Monday December 19th, 2011

The exercise:

Carrying on with the countdown to Christmas, your prompt today is: the reindeer.

I'll be continuing with what I started yesterday and you're welcome to either do the same or have each day as a stand alone piece.

Kat and I will be leaving Thursday morning with her parents to spend the holiday with her brother's family up in Dawson Creek. The plan is to pass the night in Quesnel and then finish the drive on Friday. I'm not sure what my net access will be like up there, so I'm going to schedule a few posts just in case.

Also not sure how long we'll be staying up there, but I know we'll definitely be back down in time for New Year's.

Mine:

"So what's next?" Dasher asked. He was, as usual, ready to charge into the next stage of the plan. Whatever that might be.

"That's not really up to us," Rudolph replied, his nose glowing brightly in the mid-afternoon darkness. "It all depends on how they react once they discover what we've done."

"Waiting is lame," Dasher whined, looking to the others for support. "Why don't we speed along the search? Maybe suggest places for them to look?"

"That would only draw suspicion to us, as Rudolph's nose draws the arctic moths to its constant illumination," Comet said, as he did most things, rather dreamily. The others rolled their eyes and shook their heads, but he failed to notice as his eyes were on the stars. As always.

"Just trust in the plan," Rudolph said firmly. "Stick together, believe in each other, and we can't fail. We know -"

"Quiet!" Blitzen called out from where he was keeping watch by the stable doors. "Miguel and Rosa are headed this way."

3 comments:

Greg said...

Every time you mention Dawson Creek I'm reminded of that teen television show from years ago. I have visions of you and Cat popping in and out of bedroom windows giggling :)
Sounds like a nice way to spend Christmas, and you probably shouldn't be internetting with the family around anyway :-P
So the reindeer are up to something? I like Comet, he seems like a pretty cool reindeer. My money's still on the Elf though, for all you're denying she's a serial killer :-P

The reindeer
"Don't be so gloomy," said Carl, disappearing back round the doorframe. Santa held his hands up in mock despair, and then followed him through a short corridor with doors at both ends, and then into the kitchen. It was large, terracotta-tiled, and had wooden beams running across the ceiling. It was lit mostly by counter-top lighting giving it a soft, homely feel. The smell of roasting meat competed with something more... earthy.
"The Coca-Cola sponsorship's been running for nearly a hundred years," said Santa. "How would we rebrand if we lost it? We have to make sure there's no Elf on the loose, and fast, before Christmas. What is that smell?"
"Well, the Elf will take the easiest route," said Carl opening the oven and checking something inside. Hot air blasted out, along with a succulent meaty smell that set Santa's mouth watering. "So it'll either come here, or wherever you were last."
"The workshop," said Santa. "The smell, Carl. What is it?"
"Right, so if it's the workshop it'll trigger the alarm, and if it's here then we'll know about it."
"The. Smell."
"Reindeer."
"What?"
"Well, Reindeer crap actually. There's a hundredweight of it outside, I had it delivered this morning."
"For the love of me! Why, Carl? We don't grow vegetables to give to children any more!"
"We mine coal.... Oh, alright, it's for realism. I'm having it shoveled into the wormholes, then as you visit each child you'll be treading genuine reindeer sh– dung into their carpets. Then they can't deny the existence of Santa."
"This won't give their parents a good Christmas!"
"Christmas isn't for parents, Santa. It's for children, and people who never grew up, and the mentally feeble, an–"
"You really know how to spoil a Christmas, Carl. I hope you realise that."
"Hmph."
"So what's cooking in the oven then? That smells fantastic."
"Reindeer."

Cathryn Leigh said...

Hm... I sort of feel the need to continue my story, though it really has nothing to do with Christmas, other than the fact I decided to set it in the garden and in the winter. (Oh and I loved ‘by the flowers’ as well. Making up new exclamations is fun.) Although... It could end up being Christmassy, hm....

The Reindeer
No one came into the garden, or cleared the paths, like Grandmother Patricia did. Not a soul. Noah knew because he went outside and checked. But the house windows stayed dark and the lights off. It had been a ghost town since the funeral. The snow had now piled high in drifts against the oak and Noah had had to go up one of the chimneys just to get out of the roots.
“Out here again?”
Noah scooted over to let Tina out to stand beside him. She shivered and sneezed.
“Here,” he held out one side of the sock he’d wrapped about himself.
“Reindeers?” she asked, as she inspected it.
Noah shrugged. “I rescued it from a dusty corner, and it’s warm.”
Tina folded her wings to her back and stood close to Noah to wrap the sock about her.
“So what are we waiting for?”
“I don’t...”
Noah stopped talking as a giant vehicle pulled up, crunching over the snow in the driveway. The fairy and elf huddled closer; one hopeful; one waiting for the for sale sign to be pounded into the ground.

Marc said...

Greg - I like Carl. He seems very practical :)

Elor - nice twist to work in the prompt :D

I'm enjoying this so far, I hope you can keep it going!