Elfie Ch. 05

On the night that Liam's destiny changed forever, Sarah, the woman who abandoned him for a cheap date that promised a starlet career, sat on a curb outside of a club staring at Liam's number in her phone. For Sarah, things had been going well. Two days before, she had a meeting with a casting director that went better than she could have imagined resulting in the scheduling of a second meeting. His new beau, Kevin, had been incredibly affectionate over the past few days. Her roommates, Jessica and Marti, decided to take Sarah and Kevin out to celebrate with the promise of flowing booze and wild dancing. All leading to her sitting alone in the middle of a crowd of smokers, staring at Liam's name.

During this moment of reflection, a small blip of unhappiness rippled across the world as one Santa stopped and another Santa began. The blip did not affect many people, and most of those who were affected only had a small spat with the person closest to them at the time. But for Sarah, the blip started a chain of events that would ultimately put her on the road to Silverton to salvage a relationship with the last man she believed actually cared about her.

The first thing went wrong behind her in the club where Kevin enjoyed a platonic dance with Jessica. At least, platonic until that moment of unease and unhappiness hit him. With his contentment disturbed, he saw Jessica in a different light and wondered what her mouth tasted like. His own lack of moral fiber took hold of the moment from that point.

The second thing occurred on the other side of the city. The casting agent scheduled with a follow up meeting with Sarah had her own moment of spontaneous displeasure which did little more than make her pause walking up the stairs to her bedroom. During this pause, she shifted her weight, putting her foot at an odd angle for the next step. Resuming her ascent, her foot snagged on the next stair. She tumbled forward, landing hard on her right arm. The bone broke, and her schedule, as well as her good impression of Sarah, cleared as a result.

The third thing would not come to fruition until the reveal of Kevin's infidelity two days later, but like the others it rooted in that moment of discord. While Sarah sat on the curb, Marti stumbled through the crowd looking for a sympathetic ear. Marti's girlfriend had broken up with her the previous week, but, with a few drinks in her, Marti made a valiant effort to reconnect through drunk text messages. The effort failed abysmally, leaving Marti embarrassed, ashamed, and desperate for someone to console her. She spotted Sarah in that moment, but then the blip hit her. She did not see Sarah as a potential consoling friend, but as a self absorbed, ungrateful introvert who had eschewed their company to sit alone on a dirty sidewalk. The thought buried itself in her mind, such that, a few days later when Jessica and Sarah argued over the illicit activities with a cheating boyfriend, Marti sided with Jessica, knowing full well that Jessica had been in the wrong.

With no job prospects, a boyfriend that betrayed her, and roommates that cast her out, Sarah decided to take time to herself. She thought once more of Liam, threw her meager belongings in her car, and started driving toward Silverton. No pure love motivated her, but instead an intense desire to be validated. Sarah knew quite well that she intended to manipulate Liam, to use him up again until her confidence rebuilt itself. But that was her nature, and she did not believe she could deviate from it. She even convinced herself that returning to Liam was a gift to him. He never had it so good as when she deigned to love him. She would allow him the privilege of loving her again, rescue him from his mundane life for a while, and then leave him broken once more.

This cold and heartless intent would ultimately change the world.

***

Elfie led Liam down the ever winding corridors of the Workshop. After the third turn, they arrived at a door. This door did not look like any of the others. Large and made of ancient wood, iron bands bound together it timbers. A tarnished silver ring was bolted into the right side of the door. Elfie pointed at it, and Liam stepped up to pull, the door's hinges groaning as they moved.

Santa and his elf stepped through the door into a wide, open meadow of lush green. Bright starry sky hung overhead, showing constellations that Liam did not recognize. "So what's it called?"

"Doesn't have a special name. We always called this part the Amphitheater, I think," Elfie said. "It's part of Fae like the Workshop. Neutral ground for creatures like us to meet with others. It's used on festival days, but otherwise most things leave it alone. Had you found it before now, you wouldn't have been able to budge the door. Look, the stars are the ones from Fae. Magical pinpricks of light, not all that fancy physical world stuff of the mortal realm. Oberon wanted to show Titania how much he loved her, so he scooped up a hand full of diamonds and threw them into the sky. At the end of each age, the Queen reaches up to the sky and plucks one out to wear on her necklace. One day, she will glitter with all the light of the night sky, but the world of Fae will go dark."

