The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (25 page)

             
“You’re all
cowards
!” Artimus yelled at his friends, none of whom budged. He picked up a huge handful of snow and started forward. “I’m going to make you
eat
this snowball when I get my hands on you.”

             
Flea’s heart pounded as Artimus hesitantly walked ahead. All elf eyes – Flea’s and Artimus’s especially – were on the snowman, who remained totally still the entire time. Artimus slowed down as he passed the snowman but when nothing happened, a wide grin crossed his face and he stared at Flea with evil intent. Flea swallowed hard and considered taking off but knew he couldn’t run forever.

             
At least I’m thirsty from all that running,
Flea thought as he eyed the big snowball that Artimus was about to force-feed him.

             
Suddenly, a wall of security snowmen sprung out of the ground. Running was no longer an option for Flea so he pressed himself tightly against the icy walls of the ice bank and hoped he could blend in. But the security force paid him no attention, as nearly a dozen snowmen descended upon Artimus, who stupidly tried to fight back and run away. He didn’t get very far, however, before two of the snowmen restrained his arms. The leader of the security force finally slid in front of Artimus, who refused to calm down.

             
“What are you doing? Let me go! Don’t you know who I am?” he yelled.

             
“I know who you
aren’t
,” the security leader said with a British accent. The voice sounded strange coming from a snowman.

             
“But I’m not the only one here, why aren’t you – ”

             
The security leader didn’t let Artimus finish as he nodded his head toward the rest of the security force. Like a pack of hungry wolves eyeing a single piece of meat, the snowmen charged Artimus and totally engulfed him, the sound of the cocky elf’s screams quickly cutting off. The security leader returned to his normal post, causing Artimus’s friends to scatter in fear. Flea felt guilty; he obviously didn’t like Artimus but he didn’t exactly want anything
too
bad to happen to him. But when the security force eventually backed away and returned to their posts surrounding the ice bank, Flea laughed with relief.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The North Pole’s Enemy

Where Artimus last stood was now a massive block of snow. Sticking out the top of the snow block was Artimus’s head, still red with anger as he yelled for the snowmen to let him go. Even funnier to Flea was the fact that the bully’s perfect hair was plastered down on the top of his head with snow. In the distance, the ‘fun’ snowball fight had broken up. Many of the elves took notice to the security snowmen still surrounding the ice bank. Flea knew that some elves would be worried by this and would certainly have questions about what had happened, questions to which he didn’t have the answers. Flea considered rushing into the ice bank’s nearby entrance to hide but figured he’d already pushed his luck with the snowmen and didn’t want to become his own block of snow. So as the rest of the elves rushed to the icy building, Flea decided it was time to flee.

             
He slowly walked by the snowmen, which moved aside and let him pass without a problem. Flea felt Artimus’s eyes following his every movement and he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

             
“I’m going to get you for this,” said the voice from within the snow block. “You
and
your friends are going to pay.”

             
Flea was already tempting fate by not rushing away as quickly as possible but there was one more thing he just
had
to do. He picked up a final snowball and stared directly at Artimus, who went quiet for the first time. Flea paced back and forth in front of Artimus’s snow block and tossed the snowball in his hand up and down, up and down. Flea’s torturer was such an easy target and he knew that had the roles been reversed, there was no
way
Artimus would have turned down such an opportunity.

             
“It’s a good thing I’m
nothing
like you,” Flea said.

             
He started to walk away but suddenly turned and fired the snowball as hard as he could at the huge block of snow. Artimus squealed in fear – a sound Flea would never forget as long as he lived – but the snowball struck well below his exposed face and head. The impact of Flea’s throw cracked the heavy snow block and Artimus slowly freed his arms from their snowy binds. Flea could have thrown a few more snowballs to make it easier on Artimus but he wanted his enemy to spend plenty of time digging himself free, to spend plenty of time thinking about how Flea had shown him mercy.

             
Flea also wanted plenty of time to escape, as the first of the elves began to show up and ask what had happened.

             
“I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t believe anything Artimus says,” Flea told them. “I think he took a few too many snowballs to the head and decided to challenge the ice bank’s security force.”

             
Flea considered rushing to the dorm to check on his friends but knew that he’d given Rome and Minko plenty of time to get to safety. Instead, there was one elf that would need to know exactly what happened at the ice bank. In fact, Flea was surprised that Niko hadn’t already rushed to the scene considering how quickly he’d arrived the first time he thought there was trouble with the security snowmen. Flea hoped that Santa’s son wasn’t dealing with bigger problems for the North Pole and decided to head to the security building to find out.

             
Besides, Flea wondered if Niko might have the answer as to why he could get close to the ice bank while others couldn’t. When he reached the tiny building at the outskirts of the North Pole village, he once again found the entrance guarded by a pair of dim-witted snowmen –
very
different from the snowmen he’d just watched. Still, the snowmen did not budge until Flea spoke to them.

