Santa's Daughter

1. Yearly Meeting

There's a plane flying over the North Pole and they're almost right on top of us. Bernard and I are in the control room and trying to conceal ourselves enough so they'll leave. "It's coming right at us," One of the elves informs us.

"Take us to Elfcon 3," Bernard orders and both of us head over to one of the monitors. Another elf orders over the phone for elves to quiet down for Elfcon 3. I stand behind Bernard and watch as he starts to shut down some stuff so there's less noise.

"These guys aren't stopping," I say worriedly. "Take us to Elfcon two," I ordered to the others. The guy calls over the phone and everyone presses more buttons. We all turn and watch as my dad comes in.

"We have a partridge in a pear tree!" We nod in acknowledgement. "You take us to Elfcon 1. Let's rig for silent running. Look alive, everyone!" We immediately get to work shutting down everything.

"Okay, we're at Elfcon 1," he orders over the phone and we all listen as the entire place goes completely silent. The plane flies overhead and we breathe a sigh of relief for a second before we hear quiet music playing.

"Find out where that music's coming from," Dad orders.

"Okay," one of them nods. He zooms in on a map of the North Pole and we see where it's coming from. "Santa, I've got her on the locator." It's right in the middle of the reindeer stables, where the sleigh is kept.

Bernard, my dad, and I all ran down. We find Curtis, elf number two on the sleigh with a dancing Santa. Dad covers his mouth and I press the stop button on the toy, causing the music to stop. An elf comes over the intercom, "We're at Elfcon four, all clear!" he announces and we all let out a breath of air.

"Curtis, what do you say we get you a nice set of headphones this Christmas?" Dad asks him. "It's all right, everybody. Let's get back to work."

"Curtis, you're 900 years old. Grow up," Bernard tells him, annoyed.

"Come on, honey," I pull him down from the sleigh and walk after my dad.

"You know, I didn't break any of the rules according to The Santa Handbook," Curtis tells us. Bernard still looks angry so I grab his hand and lace my fingers through his. I'm annoyed too, but it is what it is.

"The handbook! Curtis, do you go pee-pee with that thing?" He teases him, but with a nicer tone than earlier.

"It ways elves are encouraged to listen to music, it makes them more creative, more productive, and more alert," Curtis tells him.

"Yes, but it becomes a problem, when you're listening to music when we're in an Elfcon 1 situation," I snapped a little at Curtis. Hey, Hades kids hold grudges, just because I encourage others to be nice, doesn't mean I always have to be.

"Look out!" Curtis yells. I grab Bernard and my dad and make sure we all duck as one of the baby reindeer comes flying at us.

"Is he alright?" Dad asks as we walk over to where the reindeer crashed.

"He's okay, Santa!" one of the yells back to us.

"Wow, that's gonna leave a mark, ooh," Dad cringes. "Is that blitzen? Looks like Prancer, who is that?"

"It was Chet," I explained to him. "A reindeer in training."

"Oh. Well, please tell me that it's early in his training. Wow, nice fall," Dad complements and makes his way into the workshop.

"Curtis, when are you gonna tell him?" Bernard asks in a whisper so only we can hear.

"Not now!" Curtis whispers back and all three of us ran after my dad into the workshop.