Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Silence swept through the clearing as every eye trained itself on Vixen.

Vixen’s eyes, however, immediately sought out Justin. Her expression hardened, and he could feel the same resentment coming from her as everyone else.

“It is less than one month until Christmas,” she announced, finally looking at the rest of her class. Her voice carried easily across the crowd. “That means I have less than five weeks to whip all of your sorry tails into proper fliers!”

Tails? Justin thought with an uncomfortable lurch. Do we even have tails?

After a few seconds of searching, he discovered that he did, indeed, possess a new limb growing out of his spine. It was short and stubby, covered in the same white and brown fur as the rest of his body. He even found that if he concentrated, he could get it to wag up and down.

Okay, yes, he thought with his cheeks burning, so I have a tail now!

“You!”

With a gasp, Justin realized Vixen was pointing directly at him.

“Stop playing with yourself and pay attention!”

Justin’s cheeks burned even hotter as jeering laughter rang through the crowd.

“Since you can’t be bothered to listen to lectures,” Vixen went on, “you can be the first to go through the course. Get up here, buck!”

By now, Justin’s ears were ringing with embarrassment. Feeling like he was walking through quicksand, he made his way to the stairs and climbed up onto the stage with Vixen. If anyone hadn’t been staring at him before, they definitely were now.

“Stop!” Vixen snapped. Justin froze. “Where is your Rider?”

“I…My…What?”

“I’m here!” Lena shouted, sprinting out of the crowd to join Justin on the stage. She was still carrying that piece of leather.

That’s a saddle! Justin realized with a jolt. What’s going on here?

“Shyalena The-Sky-Is-In-Her-Eyes,” she said, snapping into a salute. “I volunteered to be Justin’s Rider, ma’am.”

Vixen gave her a long, hard look. “The-Sky-Is-In-Her-Eyes? Where have I heard…yes, I remember! You’re the one who…”

“I requested a second chance,” Lena said quickly, looking down at the floor. “Santa himself gave me his permission.”

Vixen snorted. “You were given a second chance, and you chose the lightless one as your mount?”

The crowd started muttering again.

Lena gritted her teeth. “I didn’t…”

“Quiet!” Vixen snapped. Justin wasn’t sure if she was talking to Lena or the crowd, but both fell silent anyway. “Well, I can’t pretend like you two aren’t an ideal match. Very well, then. Saddle him!”

Lena stepped forward, raising the saddle. Without thinking, Justin recoiled from her.

“Wait, what is this?” he demanded.

“Justin!” Lena hissed. “Don’t make a scene! Just let me put the saddle on—”

“No, this is going too far!” he said, pushing it away. “I don’t care how you all took what I said last night, I don’t care if I have fur and hooves now, I don’t even care if you keep calling me the lightless one! But I’m not going to let you saddle me like a freaking animal!”

“You think you’re too good to wear a saddle?” Vixen demanded haughtily. “As if every single one of Santa’s reindeer hasn’t worn one for over a thousand years?”

The crowd began to jeer at him. Justin spotted Lucas slapping his forehead. Vixen held up a hand, though, and they fell silent again.

“Have it your way,” she said. “I won’t argue with you. If anything, you’re making my job easier. But if you won’t adhere to the rules and traditions that we have obeyed for over a millennium, then I won’t train you. See yourself back to Laetitia. The council will decide what to do with you later.”

Justin froze. The saddle was…normal? It wasn’t just another attempt to insult him? He looked down at Lena, who was already leaving the stage, her head hung low as if Justin had just taken all her hopes and dreams and smashed them on the floor.

He closed his eyes and breathed out slowly.

“Fine,” he said. “Put it on me.”

Lena spun back around, her face instantly lighting up, though she quickly hid it. She hesitated for a moment, until Vixen reluctantly nodded her approval, and then rushed over to Justin.

