The North Pole Challenge (Flea's Five Christmases, #1) (31 page)

             
Flea tried to stress the importance of the potential danger from the polar bear general but Minko clearly didn’t understand.

             
“I don’t care if this polar bear is meaner than an
ice shark
. It can’t be worse than the South Pole leader from the legends passed down by the much older elves.”

             
“Who
is
the leader then?” Flea asked.

             
Minko shivered, but not because of the cold wind. He opened his mouth to answer but closed it just as quickly, shaking his head. He turned and continued walking along Rome’s path. Flea hurried to catch up again, curious about what Minko wasn’t telling him.

             
“I don’t even want to consider that it could be true,” Minko said. “I can only hope that the legends are wrong… or that we find Rome
soon
.”

             
Before Flea had the chance to pester him further, he noticed something strange about the falling snow and immediately grabbed his friend’s arm. Minko tried to drag Flea along but the pudgy elf then noticed something as well.

             
“Her tracks are gone! It’s like she disappeared!” Minko called out. He glanced all around but there was no sign of Rome. Flea thought he might know why.

             
“Look at the snow blowing away from us,” Flea said.

             
The two watched as the strong wind kept blowing the snow south, though none of the falling snowflakes ever touched the ground. Instead, they seemed to disappear in midair whenever they reached a certain point.

             
“It must be the end of the safety zone,” Flea said, pointing in the direction of the invisible barrier. “We can’t even see what’s out there. What should we do?”

             
“We go after her!”

             
Without hesitation, Minko stepped through the invisible barrier and disappeared from view. Flea took a deep breath and followed his friend.

-         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -        -        -

             
Right away, Flea knew this was going to be bad. While the interior of the North Pole borders had remained in a constant state of dusk, Flea and Minko stepped into a world of night. It was just as dark as 11:59
should
appear. Through the heavy cloud cover, the moon shined dimly. Just enough light reflected off the white snowy ground to keep the two elves from bumping into each other. Even worse than the difference in light was the change in weather.

             
Flea barely took two steps out of the North Pole before a gust of wind lifted his tiny body off the ground and blew him over. He had difficulty pulling himself up as the wind continued to knock him down. The wind threatened to rip Flea’s hat off his head so he pulled it nearly below his eyes. Luckily, Minko was big enough to hold himself steady and yank Flea to his feet.

             
“We have to k…k…keep going…g…,g…” Minko yelled over the sound of even louder wind.

             
Minko’s voice quivered in the freezing cold. The snow fell in such heavy white sheets that they wouldn’t have been able to see the South Pole Army if it was ten feet in front of them. Still, Minko was somehow able to spot something even smaller on the snowy ground.

             
“Footsteps! Rome must’ve gone this way!” Minko called out and waved Flea ahead.

             
The snow was so deep that with every step Flea took, his leg became buried up to his thigh. Moving was slow-going but by staying close behind Minko, Flea used his bigger friend’s size to cut back on the wind that threatened to blow him away.

             
“What part of the world is this?” Flea asked.

             
“Northern Canada!” Minko answered. “Isn’t this weather b…b…beautiful?”

             
Flea barely heard his friend over the sound of his own chattering teeth. For several minutes, he kept his head down as he followed in Minko’s bigger footsteps. But Flea eventually bumped into his back when Minko finally came to a stop.

             
“Do you see that?” Minko called out.

             
As Flea slowly stepped around him to get a better view, his mind raced at the thought of what might be out there. He didn’t want to see the polar bear general and the huge Army – or
anything
from the holographic map for that matter. But as he squinted through the extreme weather, he saw nothing.

             
“Where?” Flea yelled.

             
Minko pointed just ahead and to the right. It took a few moments for Flea’s eyes to adjust before he spotted a tiny form through the snow. But as far as Flea could tell, the form was nothing more than an unusually-shaped mound of snow. Minko was convinced that he saw something and rushed toward it. When they got closer, Flea was relieved to see the outline of an elf.

             
“Rome!” Minko called out. But she was too far away to hear him over the wind.

             
Her back was turned to them as they quickly rushed toward her, Flea and Minko both calling out her name. When the two got close enough, Rome slowly turned around to face them. What Flea and Minko saw caused them both to stop dead in their tracks. Rome had a look of utter fear on her face and her wrists were bound together by a big block of ice, which threatened to topple her over at any moment. Minko and Flea rushed toward her again, but when Rome yelled to them, her voice cut through the wind loud and clear.

             
“Go back now! It’s a
trap
!”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The General

Flea’s heart sunk at the mention of the word ‘trap’ but the warning didn’t slow Minko. Flea still followed knowing that the danger grew greater with every step he took.

             
“Stop!” Rome kept yelling at them. “You have to go back!”

