Rated G - Written for Steemit: Elves at the North Pole are Interrupted in their task of making enough toys for children at Christmas ©Jeff Kubitz 2016 - All Rights Reserved.

Christmas Elves - 3

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In case you missed it:

Part 1 Part 2

As Grrch, the goblin leader, left the elf break room, he saw down the hall that twitching elves were entering from outside where the lake of ice was. They carried those elves with twitches and tics that left them unable to walk. In some cases, an elf was towed in a red wagon after being dropped off from being towed on a sled.

"Grrch!" One of the elves who could talk called out, "Now that elves cannot move, some of them are beginning to freeze out on the lake of ice. We need gnome help out there as fast as possible or some of the elves will turn to ice."

"I have to slide this note under Saint Nicholas's door and notify him of the emergency." Grrch replied.

"Will you tell the other gnomes to go out and help before you deliver the note to Saint Nicholas?" The elf asked.

"I could do that first," Grrch replied and then turned back into the break room to tell the gnomes to go help the elves out on the lake of ice. Which, he quickly did. The gnomes filed out of the break room to help the elves. The gnomes walked down the hall and left through the door towards the lake of ice.

Eldric and Tonyach sat in their chairs with twitches and tics. They were not able to talk yet. Grrch did not think they knew he was there or that the gnomes had left. Grrch turned to leave the break room and deliver the note to Santa.

As he walked past the hall, the elf who had called out to him to ask him to send the gnomes out to the lake of ice to help the elves said,

“Grrch, take this elf on the wagon to Saint Nicholas so he can see what is happening and he will come much faster.”

Grrch said, “Okay.” He took hold of the wagon handle and pulled the twitching elf toward the rooms of the Father of Christmas. Believe it or not, it was a long journey all the way down to the other end of the castle where it was very quiet, where all the noise of making toys could not be heard. That way, Santa could be very well rested for Christmas and be jolly.

As he towed the wagon, elf guards were collapsed upon the floor, twitching with tics. Their weapons were dropped, their shields dropped, and none of them could talk.

“I must get this note delivered as fast as possible. The North Pole might be under some sort of enemy attack.” Grrch quickened his pace and pulled the wagon harder, he walked faster but it was tough work as just by luck, the fattest, heaviest elf on all of the North Pole was in the wagon. His name was Junior because the sewing elves used him to model new suits for Saint Nicholas. Junior was very close to the same size as Santa Claus and so new Christmas suits always fit perfectly. There was never any need for alterations.

“Why are you wearing a Santa suit Junior?” Grrch asked.

“I was out there testing the suit in a hockey game to see if the suit had enough stretch to jump in and out of the sleigh, and wouldn’t snag as Santa travelled up and down chimneys.” Junior answered.

“And how did it do?” Grrch asked Junior.

“When I first started to twitch I thought it was the new Christmas suit but it was not.” Grrch looked back as Junior answered and said to himself, ‘yes’, Junior still twitched, especially his legs, ‘it wasn’t the suit causing this.’ Grrch continued on pulling the red wagon, huffing and puffing as he pulled.

“So, how did the suit do until you started twitching?” Grrch asked.

“Oh it did fine but that is only one test, the figure skating test was next.” Junior answered, “In fact, even while I twitch and with all these tics I am perfectly comfortable.”

“I am glad someone is.” Grrch said with a grunt. There was a slight incline in the floor and it went up about three feet, or two feet taller than Grrch was tall and the incline was fifty feet long. “I should have taken a lighter elf to show to Saint Nicholas instead of the heaviest elf there is. We would already be there to his door.”

“Sorry,” Junior said as Grrch reach the top of the incline, “I should have used elf magic to make myself light and smaller. Here let me try it.” Junior shrunk down to the size of a mouse.
“At least elf magic is not affected by this twitching disease but I wished you would have thought of that from the start.” Grrch began to pull very fast. One of the problems of shrinking himself is that Grrch could not hear the very tiny voice of an elf as big as a mouse when Junior answered him. All he could hear was what sounded like mouse squeaks. Oh well, Junior probably said he was sorry for not thinking of it.

After passing many more fallen, twitching guards, Grrch and a very tiny Junior reached the great bronze doors of the apartments of Saint Nicholas.

“Whew! What a trip!” Grrch said as he slipped the note under one of the great doors. He turned to leave after he slipped the note under the door. As he walked away, Grrch heard mouse squeaks. The mouse squeaks sounded frantic. So he turned around to try and find Junior in the Santa suit to see what was wrong before he left.

“WHERE ARE YOU?” Junior heard Grrch’s booming, giant voice from inside the suit. He was trapped under the underwear.

“I am in here!” Junior tried to call out, “Don’t smash me!”

“WHY DON’T YOU MAKE YOURSELF BIG AGAIN?” Junior heard the giant voice of Grrch ask.

“Hmm…I should have thought of that.” Junior said to himself and then Poof! Junior was big again and Grrch’s face was buried in his belly.

Pushing himself away, Grrch sputtered several times and then asked, “What do you want Junior?”

“Why don’t you knock on the door and wake Santa up so he will read the note?” Junior said as he twitched.

“I am a gnome. Can I do that?” Grrch asked.

“It is an emergenc---“The twitch had struck Junior in the mouth and he could no longer speak.

“Very well, but you are the one responsible for this.” Grrch said and he began to use one of the great knockers on the door. He lifted it up and let it fall, over and over again. Each time he did it the knocker made a terrifically loud knock that echoed in the hall of the castle corridor and sounded almost like the striking of a gong, in the key of D minor. Grrch was surprised the whole castle did not vibrate.

Grrch was also surprised that no one had come to answer the great door yet. How could anyone sleep through this?

Grrch had kept count. He was on the three hundredth and fifty-ninth knock. That just happened to be the same number of days in a year until the day of Christmas.
It was a huge door. Slowly the door opened.

Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

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