Liam knelt down to feel the grass as he listened. "I guess that's a literal story," he mused. "One way or the other, I'll be there when that happens, right?"

"Yes, Master." Elfie turned away from him, pretending to admire the runes etched on a nearby stone. "But I won't."

Liam rose and went to her, wrapping his arms around her petite form. They settled down onto the grass, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "Tell me what happened to the last Santa. You remember, I know you do. It's come back to you over the past week, hasn't it."

"Yes, but I shouldn't. How would you like me gossiping about you once you've gone?"

"I'd hope that you only have good things to say about me." His hand caressed her face, drawing her into a kiss. "Go on."

"You remember the night it happened. Cold, snowy. I don't know why Santa, the old Santa that is, brought us to Silverton. That Santa was once called Nicholas Gerhardt, but he'd long forgotten that name. You have to understand that mortal minds aren't meant to live that long. Most of his predecessors became more Fae, letting go of the mortal world. Nicholas didn't. I'm not sure he liked being Santa very much. It took a long while for him to understand it, you see. Before he became Santa, he was a holy man of some kind. He wanted the idea of Santa to mold into something that aligned with those beliefs. Still, he tried to use his new magic to bring joy more directly. Nicholas brought in all the ideas of giving gifts every years and things like that.

"But not even Santa can stop the wickedness of men. Nicholas lived through three centuries of horrible human behavior. He blamed himself some, and blamed humans for the rest. That doesn't mean he stopped trying. He just...didn't try as hard. Over the years, he thought up different ways of getting humans to keep the spirit themselves. I think he succeeded in that. Humans call it commercialization, but mortals still make joy in it. Like all those lights on the front of the Workshop. Those make people happy, even if only a little. Anyway, he developed some bad habits. At some point, he used his magic to make candy work on him like alcohol would work on you. Said he didn't like the taste of liquor, but liked candy just fine."

"Oh!" Liam blurted out. "So when he came in that night buying a load of candy canes, he was getting hammered?"

"Yes," Elfie admitted. "I saw you in the shop. He told me to wait outside because he didn't want to confuse you. The fauns and I didn't like to see him getting all that candy, but it meant he'd be in a good mood which meant that...well, you know. He came out, shoved the candy in my hands, then went off with a mouth full of sweets and one of the fauns to have a roll in the snow. Meanwhile, you came out and got in your car. I thought you were handsome. Well, the last me did. I didn't exactly exist yet. You drove off, and I thought we would go home. Instead, Santa wanted to give you a little Christmas spirit. He called up his sleigh, a prop he'd been using for a few hundred years. He loaded us into it and took off.

"I think what he meant to do was get low enough so that you could see him in your car. Then he'd have leaned out, given a big wave, and flown off 'ho, ho, hoing'. But he'd gotten himself drunk. He took two wobbly steps, and the fauns and I watched him fall out of the sleigh. Oh, the faces on those fauns when they realized what had happened. I...I tried to reach out for them, but we'd all started to dissolve already. Then there was me. A brand new Elfie for a brand new Santa. Always the pair of us." She gripped his hand and squeezed.

"Pairs again," Liam said, rubbing at his beard. "Everyone seems to have a pair of some kind. Does Krampus have one? Someone like you?"

"No, master, Krampus isn't human. He's a Fae like me. As far back as I can remember, it's only been Krampus and his satyrs. All of them are Fae, left behind when the doors closed. The King and Queen did not tell me why. Or if they did, I don't remember."

"And you haven't wondered all these years?"

"Of course, I have. But wondering doesn't accomplish much. Krampus seems to go on forever. I get reset every few centuries, but not him. After a while, I gave up trying to keep up and started making sure our half of the bargain got filled."

Liam's eyes scanned around the clearing. He could see nothing in any direction except more grassy plain and starry sky. "Then we better get ready to keep up the tradition. Let's head back and start gathering everyone." He got to his feet and brought Elfie close to him. "I know I can't promise to stay with you forever. But I'm going to try, Elfie. A piece is missing out of all of this. Maybe I can find it."

