Elves' Tale: A Christmas Romance

"Oh, oh, ohmigod, Daphne, don't stop, oh," I moaned. As her fingers danced over my mound, successive waves of bliss crashed through me. Every sense became more intense, and more focused on my core, and each time I came, sensation radiated along my body to the furthest parts. I felt as though I were a clock being very tightly wound, and then rapidly spinning out. Finally, I could take no more. I rolled off her and then pulled her tightly into me pressing my lips into hers, and exploring her mouth with my tongue.

I've already tried and failed to describe how beautiful she is. As we lay together, I wanted to explore every millimeter of her body. I began planting kisses on her body. I started behind her ear, trailing my lips downwards to the perfection of her throat, burying my face in the hollow where her throat joined her chest. At the same time, my hand had a mind of its own, wandering down to her side, drawing lazy circles and then resting itself on her hip. Eventually, I worked up my courage and rewarded myself with attention to her breasts. Planting little kisses on them, licking the gentle curves, and finally taking her beautiful nipples into my mouth, teasing them erect with my tongue. As I ministered to her breasts, Daphne's excitement reached a fever pitch.

"Please baby, please I need more," she moaned.

Reaching down, I brought my hand to her secret place. Daphne eagerly spread herself, granting me access to her treasure. Slowly, I inserted a finger into her, coating it with her slickness, and then rubbing the moisture over her hooded clitoris. Soon, she was arching her back, trying to thrust her hips up, trying to force a more solid contact with her pleasure. Slowly, I rubbed the outside of her, feeling the slickness of her shaved mound and its heat.

"Please Emily, please. Please, I need you inside me," she cried. Adjusting my position, I slowly worked two fingers into her womanhood. As I did so, she let out a deep sigh of satisfaction.

"So good baby, so good," she moaned. Slowly at first, and then with increasing speed, I plunged my fingers in and out of her. As I held her in my arms, she began calling out my name.

"Oh, Emily, Emily. Oh, oh, ohmigod. Emily, I'm coming. Please Emily, please kiss me love." I covered her mouth with mine as she rode out her pleasure. Wave after wave tore through her, and I could feel her tightness trapping my fingers, and the hot slickness of her as they worked frantically deeper into her. Finally, she sagged limply into the bed. Idly, I continued to work my fingers gently in and out of her moistness. Opening her eyes, reached down, took my hand, and placed it on her breast. Then, she closed her eyes, and leaned in for another kiss.

I don't remember exactly, but soon we drifted off to sleep. I remember making love with her one more time in the night. It was slower, and more sensual. While it lacked the astonishing fireworks of our first time, it was more intimate and impossibly, I felt even more connected to her emotionally.

In the morning, I woke up to her laying on her side. She had a hand on my hip and she was looking at me intently.

"Emily," she started when she saw I was awake, "I can't tell you how wonderful last night was. I've been dreaming of you for weeks it seems."

"Well, I hope the reality lived up to the expectation."

"Emily, I," and then she trailed off.

I brought my finger to her lip.

"Please, let me say something first," I said. "I'm in love with you. I've been in love with you I think since the moment I first saw you."

"I think I fell in love with you when you were holding me in the bathroom. I realized then that I wanted you to never stop holding me." She sobbed happily. Joyous tears rolled down her face, and her complexion started to get blotchy, and she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

**

The morning after we first made love, I was grading papers on my free session when a delivery guy brought in a dozen roses. Where I'd been levitating through the halls all day long, the gift of the flowers had me floating on the ceiling. One of the older, married teachers took one look at me and said:

"You've got it bad. Who's the lucky guy?" she asked.

"Her name's Daphne, and you have no idea how wonderful she is," I said absently, still staring at the flowers.

"Congratulations, she must be very special."

Over the next few weeks, Daphne and I were almost inseparable. We would work at the mall, and then stop somewhere for dinner afterwards, and then go to her place and make love. I don't know how I was doing it. Finally, a week before Christmas, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Daphne love, I adore you, but I need a day away from you."

"Are we OK? I'm not smothering you am I? It's alright..."

