Elfie Ch. 01

Liam leaned on the counter as he watched the clock roll slowly toward ten. This had become a nightly ritual since his second day on the job. He watched the clock and reenacted all the events in his life that led him to being the closing clerk at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. It hadn't meant to work out like that, of course. Liam had started to wonder if anyone's life ever worked out the way it was meant to. He thought not.

He was meant to move to Los Angeles. Liam didn't have much luck with college, but he did somehow manage to find Sarah. They'd dated for a year before she moved to L.A. and left him behind. As his own prospects started drying up, they discussed the idea of moving in together. Liam packed up his small collection of belongings and hit the road, ready to take the plunge with Sarah. Halfway across the country, Sarah changed her mind. She changed it so thoroughly that she advised Liam to turn back. She didn't know why she'd agreed in the first place. They'd changed too much while they were apart. She was seeing someone else, someone who would help her career. Liam had listened to her prattling on the phone while numbness crept through him.

It wasn't the loss of Sarah that made him feel confined. It was the loss of direction. Growing up, he'd wondered how people wound up going nowhere in their lives. But then, on his way back to his small home town, Liam understood. His parents were gone. He'd never made many friends. Those he did had moved on with their lives. He had no job, no schooling, and no real ambition. All his possessions fit in a twelve year old Honda. He had his inherited childhood home and about three grand in the bank. While Sarah's voice on the phone explained the fundamental difference between Liam's aura and her own, he'd made his peace with becoming another bug stuck in the flypaper of small town America. Silverton was as good a place as any, he figured. It hadn't been a bad place to live for his first eighteen years. No reason it shouldn't be fine for the back sixty. The local shop had a help wanted sign waiting for him when he got back to town, the perfect place for him to be miserable.

The bell above the door rang, and Liam sighed. No one passed this way except for the people who lived in Silverton. Those people should know by now that the shop closes at 10:00, but that rarely stopped them from coming in with five minutes left on the clock to ensure Liam had to suffer to the very last moment. Liam looked from the clock to the man brushing snow off his shoulders. Not a local after all, at least not one Liam had seen since he'd been back.

The man looked like a body builder stuffed into a red sweater and green slacks. He had a close cut white beard and curly white hair that rolled down to his shoulders. The red in his face worried Liam. The last thing he wanted was a belligerent drunk demanding another sixer of beer. Not to mention the drunk driving worry, but Liam hadn't seen a car or heard a motorcycle in the lot. He didn't know how the man could walk to the shop in the pitch black, snowy evening, but as long as he didn't actually see the man trying to drive there wasn't much he could do. Liam straitened up to watch him, silently hoping the man would turn around and leave quickly.

Instead of beer, the man went to the candy aisle. He gathered as much as he could carry, brought it over, and dropped the armful of sugary sweets on the counter. "Oo! Candy canes, my favorite," the man said as he noticed the display beside the counter. He gather six boxes and added them to the pile.

Stoned out of his mind, Liam thought as he started ringing up the different baggies of gummies, sweet tarts, and a few chocolate bars. The man watched him work with a dumb grin on his face. A strong smell of cedar wafted off of the stranger. Cedar and chocolate chip cookies, Liam thought. He piled all the candy into plastic bags, said the total, and took the man's cash. Liam paused to look at the crisp bills. They were the old kind with the small portraits. He hadn't seen any like them since he was a kid.

"Don't worry about the change," the man said. "And Merry Christmas." A laugh sort of rumbled through the man as he gathered the bags and headed out the door.

Liam followed him, intending to lock the door behind him. It also gave him the opportunity to watch where the man went, but, by the time Liam walked around the counter o the door, the man had vanished from the lot. No sign of tracks in the snow, though it did seem like a few deer had drifted by at some point. Liam flipped the OPEN sign switch. The neon fizzled into darkness. He put the man out of his mind and went about tidying up the store.

