Rudolph Saves Christmas

2: Ethelbert

Rudolph woke up with a start - although he'd never been sure if it was possible to wake up with a stop. Had he been dreaming? His head ached. Maybe he'd shovelled snow so much that he'd given himself a headache. He yawned and stretched.

Well, he tried to stretch. He couldn't move his arms! What? And his eyes were open but he couldn't see anything! Was he still asleep? Was he still dreaming?

No, wait...

He remembered...

"You're awake," a voice said. It was an elf, Rudolph knew straight away. They could never hide the tone in their voices that made it seem like they were singing everything they said.

Well, that proved one thing. He wasn't asleep or dreaming. Unless the elf was a dream as well. Rudolph didn't think so. He couldn't remember ever having dreamt of an elf. Usually he was either flying or eating Mother Christmas's famous rhubarb pie. Sometimes he was flying and eating rhubarb pie! But he had never seen an elf whilst asleep. Not even a flying rhubarb one.

There was a tug at his head and suddenly a bright light scorched its way to the back of his eyes, causing him to blink quickly and squint.

"You've been a Naughty boy, haven't you Rudolph?" the elf sang.

Rudolph could tell the elf was trying to sound mean, like he was putting a 'grrr' in his voice. It didn't work. Elves just weren't like that. They were far too happy and when they weren't talking in that sing-song voice, they were singing. And when an elf sang, bells jingled beneath the smooth surface of their song. So an elf trying to sound forceful was like a banana trying to be an apple. You could peel back the skin but there'd still be no pips inside.

Now Naughty boys were not allowed at the North Pole. If your name moved from the Nice list to the Naughty one you could find yourself, very quickly, on the first train out of here. It was well known that a reindeer or elf who hadn't been Nice would find it very difficult to be accepted anywhere else. That included villages or jobs. You'd be outcast and forced to live amongst the penguins. That was fine. They were really good creatures. But all they ate was fish. And both reindeer and elves were allergic to fish.

Of course, that was if you didn't walk into a polar bear. Polar bears quite liked fish. But they also were partial to reindeer chops or elf fingers.

Luckily, in the history of the North Pole, something that went so far back its beginnings were lost in the darkest recesses of Time's memory, that had happened only once. But no -one spoke of Whipple. No -one dared talk about the night that the only Naughty elf ever to have lived tried to cancel Christmas. A damaged sleigh, Dazzle in Santa's cocoa, it hadn't taken much. Security was never needed in a place where happiness surrounded everyone like a big fur coat, complete with gloves, hat and scarf against the ice- cold winter.

If it hadn't been for the reindeer, who had managed to speed across the world with Santa asleep in the sledge they'd used instead of the broken sleigh, a lot of children would have woken up very unhappy on Christmas Day. As it was, they all received their gifts in plenty of time.

Well, there were occasions where a boy might have unwrapped a doll's house or a girl could have discovered a racing track underneath the bow and ribbon and brightly coloured paper, but they were rare occurrences - and they could be forgiven under the circumstances.

Whipple had been banished to the icy wasteland beyond the North Pole, never to be heard from again.

Rudolph had been a young buck back then, barely able to walk. His nose had shown only a brief glimmer of its current glory and no-one suspected that he might one day lead the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh.