Red Snow

3

I stormed up the metal stairs, making them groan dismally under my stomping. While heading towards the "door" I pushed Strout to the side as he selected a weapon to practice with. I'm sure he said something like hey! These things are sharp and I'd rather not be impaled with one of them! But I could only hear screams of frustration in my head. I slammed the "door" violently and it splintered like a popsicle stick.

Anyone watching must have thought I was crazy. I imagined an elf chatting with his friends and pointing his coffee mug at me. Look at Kota, having a temper tantrum again! Did he stay up too late? Poor thing!

But I was mad. Mad enough to eat Nick's beard or rip his . . . Never mind, I probably shouldn't get too graphic.

Why? Why in the name of Jack's tiny toe would you start training chasers this late! We all have so much to do without trainees, let alone Mika being captured! I thought.

I admit; I was getting pretty upset over nothing. But Santa had taught me that being a chaser was the most important thing I could be; I was meant to chase when this time of year came around. I couldn't be chasing away baddies if I was training kitties. All of the training should be done earlier in the year so there's time for everything. He drilled this and many other concepts into every animal's head.

And now Santa was asking me to break one of his rules.

This should have been my first year of chasing. I was ready to protect Santa's sleigh and keep the baddies away. It had been my dream since I was a cub to run in the moonlight on Christmas Day, seeking in the shadows for creatures who would cause any inconvenience to Santa. Now I would probably be watching kitties throw empty orbs at targets in the basement.

And I was supposed to be Mika's trainer. That had no logic in it; I could manage training multiple animals at once. But for some reason it felt wrong; like I was cheating on her or something.

Why did I miss her so much?

I didn't bother to use the heated walkway; I just plowed straight to Nick's office through the snow. By the time I stepped by the door, a giant snowball had formed around my chest.

I shook powdery snow off my pelt and stomped through the crowd of elves, chasers, and many other Christmas helpers you don't want to hear about. I almost got stepped on by a brown Klookie.

"''Scuse me," I said over and over, probably as I shoved them to the side. "Excuse me, I have an ASAP meeting. Hey, could you please move- GET OUT OF THE WAY! I HAVE A MEETING! I NEED TO GET IN NOW!"

Poor little Frej. He must have been having a hard enough time without a raging tiger yelling rudely over the crowd.

Frej was an elf about a meter tall who guarded a door about fifteen meters tall. The door alone was quite a sight; delicate carvings of happy children and Nick's reindeer pranced across beautiful snowflake designs, but the crowd distracted from its beauty. Everyone was yelling something. Frej was trying to yell louder. "QUIET YOU FILTHY, ROTTEN, SPOILED LUMPS OF COAL!!! THERE ARE ORPHANS IN MEXICO WAITING FOR THEIR HAND-CRAFTED PUZZLES AND NICK CAN'T FOCUS WITH ALL THIS RACKET!"

Of course, no one responded, but he deserved a cookie for the effort.

"I have an ASAP meeting!" I said, standing over the elf. Someone tried to push my rear end out of the way but I kicked them.

"ALRIGHT! KEEP YOUR SMELLY BREATH CONTAINED! ONLY HIM, NO ONE ELSE!" Frej yelled.

He slipped the door open enough for me and a small goat to hop through. Like lightning, Frej caught the goat with a single hand and pulled it out. "No! No!" It wailed as the door snapped shut.