A Christmas Tale

Cb's Story 2: A Business Transaction

The boy slides over the car bonnet, his fingers trailing over a couple small dents as he lands by the door. He tugs at the handle to see the situation in full; two women sit idly by a table as the farmer stands back turned in front of them. The boy watches the farmer's hands as he holds his shotgun to his side before turning around and presenting it to the women "So what? You have a shotgun... How does that make you a farmer?" The red-haired woman tilts her head, twirling her curled locks around her index finger. "How do I persuade you? This is my farm!" The farmer whines as the other woman glance towards the door, pointing enthusiastically towards the boy before saying "That's the one that does all the work around this time of year." The boy just points towards himself, "Me? I mean, you're right of course but who are you again?" The red-haired woman stands, picking up a contract as she hands it to the boy. "Will you please sign over the lease to this property so that its land can be used for something more useful than continuously failed potato farming?" The boy pushes the pen away "I would if I could but that man is telling the truth; he's the owner, not me." The woman scoffs as her blonde assistant begins to look through all her papers before finding the farm's ownership notice. "But it says that the farm has an overwhelming success rate despite the owner's lack of experience. I assumed that this meant they were younger." The woman continues to flip through as the farmer shakes his head "Nope, I've just never managed to grow anything other than potatoes without help." The boy just sighs and nods as the business ladies just stand there in disbelief. "He won't give it up that easily huh?" The redhead mumbles before whispering something to her colleague as she perks up. "Do you need any extra hands? I'd be happy to help with your farm." The blonde woman asks as the farmer scowls at her with suspicion. His expression flips, changing to happy in an instant as he nods "The more the merrier! Would you like to help as well Ms?" He raises a finger towards the red-haired but she only walks out, leaving her colleague as she gets into their car and leaves in a puff of magnificent smoke.

..."Everyone's been introduced but me! It's over a third of the way through and I'm still insignificant!" Ol yells as Cb tilts his head? You've been introduced... you just haven't been seen?" Cb speaks innocently but Ol keeps up his attack "I'm bored!" Cb sighs "Fine. Kie you're up..."...

Meanwhile, in the middle of the frosted fields, a great argument is being held. "You took it!" A tiny green man yells at the top of his lungs. "What?" The equally small elf stares blankly at him as he accuses her. "You took my seed!" he continues "I didn't take your seed in any sense of the word!" she yells back, suddenly slightly agitated as she turns and begins to walk away. The green man stuffs his hand into an inside pocket, pulling out a strange looking gun before aiming it at her. He spins the dial on the side, not looking at what it lands on as he fires. The shot hits her hat which then enlarges to a normal person's head size, trapping her inside as she begins wailing at the walls of her new prison. The green man walks away, placing the weapon back into his pocket as the elf begins to scream "I'm already behind schedule! Let me go!" The green man just walks away before spinning on his heel and running back. "Wait, damn it! You've still got my seed!" he yells as the elf goes quiet, thinking that maybe he'll free her if she doesn't deny it. They both grab at the fabric, eventually pulling it up slightly as the elf grabs the small man and pulls him in as she jumps out, slamming the opening closed as she begins to run towards the nearest building. The Green man rolls his eyes, shooting the hat again as it shrinks back to its original size. It returns in a fraction of a second, wrapping around his body as he drops his gun and falls over. The trigger gets caught on the ground, firing towards the nearby cow ship as it rebounds backwards and hits itself, enlarging the gun as the green man finally frees himself. The hat rips down the middle, splitting completely as he laughs "Your puny attempts are capturing me are foiled elf lady!" He then turns to the size gun before speaking aloud "...I should probably hide this until I have a mirror to revert it..." he rubs his pointed chin as he reaches into his pocket once again and pulls out another gun as he shoots the ground beneath the not giant gun as it falls in. The little green man then covers it up, leaving a slight bit at the top exposed so he can find it again as he runs after the now long gone elf shouting "Where's my seed damn it!"

The elf turns her head, hearing a faint angry screem as she approaches a gigantic wooden wall with a slope leading to the bottom of the door as she pokes her head under. She watches as a blonde woman walks out of a wardrobe wearing an old muddy trench coat over the top of a hole ridden worn out t-shirt as the farmer enters the room "Sorry it's all we have. I asure you we'll find something better suiting you by the end of the week." The woman just nods at him "This should be fine, I'm too used to suits and ties anyway so this is probably a good thing for me to try something new." She sounds genuinly happy but the elf smells something afoot, blowing some silvery dust from her pocket towards them as the woman sneeses. "I'm forced to wear suits, the truth is... I like this kind of wear and tear look." The farmer smiles, enhailing some himself but nothing happens as he replies "A bit much information on that but no matter, great to have you aboard. He solutes her and she walks towards the door as she sneeses again, this time causing some of the dust to waft back to the elf as it forms a picture of a contract. Unfortunatly, the elf only knows limited reading and only picks up some small segments "We will make this place more useful rather than failed potato farming all year round...?" She begins to read half way through as the door swings open, catching the back of her collar as she's pulled off of the ramp and over a patch of nettles. The woman leaves the door open, walking over to the fields as the farmer sits down at a nearby table "Well I'm glad she gave up on getting the farm at least, what nice business women." He's muffled slightly but the elf picks most of it up, frantically trying to escape as she grabs a notepad from her pocket and writes "The business women still want your farm!" down before tearing out the page and folding it. Her hands move quickly, each crease glittering as it's made before she throws it. A magical white trail follows as it lands on the table by him but he pays it no attention "What a strange looking snowflake?" He blows it as it begins to fly again, returning to the elf as it hits her. She grabs it, the momentum pulling her off the door as the boy from before runs inside and slams it shut. She quickly unfolds the plane, turning it into a makeshift parashoot as she glides slowly into the nettle patch, hardly avoiding a thing as the winds from the quick movement of the door draw her evercloser to being trapped. She lands, placing her feet on the ground as the visious plants wave around her threateningly. She hears a quiet arguement involving weeding to which the farmer casuallly replys with "I'll do it late. I'm sure it'll all work out in the end." The boy then storms out with a dead impression as he walks back out the the field, wheelborrow now in hand. He walks out of sight as everything goes quiet...

..."Oh, I see! The tangled mess will help over all?" Kie looks at Cb with aspiration as he just shrugs "It'll all turn out ok in the end." he says with a wink as Luke shakes his head "Now I can see why the boy hates the farmer so much." He pokes out his tongue at Cb who promptly fake throws something at Luke "What was tha..." a marshmallow follows soon after as they continue...

The boy begins to pick up the crop, throwing cabbage after carrot after cabbage into the wheelbarrow as he comes across a strange black and green spiral pointing out of the ground. It has a small emerald ball on the end of the drill-like tip, glistening in the dim sunlight. He begins to reach for it, retracting his hand near the end as he looks around for anyone else. "There is way too many foreign objects in this field, damn farmer..." He bends back down, pulling it up by the small gem on the end. It breaks the ground from beneath it, turning a strange diall on the side of it as it lights up slighty. "What is this? Some dumb kinds toy?" He looks around again, seeing the blonde haired woman off in the distance as he raises it towards her. "Pew" He fires the trigger, a small ray of light barely missing her as it hits the ground. She notices the glow, turning around at him as he throws the gun down and the earth begins to shake...