to address his visitors.

“Ladies and lords, my esteemed guests,” he bellowed.  “I have to take a short leave to attend something of concern for one of our allies.  I should not be gone for long, and if luck will have it, I may even return before you’ve finished the first course of the feast yet to come!”

Michael and Rhianna exchanged glances as their host spoke those words, wondering if that was the moment they had been waiting for.  The DeAngelo pups hurried to the room when they heard Santa speak as well, conditioned at that point for the missions that the jolly fellow often sent them on.

“We are ready, Taskmaster!” Zelda cried.

Santa looked in the dog’s direction, but Michael and Rhianna were already there before him, nodding enthusiastically in agreement with their oldest pup’s sentiment.

“What can we do to help?” Michael asked.

“Just point us in whatever direction, and we’ll do what you need,” Rhianna added.

“What?” Santa asked, confused by the bid for work during the celebration.  “No… No, my friends, this task is truly beneath you.  It’s something that I can handle in moments once I arrive.  There’s no call for heroism, no need for a dangerous adventure.  You have earned the respite after all these years.  I want you to at last have a moment where you can simply sit back and breathe.”

“Oh,” Rhianna said.  “Of course.”

“If that’s what you want,” Michael said.

The trio of dogs at their feet watched the conversation unfold, but were a bit confused by what was being said.  As the family stood there, the voices of the other partygoers began to fill the building again.  Santa nodded, and stepped forth, patting Michael and Rhianna on their shoulders as he passed.

“No adventures?” Zelda asked as the Christmas legend departed from the room.

“But we always help Santa,” Maisie said.

Luna didn’t speak with her words, but a little hrmph slipped through her lips, and the rest of her family could see that she was about to descend into one of her tantrums.  As she started to lean, Michael bent down, wincing as his knees cracked, and held his hand at her side.

“We don’t need to make a scene,” he said.  “If Santa wants us to relax, then that’s what we’ll do, I guess.”

“He’s right,” Rhianna said.  “The six of us deserve a break.  After fighting Loki’s army, evil elves, and dire penguins, we—” Her words trailed off as she looked at her husband and saw that his face looked a little drained in that moment.  She realized her error in counting then, and she bowed her head, and let a sigh exit her body.

Before anyone could explore those thoughts further though, the quintet heard a sound from the closest adjacent room.

“Psst!” they heard again, and when they turned to investigate, they saw a familiar face looking their way.  The elven maiden was one of the first ones that they met in their time spent at the North Pole in years past and spotting her left a sudden warmth in the hearts of those who remembered her.

“Revan!” Rhianna cried, and she hurried to reach the elf, and wrapped her in a fierce embrace.

“It’s the pretty lady!” Zelda said, recognizing the maiden who had give them the potions that made her fly—and had her towering in a way that would even make Luna jealous—all those years ago.

“Hello again, Pretty Miss,” the elf said as Zelda hurried to her side.  Revan bent down to pet the auburn-furred dog, and Maisie and Luna could not hold off their jealousy at seeing their sister getting love and attention from someone else.  “Oh, it’s nice to finally meet you,” she said to the other dogs.  “I’ve heard such good things about you.”

Maisie flashed a canine grin, and almost looked as though she would start panting.  “You did?  What did we do?”

Her sister’s words permeated the air then, and Luna’s eyes went wide, and her ears went back.  “You didn’t hear the bad things about us too, did you?”

Revan merely tousled the hair on the back of Luna’s neck and rose to her feet once more.  “DeAngelo family, it’s so nice to see you again,” the elf said.  “If you wouldn’t mind following me for a moment, there’s something we need to discuss.”

Michael and Rhianna looked at each other with concerned countenances, but they did as they were instructed, falling into step beside one of Santa’s most trusted elves.  The trio of dogs hurried up behind them, almost bumping into their feet as they walked.

“Now look, I know that when you arrived here, Santa may have made some comments about trying to give you all a break, and that you deserve it after all these years—and you truly do, I’m not trying to say you aren’t—but there’s something that might just need your particular set of skills.”

Together, the six of them exited the rear of Santa’s house and walked through the snow for a bit.  A line of majestic pine trees, still covered with fresh powder, sat in front of them, and Revan brought the visitors around them, until they saw another building not so far away.

“Santa doesn’t quite know about what we’re going to discuss with you.  It’s sort of a favor to me and some of the other helpers.  I hope that’s okay.”

As she reached the door, Revan turned to her side, holding the way open for the members of the DeAngelo family.   When the family walked through the doorway, and saw what was inside, their faces lit up a bit.

All around the central room, which stretched far into the distance, old toys were carefully staged.  In the presence of the visitors, they seemed to come alive, clapping cymbals together, dancing in place, or chugging along on a track sitting high above the rest of the shelves.

The elven maiden hurried up again, overtaking the family while they investigated all the toys that seemed as though they were fashioned ages before.

“Is this Santa’s first workshop?” Michael asked.

“The same,” Revan replied.  “We don’t use it as such anymore—it’s more of a museum of that time—but we take special care of it for just that reason.  We elves will watch over it in sort of shifts, and it’s a very sacred duty to be in here.  But my partner and I have all our tasks wrapped up for the rest of the year.  The only thing left to do is… Well, I’ll let him tell you.”

As they passed into the next room, they found another elf who they were familiar with, but had not seen in quite some time.  The bearded fellow looked down at an old piece of parchment on a table, magnifying various places there with a piece of glass.  For a moment, the family members didn’t notice him, as he had a more studious look than the last time that they saw him.

“Leoden?” Rhianna asked.

The elf looked up then, and blinked a few times, adjusting his vision to something farther away than the table just below him.

“Ah, you’re finally here!” he exclaimed.

“I thought that was you!” Rhianna said.  “It was hard to tell now that you’re actually wearing appropriate clothes.”

The elf wore a feigned look of insult.  “When I work Santa’s forge, it gets exceedingly hot.  But I’ve since traded those days.  The work I did with your family actually saw me getting a promotion, and I’ve become an advisor of sorts.  Revan, too,” he said, gesturing toward the elven maiden who circled around to his side of the table.  “And it looks like you two are a bit underdressed today.  Where’s your special Tellest attire?”

“Well, we were told that we were just supposed to sit back and relax this year,” Michael replied.  “To be perfectly honest, I’m missing getting our outfit for the year.”

Revan flashed a smile and a wink.  “We’ll just have to remedy that, then.”

“And we’ll have to ask that you toss Santa’s promise of a relaxing time out the window as well,” Leoden said.  “We have something special to ask of you that Santa has been a little too busy to concern himself with these past few weeks.”

Rhianna’s eyes lit up.  “We’ll help with anything that needs doing.”

“I thought you’d say that,” the elf replied.  “You see, sometimes when the craftspeople who are working in Santa’s newer workshops are creating their toys, a little too much Christmas magic can find itself coming through the veil, and the toys that end up being created are a bit…different.”

Rhianna merely stared at Leoden for a moment, but Michael arched his eyebrow and tilted his head.  “Are you serious?”

“Oh, very much so,” Revan said with an enthusiastic nod.

Leoden continued.  “Because they’re different, these toys often achieve sentience, and, knowing they aren’t your typical toy, they—”

“They ran away to an island where they could commiserate and lament that they weren’t going to be loved by children on Christmas.”

Staring back at him with widening eyes, Leoden’s lips parted as he tried to make sense of the bizarre divination.  “That’s… Well, that’s absolutely correct.  How did you…?”

“This is just like the stop-motion special,” Rhianna said.

“The what now?” Revan asked.

Both Michael and Rhianna shook their heads then.  “Never mind,” they said in unison.

“So, do you want us to find this ‘Island of Misfit Toys’ to convince the toys that they can find happiness if they just believe?”

“No, not at all,” Leoden replied.  “We know where the island is.  We’ve actually sent a sort of ambassador there to help us out, but we’ve lost track of it.”

“And that’s not even the least of the problems,” Revan said.  “The island they call home is sinking.”

“So that’s the reason you sent the ambassador,” Rhianna said with a nod.  “You want them off the island before something terrible happens.”

“Exactly.”

“And it’s our job to pick things up where the ambassador left things off,” Michael understood.

“And to find the ambassador, if they’re still with us,” Leoden said.

“Well, we’re all for it, right everyone?” Rhianna said, looking at the rest of her family.

The younger two pups hesitated a bit, but Zelda stepped forward, striking a confident pose.  “To adventure!”

“It’s better than sitting here feeling…” Michael’s words trailed off then.  He folded his arms over his chest and blew out a sigh.  “It’s better than feeling fat and lazy the day before Christmas Eve.”

Revan clapped her hands together, a look of festive mirth upon her face.  “That’s wonderful news.  Now we just have to get you prepared and on your way.”

“Are we going to travel in another of Santa’s sleighs?” Rhianna asked.  “Another piece of old driftwood hanging around?”  She emphasized the one word in a peculiar way, and that had Leoden smiling as he considered what she said.

“You remembered!” he said.  “What did you think of all that?”

“Our second year helping out, Narala sent us a special tome that explained everything.  And, uh…I think Santa signed off on it as well.  The funeral boat that he was sent off on when he left Scandinavia became his sleigh.”

“That’s absolutely right,” Leoden confirmed.  “Though, the boat was big enough that they used parts of it to build their house as well.  It was tremendous enough where they had to have a frost giant push it from the shore—and she was much more powerful than most.  Even the gods weren’t able to move it.”

“And Nanna and Borti’s ancestor were the only other two who joined Balder—Santa, I mean—on his quest to a new world,” Michael surmised.

“Well, to the rest of the gods, it was to their certain doom, for the ship was bound to sink,” Leoden mused.  “How lucky we were that things did not quite transpire like that!

“But regretfully, you won’t be using Santa’s sleigh this day—any of them,” Leoden continued.  “We had a problem with the guidance issues on several of the ones that we typically have lined up for him for Christmas Eve night.  The one he is using today is the only one that doesn’t seem to be causing any issues.”

“Oh, that’s strange,” Rhianna said.  “But then, how are we going to find our way to the…the place where all the misfits are from?”  She paused and looked at her husband, leaning in close.  “I don’t know what we’re allowed to say.”

Leoden and Revan didn’t appear to hear her, but the elven maiden bent down, and plucked a few items out from under the table that everyone crowded.  “We’re going clockwork today,” she said with a smile.  The first figures she presented were ones that represented the DeAngelo family.  A quintet of small, perfectly carved wooden statuettes was placed on the table, and Michael and Rhianna seemed to realize that they had been placed on a map, right where they presently were, in Santa’s oldest workshop.

While they gazed on, Luna, the only dog tall enough to do so, stood on her hind legs and peered onto the table as well.  “Is that us?” she asked.

“Bring the table lower so we can see!” Maisie demanded.

Michael and Rhianna both grabbed hold of one of the smaller dogs and lifted them up so that they could see as Revan described the plan.

“This is indeed you, Poochie,” Revan said.  “Now, we can’t very well go and give you reindeer or a sleigh this year, and portal magic is going to be a little iffy, so we figured out something else that will be able to get you to where you need to go.”  She reached under the table again, and produced a pair of additional wooden figurines, each of them shaped like dolphins.  “One of our most prominent toymakers constructed these a few years back, and then Leoden worked some additional magic on them.”

“I’ve had them equipped with special sonar to make sure none of the people who would want to see Santa fail are successful,” Leoden explained.  “These cute clockwork critters are the reason that we were aware of Loki’s attack those few years back.  Now they’re going to be taking a much more leisurely quest alongside you.”

“Getting you there is only part of the planning, and we’ve pooled together with some of your other friends here at the North Pole to prepare you with a few other things,” Revan said.  “First, let’s get you equipped for the trip!”

The elven maiden stepped away from the map table, and into an adjoining room.  When she returned, she had a changing screen in her hands, decorated in reds and greens, befitting the upcoming holiday.

“We can’t very well have you showing up in your pajamas,” Revan said with a giggle.  “The toys need to know that you’re associated with Santa.  That ought to give you a bit more prestige to try and convince them with.”  She looked at the pups then and smiled all the brighter.  “And as for you little ones, well… You’ll see.”

Maisie and Zelda exchanged concerned glances, but Luna merely panted in excitement.

Revan tilted her head at Michael then.  “Age before beauty?”

The man’s lips parted, and he furrowed his brow in mock offense.  “I look great for forty,” he said, but he placed Maisie back on the ground, and started to make his way behind the folding screen, scowling at Revan as he went, the elf hiding her growing smile behind her hand.

As Michael made his way around the folding screen, a magical buzz resounded, and by the time he exited from the other side, a new outfit was upon him. A tan climbing coat sat upon a blue, long-sleeved woolen shirt.  Those sleeves matched the ski pants he wore that tucked into a pair of sturdy black snow boots.  Michael already had a backpack strapped on, and a bedroll rested atop that.  A tactical belt cinched around his stomach completed the outfit.

“I look like an old-timey prospector,” Michael lamented.

While Revan didn’t quite understand the context of his joke, Rhianna worked hard to stifle any laughter.  She set Zelda down on the floor and covered her mouth for a second before failing to disguise a chortle.  Then, she smiled brightly and took a step forward.  “Hey Michael,” she said.  “Yu-kon do it!”

Michael glanced down at himself and realized what he looked like, and he laughed as he shook his head.  “All I need is a red beard, and I’m set.”  His eyes sparkled and he pointed to his wife.  “This should have been your costume,” he teased.

“Oh, but you look so dashing,” Revan said before she turned toward Rhianna.  “And the one that we chose for you is quite stylish.”

“Okay, okay,” Rhianna said.  But as she passed by Michael, she whispered to him.  “I know I’m going to regret this.”

She slipped behind the folding screen, and the same sound that announced the change in Michael resounded for her.  When she emerged from behind there, she wore a teal overcoat with fur-lined sleeves and a fuzzy collar to match.  The coat swept open below her thighs, revealing a warm and heavy pair of burgundy stockings.  They tucked into a pair of shoes that curled at their tips.  Though Michael noticed them, it was the little pointed hat she wore upon her head that caught his attention the most.  It matched her coat, but it had a little red feather that pointed out from a band cinched around it.

Rhianna narrowed her eyes at the sight of her attire, and she looked at her husband with a warning glare.  “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” he asked.  “Just admiring my favorite dentist.”

Revan looked to Leoden as if to try and understand the reference, but both of elves seemed a bit confused then.

It didn’t matter, for someone else eagerly wanted to take a pass behind the folding screen.

“I love costume changes!” Maisie cried, and she hopped forward until she disappeared from view for a moment.

Michael and Rhianna waited eagerly for their little black and white pup to emerge from behind the folding screen, expecting her to be wearing some canine-friendly outfit.  But instead, they watched as she exited the other side with no more articles of clothing—only a series of pink spots upon her fur.

She glanced at the rest of her family, who wore perplexed looks.  “I don’t feel any different.  What happened?”  Maisie looked down then and realized what had happened.  “What are all these?”

Zelda stepped forward and let a gasp part her muzzle.  “Doggie pox!”

Revan chortled, and leaned over to better see the auburn-furred pup who voiced her concern.  “Silly, those haven’t been around for at least a hundred years.”

Before anyone could really take the moment to consider that comment, Leoden piped up as well.  “Though the two of you are dressed for utility, and will certainly appear as ambassadors of Santa, we figured your dogs, already a bit of a rarity in these parts, could use a different sort of change of view.  Their costume change ought to make them look a bit more akin to the residents of the island, and there’s some magic at play to keep them warm in the cold of the far reaches.”

“We’re bringing misfits to the misfits,” Michael said.

“As long as they don’t think we’re leaving them there,” Rhianna said.  “That will never happen!”  She bent low to allow Maisie to come close, and as she patted her fur, she noted that the colored circles moved with the hairs and did not appear to rub away.  Rhianna smooched the pup on the head and smiled.  “Now you’ve got pinky spots just like your sisters.”

As she doted on the dog who had already gone through the process, Michael looked at Zelda.  “What do you think, puppy dog?  Now that you know you don’t have to wear any clothing, does it sound a bit better for you?”

Zelda hummed, and began to step toward the folding screen, but she stopped and looked back at Michael.  “But what if I look funny?”

Michael bent down at his knees, wincing as they cracked.  When he was closer to their oldest pup, he gave her a loving pet on the head.  Then he tousled all the hair there until it seemed to spring out in different directions.  “You look funny now,” he said.  “Go ahead.  We’ll all look silly together.”

Zelda shook her body, setting her fur in place again.  Whether it was that motion or the inspiring words, she took her trip around the folding screen.

Before she even arrived on the other side, the family could tell what had happened, because a little red glow appeared to light up the room.  When Zelda emerged, she had her eyes crossed, looking at the red circle that appeared atop her nose.

“Do I look silly?” she asked.

“Your pinky spot just got bigger!” Rhianna said with a laugh.

She patted Luna on the rump then, and the biggest of their pups trotted forward.  “No one make fun of me okay?”  A bit more curious of the folding screen than the rest of the dogs, she took her time walking around it.

“Whatever happens, I hope they don’t try to give her a hat,” Michael said to his wife.  “Speaking of which, you better keep track of yours.  I’m surprised she hasn’t already been so deeply offended she hasn’t tried to rip it off your head!”

“She does hate hats, doesn’t she?” Rhianna said with a snicker.

A hat was not one of the things they had to worry about when Luna appeared around the other side of the folding screen.  Instead, a large, pink ruffled collar appeared around her neck.  She sat on her behind, and started to kick at it, but it did not appear to be going anywhere.

“Does it itch?” Rhianna asked.

“No,” Luna said.  “But I see it, and that bothers me!”

Revan snickered, and she waved over the two humans.  “While she’s busy coming to terms with her new collar, we should talk about some of the other preparations we’ve made for you.  Some of your allies here at the North Pole have come together to craft some things that will no doubt be imperative for your journey.”

She reached under the table once more, and produced a small wooden box that, when opened, displayed a trio of bulbous flasks.  Each of them had a different color, though the bottles were all marked by a golden band across the widest part of the vial, and another that was situated perpendicular to the first.  At the points where the bands crossed, a little mouse symbol had been etched.

“Your friend Raskagar prepared some potions for you that your eldest pup should be at least somewhat familiar with.”  She pointed to the blue potion first, just as she had all those years ago.  “This is the potion that will make things smaller.  The green potion will make things bigger.”

“And the silver one will make things fly,” Rhianna recalled.

Despite the height of the table, everyone in attendance was surprised by the sudden appearance of the eldest dog, who had somehow managed to hop there from the ground.

“I remember that one!” Zelda said, reminded of the family’s first adventure at the North Pole.

Revan chortled again, offering up an enthusiastic nod.  “That’s right.  It was your first wish, little pup!”  She turned to the humans again, closing the box and sliding it their way.  “You’ll know when to use these, I’m sure.  But that’s not all that we’re preparing you with.”

It was Leoden’s turn to gather up some items from under the table, though they were the biggest items that were produced so far.  One of the items slammed down with a tremendous thump, but the other, a red sack that looked like the one Santa carried with him, gently rested upon the table.

“Narala crafted us two very special items for you, and both have a sort of magical presence over space.”

“Oh no,” Rhianna said.  “Don’t tell us we’re going to have another breathing sack and are going to have to go underwater!”

Spotting the confused looks the elves wore, Michael nodded.  “Last year we helped Santa with a mission from his base on the moon.  We needed special breathing apparatuses.”

Revan’s shoulders sank.  “It paints me a color I’d rather not wish to be, but I must admit I’m jealous.  I’ve heard the view from there is incredible.”

“It’s something else,” Michael replied.

The elven maiden’s gaze drifted toward the ceiling until Leoden cleared his throat.

“In any case, no, you won’t have to use this for breathing anywhere,” the elf said.  “And if you’re lucky, the only time you’ll come anywhere close to the water is while you’re traveling to the island.  Remember, we’re trying to get the inhabitants away from there before the island sinks.

“These two items ought to help you,” Leoden continued.  “The sack is extradimensional.  That is, it has a vast amount of space inside that you can use to gather up the misfits, once you’ve convinced them of our plan.

As he moved the sack aside, the second item could be seen better.  A pickaxe that looked as though it was made of glass, it seemed to resonate with magic as well.

“You’ll no doubt remember the delegate of Clan Lockmoor you met several years ago,” Leoden said.  “The dwarf who you met when you performed your last diplomatic mission for Santa?”

Rhianna nodded.  “Halgrum,” she said.  “He seemed all gruff until he met our puppies.”

“And he and the other delegates we met that year helped us in our fight against Loki,” Michael recalled.

“Well, now that the dwarves and the elves and giants are on good terms, he has had plenty of time to establish mining operations in the great north.  And in one of his journeys, he was able to find a very special ore that has taken him quite a while to collect and refine.”  Leoden slid the pickaxe toward Michael.  “He calls it glissium, and with the help of Narala, the two of them were able to use some of it for this.  Go on, pick it up.”

Michael lifted the item from the table.  Despite the sound it made earlier when it landed there, Michael nearly fell backward when he realized how light it was.

“Glissium is incredibly light, and one of the most durable alloys we’ve ever discovered,” Leoden said.  “It ought not to weigh you down too much on your journeys.  But there’s some other magic to it as well.  While the sack affects space within its container, the pickaxe affects space around it.  Halgrum uses it to protect himself if any rocks begin to fall in around him in the mines, and you can do the same.”

“This is incredible,” Michael said, twisting the pickaxe over in his hand.  “Next time I see Halgrum, I’ll have to thank him for letting us borrow this.”

“Just make sure to use it well, and I’m sure he’ll be as grateful as you are,” Leoden said.

Revan clapped her hands together then, and looked to the family again, the other two dogs on the ground waiting patiently.  “Now the last bit of the puzzle.  None of this will matter if you don’t find the tracker.  They’ll be the one who can help you find your way to where the outsiders live.”

“Got it,” Rhianna said.  “Find the tracker, find the misfits.”  She tilted her head then, and all three dogs mimicked her movement.  “One thing: how are we going to find the tracker?”

Leoden leaned on the table and looked at Revan.  “That’s easy.  We have a tracker for the tracker.”

The elven maiden leaned forward and gave a playful poke to Zelda’s red nose then.  The dog sneezed in reply.

“What was that for?” the eldest pup asked.

Revan stood tall and smiled.  “Just wait for it,” she said.

After a few moments, the illusory nose on top of her own glowed a brighter red.  Zelda once again crossed her eyes as she took a glance at the magic at work.

“Every few moments, that nose will light up,” Revan said.  “But as you get closer to the tracker, it’ll flash quicker.  Once you finally meet up with it, we’ll deactivate the tracker tracker.”

Zelda shook her head.  “I’m so confused.”  But as soon as she spoke, her nose brightened again, and her eyes grew wide in surprise.

“That should be it, friends,” Leoden said.  “We can’t thank you enough for taking on this task.  It’s one of those things that Santa was going to get to after Christmas, but if there was an emergency, and the island sank faster than was expected, it could have really caused some issues.”

“The DeAngelo family, coming to save the day again,” Revan said, wearing a bright smile.  “Now, let’s head this way.”

Toward the back of the workshop, there was a large, empty space, except for a piece of wood that seemed strewn haphazardly across the floor.  It seemed peculiar in that it had a handle affixed at its center, almost like it was the front of a drawer that had fallen down, broken.

“Now, we can’t teleport you onto the outsiders’ island,” Revan said.  “It’s too big, and the snowstorm surrounding it would make it impossible to know we were sending you to the right place.”  She bent down, and grabbed the handle, and when she stood up, a pale blue portal was waiting beneath it, rising up until its peak was a few inches taller than Michael.  “This portal will take you to your transportation.  They ought to know where to go, so all you have to do is let them know you’re ready, and they’ll start you on your way.”

“We won’t let you down!” Zelda said.

“Good luck!” Leoden called out.

Before Michael and Rhianna could lead the way, their trio of pups charged forward, into the swirling vortex.

“Guess they’re all pretty used to this kind of stuff by now,” Rhianna said to her husband.

Unwilling to let the littlest of their clan venture off into the unknown alone, Michael and Rhianna strode forth, ready to play their part in another Christmas quest.

*          *          *

None of the five expected the blizzardous conditions to be quite that bad.  As the human pair exited the portal, they had to bring their arms up to block the snow from blinding them.  The dogs on the ground fared a bit better, but as Zelda, Maisie and Luna turned to regard the other two, Michael and Rhianna could see that they narrowed their eyes to help them see.

“How are we going to make it through all this mess?” Rhianna asked, her voice seeming lost to the wind that accompanied the snow.

Just as soon as she spoke though, another flash of Zelda’s nose brightened the area.  And more helpfully, it sent the snow scattering away as though a pulse of energy had surged from the pup’s muzzle.  As the snow drifted away, the family could see the horizon beyond the blizzard, and knew they had found the great sea.

“That’s the way we ought to go,” Michael said, pointing with the pickaxe.

Together, the five hurried in that direction.  The dogs didn’t seem bothered at all by the cold, but Michael and Rhianna’s ears were a bit redder in the cold chill of the area.  Michael grabbed his wife’s hand, rubbing it with his thumb to warm her up.  The two shared a smile as they ran forth, eager to reach the shore.

Though they were all sure that there was still quite a distance between where they were, and where they needed to go, the group was certain that Zelda’s nose-lights were coming on a bit quicker.

As they neared the water’s edge, they were surprised by a sudden splash.  A silver-grey figure leapt out of the sea, and it performed a flip in the air before piercing the water once more.

“Are those the dolphins?” Rhianna asked.

“Looks like them,” Michael replied.  “But I don’t think we’ll be able to go swimming with these ones.  The water here is much colder than it is in Florida!”

“I’m just happy our babies get to meet some, even if they are made of clockwork,” Rhianna said.

The family drew closer, and with the ruby light pulses that Zelda sent out scattering the snow farther, they could see that there were a pair of straps attached to the dolphins.  Those leads kept the clockwork creatures from traveling too far from the shore, it seemed.

“I hope they weren’t too bored waiting for us,” Rhianna mused.

As though they heard her voice, the creatures turned, and splashed out of the water, coming to a partial rest on the icy surface that the DeAngelo family found themselves on.  They made cute mechanical clicks that sounded enough like dolphin chatter to have them presenting as commendable facsimiles.

“If Leoden and Revan hadn’t told us these were clockwork, I would have never thought they were,” Michael said.  He leaned down, and rubbed the nearest dolphin’s head, and the creature nuzzled against that touch.  But as Rhianna drew closer, it opted to roll to its side and wave with one of its fins.  Rhianna grabbed that fin and gave it a courteous shake in greeting.

The other dolphin stretched a little farther, bumping its nose against Luna’s.  The biggest of the dogs crouched down into a play position, and when her dolphin friend whistled, Luna laughed and spun in a quick circle.

“As much as we want to play, I think we need your help,” Michael said.  “We have to get to the Island of the Outsiders and find the tracker.”  Zelda’s nose flashed, and Michael pointed to her.  “You have to help us find what that connects to.”

The dolphins seemed to react to that request, turning around to face the vastness of the great sea.  Michael and Rhianna looked at each other in curiosity, but they didn’t have to think for long about what was transpiring.  The dolphins rushed forward, and a cacophonous crack ripped through the air.  All five of the family members lost their balance, and wobbled a bit, but everyone stayed upright.  Michael grabbed hold of his wife, steadying her.

“It’s not a rollercoaster, it’s not a rollercoaster,” she affirmed.

“They should have given us some ginger candies for our rickety ginger,” her husband teased.

Together, they realized that the dolphins had ripped a slab of ice away from the rest of the shore.  They tugged together, pulling the family farther across the great sea.  The snow only seemed to get stronger, the blizzard encroaching upon them even with the strength of Zelda’s powers sending them scattering.

As they moved along, Maisie inched toward the edge of their slab of ice, sniffing at the water.  One of the dolphins breached and let a spout of water take to the sky.

“Yipe!” Maisie cried as she skittered backward.

Michael fell to a knee beside his worried pup, petting behind her ears to help calm her down.  But as he looked at his wife, he couldn’t hide a smile.

“I don’t think they needed to do that.  They don’t breathe after all.”

Rhianna nodded.  “Just as mischievous as the real thing, it seems.”

Michael leaned down, and smooched their dog on the head, and she sat down beside him.  She sighed then once she found a bit of calm.

The husband and wife did not miss that sound, and they sat down on opposite sides of her then.

“Is everything okay?” Michael asked.

Maisie ignored the question for a moment and sniffed at the air again.

“What is it?” Rhianna asked.

Their black and white dog alternated glances between the two of them.  She merely stared for a moment, as though something had stolen her voice away.  But even the wind seemed to die down around them then, and in the stillness and the quiet, she allowed herself to be heard.

“It smells like something she would have liked.”

It took no sleuthing to understand who she was talking about.  For the first time since they began journeying to the North Pole, one less arrived, rather than one more.

Michael and Rhianna squished in a little closer, making sure that Maisie felt warmth beyond what her Christmas spots afforded her.

“We thought maybe you had forgotten, and didn’t want to be reminded,” Michael said.

The dog bowed her head a little bit.  “I haven’t forgotten.  Every now and then I still think I feel a little weight on top of the blanket when I’m sleeping under it.”

Luna, always aware whenever anyone was a bit sad, came over and nuzzled against Maisie, pushing a little more than she needed to.  If Maisie hadn’t been stabilized between Michael and Rhianna, she would have stumbled backward for sure.  Luna lay down in front of Maisie then, allowing her older sister to rest her head on the bigger dog’s back.

“I go upstairs every now and then thinking I’ll see her,” Luna said.  “I think I know that I won’t, but every now and then I ask myself, ‘what if?’”

By that point, Michael and Rhianna had tears in their eyes, but couldn’t bring themselves to speak, the emotion raw in their throats.

Zelda came up around Luna then and stood on her hind legs to stand against Rhianna.  The DeAngelo matriarch leaned forward and kissed Zelda on the head, before scooping her up to allow her to find a comfy spot in her lap.

“I miss our adventures,” Zelda said, the excitement dimmed in her voice, though just as much love was always there in what she said.

“We miss her too,” Rhianna said, doing her best to rein in her emotions before her voice cracked too much.

