Delta Mission: Operation Rudolph by M. L. Buchman

Author:M. L. Buchman [Buchman, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Buchman Bookworks, Inc.

Chapter 7

They had pizza in Banff and she spent three delicious hours mostly passed out in the curve of Horatio’s arms in a snowed-in hiking cabin high in Glacier Park. She didn’t ask how Horatio moved them from place to place. It seemed that they flowed, glided, perhaps simply morphed from one destination to the next. It was a dream, so it was easy to not question the transitions.

But she would miss her time with Horatio. No, she’d miss Horatio himself. Even strung out on whatever narcotic was giving her this extended dream, she was becoming very attached to him.

Yes, he’d started out all strange and mysterious and mostly concerned about a missing reindeer. But he had shifted. More slowly than their jumping from one place to another, but just as steadily.

Still wrapped in her parka, she lay in his arms in the chill cabin and felt…right. As if it was where she was supposed to be. Perhaps “content” was a better word, though it was not one that had ever come up before in her life.

He hadn’t asked about her past, which was just as well. She didn’t want to talk about it. But neither had he talked about his. Did elves have pasts? Did elves have regrets? She hoped not as she had enough for both of them.

“What is an elf’s life like?” She could feel him shift as if he was looking down at the top of her head in some surprise.

“Normal enough. The reindeer usually do a good job of taking care of themselves, that’s why I didn’t think to worry. Generally I spend but one month a year tending them. It’s a good life for them as well.” And he began telling her about their grazing habits, and the practical jokes they liked to play.

One year they’d started at the South Pole rather than the North, forcing St. Nicholas to act like a Dumpster-diver as he dug out successive presents from the bottom of the sleigh’s pile instead of working top-down. Or the year they’d switched all of the rabbits’ stockings with all of the squirrels’—the rabbits had ended up have a grand game of ice hockey with the acorns and walnuts but the squirrels had never figured out what to do with the sudden bounty of cabbage.

It was only as they were trekking south into the Flathead Wilderness of Montana that she realized he’d told her nothing of himself. Perhaps it was fair, she’d said nothing of herself either, but it rankled. Of course, with his voice, she’d happily listen to him reading the naughty and nice name list—especially the naughty if he gave some of the details.

Dawn broke hard.

She couldn’t think of how else to describe it. While traveling through Canada, they had been in and out of snowstorms beneath gray skies. This morning, they’d left the cabin in Glacier Park beneath the last stars of the night, almost as brightly perfect as those from Santa’s reindeer stables. It had been a relief that the North Star had shifted well down the sky, so they were indeed well to the south.

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