Mr. Claus

Chapter 8

     After what seemed to be an endless back and forth between Mr. Claus and Elmore, Nicholas returned to the cottage. He didn't look at either of the men. "A storm is coming. We'll wait here until it passes." His tone was not one to argue with. Elmore nodded.

Elmore briefly wondered why Nicholas was acting so strange. It took a moment, but Elmore realised that Mr. Claus hadn't just kept the truth from Elmore, he'd also kept it from his son. Nicholas didn't seem to be taking it lightly.

A loud ringing noise sounded through the house, and Mr. Claus slowly pushed himself out of his chair. He walked towards a small oven, and opened it to reveal a small pork roast surrounded by chopped potatoes and carrots. He placed the roast pan in the middle of the table and put a plate in front of himself and the other two men. He cut the roast and served himself, then gestured for the others to do the same. Elmore took a small piece of meat and a few carrots, before handing the serving spoon over to Nicholas. The three men ate in silence.

Nicholas excused himself first. He quickly stood up from the small table and disappeared behind a large wood door. Elmore thanked Mr. Claus for the food, and asked where he would be expected to sleep for the night. The original plan had been to talk, and then head back before the sun set, but the storm that was apparently coming forced them to spend the night. "Follow Nicholas. He knows where he's going. Bring your things, I'll go fetch your reindeer." Elmore wondered if he should volunteer to get the reindeer himself but he remembered that the man had centuries of experience with them.

Behind the door Nicholas had disappeared through, was a small living room, with just one worn looking leather chair in the corner beside a small window with a breathtaking view of the mountains. Elmore saw two more doors from there. After a quick examination, he discovered one was a tiny bathroom, so he opened the other door to reveal a tidy guest bedroom. A giant red and green quilt hung from behind a large bed drowned in comforters. The walls were messily painted a dark grey, and the floor was padded with a plush sheepskin rug. Nicholas was sitting on a leather chair in the far corner of the room, identical to the chairs in Nicholas' office at the workshop.

Elmore paid Nicholas no mind. He had decided to give the man space to process. Elmore sat on the side of the bed furthest from Nicholas and thought about everything he'd learned in the last few hours. He wasn't an elf. That was the largest thought occupying his mind. He supposed it wasn't as shocking to hear as it would have been if it were directed at Fritz or Elliott, who acted exactly how elves did. Elmore tried to think back to his childhood, though he couldn't remember anything from before he started school.

"Why were you so set on taking me to a human orphanage? Why didn't you go along with what your father had planned?" Elmore asked.

Nicholas didn't speak for a moment. "I still believed you could have a human life. I couldn't understand why we would force you into a society where you would be less powerful than everyone else. After you disappeared, thanks to my father, I found human families whose children had gone missing but none looked like you, and even if I had found your family, I couldn't find you."

Elmore recalled the look Nicholas had given his father. Nicholas still seemed to believe Elmore belonged with the humans.

"You think I don't belong here." It wasn't a question, but Elmore's interpretation of the situation.

"I think you would have had a better life if you were raised with your own kind, but you were raised among elves, and you belong just as much as any other elf in the North Pole." Elmore appreciated the words more than he could express. He turned the lamp on his side of the bed off, and shut his eyes. A few minutes later, he felt Nicholas get on the bed and turn to face the opposite way as Elmore. The faint light he could see through his eyelids disappeared, and his mind settled.