Rudolph Saves Christmas

12: Oh, Brother!

The elf looked up, shock on his face.

"Who...?"

The shock quickly turned to anger as he saw the antlers and red nose. They could never be mistaken. Well, until they were...

"You! How did you get here! You're meant to be locked up!"

Rudolph gulped and slowly emerged from behind the chair.

Ethelbert? How? Why??

"Ethelbert?" he stammered. His voice was as shaken as he was and couldn't quite manage the words.

"What?" the elf snapped. "Ethelbert?"

"Ethelbert! What are you doing? Is this because I kept calling you Ethel? It was only a little bit of fun, that was all. I've had enough jokes made about my nose. None of it was meant seriously!"

The elf stood up and put the pen down.

"How did you get out of prison?! Tell me! No-one should have been able to disturb me!"

"But you were asleep. I saw you! Were you pretending?" Rudolph couldn't believe his eyes. Ethelbert had always been the hardest worker. He was the one person who seemed to think almost as much of Christmas as Santa himself!

Maybe that was it. Maybe Ethelbert had only wanted it to look that way, as he planned to ruin it all from the start?

"Ethelbert!" he said again in desperation.

"Stop calling me that! I don't look anything like my brother! I never have! Why does everyone get us mixed up all the time?!"

His brother? Ethelbert had a brother? Why didn't Rudolph know? Why had it never been mentioned?

It was the reindeer's turn to say "Who...?"

"Don't you know who I am?" the elf asked. "I should be famous now! There should be stories and carols sung about me by now!"

Rudolph shook his head. He had no idea...

Wait...

Stories? About someone nobody knew about? It... But... Could it...?

"Whipple?"

"Ha! So I'm right! The elf exclaimed, a beaming smile appearing on his face. "I am famous! I bet you know all about me. I bet I'm even taught about in school now!"

Rudolph slowly shook his head again.

"No..." he said quietly. This was Whipple! The North Pole's only ever Naughty!

"No? What do you mean no?"

"Nobody talks about you. No-one knows what you look like. And no-one knows that you're Ethelbert's brother!"

"Well, Ethelbert does, of course, but he was always the bauble that fell of the Christmas tree." Whipple laughed, his voice sounding hollow and lifeless, as if all the joy had been sucked out leaving it dry and dreary. "Well! After today, everyone will be reminded!"

"What are you going to do?" Rudolph asked. Not that the elf hadn't done enough - sending everyone to sleep, framing him, blowing up the sleigh...

Hold on...

This sounded familiar...

"You're doing it all again... aren't you?"

Whipple smiled and Rudolph felt as if the sun had set suddenly.

"Oh yes," the elf said, each word dripping ice. "But this time no-one can stop me, and everyone will think it was you! I'm tired of everybody being happy! I'm tired of everyone else getting the presents except me!"

"But you won't if you're Naughty!" What did he expect? You have to be on the Nice list!

"I want them anyway! I want all the presents all of the time, and this year I'm going to get them!"

Rudolph had to do something, but what? He couldn't let this happen, not again. And he couldn't let everyone think he was the one responsible. There was nothing for it. He jumped for Whipple.

Lots of things happened at once, yet again, except this time there was no snowy slope to fall down.

There was Rudolph, leaping. There was Whipple stepping back, throwing Dazzle right in the reindeer's face, and there was a certain small squirrel just where the elf was going to step.

The thing about having a big, red nose is, as has been mentioned, that it is very sensitive. As such, a handful of Dazzle doesn't send the nose's owner to sleep, it makes him sneeze.

And sneeze is just what Rudolph did. Any other time a flying reindeer would have been an awesome sight, but this time it was almost comical. Or it would have been if this was a Christmas card. Either way, the Dazzle was caught up in the blast from the sneeze and was swept back into the face of Whipple. The elf was already moving back, so tripped on Flop and fell backwards into...

...The arms of a snowman!

Rudolph landed and stared at the group of snowmen that had gathered around the desk. Terrified, he couldn't think what to do. Then he felt a hand on his leg. He looked down to see Flop smiling up at him.

"Don't worry. I told them what had happened. They came to help. And it's amazing what a little melted snow can do to help you out of a tight squeeze!"

The snowman that had hold of the now sleeping Whipple rolled forward.

"We're sorry we doubted you, Rudolph. Don't worry about this one. We'll make sure he never comes back to the North Pole again. We have friends amongst the penguins and polar bears."

Rudolph sighed with relief.

"That's ok," he said. "I'm just pleased that it's all over!"