             
Her screams became more frantic with every passing second but she was in trouble and they weren’t about to abandon her now, regardless of the danger. Because the landscape was barren, Flea started to think that she might be overreacting. But just then, the snowy ground surrounding them seemed to explode up. In seconds, hundreds of Army snowmen – the same ones Flea had seen on the security maps – encircled the three elves. Their eyes bright red and their spears icy sharp, these snowmen looked every bit as dangerous – if not
more
– than the security force protecting the ice bank.

             
And Flea had a bad feeling that these snowmen would punish him in a much harsher manner than just turning him into a block of snow.

             
“What are you two doing?” Rome yelled. “Run!”

             
But Minko ignored the threat around them. Nothing was going to stop him from reaching Rome. Unfortunately, this meant that he didn’t see the first spear thrown toward his back. Flea was too shocked to react but Rome somehow pushed Minko aside with the big ice block before he was hit. Seeing his friends in mortal danger triggered Flea’s instinct to fight and he had an unlimited supply of ammo on the ground around him. He began to throw snowball after snowball, his aim perfect as he hit and destroyed the snowman closest to his friends. But the snowmen were quick learners and some started to use their spears to deflect the snowballs.

While Flea and his friends were outnumbered, very few in the Army attacked. It wasn’t long before a pair of snowmen threw their spears in Flea’s direction. The first icy spear melted when Flea lifted his hand. But his ring suddenly glowed and created a quick blast of wind that pushed the second spear off its course. Flea expected more spears but instead felt a deep rumbling under his feet. As Minko continued attempting to free Rome from the ice block, Flea heard a loud roar and saw a flash of white movement from amongst the Army. Someone – or some
thing
– very large ran and jumped over several rows of snowmen.

             
When it landed, the ground shook so violently that Flea was nearly knocked off his feet.

             
“I said do
not
attack!” a deep voice growled loudly.

             
Flea realized he was watching the polar bear general, who landed next to the pair of spear-tossing snowmen. With one quick swipe from his massive paw, the polar bear completely disintegrated the snowmen before he turned to Flea, who fired a snowball at the animal without thinking. The polar bear easily swatted it away with his free hand before standing on his hind legs.

Flea had never witnessed a more frightening sight in his entire life. Although he’d seen a holographic version of the animal on the security map, that image had not done the polar bear justice. Standing well over ten feet tall, the animal wasn’t just three times Flea’s height but nearly twice that of any Army snowman. As if the bear’s height and monstrously-muscled body wasn’t intimidating enough, he wore a suit of body armor made of thick ice blocks that made the one on Rome’s wrist look like an ice cube. While the polar bear had destroyed two snowmen and stopped Flea’s snowball with his free paw, his
other
paw held a weapon that was bigger than Flea. The double-sided weapon had a three-foot ice blade on one end while the other side consisted of an icy chain with a huge snowy block attached. Upon closer inspection, Flea saw dozens of tiny ice daggers sticking out of that snow block.

             
Though General Polar Bear had easily swatted away the first attack, Flea grabbed another handful of snow to defend himself.

             
“If you throw another snowball, I promise your friends will pay,” the polar bear snarled deeply. When the animal spoke, Flea saw his razor-sharp teeth and blood-red mouth and knew the general could destroy him and his friends in any number of painful ways.

             
Flea turned to see that Minko had also been taken into custody, his hands fastened together with an ice block several times larger than Rome’s. Nearly a dozen ice spears were held threateningly against his two friends so Flea dropped the snowball. General Polar Bear approached Flea and roughly grabbed him by the arm, his muscular paw nearly snapping Flea’s bone like a twig. The general easily tossed Flea several feet through the air and he crashed down in front of his friends.

             
“Put him in ice restraints, too,” General Polar Bear ordered. “And be careful, he’s a feisty one.”

             
A pair of snowmen approached Flea, who relented to them forcing his wrists together and fusing two halves of an icy block over his hands. Once the snowmen were satisfied that Flea was properly restrained, they stepped away and rejoined their place in the Army ranks. Luckily, neither the snowmen nor the polar bear knew of the effect that Flea’s hands had on ice and snow. Within seconds of being shackled, Flea already felt the icy block beginning to melt.

             
“Who are you?” the general asked.

             
“I already told you, we’re – ”

             
“Not you, girl!” the general growled angrily, bearing his teeth at Rome. “I want one of
them
to answer, we’ll learn if you’re telling the truth. Now
who are the three of you
?”

             
Minko tensed in anger as the animal threatened Rome, so Flea quickly answered before his best friend got himself – or them
all
– into even more trouble.

             
“We’re only elf students,” Flea answered.

             
The polar bear looked at Rome and nodded.

             
“I see that you have your cover story straight but I still don’t believe you,” the general said. “Who will be coming to save you?”

             
“Nobody, sir,” Flea answered.

             
“Don’t
lie
to me,” the polar bear warned.

             
“I promise you, I am telling you the truth,” Flea said. “
Nobody
knows that we’re out here.”