Michael sniffed, unable to compose himself enough to say any words for a time.  Tears ran down his cheeks, frozen in place by the cold before they could fall.

“Do you remember when she would hide behind the plant in the living room, and think she was invisible?” he finally asked.

Rhianna snickered a little at the memory.  “Or when she would come downstairs whenever you doggies were howling to join in, even if it was in her own way?”

“I remember when she would sit on the stairs,” Zelda said.  “She would judge these two dummies yapping in the window.”

Michael laughed.  “I think she was judging all three of you,” he said.

“Not uh!” Zelda argued.

“But she loved you all in her own ways,” Rhianna said.  “Whether it was cuddling up on you and pretending she didn’t know you were under a blanket, or giving you space when you needed it—”

“Tolerating you when you were being way too forward and annoying,” Michael teased as he tousled the fur on Luna’s head.  He sighed then, remembering some of the other things he missed.  “I think that she left a little bit of herself here with us,” he remarked.  “She was always my little writing buddy, and for a while, Maisie, I think you knew that I needed one.  Maybe she found a way to tell you that.”

“And Zelda,” Rhianna said, “you have been much more snuggly yourself.  She always used to snuggle on my chest when I would look at my phone, and now you’re the one who does that.”

“What do I do?” Luna asked.  “What is it that she told me to start doing?”

Rhianna laughed again.  “I think she wanted you to stay absolutely as you are.  You kept her young, and on her toes, just the way you do for us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Michael said.  “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to stand up from this position when we arrive.  Between the cold and my old knees…”  His words trailed off then, for he realized that Zelda’s nose seemed to flash much quicker than it had before they stepped onto the ice floe.  As he gazed into the distance, he realized that he could see a great frozen expanse before him.  “It can’t be.”  His knees did, in fact, crack as he rose to his feet.  “We’ve already arrived.”

He held his hand out to his wife, and he helped her climb to her feet as well.

The dolphins seemed to slow once the family realized they had reached the land of the outsiders.  The momentum carried them across the water until they reached the icy shore.  With a resounding thud, their improvised vehicle collided there, sending the two humans off their balance, though even the dogs wobbled a bit.

The smaller members of the DeAngelo family hurried off the ice floe, but Michael was slower to move, assisting his wife as she contended with the rocking water beneath them.

“Thank you for your help,” Rhianna said.

“Of course,” Michael replied.

“I was talking to the dolphins,” she said with a laugh.  She waved farewell to them when she finally made it to solid ground.

Another pair of mechanical chirps and whistles rang out.  With their task completed, the clockwork dolphins seemed to take their time playing with one another.

The trio of pups had already advanced farther onto the island, with only Zelda’s red beacon helping the two humans spot them in the whipping snow.

“Slow down, you three,” Rhianna called out.  “Remember, we’ve only got the two legs.”

The pair hurried after the rest of their family, and they realized the terrain quickly changed from flat fields of ice to tremendous mountains that rose up.  A labyrinth of snow and stone was before them, the pale maze no doubt leading toward wherever the outsiders holed up.  But first, they knew that they had to find the tracker.

Zelda’s nose continued to glow, and it pulsed brighter and quicker as they made their way through the area.  When it seemed to flash so fast that it appeared as one perpetual glow, Michael urged them to stop.

“We’ve got to be close.  The tracker has to be here.”  He looked about the area, noting that they were in a small clearing in the area, with rocky outcroppings all around them.  “There might have been a lot of snowfall here,” he considered.

“It buried the tracker,” Rhianna realized.  “All right, everyone keep your eyes peeled.  It has to be around here somewhere.”

The five of them scoured the area, some kicking away snowdrifts, while others sniffed at the ground.  Finally, Zelda’s nose glowed brighter than ever before, and she looked down through the layers of ice, and spotted something there.

“Hey!” she cried out.

Luna, not one to miss out on something interesting, was there a moment later.  She used her big paws to dig at the crunchy ice there, managing to push some of it away.

“Careful,” Michael said as he arrived there.  “We don’t want this ice to split your nails or scratch your toepads.”  He stood over the area and could see—with help from Zelda’s nose—that something was indeed under the ice there.  “I’ve already got a use for Halgrum and Narala’s gift, it seems,” he said, plucking the pickaxe from his belt.

The glissium head of the tool shimmered amidst all the ice and snow, and it radiated the light from Zelda’s nose as well.

“This really is a weightless thing,” Michael mused.  “I hope I don’t break it.”

As soon as the dogs stepped back, he slammed the pickaxe into the ground, surprised by how easily it cleaved the ice there.  Pulling the chunks of ice away was a bit more difficult, but as he cleared the way, Luna pushed the remnants out of the way.  Rhianna was there a moment later, moving things farther with her foot.

Before long, Michael was able to cleave a square around the tracker and start to pull out the excess ice and even stone that had trapped it there.  It did not take long for him to spot the metallic clockwork, and at once, it reminded him of the dolphins.  The tracker looked crumpled though, compressed by the weight of the ice.  Perhaps it had been caught off guard by an avalanche of sorts, he mused.

“Just a little bit more, I think,” he said.

Once he noticed how close they were to liberating the tracker, he pushed himself that much harder, hammering into the ice with the pickaxe and ripping the deep gouges into the area.

“Careful now,” Rhianna cautioned.  “You remember what happened the last time you were to enthusiastic about moving snow about.”

Michael nodded and checked his posture.  “You’re right.  This pickaxe is lighter than our shovels back home though.  Besides, this poor thing has been stuck in the ice for far too long.  I just need to—” He winced as he cut his words short, and handed the pickaxe to his wife, bracing himself against the closest icy slope behind him.

“I told you so,” Rhianna said.

She took up the cause then, and in just a few minutes longer, she was able to dig large trenches around the tracker.  As they chipped away at the ice, she was able to see much better when it came into view.  Zelda peeked into the hole, and with one more pulse of light, the glow on her nose faded.  They had found their objective and didn’t need to know where it was any longer.

“Does your back feel okay enough yet to help me pull this out of here?” Rhianna asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Michael replied.

Rhianna couldn’t tell if he had really recovered well enough to resume working, or if he was just carrying on as if he had.  She shifted to her side, allowing him to step down into the hole they had carved.

He took the pickaxe once more, and he drove it into place alongside one of the trenches, turning it to its side to dislodge the large chunk of ice.  Then, with one mighty heave, he was able to lift it up.  The magic of the pickaxe must have helped, because they were left with what looked like a huge cube of ice roughly as broad as Michael’s shoulders.

Michael was careful to keep the pickaxe beneath the cube, even as he shifted it onto flatter ground.

“Watch out, pups,” he warned.

As he slid the pickaxe away, the cube thumped down, sliding a bit on the ice beneath it.  Michael helped his wife climb out of the shallow pit, and then used the pickaxe to steady a hold for himself as he climbed out after her.

“All right,” Rhianna said.  “Are we ready to finally get this tracker out of here and get on our way?”

The dogs wagged their tails, sniffing at the cube and trying to get a good idea of what was inside it.  But the ice was too uneven, and they could not get a glimpse at the true manner of what existed there.

Michael took hold of the pickaxe once more, and grabbed hold of the ice, turning it over once, to rest on another side.

That was all they needed to see clearly what was trapped inside.  A little silver amalgamation of plates and gears—shaped like a feline—stared back at them with unblinking eyes, looking eager to be freed.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Michael said.

*          *          *

Even with the layers of ice chipped away from the tracker, it didn’t seem to be any more aware or alert.  But the DeAngelo family had long before noticed the winding key affixed to the clockwork cat’s head and knew that would likely have its gears spinning to life.

“Just a bit more,” Michael said, carefully carving away at the ice with his pickaxe.

When he had finally broken apart all of the icy shell encasing the clockwork cat, it stood still in the snow, looking more like a statuette than an artificial living creature.

But Rhianna’s eyes remained drawn to the winding key.

“I think if we turn that, our tracker will come to life,” she remarked.  “Does anyone have any misgivings about me twisting that?”

When no one said anything, she stepped forward, and dropped to a knee beside the tracker.  The winding key revolved with a discordant clicking, and Rhianna wondered if it was because of the way the weather had taken hold of the creature, or whether it was just the way it had been crafted.

Once the winding key protested any further turns, Rhianna stood up and stepped back, waiting to see if life would begin anew.

For a time, it seemed as though nothing would happen.  But then the family noticed tiny motions where the cat’s head met its body.  It looked as though it was about to shake its head, but then the eyes lit up gold, and the head turned.

And it kept turning.

“Ah!” Rhianna said, stumbling back another step.

Reacting to her fear, the dogs all ran to hide behind her then.

As the cat’s head completed its turn, it looked to the family, alternating glances between the shivering quartet, and the man with the pickaxe.

“Did you rescue me?” the critter asked, a voice resonating from within the chassis of the clockwork creature.  “The last thing I remember is being swallowed up by the ice.  Without being able to turn my key, I was left to feel the final turns of my gears, with each tick coming slower and slower.”

“Well, that’s glum,” Michael said.  “Yes, we’re the ones who pulled you out of all the ice.  We’re some of Santa’s ambassadors and were sent here to find you.”

“Oh,” the cat’s tinny voice came back.  “So Leoden didn’t forget about me.  I had worried so, especially when I could not free myself from my cold, dark tomb.”

“Okay, that’s enough of that talk,” Michael protested.  “You’re safe and sound now, and we’re not going to let anything hurt you.  But we need you to help us reach where the outsiders live.”

“Ah, yes,” the cat responded.  “The island will submerge beneath the water in…” Its words trailed off, and once again the head began to spin far beyond what a normal creature’s neck would allow.  “…Unknown timeframe,” it finished.  “It is best that we hurry to meet the king of the island’s inhabitants.”  The cat took a single step before alternating looks at the various members of the family.  Once it had taken account of the people who surrounded it, it sat on its rump.  “Designations?”

“What?” Rhianna asked.

“Designations?” it spoke again.

“Designations?” Michael repeated back at it.  “You mean our names?”

“Precisely.”

“We’re the DeAngelo family,” Rhianna responded.  “I’m Rhianna, he’s Michael, and these are our dogs, Zelda, Maisie and Luna,” she said, pointing to each person in turn.

Maisie was the brave one of the bunch then, the dog peeking out from behind Rhianna’s legs.  “Hi,” she ventured.

“Greetings!” the cat said, standing up and taking another step toward the group.  “My designation is Taub—Tracking and Utility Bot.  It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Michael picked up his pickaxe, and slid it into his belt, resting it on his hip.  “Okay, Taub.  What way do we need to go to find the outsiders?”

The clockwork cat turned to him with erratic movements, his metal joints still not firmly in place after his time in the ice block.  “Before I was trapped, and ran out of energy, I was heading this way,” he said, the cat lifting one of his metal paws to point between two sharp, rocky inclines.  “If we proceed along that way, we should reach the crystal palace before long.”

“Crystal palace?” Rhianna echoed.  “Maybe we’re the outsiders.”

“Come on then,” Taub said, apparently unable—or unwilling—to make small talk or entertain that sentiment.  “We must hurry to meet Dawnspike.”

Michael turned to his wife and the pups.  “Well, that doesn’t sound like the most welcoming of names.”

“Who is Dawnspike?” Zelda asked.

Taub had already begun skittering forward, forcing the rest of the family to hurry after him.  Though his movements were slowed somewhat by the damage to his parts, he was still quicker than they first expected.  “Person with designation Dawnspike is king of the outsiders.”

“Another dragon?” Rhianna wondered aloud.

“Ooh, we make friends with dragons,” Luna shouted as she ran.

Together, the group hurried through the icy passes, the clockwork cat seeming to know every direction to go.  No one had any time to stop and ponder whether it truly did have an idea of Dawnspike’s palace, but as they made one more turn, they could see the snow part, the blizzard subsiding in that area.

In the distance, they could see massive spires of dark, shimmering ice.  Some of them had been carved into parapets, the towers clearly displaying where the outsiders were bound to be.

“That’s not just a palace,” Rhianna said.  “That’s a whole castle.”

“How is it that you knew it was here, Taub?” Michael wondered.

The clockwork cat turned around, giving the group a bit of a respite from their constant running to keep up with the tracker.  The trio of dogs panted, and Zelda even plopped down in the snow to catch her breath.

“One of Santa’s reindeer, the most fam…ous…” the cat began.  But the family watched as the lights dimmed, and they wondered if perhaps the winding key had already stopped spinning the gears in the critter’s head and body.

Suddenly though, another voice seemed to rattle through the tracker’s body.

“DeAngelo family, can you hear me?”

“That’s Leoden,” Zelda said, popping up from her spot.

“Ah, there you are,” the elf’s voice came through again.  “We received a response after you reactivated the tracker.  You’re obviously with it now, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking.”

“We are, Leoden,” Rhianna said.  “And we’ve found our way to the palace.  It sounds like this monstrous castle is where the king of the outsiders, Dawnspike lives.”

“What can you tell us about him, Leoden?”

“Well, I only know what I’ve heard from some of the toymakers.  He’s a fearsome creature, and he works very hard to protect the outsiders.  I imagine you’ll be dealing with him directly.”

“Leoden?” Maisie piped up then, after catching her breath.

“Yes?” the disembodied voice replied.  “Is that Maisie?”

She nodded, the nuance of trying to get that across to him with just sound lost to her.  But she did continue on.  “Is Taub going to be okay?”

“Oh, yes,” the elf said.  “I can’t have my voice come through while Taub is fully active, so I sort of steal the signal to check in with you.”

“Well, we’re hoping to have good news for you very soon,” Rhianna said.  “The next time we talk to you, it will be with all the outsiders coming back to the North Pole.”

“We look forward to it,” Leoden said.  “Oh, and before I go, Revan wanted me to remind you about the potions.  They ought to come in handy if you run into any trouble.  Speak with you soon!”

Just as soon as he finished talking, the lights behind the tracker’s eyes lit up again.  “…reindeer of all,” Taub continued speaking.  But he hesitated a bit, realizing that he had missed parts of a conversation.  He let his previous thought dissipate and tilted his head a quarter turn—not quite as frightening as it had been before, but just enough to demonstrate curiosity.  “Did Master Leoden take hold of me?”

“He did,” Michael said.  “We thought you powered down for a moment there.”

The little clockwork cat’s eyes widened just a bit then, as memories of being trapped in the ice seemed to overtake him.  “That reminds me,” he said.  He sat on his hind legs and brought his front paws over his head.  Providing new energy for himself, Taub winded the turning key, a series of satisfying clicks resonating into the cold air upon the island.  “There we go,” the cat said.

At that, he hurried along, aimed once again toward the towering castle in the distance.

While the two smaller dogs and the pair of humans lagged behind as they had before, Luna more than kept pace with the little cat.

“I always need to be in front!” the big dog explained.

“Do you know where we are going?” Taub asked.

Luna slowed, a look of curiosity finding its way to her face.  She kept pace with the rest of her family then instead, shouting, “I only sometimes need to be in front!”

As they kept up their progress, the distant castle seemed to grow into the foreground.  Drawing near, the family realized it towered even higher up than it looked upon the horizon.

“Are we even going to make it home before Christmas?” Rhianna wondered.

A loud sound reported just in front of them, like a window shattering.  The family watched as Taub skittered backward, and shards of ice slid across the surface upon which they walked.

Michael and Rhianna looked around, realizing that they had entered a narrow valley, with sheer cliffs of ice along their sides.  Noting the sudden tension in the air, Luna let a low growl rumble.  Though the bigger dog allowed her apprehension to be known, it was the little black and white dog—with temporary pink spots, of course—who alerted the family to the stranger who appeared in the distance.

“Look!” she cried.  “Look!  Up there!  I’m doing my job and letting you all know there’s something important up there!”

A towering figure appeared above the cliffs, wearing a suit of dazzling silver mail.  They leapt over the side, cleaving their sword into the ice to slow their descent.  When they landed, a nicker seemed to resonate from the area.  The family and Taub noticed another figure upon the opposite cliff then, that one wearing resplendent colors, and seeming to sit upon a mount that remained yet hidden behind the icy ramparts.

The first figure that had landed upon the path before them strode forward, their features hidden behind their immense helmet.  The dogs and the humans seemed frozen where they stood, for as the stranger drew closer, they could see that they were at least two heads taller than Michael.

“That shot was no miss,” a voice behind the helmet said.  “That was a warning.  If you are here to cause trouble, you should turn back to where you came.”

Michael looked to Rhianna, who had also determined that the voice seemed to belong to a woman.

Taub spoke for the visitors then, taking a step forward with a complete lack of fear.

“I am here with the ambassadors of Santa Claus,” the clockwork cat spoke.  “We are here to see Dawnspike, leader of the outsiders.”

The knight stood taller, and broadened her stance as well, as if to block further passage toward the castle.  “Your Santa has never had words for us before.  Why does he wish to confer with us now?”

Rhianna took a step forward then, blowing out an anxious breath.  “We were told that there was a risk of this island falling into the sea.  Some of Santa’s helpers wanted to ensure that you had proper warning, so that nothing bad happened to any of you.”

“Santa’s helpers are the ones that discarded us,” the knight said.  “Why should we trust anything that they have to say now?”

Michael nodded, realizing that there was some truth in what the outsider said, and that there was a reason to be disappointed.  “Whoever it was who decided that you weren’t worthy, they don’t speak for all of the people that Santa knows.  No one people are monolithic, and the people who wanted us to help you wouldn’t have sent us here for nefarious purposes.  We’re friends with them, and we know they’re good people.”

Rhianna looked to her husband, impressed with his hold on diplomacy.  She gave an enthusiastic nod, too.  “Whoever it was who let you down, they’ll no doubt have to reckon with their foolishness, and whatever punishment is placed upon them.  But we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that you are given a chance to make a fresh start elsewhere.”

The knight stood sentinel for a time, as if considering the spoken words.  Then, they slowly reached up to their visor, and flipped it up.

From their previous vantage point, the DeAngelo family did not realize that the knight’s helmet was misshapen and elongated.  None were expecting a bipedal equine behind the suit of armor.

Zelda gasped, and her eyes grew wide with excitement.  “Horse!” she cried.

The knight, seeming momentarily offended, pointed her sword.  “Dog!” she retorted.

The oldest DeAngelo pup gasped again, and she turned to look at Michael and Rhianna.  “She knows me!”

Realizing soon after that the canine meant no offense, the knight relaxed a bit.  “I believe that there is truth in your words.  Or at least, you believe the truth to be what you say.  I will take you to the castle, and you will have your audience with Dawnspike.  But I cannot promise that you that anyone will see reason as I have, or that you will be trusted.”

She turned then to the figure on the other icy rampart.  “Jouster!” she cried.  “Head back to the castle and let them know that we have guests!”

Those guests watched as the other guard raced off toward the west, seeming a bit unsteady in the saddle of whatever creature they rode atop.

The knight spun about and waved the group on.

That time, Taub fell a bit behind, and as the DeAngelo family moved along, he sat on his back legs again, bringing up his paws to turn the winding key once more.  Rhianna was there a moment later, helping him to twist things.  A happy little sigh emanated from inside his metal chassis, followed by the subtle hum of his version of a purr.

Together, the pair of them hurried up, cutting the distance between them and the rest of their group.

It did not seem to take terribly long to arrive beneath the towering castle.  There was no door, just a massive, yawning maw, as though the mountain had once been some terrible creature that had given way to snow and ice.  There were some other knights and soldiers standing watch there, though none seemed so tall as the horse that brought them in.

Rhianna gave Michael a little tap on his shoulder with the back of her hand and pointed off to the side when they arrived.  The figure that charged across the icy rampart was there and seemed every part the misfit.  A jester with vibrant attire, he sat upon an ostrich with fluffy plumage.  He didn’t look as though he could sit comfortably in the saddle though, as every few moments he seemed to slide to the side before he righted himself.

“I get it,” Michael said.  “Jouster.”

Rhianna flashed a smile, but it grew all the brighter when she realized who led them toward the mighty and mysterious Dawnspike.  She pointed again, that time to the person who led them forth.  “Knightmare,” she whispered.

The bipedal horse spun about, arching an eyebrow.  “How did you know my name?”

Rhianna did her best to hold back a gasp, but she couldn’t offer up any sort of explanation.  She merely held out her hands and shrugged.

“Hmm,” the knight mused.  “Perhaps my reputation precedes me.”  She continued leading the group through the corridors beneath the castle.

Michael noticed that they never seemed to be heading up any higher in the so-called palace.  “Is she bringing us right to the dungeon?” he muttered.  But he soon realized that the crude stone path gave way to impeccably hewn floors that looked almost as if they were made from the same material as his magical pickaxe.

Before long, the corridor opened into a great hall, with tall stone pillars stretching toward a high ceiling.  All around, there were festive sights, with decorated Christmas trees surrounded by piles of wrapped gifts.

“It must remind them of happier times,” Rhianna considered.

They soon realized that they were not alone in the hall.  Other outsiders appeared to gather, and at once, the family could see why they might have been ostracized by the crafters at the workshop.  A large box sat off to the side, and a towering naga leaned out of it, its lower body seeming to have a springlike armature inside.  On the opposite side of the area, a rocking horse had a sharp unicorn’s horn jutting out between tufts of pink hair.  And just beside it, a burly green orc sat with its back tilted forward, just enough for them to realize he was a large doll, before they noticed the intricate stitching he had.

As Knightmare led them forward, they spotted the series of steps that led to an immense granite throne.  A mighty creature sat upon it and stared down at the new arrivals with some measure of concern.  With the body of a lion—including its back paws—but the head and front talons of a great eagle, it was clear that Dawnspike was a griffin.  There was something that made the leader of the outsiders appeal to them, however.  As Michael and Rhianna looked upon him in all his glory, they noticed that he had wings that were much too small to lift him into the air.  He would never be able to fly in his current state.  Still, he wore a golden crown upon his head, and no one seemed poised to challenge him.  Among his people, he seemed loved and revered.

“Who have we here, Knightmare?”

The horse took a deep bow before speaking.  “They are representatives from the North Pole, my liege.  These are diplomats who say they’ve come to offer us warning that the island is at risk of sinking.”

Dawnspike lowered his head, meeting the visitors with a fierce gaze.  “And under whose authority do you come here?  And who has the knowledge and the foresight to predict such an ominous fate for our home?”

Michael took a step forward then, offering a bow of his own.  “Greetings, Your Eminence,” he said.  “Though we have learned that there is some strife between your people and those who call Santa a friend, I am compelled to be honest, and let you know that it was a duo of his helpers who have tasked us with this quest.  They want nothing more than for you and the rest of your kingdom’s inhabitants to be safe, and to be ready should anything happen, which might have otherwise been unexpected.”

Dawnspike sneered and leaned upon one arm of the throne a little more forcefully.  “Flowery words mean nothing in this hall, especially by ones who have yet to send words our way, kind or otherwise.  I do not know you, and despite his influence on the things we hold dear, we have not had words shared with Santa either.”

A deep sigh shook the mighty griffin then.  “But I do note that warning as this would seem unlikely if there were ulterior motives.  And I see that you travel with those who, like us, are…peculiar.”

Maisie looked up, alternating glances between Michael and Rhianna.  “Why did he say it like that?” she wondered.

“Check your spots,” Rhianna whispered.

The king of the misfits cleared his throat then.  “Very well, it is decided.  Knightmare, I appreciate your discretion in bringing these so-called ambassadors here.  Please return to the pass and ensure that this was not all some distraction.

“As for the rest of you, I have chosen to entertain the warning you have given us here, but I am still suspicious of it.  If you would champion this cause, perhaps you would rise up and hear the call of a series of challenges while you are here.”

“Challenges?” Rhianna asked.  “What sort of challenges?”

“They shall be a judgment of your character,” Dawnspike said.  “Tests of valor and of cleverness will be presented to you, and if you are successful in completing them, I will hold your claims in much higher regard.”

Taub stepped forward, and proudly spoke.  “We accept your terms, Lord Dawnspike.”

Michael and Rhianna exchanged worried glances but did not work to retract the statement.  Before they could confer with one another, other members of Dawnspike’s court shouted out.

“Throw them in the pit, and see if they can climb out,” the orc doll cried.

“Fill ‘em full uh rocks and lessee if they can still swim,” the naga in a box demanded.

“I don’t have any ideas, but I still want to seem like I’m contributing!” the rocking unicorn yelled.

The mighty griffin slammed down one of his taloned claws, gripping the throne between them.  “Dul, William, and Papier,” he said, addressing each of the toys in the order with which they spoke.  “I appreciate your desire to see the trials through, but it is my job as the ruler of this land to set the tasks.”  He hummed to himself then, considering what he saw before him.  “If I am to trust you at your word, than I have to see if you have empowered, rather than diminished the outsiders you travel with.  To you other three toys, do you feel ready to prove that this pair you travel with has served you well?”

“Are we the toys?” Luna wondered, whispering to her big sister.

“Yes,” Zelda replied.

“Then it shall be done,” Dawnspike said, having heard the little pup answer in the affirmative.

“What?” Zelda asked.  “I didn’t mean—”

“What are our challenges?” Maisie asked, stepping forth.  “Is it an eating challenge?  I’m good at those.”

Luna’s eyes grew wide.  “I’m even better at them,” she insisted.  “Sometimes I’m so hungry, I could eat Maisie!”

The griffin king of the outcasts stepped down from his throne, and onto the broad steps leading from it.  “I will present a series of three challenges, and one of you will volunteer to be the champion of the task.  None of you may attempt more than one challenge.”

Michael and Rhianna exchanged nervous glances, but even then, Rhianna felt a sudden rush of optimism.  She lifted her enchanted Santa sack, remembering that they had the tools to upend any challenge that came their way.

Putting on a brave face, she took a step forward.  “What is the first challenge?”

Dawnspike wore a mischievous smile then.  “Follow me,” he said.

*          *          *

The DeAngelo family arrived at what seemed to be the center of the mountain.  A wide-open cavity stretched out high above them, for what seemed like a mile.

Dawnspike took a quick glance above, but with a mischievous smirk, he turned back to those in attendance.

“This is the location of your first trial,” the griffin king said.  “It is called Silver Moon Rising.”  He waved on at those in attendance, with one of his subjects approaching with a small round discus in hand.

Dul, the stitched-together orc puppet, shambled forth for a moment until he stood at the ready before his king.  He spun the discus atop his finger with talent belying his appearance as a living doll.

“Your task is simple,” Dawnspike continued.  “Once my…advisor here throws the silver moon, it is up to your champion to catch it before it hits the ground.”

Michael and Rhianna knew at once who they would recommend for such a task, but they never had the chance to ask her.  Zelda was already unable to rein in her excitement, and she stepped forward and stood on her hind legs, eager for the chance to play.

“I love frisbee!” the oldest pup cried.

Dul seemed offended then, the orc gnashing his teeth together until his prominent fangs protruded a bit more.  “This is not a frisbee, this is a mighty discus.  It’s not a…” His words trailed off as he considered that it was indeed a toy.  “This is the Silver Moon!” he cried.

“You can call it whatever you want, just throw the frisbee!” Zelda excitedly said, her tail wagging back and forth so much that the rest of her family behind her could feel a breeze being created.

“This is your champion?” Dawnspike asked.

Rhianna nodded and clasped her hands together.  “There’s no one else here who would be as eager to take on this task as Zelda.”

“Then may your red nose guide you,” the griffin king declared.  “Throw the Silver Moon, Dul.”

The orc puppet did as tasked, and he spun about in a few awkward circles, until he tossed the silver frisbee into the air.

Zelda ran forth, trying to gauge where the disc would go once it began to fall.  But a strange thing happened.  The Silver Moon hung there in the air, its trajectory not taking it back down.

“Hey!” Zelda cried.  “Come down here.”

Michael looked at his wife with his eyebrow arched.  “Even that toy is a misfit.  It’s a frisbee that won’t come back.”

An impish chuckle erupted from the great griffin king, for he knew that the task would not be quite so simple.  “What’s the matter?” he asked.  “Can’t quite reach it?”

Zelda had become impatient at that point, and she jumped as high as she could, but hovering in the air as it did, the discus remained far out of reach.

“It seems your friends behind you have not empowered you as much as I had hoped,” Dawnspike bellowed.

Zelda stopped attempting to pursue the frisbee for a moment, fixated on that comment.  “They’re not friends,” she said, passing a glance back to Michael, Rhianna, Maisie, and Luna.  “They’re family!”

Dawnspike’s eyes flashed for just a fraction of a second, but in doing so, the mischievous look he wore also faded somewhat.  He stood a little taller then, however, and lifted his head.  “You have been given your task, and we will be here until you either succeed, or you give up.  Perhaps a little outward thinking might help you reach the Silver Moon.”

“Well, perhaps an understanding of the rules might help,” Rhianna dared to ask then.  Though the griffin sent a fierce gaze her way, she seemed unfazed.  “You said that Zelda needs to reach the fris—the Silver Moon…but you didn’t say how.”

“My lady,” Dawnspike said in a sort of mocking way.  “She can do whatever she likes.  Unless she sprouts wings, I don’t see you finding any success here.”

“Funny you should say that,” Rhianna said.  She reached into her sack of holding, and a moment later produced the vial that Raskagar prepared for them which had silver contents inside.  “Zelda,” she called out, waving over the old pup.  As she drew close, Rhianna displayed the vial, shaking it just a bit.  “Do you remember your first wish?  The one that you made the first time we came to Tellest and the North Pole?”

Zelda’s eyes grew wide with excitement.  “I wanted to fly!”

“That’s right,” Rhianna said.  “And now, you get your chance to do it again.”  She poured out the contents of the vial on the ground, and Zelda eagerly lapped it up.

When the pup was done, and she turned around, she could see that Dawnspike was looking over in that direction, his curiosity piqued.  Zelda bent low, getting herself into a play position.  And then, with one more giant leap, she took to the air.

Dawnspike’s beak parted, and he could hear the other subjects who had joined him in the heart of the mountain gasp and applaud at the sight of the airborne dog.  Still, he knew that the task would continue to carry some complexities.  His eyes narrowed as Zelda drew nearer to the disc.

