The North Pole Versus Jeho: Part Three; The Battle

Suddenly, from nowhere, a great golden ball shot right past where Santa and I were lying. It sent Jeho and Leopold running, no doubt back to the town of Jeho. Then I felt the net being untied, and I was pulled to my feet. Our saviour helped Santa to his feet as well. It was Mrs Santa.
“I knew those Gold Shoots would come in useful,” she said. “I only came up here to tell you your dinners are getting cold, and what do I find? That nasty goblin’s attempting to kidnap you two.”
“Thanks, Mrs Santa,” I said.
“Don’t mention it, Honey,” she smiled.
We all went back to the workshop, Mrs Santa ranting about the ‘elf’ Leopold. “I found him wandering around outside a few days ago,” she told me. “He told me he was homeless. I felt sorry for him, so brought him inside here, and gave him a job. Wish I hadn’t done now.”
“It’s okay, Darling,” Santa soothed her. “We all make mistakes.”

I spent the night at the North Pole. I was given a large bedroom all to myself. The bedroom was adorned with tinsel of all colours everywhere on the walls. There were a couple of Christmas angels dangling from the ceiling. The bed I slept in was a four poster bed, the quilt, pillows and sheet patterned with snowmen and elves. I slept quite soundly, but I woke in the middle of the night, wondering where I was for a couple of minutes.
At first, I couldn’t understand why I was in a large bed, in a large bedroom. Then I remembered that I was at the North Pole, in the elves’ workshop, and that they were at war with the town of Jeho. After I’d remembered all that, I was aware of a loud din coming from outside.
I got out of bed, and cautiously opened the door. The workshop was in a mess. Elves were running about, being chased by goblins which I presumed to be from Jeho’s town.
There was an elf running towards the bedroom, with a goblin in hot pursuit. I wasn’t sure what to do, I reached over for a pillow, and aimed at the goblin. It hit him square in the face, and he fell. The elf smiled at me gratefully, then ran off to tackle another goblin, who was going after a smaller elf.
I got out of my pyjamas, and got dressed in the clothes I was wearing yesterday, and went to find Santa and Mrs Santa.
I found them in their own bedroom. The goblin leader, Jeho was in there as well. He had the poor Santas tied up. From what I could see, they were unconscious. He turned as I entered the room.
“What are you doing here?” I asked angrily. “How did you get in?”
“Ah, Nicky Atnas, the Chosen One,” he made a gesture with his fingers as he said ‘Chosen One’.
“I’m so glad you’re here. It was so easy to siege this place while you were all sleeping. I came in first, and tied up Santa and his wife first. Then, on my word, my townspeople came in and started to take over here. We’ve caught a few elves already, but there’s still hundreds more!!!”
“But how did you get in?” I asked, my mouth going dry.
“Earlier, when you and Santa came up top to talk to me.”
My heart skipped a beat. “It was when Mrs Santa followed us up!!!”
“Precisely!!! To tell you the truth, I was planning to kidnap you and Santa, to get the whereabouts of the workshop. But we were saved that rigmarole when Mrs Santa followed you up. When she appeared, I just thought it would be easier to let her save you. And I went back to my town, to plan the attack.”
“You’re despicable,” I spat.
“Thank you. I sneaked back down here, when you were still up, wearing the same elf disguise Leopold had been wearing, and slipped sleeping pills into the Santa’s drinks. Then I tied them up. After that, I called for my people, who were hiding nearby.”
As he was saying this, I was getting angrier and angrier. “So what are you going to with the elves, once you’ve got them all?”
Jeho grinned his ugly grin. “Nothing. It just means Christmas won’t happen. Plus it’ll make things easier as well, when I kill Santa and his wife.”
That was it. That was what done it. My anger finally boiled over. I hit out at Jeho, and knocked him unconscious.
Santa had a display of swords on the wall. I picked one off the wall, and chopped of Jeho’s head. That was it, he was dead.
At that precise moment, the Santas woke up. They looked dazed for a moment, then shocked to discover they were tied up, and especially the beheaded body of Jeho on the floor.
I went over, and untied them. Then we all went out to the workshop.
The fighting had stopped. All the elves were stood still, looking around them. The workshop was looking immaculate. The goblins had disappeared. No trace they had ever been there, or that there had been any fighting.
Instead of goblins, there were a great number of creatures; leprechauns, fairies, pixies, and quite a few others.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“You killed Jeho,” a leprechaun said, stepping forward.. “We all live in the Candy Cane Woods. And Jeho turned up one day, declaring he was better than us, because he was a wizard. He took control of our woods, named it after himself, and cast a spell to make us like him. We’ve been living under his tyranny for years. The spell was lifted when you killed him.”
“He’s a goblin though,” I said, confused.
“No, he’s not,” explained a fairy, flying forward. “He human. It’s just that he’s so evil, that it started showing on his looks.”
“So, it was his plan all along,” I gasped. “To take control of your town, and then get rid of Christmas!!!”
The fairy nodded.
“So, hang on a minute, when you all took jobs here, years ago, you’d just arrived in this area.”
“That was a story he made up,” said the leprechaun who had spoken before. “To talk Santa into giving us jobs so he could find this place.”
“So how come he hasn’t attacked this place until tonight?”
The leprechaun looked embarrassed. “Well, it took him so long to think of a plan, he’d forgotten where it was. This time, he thought of the plan, before he tried to find out where you are.”
“And now the evil Jeho is dead, you can all go back to Candy Cane Woods, and live in peace,” Santa said.
“Thank you,” all the magical creatures chorused, and they all started leaving the place.
“Where are all the giants?” I asked.
“What giants?” Santa asked.
“The giants Jeho hired to help him.”
“There aren’t any. Jeho was trying to scare me.”
Then Santa turned to me. “Thank you for what you have done for us, Nicky. We all really appreciate it.”
Santa reached into his pocket, and pulled out a box wrapped in gold wrapping paper, which he handed to me. I opened it, to find a globe inside. Santa, Mrs Santa, and all the elves were inside. When I shook it, they all started waving at me.
“Thank you,” I said.
“And now, it’s time for you to go home. Get the bauble out of your pocket. The door has been activated now you have done your good deed. Thank you, Nicky Atnas, and goodbye!!!”
I took the bauble out of my pocket, and when I looked up, I wasn’t at the North Pole anymore. I was back at the corner shop, by the freezer. The door was open. Time had stood still.
I sighed, and pulled a carton of milk out, and shut the door. Then I wandered over to the till, to pay for the milk.”
“Morning, Mr Perkins,” I said. “How are you today?”
“Oh, it’s sad, Miss Atnas,” he answered. “My poor wife. She passed away this morning.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” I lied, knowing full well that his ‘wife’ was alive and well, at the North Pole. I paid for the milk and left.
“Christ, that’s a new record,” Mum said, when I came home. “You were only gone five minutes. Did you run there and back?”
“Yes,” I answered. “I ran there and back.”