Rudolph Saves Christmas

3: Trapped

Rudolph awoke with a stop. Ah, so it was possible. His eyes opened and his surroundings were so unexpected, he couldn't move for a long moment. The small sofa against the wall, scatter cushions arranged neatly (Rudolph always thought scatter cushions should be scattered, but some people just had to put them straight). The wooden floor with the large woollen rug - the sort that your feet or hooves loved to sink into. A coffee maker and jug of iced water on the small table under the window that had a just open blind stopping the bright sun from streaming in and glaring you.

He pushed off the thick duvet that covered him and walked over to the bars lining the far end of the prison cell.

How could he be in jail? He hadn't done anything! What was going on?

He thought back over the past few days. Apart from trying to dig his way out of the snow and visiting his friends, he hadn't really done anything. The reindeer didn't have anything to do with the Toy Factory or The Lists, so it couldn't be anything like that. In fact, they were under orders to take it easy and conserve their energy for the big night. It was exhausting flying around the world at the speed of night, so they had to rest as much as possible in preparation.

The Speed of Night was similar to the Speed of Light, except it sparkled with all the stars in the sky instead of just the sun. It wasn't at all like the Speed of Sound, all noisy and thundering. The Speed of Sound was like the boy down the street who loved to hear his own voice and would shout to drown out everyone else. He'd also crash through everything like a bull in a blindfold and worry about what might be broken afterwards, if at all.

The Speed of Night was much nicer, and it was this that enabled the reindeer to pull Santa and his sleigh full of presents around the entire world in a single... well, a single night.

Rudolph had been following orders. You didn't argue with Santa at anytime, but especially not when he had all the stresses of Christmas on his shoulders. Even his sunny smile darkened a little when he had to make sure all the presents were made and wrapped and labelled and The Lists were right-up-to-the-second correct. It was awful when a child who had been Nice all year suddenly turned round and did something Naughty. Santa couldn't help himself but shed a tear. Any child who was Naughty upset him. He wanted happy, good children all over the world.

But Naughty was naughty. If you did the do, there was no present for you.

But Rudolph hadn't been Naughty. He couldn't be. Would never be!

"Ethelbert!" he shouted through the bars. "Ethelbeeeert!"

There was no answer. Either the elf wasn't there or he wasn't listening. Rudolph sat on the bed and hung his head. After a while he lay back down and pulled the cover back over himself. It wasn't cold, of course. Even though the temperature outside would freeze the baubles off a Christmas tree, anywhere inside at the North Pole was lovely and toasty. For the first time in his entire life, however, Rudolph the reindeer was sad.

The most the jails were ever used for was to come and have a lie down and some peace if you'd been working so hard your head spun until your antlers (or hat if you were an elf) threatened to fall off. You could guarantee that you'd not be disturbed and could get some proper rest without anyone dropping by. Occasionally it was used to recover from a drop too much mulled wine or one too many mince pies. It had never been used to actually hold criminals, because, at the North Pole, there weren't any.

Well, except that one time, of course...

Rudolph sighed. He wasn't a criminal, but he was being held as one. He felt tears prickle the corners of his eyes and blinked them away. He sniffed, and then he fell asleep.

He dreamed, but it wasn't about flying or rhubarb elves.

He dreamed of falling. Falling so far and so fast the wind whistled in his ears. Darkness wrapped itself around him in a tight cloak of nothingness blocking out his view of the ground. He could be miles above it or just a few feet, but he could sense the surely imminent impact and clenched his eyes tight shut.

The whistling grew louder and the wind became strong enough to tug at his antlers.

He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out. Something covered his mouth to stop any sounds from leaping out into the darkness.

"Sshhhh!" said a small voice. "Don't make any noise..."