She opened her mouth to grab hold of the Silver Moon, but just as she drew near, it darted away.  With no friction in the air, she paddled her legs as though she was trying to swim, slowly coming to a stop.  She turned around, noticing that the discus was on the other side of the wide expanse.

“What?” she said.  “Come here, you!”

Zelda attempted again to make her way toward the frisbee, but as before, it slid out of the way as she drew near.  On and on it went, and though she continued to miss it time after time, Zelda seemed just as eager, and happy with the chase.

The toy, on the other hand, seemed to be slowing every time it needed to dart out of the way.

“She’s tuckering it out,” Rhianna whispered to her husband.

She was not the only one who appeared to notice that.  Dawnspike slammed his taloned hand down on the ground, grunting as he did so.

“I grow tired of this,” he said.

Michael reached over and squeezed his wife’s shoulder.  “There was one other rule,” he reminded her.

Rhianna couldn’t remember that rule, but Michael was already in motion, running forward.  The Silver Moon finally began its descent, and that had Rhianna’s mind racing toward the memory.

“It can’t touch the ground,” she whispered.

Though Zelda had exhausted the discus toy, it still outpaced her, and she would never reach it in time before it struck the floor.

But Michael was there, glissium pickaxe in hand.  He raised it high, and the antigravity powers that Leoden had told the family about took hold.  As the discus dropped, it bounced off of what seemed like an invisible rope, flinging it back into the air.

Zelda gasped with a happy little noise, and she lunged forward, clasping the frisbee between her teeth.

Dawnspike’s jaw dropped again, and that time he did nothing to disguise his look of shock.  Many of his subjects were stunned into silence as well, but it sounded as though half of the rest were excited by the showing, and they burst into cheer and applause.

Zelda slowly floated back to the ground, where she was joined by her two sisters, the other dogs happily wagging their tails, proud of what their older sibling was able to accomplish.

“I would not celebrate just yet,” the mighty griffin bellowed.  “There are still two more tasks to conquer.  That outcast is old—surely, she would have learned something in all her years.”

“Hey!” Zelda argued.  “I’m dumb when I want to be!”

Dawnspike narrowed his eyes then.  “We’ll see if your younger two toys have learned quite as much as we continue the trials.”

*          *          *

Given the towering cavity within the mountain that they had just left, the visitors found themselves in a spot that was much cozier.  Dawnspike led them along, and it almost seemed as though he wouldn’t fit within the narrow passageways in the icy castle.  Strangely, ice gave way to snow, an impossibility that far inside the palace.

The DeAngelo family realized that all the white had been artificially created, because they had found their way to a place in the castle that served as an entire city.  Rows and rows of gingerbread houses were present, and the inhabitants seemed to live and move, preparing for Christmas in various ways.

“These aren’t toys,” Michael mused.

“No, but they toys must have some Christmas magic in them,” Rhianna said.  “We saw what the throne room looked like—all those lit-up Christmas trees and presents strewn everywhere.  Maybe it makes them feel like home, in a way.”

Michael nodded.  “And if they have Christmas magic, maybe they brought these gingerbread people to life.”

“Could be,” Rhianna replied.

Dawnspike led them to the center of the room, and cleared his throat, gaining the attention of the gingerbread villagers.  The DeAngelo family, Taub, and the rest of the toy procession behind them stopped as well.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the griffin king spoke.  “Though news often travels quickly in our sanctuary, some information may not have reached you yet.  We have guests from the North Pole here with us today—self-professed ambassadors of Santa Claus.  They come with a warning about the state of our island, and though I have taken it with all seriousness, I also believe them with caution.

“However,” Dawnspike continued, “it cannot be ignored that they have chosen to take on a series of tests to judge their character, and the care that they have for people like us.  They have already succeeded in retrieving the Silver Moon.  But I ask you, the people of the gingerbread village: help us with the next task.  Let us see if they can find…the Golden Gumdrop!”

Behind the DeAngelo family, the toys there let slip sounds of intrigue and amazement.  But on the tables upon which the gingerbread villagers lived, a frenzy seemed to unleash.  The tiny people ran into buildings, only emerging a few moments later with siege weapons that were also made of the delicious confection.  Right behind them, piles of gumdrops were brought out, and Michael and Rhianna realized they were the ammunition that the trebuchets and catapults were meant to fire.

“Your task is simple,” Dawnspike insisted.  “All you have to do is find the Golden Gumdrop, and you will have proved your worth.  Now, is there a champion who would like to volunteer?”

None of the dogs truly understood what was happening, but Michael and Rhianna worriedly conferred with one another.

“Gumdrops are not safe for dogs to eat,” Michael said.  “If they’re going to be launching candies at our pups, we might be in serious trouble if they catch them.”

Maisie’s eyes grew wider then.  “Did you say catch?  Is that food?”

Rhianna tilted her head.  “It is little baby girl.  But it isn’t safe for you to eat.  Those kinds of candies can have a sweetener in them that can really hurt you.  Besides, you’re supposed to be on a diet.”

Maisie grumbled and bowed her head.  She lifted it with a bit of hope in her eyes the next moment though.  “Well, I don’t need to eat them.  Catching is my favorite part!”

“Are you sure you have the willpower to do that?” Michael wondered.  “I don’t know that I would.”

“I can do it,” she said.  “Let me try!”

Michael and Rhianna leaned forward, tousling the little black-and-white—and temporarily spotted—dog on the head.

Maisie turned around and proudly took a step forward then.  “I volunteer!”

Dawnspike gave an affirmative bow, and fluttered his miniscule wings as he moved out of the pup’s way.  “Very well then,” he said.  “Approach the village, and let the challenge commence!”

Almost as soon as the king gave his command for the task to begin, the first trebuchet fired, a gumdrop flying through the air.  Maisie’s eyes went wide, and she hopped to her side, putting herself in the line of fire.  She opened her mouth and let the candy’s trajectory guide it right onto her tongue.

Behind her, Michael and Rhianna watched on with a bit of anxiety, wondering if their pup had the discipline not to eat the gumdrops.

A little pop sound preceded the sight of the gumdrop hitting the floor.  “Grey,” Maisie said, announcing the color to ensure she only looked for the Golden Gumdrop.

But Michael and Rhianna looked at one another with confusion, for the one that was fired and spit out was red.

Rhianna smacked herself on the forehead then.  “Colorblindness!”

“Oh yeah,” Michael said, a bit of worry in his voice for a second.  “But it’s okay,” a bit of exuberance returned to him a moment later.  “Dogs can’t see green or red, but they can see blue…and yellow!”

Sure enough, Maisie announced when she found blue gumdrop buttons, or grey ones—which were either reds or greens that she could not quite distinguish.  But throughout the barrage of candy ammunition, not a single yellow one seemed to be fired.  Maisie ran back and forth, hopping up on her hind legs when she needed to in order to catch any of the volleys, but minutes later, she hadn’t announced finding the Golden Gumdrop.

She panted a little, having found much more exercise than she had expected.  “My tummy hurts just thinking about eating all of that!”

Rhianna arched an eyebrow, looking to the king of the outsiders.  “But where’s the golden one?”

Dawnspike wore a mischievous avian grin then.  “I never said that the villagers would fire the Golden Gumdrop with their devices.”

Michael stepped forward.  “That’s bad form.  They’ve just used the trebuchets as distractions while they’ve hidden the gumdrop.”

“What if they have?” Dawnspike asked.  “You wouldn’t risk damaging the gingerbread people’s homes to search for it, would you?  It seems this is a challenge you won’t be able to win.”

The toys in the area leading to the gingerbread village muttered to one another, whispering about the failure.

But Rhianna took a step forward and pointed her finger at the griffin king.  “Not so fast!”

Dawnspike looked as though he had to defend himself from a blow, the mighty creature bringing an arm up to defend himself.

“Maisie can still search for the gumdrop, and she can be respectful of the villagers as well.  If they’ll allow her to look in the buildings, that is.”

The king of the outsiders scoffed.  “There’s no way to safely do that.  She’s much bigger than those houses.”

“Hey!” Maisie shouted.  “I’m losing weight!”

“That’s right,” Rhianna said.  She slung the Santa sack forward, and began rooting through its contents, until she found what she was looking for.  “And with our help, she’ll lose a little bit more, too.”

Michael folded his arms across his chest.  “I take it this won’t be against the rules, will it, Your Majesty?”

Dawnspike grumbled then.  “No, I suppose it wouldn’t.”

Rhianna bent down, showing Maisie the potion vial.  “This is going to shrink you down for a little bit.  But don’t worry, it only lasts for a little while.  Zelda’s already grumbling about not being able to fly again.”

“It’s not fair!” the eldest dog whined behind them.

“Just make sure not to step on me,” Maisie pleaded.  She gave a sad look to Michael and Rhianna, but an intense look to Luna.

“We promise,” Michael said.  “We know what that big Great Dane did to you before we got you.”

“And we know what a klutz Luna is,” Rhianna noted.

“Huh?” the big mutt wondered.

“She is very much your daughter,” Michael insisted.

Maisie made a little whimper, but she blew out a little canine sigh then as she alternated glances at the people who loved her.  “All right.  I’ll do it.”

“You’re becoming so brave,” Rhianna said.  She leaned down and gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

Just as she had with Zelda, Rhianna poured the contents of the blue potion out on the floor.  Maisie sniffed at it a bit but thought better of trying to determine if she would like it.  Remembering what was at stake, she lapped up what she could.

“It tastes weird with the flavor of the candies still in my mouth,” she said.  The middle-sized pup sat there for a moment, blinking in the silence of the place.  “Is something supposed to—”

Before she could finish her thought, she began to rapidly shrink.  A bit of panic overtook her, but she was frozen by the morphing process.  “I’m going to disappear!” she cried in a quieter and quieter voice as she became more and more miniaturized.  She ended up looking a bit smaller than the gingerbread cookie people, though she was far less used to it.

Michael put his hand down on the ground beside her, and she was careful to step up onto what looked like an oversized mitt to her.  Already shivering with worry, Maisie’s body locked up as she was lifted into the air.

Taking gentle, careful steps toward the gingerbread village upon the tables, Michael worked slow to alleviate any fears the dog might have had.  When he arrived there, he flattened his hand out again, bringing it in line with the edge of the table, to give Maisie as level a ledge as she could get.  She hopped off, and shook her body, ridding herself of any nervous energy she had.

Within the gingerbread village, she felt much more at ease.  She watched the little people walking around, moving the big siege engines back into the various buildings.  Maisie realized that, though she had shrunk down to the size of a little figurine, the gingerbread people were still much smaller in proportion to actual people.  And as Maisie walked about, sniffing the air for a scent of the Golden Gumdrop, she caught more than a few whiffs of the village and its villagers.

“Gingerbread is okay for dogs in small doses,” she muttered to herself.

One of the gingerbread people walked by the small dog, and she sniffed a little bit more, salivating at the delicious aroma.

She shook her body again and huffed a little.  “Don’t do it,” she told herself.  “Eating people is not okay, and only Luna is allowed to do that.”

Maisie wiggled her nose, almost as though she was trying to switch up what she was smelling.  It must have worked, for she was able to detect a sweeter, less savory aroma in the air.  She looked around, trying to detect which direction the scent seemed to emanate from.

In doing so, she turned all the way around, to look off the table, and she saw Michael and Rhianna looking down at her.  She gasped in fright for a second before remembering that she had been shrunk down by the potion.  Maisie turned that nervous energy into a playful bow, stretching out her body.  When she rose up once more, she burst into motion, eager to find the Golden Gumdrop.

Emboldened by the knowledge that her family was nearby, Maisie weaved a path between gingerbread villagers.  She drew closer to the confectionary buildings and sniffed at the doors before moving onto the next one.

Before long, the scent of the Golden Gumdrop was overpowering.  She reached a house where it seemed a good deal of gingerbread people lingered, crowding the area around the front doors.  As she approached the entrance to the building, the folks there squashed together, trying to make it more difficult for the dog to proceed.

In a much louder voice behind her, Maisie could hear Michael speak.

“Now, you’re not trying to scare our little one into not finding the gumdrop, are you Dawnspike?”

“Bad form,” Rhianna echoed her husband’s sentiment from the first task.

Dawnspike sighed and sat on his backside.  The mighty king lifted his hands and made a separating motion with them.

Maisie watched as the gingerbread villagers stepped out of her way.  One even opened a pair of double doors for her, revealing the spectacular Golden Gumdrop on a pedestal inside.  The little dog—made littler by the magical potion—excitedly spun about in circles, wagging her tail as the gingerbread people gave up any notion of hiding their treasure, and instead approached her to give her pets and affection.

“You have succeeded in your second challenge,” Dawnspike said.  He hummed to himself then.  “I am beginning to believe that you truly do have our best interest at heart.  But we set out to create three tasks for you, and three we shall have.  Let us see if you have what it takes to finish the third and final task of the series.”

*          *          *

Even fewer outsiders were with them then as they weaved through additional paths of the mountain palace.  As they moved along, Taub stopped to spin the winding key atop his head.  Rhianna once more helped him out, and that time, as she did so, the little clockwork cat kicked with his back leg as though he was being scratched behind the ears.

“Curious,” he said once he was fully tuned once more.  “We have been traveling west, but our means of leaving this island is far to the east.”

“Well, what are the chances of today of all days being the one that sees the island beginning to sink?” Rhianna mused.

“Each day the odds increase,” Taub stated matter-of-factly.

While they had their conversation, Michael and the pups hurried on ahead, following Dawnspike as he made his way toward a wide-open vestibule which overlooked the western sea.

Luna knew that it was her turn to be brave and complete a task next, but the other pups who had succeeded had a little less to worry about.  They yammered back and forth.

“I definitely feel a bit lighter,” Zelda said.

“Do I still look a little smaller than usual?” Maisie wondered.

Neither of them seemed to notice the squad of person-sized toy soldiers who stood at the end of the overlook.  Dressed to appear somewhat like nutcrackers, they wore plastic hats atop their heads, which had Luna feeling extra suspicious of their behavior.

Michael hummed, noticing that they stood in a wedge formation, and that there were precisely ten of them.  It did not take long for him to spot the kettlebell in the vestibule as well, and he immediately knew what the challenge would be.  Before he could share any of the details with the largest DeAngelo family pup, however, Dawnspike cleared his throat to speak.

“It is time for you to complete your quest,” the mighty griffin said, sounding much more encouraging than he had before the previous challenges.  “With one last trial, we are down to the last of the outsiders.  Will you, with the ruffles, brave this quest, as the others did before you?”

Luna opened her mouth and breathed out a hefty sigh.  “I don’t know what I’ve got to do, but I’ll do it!”

“This one is a simple exercise,” the outsider king declared.  “We have ten soldiers over there who will stand bravely in the sight of danger.  Your job is to knock them over in one go—all of them.”

“She can definitely do this,” Michael said, bearing a confident grin.  He bent down, falling to a knee, and ignoring the popping sound as he dropped.  “This one is going to be super easy for you, Luna,” he said, scratching her neck.  “You remember your jumbler at home, right?  It’s just like this big kettlebell.  All you have to do is run it over to the soldiers and knock them over with it.  That big one in the front will knock over all the others if you hit him first.”

“But that one is a lot bigger than my toy at home,” Luna said as she looked at the hefty kettlebell.

Rhianna arrived beside her then as well, dropping the Santa sack on the ground before her.  “You’re going to be a lot bigger than when we’re at home, too!”  She took out the final potion, a green concoction swirling within the flask.  “You watched as your sisters did their tasks.  You should be able to lift that thing no problem!”

Luna was already sniffing at the vial’s cork, detecting the faint aroma within.  As Rhianna poured the contents on the floor, the biggest DeAngelo dog lapped up what was there.  She knew that it tasted bitter, her nose scrunching up as she contended with the flavor, but she also understood how important it was to complete the task.

And she also really wanted to lift the kettlebell.

She seemed to grow much faster than Maisie had shrunk, almost pushing Michael and Rhianna away when she reached full size.  Her two sisters also skittered a bit farther from her, knowing what a clumsy pup she was when she was regular size.

Luna looked around, realizing that she towered over nearly everyone in attendance.  The only one that still stood a little taller than her was the immense griffin king who oversaw the tasks.  And he seemed a bit worried about seeing another in attendance who was close to him in size.

Dawnspike deflected from that unease by sweeping out his taloned hand, gesturing toward the overhang upon the western sea.  “At your leisure, you may begin the final challenge.”

Luna could not contain her excitement, and she hurried over to the kettlebell.  Luckily, there was some rubber padding around the ball and the handle, so when the pup clamped it between her teeth, she didn’t have to worry about chipping any of them.  When she lifted the thing, she realized how heavy it was, even in her current state.  There was no way she would have been able to pluck it from the ground if she was smaller.

Her family noticed another peculiarity then.  The ruffle that appeared as part of her disguise flattened down against her chest and her legs because of the heft of the item.  She didn’t seem to notice at first, mostly because she wasn’t contemplating the challenge, but having fun moving the kettlebell around.

“Luna,” Michael said.  “Don’t forget you have to knock down the soldiers.”

“Oh yeah!” the dog said, excited about the prospect of playful carnage.

As she approached the overhang, the toy soldiers there tried their best to appear unwavering.  But Luna towered over them, and wielding that kettlebell, she looked like an unrivaled force of destruction.

“Remember, little baby,” Rhianna said, despite the immense size of their pup, “you have to knock them all down in one go!”

Luna’s eyes grew a little wider then, having heard the reiterated rules.  She remembered what Michael said, that she needed to hit the one in the front, and that he would topple all the rest.

With a burst of energy, she charged forward.

For a few moments, everything seemed fine.  But the heft, size, and shape of the kettlebell was not conducive to sprinting forth.  As she moved, she became a bit tangled up, and the kettlebell slipped from her mouth, rolling off to the side.

It would not hit a single soldier.

Those in attendance gasped, realizing that the challenge was likely to end in failure.

But her family had not given up.  Michael stepped forward, cupping his hands over his mouth.

“Luna!” he cried.  “Flippu-dippu!”

The large dog heard the phrase that rang out whenever she played with her family and was meant to do a somersault.  Though she was still stumbling forward, she lowered her head, tucking it between her front arms.

And then, she slowed her approach, allowing her rump to lift into the air.

Everyone else watched as the leading toy soldier opened his eyes as wide as they would allow.

There was no hope of the soldiers remaining upright.  The first one flung back into the rest, and one by one, the rows felt the force of Luna’s hefty butt.  Only a few seconds later, all the toy soldiers lay on the ground, either groaning by the force of their fall, or laughing at the inanity of it.

Luna rolled over to her stomach and shook her head.  She looked at her family, who cheered and clapped, and she began to pant in excitement, happy to have finished her trial.

“Well done,” Dawnspike said, a hint of pride to his voice, though it at first seemed lost to the applause in the palace.  “Well done!” he cried out, gathering everyone’s attention.  “You have done what you set out to do, and you’ve finished your trials.  You certainly do have the people of this island in mind, and I appreciate you partaking in the challenges.

“While I would have given your warning consideration before, I must give it real thought now,” the mighty griffin continued.  “Perhaps we will reach out to advisors from—”

King Dawnspike was interrupted then by a strange alarm sound.  The DeAngelo family looked about, trying to determine where the sound was coming from, but they realized that the outsiders were just as confused and concerned.  Everyone in attendance seemed to realize at the same time that it was Taub, the little clockwork cat, who emitted the sound.  His eyes had turned red, and he seemed frozen, like when Leoden took over.

“Warning,” a deeply robotic voice sounded from within Taub’s chassis.  “Warning.  Seismic activity detected.  Prepare for possible catastrophic event.”

The prominence atop Dawnspike’s eyes fell, and he wore a look of genuine concern.  “What is the meaning of this?  Certainly, the island cannot be at risk so soon.”

But almost as soon as he finished speaking, those in the area felt a massive tremor beneath their feet.

Michael reached out and tried to steady his wife.  “Look to the horizon,” he instructed.

“Oh, my vertigo is not going to like this,” Rhianna said.

Zelda was also not happy with the occurring events.  The fluffy little dog shivered and shook, looking around nervously while she licked her lips.  Maisie and Luna were there beside her in an instant—though of course Luna forgot how big she was, and almost stomped on both of her sisters.

As the first bout of shaking stopped, Taub looked up to the ambassadors he traveled with.  “I will go back to the place you arrived on the island.  Perhaps I can summon the mechanical dolphins you traveled here with.”

“Absolutely not,” Rhianna said.  “You’re one of us now, and we stick together.”

Michael, meanwhile, tried to appeal to the leader of the outsiders, calling for action.  “Your Majesty, we need to get your people to safety!” he yelled.

Dawnspike’s gaze landed upon his panicking citizens.  It took a moment to shake himself from his worry and look at the visitor.  “We don’t have any ships.  How are we to save everyone?”

Despite the uneasy feeling Rhianna had, and the lack of balance she contended with, she turned to the griffin king, and then lifted her enchanted Santa sack.  We don’t have to get everyone onto something.  We can just get them into this.”

“This palace is huge,” Michael said.  “We’re not going to be able to get to everyone in time.”

“We can all meet somewhere,” Zelda said through chattering teeth.

“The gingerbread people have the littlest legs,” Maisie said.  “We should all meet there so they don’t have to go so far.”

Michael bent down and patted the little black-and-white-and-spotted dog.  “That was very compassionate of you, Maisie.”  He rose then and looked to the king.  “Any objections to that?”

“No,” Dawnspike said.  “It is a good plan.  I’ll go to round up everyone and bring them back there.  As they arrive, please take care to move them to safety.”

“Understood,” Michael said.

“I can go to the entrance of the castle, and get Knightmare and Jouster,” Luna said.  “I’ve got longer legs now.”

Michael found it hard to argue against that notion, but he did feel very worried about allowing the embiggened pup to venture off on her own.  “Just… Be careful, and make sure you make it back to us safely.”

Luna gave a quick bow, and sprinted off into the corridor behind everyone, not worrying about the people who had to push out of her way.

Seeing the speed at which she took off, everyone else dispersed as well, hoping to find their loved ones and make it to safety.

*          *          *

A little bigger than she was before, Maisie was just able to stand up with her paws on the tops of the tables that the gingerbread village sat upon.  The confectionary people climbed down her legs and held on tight to her short coat.  Zelda was there beside her a moment later, fighting past her fear and stretching her legs so that she could reach the table as well.

Together, the two dogs took the gingerbread people in small groups, letting them off on the ground before the outstretched Santa sack.  Michael and Rhianna held it out wide, urging the citizens of the island into the container.  With each person who passed into the bag, it was like an inky black puddle was ready to spill from it.  But more than once, someone who went in emerged again, just to ensure they would be able to escape once they were to a safer place.

At Michael’s insistence, those who could carried the houses from the gingerbread village into the sack.

Whenever someone seemed to push to hurry things up, Dawnspike echoed out his disappointment, encouraging his people to exercise calmer demeanors.

Another violent tremor shook the castle then, eliciting screams and shouts from the outsiders.  Rhianna dropped the sack and braced herself on the nearest table.  Michael also released his hold then, and he watched as great fissures appeared in the earthen ceiling above them.  He followed the cracks until he saw it begin to form atop the littlest members of their family.

Before he could move, Rhianna grabbed hold of the pickaxe, tugging it from her husband’s belt.  She arrived between Maisie and Zelda in an instant, and with the pickaxe above her head, the stray stones that fell from the ceiling stopped in midair, as though they had fallen atop an invisible shroud.  From there, they fell harmlessly to the floor, and the dogs—and Rhianna—breathed a sigh of relief.

“I think we found the cure for your vertigo,” Michael said.  “Threat of harm to our puppies.”

“I did not know my legs could move that fast,” Rhianna said, between bouts of panting.  “I am going to nap all the way through Christmas.”

“Can you imagine?” Michael asked.

The king of the misfits cleared his throat then, catching the attention of his guests once more.  “If you would,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the Santa sack.

Michael and Rhianna hurried to grab hold of the enchanted container again, and the procession resumed heading into the unknown.  Before long, the line of people began to dwindle, and the folks from the gingerbread village were all inside the sack.

Peering up and over the group, Michael noted that the last member of their family still had not returned.

“She had better be all right,” Michael muttered to his wife.

“One of us should have gone with her,” Rhianna agreed.

“If she doesn’t show up soon, I want you to take the other doggies and Taub, and hurry to the edge of the island,” Michael said.

“I’m not leaving you,” his wife replied.

“You’ve got to start the iceberg and get it warmed up,” Michael said, trying to inject some jest into the frantic events unfolding.

Within only a few more moments, the rest of the toys were able to make their way into the sack.  A bit of panic swept over Michael then, and he handed his portion of the sack to Rhianna and prepared to head toward the corridor leading toward the entrance of the castle.

But before he could take two steps, they heard a noise emanating from outside there.

“Wee!” Luna’s voice rang out.  A few moments later, they saw the jester atop his ostrich mount, but he carried Luna under his arm, the dog keeping her legs outstretched as though she were flying.  “Look everyone!  I’m little again!”

“Littler than you were, anyway,” Zelda said.

Though she was not atop a quick-running bird, Knightmare was close behind the others, snorting as she ran.  All of them stopped to catch their breath when they arrived before the visitors and their king, though Luna’s panting may have been due to her excitement.

As Jouster and Knightmare skidded to a stop in the room, they carefully set Luna down on the ground, looking to their king for guidance.

“Where is everyone else, my liege?” Knightmare asked.

Dawnspike extended his arm and pointed a single talon toward the red sack.  “They’re right where you’ll be in a few moments.  The visitors have the means to get everyone to safety.  That bag is key.  When you climb inside, you’ll find yourself with much more space than you’d be led to believe.  And when you’re on solid ground again, the ambassadors will release you from within.”

Knightmare looked as though she was about to protest, but another fierce tremor shook the castle then.  She and Jouster sped forth, withdrawing into the extradimensional container.

“Your turn, Your Highness,” Michael said, looking to the mighty griffin.

But Dawnspike was already shaking his head.  “No, I’m afraid not.  It was my choice to settle in here on this island.  I was the one who brought all of the outsiders here.  If it wasn’t for you, I would have never been able to evacuate everyone.  This place was my decision, and so I shall be the one to see it fall apart and wash away.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Rhianna said.  “Your people needed you before, and they’ll need you after, once they get to safety.”

But the king of the misfits seemed ill-equipped to listen to reason.  He withdrew within himself, lost in regret and shame.

The three pups came up to him, swatting at him with their little paws.

“We need you!” Zelda said.  “None of us really remember how to get out of this place, so snap out of it and help lead the way!”

The dog’s words did seem to reach Dawnspike, and he shook himself from his stupor.  He alternated glances between each of the DeAngelo family members, as well as the little clockwork cat, and once he was certain of himself, he gave an affirmative nod.  He whipped around, turning out of the room, and began to sprint forward.

“Follow me!” he cried out.  “I know a shortcut.”

*          *          *

While the island shook and rumbled, the weather outside had cleared.  The family could see the ice floe that they had arrived in, though it was far from the island then.  The dolphins seemed interested in giving the place a wide berth, especially as sheer mountains of ice cracked and crumbled not far from the shore.

Dawnspike led them to a path through the mountains that would never have been visible from the ground.  “If you keep to this road, it will take you right to the edge of the island,” he bade.

“Why does that sound again like you’re not coming with us,” Rhianna asked.

The king sighed and looked back at his castle.  “I can’t stand the idea of watching all that we made together fall apart with no one here to be there for it.  And what if there are others inside that are in danger?”

“That’s the magic of what you created, King Dawnspike,” Michael said.  “You made a place where no outsiders remained outsiders.  Everyone was together.  Everyone was loved.”

“That’s right,” Rhianna said.  “And your castle isn’t what you built here on the island.  It’s what you made between your people.”

He still seemed hesitant to leave, alternating glances between the home he had known, and the extradimensional container that Rhianna held onto.

Michael reached out to squeeze his wife’s hand.  “Come on.  Let’s hope that he makes the right choice.  But we have an obligation to the people in that bag.”

As Michael and Rhianna began heading forward, the dogs raced ahead.  Taub couldn’t quite keep the pace, and Michael scooped him up as they made their way forward.

Luna, Maisie, and Zelda hurried on ahead.  Though Luna was all the way in the front, she constantly looked back over her shoulder to make sure that the others were following after her.  Zelda was quick in her old age, and she was persistent and stubborn, and refused to allow fatigue to bother her.  Maisie had a bit of a problem keeping up with her sisters—she didn’t have their conditioning, and she contended with a bit of a bum leg—but she still knew that she needed to push on as fast as she could, and she gave it her all.

Michael and Rhianna hurried on, too, racing as quickly as they were able.

They would soon learn they were not fast enough.

An echoing crack resonated across the island, and they didn’t realize what had happened at first.  But only a few moments later, Michael, Rhianna and Taub rose up into the air, the island shorn into pieces by the latest tremor.

Despite the section of the island rising into the air, Michael and Rhianna kept on running, even as the path before them seemed to descend toward the sea.  Their pups were far ahead of them by then, and they watched as they skittered and spun about to try and run back the other way.

“Michael, what do we do?” Rhianna asked.

So distracted by the sight of the scared dogs, Michael didn’t hear her concerns at first.  And despite the foolishness of the act, he kept running forth faster and faster.

“Hold on tight, Taub,” he called out.

“I would caution you against rushing toward the water,” the clockwork cat said.  “The risk of hypothermia is—”

The tracker could not finish his thought, because Michael dove headfirst then, sliding on his belly down the icy path that led toward the end of the island.  The way forward grew steeper and steeper as the island continued to flip upward.

Michael heard Rhianna cry out behind him, but he had his plan in motion already.  He lowered his head, removing any air resistance he could.  He could feel Taub tuck in behind him, too, as though the little tracker could sense what he was doing.  Michael kept his eyes open, despite the white and pale blue color of the island racing by.  He needed to know the precise moment to—

He watched as a different set of colors slid by him.  Black-and-white, and pink spots struggled to stay in place on the island.  Then a darker auburn color, and a bright red spot that set the ice aglow.  And finally, Michael could see Luna’s ruffles pass him by.

