Santa Paws

Prologue

Santa slid down the chimney to a house, even after being Santa for fifty years, still not knowing how he did it. He had been poked by a large man at spring thaw, and taken off with an offer of a long life, and a fulfilling job.

Little did he realise that he was giving up his life to live in the far north, with polar bears as his guards, and wolves serenading him most nights. The elves' eyes twinkled and they refused to tell him if there was anything else supernatural out there, saying he'd have to find it for himself. After twenty years of 'apprenticing' and another five of going with him on the Christmas night, he had taken over, and had never seen the old St. Nick since. Unlike the previous Santa, he enjoyed the ice and cold, and loved hearing the wolves howl.

Setting down the gifts he turned when he heard a growl.

"What are you doing in my house, human?" the voice from the shadows growled. He peered in the darkness, but couldn't see them. It seemed they hadn't lit a candle, but could see him easily.

Hiding his fear, as the growl sounded inhuman, "Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" he replied, "I'm Chris Kringle."

The voice growled louder, "There is no such thing. You are trying to steal from us." He stepped out into the bit of light that came from the moon, "If you were, you could take this curse from me!"

Santa blinked and shivered as a massive two-legged wolf came into his view. "Werewolves exist..." he whispered more to himself than to the creature. He could see the humanity peaking out of his eyes, and the pain he had. His fur was a light grey of ash, with some highlights in white and brown.

"Every full moon, I become this! I try to hold onto my human form, but this happens!" was said in almost a whimper. "Ever since that massive red-eyed dog bit me ten years ago. My wife left me, and took our daughter with her as soon as she saw me. I have no idea where they are! There's a growling in my mind too, that keep trying to force me to change when I'm angry, but I force it down!"

Santa was nearly in tears from the pain he could hear in the voice of the man, "I'll see what I can do to help you. My elves should know something!"

"No! You will help because you need it!" The creature snarl was pure rage, before they bit him on the shoulder hard. He knew he screamed, as the wound burned, and used a bit of his magic to get back to the roof, and the sleigh before blacking out.

*****

Santa groaned as he blinked and realised it was morning, and the sled was back at the tiny community on the northern edge of what the human visitors called Umingmak Nuna, which was the island that was closest to the north pole. He had no idea on how he arrived, or how he got through the last part of deliveries, but it seemed he finished his work. The reindeer were seeming to be very skittish of him, and Comet tried to kick him!

The elves were there, and helped him out, and they gasped when they looked at his jacket, "What bit you?" asked Dan, his current lead-elf. They seemed to choose another every three decades, with them handing over the duties over the course of a decade.

"Werewolf." He gasped out before passing out when one touched the bite.

Author Note: Hehehehehehe - This is just a taste of a story to come!  I am targeting 8pm (MST, GMT-7) Dec 24 for releasing the short story.