Santa' Wayward Elf (2 page)

“Elves and elfettes, this is your pilot again. I’m afraid
the mechanical issues are not as minor as we thought. We’re going to have to
make an unscheduled stop in the city below for repairs. There’s no need for you
to panic, though. Everything is fully under control and we’ll be on our way in
no time.”

Sosie’s heart raced. Stop in the city below? The pilot might
as well have said he was going to feed them into a Christmas tree chipper.

She might not know a lot about the world beyond the North
Pole, but every elf knew the cities of the big people—or BPs as they were
called—were horribly dangerous places. She’d read one recent article in
The
Snow City Gazette
describing how BPs sometimes ran each other down with
their street sleds simply because they didn’t sleep well the night before. Then
there was that six-week exposé on
The Polar Evening News
a while back.
Sosie shuddered as she remembered all the horrible crime statistics the news
anchor had gloomily read. Whole families killing each other with cooking
utensils because the evening meal was cold. Neighbors shooting each other
because a newspaper had landed in the wrong yard. Children tying up their
school teacher and beating her because she’d given them bad grades. It was
horrible. Definitely not a place a proper elf wanted to be.

The dangers of dealing with BPs were the biggest reason most
elves never ventured away from the North Pole. The only elves who ever mingled
with them were the ones on the Special Forces Survey Teams. They were highly
trained elves responsible for figuring out which elvish items would sell well
on the BP economy, as well as handling the transfer of completed merchandise to
the elfin front companies in various countries. They had a lot of contact with
the BPs and she’d never heard of those elves encountering anyone dangerous. But
everyone knew the news programs were never wrong.

Sosie nibbled on her lower lip nervously, alternating
between wondering what terrible fate awaited them and berating herself for
deciding to venture down to the South Pole when the sled started hurtling
toward the ground below with alarming speed. As the bottom of the sled hit
something hard, then slid along it wildly, she braced herself for the worst.

But instead of slamming into something as she’d feared, the
sled miraculously came to a sudden, screeching halt without hitting anything at
all.

Realizing they’d survived the landing, she opened her mouth
to let out a cheer along with the rest of the elves, only to give in to a fit
of coughing as the inside of the sled filled with acrid smoke. Her eyes
watering, Sosie pulled up her wool scarf to cover her nose and mouth. While it
didn’t completely keep out the smoke, she could at least breathe without
choking on the nasty stuff.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Sosie jumped at the sound, startled. She stared as all three
exit doors on the sled slid open. A pleasant, swirling wind immediately filled
the cabin, clearing the smoke. She took the scarf away from her mouth and took
a grateful breath. That was when she noticed fresh air wasn’t the only thing
pouring into the cabin. Along with it, came the sounds of complete and utter
chaos unlike anything she’d ever heard before in her life. The noise was almost
mind-numbing and she had to fight the urge to put her hands over her ears. It
sounded as if the city was tearing itself apart.

Sosie looked around the transport sled to see what the other
elves thought of the deafening sound and discovered they were all squeezed into
one corner of the cabin, huddled together and trembling.

“Don’t worry, everyone,” the pilot said, his voice calm and
sure over the intercom. “We had to open the doors to keep from choking on our
own exhaust fumes, but our cloaking device is still completely functional, so
none of the big people know we’re here. We should be able to get the transport
sled up and running in no time. While we’re doing that, you can step outside
the sled and look around if you like. It’s quite safe as long as you stay
inside the cloaking shield.”

Sosie’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t realized it would be safe
to leave the transport sled. Now that she knew it was okay, she had to admit
she was curious about the world of the big people. After making toys for them
for decades, it would be nice to actually see them in person. Or at least get a
look at one of the cities where they lived.

She turned her gaze on the elves huddled in the corner,
wondering if one of them would be brave enough to venture outside with her. As
she took in their frightened faces, she decided it would take a whole lot of
cajoling to get any of them out of the sled. That, or a crowbar. If she wanted
to explore, she was going to have to do it on her own.