Or rather, he passed them.  He lifted his head, and realized how close the icy water was beneath them.  Only a few dozen feet away, he knew that a plunge beneath those frigid waves could have him paying the ultimate price.

“Now, Taub,” he called out, and as he rolled over, the clockwork cat squirmed from around his back to his chest.  Michael reached down and grabbed hold of the glissium pickaxe.  He plucked it from its spot, and with a quick swing, the blade struck the ice and held firm.  Michael’s arm nearly tugged from its socket as his momentum stopped.

All three dogs cried out as they continued to slide, but Michael swung his body around, kicking a single boot into the ground so that he could lay sideways across the steep decline.

Luna struck him first, and he thought that he would lose grip of the pickaxe.

But Taub was there, wrapping his arms around Michael’s hand, and the tool, ensuring the human could hold on.

Zelda bumped up against Luna next, and Michael reached out to grab hold of them both, squishing them against the ice and snow, and ensuring they could rest on his stomach.

Maisie skittered as best as she could, but she slid down next, hitting Michael on his leg.  He could feel the tension in his body, knowing that he didn’t have a good grip with his hand—despite the clockwork cat’s assistance—or his foot.  Anything could upset the balance.

They all heard Rhianna’s cry then, the woman sliding faster than the others had, for the island kept tipping farther and farther upward.

Michael reached out with his free hand then, grabbing hold of his wife’s arm as she passed.  With someone on the other side of him then, momentum carried him that way, and he swung wildly to the side.  The dogs swung in the opposite direction then, chaos unfolding on that vertical block of ice.  Luna grabbed hold of Michael’s side, Zelda hugged her around her hips, and Maisie clutched onto Zelda for dear life as they slid, and it was only by everyone’s momentum that Maisie’s feet landed on Rhianna’s boot, the entire family precariously balanced.

“Is this it?” Zelda asked.  “Is this our last big North Pole adventure?”

“Don’t think that way,” Rhianna said.  “We’ll figure something out.”

“You may not need to,” Taub said in his matter-of-fact tone.

Michael dared to look the other way, stretching his neck as far as it would allow.  He spotted another huge chunk of ice floating in the water there.  But it was who was on it that soon had his attention.

They mighty king of the outsiders, the griffin Dawnspike, charged across the ice floe, and with a tremendous leap, he took to the air.  His undersized wings flapped, and though they likely did not aid in his momentum, he still leapt far and high.  With an immense crash, he slammed into the iceberg, and another cacophonous crack echoed out into the region.  That sound was eclipsed a moment later as part of the island plunged into the water far below.

But none of the DeAngelo family could truly appreciate what that meant.  For as the island had tilted forward before, it began to pivot back the other way a moment later.

“Let me off this ride!” Rhianna cried as they swung back around.

Another huge noise resounded as the fragment of the island that they clung to slammed into the sea.

Michael could no longer hold on, and they all lifted into the air.

A few moments later, they struck the ground again, crying out in fear or confusion.

But they were steady.  And they were safe.

Dawnspike’s maneuver had tilted their island back the other way.

Michael sat up, wincing from the aches in his body.  He grabbed hold of Rhianna then, helping his wife to her feet as well.

“Did Dawnspike…?” Rhianna tried to ask.

Michael shook his head.  “The last thing I saw, he was on that piece of the island that broke off.”

Before anyone could even begin to worry or mourn, they watched as a clawed hand reached up over the ledge of the island.  Another reached up a moment later, and then the griffin king began to pull himself up to solid ground.

“You saved us, Your Majesty!” Rhianna said.

“And he saved his people,” Michael added.  “I don’t know what would have happened if we plunged into the water.”

While Dawnspike had a moment to take pride in his heroics, he soon found himself saddened once more.  The sight of his home crumbling to pieces filled his gaze as he looked west.  The great castle, fashioned out of the icy mountain, fell to ruin, and there was nothing that could be done to save it.

“Some day you’ll make a new castle,” Maisie said, the first to break the silence.  “And it will be even bigger and better.”

Dawnspike turned to regard the little pup, offering her a weary nod.

Behind them, they listened to strange robotic noises emitting from the clockwork cat’s body.  They thought at first that Leoden’s voice would echo out of Taub’s frame again, but the family realized soon after that he was making noises for another reason.  A few seconds later, the dolphins leapt out of the water, bringing the other ice floe that they had traveled on close.

“Well, this looks like it’s our ride,” Michael noted.  “Once we get back to the workshop, I think we’ll be able to help you and your people figure out a plan.”

“You are coming with us, right?” Rhianna asked.

The king of the misfits breathed out an unsteady sigh then but nodded in the affirmative.  “I have to see the first steps of our people finding new homes.  What may follow after that, I don’t know, but…”

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Rhianna said.  “That’s all we can do.”

“Speaking of which,” Michael said.  He reached across the gap, digging his pickaxe into the ice floe to pull it close.  Once it was steady, the three pups and the clockwork cat hurried across.  “Let’s not linger too long,” Michael said to his wife and the griffin king.  “We don’t know what kind of waves might be coming our way as the sea beneath the island churns.”

Rhianna and Dawnspike saw reason in that comment, and they made their way onto the smaller chunk of ice, and Michael was quick to follow them.

“All right, you dolphins,” Rhianna said.  “Let’s head back to the rest of our friends.”

With some chittering and squeaking in response from the clockwork creatures, they began on their way.

*          *          *

Leoden and Revan clinked a pair of mugs together, and then took sips of hot cocoa.  Behind them then, a hum sounded, and they turned to see the portal yawn to life.

The readings that Leoden received from Taub let them know that the mission had been a success.  They fully anticipated their return, and when the first of them came through, it soon became clear that the two elves were not alone.

Taub walked through first, but the three pups were close behind them, and soon after, Michael and Rhianna stepped through the portal as well.  Cheers broke out, and the DeAngelo family realized that many of the friends they have made over the year had joined them there in the workshop.

Though they took a moment to bask in the glow of their success, Michael and Rhianna stepped aside, and gestured toward the portal then.  Dawnspike stepped through the gateway, squeezing through, for it was just a little too small for him.

“May we present King Dawnspike,” Rhianna called out.

The dozens of attendees in the workshop cheered for the great king as well, already hearing of his deeds, and learning about how he had rescued his people, and Santa’s advisors and ambassadors.

“So, what did you think?” Leoden asked.  “Was that an adventure worthy of the DeAngelo family?”

Michael nodded.  “I think it might have been a little too adventurous there for a time.  But we were glad for the distraction.”

“And we’re glad that it might have served you so,” Revan said.

Rhianna drew near to the table there as well, and she hoisted Taub onto it, gently placing the little clockwork cat on the map-emblazoned surface.

“So, what do we end up doing with this little guy now?” she asked.  “He doesn’t exactly have an island of misfit toys to go and rescue anymore.  Speaking of which…” Rhianna arched an eyebrow and pulled the enchanted Santa sack closer, too.  “I think we’re going to have to find new homes for just about everyone.”

Leoden’s eyes flashed, and he lifted his hands up.  “Whoa there.  Let’s wait just a second.  I want to make sure that the refugees have room before we open up that bag.”  He turned to the tracking cat though, leaning forward to pat the clockwork critter on the head.  “In your case, Taub, I think I’ve found just the thing for you.  We’ve been doing some research, and according to some literature we read, it’s come to our attention that most wizards need a familiar, and that some of the best ones are cats.”

“We’re ready for you,” Revan called out.

The crowd seemed to part to allow one of the esteemed guests through.  He hadn’t been at the party in Santa’s house, so it appeared that he had arrived fashionably late.

“Raskagar!” Zelda cried out.

The old wizard waved to the DeAngelo family, but he approached the table with some concern and curiosity.  When he arrived there, he gasped for a second at the sight of the clockwork kitty, and Taub’s ears went back as he bowed down.

“Oh, you’ll have to forgive me, my friend,” Raskagar said.  “Once, not so long ago, I was a tiny little mouse.  I think I still have some fears embedded in me from that time.”  The wizard leaned on the table, then, smiling at the metallic creature.  “Oh, but you’re not so frightening, are you?  In fact, you look like a dapper fellow.”

Taub looked at Leoden then, seeming a little bit confused.

“You know what this is, right?” the elf asked.  “You’re about to go into retirement, my friend.  No more getting lost in the cold.  Instead, you’ll have a nice warm wizard’s tower to lounge around in.”

“And I’m sure you’ll love my apprentice, as well,” Raskagar said.  “Oh, Barnabus is going to be just smitten with you.”  He waved him on then, and as the wizard walked away, Taub hopped off the table to follow him.  “Now one of the things we’ll have to do is cast just a little bit of magic on you.  You won’t need that winding key much longer, as we’ll make sure your gears are always turning.”

Michael and Rhianna smiled as Raskagar walked away to interact with the newest member of his own family then.  But they were distracted when Leoden and Revan reached down and began pushing the table aside.

“Well, come on then,” Revan said.  “More hands make for lighter burdens!”

The two humans of the DeAngelo family lent their assistance to the task, and before long, a much bigger space was left on the floor of the workshop.

As Michael and Rhianna grabbed hold of the red velvet Santa sack, the DeAngelo pups ran excitedly about in circles, eager to see the new friends they had made.  One by one, the misfits they had rescued emerged from the sack, hugging one another once they realized had indeed found a way to safety, and offering warm greetings to their rescuers.  They spotted Dawnspike lingering in the shadows at the back of the workshop, and gave him their praise and adulation, especially upon learning that he had saved them from the brink of doom.

And then, the esteemed guests who had ventured to the North Pole for Santa’s party took a step forward, welcoming the misfit toys to the workshop.

For quite some time, revelry and laughter filled the air.  Happiness seemed like a foregone conclusion.

But Dawnspike approached Michael and Rhianna after some time and cleared his throat.  The two humans looked at the griffin king, and looked at him with curiosity, for he seemed a bit suspicious about something.  When he gestured ahead, they noticed that at some point during the celebration, the illusory magic making the dogs look like toys had worn off.  Gone were Maisie’s spots, Zelda’s red nose, and Luna’s ruffle, the pups instead just seeming like the happy little mutts they were.

Michael and Rhianna looked back at Dawnspike, a little nervous about what he would think of such a thing.

The griffin king simply laughed, shaking his head.

“While I don’t appreciate the secrets you had to keep, I understand why you did what you did.”  He harrumphed to himself.  “No, what I really am disappointed with is that we thought we had to exile ourselves to such a dangerous place to begin with.  I demand to see the person who created us.  Who saw it in themselves to make us and subsequently consider us monstrosities?”

Leoden had heard the raised voice, and he could see the worried looks of panic on the faces of his guests, and he hurried over to placate the honored king.

“Your Majesty,” the elf said.  “I actually have someone important for you to meet here.”

With a whistle, another guest was summoned, though that one seemed far less imposing than the great wizard who had come to gather up the little clockwork cat earlier.  A short fellow, with thick patches of fuzz on the sides of his head, but none up top, came scurrying over to the mighty griffin.  The gnome looked on with narrowed eyes, not quite being able to see the people he stood with.  But he reached up, grabbing a pair of goggles.  When he slid them down on his face, his eyes became enlarged, and they lit up at the sight of the king of the misfits.

“King Dawnspike,” Leoden said.  “This is one of the oldest workshop attendants we have here at the North Pole.  I’d like to introduce you to Yeston.”

The powerful leader of the misfits stood tall, casting a judgmental gaze upon the diminutive gnome.  “Well then.  What do you have to say for yourself?”

“For myself?” the little crafter asked.  “Nothing.  But I do have something to say about you.”  He peered all about the griffin, noting every stitch, every tuft of fur and feather about the powerful creature.  For a moment, Dawnspike was reminded that he, too, was a toy.  “You’re just as beautiful here in person as you were when I dreamed you up,” Yeston said.

Dawnspike seemed as though he was the only one in the building who was buffeted by an immense gale.  His legs shook beneath him, and for a second, emotion overwhelmed him.  “What do you mean by those words?” he demanded.  “If I am to be so appreciated, why was I discarded?”

“The answer to that, I cannot give you,” Yeston said.  “All I know is that you are exactly as I thought you should have been, and you were created as such to the letter.  Every thread is in place exactly as it should be.”  As he spoke, the gnome reached behind his back, and swung forth a tome that was chained to his belt.  When he swept open a latch on the front, and opened it up, a pen nearly rolled from the pages, but he was quick to reach out and grab hold of it.  A few moments later, he had turned to a page that he was excited to display.  “Look!”

There, facing the king, was a perfect image of him recorded on the old yellow pages of the book.  He looked just as majestic on the paper as he was in real life.  And there in the picture, as in reality, his wings were smaller than one would expect.

“I don’t make mistakes,” the gnome said, suddenly sounding much surer of himself.  “You were my masterpiece, but look, I have all of the people who these fine folk rescued here today.”

As he turned the pages, Dawnspike saw sketches of the toys that he had come to live with in the massive castle, and he even saw other toys that had not yet made their way to him yet.

“Now that you’re here, maybe you can help me with ideas for other toys that would make people happy,” the gnome said.

As the two conversed, Leoden waved Michael and Rhianna over, allowing the reunited creator and creation to speak.

“I don’t know if you heard that, but it is true,” the elf said.  “The outsiders that you were sent to rescue should have been anything but that.  They were created exactly to Yeston’s specifications.  They even had homes that they were meant to go to.”

“So why didn’t they reach them?” Rhianna asked.  “Why did they end up abandoned?”

Leoden shrugged and shook his head.  “We’re looking into it, but… There’s no reason that one of Santa’s workers would do that.  It’s very atypical for one of the people here to do that, and even Santa could not explain it.”

“Santa knows about it now?” Michael asked.

“Well, yes,” Leoden said.  “When Taub’s alert reached us, we called Santa right away.  We’re happy that you were able to find your way back safely, but we were ready to have our mutual friend rush to pull you out of the sea if he needed to.”

Rhianna flashed a nervous grin.  “I’m glad it didn’t come to that.  He told us to take it easy this year, and we almost turned into ice cubes.”

“We were almost pupsicles!” Zelda cried from a bit further into the room.

Michael glanced in that direction.  “That dog and her satellite ears,” he said.

“In any case, we’re all working our magic, trying to see if we can’t get some more details about how it came to this,” Leoden said.  “Christmas will have to come first, of course, but when we have news for you—”

The elf could not finish his thought, for the front door of the building slammed open, and a great figure stood in the doorway.  Michael and Rhianna could see Santa from where he stood, and his eyes were wide with shock to see all the people—and toys—that were in attendance.

“Well, this is a great surprise indeed,” Santa said.  “But it is also a very welcome one.”

In time, those in attendance explained the clandestine mission that the DeAngelo family had undertaken.  Santa met with many of the toys, including their fearless leader.  He reached down to pet the clockwork cat, eliciting a mechanical purr from the little critter.  And he raised a glass of eggnog in cheer to Leoden and Revan, two of his longest-serving assistants, for being brave enough to offer their friends a distraction that they knew was desperately needed.

As the revelry began to quiet, and Santa’s attendants helped the toys move out of the workshop, Santa spent a little more time with the other special guests he had invited to the North Pole.  He could see that they were a little tired from all the activity they experienced that day.  Rhianna sat on a large plush chair with Luna curled up and laying her head on her lap.  Michael was just in front of her, sitting on the floor atop a fluffy blanket.  Zelda and Maisie had him trapped on either side, the dogs there snoozing as well.

“So, you just couldn’t put your feet up for one Christmas, eh?” Santa asked Michael and Rhianna, reining in his often-boisterous voice so that he wouldn’t disturb the pups.  He waved off the notion.  “Leoden and Revan did a wonderful job.  There are all sorts of ways to try and separate ourselves from grief, and I do believe they found the one that was best suited to you.

“You know,” he continued, “we never truly had the chance to sit and talk earlier.  You made me this lovely wand, and I didn’t even get to remark on all the magic it has inside.”  He drew out the beautiful magical implement she had crafted and held it aloft for her to see.

Rhianna tilted her head and arched an eyebrow in curiosity.

Santa smiled and winked, and then with a flick of his wrist, he let magic fly forth from the wand.  Before them, the image of a fireplace took form, a quiet crackling emitting from within.  Rhianna and Michael shared a glance at one another, impressed that Santa had brought magic forth from her wand so soon.

“Ah, but that’s the wrong channel, isn’t it?” Santa asked.

He pointed the wand again, and the image of the fireplace changed.  Instead, it showed a glimpse of the future, on Christmas day, when children around many worlds would be opening their presents.

At first, nothing seemed quite out of the ordinary. It looked as though just anyone could be enjoying a pleasant morning with their family.  But then, Michael and Rhianna noticed a small, green-skinned child who opened a box to find a little bearded doll inside.  They recognized Dul in an instant, even though he was much smaller than when they had met him at Dawnspike’s castle.  After a few more children opened traditional gifts on Earth, they watched as a naga child jumped in surprise and joy at the sight of William springing from his box.  And moments later, Michael and Rhianna shared a laugh at the sight of a little rhinotaur child playing with Papier, his new rocking unicorn.  The images continued, and they even saw young Barnabus excitedly playing with his master’s new familiar, the little clockwork cat Taub—who no longer had the winding key affixed to his head.

“You may not have set out to do it, but you saved Christmas again, my friends,” Santa said.  “And not just for the children who had a few more sparks of joy, but for the little creations that might not have found their way home otherwise.”

Michael reached up and grabbed his wife’s hand, giving it a squeeze.

Rhianna blew out a little sigh though, then.

“Santa, with that wand, can you always see the future?”

The burly man in the red suit hummed to himself.  “Well, you know, the wand was made for me, and I was made for Christmas.  And while I can’t see quite as far in the future as I think you want me to be able to gaze, I think I can say that you and your family will be okay.”

He flicked the wand again, but that time, the images moved backward, until earlier that night.

“How am I supposed to tell this story?” the version of Michael in the image asked.  Though he wore a weary smile, there was a sadness there in his eyes as well.

The image cycled forward just a bit.

“Here, distract yourself with this,” the past version of Rhianna said, and there was a bit of melancholy there as well.  “Think about all the things you want to say,” she said a moment later.

“You all seem a bit quieter this year,” the image of Michael said.  And indeed, even the dogs seemed a bit lost in spite of the holiday spirit.

Michael—the one who was watching those images of themselves from the floor of Santa’s workshop—reached up and rubbed his wife’s leg.  Rhianna’s eyes were red, and she worked as hard as she could to keep any tears from falling down her cheek.

But when she watched Michael earlier that evening holding the door open for just a moment longer, as if he was waiting for Peanut to come scampering out of the house to join them on another adventure, she couldn’t hold it in anymore, and several tears streamed down from each eye.

She moved her hand to shield her eyes, but when she looked down and noticed her husband crying to, she instead reached out to him.

As soon as they squeezed each other’s hand, the image moved forward again, that time to many hours after they arrived at the North Pole.  Sitting on the moving ice floe, the DeAngelo family reminisced about their lost little loved one, talking about all the cute quirks they remembered her for.

“There is something special about those we choose to spend our time with during our lifetimes,” Santa said.  As he spoke, Michael and Rhianna realized that even he had a tinge of red in his eyes.  “It’s a spark that never truly fades, even when it seems like it would.  And in time, you’ll find that you protect those embers, and you bolster them with happy memories, instead of the saddest ones.”

Santa reached down and pat his friends on the shoulders, and then he slowly walked away so that they could take those moments to be with one another.

As he took his leave, the images changed one more time, to even further back.

Just as he said, Michael and Rhianna were bolstered by happier memories, and they watched as the little cat, gone but still an indelible part of their lives, moved about and played with the dogs, scratched herself against her toys, and lounged in the bed in front of the window, basking in the warm glow of the sunlight.

*          *          *

It was Christmas morning, and Michael and Rhianna quickly traded bleary eyes for glances of excitement as the dogs pawed eagerly at the presents beneath the tree.  They could tell that Santa had brought them a few more presents as well, as the ones they left under the tree for the dogs seemed to multiply.

“Are you all ready to open your presents?” Rhianna said as she and her husband sat down beside the tree and the electric fireplace.

The doggies spun about or barked, unable to contain themselves.  Rhianna passed the presents to Michael, and he handed them to the dogs.  Each of them began to unwrap their presents in their own way: Zelda swatted at the gifts with her paws in a frenzy, Maisie carefully pulled on the ribbon upon hers, and Luna tossed her head about to peel the wrapping paper off hers.  Before long, each of them had the present that Santa and his friends at the North Pole had prepared for them.

Zelda’s eyes grew wide when she first spotted her frisbee.  It was colored the same way that the Silver Moon had been, though it was made out of softer material.  She kept bringing it to Michael, who gingerly tossed it onto the couch before she would bring it back.

Maisie wagged her tail and presented her present to Rhianna.  It was a little costume that was colored the same way she was, but it had little pink spots on it.  She was happy to be dressed up then, and contentedly hurried to lie in her bed, under the mammoth blanket she had received years earlier.

Luna, on the other hand, was too excited to do anything but give her toy a shake.  The little orange tumbler reminded her of her bowling task at the North Pole, and she kept on moving it around the living room.  As she brought it close to Michael, he grabbed her under her belly, and playfully guided her into a flipping motion, the big pup landing in his lap.  She kicked and grumbled, but then she reached up to give him a smooch on his nose.  He let her roll from his legs, to continue playing with her toy.

“There’s a couple more for us,” Rhianna said.  She reached over and gave Michael a small gift addressed to him, too.

When he opened it, he found a small cartographer’s compass, and upon closer inspection, he noticed the fineness of its points.  As he narrowed his eyes, he realized that the compass had been tipped with glissium, the magical ore that had been found at the North Pole.

Rhianna unwrapped hers as well, and her eyes lit up once she saw the small crystal that had been sent her way.  She held it aloft, looking at it through the light of the window, and she realized that it was not some mere stone, but a chunk of Dawnspike’s castle.  The mighty griffin king must have gone back to where the island had been and found something for her to remember him by.

Michael and Rhianna squished closer together then, watching as their dogs played with their toys, or rested in their comfortable new attire.  Michael grabbed his wife’s hand and gave it a little squeeze.

When they looked at one another, they wore smiles that were mostly ones of joy, but they could both sense a bit of sadness still there.  Still, they knew that each day, that grief would diminish more and more, and they would fill it with more happy thoughts.

Above the little electric fireplace, a picture of Peanut rested on the wall.  It was illuminated by the light of Christmas morning, and the everlasting love of her family, who still kept her in their hearts.

A huge thank you to Leo Borazio and Steven Bellshaw for helping us with our bookmarks this year.  It is always a blessing to work with people who are so talented, especially when they are adding to something so personal.

The post Christmas Misfits appeared first on Tellest.

Christmas Comet

A Tale by Michael and Rhianna DeAngelo

The young pup ran from one member of her family to the next, harassing them until they grumbled or groaned or growled at her.  The only one who narrowly escaped her rampant acts of noodgery was the old cat who sat atop the stairs, glaring down in silent judgment.

“Do you remember being that young?” Michael asked, having become one with the couch.

“You mean running around excited for no good reason?” Rhianna asked.

“I mean being able to run around,” Michael replied.  “About being physically able to do…anything.”

“Yeah, that was just last year,” Rhianna said.  “And then we fought against frost giants and yetis.”

“Well, we can pretend that it was through glorious battle that we sustained these grievous injuries,” Michael said, leaning back with a groan, “but I know that I was bested by a heavy pile of snow and a non-ergonomic snowshovel.”

Rhianna nodded, demonstrating a bit more melancholy than usual for that festive time of year.  “I think all my suffering can be traced back to a stubbed toe a couple of years ago.”

The husband and wife were drawn from their thoughts when Luna, the newest member of their family, nipped at Zelda, their oldest pup.  Though it was a playful bite, Zelda was having none of it, and turned from the beautiful, sweet thing she was into a grumbly, grouchy thing who snarled like a beast and chased Luna away.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already,” Michael said.

Rhianna nodded, but then she pinched her eyebrows together and tilted her head.  “Actually, for Luna, it feels like it’s been a few years.  Do you remember when she was just that little thing who looked like a mix between Zelda and Maisie, and we thought she’d be their size?”

“Just another of Loki’s box of tricks,” Michael said.  “We thought he’d turned over a new leaf, only to find that he gave us a whole tree!”

Passing a glance to the back door of the house, Rhianna folded her arms across her chest.  “I’m still not so sure the neighbors didn’t really get tricked into bringing Loki in as a spy, to always keep an eye on us.  I mean, it’s right there in the name.”

“Right, that’s what he wants you to think,” Michael said.  “That he’s just a dog.”

“We know your tricks, Loki!” Rhianna yelled, though Michael patted her on the shoulder, reminding her that it was nearly midnight.

Michael wasn’t the only one to react to the sudden increase in Rhianna’s volume.  Luna leapt onto the couch, and then stepped onto the cushions, only to lean forward and drape her arms over Rhianna’s shoulders a moment later.

“She’s backpacking!” Rhianna said, chuckling as Luna rested her head on Rhianna’s like she was trying to be some sort of furry hat.  While Michael and Rhianna gave her abundant pets, Luna began to pant excitedly.  “I wonder if she’s aware that something is going on.  The other animals are usually so tired around this time.”

“If they’re awake, something’s got to be going on, right Luna?” Michael asked, prompting the dog to tilt her head sideways.

That also seemed to be the only confirmation that the other dogs and the cat needed.  Zelda sat up on her hind legs then, getting into “treat-begging” position.  Though Maisie was burrowed underneath a blanket—her favorite place to be—her tail was already wagging in anticipation.  And Peanut… Well, Peanut was sitting atop her perch, at the halfway mark of the stairs, staring at Michael, Rhianna, and Luna, unblinking.

“It won’t be long now,” Rhianna said.  “Before you know it, the portal will be opened, and we’ll be headed back to see Santa.”

“And headed to see what apocalypses we have in store for us this year,” Michael joked.

Rhianna blew out a little sigh.  “Whatever it is, I hope it’s not another battle.  My knees can’t take another one!”

“Neither can my back,” Michael said, taking that opportunity to stretch into a better position.  “Hey, maybe that’s what we can put on our Christmas lists this year for Santa.”

“No thanks,” Rhianna said in a teasing voice.  “I already had too much meniscus.”

“Yeah, but with a little holiday magic, he could get you a brand-new knee.  Ooh, or maybe one of those hoverchairs from—”

Zelda squealed with excitement, begging as though there were leftover fries on the table. She whined, and whined, until Maisie joined into the silly chorus from underneath the covers, lending it a low, almost solemn howl.  Luna, never quite learning how to howl properly, eagerly joined in, adding her high-pitched, discordant yowls into the air.  They sounded more like the sound a toy laser gun would make than that of a distinguished canine.

“Pew, pew, pew,” Michael said, mocking the largest of their dogs.

Peanut descended the steps too, feeling the calling of the howl as well, though she never lent any sound to the pack.  But she climbed atop the ottoman at the end of the couch, passing a glance from one member of the chorus to the next.

“Oh, don’t be so judgmental,” Michael said, leaning forward to plant a kiss atop the cat’s head.

All the rest of the family could feel the Christmas magic beginning to arrive, but Luna, as excited as ever, kept up her noises.

“I wonder what she’s going to sound like,” Rhianna mused.  “Oh, good evening chaps.  I was just having some tea in my garden,” came her stately lady impression.

“You guys need to know you can never stop feeding meeee!” Michael replied with a faux squeaky voice.

But as the youngest dog’s fractured howls continued, they morphed into a different sound altogether, an almost singsong verse of “I.  Am.  The.  Best.  At.  Howls!  I.  Am.  The…the…”  There was an abrupt stop to her discordant music, and she tilted her head, her little eyebrows raising in surprise. “Wait… I sound funny.”

“Luna!” Rhianna said, squeezing their pup into a tight embrace.  “It’s so nice to hear you speak!”

The dog’s eyes went wide, and she forced out a sound.  “Bark!” she cried in the woman’s face, though she could no longer make the noise, and instead said the word as a person would have said it.

Rhianna closed her eyes and recoiled back from the loud noise.

When Luna realized she’d deafened her, she bowed her head, and pulled her ears back.  “Sorry, you told me to speak!”

“It’s okay, little one,” Michael said, tousling her fur between her ears.  “Little big one.  She doesn’t use those ears that much to listen to us these days anyway,” he teased his wife.

Rhianna looked pointedly at her husband and arched an eyebrow.  “Hmm?”

Together, the two nuzzled into each other, laughing at the playful insult.

But a list of real grievances needed to be aired, and Zelda, usually so refrained, rushed to the couch, and batted at Luna with her paw.  “You there!  You listen good!  You might be twice my size, but you’ll catch twice my vengeance because of it.  You ate all my toys!  And you don’t even have the decency to hide the fluff—oh dear, the fluff.  And…and…you try to steal my food, but I know!  I know every bite that’s missing.  It’s bad enough that Peanut does it!”  She cast a sideways glance at the cat.

“Stolen food simply tastes more satisfying,” Peanut purred with a feline smirk appearing on her face.  She almost seemed surprised to hear her Christmas voice, and she quickly set aside to grooming as a distraction, licking at the underside of one her paws as though it were more interesting than the conversations being held in the living room.

While Michael and Rhianna were more than happy to hear the newest member of their family talk—and receive a hilarious scolding from her older sister—they knew that they could not linger there indefinitely.  Maisie, quiet before then, hopped up from her spot on the couch, freeing herself from the warm embrace of the blanket.

She didn’t get far, though, before Luna was there beside her, cobbing the fur on the back of her neck.  “Wait,” Luna said between nibbles.  “You can’t leave me, okay?  We have to stay together.”

“I know,” Maisie replied with an exasperated sigh.

“Her first Tellest Christmas,” Rhianna said.  “And she already knows that something is up.”

“There something in the air,” Michael replied.  “Even if we didn’t keep all the fluffies awake well past their bedtime, she might have sensed something.”

As Rhianna swept the sliding door to the side, she could not see anything, even though she felt the change in the atmosphere that her husband had described.  It was almost as though a storm was coming, but the sky was clear, a canvas of stars twinkling down upon the family.