"Baby," I began, "we are fabulous. I need to do some laundry, and my cat is turning into a passive/aggressive nightmare, and I need to wash my hair, and I need to take a bath... Can I see you Monday?" I asked.

"I'll have to check my calendar." Reaching down into her purse, she brought out her planner and opened it. Looking up, she looked seriously at me and said, "No, I can see nothing more important than you for the rest of my life."

**

The next day, I was working on laundry, and sitting with my clean hair in a towel when my phone buzzed and started playing a Jingle Bells ringtone. I thought it was kind of weird. I didn't remember ever setting that tone. When I looked at the message it was from Mr. Norling.

"Emily, are you free today? I'd like to meet you for coffee -- Chris Norling," the message said.

I didn't remember giving him my number, but maybe he'd gotten it from Ms. Larsson. I thought about begging off, but decided that I would go. I texted him back that I was free in 30 minutes, and he asked me to meet him at the coffee shop across from my apartment.

When I walked in, I was again struck by how much Chris looked like the Santa in my annual dreams.

As if he were reading my mind, he looked at me and said: "I'm sorry the Christmas dream was earlier than usual this year."

"How do you know about my dreams?" I asked, startled. "I've never told anyone about them."

"Ahh, well, now I have to make a little confession. Do you remember your dream?"

I nodded my head yes at him.

"Well then, you remember the first time you and I met?"

A strange sense of unreality took a hold of me. "I'm not sure..."

"Your dream is really your memory of our first meeting," he said.

"Then you're really Santa Claus?" I whispered.

"Yes, Emily, I really am Santa Claus. As I told you when we first met that if you could keep the love in your heart. I'm really so happy to say that you have. You are truly a most delightful woman."

"But, why are you here? No offense, but I'm seeing someone else," I said dumbly.

"Oh, my heavens no, I'm not here for personal reasons," he said, embarrassed.

Looking across the table, he took my hands in his and started out his pitch.

"Emily, I have a job opening and I would very much like for you to be the person to fill it. After the first of the year, I'm branching out. I'm going to be opening an adoption agency here in the city, and I'd like you to head it up."

"But I don't know anything about it," I said. "There must be a million laws regarding that."

"Oh, my dear, I have people to handle that part. What I want is for you to handle interviewing potential adoptive parents. You see, I'm very committed that none of the adoptions through our agency should fail. We're going to be placing abused and neglected children and I would be terribly distressed if they suffered further trauma because of my doing."

"But how can I do this? I'm not really an expert on people? Shouldn't they be given psychological exams or something?"

"Well," he laughed, "that might work, but I have another idea. You see, you could use magic to look into their hearts. It really is much simpler.

"Uhh, there's only one flaw in your plan. I don't have any magic."

"Oh, my dear, you have much more magic than you realize. However, I've left out the price you would pay for coming to work for me," he said sadly.

"What is the price?"

"You would be transformed into an elf. As an elf, your part in human society will be decreased. Once you become an elf, you will be able to use the magic that's bound into your heart. Humans will still see you as one of their kind, but the fae folk, the elves and fairies and such, would know you. As an elf, you will be immortal as long as you wish to be."

"Immortal?"

"For as long as you wish to be. It's not a curse. If eternal life becomes too great a burden for you at some point, you can lay it down."

I sat in the booth, looking at Santa, and the people around me.

"About this immortality thing. I have a question."

"By all means, ask away my dear."

"If I had a broken leg when I was made immortal, would the leg be healed?"

"Really Emily, that is a very strange question, but to answer it, when you become transformed, you would be made whole. You would not have an immortal life of infirmity."

"I have another question," I continued, "what if the injury were much older, would it too be healed?"

"Ahh, I think I see where this is going," he said glumly. "To answer your question, if Daphne were made immortal, she would be restored."

"Can you," I choked. "Can you also transform Daphne? She's a social worker, she would be very valuable." Tears were running down my face, and people were giving questioning looks at Mr. Norling.

"I'm sorry my dear, my magic is limited. I can only transform one person."

"Would you please choose Daphne," I sniffled.

"My child, your love for others is heartbreaking," he whispered. "I will speak with Daphne. I must ask you not to speak with each other about this. It must be a decision you reach individually," he warned.