“Raise your arms,” she said, then quickly wrapped the leather saddle around his stomach and lower back. It was like wearing a very big belt. No, more a girdle, Justin thought with embarrassment. It took her less than a minute to lace the entire thing up, and then she stepped back to wait for further instruction. Craning his neck as far as he could, Justin tried to look at it. For the most part, it looked like any saddle you would see in the human world, except for the very back. Where a normal saddle would end, this one curved sharply upwards, almost forming a backrest. Was that so Lena wouldn't fall out while he flew?

“Impressive speed,” Vixen begrudgingly admitted. “Then again, this isn’t your first time doing this, is it?”

The pride that had been shining in Lena’s eyes immediately vanished. “No, ma’am.”

“Very well.” She turned to Justin. “Now shift!”

Justin blinked in surprise. “What?”

“Shift! Take on your other form!” she snapped impatiently.

Justin looked from her to Lena, but the elf didn’t offer any help.

“For the love of Christmas,” Vixen muttered. “All of Santa’s reindeer have two forms. Our two-legged form, which you’re wearing now, and our four-legged form.”

Abruptly, Vixen fell forward. Justin unconsciously raised a hand to help her, but quickly realized that she hadn’t simply fallen down. In an instant, her red robe vanished, as if evaporating, and her body reshaped itself before Justin’s eyes. Her hands hardened into hooves identical to the ones on her feet. Her torso thickened, becoming less human and more animal-like. Her neck lengthened, her skull repositioning itself to accommodate her new posture. It all took less than a second, and suddenly there was a full fledged reindeer standing in front of Justin. It glared angrily at him for a moment, and then stood back up on two legs. The process reversed itself, the robes appearing out of thin air, and Vixen was back to normal.

“Now you do it,” she said coldly.

Justin hesitated. This was like his first day at a new school all over again, being told to introduce himself to the class—except here, the class had already decided that he was the antichrist, and instead of being asked his name and life story, he was being told to turn into a freaking animal!

“I…” he finally managed to choke out, “don’t know how.”

More laughter from the crowd.

Vixen scowled at him with undisguised contempt, then reached a hand out. Justin flinched, but couldn’t move fast enough to avoid her. Her open palm came down on his forehead, making him gasp lightly with pain when she touched the spot where Tornado had punched him.

“Now,” she growled in annoyance, “shift!”

A surge of power shot from her hand, directly into Justin. Immediately, it felt like his entire body was set on fire! It didn’t hurt, but it definitely didn’t feel comfortable either. He pitched forward, the act of standing upright no longer feeling right, and his hands instinctively shot out to catch him—only, he didn’t have hands anymore. A new pair of hooves came down on the wooden stage with a loud CLACK, and the surprised sound that Justin escaped Justin’s mouth wasn’t even remotely human. The feeling faded, and Justin craned his neck around—it was suddenly much more flexible than before—to see that he couldn’t even recognize himself anymore.

In the space of a few seconds, what little humanity he’d retained had been stolen from him.

“Don’t panic again,” a voice whispered into his ear. “You can change back whenever you want. For now, just do what you’re told!”

He felt a small pair of hands rubbing his neck, and he looked down to see Lena standing beside him, a look of concern in her eyes. Was it concern for him, though, or for herself? Justin didn’t know, but there was something about her voice and the way she was touching him that instinctively calmed him down.

“Now,” Vixen snapped, sounding like she was on her last nerve, and it was being actively gnawed on, “do the course!”

She pointed behind the stage, at the series of walls, poles, and hoops that Justin had noticed earlier. Lena leaped onto Justin’s back, weighing so little that he almost didn’t notice, and grabbed his antlers in both hands.

“Just do what I say,” she whispered to him, then pushed his antlers forward. “Go!”

Justin hesitated for a moment, then trotted forward. To his surprise, his brain seemed to already know how to use this new body. He was able to walk without thinking about it, even though every inch of himself felt alien now. They came to the edge of the stage, and he jumped off, landing cleanly on his new hooves.

“Faster!” Lena commanded him.

Justin picked up the pace, breaking into a run. The first obstacle was rapidly drawing closer. Two walls leaned against each other in an A-shape, standing twenty feet tall. Somehow, Justin knew that was well within his new body’s ability to jump over, so he charged straight for it without hesitation.

