Happily Ever Christmas

~Twenty-Eight~

I stepped out into the hall just in time to see a door closing softly behind the group of Steve's chief advisers, or whoever they were.

I picked up my heavy blue skirts and hustled down the corridor just in time to catch the handle before the lock engaged.

I held the door nearly closed for a few moments, listening with all my night.

I could hear low voices and then a strange sound that I was sure I had never heard before.

I knew eavesdropping and snooping was wrong, my mother had always told me so, but I had the right to this knowledge. In the interest of keeping my children safe.

So I slowly began to open the door, just one minute sliver at a time so that hopefully no one inside the room would even notice.

Then I pressed my face to the crack to peer cautiously into the room.

*~*~*~*

"Alright, so the area's been cleared?"

"Evacuated per your new protocol, Sire."

"Great. Thank you, Belfast. If there's only one Darkmouth Beast our there then I should have it handled and I'll be back in 15." Steve was saying, pulling on a big pair of black boots.

He had stripped from his formal attire and was just in a plain white undershirt with a pair of leather suspenders and a pair of brown leather snow britches. He sort of looked like he was about to go fishing and I even had a moment where I was caught up in simply ogling his bulging biceps and his beautifully sculpted forearms, his big manly hands...mmmm.

Hot damn, the man was sinfully tempting.

I gulped and made myself refocus so I could concentrate on what was actually being said.

"Where's my...? Ahhh, there 'tis. What would I do without you, Mazie?"

I blinked as Mazie handed Steve a positively giant battle ax, taller and no doubt heavier than me.

"Sire, how do you think the Darkmouth Beasts keep getting in through the domestic Shield?"

"I don't know, Mazie. Something to discuss after I've dealt with this one and patched the hole. If I can." Steve muttered this last part wearily to himself.

"Very good, sir. Please try not to get too badly wounded this time."

Wounded?!

"I'll do my best. Make sure the portal closes behind me." He turned to face the fireplace and touched the mantle.

A howling wind suddenly flared up through the room, seemingly out of nowhere.

I watched in stunned amazement as the fireplace itself vanished, opening up into a dark, yawning void from whence the icy wind was coming from.

Steve hefted his big, bronze battle ax over his shoulder and stepped stoically out into the darkness.

I moved without thinking.

I don't even know what came over me in that moment, I simply acted.

Before Mazie could shut the portal behind him, I slipped into the room and darted between Belfast and a few other elderly elves, diving through the fireplace portal after Santa Claus.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*