Before he left, he gave me one backward glance.

"Emily, if it were within my power to transform you both, would you come to work for me?"

Tears brimming in my eyes, I nodded yes.

**

Santa

I was weary when I left the coffee shop. In my centuries of living, I was still stunned and amazed at the human capacity for love and selflessness. It almost exceeded their capacity for cruelty and hatred. Almost.

And then you have people like Emily. In another day, Emily would have entered a convent and became a nun. In an age when belief had been strong, she would have been capable of great miracles. Her innate magic and love for others (really, the same thing) would have set her on a course that would have eventually lead to sainthood.

Whistling tunelessly, I contemplated Ms. Daphne Winston. Ms. Winston and those like her were why I was embarking on the course of setting up the adoption agency. I thought about the cruelty she had suffered at the hands of her mother, and how that cruelty had scarred her heart until she had been healed by Emily.

With a moment of concentration, and a rub of my finger on my nose, I was standing outside her apartment.

Sighing deeply, I knocked on the door. A harried voice shouted out from inside the apartment.

"Who is it?"

"Daphne, its Chris Norling. I've just come from seeing Emily, can I speak with you?"

The door opened and she wheeled into sight.

"Is something wrong with Emily?" she asked.

"No my dear, Emily is perfectly fine. But I need to speak to you about her if we could."

Wheeling backwards, she moved out of the way, and I sat on the couch while she closed the door and then positioned herself across from me.

Pointing at the fireplace, "Do you mind?" I asked. She shook her head, and I gave a little wave of my finger. The fireplace cheerfully burst into flame. Daphne gave a small start, and looked at me closely.

"Daphne, if you don't mind, could I impose upon you briefly?"

Slowly, she nodded her head.

"Daphne, I'd like you to take my hand and tell me what you see."

Trembling, she reached out and took my hand in hers and stared intently at it.

"Umm, Daphne, I'm up here. Please tell me what you see."

Looking up, her face broke in wonder. "You're wearing a Santa Claus suit. Your eyes are a twinkly shade of green as are the tips of your pointed ears. You..." she paused and inhaled deeply. "You smell of cinnamon and cloves, and cardamom."

"Don't forget the nutmeg dear," I chuckled.

"You're Santa Claus," she said wonderingly.

"You can let go now," I said gently.

As she let go of my hand, my appearance to her became that of Chris Norling again.

"Daphne," I began, "I've just come from seeing Emily. I've asked her to come to work for me. I'm starting up a new enterprise, and her talents would be extremely valuable to me. After hearing my offer, for her own reasons, Emily has rejected my offer and asked me to offer it to you."

"What exactly is this offer?" Daphne asked.

"I'm starting up an adoption agency, and I asked Emily to work on selecting adoptive parents for children. It's very important to me that we have no failed adoptions and I believe Emily has talents that would make her invaluable at selecting placements for the children we work with."

"You on the other hand," I said more sternly, "would be ideal for working with families of children that should be placed for adoption. Your experiences as a social worker, and your own personal history would make you very well suited for this."

Daphne looked at me suspiciously before starting. "Just how exactly am I to convince neglectful and abusive parents to give up their children? Most of them have no thought for anyone but themselves."

"As an elf, you would have certain magic that would..."

A snort erupted from Daphne's mouth. "An elf?"

"Well, yes, as part of coming to work for me you would be transformed into an elf. As an elf, you would have certain magical powers. Also, as part of the transformation, you would be made whole. Your wheelchair would become a thing of the past, and you would be immortal."

She sat stunned in her wheelchair. I could see the thoughts chasing themselves in her head. It seemed like long minutes passed while she pondered the things I had told her.

"Exactly how would the magic work to make these parents give up their children?"

"Well," I said brightly, "you would have the ability to give these parents a moment of perfect clarity. In that moment, I expect that they will see the lives they've made for their children, and the lives their children will have if they stay, and what the lives of the children could be if they were adopted by someone who could truly love them."

"That sounds like powerful magic," she said wonderingly. "I wonder how the parents would keep their sanity if they had this perfect clarity, and still chose to do the wrong thing."

