Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Justin looked at himself in the mirror. Even after living in this body for nearly a month, he still couldn't help but feel a weird sense of disconnection whenever he saw his reflection.

All things considered, his transformation into a reindeer had changed surprisingly little about him. He was still the same height—the foot or so added by his antlers notwithstanding—and had the same thin build. Even his haircut had stayed the same, though the exact shade of brown had changed to match the rest of his fur. Did that mean it technically wasn't hair anymore, but rather…longer head fur?

Starting about halfway up his neck, his brown fur changed to white, but only where it covered his chest and stomach. He trailed his fingers through the thin fuzz that covered his skin, his long ears twitching at the still-alien sensation. Apart from his underbelly—or just regular belly, he supposed—his fur was a rich chestnut brown. Not as dark as Lucas’, which was almost black, and not glossy like Tornado's, but he'd have been lying if he said it didn't look good on him.

If I was a hunter, I'd definitely shoot me, he thought. Then he blinked. Wait, what?

There was a commotion outside in Laetitia's streets. Through his dorm's window, he could see hundreds of elves and reindeer making their way toward the center of town. The sun had gone down an hour ago, and he was too high up to make out anything specific in the darkness, but it wasn't like it mattered. At Lena's encouragement, he had been keeping mainly to his room after flight lessons, only coming out for dinner and then immediately retreating back inside. Honestly, he probably would have done this even if Lena hadn't told him to. The people out there, and the knowledge that they were ready to rip him apart with a ferocity that Black Friday shoppers could never hope to match, terrified him.

What a strange thing to think about Santa Claus’ village…

Not everything had been bad, though. The books on his shelf had turned out to be very informative, and pouring over them every evening had helped him to understand the finer points of flying, knowledge that had been extremely helpful when he'd brought it to class.

True, there was a part of him that wanted to go out and join the crowd, walk the streets of his new home, meet new people. He reminded himself, though, that now wasn't the time for that. While the past three weeks had definitely been a step forward, both for him and his reputation, the predominant opinion in Val Luminara was still that he was lightless and needed to be shunned like he had the plague.

Someday, he promised himself, sitting back down at his desk to resume his reading. I'll prove I'm not who they think I am, and then I'll be able to—

An excited knock jolted him out of his thoughts, and he turned toward his door. Who in the world would be visiting him, and at this time of night? He jumped to his hooves, throwing on his undershirt, and opened the door.

Nobody was there.

Justin paused. Was he being pranked? That didn't seem likely. He may not have been popular around here, but people tended to leave him alone when he wasn't out in public. But if the knocking wasn't coming from his door, then…

Knock knock knockknockknockknock!

Justin spun around, and had to do a double take when he saw Lucas hovering outside his window.

“Uhhh…hold on a second,” he said, hurrying over to unlatch the window. Why was he even surprised? When you could fly, why wouldn't you use the windows like doors?

“What are you still doing here?” Lucas demanded, pushing the window open and flying inside the moment Justin unlatched it. “Come on, get your jacket on! We've got to go!”

He grabbed the red jacket off of Justin's bed and tossed it to him. Justin caught it, but was too busy staring at his friend to put it on.

“I don't…what are you talking about?” he finally asked. “Go where?”

“To Cuba. I hear the beaches are lovely this time of year. Aurora Square, stupid! Where did you think everyone else was going?”

“I hadn't really thought about it,” Justin lied, looking at the parade of people making their way through the streets. “I'm supposed to stay here in my dorm after class ends, remember?”

Lucas raised a finger. “No, I remember Lena telling you to stay in your dorm after class ends. But seeing how this is one of the most important nights of the season, I'll agree to un-ground you just for tonight if you promise not to tell your mom.”

Justin stared at him blankly. “My…mom?”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Mele Kalikimaka, I'd say a joke would have to punch you in the face for you to recognize it, but Tornado has punched you in the face, and…okay, you know what? Forget it. Let's go!”

With that, he leaped out the window, his magic catching him in midair as he waved impatiently for Justin to follow. Justin walked to the windowsill, but then hesitated. Was this really a good idea? The past three weeks had gone by relatively smoothly, considering the possibilities. Did he want to risk that by breaking his self-imposed quarantine, putting himself at the mercy of Val Luminara's fickle temper?

“I don't think this is a good idea,” he said, backing away from the window. “You go ahead. I'll be fine in he-eeeEEEAAAHH!”

Lucas had grabbed him by his arm and dragged him through the window, forcing Justin to activate his magic to keep from falling two hundred feet down to the sidewalk below. He had already been turned into a reindeer in the past month—he didn't want to be turned into a red smear, too.

For a few seconds, he just hovered there, his brain buzzing with terror. Then he turned to glare at his so-called friend. “Don't ever do that again!”

Lucas ignored him, slamming Justin's window closed. “Now that you've finally made up your mind, let's get going!”