***

"Why don't we have a shed for employee parking," Liam grumbled as he raked snow off his windshield. He usually killed time when the store was empty by coming out and cleaning the car off. Made it easier at the end of the night. Today, for whatever reason, he'd forgotten. And so, after locking up he had to spend an extra fifteen minutes out in the freezing cold clearing enough of his windshield to get home. His house wasn't far away by Silverton standards. Most people lived out in the county, but his parents had built their house right at the edge of the city limits. Thus far in December, Liam had likened himself to Ebeneezer Scrooge going home to a dark and unlit house, squirreling himself away in the upper room to have a meager meal before cursing the entire town and going to a sleep of fitful dreams. So, it was a stretch to say that Liam looked forward to being home, but it was the best available alternative to standing at work or out in the snow.

Finally in the car, he sat for a while with his fingers held in front of the vents, relishing the warmth on his trembling hands. He threw the car into reverse, backed out of the lot with one last spiteful glare toward his necessary source of income, and then pulled out onto the dark road that would take him home. Christmas music played on the radio as he drove. It was the only station within range that wasn't country or some deranged preacher talking non stop about the end of days. Despite his continual foul mood, the old standards of the season remained catchy. Before long, he was drumming his fingers on the wheel to the tune of "Rocking around the Christmas Tree."

Ten minutes after he left work, Liam came to a clear stretch of the highway that ran between two open, fallow fields. The road had a thin layer of snow, but he had years of experience navigating snowy roads. He also very much wanted to be somewhere warmer, so he kept a quick speed. His finger drumming had evolved into a quiet singing. The thin beams of his Honda lit the road right in front of him, but otherwise the world was dark, the moonlight blocked by the snowclouds overhead. Still, Liam noticed something above him in the sky. Perhaps, he didn't see it so much as sensed it. Something drew his attention to the sky above him, and he saw several spots of faint, gleaming metal following him overhead. He leaned forward over the steering wheel, straining to get a better look at the peculiar lights and shadow. Could it be a low flying plane? Or an enormous animal of some kind?

His thoughts cut off as he saw something falling. A shape tumbled through the air end over end, getting larger as it fell closer. Liam's brain locked up. He didn't know what to do. Slamming on the breaks would case him to skid in the snow. Continuing on would surely result in a collision with the falling object. His heart thudded in his ears as seconds ticked by. He moved his foot to the brake and pressed down. The car lurched. Liam's body shifted forward, the seat belt pulling hard against his neck. The back side of the car started to swivel. I'm going to flip," he thought, but he kept his eyes on the object. In the next second, it slammed into the snow. The car kept moving and now the fallen object was directly in his path. Liam turned the wheel against the inertia of the swerving back half. His body jerked in the opposite direction, but the effort succeeded. The wheels gripped the road again. The car skidded to a stop only a few inches from the thing from the sky.

Liam's hands clutched the wheel, turned white from the pressure. He pried them off while his eyes remained fixed on the dent in the snow. Climbing out of the car, he first looked up to see if that shape in the sky remained, but it had vanished. He looked in either direction, hoping he would be lucky enough to have another car come along to help him make sense of the situation. Dread addling his senses, he started to walk toward the thing blocking the road.

The thing was the man from the shop. The large man with the white beard that smelled of cedar and chocolate had just fallen out of the sky. Liam looked up again as if the new information might suddenly make everything resolve into a logical explanation. It didn't. But it did help his brain to start moving again. He bent down to check on the man, but did not see any visible injuries. Instead, he saw a thinness. In the shop, the man had been very solid, but now Liam had the impression that if he tried, he could reach right through the man's body.

The man's eyes opened, looked around for a moment, then down toward his own body, and then right at Liam. "Seems I've run my course," he said before lapsing into that deep, rumbling chuckle. "Too many sweets. Shouldn't have been out driving. Where's Elfie? She's always...oh, oh right. There'll be a new Elfie. Looks like it's you, Liam. Don't worry about me. You'll understand one day." As the man spoke, he began to fade. Liam watched a full sized man that had fallen out of the sky vanish into snow flurries. They drifted down and joined the others.

Astounded, Liam's hand shoved into the empty air where the man had been. He looked around wildly, expecting to see the stranger standing nearby, having pulled some kind of sleight of hand. Instead, he saw a woman standing a few feet away. A naked woman, in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night, in the freezing snow. "What the fuck," Liam whispered.