Rhianna turned to Michael, who stared across the way, and gestured with his chin to the fence that separated their house from one of their neighbors.  There, barely visible in the darkness, their white dog sat, looking up at the sky.

“Loki,” Michael whispered.

Luna ran outside to greet her friend through the fence, but before she took too many steps, she too realized that something was different about the world outside their house, and she stopped to sniff at the air.  The rest of the family joined her there, even Peanut, though she took a bit of time to saunter onto a comfy spot of grass before she chose to sit.

Michael closed the sliding door behind them.  “It is after midnight, if we go by them being able to speak,” he said to his wife.

“I hope it’s not going to be another situation where it’s late,” Rhianna replied.

Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, a bright, swirling light appeared above them, and almost instantaneously along with it, a thick fog joined it.

“Oh no!” Zelda cried.  “Aliums!”

A little less concerned, Michael kept his gaze focused on the light above, until it expanded, and he realized that it was in fact the portal—though not quite where they’d often seen it in years past.

“Well, this is different,” he said.

The portal expanded, swirling like a disc in the air, and it hovered higher than the roof.  As the glow around its edges grew, extending for the length of its circumference, it set the ground below awash in an almost blindingly bright light.

“That is the portal though,” Rhianna said.

“What do they expect us to do?” Peanut said with a scoff.  “Jump?”

“I can do it!” Luna said, excitedly.  With a determined bark, she crouched low, wagging her tail.  Then, with all the strength she could muster, she leapt into the air, her ears flapping from the motion.

To everyone’s surprise, she didn’t come back down, instead remaining there in the air.  Those big, floppy ears never settled back on her head either, and neither did her jowls.  She kicked as best she could and began alternating glances at her family members in confusion as she panted with nervous energy.

“Luna!” Michael yelled, running forward, and reaching up for the pup.

But as soon as he stretched far enough, he too began to drift upward toward the portal.

“There we go,” Rhianna said.  “That’s how we get to see Santa this year.  Everyone, lift up your paws!”

Zelda excitedly stood on her hind legs, having had much practice in her begging position for almost a decade.  Peanut was a little hesitant to do anything she was told, but with a sigh, she did spring up into the air, showing that she was still spry after more than twice as long in the world as her next oldest sister.

Maisie had a bit of a hard time hopping up on her hind legs, prompting Michael to tell Rhianna to hold up before she hopped into the air.

“You don’t need to warn me,” Rhianna said.  “Our poor girl is just like me.  We both have bum legs.”  She took a knee next to Maisie, who bowed her head a little and sighed as she stepped upon the woman’s leg.  “It’s okay, little one.  You’re doing great.  And once we’re in the air, we’ll let the Christmas magic do all the work.”

That seemed to inspire the dog to make one last attempt at a little hop.  Shortly after, Rhianna joined her, stepping off the ground until she felt the pull from the portal.

With all the DeAngelo family floating in the air, they heard a whimper from the other side of the fence and watched as the neighbor’s dog fled to the door of its house, scratching desperately to get inside.

“Alright then,” Michael said.  “Not our Loki.”

“Unless it’s a trick,” Rhianna said, arching her eyebrow.

Before they could ponder it much more, they could hear the sounds of change above them.  Luna looked up, her eyes growing wide as she grew fearful.  The fog surrounding the portal was swept inside, and the light refracted, almost looking as though it was bending toward the stars high above.

“Don’t worry Luna,” Michael said, still trying to reach out to her.  “This happens every year.  It’s nothing to be—”

The man, high enough in the air, and floating at the center of the portal’s reach, was flung into the vortex, disappearing from everyone’s view.  Luna screamed, but was the next to be drawn across realms, her cry echoing out in a strange fleeting sound.

“All right, everyone,” Rhianna said, trying her best to soothe everyone who had yet to find transport through the portal.  “You know the drill.  See you at the North Pole!”

Peanut and Zelda, the next highest up flew up through the portal then, apathetic, and excited, respectively.  Rhianna managed to reach down and scoop Maisie closer to her, kissing her on the head just before they were thrown through the vortex as well.

Then, with the DeAngelo family all snagged from their home, the magic that pulled them away disappeared, leaving silence in its wake.

The dog next door howled, begging to be let inside.

*          *          *

Though they had taken the journey many times by then, it felt far different than any other time.  Inside the portal, it was tremendously dark, in stark contrast to the bright light that surrounded the entryway.  Michael always felt as though he were falling endlessly, but in that moment, he felt instead like he was being stretched like a rubber band that was ready to snap.

Michael crashed into a sturdy metal floor then, somehow remaining on his feet.  He felt as though his body compressed from the landing, and he sucked in a painful breath of air through gnashed teeth.

Luna’s cry still echoed as she flew through the tunnel, and Michael looked up to try and see if he could see her.  The surroundings, he realized, were as bright as the portal’s light had been.  It looked as though he was standing in a white void.  Still, he refused to let the strange surroundings distract him.  He reached out to try and catch the pup, but when she landed in his arms, her weight threw him off balance, and he somersaulted forward, slamming onto his back, while Luna smushed down onto his chest.  Happy to have had a comfortable landing, Luna began smooching Michael’s face, the poor man groaning as he contended with his pain.

“I keep forgetting how big you got,” he said, though his speaking did nothing to convince her to stop licking his face.

As excited as she was to continue, when Michael heard the excited squeal of another of his family members, he gave Luna a light little shove, to make sure no one crashed into her.

“Wee!” Michael heard Zelda yell.

But it wasn’t Zelda who came through first.  Farther along, Peanut emerged from the light above, bouncing off of Michael’s abdomen like it was a small trampoline.  The man let loose a quick, sharp groan, and tried to catch his breath.

“That’s okay,” he struggled.  “I didn’t need that spleen.”

Just as soon as he recovered, Zelda landed on his chest, somehow finding a softer landing than the cat did.  She wagged her tail, but looked up, realizing that she was not the last one through the portal.  The second auburn-haired dog skittered from Michael’s chest, scratching him as she went along.

Maisie was there next an instant later, letting out a little sigh as she pressed her head against Michael’s chest.

“It’s okay, little one,” he said, scratching behind her neck.

But they both winced when they heard a loud slam around them, and when they dared to open their eyes and look up, they realized that Rhianna had arrived as well, setting herself in a wide stance as she landed on the metal floor.

“Phew,” she said.  “I almost killed you.”

“Thank you for not doing that,” Michael said.

Maisie slowly slinked away, closer to the other animals, who still looked about in the white void, trying to figure out what was going on.

Rhianna, meanwhile, blew out a steadying sigh as she shifted her weight off of one of her legs.  “I am definitely going to feel that later.”  She reached down and offered her hand to her husband, though she could tell he was careful in climbing to his feet.

Michael’s eyes had adjusted to the room better than anyone’s, and as he looked around, he could see the subtle shift in the white tones.  Wherever they were, it seemed they were encased in a metal box, and not outside in the cold and the snow of the North Pole.

“Were we hijacked by someone else again?” Rhianna wondered.

Maisie sniffed at the air, a look of distrust in her eyes.  She seemed to sulk a moment later, bowing her head and slumping her shoulders.  “Where are we?  It doesn’t smell like Christmas.”

Almost as though something had heard her words, beeps and chirps filled the room, and columns of red and green lights appeared here and there, leaving the otherwise white room awash in festive colors.  Still, the platform they stood upon seemed cold and uninviting.

Zelda turned to look at Michael and Rhianna, panting as she tried to make sense of where they were.  “You told us we were coming to see the elves and the reindeer.  This feels suspiciously like the vet!”

Her people did not have time to give her any assurances before they heard more pointed beeping behind one of the walls.  Michael realized that there were vague seams there and noted that it was actually a well-crafted door.  He stepped in front of his family, even sweeping Luna back.

But his worries were somewhat abated when he understood that the tones the beeping played sounded out the tune of Jingle Bells.

The door slid open with a pneumatic hiss, and fog rolled into the room.  The older members of the DeAngelo family had an immediate sense of who was waiting for them on the other side, for a pair of black boots gave way to a red and white outfit.  When they spotted the fellow’s beard, they were sure they were in the company of a friend once again.

“Welcome, DeAngelos!” Santa boomed in his warm but thunderous voice.  As he stepped into the room, the automatic door shut behind him.  “I hope your travels were—” He grunted as Luna crashed into him, jumping up and down against his broad chest as she tried to reach his face to give him greeting licks.

“Hi new friend!” she said between jumps.  “You smell like cookies.  I love you so much.  Give me cookies please!”

“Luna!” Rhianna reprimanded.  It became apparent, though, that her warnings went unheard or ignored.

“Ho ho, it’s all right, little one,” Santa said, but as soon as he was able to get a good look at the newest member of the DeAngelo household, he hummed to himself.  “Or should I say big one.  My brother must have… Well, you know how he is,” he said with a laugh.

“I think all brothers have a bit of a mischievous side,” Michael said.  “But yours definitely holds the record for level of deception, and the amount of them.”

Everyone took a few moments to catch up with Santa, or to introduce them to the newest animal in the DeAngelo menagerie.  But it didn’t take long for Rhianna to realize that their visit was not quite as urgent as it was in years past.  That, together with the strange room they arrived in, as well as the appearance of Santa’s suit, had her questioning things.

Santa wore the usual colors, but his suit seemed sleeker, and more modern, with some embellishments on the boots and gloves, which made them seem to be attached to the suit—one piece instead of many.

“Santa?” Rhianna asked, looking around again at their surroundings.  “Where are we?”

Though his brother was known for mischief, Santa wore a visage that showed that it possibly ran in the family, the very spirit of Christmas displaying a smirk.  “Why, you’re in my workshop, of course.  One of them, that is, and not any of the ones you’re used to.  But why don’t I show you so that you better understand?”

He didn’t wait to hear if anyone had any objections, and he turned to exit the room.  That time, the door opened on its own, without any holiday tunes necessary in order to activate.  Santa led the DeAngelo family down the long corridor, still retaining a sort of pristine, neutral color, although it wasn’t as light as the room that they had arrived in.

Maisie sniffed at the air again, and Zelda noticed it and joined in.  Even the humans visiting could tell that the atmosphere felt different.  The air felt odd and artificial, like the scent on an airplane after it pressurized.  Everything around them seemed odd as well, for it was silent beyond the sound of their footsteps and the odd beeps and chirps here and there.

The corridor terminated at another door, and Santa reached forth toward the wall beside it.  A panel popped open, revealing a keypad, and as Father Christmas set his fingers to work enacting the code, Michael and Rhianna recognized it playing the tune of Deck the Halls.

Just as before, the door opened with a hiss, but that one didn’t spill any fog into the room.

“We had to ensure that when you arrived, we didn’t detect any dangerous foreign objects on you.  Even the smallest things could have catastrophic results here at this station,” Santa said.  “Luckily, you passed the tests, and are free to move about the whole facility, although I don’t imagine we’ll be spending a long time here.”

As the door opened fully, Michael and Rhianna sorely wished they were.  Inside the building was a bustling workshop, just as Santa had said.  Similar in appearance to the ones they had seen at the North Pole whenever they visited, it had a sleeker, shinier appearance.  A blend of science intersected with the typical Christmas magic, elves and gnomes looking up from their tables to ponder glittering, glowing schematics that hovered in the air above their workstations.

“Now, this is a more…remote base of operations, but it serves us just as well,” Santa said as he led the family through the workshop.  “You see, this gives us the perfect means to verify that nothing is wrong with any of our stops, and that very little can interfere with us.  Both my sleigh and my reindeer are outfitted with technology that allows them—and me—to travel through space and time.  Can you imagine how challenging and inconvenient it would be getting around the worlds if I could only travel within the planet’s atmosphere?”

Michael and Rhianna paused, and their furry animals stopped behind them.

“Wait a minute,” Rhianna said.  “What are you saying?”

Santa clapped his gloved hands together and gestured toward the far wall of the building.  Whether it was because of some Christmas magic that he had at the ready, or if one of his workers had quick, discreet access to a button somewhere, the wall there rose.  It wasn’t as quick as the pneumatic doors they had seen thus far, instead opening slowly, like an old garage door.

Because of that slow reveal, the family was able to see things in a bit more of a grand fashion.  They noticed what looked like a snow-white landscape at first, but they soon realized that it was an uneven grey.  And the sky was completely unmarred by any sort of clouds or light pollution, with stars twinkling in the distance.  But as the door rose higher, they realized the truth of the special workshop they stood within.  A bright blue sphere glowed in the night, far, far away.

“We’re on the moon?” Rhianna and Michael said in unison.

*          *          *

They sat at a table in another room, looking out the long window that had been fashioned in the room, still gazing out at the planet before them every few moments.  Santa had explained that it was Tellest, not Earth, but Michael pointed out that it was not that simple.

“Of course,” Santa had said.  “It’s not necessarily about where you are, but when you are.  That’s what I’d like to task you with this year, in fact.”

“Well, we’re always excited to help to save Christmas,” Rhianna insisted.

“That is a wonderful sentiment, dear,” Santa said.  “But it’s a little bigger than that.  If you’re successful in tonight’s mission, you’ll do more than save Christmas.  You’ll save the world—perhaps twice.”

“Oh, is that all?” Michael said, blowing out an anxious sigh.

“This workshop is equipped with an intergalactic scanner, which has picked up a strange signal that we cannot quite explain.  Something has been coming this way, fast, and it looks like it may be on an intercept course for Tellest.  But,” he said, raising a finger, “it also somehow seems to be in a sort of time flux.  We’ve caught it in the same trajectory during your time as well, and it seems to be threatening Earth as well.  As best we can tell it originates here, in this time, which is why we’ve brought you here, instead of coming to visit you.”

“Wait, what is this?” Rhianna asked.  “Are you asking us to stop an asteroid from destroying the planet?”

“No, it’s not quite that bad,” Santa said.  “It’s merely a small comet.”

“Ahh, much more our speed, and worthy of our expertise,” Michael joked.

“So, what do you need us to do?” Rhianna asked.

“Are we helping you and the reindeer catch it in your bag of toys?” Zelda wondered.

Santa let fly one of his big belly laughs but shook his head.  “No, my friends, I have to prepare for tomorrow evening’s deliveries, so this mission will fall to you.  I simply need you to track the object, and to divert it if we are able to determine it will, in fact, hit Tellest or Earth if it is left to its current trajectory.”

He slapped his legs then and rose from his seat.  “Well, we could sit here for a good long while talking about it, but then our window will have closed, and we would have missed the comet.  So, let’s head into this next room and make sure you’re ready to go before I leave.”

The DeAngelo family followed Santa into an adjacent room, where they spotted a few pristine white suits hanging from a bar, as well as a strange vehicle that looked like a cross between a UFO and a space rover.

“What’s all this?” Rhianna wondered.

“Well, we had to prepare you for your journey a bit differently this year,” Santa said.  “You’ll have to stay warm, yes, but this year, ensuring you could all breathe in the cold vacuum of space was our first priority.”

“Yeah, that’s for thinking of us,” Peanut snarked.

“Let’s start with the three little ones,” Santa said, arching his eyebrow.  “The three of them will share the rover, which will help them get around as they follow you.  We didn’t expect Luna to keep growing, so we made some adjustments, as I don’t believe she’ll fit in the rover with the others.  She’s had a special space suit made, just for her.

“And as for you two lovebirds,” he said, pointing to Michael and Rhianna, “You two also each have a suit, and you’ll see that there are some special attachments.”  He walked over to the suits, and spun one of them around, revealing the red sack that was attached to the back.

“It looks like one of your toy sacks!” Zelda said.

“It uses much of the same technology,” Santa said with a laugh.  “But instead of carrying toys, they have an endless amount of oxygen.  So long as you don’t get separated from it, you’d be able to survive until the sun blinks out of existence.”

Michael’s eyes went wide as his brow furrowed.  He lifted a finger in question.  “Uh, do you expect that to happen any time soon?”

“Not in your lifetimes, hopefully!”

Santa urged his guests to prepare then, and Michael, Rhianna and Luna donned their space suits—though they hadn’t quite put on their bulbous, round helmets.  The rover for the smaller animals opened up as well, the top sliding back and down, receding into a section of the vehicle that had been left for just such a reason.  A ramp appeared then as well, sliding down from the main unit, ensuring that none of the animals had to make any awkward jumps.  Maisie waited until Zelda and Peanut climbed into position, and then she followed in their footsteps.  She sat down along the right side of the machine, looking up at Santa with moisture in her eyes.

“What’s wrong, little one?” the jolly fellow asked.

Maisie fought off an excessive sniffle.  “It’s just that…we always have a feast, and it doesn’t seem like we’re going to have one this year.”

Santa tousled her fur behind her ears and offered up a hearty laugh.  “Fear not, Maisie.  Before the end of all this, we’ll be celebrating your success, and we’ll have plenty of delicious food to fill our bellies.”

“Yay!” she said, sitting a bit steadier then.  “You heard him.  Let’s get on with the mission!”

Santa pulled Michael and Rhianna off to the side a bit, pointing out the window.  Luna, not to be excluded from the conversation, jumped up and leaned against the window as well, though in her suit as she was, her paws were covered, almost giving them the appearance of little hooves.

“Just past that crater, we’ve got a vehicle that will take all of you across the galaxy as quick as you like.  It’ll look very similar to my sleigh, in fact.

“Ooh, does it have reindeer?” Zelda asked from the rover.

“Well, not exactly,” Santa said.  “I know you like to see Svetlana every year, but this mission called for something a little quicker, and I didn’t think my team of reindeer would be up for the task.  You’ll understand when you see it.”  He tapped both of the human guests on their backs then and urged them toward another door.  “Now, you’ll be in touch with some of my workers who will ensure you know how to operate the sleigh, and that you don’t get yourself into any trouble.  Are you ready?”

“Not one bit,” Michael said.  “But that’s never stopped us before.”

“That’s the spirit,” Santa said with a laugh.

As the six members of the DeAngelo family moved toward the door to another corridor—three walking while another three sat atop the strange, walking rover—they heard a bit of commotion in the adjacent room where Santa’s helpers were stationed.

The pneumatic door popped open, and Father Christmas passed a worried glance in that direction.  “What is it?” he asked one of his elves.  “Is there some sort of emergency?”

Brushing herself off, the elf stood a little taller, going rigid once she realized all eyes were on her.  “It’s, uh…it’s not that, sir.  We just heard the little one say that she was hungry and wanted to make sure none of them left on an empty stomach.”  She presented a few treats to the family—some sort of jerky for the dogs, and a non-descript plastic tube for Peanut.

“What do you expect me to do with that?” the cat asked.

The elf placed it in the rover, smiling at the finnicky feline.  “It’s liquid fiskeblugen.  It’s safer and cleaner to travel with.”

Peanut’s eyes went wide with anticipation, and she froze, unable to look at the treat that had just been delivered to her.  The elf chuckled and scratched the cat’s ears before taking her leave once more.

Zelda leaned over.  “You’re not going to cry, are you?”

“Silence!” Peanut grumbled.  “What I do with my face is none of your business.”

Zelda snapped straight again, sitting quietly before she started to chew at her piece of jerky.

Peanut wasn’t left to her own devices for long, as Luna stepped in front of the rover and sniffed at the fiskeblugen tube.

“You’re gonna share, right?” Luna said.  “Best friend?”

Staring at the dog with what looked like a cross between grumpiness and disgust, she pushed herself up on her front paws.  “You have good taste, and I knew I liked you for a reason.”  She paused then, letting the sound of her compliment wash over the big dog.  “But no,” she insisted a moment later.

Luna grumbled and turned away, heading back to the other members of her family.

“All right,” Santa said.  “Let’s try not to have any further distractions before this unidentified object hurtles toward our planet.

He walked to the other door in the room, prompting another keypad to display.  Oh Christmas Tree seemed to sound as he pushed the buttons on that pad, and the pneumatic door there opened with a hiss.

“Once you head into this corridor, the door will shut behind you, and the atmospheric unit will pressurize the room,” Santa said.  “You’ll hear a bit of a loud noise, but it should be over quickly, and then the other door will open.  Remember, all you need to do is head up over that ridge, where your ride will be waiting for you.”

“That shouldn’t be too tough,” Rhianna said.

Michael looked at her and arched an eyebrow.  “Says the lady who still has to say ‘car-side’ and ‘kitchen-side’ instead of ‘right’ and ‘left’.”

She stuck out her tongue at her husband.  “It’s one of my many wonderful quirks!”

A hearty laugh erupted from Santa, who used it almost as a way to silence his guests then.  “All right, you can battle each other once you have your helmets on.  And don’t forget to make sure they’re snug.  Ah, come here Luna, I’ll help you while they prepare their suits.”

“Thanks Santa!” the excitable young pup said.

After a few more moments, everyone was ready.  The glass top of the rover closed, ensuring the smaller animals were safe on their travels, and they were slowly on their way.

The door closed behind them, and from within their glass bubbles, it resounded with a bit of a deeper sound.  Each of the family members in suits turned to regard the closed door, but before they could give it much thought, the atmospheric regulator activated as well.  They could feel the pressure change in the room, the very gravity feeling like it had escaped into the rest of the workshop.  Then, when the opposite door opened, they knew their latest adventure had begun.  All the air was sucked out of the room, and they felt a bit of a pull toward the grey rock outside.

Michael led the way, realizing at once how much slower his gait had become.  “Well, this wasn’t how I expected to spend the day before Christmas Eve, but I’ll take it!”  He turned around—much slower than he planned—and lifted his hands.  “As long as we stop the planet from being destroyed, that is.”

When he arrived outside, he realized how grand and open the environment was.  Without a tree in sight, the only thing present were the great stone dunes, and the craters that gave the moon an eerie and strange appearance.

“Hey, I don’t have to worry about my leg since I’m not walking,” Rhianna said with a chuckle.  “And I there’s nothing to bump into either.”

“Give it time,” Michael teased.  “You’ll find something.  And even if you were someone who turned before you started walking in another direction, you wouldn’t be patient enough for how slow we turn here.”

“What do we always say?” Rhianna asked.

Michael smiled as he laboriously turned toward his family again.  “We don’t like the truth in this house.”  While he was turned around, he saw the slow, methodical way that their largest dog walked in her suit, and he pointed at her.

“This is probably the only place we’ll ever be where she’s weightless,” Rhianna said.  She whistled then, drawing Luna’s attention away from her paws, and to the spot a few feet away, where Rhianna kicked a moon rock.  Rhianna was absolutely spot on with her assumption that Luna would attempt to fetch.

Despite the lack of gravity, Luna moved quickly, and caught up with the floating rock, opening her mouth as she drew near.  Of course, it merely bounced off of her large round helmet, reporting with a loud thunk.

“I meant to do that!” the pup insisted.

While she had moved quite far from Santa’s moon base, the three animals in the rover had barely made it a few feet.  The vehicle they operated moved forward in awkward little hops, tilting this way and that.  Zelda and Peanut grumbled at each other, arguing about who should pilot the vehicle.  The cat claimed that seniority afforded her the right to move the rover, while Zelda scoffed.  “You’re too old to drive.”

Peanut’s eyes grew wide, and she slowly brought up her hand to expose her claws.  Zelda’s muzzle wrinkled as she took an uncharacteristic stand for herself.

As the two older animals bickered, Maisie lowered her head, and cleared her throat.  “Um, excuse me,” she said, but her timid voice was drowned out by the arguing between the other two.  Maisie pointed at a big button in the center of the craft, with the word “automatic” written above it.  “Hey!” she cried then.

As Zelda and Peanut grew quiet, Maisie lunged forward, and smacked the button.  The rover seemed to instantly stabilize, gently drifting along then.  It seemed to follow the humans as they made their way, and Maisie sat back, smiling at her success.

After having a bit more fun in the lower gravity of the moon, Michael and Rhianna ushered the rest of the family toward the hill in the distance.

Before they had even reached the bottom of that hill, a nasal voice seemed to whisper across the landscape.

“DeAngelo family, do you copy?  Over.”

Everyone looked at one another, trying to get a sense of where the sound had come from, although Luna froze, except to tilt her head in confusion.  When she heard a bit of static then, she jumped into the air, trying to spin about and catch her tail, as though the sound had come from her own behind.

“Uh, who is this?” Michael asked.  When enough time had passed, he hummed to himself.  “Do you need me to say ‘over’?”

After another crackle of static, they heard the voice again.  “This is Mervius.  I’m one of Santa’s elves.  I’m going to be on your communicators, helping you to navigate.  Now listen, the celestial object isn’t in our vicinity yet, but it’s moving fast.  You’ve got to get to the sleigh.”

“You heard him!” Rhianna said.  “Double time!”

“Well, we’re at like half time right now,” Michael said.  “Strive for normal, everyone.”

While the two humans and Luna half ran and half swam through the weightlessness of the moon’s gravity, the rover seemed to be moving about with considerably more ease.  The rover climbed the hill with ease, surmounting the ridge quicker than the others could.

“Ooh, I see the sleigh!” Zelda said.  “Come on slowpokes!”

“Easy for you to say,” Luna grumbled, still struggling to climb the hill.  “Your little car is doing all the work.”

“You’re just mad you can’t fit in it,” Maisie teased, giggling at the thought.

Not to be dismayed, Luna pushed, showing her tenacity and determination.  She hoisted herself over the ridge, flying up into the air, and coming to a landing just beside the rover.

“Eek!” Zelda cried out.

Peanut sighed then, bowing her head.  “Why did I have to be stuck with you,” she grumbled.  “And in a vehicle named after a dog, to add insult to injury.”

Michael and Rhianna were a bit behind everyone else then, but they finally drew near to the sleigh as well, noting how modern and sleek it looked.  A festive green paint job could be seen, thanks to the atmospheric light coming from Santa’s workshop, and they could also see that it had been designed for an aerodynamic ride, the front honed into a point.  Most things had been planned to account for the members of the DeAngelo family, with a small, round groove in the sleigh’s back area—a perfect fit for the rover, they realized.  In the front seat, there were two velvety ribbons fashioned there, looking like seatbelts of some sort.

“Uh, Mervius?” Rhianna asked, fighting to remember his name.  “Are these ribbons here up to code?  They seem a little unsafe if we’re chasing after an asteroid hurtling through space.”

Static crackled for a moment before they heard the elf’s voice again.  “Well of course,” Mervius said.  “They’re not really ribbons.  They’re made from the finest material that we give to the elven warriors for armor, almost the same material as your oxygen sacks.”  Static fizzed for a moment, but they could hear his nasal tone come through again.  “By the way, when we realized how big Luna was getting, we crafted another one of them into the seat.  You’ll see it at about the halfway mark, and you can attach it to her spacesuit.”

Rhianna was able to locate the attachment after a few moments, and she clipped it against a small metal hoop on the chest of Luna’s suit.

“DeAngelos,” they heard in their helmets again.  “You’re going to want to move soon.  I just heard a bloop.”

“Ooh, what’s a bloop?” Luna asked.  “Is it tasty?”

Mervius must have spoken before hitting the button on his end, because they heard his response already in mid-sentence.  “…on the radar every few moments.  Whatever it is, it’ll be passing you soon if you don’t hurry.”

Michael grumbled, quickening his pace.  “You know, everything here feels like it takes longer.”

He and Rhianna found more of the ribbon-like fabric in the back of the sleigh, and they worked to cross it over top of the rover.  There were some leftover ribbons back there as well, and they tied them over Luna, too, the large pup almost looking like a Christmas present herself then.

“We don’t want you jumping up in excitement and flying off into space,” Rhianna said with a laugh.  But as the words resonated in her helmet, she realized there might have been some truth to the statement, and she pulled the knots a little tighter on Luna’s ribbons.

Finally, Michael and Rhianna hopped into the front seat, grabbing hold of the strands of ribbons where they could, and tying them around themselves.

“Are you almost ready?” Mervius asked.  “I still need to explain how to fly the sleigh.”

“We’re getting there, Merv,” Michael said, as he and Rhianna tied the remainders of their ribbons off into bows in their laps.  “Alright, I’ve got the reins.  What do we do to get this ship into orbit?”

“Ooh, I hope I don’t get motion sick in space,” Rhianna muttered.  “I should have asked for some Dramamine as an early Christmas present.”

The static hissed for a time, and then the family heard some papers rustling in the background.  “All right, so, the steering should be the same as any other sleigh…”

“Mervius?  Buddy?” Michael called out.  “Are you learning this stuff at the same time we are?”

“Well, I didn’t build the thing!” the elf said.  “I’m just communications.  I’m communicating with you how to use it!”  He cleared his throat then, and settled down, just a bloop sounding in the background of wherever he was as he prepared to continue.  “Moving forward and slowing down should be the same, too.  You’ll snap the reins to get going, and you’ll give them a tug to come to a halt.”

The sound of whatever manual he was reading from was heard again then, prompting Michael and Rhianna to look at each other with a bit of concern.

“There are also three buttons to be aware of.  Do you see them?  They should be blue, yellow, and black.”

“They’re here,” Rhianna said.

“Okay, that’s good,” Mervius said.  “So the bright blue button is…your bash button.  You’ll use that to collide with the object.”

“Uh, did you say collide?” Rhianna asked in astonishment then.  “Like, on purpose?  I knew we were supposed to divert the object, but Santa did mention this.”

“It’s fine,” Mervius said.  “Don’t worry.  All the simulations showed a ninety-nine percent success rate.”

For a moment, there was silence from Michael and Rhianna, until Michael brought his finger up as though to rest it on his chin, only for it to bounce off of the round helmet there.

“Hey Mervius?  What happened in the other one percent of the simulations?”

There was only silence from the other side of the communications system, except for the sound of a bloop on the radar, which came few and far between.

“Moving on,” Mervius said, finally.  “You’ll see a yellow button, too.  That will activate a tractor beam, which you can use to haul whatever the object is back to the workshop.  Now this is imperative: don’t use the tractor beam on the object while it’s racing through space.  You’ll tear the sleigh to pieces.”

“Shouldn’t these buttons have come with warnings, or glass casing or something?” Rhianna asked her husband.

“And then we have the black button…” the elf said.

“Oh no,” Luna said, peering up over the seat.  “What does the black button do?”

Before anyone could say anything further, those in the sleigh could hear the bloops a little more rapidly then.  They heard Mervius gasp then as well.