He took off toward the center of town, and after a few seconds of hesitation, Justin reluctantly followed.

Laetitia was a sight to behold during the day, but its true beauty was only revealed when the sun went down. Strings of colored lights stretched between each house, tree, and everything else they could reach. They looked like the Christmas lights people would put up in his world, in the same way a dull fluorescent bulb looked like the sun on a bright summer day. Laetitia's lights shone with colors too pure to be anything but magical, and they rose and fell, curled and twisted in patterns that Justin didn't seem to be able to look at without smiling.

But even they paled in comparison to the lights in the sky. The portal to Val Luminara, that massive halo of rainbow colored light hovering high above the valley, never went away, but it wasn’t as visible during the day, or as beautiful, as it was at night.

Looking up at it, knowing that his world was just on the other side, Justin felt a pang of homesickness…

But then he wrenched his eyes away from the mesmerizing display and chased after Lucas.

Aurora Square was massive, big enough to hold Laetitia’s entire population with room to spare. Thousands of elves were milling about in the cobblestone courtyard, though Justin noticed that the very center of the square was carefully being left empty. There were reindeer here too, but a lot of them had taken to the air to wait like Justin and Lucas.

Celebration Hall sat at the top of the nearby hill. Justin took a minute to study it. He hadn’t paid much attention to it since the night he’d first arrived, even though it was apparently the heart of the entire city. The Elder Stables were in there, as well as the Craftselves Guild, which headed the toymaking operation that went on in dozens of factories in the city below. More importantly, that was where Santa lived.

Despite having been here for nearly a month, Justin still hadn’t seen him, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing not. On one hand, who wouldn’t want to meet the Santa Claus? But on the other…what if it turned out that he hated Justin as much as everyone else? It wasn’t just his self-esteem that Justin was worried about if that turned out to be the case. According to Lucas and Lena, who had both seen him plenty of times, Santa was incredibly powerful. Justin didn’t want to imagine what he could do to him if he wanted. Visions of being turned into a statue made of solid coal, then shattered and given to naughty children, flashed before his eyes.

I don’t know what’s weirder, he thought as he hovered above the growing crowd. The fact that Santa being real is just part of my everyday life now, or that I’m genuinely worried he might want to murder me…

“So, what exactly is going on?” he asked.

“That,” Lucas said, pointing toward Celebration Hall, “is what’s going on!”

Justin looked, having to squint to make out a cluster of figures coming through the front door and making their way down the hill. A woman was leading them, wearing a beautiful red and white dress. Her hair was long, as white as freshly fallen snow, and seemed to reflect all the colors around her in a cascade almost as dazzling as the portal up above.

Behind her marched a small group of elves, each helping to support a pine tree as they carried it out into Aurora Square. An excited murmur began to rise from the crowd, and they parted to make a path for the woman.

“Who’s that?” Justin asked.

“Who do you think, genius?” Lucas snorted. “That’s the one and only Mrs. Claus!”

They reached the center of the square, and the elves worked together to hoist the tree upright. It didn’t take much effort, since the tree was…Justin tried to think of a charitable word for it…pitiful. Less than six feet tall, so thin he could have wrapped his arms around it and still been able to touch his elbows, and missing so many needles that if it had been a person it would have been arrested for indecent exposure.

“Huh,” Justin grunted, feeling oddly disappointed. “You’d think Santa Claus’ village would have a Christmas tree that was a little more…you know…”

Lucas chuckled. “Just keep watching, new guy.”

Before Justin could ask what he was supposed to be watching, a blinding light appeared! Justin flinched, covering his eyes…but then slowly realized that, even though it was even brighter than the sun, the strange light didn’t hurt his eyes. The light was streaming out of Celebration Hall, like someone had captured a nuclear explosion and decorated it for Christmas. All the same colors as the lights up above, only infinitely closer.

Then a figure stepped out through the door.

Justin gasped, his mouth falling open in awe. “Is…Is that…”

“The man himself,” Lucas confirmed, a note of reverence in his voice.

The figure strode down the hill and into Aurora Square. The colors swirled and spun around him in dizzying patterns, like galaxies being born and fading away in the space of mere seconds.

Though they were hundreds of feet in the air, Justin found he could still see the man in the center as clearly as if he were standing right in front of him. He wore a long scarlet cloak trimmed with white fur that hung from his shoulders like a king’s mantle. Like the woman, his hair and beard were pure white, reflecting the dancing lights like a mirror. He had the same ageless presence to him that the elves, and Laetitia itself, had, only…more. As if he were the source, the origin, of the magical longevity that permeated the city.

This wasn’t a man, Justin realized. But neither was he a god. He was something in between. Indescribably powerful, but not omnipotent. He was…

He was…

Santa Claus.