"Hi! I'm Elfie."

***

"What the fuck is happening?" Liam scrambled up and backed away from the woman. She was gorgeous. Petite, with sizable breasts and plump hips. Golden blond curls covered the top of her head. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back, attentive, and visibly excited.

"I'm Elfie," she said again.

"Why are you naked? Where the hell did that guy go? How did you even get here?"

"I am naked because you haven't fully formed your idea of me yet. The former Santa has, tragically, joined the Elfwind. I arrived here because each Santa has an Elfie, and I am yours."

"Santa? Santa Claus? The made up guy in the big red suit that delivers presents?"

"Mostly, yes, but I can see that you're cold. It will take some time before you're ready to manifest. I also don't think this is the best place for that to happen. We should go to your dwelling. Is this it?" She gestured to his car.

"No, what? I have a house, but I can't take —"

"Oh, a house will be much more useful. This small thing will not due for the manifestation. Apologies, Master, but it takes a while for the transference to complete. Until then, I will not understand many of this worlds customs. I think though, that you expect my body to be covered, much like yours. If you would, please picture what Santa's Elfie should look like."

The suggestion immediately put an idea into Liam's head. He saw a short green tunic that lengthened into a skirt, green striped leggings, curled toed shoes, and a conical green hat. As the images came into his mind, they appeared on Elfie's body. Within seconds, she was dressed like a mall Santa's elf, though the tunic struggled to contain her ample chest, and the skirt barely covered her bottom. Liam's mouth hung wide open, "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Don't do that, Master. Instead, think of your home. Then, touch your finger to your nose and close your eyes. Like this." She mimed the gesture, then waited.

This can't get any weirder. Maybe its a dream. Maybe I had a wreck and hit my head on the steering wheel. At least this is a fun way to freeze to death. He thought about his house, gloomy and dark. He wrenched his eyes shut, hoping that when he opened them he'd be back in his car and relatively unharmed. As his finger came up toward his nose, the world lurched underneath him, feeling very similar to how he'd been tossed from side to side in the car. The cold went away, and with it went the sound of the wind and falling snow. He opened his eyes.

He was in his house. The lights were off, and it wasn't very warm. The only way he could see anything was by the glow of various LEDs from power strips and appliances. In disbelief, his hand fumbled out to grab the nearest thing, a bobble-head sitting on his desk. It was his bedroom, and he wasn't alone. Elfie stood at the doorway, the exact distance away from him that she'd been out in the road. Her head rolled around to look at all the odd things in the room. She smiled at Liam. He again felt the need to throw up. The blood rushed out of his head, and the world went black.

***

"Master? I've taken some liberties in the operation of your home."

Liam's eyes fluttered open. He had been moved to his bed. His jacket hung from the doorknob, and his shoes had been removed. Elfie sat on the bed beside him, her warm hands resting on his. Liam closed his eyes and opened them again. She remained. At that point, Liam's mind clicked into place and began accepting things for what they were. A magical naked woman had appeared beside him on the road after a different magic man, supposedly Santa, had fallen out of the sky before turning into snow. The magical woman had then created clothes out of thin air and somehow teleported Liam to his own house where he had then passed out. From this Liam had discerned his first question, "What about my car?"

"Oh good, you're awake. Your car came with you when you brought us here. The magic is pretty clever when you start out. Keeps you from whooshing us into the sun, things like that. It has a way of taking your intent and resolving it into the rules of the world. I assume people would have had questions if they found an abandoned car in the middle of the road, so your intent put the car where it is meant to be. I think in your garage, which is a word I've just learned. Or relearned maybe." Elfie talked fast. She had a peculiar sparkle in her eye that gave off an infectious excitement.

Liam sat up, suddenly aware that an incredibly attractive woman was sitting very close to him in bed. A woman who he'd already seen naked and was very eager to do so again, under the right circumstances, which the current circumstances seemed very far from. "Who are you? I know your name, but that doesn't explain anything. Explain to me what's happening."