Elfie didn't respond. She just kissed his hands. Together, they went back through the hole in reality.

***

Liam's house looked like Christmas vomited all over it. Sarah had not expected to find her ex so much in the season. Maybe he found a ton of decorations in his parent's attic and didn't have anything better to do in this small town, she thought. While dating, she'd visited his home with Liam a few times, but that was before she'd been out west. Silverton looked absolutely pathetic by comparison. That is, except for Liam's house. She'd barely seen any decorations back in L.A., but what she had seen paled in comparison to the spectacle of Liam's home. It looked more like it should belong in the center of some grand light festival rather than sitting oddly in the bend of an otherwise empty road.

She shuffled up the pathway between large candy canes to the door. Smoothing out her coat, she decided to open it up a bit and pull down her shirt, to remind Liam of what he was missing while jerking off in this winter wonderland. She knocked and, much to Sarah's surprise, a woman opened the door. Quite the woman opened the door. Sarah blushed as she looked at the biggest set of breasts she'd ever seen, feeling particularly girlish about pulling her shirt down. The woman looked younger than Sarah, but had stark white hair and a pair of gold rimmed glasses. "Um, hi, I was looking for Liam's hou—"

"Oh you must be Sarah!" Emily said. "Come in, come in. We weren't expecting you, of course, er, but Liam has told us a good deal about you." Emily ushered her in the door and then stood awkwardly beside Sarah, gesturing at a perfectly normal appearing parlor that, as far as Sarah remembered, was the parlor meant to be in Liam's house. "Can I take your coat?"

Sarah wriggled out of the heavy garment, looking more closely at the room. Parts of it were blurry and everything smelled strongly of cedar, as if a massive Christmas tree stood right in the center of it all, but she couldn't see it. "I'm sorry, you seem to know me, but I don't know you. Are you Liam's...girlfriend?" She'd weighed the idea of sister or cousin, but the girl looked nothing like Liam.

"No, I'm more of his housekeeper. Go on then, have a seat. We're a bit busy at the moment, but I think I can get Liam in to speak with you. Just wait right there. And don't wander off." Emily disappeared down a corridor, fascinating Sarah with the swaying of her massive ass.

"Odd woman," Sarah murmured to herself. The whole house put her off. She'd not expected to find anything more than a lonely, dark building from which she could rescue Liam. Instead, a gorgeous, possibly pregnant, and brilliantly cheerful woman answered the door. Maybe he bought a prostitute, she thought. No, he wouldn't be ballsy enough to do that, especially not a pregnant one. Maybe it was some local chick fleecing him in the same way Sarah hoped to do. She worried that it wouldn't be a fair competition with her meager proportions. Still, she took her moment of privacy to doll up a little more, painfully pulling her breasts around in her bra to show them off as best she could. From the hallway where Emily had gone she heard excited voices, a door slam, and then the thumping of boots on wood. Liam emerged.

Sarah's mouth hung open in full shock. She'd cheated on a flabby gutted, half depressed twenty-three year old. The man standing opposite her was none of that. He even looked taller, a lot taller. Built like a swimmer who started lifting weights fanatically, and showing off a white, cropped beard below white hair. "What the fuck?" she said.

Liam smiled broadly. "Sarah, what brings you here?"

She hated him instantly. Whatever he'd done, however he'd cheated life to become this, she hated him for it. She hated him for making her feel small. She hated him most for seeming to genuinely care about her with absolutely no intent on being beholden to her. Her voice cracked and caught in her throat. "I thought we could talk. I don't like how things ended between us."

"Neither do I," he said. "But I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time."

"Liam, what the hell is going on? How do you look like that? Who was Tits McGee that answered the door? Are there other people back there? Also, since when —"

He sat down on the couch next to her, his looming presence drawing her silent. He put his hand on her knee and peered into her eyes with uncomfortable clarity. "I know it's a lot. I have an entirely plausible explanation for everything, but I can't explain it now. I have a meeting that I can't miss, not even for you. You're welcome to wait. There's no where else for you to go in town, unfortunately. I can have someone bring you a meal or something to drink. I'm not sure how long I'll be gone, though."