Sosie’s gaze strayed to the open door. Well, an elf only
lived once—even if it was for centuries. Unbuckling her lap belt, she got to
her feet and made her way over to the door.

“W-where are you going?”

Sosie turned to see which of the elves had spoken. From the
expectant way the red-haired elf on the far right-hand side of the group was
looking at her, Sosie figured it must have been her.

“Outside,” Sosie said.

The other elf’s eyes went wide. “Outside? Have you lost your
Santa-loving mind? It’s dangerous out there.”

“The pilot said we’d be safe as long as we stay inside the
cloaking shield.” Sosie scanned the group of elfin faces hopefully. “Anyone
want to come with me?”

They all shook their heads vehemently and without
hesitation. Figgy, they could have at least pretended to consider it. You’d
think she asked them to sabotage Christmas. Whatever. They thought she was
strange already, so she might as well not disappoint them.

She lifted her chin. “Well, I’m going. If any of you change
your mind, I’ll be outside.”

Turning back to the door, she slowly walked down the ramp.
Even though she was excited to see what the city looked like, she was nervous,
too, and she had to stop at the bottom of the ramp to steady her wobbly legs.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t see much of anything from where she was standing.
She was going to have to get closer to the edge of the cloaking shield if she
hoped to get a glimpse of something.

Resisting the impulse to look over her shoulder to see if
the other elves were watching, Sosie took a deep breath and cautiously stepped
off the ramp onto the hard ground. As she moved away from the transport sled,
she tried to figure out where they’d landed, but all she could see through the
translucent cloaking shield surrounding the sled was the night sky. They were
on the roof of a building. Figgy. She wouldn’t be able to see a thing from up
here.

Hoping she could get a better look if she got closer to the
parapet, she ventured farther from the sled until she was at the very edge of the
cloaking shield. Unfortunately, the building they were on was one of the
tallest in the area. She’d have to get right up to the edge of the roof if she
wanted to see down to the streets below. That meant she was going to have to
leave the safety of the cloaking shield.

Sosie nibbled on her lower lip. The pilot had warned them to
stay inside the shield, but she desperately wanted to see the city and this
might be her only opportunity. It wasn’t as if transport sleds malfunctioned
every day, after all. Besides, she was on top of a roof. The big people would
never know she was there.

She looked back at the sled and was relieved to see none of
the other elves peeking out at her. She had the rooftop all to herself.

Turning around, she took a deep breath and stepped through
the cloaking shield. It rippled and flexed around her, making her feel as if
she were underwater, and she hurried out the other side. Once there, she froze
in place. She didn’t know what she was waiting for. Maybe for one of the big
people to see her appear out of nowhere and run screaming in the other
direction. Or for one of her fellow elves to come running after her and drag
her back. Neither of those things happened. In fact, nothing happened at all.

Laughing at her own foolishness, she ran to the parapet and
eagerly looked over the side of the building, only to gasp and immediately take
a step back, her stomach fluttering. Prickly fir tree, they were a long way up.
Unlike BPs, her people tended to build structures a lot lower to the ground.
Either that, or tunnel down into the ice. Even Santa’s house only had four
floors, and two of those were underground. The building she was on definitely
had more than that. Then again, BPs were a lot taller than elves, so they
probably needed taller buildings.

Gathering her courage, Sosie edged closer to the parapet and
looked over it again more slowly this time. What she saw took her breath away.
There were big people everywhere, hundreds of them in fact. Street sleds, too,
zipping back and forth below her like snowballs on the first day of winter. And
lights. More lights than she’d ever seen in her life. It was as if the whole
city was aglow.

Now that she was outside the cloaking shield, the sounds she’d
first heard coming from the city didn’t seem as jarring as before. There were
funny hornlike sounds mixed in with the motorized hum of the street sleds, and
in between, she could hear voices, punctuated by occasional shouts and lots of
laughter. Actually, all together, the sounds were amazingly beautiful. Loud and
discordant for sure, especially compared to the serene calm she was used to in
the North Pole, but beautiful nonetheless.

