Rudolph Saves Christmas

9: Who Nose?

The Stables was a large building right in the middle of town. It was a short distance from the Toy Factory, both being perched upon the top of a hill. Doors opened from the Stables right onto the crest of the hill, enabling the reindeer to pull the sleigh down the slope, picking up enough speed for a gloriously exciting take off as they began their journey around the world. A path led from the back of the Stables to the Factory so that the snowmen could carry the presents to the sack in a fantastical procession that was always lined with cheering elves waving flags and singing. At the back of the Factory, the hill fell back to a large field.

It was here that Rudolph, Flop and so many had spent hours building the snowmen themselves. There had been laughter and snowball fights galore with all their friends. It could only be hoped that those days would return.

They trudged up the hill slowly. As they neared the top, they could see, straight away, the tragedy that had occurred. Where had once stood a grand building, home to the mighty sleigh itself, there was now a heap of rubble and blackened, broken pieces of wood. In the center was a practically unrecognisable mangled mess. Not one part of it had been touched by snow, the fall respectfully avoiding the area completely.

They stood on the edge of the blast area, not daring to enter and for a long moment they could only stare at the confusion.

"Come on," whispered Rudolph. "Let's see if we can find anything."

With breath held tighter than Scrooge's purse, they stepped inside the remains of the building. Rudolph began to, delicately, move smashed bricks and scorched pieces of timber in the hope that he might see some sort of evidence. Flop didn't do anything delicately and so raced here and there, zipping into small holes and crevices. No matter where they looked, all that was left was shattered pieces of a jigsaw that no-one could ever put back together.

"There's nothing," Flop said at last. "Any evidence would have been destroyed in the blast."

"You're right," sighed Rudolph. "This is a waste of time."

He stood and stepped back, but his hoof caught on something slightly sticky. He looked down and picked it up.

"What is it?"

"It's..." He turned it in over, trying to think. It was hard but if he pushed, his hoof could dig into it, leaving a mark. Whatever it was looked misshapen as if it had been melted...

And it was red...

"It's wax..."

As the two looked closer, they could see he was right. It was wax. And there was a wick too. The blob, if he held it just so, even looked circular, almost like...

"Your nose!" Flop's eyes were wide and his mouth hung open in astonishment.

Rudolph held the lump of wax up to his face and, except for the heat from the explosion making one side flatten and drip, it was too close to be a coincidence.

That was how they had made it look like he had caused the explosion! A red glow in a snowstorm would be easily mistaken for the reindeer's famous nose!

"We'll have to see who it fits!" said Flop excitedly.

"This isn't Cinderella, you know," said Rudolph. "I can't see people just letting me stick this on their face. Especially the person who did it in the first place."

"But they're all asleep. They wouldn't know!"

"Well, Flop, they're all asleep except, probably, the fake me!"

Ah, yes. The real fake Rudolph would, most likely, be the only one in the North Pole who wouldn't be asleep. Except for a certain reindeer and squirrel, of course. Besides, it would take far too long to visit every elf and try the wax nose on them.

But did they have any other choice? How else were they going to find the person they were looking for?

"Come on," said Rudolph. "Let's get started."

He went to step out of the remains of the Stables but stopped when he saw the look on Flop's face.

"Wha...?" he followed the squirrel's gaze.

The Toy Factory.

A light.

And movement...