Ticking Candy Heart

Chapter 3: Bernard

I exit out of the door to the toy shop and down the hall. Immediately the smell of sugar, peppermint, and vanilla hits my nose.

I would say I hate sweets but hate is a strong word, I'm just tired of the smell and taste. If you were an immortal being that was incharge of a holiday with cookies, pudding, and peppermint sent filling up in your nose and tastebuds you would get tired of it too. But with me, I have to deal with it because of the south wing of this factory and who runs it.

I finally make it to the big doors of the South wing. You see, there is me, Bernard the head elf but being head elf means I run everything. But that was until Miss. Bonbon joined. Her actual name is Missy but she likes being called Bonbon because it was her favorite sweet. Because of her arrival the North Pole has two sections, factory and bakery; the north wing was toy making, sleigh fixing, and taking care of Santa's suit. The south side was baking and taking care of the reindeer. Missy and I have been close, in her eyes were friends but in mine we're just buisness partners.

I can already hear that womans sweet, angelic french accent in my head already. I put my hands on the golden twisted handles. Preparing myself for the overwhelming smell of the sweets and the heat of the stoves. This will be quick, I hope.

I push the doors open, looking at everything in that room in search of Miss. Bonbon. The room was filled with elves all in white in front of ovens, stoves, pots, and all other things that make a kitchen, it was warm and cozy but smelled like what you would imagine candy land. I saw an elf with a bowl of cookie batter and another one with a bag full of sugar.

"Hey you two." They look up at me and stop walking. "Y'know where Bonbon is?" The elf with the sugar spoke out first. "You mean Miss. Bonbon?" I roll my eyes. "Yeah her, where is she?" The cookie batter elf points at the other side of the south wing. I excuse the elves and they leave.

I see her near some big bronze bowl. She noticed me and the biggest smile on her face appeard, she ran to me with her curly blonce hair boucing under her red bandana.

"Bern! Oh it's amazing to see you again!" I look down at her, I may have been short from being an elf but she was up to my shoulder, perks of being a decade older, but that's in normal years, in elf years I'm a year older. "Now, what do you want?" She wants me to taste something. "I need your opinion." Bingo.

"Again? Missy this is the second time this week." I watch her silver freckled face go a tint of pink, especially the tip of her nose. "I- really? Wow, but that's not the point. I need this new batch of batter that we made." She grabs my hand and we walk toward a the bronze bowl I saw her at, from the smell I can tell it was some type of cookie batter, maybe sugar cookies. "How is everything at North?" She asks me while telling an elf to give some hot chocolate to another elf named Judy so she can give it around.

"Eh, the same. But we got a new Santa." After I said that she looks at me with excitment. "Really!? Yes! Oh my holly this is amazing!" I can understand her excitement. The old Santa was too greedy to even be one, if he wasn't going to retire anytime soon I would've made it happen. "Is he here? Now?" I nod, her happiness grows and so does the smile I have that I didn't notice. Even after a thousand years seeing her smile like that makes me feel more positve about this. But as head elf I still had to keep my guard up and my buisness act on.

"But there's a slight problem," Her smile goes away and looks at me focused. "I don't think this guy belives in the spirit of christmas and if he doesn't believe we got no christmas." I lean on a counter with my arms crossed. "He saw this place correct?" She asked, I nod. Her eyebrows furrow as she thinks. Then she gets a face, that face. "Oh no. Oh no no no we are not doing that!" She wouldn't.

"We'll go to the real world and help him believe!" She would and did. "Missy we can't do that anymore, sure we did it in the 1800s but we can't do that anymore. It's too risky." I stood up straight and look down at her with my hat tipping forward. "Oh come on you used to love it." I hate it when she's right, I only liked it when she was around because she can keep me company. We continued to argue about this, but after giving good examples I give in.

"Okay fine, we'll go but only once a month." She smiles cheekily. "Make that two times." I couldn't help but smile too. "Deal." We shake on it but she pulls me down and grabs my hat to fix it. "You always gotta do this?" I chuckle out. "Yes, it'll fall off if I don't." After fixing the hat she lets me go. No one touches my hat and she knows that, but she also knows I let her do it anyway. "I gotta head back to north, but after new years we'll go help him." I walk away. "Wait Bern! What about the batter?"

"Get a diffrent elf for that, Bonbon."