"You think I came all this way to have a fucking sandwich? You want me to sit here waiting for you for god knows how long?" She wanted to storm out, but he was right. She couldn't drive all the way back to L.A., not yet. The nearest hotel was two hours away. She jerked her knee away from his hand.

Liam's face fell. "I want for you to not be hurt any more, Sarah. I think I can help with that, but not right now. So wait, or don't. It's up to you."

She watched him get up and leave. Just walked right away, as if she were a door to door salesman left sitting dumbly on the couch. Sarah wanted to cry, but it would only help if he saw her do it. And Liam had already gone.

***

"How did it go?" Elfie asked, standing beside the great wooden door.

"As well as could be expected," Liam said. "She's nearly broken, and my little scheduling conflict might have made it worse. I've seen some weak and injured hearts with this magical insight stuff, but seeing Sarah like that was something else. No joy or anything in her. Do people like that ever turn around?"

Elfie shrugged, "It's not your fault, Master. Humans are complicated and messy. You've found a lot of good-hearted ones for our family. They're all waiting inside, ready to perform at the festival for you and all of humanity. Focus on that."

"Ok, but after this, Sarah is the first person we fix. We might have to do it one at a time, but I'm not going to turn into what Nicholas was. Come on."

Together, they walked back into the green glade of the Amphitheater. The other elves, Sam and Kelly, and Emily waited on the other side. The elves continually looked around as though they might see Krampus creeping across the starlit plain. Sam and Kelly held each others hands, squatting down on their haunches and looking alert. Emily walked over to Liam and Elfie as they entered. "So how'd that go?"

Liam shook his head, "Talk about it after. I'm going to ramp up the aura a little to chill everyone out. They all look a little spooked."

Elfie shivered as the wave of energy radiated out from Liam. She saw the elves relax, each pair's hands starting to grope one another. "Careful, Master, or you'll get the party started a little early."

As if in response, on the opposite side of the meadow, a door started to open. Liam had seen many surreal things in the past few days, but nothing quite like seeing a hole cut in reality. From what he could discern over the distance, it opened into a stone hallway lit by torchlight rather than electric bulbs like the Workshop. From this doorway in reality, Krampus emerged. The other Fae looked similar to what Liam expected, except much larger.

Krampus's hooves left deep divots in the ground as he walked. The top of his head was eight feet from the bottom of his hooves, but his horns stretched another two feet above that, curving to sinister points above his scalp. A shaggy mane of black, well-kept hair framed an angular face with a blunt nose, wide golden eyes, and a wide mouth beset with sharp teeth and a long, forked tongue. His skin gleamed in the starlight, a pale blue color on the face and torso that darkened into near black at his naval. His muscular chest bore no hair, but a thick pelt developed at his waist, covering his thighs and legs in hair. He wore nothing to conceal his cock. Liam did not know a creature could exist with a dick bigger than his own, but Krampus's hung down at least fifteen inches, flat at the tip like that of an equine. A wispy, long tail flicked behind him as he stalked across the Amphitheater, his eyes full of wonder and eagerness.

Behind him came the satyrs, a dozen of them all of similar shape and different coloring. They looked small beside their master, but most of them were at least six foot or more. The males had thicker hair across their chests and down their backs before turning into shaggy curls down their legs. They clearly had their own excitement building at the sight of the elves as many of their cocks were already swelling to sizable lengths. Like their master, they had horns curving out of their heads, but none were as prodigious as Krampus's. The females had heavy breasts clear of any fur or hair. Their entire underbellies were bare, but their backsides were covered in short curls. Of the six females, five had rings through their nipples. The sixth bore a ring through her nose. Their faces were not blunted like Krampus's, nor were they muzzled like Sam or Kelly, falling somewhere between the two for an unearthly shape that Liam could not deny as beautiful in its way. All of the satyrs remained clustered around their master as they approached the midpoint between the two magical doors.

Liam walked out to meet them with his closest four gathered around him. He knew he no longer needed to stoke their libidos with his magic. The elves were all ready to frenzy, and Emily had started leaking milk while gazing at the various shapes of the satyr cocks. As they approached, Krampus brought a clawed hand up to stroke his chin in mock contemplation. "Santa, you look different?"

"New Santa," Liam answered. "I've come to honor the festival. Uh, Elfie am I supposed to say something specific here?"