Jingle bells and three fugitive elves - a Christmas adventure

Chapter 13 - The Yule Cat attacks!

Matthew seemed to be getting so much better, given that he had only been touched by Timothy's heartfelt wish just minutes before.

Seeing the elves, the boy, and – to his surprise – Rudolph in the middle of the corridor, he left his room to help the five get up.

Hinky, Dinky, Stinky, Rudolph and Timothy had managed to crash in the middle of the second floor so badly that they had cracked the tiles.

"What happened?" cried Matthew, seeing Timothy's torn pants and the red marks around his trembling ankles. "And your hands!" he exclaimed, grabbing Hinky's and Stinky's hands and holding them protectively.

Rudolph whined one last time, then he managed to shake off the fear and pull himself up on all fours. His nose had returned to a purely red colour and he noticed this proudly after seeing himself in the mirror of the large window.

"That was so very brave of you, Rudolph!" said Timothy, patting his neck gently. "You are not hurt, are you?"

"Hurt? Me? I'll tell you, kid, that if you hadn't pulled me out of the fight, I would have showed him who's boss! I would have stuck my antlers in his eyes and I would have danced on his chest after tying him with his own chains! Now, I suppose you think you did me a favour, and I am obliged to thank you. But you're wrong!"

Timothy would have felt very insulted, if Rudolph's lips hadn't mouthed a wholly heartfelt "thank you" after sticking out his tongue.

"Okay," he said, winking at the self-aggrandizing beast. "I'm sorry for robbing you of such a chance."

"Well, you are not forgiven! What do we eat tonight? Do you have sugar cubes? Caramelized apples? Carrot-pudding with extra cinnamon and extra-extra-powdered-sugar? Chocolate cake with raspberries?"

Matthew snorted with laughter. Hinky and Stinky slapped Dinky across the face until the elf came back to them.

"He's got a cave," Dinky whispered in agony. "And trolls who dismember you... He's got sticks on which he cooks his impaled naughty kids! And his jaws can snap a thighbone into shards, and—"

"He doesn't have a toothpick or a toothbrush," said Hinky mischievously. "Do you really think we'll ever let him have you? We'd rather all disappear on the twenty-fifth, Dinky. You know this!"

Dinky wiped his flooded eyes and jumped in his brothers' arms. Up until then, he had been stuck in a vortex of madness, where Krampus kept him to the ground, a clawed foot on his chest, one of the claws neatly positioned under the elf's chin. Trolls had danced around him, until he felt he was about to throw up with nausea and dizziness, and he had been shown the sticks, the bones, and the giant tarantulas that Krampus kept as faithful pets.

"He sah—said... Frost will—" he sobbed, rubbing his face against Hinky's neck. "Will bring you piglets to me, sooner or later!"

"Oh, no..." whispered Timothy, coming closer to the three to comfort frightened Dinky. "Is this why he came to the Orphanage? What do we do? Can we get the other children away from that place?"

Stinky helped Dinky lie down on Matthew's bed, then he and Hinky took Timothy aside.

"When you used the meteor piece, you sealed the Orphanage in a bubble. He will not be coming back there, unless his magic is infinitely more powerful than the spells written in light by the Christmas elves of old."

"But isn't he an elf too?"

"He was raised by the elves, but he is not an elf," answered Hinky.

Timothy could tell, only by looking at the elf's frowned forehead, that something was going on under that tuft of carrot-coloured curly hair.