Suddenly, Lena pulled up on his antlers.

Justin wasn’t sure how, but he knew exactly what that was supposed to mean. Flexing his powerful back legs, he launched himself off the ground, easily clearing the wall with six feet to spare.

So high up! he thought at the height of his jump, his eyes widening. Then he was racing back toward the ground and certain doom—

He barely even felt the impact when he landed, and instinctively charged forward again.

“Good!” Lena said. “Keep going!”

A long line of poles waited for them next, each of them driven down into the ground so that they stood upright. Justin had a feeling he knew exactly what he was expected to do here, having watched dog shows on tv more than once. Sure enough, when they were only a few feet away, Lena pulled his antlers to the right. He turned sharply to the right, and Lena then jerked to the left, steering him cleanly between the first and second poles. Back to the right, then the left, right, left, right, left, and…

They left the poles behind. Justin hadn’t touched a single one of them.

“You’re doing great!” Lena said, sounding more than a little surprised herself. “But we’re not done yet!”

They were coming up on a second wall, this one even taller than the first. Something inside Justin told him this one was too tall for him to jump over.

“You’ll need your magic for this one,” Lena said as they drew closer. “Focus when you jump! Imagine yourself breaking free of gravity! Where you would normally stop, you’ll just keep going higher!”

Justin snorted in confusion. How could he break gravity’s hold just by thinking about it? But since he couldn’t talk in his current form, he wasn’t able to ask. All he could do was keep galloping toward the next wall until…

“Now!” Lena jerked upwards on his antlers.

Justin jumped, desperately trying to do what she’d told him. He pictured it in his mind’s eye, his leap carrying him higher than it should have, higher than the top of the wall, and—

“Too high, Justin!” Lena’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Too high!”

Justin snapped back to the real world, and realized that not only had Lena’s advice worked—it had worked too well! He had cleared the forty foot high wall, but he hadn’t stopped there. He had kept going up, and up, until he was almost ten feet higher than he needed to go. As soon as he realized his mistake, terror shot through him, and gravity reasserted its hold. With a cervine bleat, he plummeted back toward the ground, legs kicking wildly beneath him.

“Justin,” Lena called to him, “pull up!”

Justin wasn’t sure what happened next. Lena pulled on his antlers in a different way than before, and he reared back while still in midair. He didn’t stop falling, but something about the way Lena repositioned him lessened the impact of the fall. He hit the ground hard enough to make his knees shake, but he was alive.

“Go!” Lena said, thrusting his antlers forward again.

Are you crazy? he wanted to yell at her. We almost died!

“We’re fine,” she argued as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. “I’ll take care of you, Justin. This won’t be like…”

He looked at her over his shoulder, and saw her haunted expression.

“J- Just go!” she commanded, pushing his antlers again.

Reluctantly, he broke into another gallop. Up next were the hoops he had seen from the clearing. They rose up out of the ground on wooden poles, like giant bubble wands. There were also platforms set up all around the track. What was he supposed to…

Lena pulled on his antlers, steering him toward the first platform. It was only a couple of feet off the ground, so Justin was able to step up onto it without jumping. As soon as he was on top of it, though, Lena pulled sharply upwards on his antlers. Justin jumped without thinking—and found himself flying cleanly through the first hoop.

His hooves hit the ground at a gallop, and Lena guided him toward the next platform. This one was six feet off the ground, and a quick glance told Justin that its corresponding hoop was off to the left and fifteen feet away. He would have to jump even further than before to get through it, and at an angle as well.

Trust Lena, he found himself thinking. Lena knows what she’s doing.

She pulled up, and he leaped up onto the platform. Up again and to the side, and Justin launched himself toward the hoop. His aim was a little bit off this time, and his right antler nicked the edge of the wooden ring, sending splinters raining down on Lena, but they still landed without incident.

“That’s fine! You’re doing great!” Lena encouraged him. “One more!”

This platform was fifteen feet high, and and it took him a moment to spot the hoop. It was the same height as the platform, but almost fifty feet away!