“It’s here!” the elf cried.  “You need to get moving now, DeAngelo family!”

Luna began shouting then, and they realized by the intonation that it would have appeared to be her strange howls if it had been any other time than Christmas.

“Look.  There.  It is!” she cried, and the family looked to their right, to see the celestial object blazing across the black velvet canvas of space.  It looked like a sphere that burned blue as it passed.  “Get after it!” Luna cried.  “Fetch!”

Michael leaned on the seat and shouted.  “All right everyone, hold on!”  He snapped the reins, the magical leather straps snapping against the front of the sleigh.

At once, the enchanted vehicle lifted from the ground, hovering and rumbling.  They could hear a mechanical noise report from beneath, and then they heard the deep thrum of some sort of engine.  Just as they had seen with the projectile soaring across space, blue flames appeared behind the sleigh, launching them forward.

As they moved, a new celestial being seemed to form, as though they were collecting stars in their race forth.  An immense reindeer with mighty antlers appeared before the sleigh, a sort of living constellation, and it pulled them forward.

“Oh, Zelda’s going to be upset if she doesn’t get to see this at some point,” Rhianna said.

Though there were noises all about them, the family could just hear the sound of the communicator static.

“You’re on your way,” Mervius said.  “And it looks like you’ve met your hyper speed assistant, Dasher.  Are you ready to see how fast the sleigh can go?”

“No,” Rhianna said.

“Yes!” Michael challenged, unable to rein in his own excitement.

“All right!” Mervius shouted.  “Preparing for a reindeer rush!”

The family heard a klaxon reporting from wherever Mervius was stationed, but they could see that it affected them across whatever distance, as Dasher, the celestial reindeer reared up, and then lunged forward, jolting them forward with a speed that rivaled the pull of the portals that brought them to Tellest every year.

They followed in the object’s wake, but they moved too quickly to be able to identify what it was.  To Rhianna’s relief, none of the scatterings of space particles or other debris damaged their sleigh.  It was as though Dasher created an invisible forcefield that surrounded them.  Iridescent flashes of light could be seen every now and then as it protected them, making it feel as though they were in a bubble caught in a raging tide.

“Can you read me?” Mervius asked then, his voice cutting in and out.  “You’re going to have to go faster so that you can bash—er divert it away from the planet.  You don’t have much time now!”

Michael growled and snapped the reins again, worrying that he wouldn’t be able to make the artificial reindeer move any faster.  But it seemed that the ethereal creature noted his sense of urgency, for a moment later, they sped up.  The constellation’s legs moved rapidly, as though it were comprised of shooting stars.  Even a strange, deer-like grunt resounded as it worked hard at catching up to the object.

Michael was able to bring the sleigh closer toward the strange astrological phenomenon, and he looked to his wife for support.

“Are you ready Rhianna?” he shouted.  “When I say ‘now’, I’m going to need you to hit the blue button.”

His wife grew nervous, hovering her hand over the blue button to ready herself.

As they drew nearer, they realized just how large the ball of earth was.  It seemed to grow larger and larger, subverting their expectations with every foot they cut across.

Giving one last fierce snap of the reins, Michael was able to pull the sleigh up alongside the object.

“Now!” he cried.

Rhianna hit the button, and at once, the celestial reindeer reacted.  It bowed its head, and turned to the side, driving forth with its massive rack of antlers.  With one mighty hit, it struck the ball of rock, sending it flying off course.  It spiraled out of control, drifting off into space.

“Come on,” Rhianna said, pointing to the dislodged object.  “We have to go after it.  Santa no doubt wants to know what we’ve discovered.”

Nodding in agreement, Michael pulled the reins to the side, and then gave them a mighty shake again, urging Dasher onward.  At once, they gave chase.

Behind the front seat, Luna’s excessive panting could be heard, even through the thick glass of their space suits.  When Michael and Rhianna turned, they saw that a bit of fog presented across the glass helmet on Luna’s suit.  She pushed up against the seat, putting her helmet into place, before she licked a long line of slobber onto the glass, granting her sight again.

“That was so much fun!” she yelled to the rest of her family.

Rhianna reached back and tried to scratch the dog’s head but realized as her hand bounced off of the helmet that she would not be able to do much.  She moved it farther back then, scratching Luna’s spine through the spacesuit.

“Are you okay back there?” she asked as she leaned over the seat and spotted the three smaller animals in their bubble along the floor.

Zelda and Maisie said nothing, pressed up against the persnickety puss, whose eyes narrowed in annoyance.

“Mervius,” she said, a cold air seeming to run about the sleigh.

“Uh… Yes?” he asked in reply.

“You,” she said, sounding wicked despite saying little.  “You almost made me lose my…fiskablugen!”  She yelled loud enough for feedback from the headsets to come through and cause a rise of static.

Mervius grumbled then.  “Yeah, sorry about that,” he said.  “I didn’t think that Dasher would be so…destructive.  I’m sorry, Peanut.  It was all a mistake, I assure you.”

“It’s all right,” Michael said.  “It’s just that her and the other animals expected a preliminary feast ahead of time.  But Santa did say that we would be reporting back to him and would be getting some grub then.”

“A feast made for a king,” the elf said.  “But that largely depends on whether or not you figure out what happened to that object.  You’ve saved the planet, and we’re incredibly grateful for that, but there’s still more work to be done!”

“Alright, we’ll head after the thing,” Rhianna said.  “It’s still going pretty fast.”

“That might even be faster,” Michael mentioned.  “Did we just veer it off course, or did we give it an extra little bump?”

“Well don’t just sit there talking about it,” Mervius said.  “Get after it!”

Michael snapped the reins again, and Dasher was off.  The planet they rescued seemed to slide backward in space, and Michael and Rhianna knew that they were going impossibly fast—quicker than any human on their planet had ever gone before.

“You know,” Michael said, “if we weren’t wearing helmets right now, Luna’s jowls would be flying around like crazy.”

Rhianna giggled at the thought of it as she slowly turned about to glance at the panting pup.  “You know,” she replied.  “If we weren’t wearing helmets right now, I’m pretty sure our heads would explode.”

“That’s quite possible too,” Michael said.

As time passed, they eventually caught up with the object, and though it had been quite a while that they gave chase, reaching it seemed easier than the first time.  They realized that when they hit it, they had sent it spinning, and while it had given it a noticeable boost, it couldn’t maintain that speed for quite as long.  Still, the blue planet was but a tiny dot in the great void of space behind them, and another planet was before them.  Orange and brown, it looked a bit like it was covered in flames.

“Uh, Mervius,” Rhianna called out.  “Mervius can you still hear us even after all this way?”

“Mervius, we have a problem,” Michael said.

After a brief silence, they heard the telltale static of a communications attempt.  “What is it?”  They heard the elf’s voice come through, though indeed, it sounded somehow distant, even though his voice resonated through their helmets.

“It looks like the object is going to strike Venus!” Rhianna said.

“What?” Mervius asked.  “Well, we can’t let that happen either!  It could have dire effects on the whole solar system—the galaxy even!”

“All right, then we have to think of a plan,” Michael said.

His eyes flashed, and he tried to snap his fingers, but the suit made it difficult.

After a few more attempts, Rhianna nudged him with the back of her hand.  “Use your words.”

“Dasher seems like it has a mind of its own,” Michael explained.  “But is there a way that we can just have him do exactly what we want it to do?”

“Well, we could try and put him into manual mode,” Mervius said.  “What did you have in mind?”

“Duck his head like he’s going to swipe up with those big antlers,” Michael replied.

“What are we doing?” Rhianna asked.

“Something I used to do in my racing video games all the time,” he said.  “Let’s see if it works with celestial reindeer just as well.”

“Oh no…” Rhianna said, looking from side to side along her lap.  “I need more ribbons.”

Michael watched as Dasher moved into position, adjusting in an almost mechanical way, as though beneath the swirl of starlight and cerulean there may have been some metal rods and gears.  When he was sure the reindeer was ready, he swiped to the right with the reins, just brushing against the other object, and sending it spinning the opposite way.

That seemed to send it off course again, slowing it considerably as it wobbled its way toward the other planet.

“That helped a little,” Rhianna said, “but I think it’ll still hit the planet if we can’t stop it!”

“You said Venus, right?” Mervius asked.  “If it gets too far into the atmosphere, even if you did slow it enough where it didn’t split the planet in two, you’d never be able to recover it.  Venus will melt you from inside your suits!”

“Then we need to figure out something else,” Michael said.  “What about the yellow button?”

“The tractor beam?” Rhianna asked, her voice dripping with incredulity.

“Yeah, if we use the tractor beam while moving at the same speed as the object, and then gradually slow down, we should be able to stop it before it moves into orbit.”

“That’ll never work!” Rhianna cried.  “The sleigh will be torn to pieces.”

“It will work,” Michael insisted.  “If you just believe.”

She stared at him, clenching her teeth together, when a crackle of static resonated in their communication systems.

“In theory, he’s right.”

“Santa’s counting on us,” Michael said.  “Yellow button?”

Rhianna blew out a sigh that fogged up her helmet a bit.  “Yellow button,” she said with a nervous shudder.

“Yellow button!” Luna added.

Rhianna leaned forward and hit the button, and Michael’s eyes went wide.

“We’re not ready yet!” he shouted, as he hurried to snap the reins and move Dasher into position once more.  “Mervius, Dasher’s not moving!  You have to take it out of manual mode!”  Although he panicked, he could tell that the sleigh still sped up.

A golden ray of light cast out from the vehicle, just beneath the celestial reindeer’s body, and as it stretched its way toward the object, Michael snapped the reins again and again.

“We had a moment, and I thought we were saying we were ready!” Rhianna cried.

“You believed too hard!” Michael teased.  He was able to match speed with the object before the tractor beam enveloped it, but just as soon as it did, they could feel the juddering affecting their vehicle.

“Ooh, massage,” Zelda’s tiny voice said from the back of the sleigh, her voice trembling as she said it.

“Alright, hang on,” Michael said.  “Mervius, any way you can help us decelerate at an even pace?  I don’t think I’ll be able to pull back the reins in a way that will be safe.”

“On it!” the elf said.

Sure enough, they could see as their rapid pace began to diminish, Venus not quite growing across their view of space as much as it had.

“We’re going to make it!” Rhianna cried out with glee.

While the object continued to spin, its forward momentum was nearly gone.  They had grown close enough to Venus that they could feel its warmth through their spacesuits, and Michael even had a few blades of sweat visible on his brow from the reflection of the sunlight on the planet.

“Good thing we didn’t let it get any farther,” he said.  “So, what have we got there?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Rhianna said, narrowing her eyes.  “Dasher and the tractor beam are sort of making it hard to see.  But it looks oblong, like an egg.”  She leaned out of the side of the sleigh and confirmed that it did indeed look like a large egg, though it was colored an iridescent silver and gold.

“Egg?” Mervius asked.  “Did you say egg?”

“I love eggs!” Luna cried.

“Us too!” Maisie shouted from below.  “Don’t leave us in here.  Let us eat some eggs too!”

Michael turned to his wife then and began uncinching the ribbons.  “Shall we get a closer look?”

“What?” Mervius echoed in their communications modules.  “No, you have to get back to the station.”

“We don’t take orders from other people when there are omelets on the line!” Peanut said.

“Relax Mervius,” Michael said.  “It’s a good idea for us to check this out before we bring it back to the moon.  We don’t want to cause more danger if we can identify it here.”

Though the elf didn’t say anything, the DeAngelo family could hear him sigh, a bit farther away than the communicator.

Rhianna pulled her ribbon apart then as well, but she didn’t realize as she floated up and out of the seat that Luna grabbed hold of hers with her teeth.  In only a few moments, the big dog was able to leap into the absence of gravity as well.

“Wait for us!” Zelda cried.

Michael and Rhianna drifted close to the egg, and they could feel its warmth.  Even from a few feet away, they could feel the thing beating, and they looked at each other with nervousness etched into their faces.  The egg was, after all, nearly as big as the sleigh.

It wasn’t until they heard a frightening crack that somehow resonated throughout the sound of space that they looked down, and realized that their youngest, largest dog was present.

“Luna, what are you doing there?” Rhianna asked.

The pup didn’t respond as she floated toward the underside of the egg.  She tilted her head, her nose twitching as though she could smell something through the round helmet she wore.

Her eyes widened though as the egg began to open.

A silver and gold head poked out of the bottom of the egg.  Sleepy eyes spotted the auburn-furred pup and looked at her from an inverted position.  Seeing the first leaving thing, the creature cooed, and opened its eyes further in excitement, beautiful emerald orbs landing on Luna’s excited face.

Michael and Rhianna drifted down then as well, realizing at once that the creature from the egg wasn’t some unspeakable or altogether unfamiliar alien.

It was a baby dragon.

That baby dragon spotted the two humans and let fly a little gasp that barely resonated through the vacuum of space.  It floated from the egg, and once its body had cleared it, the shells collapsed on themselves, bursting out of existence altogether.  The dragon lunged forward with a clawed hand, but it was its long tail that wrapped around Luna, pulling each closer to one another.  With an almost draconic smile, it placed its head on the top of the dog’s helmet and closed its eyes.

Everything seemed to freeze in time then.  In a flicker of light, the dragon and Luna appeared to shrink into nothingness, and were immediately gone from sight.

Though they floated in the void of space, Michael and Rhianna felt as though at any moment their legs would shudder, and they would somehow fall further.

“Luna!” Rhianna finally found the will to cry out.  “What’s happened to her?  Where is she?”

For another moment, everything seemed to stay frozen, but then they heard the static preceding Mervius’s communications.

“Don’t worry, I’m still reading her signal,” the elf said.  “And you’re not going to believe this: they’re on Tellest!”

Michael and Rhianna didn’t say anything to each other as they hurried to swim back through space toward the sleigh.

Finally, feeling like it was taking too long to arrive there, Michael broke the silence.

“We should have never got out of the sleigh,” he said.  “Mervius, why didn’t you try to stop us?”

“What?” the elf demanded.

They could tell that he was about to go on a tirade, but static reported, and they realized he must have let go of the button on his end.

The humans arrived back at the sleigh and noted the worried looks on the faces of the animals still stuck in the rover.

“Did something happen?” Maisie asked, her voice sounding quiet and pitiful.  “Something bad?”

Rhianna’s face contorted from a look of despair into one of stoic hope.  “No, little one,” she said.  “We’re just going on a little detour.  Just one more stop on our adventure.”  She looked to her husband then, who could see her swallow away the emotion building up in her throat even from within her space suit.

Michael climbed into the sleigh and began to tie the ribbons around his waist again.

“Mervius,” he said, a new weariness in his voice, “when we get going, I want you to help me get Dasher up to speed.  I want to head back to Tellest faster than we came out here.”

“Just make sure you’re safe,” the elf said.  “I’ll handle everything else.”

A few moments later, Michael helped to pull Rhianna into her seat, before slowly turning the vessel around.  Tellest was so far away then that they could barely see it.  He looked to his wife again, who was so distracted by her worries that she didn’t begin to fasten her ribbons together again.  He rubbed her leg and handed her the strand that was closest to him.

“Come on,” he said.  “We’ll find her.  But I don’t want to find her and then have to come back out here to find you because you went for your own little flight.”

Rhianna blew out a sigh and set to work, tying the ribbon with her fumbling hands.

With a little flick of the reins, Michael began moving the sleigh forward, but once he was certain his wife was cinched in, he snapped them a little harder.

“Mervius, get us to Tellest.”

“All right.  Hold on.”

The sleigh burst ahead, hard and quick enough that Michael and Rhianna had to fight against potential whiplash.  But whatever magic protected the sleigh seemed to give them enough pushback on their suits to keep them from any danger.

With Mervius pushing the sleigh to its limits, and the family lost in thoughts of worry, they seemed to blink their eyes once before arriving before the planet, and it looked as though Dasher skidded to a stop just before they entered Tellest’s atmosphere.

“We’re here,” Mervius said.  “There’s something strange I have to tell you about, by the way.  The signal has remained on Tellest since Luna and the dragon disappeared, but it’s been moving around on the planet.  And you’re not going to believe this, but it looks like they’re in the North Pole region.”

“Can we land the sleigh on the planet, Mervius?” Rhianna asked.

“Yes, of course,” the elf said.  “I’ll bring you in to where the signal last reported.  Just sit back and relax.”

Michael turned to look at the animals who were stuck in the rover, each of them looking as melancholy as the either.  “It’s going to be okay,” he said.  “We’ll find her.”

Before long, they entered the atmosphere of the planet, and they could see the frosted plains of the north pole between the clouds that swirled above it.  Dasher looked even more majestic against the fields of white, and when the family landed upon the ground in a clearing beside some trees, they felt as though it was the celestial reindeer’s hooves that thumped against the ground first.  The sleigh slid to a stop, and Michael and Rhianna untied their ribbons.

“All right, before you go anywhere, give me a minute to see if I can make some adjustments to your sleigh,” Mervius said.  The family could hear beeps and chirps in the background, but finally the elf returned.  “I just made some changes to the frequency array.  If I’m right, it should stop the dragon from being able to teleport again in the vicinity of the sleigh.”

“Good thinking,” Rhianna said.  “We can’t be flying all over the galaxy.”

Michael took off his helmet then, breathing in the fresh, crisp air of the frozen north.  He set it on the seat, and then climbed out of the sleigh, walking around to the back of the vessel to release the trio of animals from the rover.

“Hurry up,” Maisie pleaded.  “My leg popped out somewhere in space and I need someone to put it back in!”

“And Peanut’s threatening to eat her fiskeblugen, and I’m too young to die!” Zelda cried.

As Michael pulled the last remaining ribbons off of the rover, the glass top descended into the rest of the smaller vehicle, and the animals stretched and climbed from their seats.

Michael bent low, and massaged Maisie’s leg, and the pitiful little pup gave a look of appreciation as she stepped up from the rover.  Zelda and Peanut already ran about, sniffing at the air as though they were somewhat familiar with where they were.

“Let’s get going, everyone,” Michael said.  “We don’t want to…”

His words trailed off, for he could see from afar that Rhianna wore a look of disdain as she looked upon the ground in the trees beyond the clearing.  Michael ran to her so quickly that he didn’t even realize he had started moving.  But when he arrived there, he felt his legs buckle, and it was only his desire to support her that kept him standing tall.

There, on the ground, was Luna’s space suit, but no sign of the newest member of the DeAngelo family member was present.  Her helmet was cracked, and the oxygen sack was in tatters.

“The dragon,” Rhianna whispered, a tear falling from her eye, “it was too strong for her.”  Though the suit kept the cold at bay, the teardrop froze on her face.

Zelda and Maisie arrived there as well then, sniffing at the discarded space suit in an attempt to cover up the sound of their sniffling.  But when they looked up at Rhianna, it was clear they couldn’t hide the moisture on the rims of their eyes.

“I’m going to miss all the times she would ask me to play, even when I was too sleepy to want to,” Zelda lamented.

“She did some annoying things,” Maisie said then.  “But they were annoying things that we loved about her.  I don’t want to not have her staring at me when I’m eating my food or have to worry not having a snuggle buddy.”

“Are you all right, Peanut?” Zelda asked.  “Are you going to miss anything about Luna?”

“No,” the cat said.  Though her words seemed cold, she looked at them with a furrowed brow before looking farther into the trees.  “They’re right over there.”

Sure enough, the rest of the family could hear growling, and the unfamiliar sounds of the baby dragon.  They rushed to stand next to Peanut, wondering if there was a battle unfolding, and if Luna was fighting for her life.

But as they spotted the ginger dog, they saw that it was anything but a fight brewing between the two.  The baby dragon was on its back, playfully kicking at Luna, who grumbled and growled in jest, jumping on the creature’s scaled belly a few times before running away from it and circling it in the snow.

Her family stepped forward, and the crunch of the icy snow beneath them echoed out in the area.  The dragon cooed and rolled to its side, but Luna perked up at once, her ears drawing back and her eyes widening.

When she spotted all her favorite people, her mouth popped open, as close to a canine smile as anyone had ever seen.  She sprang forward, bounding across the snow without any delay.  Michael crouched low, hoping for a warm embrace, but she had already leaped into the air.  She crashed into him, knocking him to the ground, began bathing his face with kisses.  Rhianna was there a moment later, hugging the dog before she wrenched free and licked her as well.  When she’d had enough of that, she bounded around Zelda and Maisie, running figure eights as fast as she could, and eliciting playful cheers from her sisters.

Without missing a beat, she charged toward the dragon then, running up toward her as though she planned on knocking her down.  But at the last second, she juked to the side, and circled around her before running back to her family.  She was so distracted by her zoomies that she didn’t realize that Peanut slowly walked up to the iridescent dragon.

At that time, when Luna reached her loved ones, Michael was prepared.  He wrapped her in a firm embrace—one she couldn’t wriggle out of, despite all her attempts—and he kissed her on her bony head.

“We were so worried about you,” he said to her.

“We saw your torn oxygen sack, and thought the worst,” Rhianna added.

“Oh…that?” Luna asked, sheepishly.  “I did that.  I was nervous when I didn’t see any of you.”

“She does have a deep desire to destroy anything she comes near,” Zelda snarked, clearly a little less compassionate once she learned that her big baby sister was okay.

“And what about the helmet?” Michael asked.  “How did you get out of that and the suit?”

“We were practicing bonks,” Luna said with a smile on her face.

“I think she finally met someone with a harder head than her,” Maisie teased.

They heard cooing and chirping across the way then, and they saw that Peanut and the dragon sat beside each other then, evidently showing that Luna was not the only friend that the iridescent-scaled creature had made.

“Yes, yes, they are a bit tiresome, but they’re good people,” Peanut said.  “We go on these crazy adventures every year, and they always show how much they love us.”

“Peanut?” Rhianna asked.  “Can you understand it?”

“Of course I can,” the cat said.  “You know cats and dragons are distant cousins.  She just wanted to make sure all of us knew each other and that there weren’t any tricks at play.  And despite all her annoyances, she seems to really like the big, dumb dog.”

“Hey!” Luna said.  “I’m not dumb!  Just quirky!”

“Peanut,” Michael said, interrupting the two animals before they could get into any further mischief or arguments.  “What’s the dragon’s name?”

The dragon chirped and purred, and Peanut looked at her and nodded.

“She doesn’t have one yet—or at least, not one she knows.”

Rhianna hummed.  “Well then, we’ll have to give her one.  And I think it’s only fair that Luna is the one to pick the name.”

“Really?” Luna asked.  “That’s the best!  And I think I already know what I would call her.”

“What’s that?” Michael asked.

Luna crouched low, as though she were about to pounce on someone.  Her tail wagged from side to side, and she sprang up as she announced the name.

“Food!”

Zelda and Maisie let their heads tilt to the side, and Luna could see that the other members of her family didn’t quite have the same enthusiasm for the name as she did.

“Food isn’t exactly a name, baby girl,” Rhianna said.

“What?  But it’s my favorite!” Luna cried.  She grumbled and then looked back at the dragon, trying to see if she could get a better idea for it.

The little dragon walked a little closer to the rest of the family, the taller humans sitting down to appear less imposing.

“All right, how about this one,” Luna said.  “Stinky.”

“Stinky?” Michael asked.

“Yeah!  I couldn’t smell her when we were next to that planet that we found her at, but when we got here and I shook my helmet off, she was really, really stinky!”

“Oh honey, that’s not really a nice name for such a pretty dragon,” Rhianna said.  She held out her hand, rubbing the creature’s muzzle as it drew closer, demonstrating courage around its new friends.”

“But you’re always calling me stinky,” Luna grumbled.

“That’s because that’s us teasing you,” Michael said.  “But your real name is really pretty, don’t you think?”

“That’s right,” Rhianna said.  “Luna means moon, which is where we just were when we started this adventure.”

The dog’s eyes went a little wide with excitement then, and she tilted her head to the side.  “I’ve got it then.  I remember what Santa called her when she was flying through space.  We’ll call her Comet!”

Michael and Rhianna prepared to protest further, but when they heard the name that Luna chose, they had to admit that they liked the sound of it.

“Comet,” Rhianna said, and as the word left her lips, it seemed the dragon reacted to it, cooing as it stood up straighter.  “Oh yeah?  You’re a fan of that one?”

As she was petting the dragon along her scaled neck, a noise sounded from the sleigh.  They heard the telltale crackle of static coming through the space helmets.

Michael gasped.  “Mervius,” he said.

The man ran back to the sleigh then, while Rhianna ushered the rest slowly across the snow.

“Yes, we’re all okay, Merv,” Michael said.  “Both Luna and the dragon are safe.  Well, not exactly in one piece though—Luna’s space suit has seen better days.  I hope it didn’t cost you and the other elves an arm and a leg to make it.”

“Nothing a little Christmas magic can’t fix,” Mervius said after he heard the good news.  “But you will have to figure out some way to get everyone back to the moon.  I know Luna is a bit of a giant—is there any way you can squish her into the rover with the other animals?”

Michael hummed as he watched his family approach.  “I think we can figure something out.  But we’ve got no plan for the dragon.  Her egg is gone, so she can’t hide in there anymore.”

“It’s all right,” Mervius said.  “If she’s a space dragon from space, she’s likely got the means to survive in it.  But if she doesn’t have the egg, that means she won’t be able to travel the way she did before.  She’s likely too big for the sleigh too, but you could use the tractor beam.”

“Right,” Michael said.

“Couldn’t she just bloop us all to the moon?” Luna wondered.

“We have the sleigh,” Rhianna said, trying not to alert the dragon that her strange powers had been temporarily deactivated.  “I think we want to make sure we’re being safe, so we’ll do it this way for now.”

“Speaking of being safe,” Michael said.  “Peanut, Zelda, how would you two like to be in a special space suit?”

“Ooh, I would love that,” Zelda said, wagging her tail and spinning around in excitement.

Peanut scoffed at the pup.  “You’re far too old to be this naïve.”

“Look, we’re all going to be a little cramped, one way or another,” Michael said.  “You can either be cramped with us, or you could all cram into the rover and hope that the air doesn’t get sucked out of there with Luna in there, too.”

The cat swallowed away the discomfort in her throat.  “I’ll fly with you if you have room in your spacesuit,” she declared.

“That’s what I thought,” Michael replied.

“You’ll be flying with me, Zelda,” Rhianna said.  “It’ll be like a big snuggle.”

“I love snuggles,” Zelda said.

Though Peanut offered up more protests, once she was safely inside Michael’s suit, she purposely squished up against him, not planning on moving higher, to stick her head through the hole of the helmet, already tightened to the top of the suit.  Zelda was a little more eager to get her head as close to Rhianna’s as possible.  Though there were no means of having to stretch her limbs through the aperture there, she was able to see out through the helmet, and could not hold back her excitement when Michael and Rhianna climbed onto the sleigh, helping Maisie and Luna to settle into the rover.  Maisie only grumbled a little bit while Luna found a comfortable position, curled up next to her.

After they tied the ribbons over the rover there, Michael and Rhianna climbed up and over the lip of the front seat, a bit more difficult of a task with Tellest’s gravity present.  Once they were situated though, they took a deep breath, and Michael grabbed hold of the reins.

Dasher materialized before the sleigh again, and slowly lifted the vessel from the snow as the two humans tied their ribbons into place around their waists, cinching them into bows.

Once they were airborne, Michael looked back and saw Comet gently lifting into the air, though there did seem to be a bit of a struggle to stay aloft.

“It’s probably more difficult on a planet with an atmosphere,” Rhianna said.  “If she’s a space dragon, maybe it’s harder to fly.”

“Well, we’re going to offer her a bit of assistance,” Michael said.  He tapped the yellow button then, and the tractor beam fired, but that time it was directed behind them.  The golden glow encompassed the dragon, helping to lift her off the ground.  “There you go, Comet,” he said.  “You’ll be able to fly the whole time as we head off to the moon again.”

The dragon, finding new ease in moving about, happily glided behind the sleigh as it went higher and higher.  As they left orbit, she practiced doing flips, and barrel rolls, chirping and chittering the whole time.

“All right, Mervius,” Michael said when the only thing before them besides the black void of space was the moon.  “We’re on our way.”

“Understood.  I’ll make some more adjustments to the tractor beam, but you should be able to make it the rest of the way without much manual work.  We’ll see you in a little bit.”

“What adjustments is he talking about?” Rhianna asked.

“Watch,” Michael said with a smile.

They could hear, then, as some mechanical sounds reported below them, and the golden glow of the tractor beam expanded into more of a cloud, allowing the iridescent dragon to move about a bit more.

Rhianna smiled then as well, watching as Comet playfully experimented with more complex maneuvers, all without any worries of her drifting too far from the sleigh.

“Luna, look,” Rhianna said.

The big dog twisted about in the rover, and watched as Comet rose up over the vehicle, sending happy noises toward her new friends.

It did not take long for them to arrive back on the moon, and Michael and Rhianna were still enthralled by how easily they had travelled their little part of the galaxy.  They did not land back on the spot where they had found the sleigh but found themselves in a different tractor beam altogether—one that pulled them into a larger part of the workshop on the opposite side of the complex.

Michael’s suit bulged around the belly, and a little voice rose up from there.

“That’s it, I’ve had enough!  I am the royalty of this family, and I demand to be treated as such!”

“We’re almost there, Peanut,” Michael said.  “Once I’m sure you’ll be able to breathe, I’ll let you out.”

“I can barely breathe now!” she grumbled.

The sleigh landed with a thump, and the dragon flew into the hangar, skidding on the ground as both tractor beams disengaged.  Comet lost her footing and rolled over on her wings and thudded into the back of the vehicle.  Her head popped up over the back of the sleigh then, and Luna panted and smiled while the dragon giggled.

Ahead of the family, a pneumatic door opened with a mechanical whirr, and they saw a wiry elf with white hair appear there.

“Mervius?” Michael ventured.

“Pleased to meet you at last,” the elf said.  He tilted his head back, attempting to help slide his half-circle glasses back up his angular nose.

Michael climbed out of the sleigh and stepped across the room in his clunky space suit, but eventually extended his hand to their communications expert.  Before the gesture could be completed though, Peanut pushed with all her might, and popped the buttons on the suit, pouncing through the material and landing on the ground below.