             
“I need to go inside and talk to Niko.”

             
“Yes, sir,” the two said in unison, sliding out of Flea’s way.

             
Knowing that Niko was Santa’s son made Flea much more nervous about angering him, so he knew better than to try sneaking into the security building’s map room again. Instead, he stayed in the small hallway and called out that he was there and needed to speak with Niko. Only when several long moments passed without response did Flea cross the hallway and enter the security building’s most important room. Niko was nowhere to be found and the holographic map was turned off yet the slow-talking snowman remained at his post.

             
“What are you doing here?” the snowman asked Flea.

             
“I came here about the North Pole’s security,” Flea said.

             
“Oh no! I was supposed to be keeping watch on that,” the snowman said. It rushed over to the map and turned the large hologram on. “Please don’t tell Niko that I forgot to do the one job he left for me.”

             
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” Flea said.

             
When the holographic image of the snowman Army appeared on-screen, Flea was shocked that they were much farther beyond the red line than the first time he’d seen. Though Flea didn’t exactly understand the Army or its connection to him and the North Pole, he could tell why Niko and Vork were so concerned with it.

             
“What
is
that Army?” Flea asked himself aloud, hoping the answer would come to him. The answer
did
come but from a source he hadn’t quite expected.

             
“It is the North Pole’s enemy,” the slow-witted snowman said. “I am supposed to be watching the North Pole’s enemy.”

             
“I didn’t know that the North Pole
had
an enemy,” Flea said.

             
“Most normal elves do not know about it. Niko only trusted me with the information because he knows I can keep a secret,” the snowman said. Flea wondered how this information could’ve remained such a secret when this snowman seemed so willing to talk about it. “Niko informed all of the elves about how dangerous it could be to wander too far south of the village but he didn’t tell them about the approaching Army.”

             
Although Flea didn’t want to take his eyes away from the hologram, he periodically glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Niko didn’t sneak up behind him. There was no doubt that Santa’s son would be angry to find Flea in the security building, even more so to hear him questioning the snowman about classified information. But Niko wasn’t around and Flea had plenty more questions.

             
“Who
is
the enemy? Where did the Army come from?”

             
“Isn’t that obvious?” the snowman asked. “The enemy of the North Pole is
obviously
the South Pole.”

             
“There’s a South Pole, too?”

             
Flea continued to watch the hologram, noting the large white leader at the front of the Army. The animal paced back and forth on all fours, occasionally stopping to stand on its hind legs, towering over the rest of its snowy soldiers. Now that Flea had a chance to study the animal closer, he concluded that it look like some kind of monstrous polar bear.

             
“What else can you tell me about the South Pole?” Flea asked, hoping to extract as much information from the snowman as possible.

             
“Umm…” it said, clearly trying to think, a difficult task for the dim-witted snowman. When it finally came up with something, its snowy mouth curled into a smile. “I thought of something. One thing I know about the South Pole is that it’s south of here.”

             
Unfortunately, Flea could tell that the snowman wasn’t joking. Flea knew that he’d better keep his questions specific.

             
“How long has the Army been there?”

             
“About twenty years now,” the snowman answered. “During that time, it was able to move forward but slowly. Ever since the beginning of this Christmas building season, though, the Army has moved quicker than ever. Niko always thought it would be many years until the Army could reach the North Pole but now it seems like they could get here much sooner.”

             
“But
why
has the Army suddenly been able to get closer? What has changed?” Flea asked.

             
The snowman didn’t know the answer, nor did it have the mental ability to conjure a guess. Flea had never been to the North Pole before this year but as far as he knew, the only difference this Christmas season was his own arrival. His stomach turned at the thought that he could somehow be responsible, though he told himself that this was a ridiculous thought. After all, he was as low on the North Pole totem pole as he could possibly be and he saw no way that his presence alone could have such a major effect on the South Pole Army. Still, Vork’s words about the elves disliking anything new replayed in his mind. Flea
needed
to ask Niko some questions and he didn’t want to put this off another minute.

             
“I need to find Niko, do you know where he went?” he asked.

             
“No, but I may be able to help find him.”

             
The snowman approached the hologram map and pushed several buttons. Flea had no idea how the dim-witted snowman could possibly work such a sophisticated machine, but its stick-arms moved so quickly that Flea couldn’t keep up. Within seconds, the holographic image of the South Pole Army faded away and was replaced with an image of the North Pole village and its buildings. A few more button clicks illuminated hundreds of tiny elves on screen, though they looked more like tiny pictures than the actual elves.

             
“We have privacy laws here,” the snowman explained. “Using this map, we can find
where
the elves are located but not
what
they’re doing.”