“Focus, just like last time,” Lena said as they drew nearer. “You don’t need height this time, you need distance.”

She pulled up, and he jumped onto the platform. The second jump sent him soaring across the forest, pine trees flashing past him in a blur of green and brown. He did as Lena said, focusing like he had done before. He imagined himself continuing onwards forever, his momentum never running out.

Until you’re a hundred thousand feet up in the sky again?

His mind flashed back to when he’d come tumbling out of orbit the night before, and fear once again sent a lightning bolt through his body. Less than half the distance to the hoop, he began to fall back to earth…

“Up, Justin!” Lena commanded him. “Up!”

Up, his thoughts echoed hers. Up, up, up!

And to his disbelief, he stopped falling and began rising instead!

“Too high! Down!”

He went down.

“A little higher up!”

He rose again, and…

“Yes!” Lena shouted as they cleared the third hoop.

Only one obstacle remained, but just the sight of it brought tremors to Justin’s heart. A third wall was rapidly closing in on them, and this one more than one hundred feet tall. Justin struggled to breathe just looking at it. They’d barely survived the fall after the last wall! Even if he managed to clear it, their landing would be like flies hitting a windshield!

“Trust me, Justin,” Lena called. “You can do this. We can do this!”

I can’t do this! I can’t do this! I can’t do this!

“I know you’re scared, Justin,” she said into his ear. “I’m scared too. I’ve made horrible mistakes in the past. But I’ve learned from them. I’ve grown since then! I’m ready for this second chance!”

They were thirty feet from the wall.

“I don’t believe what the others are saying about you. Santa gave you the Opportunity for a reason. He knows something about you that nobody else does!”

Twenty feet.

“Now you have to prove it to everyone else!”

Ten feet!

I’m gonna die!

“So show them what you can do, Justin!” Lena yelled. “And jump!”

Justin jumped. The wind roared in his ears, tugging at his fur, as he went higher, and higher, and higher. He remembered what Lena had told him, picturing the course he wanted to take in his mind. Over the top of the wall. Back down again. Onto the ground, safe and sound. Maybe Lena was right. Maybe if he did this, if he actually learned how to fly, they would forgive him for what he had said and accept him as—

You know that will never happen.

His momentum faltered.

“Justin, concentrate!” Lena commanded. He was still going up, but he was slowing.

They will never forgive you. Never accept you.

He slowed even further. He was barely halfway up the wall! Higher, he urged the powers he didn’t understand. Higher!

And they shouldn’t accept you.

He began to fall.

“Justin!” Lena screamed.

Because you don’t deserve any of this!

Justin’s hooves struck the wall. He desperately tried to balance, but it was too steep. His hard cloven hooves slid right out from under him, and down he went, dragging Lena with him, until—

CRASH!

Pain lanced up and down Justin’s body. He bleated, and as he did so his voice returned to him, changing into a scream of agony. Somehow, he had managed to change himself back without even knowing how. Lena appeared in front of him. Blood dripped down her face from a cut on her forehead, but she didn’t seem to notice it.

“Justin, are you okay?” she asked. “Where does it hurt?”

“I…I'm sorry,” he gasped. Tears streamed down his cheeks, both from pain and from shame. Not only had he failed, but he had gotten Lena hurt in the process. “All my…fault!”

See? You don’t deserve this. All you’ll do is get everyone around you ostracized and hurt!

“It's not your fault, it's mine!” Lena argued. “I should have done better, should have had more control…”

“Your…face,” he croaked, eyes going to the cut that was oozing blood onto her smooth, ageless face.

“I'm fine, and you're going to be too,” Lena said, sounding like she was on the verge of panicking, herself. “You hear me? You're going to be fi…fi…oh, please, don’t let it happen again!”

Footsteps came from nearby, and Justin looked up to see Vixen standing over him, a look somewhere between disdain and satisfaction on her face.

“The fool has broken his arm,” she said without even kneeling down for a closer look. “You, The-Sky-Is-In-Her-Eyes, get him to the infirmary…”

She swept around, her robes billowing behind her as she returned to her class.

“...and out of my sight!”