Christmas Carol & the Shimmering Elf by Robert L. Fouch

Author:Robert L. Fouch
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510751019
Publisher: Sky Pony
Published: 2019-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

For just a moment, I thought the elf had failed. There he stood, shimmering from old to young, right in front of us, in the same house we’d just left. But the artificial winter kingdom was gone, in its place a normal ballroom with dozens of round tables, each surrounded by chairs. And light streamed through the ballroom windows; it was daytime, not night. The third clue was how the elf was dressed. Instead of his drab, standard-issue gray uniform, he wore a brown tweed suit.

The elf had made a portal and looked poised to flee. “Who are you?” he snapped. “Why are you in my house?”

Ray promptly barfed on the ballroom floor. I felt wobbly myself. But in my life as a Defender, I had grown accustomed to portal trips, and Pole vaults, and rides on the backs of huge reindeer. I patted Ray’s back as he bent over and puked again. The elf looked at him with disgust.

“You sent us,” I said hurriedly as the elf leaned toward his escape portal. I chose not to mention the fact that we had forced him to.

“And why would I do that?” the elf asked. His lip curled into a snarl. It didn’t seem possible, but he was even nastier in the past. He shimmered into his older self.

“I promised to help find your family.”

His eyes rounded. The snarl vanished. He let the portal disintegrate. “And how can some freckle-faced brat do what I haven’t been able to?”

“That’s none of your concern right now,” I snapped. What a nasty piece of work he was! “I’m not doing anything until you help us undo what you’ve done.”

“What are you talking about? I want you out of my house.”

I started to argue, just to be obstinate, to give him as hard a time as he was giving us. Grandmother liked to say, “Carol, you’re the most pigheaded elf AND human I’ve ever seen.” But in truth, we didn’t really need this elf’s help, at least not now. Except for a single piece of vital information. “We’ll leave if you tell us one thing.”

I’ll tell you something all right, he said in his mind, not bothering to hide his thoughts around a couple of humans. I’ll make a portal and drop you in the middle of New York Harbor.

I smiled, and with every ounce of telepathic power I could muster, I yelled, NO YOU WON’T, YOU BIG JERK!!

The elf let out a high-pitched shriek and stumbled backward, falling over a table and chairs. I stepped toward him and waved my hands through the air, freezing him where he lay. All except his head. That was a trick I’d picked up from my father during our practices. “Excellent for asking questions,” Dad had explained.

“You mean for interrogating someone,” I had responded, making him laugh.

The elf struggled, cursing telepathically and out loud. Ray watched with awe. “How are you doing that?”

“I told you I had power,” I said simply, turning back to the elf. “Now, all we want to know is where to find an old friend of yours.

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