Mervius’s eyes had gone wide, but Michael finally concluded the greeting, grabbing the elf’s hand and giving it a quick shake.  “Just another day in the DeAngelo family,” he said.

“I was told of all your exploits and hijinks,” the elf said.  “Somehow, I still was not quite prepared.  I’ll have to make sure my calculations are in better order the next time we work together.”

Rhianna popped her helmet off, and pushed Zelda back down into her suit, opening the buttons there so she could hop out too.  When Zelda was on the ground, she hurried back into the sleigh, and climbed onto the seat so that she could watch when Rhianna untied the ribbon from the rover.  Luna hopped out of the secondary vehicle when the glass dome slid away, and she clambered up and over the side of the sleigh, skittering on the floor after she jumped down.

“Stinky!” she cried when she saw the dragon.

The dragon pounced forward with a frisky attitude, but Luna hopped out of the way.  And despite the fact that the dog was only a quarter the size of the dragon, she managed to knock Comet off her feet and to her back, the beautiful creature spinning about as she chirped and cooed.

Michael and Rhianna watched while the other animals—even Peanut—drew close to the dragon and joined in on the fun as well.  Mervius came closer, standing beside the husband and wife and could not hide his excitement in sharing what he found out about Comet.

“It seems she’s a chronodragon,” he explained.  “They’re incredibly rare, and they have the ability to travel across not just great stretches of the universe, but also through time.  She’s too young to have mastered her powers just yet, so it seems she’s only able to teleport for now.  And we’ll fashion something that will make sure she always stays on our radar and doesn’t get into too much trouble.”

“She’s just a baby,” Rhianna said.  “Surely we ought to be able to help her find her way home, right?”

“Well, you’ve already done your part in the beginning of her journey,” Mervius said.  “And while I don’t doubt that you’ll see her again, I think we ought to take it from here.”

“What?” Michael said.  “But we’re the ones who found her.  Shouldn’t we be around for her?”

Mervius draped his hands on each of their shoulders.  “I know you want to aid her, but there’s a bigger problem than you would be able to help with, I’m afraid.”

“Well, what is it?” Rhianna asked.

“Her home planet doesn’t exist yet,” Mervius revealed.  “We can’t exactly get her home if we don’t know where it is—but we do know that she’s been displaced by millions of years.  Until she can master her time travel skills, I’m afraid we may be forced to wait.  But she’ll have a home here in the meantime, and you’ll be able to see her every Christmas.”

Rhianna’s eyebrows curled into a look of sadness.  “Is she going to be okay without her family?”

Michael grabbed his wife around the shoulder and pulled her in tight.  “We know firsthand that a family is whatever you make of it, as long as there is love and laughter, and we all look out for one another.”

Together, they looked at their family, the three dogs and the cat all playing with one another, and their new friend, Comet.

“Thank you for looking out for her, Merv,” Michael said.  “Something makes me feel like she is going to be a handful.”  Luna came over and nearly bowled Michael over then, jumping up and stretching, with a big smile on her face.  “I feel like we have enough experience to give our expert opinion on the matter,” Michael added.

“It seems like it,” the elf said with a laugh.  “Well then, shall we prepare for the festivities?  You’ve accomplished a great feat today, and we celebrate those with great feasts.”

“Feast!” Maisie said, skittering across the metal floor toward the elf, wagging her tail the whole way.

“Ha!” Rhianna enunciated.  “If that tail wagged any faster, you’d learn to fly too, little one!”

The rest of the family laughed at the thought.  While they all remained merry, Michael waved Mervius over to the sleigh.

“I have to know,” Michael said.  “What does the black button do?”

Mervius tilted his head, but as Michael pointed toward the interior with his chin, the elf nodded.  “Oh, that.”  He leaned in and smacked his palm against it.

Michael was ready to hop back, but instead, a door slid away from the center console of the sleigh, just below the buttons, and out popped a steaming mug of hot cocoa.  Marshmallows swirled around it, and a dome not unlike the one that covered the rover was present there.  A festive little pop went off inside the mug’s snow globe, as one of the marshmallows exploded into a sort of tasty confetti that fluttered back down to the hot chocolate.

“And then…” Mervius said, turning toward Michael again.  “Here.”  He flicked a flap on Michael’s suit, revealing a straw that could have been used to sip the hot cocoa while you were out and about in space.  “Sorry we didn’t get to explain that one.  There just wasn’t enough time to—”

“There’s always enough time for hot cocoa!” Michael said, exasperated.

Mervius leaned into the sleigh, and retrieved the beverage for Michael, handing it to him a second later.

“Thank you,” Michael said.

“All right then, to the feasting hall!” Mervius said, while Michael fumbled behind him with the straw in his suit.

Together, the DeAngelo family, and their new dragon friend followed the elf into the workshop, eager to close out their adventure with delicious food, and good discussions about their hopes for the holidays, and the year beyond.

  *        *          *

When Michael slid the door open then, he knew that everyone who entered the house did so with slightly rounder bellies than when they had last exited it.  The animals made their way in first, from eldest to youngest, and when Rhianna reached the door, she laid her head on her husband’s shoulder, failing to stifle a large yawn that fought its way past her lips.

“Why is it that we’re always so tired when we get back from our times with Santa?”

Michael chortled.  “We didn’t used to.  That’s just what happens when you get older.  And the adventures that Santa sends us on are always insane.  Insanity takes its toll.”

“Maybe that’s why I feel so worn down,” Rhianna said.  “I live with you.”

“That’s right, and that’s what keeps me young!”  He stood there staring at her, with a smile on his face for a moment, but then, by the power of suggestion or otherwise, he had to yawn then as well.

She leaned close and kissed him on the cheek, and then the pair of them followed their fuzzy babies inside.

“So, how did you like your first Tellest Christmas, Luna?” Michael asked.

Luna spun around, excitement still aglow in her eyes.  “It was the best!  I love making new friends, and it was nice to meet one who was bigger than me for a change.”

“That’s right,” Rhianna said.  “And thank you so much for being so kind and sweet and gentle with Comet.  She really needed that, and we’re so proud of you for being such a loving sweetheart.”

“And how about everybody else?” Michael asked.  “Did we all have a good time?”

“I like going on any trip that doesn’t end up at the vet,” Zelda said.

“And I like any occasion that puts me in the same general vicinity as fiskeblugen,” Peanut said.

“And what about you, Maisie?” Rhianna wondered.

She lay on the couch, her head resting on her hands.  “Well… To be honest, I felt sort of underutilized this year.  But I did get to chomp on a big wheel of cheese at Santa’s workshop, so I think it all worked out.”  By that point her head was up again, and her tail was wagging at the thought of the yummy meal in which she had partaken.

“Well, the fun’s not over yet,” Michael said.  “Luna, every year when we come back, whether it’s on Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning, Santa finds a way to sneak us some very special presents.  And it looks like he already beat us here.  Look under the tree.”

“Presents!” Luna yelled, flinging herself toward the little tree.

“No, wait!” Rhianna yelled.  “You just open your own!”

A few minutes later, all of the DeAngelo family members sat content with their Christmas presents.

Peanut sat perched on the stairs with a small tray of tablets that had been described as freeze-dried fiskeblugen—food like astronauts eat!  And it wouldn’t stink up the house as she ate them.

All three dogs received toys that were shaped like dragons, with Zelda receiving a red one, Maisie receiving a blue one, and Luna receiving one that was almost appearing to shine in silver and gold.  The two older dogs squeaked away at their toys, but Luna just cuddled up next to hers.

“That’s very cute that she’s being so protective of her toy,” Rhianna said.

“What are we thinking?” Michael asked.  “Does it last three days before she tears it apart?”

“I was thinking a very conservative two,” Rhianna said.

Michael chuckled, but then he turned his attention back to his present, a brand-new hot cocoa mug, which was filled to the brim with the steaming beverage.  On the table, he had a supply that would last them well into the winter.

Rhianna stood up then, as all the animals had cleared a path to the Christmas tree then.  She held up the gift that had been left for her, a gorgeous ornamental silver and gold dragon that was wrapped around a crystal—perfect for hanging on the Christmas tree.

“There we go,” Rhianna said.  “That’s the perfect place for it.”

As she moved to head back to the couch, she realized that she kicked another small box, that was wrapped a bit differently than the presents that Santa had sent their way.

“Is this one that you wrapped?” Rhianna asked.

Michael shook his head.  “I have a habit of giving you all your Christmas presents early, or buying you presents that aren’t out yet.  I don’t know who that’s from.”

Rhianna bent low and picked up the box, noting that it wasn’t especially heavy.  She tore into it, first noticing the little card that had been included, but soon after spotting the little white discs that sat within the box.

“Well, what is it?” Michael asked.

Rhianna looked at the card then, and finally understood what had been sent their way.  “It’s from Mervius,” she said.  She plucked out one of the discs and held it up for Michael to see.  “They’re little tracking devices so we don’t have to worry about not being able to find our babies, even if a dragon comes along and bloops them across the universe.”

A huge thank you to Leo Borazio and Wern Szuen Lee for helping us with our bookmarks this year, just like last year.  Once again they did an awesome job with everything!

The post Christmas Comet appeared first on Tellest.

There is a legend that exists that says this: The first snow of the winter season brings with it incredible magic, and if you see that snow falling as the sun rises, you are rewarded with a wish.

And so it was that day in that cozy corner house, where a doting husband and loving wife cuddled up beside their fluffy dog and their resistant cat.

“Rhianna, it’s snowing,” the man said.

The lady swept her lovely mane of red hair out of her face, and stood, clutching the little dog close to her chest.  In time, she reached the window that overlooked their yard, and she could not rein in that smile.

“You have to get over here and make a wish, Michael,” she bade.  “It’s the first snow of the season!”

Never one to buck her traditions, the husband rose and scooped the cat along with him.  If he had to be present for such an occasion, it was only fair that their pets both be there as well.

The fellow looked out upon that falling snow and grinned at his wife. “This isn’t one of those things where I can’t know what you wished, is it?”

Rhianna laughed and shook her head.  “I don’t think so.”  She looked down at the dog—her fur almost the same color as the woman’s hair. She pushed as far into Rhianna’s chest as she could, and she laughed as she realized she was attempting to squeeze as far away from the cat as possible.

“I wish that we could communicate with our fluffy little babies.  Would’t it be funny to hear what Peanut and Zelda thought?”

The man chortled and shook his head.  “I have a feeling we would be a little less impressed than you think.  I can just imagine Zelda now: ‘throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball!’  And Peanut?  It’d be wasted on her.  Though I guess it would be funny to hear what she says in her sleep.”

“Oh, I just want them to know we love them,” Rhianna said, rubbing her forehead against the dog’s.  She looked up at her husband, who still stared out that window.  “What are you going to wish for?” she asked.

He pondered for a moment, watching as each of those snowflakes dropped.  “Hmm,” he thought.  “This time of year, I bet it’s beautiful in Tellest.”

Rhianna just smiled and rolled her eyes.

Tellest was a world that Michael had imagined for sixteen years.  It was the world that brought the two loved ones together.  Once upon a time, Michael suggested that Rhianna utilize her artistic talents to help him bring that world to life.  They ended up finding other awesome people to help with that, and the two of them ended up forming a beautiful relationship together.  After five years together, they worked on that fantasy universe together, writing stories, creating games and gathering art.

Michael kept wearing that goofy grin, and shrugged.  “I wish that every Christmas, we could visit Tellest.”

*          *          *          *          *

A few days passed, and it was the afternoon before Christmas Eve. Michael heard the telltale buzz of his phone as he was putting on his coat.

“Hewwwoooo,” he cried as he swiped at the screen.

“Michael?” he heard Rhianna say.  “I think you should come home.”

The man arched his eyebrow.  His wife always played around when he first answered the phone.  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Well,” she said, “nothing is wrong, per se.  But you’re going to need to see this.”

The prominence in Michael’s throat dropped, and he hurried to his car.  He tried to maintain some air of composure, but he sped home faster than he should have, and when he pulled into the driveway, he nearly forgot to shift the vehicle into park before he jumped out the door.

Michael rushed to the front of the house, jamming his key into the lock and swing the way open.  He was surprised to see his wife sitting on the couch, staring at their dog on the floor.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

Zelda, their pretty little dog, turned about at once, and stood on her hind legs.  “Daddy!”

Michael smiled as the pup crossed the distance to meet him by the door.  It wasn’t until she reached him that he realized what had transpired.  His eyes went wide, and his gaze slowly drew to Rhianna, still sitting on the couch.  She passed him a knowing nod, confirming that he was not, in fact, going crazy (though some people suspect all DeAngelos are).

He cocked his head to the side, and looked at the eager dog.  “Zelda… did you just speak?”

“Woof!” the pup called out.  It was not the typical bark of the dog when she was called upon to perform her tricks.  No, she said the word—and with great pride, judging by the waggle of her rump.

“You see what this means, don’t you?” Rhianna asked.

Michael returned an absent stare as he put together the clues that he could find.  “It means your wish came true,” he mumbled.

“It means you were wrong!” his wife exclaimed.  “She hasn’t asked me to throw the ball yet!”

Zelda spun about with a gasp, and stared at her mommy.  “Ball?” she cried.

“Wait a minute,” Michael said.  “You wished for the ability to communicate with our animals.  Plural.  Is Peanut able to talk now too?”

In response, Rhianna walked to the window, and swept the curtain out of the way.

The cat was there, and she turned her head to look at the interloper to her bay window refuge.  “Ugh,” she groaned.  “What do you want?”

Rhianna gestured with her hand as if to ask if that was confirmation enough.

“How long have they been like this?”

“Since about an hour ago.”

Michael arched his eyebrow.  “That’s right about the time we noticed the snow a few days ago.”

“You made a wish too, you know,” his wife reminded.  “Did we get any tickets to Tellest lately?”

He shrugged.  “No mail today, it seems.  I don’t think it’s in the cards.”

Just then, a loud, persistent gust battered the back of the house. The french doors shuddered against that buffeting of wind, and the married couple inched closer to that area.

Against all odds, the back yard was covered in white.  Snow had fallen there in a matter of moments.

No, not fallen, they soon realized.  It was being cast out from the ground—and the large swirling vortex that was there.  The wind and snow whipped around like mad, and as more of that white stuff coated the ground and the glass of the door, visibility was limited.

“I think that’s our formal invitation,” Michael said.

“You can’t be serious,” Rhianna protested.

“Our animals are talking.”

His wife opened her mouth to argue further, but the words were caught behind her lips.  She raised a single finger and nodded.  “You make a good point.”

Beyond the glass of those doors, another sound echoed through.  It was the jovial laughter of a fellow they had heard in countless stories and recreations of holiday cheer throughout the years.

“Ho ho ho…”

“It can’t be,” Michael muttered.  He opened the door to hear the sound with more clarity.

“Merry Christmas!” he heard.

Overwhelmed with curiosity, the man opened the door.  He lifted his arm to shield his eyes from that whipping snow.  As he drew closer, he could see that the large hole that manifested in their yard held one more secret: a rippling image was displayed several feet below. A beautiful manor covered in snow with smoke billowing out of several chimneys was there, appearing as though it were on the other side of a pool of water.

While the bewildered man studied that portal to another world, the little brown dog sprinted out of the open door.  “Santa!” she cried.

Inside the house, Rhianna reached out as if the simple gesture could somehow placate the excited pup.  “Zelda, wait!”

It was too late though.  The dog leapt off the ground with glee in her eyes, and even Michael was too slow to catch her.  She descended into that hole at once, and plunged through the rippling image, until she was out of sight.

The man stood there in shock, his mouth agape.  He looked back to his wife, his slow gaze meeting hers.  She was as silent as he was, but she offered a shake of her head.  Rhianna knew that he had already made his decision though.  He forced a sigh out into the air, steam slipping into the cold from between his lips.  Without anymore hesitation, he hopped into that vortex.

“Michael, what are you doing?” Rhianna grumbled.  “I’m in pajamas!” That did nothing to stop her though, and she fumbled to put on a pair of shoes.  As she reached that opened french door, she looked to the cat in her bed on the opposite side of the room.  “Stay here, Peanut.  We’ll be right back.”  She looked to that swirling vortex and tried to bear a grin.  “At least, I hope we will be.”

She shrugged and stepped out of the house, swinging the door shut. She didn’t slow at all as she leaped into the unknown.

That door never closed properly, bouncing back open and letting the chill back into the house.  The cat sighed and rose from her comfortable bed, hopping to the hardwood floor below.  “The least you could have done was make sure you closed the door, you peasants!”  Peanut sauntered to threshold of the house, looking at the whipping wind and the hole just out of reach.  “Good riddance,” she mused.

She spun about then, and approached her food bowl—the only other thing besides sleep that truly gave her comfort and was aghast by the sight of it.

It was empty!

“Wait for me!” she cried as she sped out that open door.

The cat was the last one through that portal, closing her eyes as she took her fateful leap.

With the family of four summoned to that faraway place, the portal closed, and the snow and wind expired with one final blast of air. The door to the DeAngelo abode shut fiercely, and the yard settled back into place, though a circular outline where a deep hole once was remained there to prove the strange event that unfolded.

*          *          *          *          *

The cat tumbled forward in that odd void of gravity.  Images she couldn’t understand whipped by, until she saw one that she couldn’t help but be drawn to.  There, a lavish manor that seemed akin to a huge, longstanding hunting lodge was adorned with lights and decorations.

She was so distracted by the view that she wasn’t prepared for that liquid feeling of the exit portal.

Still, Peanut had enough sense to right herself before she landed in the snow.  With deft skill, the feline landed on her feet, and stared at her familiar loved ones.

Rhianna arched her eyebrow as she swept the snow off of her pajamas.  She lifted her gaze to meet the recently arrived cat, and clicked her tongue.

“Good riddance?” she echoed.

Peanut stood straighter upon hearing that comment.  “Oh, you heard that?” She made no further attempt to apologize, as though an acknowledgement was enough.  She sat down, despite the snow on the ground, and licked her front paws clean.  When she looked past her smirking owner, she saw Michael cradling the dog, and wiping the snow from her nose.

Rhianna walked up beside them, and dusted her husband’s shoulders clear of the white stuff as well.  “So, here’s a question that might be worth asking.  How are we going to get home?”

“A portal that opened up in our backyard just ripped us through space and time before dumping us in front of a gorgeous wintertime manor, and you’re already asking about home?”

She shrugged.  “That’s a fair point.”

By then, the dog was cleaned up, though she narrowed her eyes as the wind whipped more powder about the air.  “I’m going to put you down now, Zelda, alright?  No running off anymore.”

As soon as she was on the ground, she shook her body, discarding any of the snow that the man couldn’t get to.  When she was steady once more, she looked up.  The DeAngelo family watched as the front of that beautiful lodge was awash with a warm glow.

The door opened, and the silhouette of a man with a large form filled that broad entrance.  “Come on then,” the stranger bellowed.  “It might not seem cold in all this snow, but I assure you, a Tellest winter is a dangerous thing!”

Without any further prompting, the dog scurried off into the snow.

“Aaaaand there she goes,” Michael conceded.  “Run along with her, and I’ll get the cat,” he told his wife.

“You will do no such thing,” Peanut moaned.  She didn’t put up much of a fight though, huddling against her owner’s chest as he scooped her up.

Rhianna trudged through that snow until it covered her pajama bottoms, and soaked them thoroughly.  Before she reached the opened gate in front of the lodge, her teeth were already chattering.

Zelda, their typically skittish dog, had no qualms about prancing into the house.  The man obscured by the light took a step back and let the chihuahua slip by before turning his attention back to his other guests.

The redhead stopped just before the steps that led to that building, in awe at what she was seeing.  “It’s you.  It’s really you.”

Behind a  bushy grey beard and beneath a wide-brimmed red hat, the broad fellow bore a warm smile.  “Of course it’s me.  Who else would I be if not myself?”

Rhianna couldn’t bring herself to even blink.  “But I mean, you’re him.  You’re—”

“Santa Claus?” Michael asked as he drew close.  He wasn’t as shocked by the appearance of the fellow, and he offered a nod to him.

“And pleased to be making your acquaintance,” the very spirit of Christmas said to them.  “Why don’t you both come in and settle down with your pets, and I’ll have one of the servants prepare us all some cocoa.”

The two loved ones were surprised, as they entered the house, to see one of the aforementioned servants standing before them.  A dwarf, his head in line with the bottom of Michael’s shoulders, presented a tray before him that carried two neatly stacked outfits.

“I love new clothes,” Rhianna cried as she plucked the  one aside.

Her husband, meanwhile, released his hold on the cat, lifted the jacket that remained, and let it hang before him.  “This looks a lot like the leather jacket I have at home.  This one looks much nicer, though.  It’d be awesome if this thing fits.”

“I assure you, sir, the measurements are accurate,” the dwarf bade.

“How can that be?” Michael asked as Santa made his way deeper into the lodge.

The jolly man in red simply chortled at that cynicism, but the dwarf leaned forward, and brought his hand to his lips.  “He’s sees you when you’re sleeping.”

Rhianna nodded, as if that was all she needed to hear.

That dwarf led them to a small antechamber so that they could change out of their wet clothes into the new ones that were prepared for them.  They looked at one another, impressed with the outfit that—they could scarcely believe it—Santa had set out for them.  After only a few moments, they emerged from that chamber to find that the dwarf had gone.  A quick turn to their side showed the flickering light of a hearth, the crackle of the fire and its glow inviting.

As the husband and wife entered that sitting room, they saw the jolly, white-bearded fellow in a chair near the fire.  Zelda was cuddled up in the seat beside him, while Peanut was perched upon the arm of that chair.

“It seems they’ve taken a liking to you,” Rhianna said.

The owner of that lodge sent a bright smile her way.  “Who wouldn’t like me?” he asked.  “I’m Santa.”  Before his guests could offer up any would-be witty responses, he waved them in.  “Come in, come in. Grab a seat and make yourself comfortable.  We have some things to talk about.”

As Michael and Rhianna cozied up next to each other on the settee opposite the very spirit of Christmas, the stocky fellow leaned forward.  “So, I take it you realize your wishes have actually come true.  That must have come as some surprise for you both today.”

“That’s putting it lightly,” Michael admitted.

Santa chortled as he mused on that.  “A little honesty goes a long way,” he said.  “You weren’t brought here solely for fun and games—not entirely.  Only two of you have had your wishes come to fruition, and we must remedy that at once, though I’ll need your help for the other two.”

“The other two?” Rhianna wondered.

“Of course!” he exclaimed.  “Four DeAngelos watched the fall of that first snow and made their wish.  Just because you couldn’t understand the furriest members of your family, that doesn’t mean they didn’t have a wish.

“Take Zelda here.  What did you wish for, little one?”

The little brown pup looked up to the man in red, her tail wagging furiously.  “I wanted to fly!” she cried.

“And fly you shall, you precious little thing,” he declared.  “But that will come in a little bit.  Your mother and father are going to need to help me with a task in order to fulfill your wish.”

Zelda turned to her owners and stood up on her hind legs, batting at the air.  “Help him you two!  I want to fly!”

“What do we have to—”

Michael stopped Rhianna from finishing her question when he leaned forward.  “Wait a minute.  What did Peanut wish for?”

Santa nodded, twitching his mustache.  “Your cat?  She wished for a—”

“I didn’t implicitly wish for anything,” Peanut grumbled.  “I just… voiced my desires.”

That fellow in red let fly a tremendous belly laugh that had the cat leaping from the chair over to her owners.  “Very well then, you finicky feline,” he said.  “We shall say that  your wish has yet to be made.  It’s in reserve.”

“What did you wish for?” Michael asked the cat as he cast a sidelong glance her way.

Peanut looked at him for a moment before promptly turning away to ignore him.

Father Christmas leaned forward again, lifting his hand to shield his mouth from the persnickety cat.  “She wanted a big, tasty bird.”

“But I did not wish for it,” Peanut made clear to all the others in the room.  “I was just voicing a concern.  When is the last time any of you ever considered what I want?”

“All you want to do is sleep and eat,” Michael said.  “I thought we were fulfilling that wish awfully well!”

Rhianna swept her husband back further in his seat.  “You mentioned that you had a task for us.  What is it you needed from us?”

Santa clapped his hands together.  “Always willing to offer aid when help is needed.  My girl, that is why you’re on my nice list.”  He rose, and stood before the fire, wrapping his arms around his back and clasping them together just above his rump.  “Again, let’s step back to that honestly I was talking about.  Surely you’ve heard all the stories about me: climbing through chimneys, making toys for children—”

“Delivering them all in one night,” Rhianna added.

“Right!” he said, spinning about and pointing a finger at her.  “Now that last one is a bit of a misunderstanding.  How could one man deliver to all of those children in one night?”  Before his guests could offer up a suspicion, he smiled and stepped a bit closer.  “In this world, I’m what is known as a wizard.  Not just any wizard, mind you, but an artificer.  Your husband is no doubt familiar with the concept: I collect magical relics to help me make my tasks a little simpler.”

“Like the sack you keep your toys in,” Michael surmised.  “It’s a bag of holding isn’t it?”

“Right you are, lad.”

“And your sleigh,” Rhianna piped up.  “It can fly, can’t it?”

Santa wore a smile so bright that even his eyes seemed aglow with pride and happiness.  “Parts of it can, of course.  The parts that are fashioned from cordus trees have the ability to float, given the proper treatment.”  He waved his hand then, dismissing his own rambling.  “One of the most important pieces of my collection is this one right here,” he said, pointing to the mantle.  There, a golden bracelet wrapped in holly rested, sitting within a glass display.  “With that, I’m able to travel through time and space, and I use it all to return to that one day a year when children expect gifts and merriment.”

“A bracelet that lets you travel to other places and other worlds,” Michael echoed.  “Isn’t there another wizard who—”

“Spoilers!” Santa said as he draped his arms across his burly chest. He eyed Michael up and arched his eyebrow, but sent a knowing wink his way a moment later.  “In any case, it’s a pretty big commitment.  Nobody realizes how much work it is to make sure every child gets what they need each Christmas.”

“I always thought you had some helpers,” Rhianna said.

“Well of course!” the jolly fellow said.  “I couldn’t possibly do it all myself.  We’ve got craftsman and stable hands, and all manner of assistance.  Wintertide is meant to be a holiday that is embraced by all.  Er… that is what the people of Tellest call Christmas, my dear.”

“Alright, so where do we come in?” Michael asked.  “I’m not about to let our pup go without a chance to fly.”

“Yay!” Zelda exclaimed, leaping off the chair and jumping against her owner’s leg.

“Well then, let’s get to it, shall we?” Santa reasoned.  “I am going to be somewhat busy here through Christmas, as I’m sure you can surmise.  But there are a few things that I need to make sure the holidays go off without a hitch.  One of those aforementioned helpers, an elf named Revan, is waiting for you out in the northern tundra with a few  assistants.”

“Waiting for us?” Rhianna wondered.

“Of course,” he attested.  “Did I not mention I have mastery over time itself?”

The spouses could not tell if the jolly fellow was having a go at them, or if he was serious.

“In any case, Revan and the helpers have a few things that I need. First and foremost, they’re great alchemists.  They’re responsible for a good deal of Christmas magic, and without them, I’m not sure I’d be able to get everything done!”

“Well,” Michael mused, “how are we supposed to find them?  Even though I’ve written about Tellest, I didn’t even know you were here until now.”

“Ah, but that part of the story just wasn’t ready for you yet, lad,” the big fellow said.  “You and your wife are conduits to this realm.  When the tales are ready to be told, I’m sure you and countless others will be ready to spread the word.  And don’t you be worried about finding Revan.  That’s the trouble that I’ve already got worked out for you.  Just make sure you remember this: when you’re there, ask for the three potions.  They’ll know what it means.  While you’re there, I’m sure my other friend Leoden will want to look after the sleigh. He always pays extra attention to it around this time of year.”

He clapped his hands together, then, and proceeded further into the cabin.  His guests waited for just a few moments more before they followed him.  He waited beside the exit to the lodge, and they could see the tremendous sled that waited for them just outside the door.

“Borti,” Santa called out.  In a few moments, the dwarf they met earlier appeared from an adjacent room.  He carried that tray again, but it did not hold clothes any longer.  Instead, a sword, a quiver and a bow were stacked upon it.  “Ah, you read my mind, my friend.  You two are getting your Christmas gifts early,” he said to his guests.

While Michael beamed and scooped up the gear, Rhianna looked at Father Christmas with concern.

“This is Tellest, dear girl,” Santa declared.  “You never know what dangers there might be.  That said, where you’re going, I don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about.”

“Come on, Honeybuns,” Michael said, presenting her with the exquisite bow.  “Where’s your sense of adventure?”

She sighed then, accepting the offered weapon.  He helped her drape the quiver over her shoulder, and together—with both their animals at their feet—they followed the burly man in red out into the snow once more.

As they approached the sleigh, they were stricken by how beautiful it looked.  The grain of the wood was of particular interest.  That ancient piece had no doubt seen a great many events throughout Santa’s life, and Rhianna’s mind went racing to think of all the possibilities.

“There are so many things I want to ask you before we leave,” she lamented.

“Dear girl, do you think this is the last time we’ll meet?” the jolly man asked.  “Your husband wished for a trip to Tellest every Christmas. There are many visits yet to come!  And fret not.  You’ll see me once more before you return to your home.”

She nodded as she accepted his words.  Her attention shifted to Zelda, whose ears perked up as her body straightened.  “Big dogs!” she grumbled.

Michael couldn’t help but laugh at that, because the approaching animals weren’t dogs at all.  A team of eight reindeer marched on the snow toward that sleigh, a large fellow behind them keeping them all in line by their reins.

“That’s impressive,” Rhianna said.

“That’s just Kartan,” Santa said.  “If you need a fellow who can rope eight reindeer with his bare hands, there’s no better type for the job than a haudron.  Those half-giants have got enough strength in them to do some truly uncanny things.”

Kartan led the team to the front of the sleigh, and slotted them there in place as Santa and his guests arrived there.  “Thank you my old friend,” the spirit of Christmas bade.  He turned to the couple and their pets then.  “Are you four ready?”