Santa beamed at the crowd, and Justin felt a sudden, inexplicable surge of joy pass through him. The crowd roared with adoration. Lucas was smiling like an idiot. Justin realized he was giggling, but he didn’t care.

Then Santa turned toward the tree and raised a hand. Though Justin wouldn’t have believed it possible, the light emanating from him grew even brighter, bursting from his palm. It swept across Aurora Square, then began to spin around the tree in a whirlpool of color. Justin watched, unable to look away even if he’d wanted to. And he didn’t want to. Why would anyone ever want to look away from something so beautiful, so perfect, so joyful, so…

With a final dramatic flash of light, the rainbow tornado vanished.

And in its place was a tree a thousand feet tall, with needles of the finest green. The sweet smell of pine reached Justin’s nose, so powerful that it brought tears of joy to his eyes.

“That was…amazing,” he gasped.

“The best part is still coming,” Lucas promised him.

Down below, Santa raised his hands, and the light within him grew to supernova-like levels again. This time when it faded, a golden star more than a hundred feet in diameter was hovering above his head. In a flurry of red robes, the Council of Eight descended into Aurora Square. Each of them placed their hands on the star, and rose slowly back up into the air. Working together with the speed and familiarity that only centuries of camaraderie could produce, they brought the star to the summit of the mountainous tree, and placed it on the very top. Justin couldn’t see anything that would keep it there, but when they let go it stayed right where they had put it. Thunderous applause came from the crowd below, and Justin realized that he was clapping furiously along with everyone else.

Lucas pointed, and Justin looked down to see that the people in Aurora Square were on the move again. Hurriedly, they formed a line that looped around and around the square in a dizzying spiral, eventually leading to Santa himself.

The first person to reach Santa was a young elf—and Justin realized this was the first time he’d actually seen an elf that he could say looked young. She couldn’t have been more than six years old, but she walked right up to Santa as if he were as familiar to her as her own grandfather. Santa smiled at her and, once again, raised his arms. This time, hundreds of orbs sprang into existence, hovering in midair, each one big enough to fit a full grown human inside. They gleamed in every color that Santa himself gave off, and at a flick of his wrist, a vibrant green one floated down to the elf girl. She raised her own tiny hands, somehow lifting the enormous bubble all by herself.

Dancer swooped down and picked the child up in her hands. The girl said something, and she took to the air again, flying around the massive tree until she reached whatever spot the girl had apparently specified. They eased in close, and the elf child held the orb out toward the gargantuan branch. Just like the star, when she took her hands away, it simply stayed there.

“Come on, let’s go get in line!” Lucas said.

“Wait!” Justin grabbed his sleeve. “What if Santa…”

“Don't worry, Santa isn't like that,” Lucas immediately reassured him. “I promise, all he's gonna have is a warm smile and an ornament for you to put on the tree.”

Trepidation warred with eagerness inside him as Justin followed his friend, making lazy circles around Aurora Square as they descended, eventually touching down at the end of the line. A few elves and reindeer looked their way, and Justin tensed up, ready to bolt back up into the sky if it looked like they were going to get angry.

Instead, they just smiled and greeted him with friendly waves.

“Wait a minute,” he said in a low voice, eyes sliding suspiciously from one person to another, “they don't hate me?”

“Hating somebody is more trouble than it's worth when Santa is nearby,” Lucas explained, taking a spot in line. “I'm not saying it's impossible, but the guy literally radiates joy and other positive feelings. You just can't help but be in a good mood around him!”

That much was certainly true. Even as he thought about it, Justin could feel his nervousness being pushed away, replaced with a calm and content sense of happiness. He was glad he had come out here with Lucas, he decided! How could anyone be upset at something like—

“What are you doing here?”

Justin and Lucas spun around to see Lena marching up to them, and Justin's question was immediately answered. The pinched look on her face was far from happy. Still, he had to admit, she didn't really look angry either. Just…mildly disappointed.

“Oh, come on!” Lucas said with a grin. “Even you can't say that Justin should have stayed shut up in his room during this!”

Her cheeks reddened a little. “If people find out the lightless one is trying to get close to Santa—”

“Look around you! They have no idea who he is! It's not like the council has been hanging up pictures of his face around town. Nobody will give him a second glance…unless someone doesn't stop yelling about it!”

Lena crossed her arms, looking around, and finally sighed. “Fine! But once you hang your ornament, you're going straight back home!”

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Now do you get what I was saying about not telling Mom?”

“The Reindeer Games are tomorrow morning, and he needs all the rest he can get tonight!” Lena snapped.

Lucas opened his mouth to retort, but then apparently thought better of it. “Okay, fine, that's a halfway decent point.”