Sosie leaned on the railing and gazed down at the city in
fascination. As she watched the people scurry along the busy streets, she
realized there was an odd, rhythmic beat accompanying the other sounds. Her
pointed ears perked up under her hat. Was that music? If it was, it was unlike
any she’d ever heard before. It was pulsing and hypnotic, and it made her want
to sway back and forth.

She scanned the street below, trying to pinpoint where the
music was coming from. It was difficult to tell at first because there was so
much going on down there, but after listening for a few moments, she realized
it was pouring out the doors of the large building across the street. She
frowned in confusion at the huge group of people lined up along the sidewalk
outside. What were they were doing there? Then it struck her. It was a dance
hall and the people were waiting to go inside. Her frown deepened. Why would
they have to wait to go inside? The building looked quite big. Surely, they all
could fit.

As she stood there listening to the people talk and joke
while they waited patiently for their turn to enter the building, it occurred
to her that no one in the crowd was being violent. They weren’t yelling, or
pushing and shoving, or physically attacking each other. None of the street
sleds drove up onto sidewalk and ran into anyone. It didn’t look like the
places the reporters from
The Snow City Gazette
had described. Maybe
this city was nicer than the ones she’d seen on the news.

Sosie propped her chin on her hand and looked longingly at
the people going into the dance hall. She wished she could join them. She loved
dancing, but unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to do it much up in the
North Pole. Between designing new toys, making prototypes, then producing
thousands of copies of each of them—usually by hand—she barely had time to
breathe. When she did have time to go to a dance hall, she usually sat at a
table in the corner tapping her toe because no one ever asked her to dance. In
her experience, guys didn’t like to dance with a partner who was taller than they
were.

But out here, on top of the roof where no one could see her,
she didn’t have to be self-conscious and before she realized what she was
doing, she was dancing back and forth in front of the parapet. She was twirling
around when she caught the shimmer of the cloaking shield behind her. She’d
forgotten all about the other elves.

Heart racing, she stopped and darted a quick look at the
sled, but of course she couldn’t see it behind the shield. She ran over and
stuck her head through the shimmer of air. She let out a sigh of relief when
she saw that none of the other elves had been watching her. That would have
been embarrassing.

She frowned at all the clanking, banging and swearing coming
from the sled’s engine compartment area. From the sounds of it, they weren’t
going anywhere soon.

Sosie turned and was about to go back over to the parapet so
she could do some more dancing when she suddenly got the craziest idea. Why
dance all by herself up on a rooftop when she could go down and shake her tree
skirt in the dance hall with the big people?

She gave herself a mental shake. What was she thinking? She
could get in serious trouble if anyone found out she’d left the transport sled.
Then again, what were they going to do? Send her to the South Pole?

She nibbled on her lower lip. Going down to mingle with the
big people was more than crazy. It was insane. Not to mention possibly
dangerous. Special Forces elves did it, of course, but only after years of
intense training.

But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. How could to
pass it up? Besides, she’d be back before the engineer got the sled running.

Sosie darted another quick look through the shield to make
sure her fellow elves weren’t watching, then ran around to the other side of
the roof to look for the stairs. BPs did use stairs, didn’t they?

She was still wondering about that when she spotted a door
with the words neatly lettered on it. Good thing she could read BP languages.
All those years of writing operating instructions had finally paid off. Turning
the knob, she opened it cautiously and peeked inside. She didn’t see or hear
anyone. Taking a deep breath, she slowly made her way down the steps.

At the bottom, she eagerly grasped the doorknob, but then
hesitated when she heard the sounds of the passing crowd outside. She caught
her lower lip between her teeth. Figgy, there were a lot of BPs out there. What
if they recognized her as an elf? What would they do? From everything she’d
heard on the news, they weren’t very nice to anyone who was in any way
different from them.