One Little Spark of Christmas

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

          Faint from a distance, the monster gave a vibrating ripple that had surrounded himself, reaching far to the back end of the Dream Machine. The zeppelin shook with a teeter-totter at the first touch. Everyone onboard, including Algar and the reindeer, had been tossed around against the rails on the sides of the ship, one nearly falling off into the cloudy abyss below them. The Dreamfinder, determined to keep everyone safe, pulled the reins on the reindeer to make them go faster, while he started to pull some switches on his mechanical creation. Pepper Mint, being the smallest of the group, struggled to get to the back of the Dream Machine to join the rest of the group. Another jerking motion tipped the machine far off to the right side from another ripple, causing the little elf to fall off from underneath the rails and scream high above what must be the European continent on the way to Africa. Figment heard Pepper's cries, swooping down to her rescue in a quick pace. Arms reaching out, wings flapping hard in the winds of the high atmosphere, and his big yellow eyes stinging from the intensely cold temperature, the dragon has managed to catch her in time before she got too low.

          Meanwhile, with a terribly frightful beating in her heart, Rachel kept watch on Krampus and his army, throwing anything she could with her magic paintbrush to slow them down. But it proved to be in vain, fruitless to distract these beastly creatures from coming closer when they have already come so far in their Christmas journey. How on Earth did they know where they were going? How were able to catch up? And more importantly, why haven't caused any trouble on them all this time? This had to be an organized attack; an ambush waiting to strike at the right moment.

          With Rachel quickly backing away from the back end of the Dream Machine, desperately trying to keep the intruders at bay with whatever blunt objects she kept conjuring and throwing at them, the Krampus hops off of his steed aboard the ship like a mad pirate arriving to plunder with his crew behind him.

"Now then...who's ready to be carried away in my bag to Hell?" sneered Krampus with a grimly grin as he holds his worn and empty patched "Santa's" bag.

          Pupils frozen by the bitter cold air, Rachel slowly stepped away towards her crew. She shivered. Her arms infested with thousands of goosebumps with its growing intensity of her anticipate fear choking her at the base of her throat, ready to scream when the time was right. The size of this monster in front of her was already terrifying enough from miles away, but up close it was like facing the form of the devil with the size of the infamous giant Goliath.

          Krampus' hooves clomped across the wooden surface of the walkway aboard the Dream Machine, inching closer to the first of his prey. His rotten yellowed teeth drooled, freezing into teardrops by the winter freeze as his abnormally extended tongue licked across his toothy walls. In the wind, his long torn garments flew, revealing the bottom half of his body that resembled a satyr, furry from his hips to his hooved feet, that made him appear anything but human (or any innocent celestial or multidimensional being for that matter). His claws for hands extended out to Rachel, reaching out to grab her. But Rachel pulled herself away quickly. Quick enough to reach Figment hiding at her back and Pepper Mint storming up behind her.

          This was expected out of Krampus as Pepper Mint had thought before. More so feared than anything else. The elf girl knew there was something going on when she realized Krampus hadn't made his move while Dreamfinder, Figment, and Algar were busy upgrading their dirigible as they guarded the North and South Poles. He could have stopped them at their tracks as the group had made themselves awfully busy delivering the presents throughout the Earth. At this point, they were just about to finish up with both the mainland of Europe and Africa coming into view. Why now, of all times, did Krampus decide to make his ambush now?