"Gladly, Master. I am Elfie, the first Elf. That is what I was called when I was first given to mankind. Well, technically I was called Aulfwei in, well, you'd say proto-Celtic. That's beside point. Now it's Elfie. I am a Fae spirit that is reincarnated each time I receive a new Master. I was given to men as one of several parting gifts when the doors of Fae closed. My spirit binds to a person selected by the previous owner, and they become my new Master, inheriting all of the powers bound to me. Over time, this person and I have become ingrained in human myth. The age of magic died, and yet many of the Fae-bound remained in this world, then becoming assigned to religion, myth, or legend."

Her words formed a buzzing in Liam's head. "You're a fairy?"

"Of a sort, yes," she said with a chipper bop of her head. "I do not have wings, but I can if you'd like me to."

"You were naked earlier, and then you had clothes. Why?"

Elfie frowned. "I didn't think it would be this hard at first," she said. "You don't seem to understand anything. I was hoping we could get to the manifestation quickly, so I appeared naked in the female form which is what I best guessed would be the shape that inspired you. My head gets much less fuzzy once the manifestation is complete."

"You keep talking about that, the manifestation. What is it?"

Elfie smiled and nudged herself closer to him in the bed. "You and I will fuck."

Liam's breath caught in his throat and sent him into a coughing fit. Elfie was the most gorgeous thing he'd ever seen. Even in his shock, he'd been aware enough to see her amazing figure. The idea of her wanting to sleep with him was far and away the most incredible thing that had happened to him. "Why? I mean, I'm flattered, but that's not exactly something that you do with someone you just met."

She frowned, then stood up. Her elf suit began to crystallize, turning from green to white as it became snow. An impossible wind blew it off of her body, the snow fizzling into nothingness while Liam watched. She once again stood in front of him completely naked. She brought her hands up to her breasts and hefted them up. "Are these not to your liking? They can be bigger." As she said it, her flesh wobbled and grew. Liam's head had long stopped trying to figure out what was going on, but his cock certainly understood. He started to get hard the second she was naked, but her breasts growing in her hands, spilling over her fingers, made him painfully erect.

"Wait, wait!" he said, desperately clinging to his sanity. "I definitely want to fuck you. But that doesn't explain why you want me to. Or really what the manifestation is. I get that you're a fairy and that I'm in way out of my depth, but I can't sleep with you unless I understand what's happening."

"Ohhhhh! I left out the most important part. The manifestation is how you become Fae-bound In our case, you will become Santa, and I'll be your Elfie."

"Become Santa? Like grow a white beard and get a big belly?"

Elfie shook her head. "Fae have a particular... interest, let's say...in humans. We like sex. A lot. So Fae-bound tend to be very...sexy, of course. Since I'm bound to you, I get to make you how I want. Everything else is up to you, but I don't think anyone of your predecessors has been a disappointment to any of my predecessors. You saw the last Santa. You'll be like him, not like that picture in your head."

He'd been thinking about the Santa from a Coca-Cola commercial. "How'd you know what I was thinking? Can you read my mind?"

"Sort of. If you picture something in your head, I can see that. But I can't tell what you're actually thinking. And it won't work very well until the manifestation."

Liam started to ask another question, but stopped. Her answers didn't make much sense in the way he wanted to view the world. Magic didn't exist, for starters. Yet everything that had happened in the past hour had been magical. She made her tits grow. If that's not magic, then what is? So, that brings us down to a question. Do I want this manifestation thing to happen or not? She says I'll change. Become buff, Brawny man Santa like that other guy. Maybe immortal unless I fall out of the sky. Maybe I have to deliver presents and live at the North Pole. I have so many questions. Elfie remained in her position, hands holding up her oversized breasts as her thumbs idly flicked at her nipples. She had a neatly trimmed triangle of golden hair above her pussy, and her lips were glistening with wetness. What have I got to lose? The initial thought was rhetorical, but it brought up a real question. "What happens if I say no?"

Elfie frowned. Her breasts seemed to shrink slightly. "Then Krampus would win, I suppose."

"Oh for fuck's sake, Krampus is real too? The demon opposite of Santa that punishes people instead of giving them gifts?"