Michael and Rhianna nodded, scooping their animals into their arms, and sliding onto the seat of the sleigh.  The man in red with the wide-brimmed hat sidled into the seat behind them.

“You’re coming with us?” Rhianna asked.

“Just to get you started,” the jolly fellow said.

That team of reindeer walked on, pulling the hefty sleigh for a few hundred feet.  Kartan was trudging through the snow behind them, but Santa’s visitors were too busy looking at the gorgeous aurora that seemed to circle the mountain near the lodge.

Finally, the team drew to a stop, and they realized they had pulled up before a steep cliff.

“Where do we go from here?” Michael asked.

“Forward, of course,” Santa said as he stepped out of the sleigh.

Both DeAngelo spouses looked at each other with curious expressions.

“What, you don’t trust me?” Santa Claus asked.

“That’s just a cliff,” Rhianna said.  Her eyes opened wide, then, and a bright smile stretched across her face as she turned back to their host.  “Are the reindeer going to fly us to your alchemist?”

Kartan passed by on their side, and they knew that her suspicion was wrong.  He untied the team from the sleigh, never offering a word to the visitors to the unfamiliar realm.

“What’s going on?” Michael wondered.

“Don’t worry,” Santa bade.  “This is all part of the plan, and it’ll make your journey to the workshop that much quicker.  And I wouldn’t trouble yourselves with having to find your own way back.  Revan or Leoden will surely point you in the right direction back to the lodge.”

“Okay, but how are we supposed to get there without any reindeer?” Michael asked.

“Christmas magic,” Rhianna surmised.

Magic seemed to be the furthest thing from it when Kartan gave a mighty push to the back of the sleigh.  The husband and wife sat down and clutched their pets even closer to their chest.

“Now hang on,” Santa ordered.  “This next part is a little bumpy.”

“Santa is going to kill us,” Peanut squeaked from behind Michael’s arms.

“Hold tight,” Santa cried as Kartan gave the sleigh another hefty shove.

They teetered on the edge of the cliff then, and Rhianna could feel Zelda shaking in her grasp.  The half-giant clapped his hands together before placing them against the vehicle one more time.

“Wait!” Santa yelled.  He ran up behind the sleigh, and draped his arms over the back of it.  “I almost forgot the most important part. The magic that brings you there safely only works if you believe.”  He turned to Kartan and offered a nod.  The half-giant gave one last push to the sleigh, sending it off the edge of the cliff.  “See you in a few hours, no doubt,” Santa shouted out with glee.

All four of the DeAngelos screamed as they saw the jagged rocks and the icy water below them.

“I believe, I believe, I believe,” Michael said as Rhianna buried her head against his shoulder.

“Your stupid Christmas wish is going to get us all killed!” Peanut grumbled.

Just then, though, right before those deadly rocks they careened toward, a ripple of time and space appeared.  Michael breathed a sigh of relief, which all of his loved ones could sense.

Zelda perked up as they approached that portal at a rapid pace. “Yay!” the little dog cried.

All at once, the sleigh and the passengers upon it descended into that rippling vortex.

*          *          *          *          *

When they were done floating through that rift in space, they emerged far away—but still pointed down toward certain doom.  All that mirth that they had summoned upon finding the portal was thrown to the wayside as they careened toward the flat expanse below them.  All four of the visitors to Tellest screamed in unison, their voices breaking once the sleigh banged and rocked against some unseen terrain.

The icy slope caught the sleigh, and the passengers were oblivious to their subtle ramp to safety.  With their eyes closed, and all of them huddled together, none of them noticed at first when their sleigh was upright again.  They slid forward, and it wasn’t until they braved the view that they realized they were safe.

“Again!” Zelda demanded.

Another sigh of relief left the lips of the two owners, though they knew not to let down their guard after that harrowing journey—even though it only took them a few moments to arrive there.

Still, the sleigh slid forward, toward a tremendous fir tree that was adorned with ornaments and strange lights.  The sleigh slowed just as it pulled into that area, and it was only then that the passengers could feel how badly their legs were shaking.

“The old fellow didn’t warn you about the portal, did he?” they heard off to their side.

They turned to see a strange man approach them from a building nearby.  No, not a man, they realized soon after.  His pointed ears pegged him as an elf.

“Huh,” Rhianna mused.  “I always thought Santa’s elves would have been the short ones.”

The stranger walked up beside the sleigh, investigating it as he took account of the two humans and their pets.  He had an odd look about him, his arms bare in that cold, and his chest covered only by a blacksmith’s apron.

“You must be Leoden,” Michael said.  “Santa told us there would be a craftsman here who took special care of his sleigh.”

With a nod, the elf stroked his beard.  “Well, when you’re working with something this old, you want to make sure it can last even longer.  Did he tell you the story of this old piece of driftwood?”

Rhianna arched her eyebrow upon hearing it described as that.  “He didn’t.  We didn’t have much time to converse while we were there. What did you mean when you called this driftwood?”

Leoden waved his hand.  “Ah, that’s not a story for me to tell.  But you should ask him about it next time you see him.  It’s sure to be an interesting revelation.”  The elf reached out, and helped the auburn-haired beauty off the sleigh.  “No doubt you’re here to see Revan. Leave this sled in my care and I’ll have it ready to go before you’re done collecting the things you need from him.”

“Thank you very much,” Michael said.

Together, the guests of that encampment made their way around the tree, coming close enough to see all the ornaments upon it.  Little glass balls were strewn about here and there, with shining, floating creatures inside.  Other decorations, fashioned from stone or wood hung from loops of ribbon, each engraved with a heartfelt message.

As they rounded the end of the fir, they noticed a trio of large buildings that looked similar to Santa’s lodge.  All of them seemed like exquisite log cabins, though they were surely the biggest they had ever seen.

The two humans, the dog and the cat were drawn to the center building, and they were surprised to see the door open before they drew too close.

When they ventured inside, that surprise only grew.  Vials and glassware were stacked throughout the room, making the inside of the giant cabin look like the laboratory of a mad scientist instead of a workshop for tiny elves.  Swirls of color were abound in every one of those flasks, the closest row alternating red and white.

“Like a candy cane,” Rhianna whispered.

“Ah, you must be Santa’s newest helpers,” they heard.  At once, a face appeared behind one of those round glasses where clear liquid flowed.  It was awkward and shifted into an odd shape, but the visitors could see the bright smile that person wore.  “I finished the latest batch of potions just in time, it seems!”

The elf emerged from behind the row of glasses, and her expression of glee was even more pronounced, somehow.  She wore a dark green, short-sleeved cincher, with white and red striped leggings that looked like she was propped up on two long peppermints.  Light brown hair tumbled down past her shoulders, and big, happy eyes landed upon the visitors.  She was smitten at once with the little dog who felt brave enough to introduce herself.

“Gorgeous!” the elf maiden said as she dropped to a bent knee to pet the pup.

“You too!” Zelda exclaimed.

Michael shook his head as he tried to make sense of the situation. “Wait, wait… you’re Revan?”

She sprang back up, and extended her arm.  “Pleased to meet you!” He was surprised by the powerful grip, and the enthusiastic shake, but even Michael could’t hold back a smile as the exuberant elf leaped forward and wrapped his wife in a fierce embrace.  “Hope you found the place alright,” she teased.

“Well isn’t she just a ball of sunshine,” Peanut grumbled.

Revan brought her hands to her cheeks and squealed.  “Kitty!” she cried.  The cat wasn’t quick enough to bound away before she was scooped up into the elf’s arms.  Revan twisted this way and that as she squeezed Peanut until she protested with a little groan.

“So, Santa told us to mention three potions,” Rhianna said, ignoring the adorable plight of the feline.

“Oh, of course,” the elf said.  “It’s hard to forget these three—he’s been using the same lot for centuries.”  She moved over to a table on the far side of the room, and gathered up three large flasks of glowing liquid.  One glowed green, one glowed blue, and the last glowed silver.  “You see, moving around with all those goodies takes an awful lot of work.  So what we’ve done is put together a concoction that makes the task a little easier.”  She held up the blue flask, and balanced it in her hand.  “This one here makes the presents he’s put together for the children smaller.  He’ll put them in the bag and it makes it easier for him to get to.  The green potion is sort of like the antidote.  It isn’t really fixing anything, so to speak, but it’s the right amount to get them back to the right size.  Those two potions counteract one another.

“But this one right here,” she said, juggling those flasks until the silver one was most prominent, “this one is the most important one of all.  This is the one that makes things fly.”

Zelda’s ears perked up at those words, and her eyes grew wide and eager.

“Yes, little one,” Revan said.  “Santa told me all about your wish!” The maiden turned to the human visitors, and arched an eyebrow.  “Are you two alright with your little puppy getting some wings?”

“It’s her wish,” Michael said.  “Who are we to get in the way of that?”

Zelda bounced around in excitement, and was the first to follow the elf out into the snow once more.  Revan fell to her knee again, the white and red stripes on that leg settling into the ivory dusting on the ground.  She popped the cork off of the flask, and was careful to tilt the glass over the dog’s head.

“Now remember, this is pretty potent stuff.  Santa is using it for a pretty good length of time, so you only need a drop of it, and it’ll last for hours.”

That drop landed on Zelda’s head, and she crouched low as if she was waiting for it to rain on her.  She narrowed her eyes, and looked about, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  “I don’t feel any floatier,” she said.  When she saw Michael and Rhianna’s widening eyes, though, she demonstrated some concern.  She looked down, and realized that she was a few inches off the ground.  A gasp escaped her lips, and she opened her mouth into an adorable canine grin.

“Merry Christmas, Zelda!” Revan said.  “Try it out!”

The little brown dog floated higher and higher, and before long, she grew comfortable with the motions of flight.  She could pitch and roll and dive with ease, and before long she was performing tricks in the air that made it look as though she was flying for years.

“I’m getting dizzy just watching her,” Rhianna said with a bright smile on her face.  Michael stepped up beside her, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

“Regretting not wishing for something awesome like that?” he asked Peanut a moment later.

The cat sneered, but stared with interest at her sister.

“So, she’ll be able to do this for a few hours,” Revan said.  “Probably just long enough to get you back to Santa’s lodge, if not further. With luck, she’ll be flying through the portal back to your world.”

“She’s going to be overjoyed,” Rhianna mused.

Revan’s eyebrows went up, and she inched closer to her visitors. “Now here’s something extra we have to talk about.  We were hoping Zelda would want to use her newfound ability to help us and Santa with a little dilemma.”

“What dilemma?” Michael asked.

“Well, getting the sleigh here was easy,” the elf said.  “The portal pretty much drops it off right here without any problems.  But we need to get it back to Santa, and the portal only works in one direction.”

Rhianna arched her eyebrow.  “So you were hoping that—”

“We were hoping that she’d pull the sleigh.”

“Ha!” Peanut snickered.

“But she weighs like… twelve pounds,” Michael argued.

Revan wore as innocent a grin as she could muster, and she lifted the green potion into the air.  “She doesn’t have to be.”

“I could see this being a problem,” Rhianna muttered.  “She already thinks she’s a big dog.”

“Well, let’s see what she says,” Michael said.  “For all we know, she might not even want to do this.”  He whistled just as Zelda did a loop-de-loop in the air.

Despite her incredible mirth with being able to take to the sky, she turned toward her family, and dove toward them.

“Slow down, Zelda,” Rhianna bade.  “Slow down!”

That warning wasn’t enough to dissuade her though.  She skittered down to the ground, losing her balance at once, and rolling through the snow.

Everyone in attendance gasped except for Peanut, who crooned her neck to see what transpired not so far away from them.

“Woo!” Zelda cried.  “That was awesome!”

Michael ran to the snow-covered pup and lifted her off the ground, dusting off her face.  “You alright little girl?”

“Never better!”

He squeezed her close to his chest, noting that she couldn’t stop wagging her tail.  He had never seen it move so fast, and if he wasn’t aware of the Christmas magic, he would have suspected that rapid propelling tail was what made her fly.  “We have a favor to ask of you, puppy dog.”

“A favor?” she echoed.  “You’ve never asked for one of those from me before.”

“Think of it as a really, really amazing trick!” Rhianna said.

“I love tricks!” Zelda said.

“Well we have a really important one for you, darling,” Revan replied. “How would you like to be the one who brings Santa’s sleigh back to his lodge?”

“I could do that?  Really?”

“If you want to!  But we have to use some of this potion on you.  It’ll make you big and strong enough to pull the sleigh.”

“I’m going to be just like one of his reindeer!” she exclaimed.

“That’s right, you will!”

Revan dropped to her knee again, pulling the stopper from the green flask.  “Just like before, all we really need is one drop—more than that and there can be… side effects.  Are you ready, Zelda?”

The dog panted in reply, and put her paws on the elf’s upright knee.

“Alright then.  Hold still, and we’ll get you all set up!”

Once again, that little dog flinched as the drop of that concoction landed on her head.  Revan stood up and took a step back, and at once, Zelda noticed she was growing in stature.

“You guys look so small compared to me now.”

“This is trouble just waiting to happen,” Michael joked.

“Let’s make sure you can still fly, little one,” Revan teased.  “Why don’t we all head over to Leoden’s and see if he’s done with the sleigh?”

Sure enough, Zelda was still able to take to the air.  She pranced like one of the nine famous reindeer that was known to tug Santa’s sleigh across the night sky.  With that much glee, it was hard to catch up to her, but she settled down beside the other elf’s workshop.

“Leoden?” Revan called out.

“Just putting on the finishing touches,” he replied from within.  The doors to that building were thrust open, and a plume of steam rolled out into the snow.  Leoden lifted his goggles, and wore a wide smile behind his beard.  “Your chariot awaits.”

“That was quick,” Rhianna praised.

“Well, when you’ve been at this as long as I have, it’s almost muscle memory.  She’ll serve you and the big man well.  If he treats it right, this sleigh won’t even need to be looked at next year!”

“You say that every year,” Revan reminded.  She stepped up alongside the vehicle, and grabbed the reins, pulling them into place until she had just what she needed.  “Alright there, Zelda.  Are you ready for your harness?”

“Ready!” the eager pup replied.

Leoden walked up to the two humans, and turned them to face away from his shop.  They were almost looking back toward that huge, icy slope that they arrived on.  “So, here’s how to get back to Santa’s lodge.  If you take the sleigh just to the side of that ridge, you’ll see a big, frigid lake.  Just beyond that, there’s an ice canyon.  It’s a beautiful view, but it’s also right in line with where you need to go.  If you just follow that for an hour or so, you’ll eventually see the lodge in the distance.  This time of year, he’s got that place so lit up, you’ll see it from miles away, no doubt.”

“Thank you, Leoden,” Michael said.  “I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to get to know you better.”

He arched his eyebrow.  “You really think this is the last time we’ll meet?  You’re one of Santa’s champions now.  That’s a fellowship that you never walk away from.”

“In that case, I look forward to seeing you again,” Michael said, extending his hand.  The two shook before Rhianna moved to hug him.

When Michael turned back to the oversized pup, she was all strapped into her harness, attached to the sleigh that would take them back to Santa’s.

“She’s all set,” Revan bade.  “All that’s left to do is get you settled in and get you on your way!”

“We appreciate all you’ve done for us,” Rhianna said.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Zelda this happy—and she’s a pretty happy dog by nature!”

“Well, she must have two very nice owners then!”

Peanut, looking up at Zelda with discerning eyes grumbled upon hearing the merry speak of the humans.

“Alright, we hear you, cat,” Michael conceded.  “Everyone ready?” He scooped Peanut up, and placed her on the front bench of the sleigh, and took his place beside her.

Rhianna slipped in next, squeezing in next to her husband.

Revan approached then, with the three flasks.  “Now remember, green makes things bigger, blue makes them smaller.  The silver will make things fly.  We already dabbed the sleigh with some of that, so your little pup won’t have any problems lifting the thing!”

Leoden jogged into the workshop then, and gathered an item from the back seat of the sleigh.  “Almost forgot,” he said, presenting them with a small piece of wood with three holes in it.  “This will keep the things from sliding around.  Not our first try at this,” he informed.

“You sure have thought of everything,” Rhianna jested.

The two elves smiled.  “Alright then.  Best you get on your way,” Revan said.  “Don’t want to risk disappointing the children!”

Michael offered a nod.  “Ready when you are, Zelda.  Time to fly!” The magically grown dog took a few moments to get some traction, but after a few slips and slides of her paws, the sleigh was moving. “Happy Wintertide!” Michael called out to their two new friends.

“Merry Christmas!” the elves called back.

Zelda’s speed and strength was more than anyone expected, and in mere seconds, she pulled away from the workshop village, and into the sky.

“Do you think it’ll be a regular ride back to Santa’s?” Revan asked when the sleigh drifted out of sight.

Leoden cocked his head and wore a mischievous grin.  “When have you ever known Santa’s plans to go off without a hitch?”

*          *          *          *          *

They were making fantastic time, Michael supposed—even though he wasn’t sure how much of a journey they had left.  As the icy canyon whipped by around them, though, he thought there was no way they weren’t on schedule.

“I can’t believe I forgot my phone,” Rhianna lamented.

“Something tells me you wouldn’t get any reception here,” her husband replied.

She gave him a punch on his shoulder that was filled with mock anger.  “I would have loved to have taken pictures of everything.  Is this how you imagined the world we’ve been working on?”

He shrugged.  “I didn’t even know there was a north pole here on Tellest.  And Santa?  How was I supposed to know he was here?”

“So that begs the question: does Tellest exist because you wrote it, or did you write about it because it was already there?”

“Well, technically, it—”

“We may never know!” Rhianna interrupted.

“Are we there yet?” the cat beside them wondered.

Michael narrowed his eyes at that question, and gazed at Peanut. “Don’t make me turn this sleigh around,” he teased.  “If you’re bored, you only have yourself to blame.  Zelda made a pretty awesome wish.  How you doing up there, Zelda?”

“I’m good!” the dog hollered back.  “I just keep imagining the moon is a ball that I can catch if I just fly as fast as I can!”

“See?” Rhianna said.  “That’s a good outlook on life.”

“Ugh, I’m just so bored!” Peanut grumbled.

“We’re flying in Santa’s sleigh!” Michael protested.  “How can you be bored?”

“Take a look around,” Rhianna suggested.  “This canyon is beautiful, the icy reflections are neat to look at—and look!  There’s penguins beneath us!”

Both of the other passengers peered over the side of the sleigh to look at those cold-region birds.

“We know some people back home that would be so jealous to see them in the wild,” Michael mentioned.

“And not just any wild, but wild from another world!”

Peanut sighed and rolled her eyes, walking back to the center of the vehicle.  Her gaze was drawn, then, to the swirling contents of the flasks on the bench seat.  While Michael and Rhianna were busy peering at the fantastic surroundings, she leaped back onto the seat, and watched the potions swish with every movement Zelda made.

She couldn’t deny her feline tendencies, then.  With one quick swat, the green concoction was knocked from the stand.

“Whoa!” Michael cried when he heard the glass roll onto the floor of the sleigh.  “Peanut, we need that for Santa.”

The feline stared back at him, not at all bothered by being chastised. “I’m a cat.”

As it rolled about on the floor, Michael lunged for it, failing at stopping it a few times.  Finally, it wedged into place against the bottom of the seat, hanging off the side of sleigh.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” the man bade.  “The flask didn’t break, so as long as the cork—”

The pop of the stopper leaving the glass echoed out over the canyon. Once more, Michael lunged for the potion, but he was unable to grasp it before three drops of that bright green liquid spilled from the vial.

Rhianna muttered, then.  “Did… was that…”

“Whatever you think happened, that’s probably what happened,” Michael returned.  He held the flask aloft, praying that more of that liquid wouldn’t slosh out past the top.  “What’s the worst that could happen though?  I mean, if it drops into the water, it’ll probably just end up diluted, right?”

For a few seconds, all three of the passengers stared ahead, as though there was nothing more to be said.

Then, they heard the tremendous splashing from below.

Michael and Rhianna each ventured a glance from either side of the sleigh, and their eyes went wide at the sight of the creatures that emerged from the dark, frigid water.

“You’re seeing what I’m seeing, right?” Michael asked.

“If you’re seeing humongous, angry-looking penguins, then yes, we are seeing the same thing!”

He swallowed hard, but then turned to his wife.  “Hold this for me,” he said, handing over the green flask.  “Do not drop it or let any of it spill.  “Giant angry penguins I can deal with.  I can’t say the same for a giant angry Rhianna!”

She glowered at him, but snagged the flask with as much care as she could.  He didn’t waste too much time trying to placate her.  Instead, he reached for his hip, and tugged the sword Santa gave him out of its scabbard.  Though it was a bit of an endeavor, he kicked his boot off as well, shoving it against the front of the sleigh.

“What are you doing?” his wife asked.

“Well, I’m not going to tear up any of the clothes that Santa gave us. But these are my old dingy socks.  I’ll get new ones.”

Before Rhianna could correct herself, he stabbed the tip of the sword into the sock, and tore a hole into it.  In that condition, it was even easier to tear, and he finished the rest by hand.

“Alright, now you have one sock, but I don’t know why,” Rhianna finally explained.

It was Michael’s turn to glare.  He snagged the flask back from his wife, and balled up the torn up piece of the sock.  Careful not to be too aggressive, he stuffed that into the hole at the top of the vial, and placed it back on the stand the other two flasks sat upon.

Finally, he set his gaze upon the cat once more.  “No touchy,” he said. “There we go.  Problem solved.”

As he sat upon the seat, grabbing his boot once more, Rhianna looked behind the sleigh, and was faced with a bigger problem.

“You know those big angry penguins?” she asked.

“Yes,” Michael said with a grunt as he pulled his boot into place.

“They’re big-angry-penguining this way.”

He stood up and spun about, noticing those massive birds flocking toward them at a hurried pace.  Their eyebrows made them look even fiercer and angrier, and had Michael reaching blindly for his sword.

“Zelda,” the man yelled.  “Go get that ball!”

The pup looked back upon hearing that request, but when she saw the monstrous penguins, she broke into a hasty retreat through the air.  Those birds towered over the sleigh, and she wasn’t about to let her family fall prey to those things.

“We can’t even head up out of the canyon,” Michael grumbled.  “There’s too much ice in the way.”

Their dog pulled the sleigh up and under snowy viaducts.  Those blue and white bridges came close to the vehicle a few times, but Zelda was skilled enough to give them the berth they needed.

“Hold my hand, Michael,” Rhianna bade.

“We’ll be okay,” he assured.  He was surprised then, when she stepped over the front seat, and landed in the back.  “What are you doing?”

She responded by scooping up her quiver, and swinging it over her shoulder.

“Looking out the back?” he asked.  “You’re going to get sick!”

“I can get sick later,” she protested.

As the nearest penguin charged forward—not with an awkward waddle, but a rapid sprint—Rhianna plucked up her bow, and nocked an arrow.  It drew closer, opening its massive beak to show off the bristly, knife-like spines therein.  The woman was having none of it, though, and she loosed her missile, landing it right in the center of its preened, white feathers.

That monstrous bird let fly a painful, loud squawk, and fell from the air, tumbling down the canyon into the water below.

“That… was… amazing,” Michael declared.

She turned to him, bursting with confidence.  “Thanks.  I was aiming for its head.”

He couldn’t shield his goofy smile.

It was wiped away a moment later when Peanut piped up from beside him.

“Problem!” she declared.

Another penguin was running right up beside them.  The side of the canyon angled sharply before them, and the two humans knew that the feisty bird meant to leap from there onto the sleigh.

Michael furrowed his brow and grabbed the reins, giving them a little snap.  “Faster, Zelda.  You can do it!”

He noticed another little tug on the reins then, with Peanut holding onto those straps as well.  “No, slow down!” she chimed in.

“Don’t listen to Peanut,” Michael bade.  “When has she ever had a good idea?”

Zelda obeyed her daddy, panting as she pushed as hard as she could.

“Up, up!” Michael cried.

The penguin was right beside them as they neared the apex of the canyon.  Stalactites hung from the icy ceiling like frosty spears, and everyone on board that sleigh had to duck their heads to avoid being skewered.

It was the moment of truth.  The man brandished his sword as the penguin turned its head and delivered a menacing gaze.  It leaped, its red eyes fixed on the sleigh.  Michael cut across with the sword.

It struck out—not against the penguin, but against one of those large stalactites.  A spray of snow and icy specks cast out, landing in those beady crimson eyes the bird pointed their way.  Blinded as it was, it missed its target, and sailed through the air until it clunked against the opposite wall.

“You’ve had some practice with this, huh?” Rhianna asked.

He flashed a bright smile, and stood taller at the sound of that praise. “Actually, I was hoping I could knock the spike into the darn thing!”

“I’ll take it!” his wife declared.

With the penguins still giving pursuit, the riders knew they had to come up with another plan.

“I have an idea,” they heard.

As they realized it was their adorable dog that said that, they felt a rumbling in their stomachs.

“Why does that make me more scared than anything?” Michael wondered.

“Hold on tight,” Zelda ordered.

The embiggened dog jerked the reins to the side, then, and the sleigh was quick to follow.  As she turned in the air, the sleigh rocked and teetered to its side.  With a tremendous thump, they collided with the sloped wall on that side.  The rails on the bottom of the sleigh slid into place, and the DeAngelos shifted in their spots.

Michael narrowed his eyes and saw what Zelda was trying to do.  Far ahead, a wide aperture led out of the canyon, but there was no way they would be agile enough to sweep up in order to escape…

…unless they looped around that icy bridge that spun about the area. How Zelda had even figured out the logistics of that maneuver was beyond him.

“We’re going upside down,” he warned the other members of his family.  “When she told us to hold on tight, she was serious.”

Peanut’s eyes went wide, and she clung to the only thing she could think of.  With her claws extended, she dug into Michael’s leg.  He scooped up the three potions, and held them in as firm a grasp as he could as he dropped to the ground before the seat.  Pressing his legs into the wood before him, he locked himself into place.  Rhianna landed beside him then, and he wrapped the reins around both their arms.

“Go puppy, go!” he called out.

With that encouragement, Zelda sprinted across the wall until it reached the sloping underside of the nearest bridge.  The penguins encircling them adjusted their paths, but even they were surprised by the movements being made by their prey.  Racing down the opposite side, Zelda and the sleigh gained even more momentum until the ramp jutted upward.

All four of the DeAngelos screamed in unison as they aimed toward that narrow aperture in the icy ceiling.  Penguins flew through the air, just missing their target.

It wasn’t until the sleigh passed through the hole that Michael realized he hadn’t dared to breathe.  Forcing air through his lungs, he felt the heat come back to his body.  The sleigh righted as Zelda leveled out again, and the passengers felt relief.

Michael stood up at once, giving the reins a light snap.

“Now Zelda!” he cried.  “To the top of the canyon, to the top of the wall, back to Santa’s one and all!”

*          *          *          *          *

The burly man in red couldn’t hide his smile as he saw that sleigh soar across the sky.  When he walked out to meet them in that snowy field, though, he could tell that something was amiss.

“You made good time!” he said.  “But, what was the rush?”

“Hey there Santa, we’ve got a bit of a problem,” Michael said.

“A few drops of your growth potion might have got into the water in the canyon,” Rhianna added.

“Oh my,” Father Christmas said.  “Is there anything I should be aware of?”

“Well, I mean, this is Tellest,” Michael said.  “Surely there have been giant, dire penguins before, right?”

A jolly laugh escaped Santa’s lips then.  “I think there’s an easy solution to this.  Why, I could still have you home before Christmas Eve.”

“Really?” Zelda asked.  “What’s your plan?”

He reached up and pet the dog who stood taller than his sleigh.  But it was the smallest member of the family who his gaze was drawn to.

“This could all be fixed if you just make a wish, Peanut,” he bade.

She wore a perplexed gaze as she considered his words.  “What are you getting at, big man?”

He fell to a knee before the cat, and tousled her fur just behind her ears.  “Now, repeat after me,” he said.  “I wish I could eat a big, tasty bird.”

*          *          *          *          *

Those penguins kept charging forward, eager to find the meal that had eluded them.  They scurried through the canyon for miles, until they were upon flat ground once more.  Their red eyes were drawn to the shining lights upon that distant building.  They passed between those snowy mounds, their appetites driving them forward.

So intent on their next meal, they weren’t expecting to become one.

Suddenly, they stood in a tremendous shadow, and the moon was obscured by a new mountain—one of fur and claws and fangs.

Peanut—now twenty feet tall—looked down upon the birds and licked her lips.

*          *          *          *          *

It was Christmas morning, and Michael heard scratching at the door. He was surprised, as Zelda was still curled up in the bed.

Arching his eyebrow, he threw on his pajamas, and opened up the door.

Peanut was there, and she let fly a meow that was loud enough to have Rhianna stirring from her slumber.  The little cat—back to her normal size—skittered back into the living room, and her owner was quick to follow her.

Michael couldn’t hide his smile, as he stood there, looking at their tree.

“What is it?” Rhianna groggily asked.

He pointed to a chest that sat beneath the tree—almost an exact replica of the one that had carried Revan’s potions.  His wife ran over to it, and popped open the lid.  There, inside, were four wrapped presents, each labeled for one of the members of the family.

Rhianna handed them out, and even the animals tore away the wrapping paper.  Michael smiled when he opened his and spotted a new pair of socks.  His wife giggled when she spotted a ball for Zelda, and a stuffed penguin for Peanut.

“Catnip?” she asked, as if expecting the cat to be able to answer her still.

Peanut replied by rubbing her face into the toy’s white belly.

Michael peered over at his wife, and arched his eyebrow.  “What’d you get?” he wondered.

She unwrapped her gift, and was surprised to see an exquisite pair of archery gloves waiting for her.

As she tried them on, smiling all the while, Michael took a step forward, and noticed one more item in the chest.  He plucked out a little envelope, and the letter that was tucked inside.

“What’s it say?” Rhianna asked.  “What’s it say?”

“It’s from Santa,” Michael replied.  “He’s wishing us a Merry Christmas and a Happy Wintertide, and he can’t wait to see us next year!”

Happy holidays everyone!

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