This is a work of fiction intended for
mature readers. The characters, events, and dark holiday elements
depicted within are products of the author’s imagination. Any
resemblance to real persons or events is entirely coincidental.
Triggers:
Violence, supernatural elements
Cindy
The civilian locals living around the research station at a certain scientific survey base had always told Dr. Cynthia Emerson that there were...things up on the icefield. And, scientist that she was, she should have dismissed such things as superstition. But something about the way they talked about it...The recordings from the instruments should have been datalinked remotely to the base camp. There should have been no need to physically retrieve the data modules. Venturing out onto the ice in the subzero night was not without its risks.
But the oldtimers on the team told Cindy that beyond a certain point on the road leading up to the icefield, the datalinks had never worked. Every so often, the modules would fill up, and needed to swapped out. When that was necessary, it was decided by lots who would go.
Cindy would have chalked it up to some right of passage for newcomers. But when the senior members talked of - seeing - things out on the ice
Finally, Cindy's turn at doing the data collection came. The rest of the team, in the small bar down by the airfield called out to her to "watch out for the elves" as she step out the door into the darkness.
She shouted back that they should go and pleasure themselves. But as she walked towards a Rover and the sounds of the bar began to fade behind her, she started having doubts as to just how much of a good idea this whole Greenland thing was.
As she drove the Rover up the gravel road towards the field, the meager lights of the airfield and settlement receeding into the distance, Cindy's mind started considering:
What if I SEE something? What do I do?
Stop it. You're a scientist. There are no such things as elves.
And then she rounded a corner, and caught sight of something. SOMEBODY.
A quartet of female teenagers, all wearing heavy cloaks. There was a tall one, dark haired, who was trying to half-carry three other, shorter girls.
Why would four kids be out at this hour, on this road, heading away from town? They're going to freeze to death, the
Cindy brings the land rover to a halt.
The taller girl
"Please, ma'am, my friends and I...we visited the town, but we were too late, and I've got to get them back home, they're gonna freeze if I don't get them back to Vinterland...
What the hell is "Vinterland"?
It was only somewhat warmer inside the rover, but at least they were out of the wind. The girl held her friends tightly.
"Please, guys, I'm so sorry, I should have got us moving before dark, please unfreeze..."
She's delirious, and the three others are hypothermic, I've got to get them back down the hill and to help.
Cindy spun the rover around and floored it, hoping that she wouldn't hit a boulder in the dark.
"No, this is the wrong way..."
"Honey, you're not thinking right. Civilization's down the hill, we can get you help there."
"No, we live...uphill..."
What?
At that moment, in the headlight beams of the rover, a woman appeared. She was blonde, and dressed in some manner of fairy tale outfit. But only for a moment. She suddenly transforms into something else. Something made entirely out of ice.
Cindy managed to break to a stop before hitting the woman. Although something within her said that this entity wouldn't have cared if she had.
The woman then dissapeared from in front of the Rover. Only to reappear just outside the driver's side door.
"WHERE. IS. MY. CHILD?"
The door of the Rover is torn off, without any sign of effort.
Cindy glanced over to see her passengers transform themselves. The larger girl was now...some sort of creature, with leathery green skin, fangs, and piercing aquamarine eyes. Her three friends had turned into...tiny insect people. With butterfly wings, faceted eyes, and ever so dimly GLOWING.
The tall girl called out, in a panic:
"Mom, it's OK! We just got stuck down in the town after dark and I know we weren't supposed to be there and I'm sorry and I was so scared that the guys were going to go into hibernation and this nice lady was just trying to help us-"
"YOU WILL BE DEALT WITH BACK IN THE REALM. YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE IT WITHOUT MUNDANE HELP. BUT FIRST, THIS UNDERTHING NEEDS TO BE PUNISHED FOR INTRUDING. ."
Cindy thinks:
No good deed goes unpunished.
There was suddenly a booming voice, echoing out over the ice. It was female, but sounded...inhuman as well.
"RACHEL."
And something else appeared.
A huge, spindly creature. Easily a hundred feet tall. Backlit by the aurora. Joints bent in ways that didn't seem possible. Blue skin. And hideous red eyes.
Cindy felt her stomach lurch
The thing looked at her - the head was tilted, and the red eyes seemed to look through her.
And then the dread, the wrongness about the thing seemed to dissapear. It still looked the same, but nonthreatening, somehow. There was a smile. And a pronouncement.
"This is a Mundane friend, who was disturbing nothing, and trying to help out the Younglings. She is not to be touched."
The ice woman bowed her head.
"Return your Youngling to the Realm, and do not be overly harsh with her. She learned a lesson, and acquited herself well otherwise."
The ice creature and the young orc dissapeared in a flash of light.
The...remaining entity shrank down to human size, picked up the little...fairies? and placed one over each of her shoulders, holding the third in her arms.
Cindy:
"ThankyouIthoughtIwasdead...so scared, I'm sorry I just wanted to help-"
The entity:
"Ah know, don't worry. Ah'm most grateful for your assistance."
"What...who are you?"
"You want the long version? Ah'm 'Rebecca the Blizzard, of the House of O'Rourke, of the Bookstore and Vinterland, the Fourth Founder, Daughter of Annabelle, Heir to the First Belfana and the Prime Giftgiver. Bane to the False Giftgiver and Eternal Enemy to the Snowstorm."
"But mah friends call me BeGee."
"The orc girl you just helped out was my grandniece, Anya. She and her friends decided to have a little adventure, sneak out of our Realm, and go down to the airfield all Glamourized to watch the planes, maybe even talk to an actual Mundane. They didn't keep track of the time, and the little gals kinda go into a torpor in the dark and cold after a while. Anya was trying to get them all back to Vinterland. Ah was just about to step in, when a kindly Mundane beat me to it!"
"The icebitch you met up with was Anya's mom, my niece. She runs things up here, more or less. Or she thinks she does. Don't worry about her. Deep down, she's passable. Sometimes. Ah didn't always do a very good job with her, ah guess."
"Who...who are these other girls? I don't see how...they don't make any sense, none of this makes any sense..."
"These three? They're her best friends, what we call Realsisters. But they're also the heirs to the Realm next door to ours. Its name sort of translates out to "The Monarchy of Otherville" but we just call it "The Monarchy."
The entity stifles a laugh
"Although my aunt calls it "Bugville."
"Ah always try to keep an eye on these four. Ah saw them leaving the airfield late, and figured they wouldn't make it back before things really got cold. They needed to be taught a lesson about paying attention, but more importantly, ah thought this would be a good bonding experience."
"The Monarchy folks are kinda like Tinkerbell Klingons. Is Star Trek still a thing Down South? Not my fandom but DS9 was pretty good! Anyway! They're real bound up in honor and personal bonds, that sort of thing. "
"Ah figure that we have to keep those personal ties up. One day in the future, when The Glitterbugs here are running the Monarchy, and one of my sister's descendants does something idiotic - which ah'm sure they will, these kids'll remember Anya dragging them through the ice, trying to keep them warm with her body heat. That might be what keeps Vinterland from being overrun by a few billion warrior drones."
"That's the plan, at least! A little Machiavellian, ah know, but ah'm kinda an elf. That's how we think, sometimes!"
"Anyway, ah gotta get these kids back to Bugville, see if ah can keep them out of trouble with their folks, and get back home before dawn, for once! Real nice to meetcha, and thanks so much for stopping for the kids! If ya ever run into trouble out here on the field, just yell "Hey, Kringle" and ah'll be around!"
A jaunty wave, and the entity was gone, leaving Cindy alone, out amongst the Northern Lights.
All she could think:
"What the HELL just happened here?!"