The line moved surprisingly swiftly, considering how long it was. The Council of Eight was always on hand to raise an elf up to place their ornament, but the reindeer would simply zip up to an open spot on the tree by themselves. Within minutes, globes of every color glittered in the massive pine tree's boughs. Each one, Justin realized, gave off its own dim light. Nowhere near as bright as the man who had conjured them, but enough that even in the dead of night, Aurora Square would be bathed in a soft, comforting blanket of light.

“Just keep your head down, okay?” Lena cautioned him as they looped around the square. “The last thing we need is to cause a commotion with Santa Claus right—”

“SOUVENIR PHOTO!” Lucas exclaimed, jumping out of line. A few seconds later, he came back, dragging a middle aged reindeer with an old fashioned Polaroid camera behind him. “It's Justin's first Christmas in Val Luminara! We have to get a picture!”

Lena slapped her forehead. “Just announce it to the whole stupid city, why don't you?”

But Lucas clearly wasn't listening. He grabbed his friends, wrapping an elbow around each of their necks, and pulled them in closer.

“Say Kringle!” the reindeer said, raising his camera.

“KRINGLLLLLLLLE!” Lucas crowed.

There was a flash, and then Lena kicked Lucas in the knee to make him let go of her.

“That'll be three baubles, please,” said the photographer.

“I left my money at home,” Lucas said without missing a beat. “Lena, you think you could…”

Lena glared daggers at him, her face turning scarlet. “Fine! But I'm only doing it so Justin can keep a low profile, you absolute bottom feeder.”

She pulled what looked to Justin like three pink marbles from a purse hanging from her belt and handed them to the photographer. The reindeer smiled, holding out their photo, which Lucas quickly snatched.

“Oh ho ho, that's a keeper for sure!” he chuckled.

“Can I see it?” Justin asked.

Lucas ignored him, sliding the picture into an inside pocket of his jacket. Then he turned to Lena.

“All right, now I need a favor.”

Lena raised her eyebrows in shock. “You practically just robbed me, and now you want a…”

She stopped talking when Lucas knelt down and whispered something into her ear. At first, she looked like she wanted to protest, but then she glanced at Justin and her expression softened.

“All right, fine,” she grudgingly agreed. “I'll see what I can do. Ugly sweaters, it is going to be so late before I can get to bed!”

“What?” Justin asked, looking from her to Lucas. “What's going on?”

“Nothing, don't worry about it.” She pointed in front of them. “Look, we're almost at the front of the line!”

Justin spun around to look, and saw that she was right. Though they'd been in line for less than fifteen minutes, there couldn't have been more than twenty people between them and the front now.

Twenty people between him and Santa Claus.

Suddenly, all of Justin's misgivings came rushing back to him, furiously trying to beat the magical happiness into submission. After all the prejudice and hatred he had experienced over the past three weeks…if his own eight original reindeer hated him so much, what right did Justin have to assume that Santa wouldn’t feel the same way?

Lucas and Lena got their ornaments, and Lucas let the elf climb on his back as he took off to go put them on the tree. Then it was Justin’s turn. Feeling remarkably similar to the first time he'd had a picture taken with the man in red when he was three, Justin tentatively approached the living embodiment of Christmas in all his power and radiance.

Comet, Donner, and Blitzen were standing nearby, and they immediately grew tense when they saw Justin coming. Blitzen looked like he was going to step in and intervene, but Donner put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

This is it, Justin thought numbly. All I'm getting for Christmas is vaporized!

Santa was taller than he had looked from up in the sky. Easily more than seven feet tall, and broad shouldered enough that his height looked natural. He wouldn't even need his magic to squash Justin like an accordion.

Justin gritted his teeth, just hoping his death wouldn't be too—

“Good evening, Justin Flinchley,” Santa greeted him.

Justin froze. Santa hadn't killed him.

And he knew Justin's name?

Santa smiled at him, his eyes twinkling merrily. “I know things haven't been easy for you these past few weeks…”

He shot a look at the elder reindeer, who averted their eyes guiltily.

“...but your persistence has been admirable.”

Unable to believe what he was hearing, Justin swelled with pride. This was exactly what he had needed to hear. Did Santa…

Yes, of course Santa knew. That was what Santa did, after all.

“Brighter times are coming, son,” he said, giving Justin's shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “Just stay strong. And put this somewhere on the tree for me, will you?”

Santa waved, and a bright blue ornament floated over to them. Feeling like a child, giddy and filled with wonder, Justin couldn't do anything but grin as he raised his hands to take it. It felt as light as air, and didn't rest in his palms so much as it hovered a centimeter away from them.

“Th- Thank you,” Justin stammered. He realized there were tears leaking from his eyes, but again, he couldn’t bring himself to care. “For this, and for…”

Santa's smile widened. “You're welcome, Justin. And merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” Justin said back before launching into the air to find the perfect place for his ornament.

Nothing had ever felt more right coming out of his mouth than those words did right then.