I sat impassively, trying to keep the truth hidden from her, but she was much too clever.

"They wouldn't, would they?" she said coldly. "You know that if they don't do the right thing, the spell will destroy them."

"Daphne, I'm very old, and I'm really not human anymore. My sympathy for someone who won't choose what's best for their children is severely limited... As I said, I'm really not human anymore."

"No, I understand your feelings. What if they give their children up for adoption and they have more? Could we bind them in such a way that they would agree to not have children until they're able to provide a safe and loving home?"

"I hadn't really thought of that. I suppose that we can make that part of the magical enchantment in the contract they sign. They won't be able to conceive until they can properly care for children."

"I'm torn, you know," she began quietly. "All I've ever wanted to do is protect children. Now that I've met Emily, I'm wondering about the balance. Without her will it be even possible for me to love children? I don't want to be an immortal without love. Can you hire us both?"

"My magic is only sufficient to transform one person. I can transform you or Emily, but not both of you."

"Would Emily remember me?"

"We have a magical cleanup squad that would go through your life, and erase memories others have of you. But," he paused, "I'm sure you've read the stories. Magic finds its limit when confronted by true love."

"Would she find love again?" Daphne asked.

"It's difficult to say with humans. There's a chance that her heart will remain entwined in yours."

"When would the transformation take place?"

"Midnight on Christmas. It's when my magic is at its most powerful. So," I said bracingly, "can I count on you to come to work for me?"

"It's tempting..., but I think not. There's just no way I can lose Emily and still have enough heart left to do the job you want. So, the answer is no."

"If I could find a way to transform you both, would you come to work for me?"

With hope shining in her eyes she nodded yes. Before leaving, I warned her not to discuss our meeting with Emily.

**

Emily

The next 6 days were a nightmare. Not only were we asked not to speak about the offer with each other, the fat elf had lain a geis on us that magically stopped us from discussing his offer. I was pissed, and every time I went to give Chris Norling a piece of my mind, I magically remembered that I had to go to the bathroom, or comb my hair, or some other ridiculously mundane task. I don't think either of us felt comfortable enough in our new relationship to know how things would go. On top of that, neither one of us knew the details of the other's conversation with Chris. I desperately wanted to encourage Daphne to take the offer. More than anything in the world, I wanted to see the injury inflicted on her by her mother erased, and see her walk without pain.

On Christmas Eve, Daph and I put the presents we had purchased each other under her little tree. I felt like our mutual agreement to not open the presents until Christmas meant that we were assured a future together. I don't know, I guess it was a child's reasoning nurturing a child's hope, but it was all I had. We snuggled on her couch and watched a succession of Christmas movies. Finally, around 11:30 PM, we went to bed.

**

The next morning I was awakened by the sound of knocking on Daphne's door. Before I could fully wake up, Daphne was up walking across the apartment to open the door. When she did, Chris Norling was standing there.

"Ahh, so good to see you both ladies. Miss Winston, it's especially good to see you up and walking about so well."

Suddenly I realized what my sleepy brain had failed to register. Daphne was walking. Her eyes were now subtly shaded with green flecks, and the cutest, most adorable pair of pointed ears were sticking up through her beautiful long hair.

Squealing in delight I ran up and hugged her.

"Oh, Daphne, I'm so happy. Look at you, it's wonderful! You're healed! And your ears are super-cute!"

"Oh Emily, I was healed when I met you," she breathed.

"But how can I see your ears?" I wondered, looking at Mr. Norling.

"Well now ladies if you'll allow an old elf a few moments of explanation, I'll let you resume your holiday festivities," he began.

"I'm sorry this past week has been so difficult for you both. Believe me, if there had been any other way, I would have chosen it. Now then, you may remember the last time we spoke I told you both that my magic was somewhat constrained and that it was beyond my power to transform both of you."

After a quick look at Daphne, I turned and nodded in Mr. Norling's direction.

"Well, under ordinary circumstances, my assessment would have been wholly accurate. However, there were two things that made it in error."

"First, is that Emily's heart is filled with powerful magic. I've known this about her for years, but it appears I underestimated its power. Her capacity to love others is far beyond what mortals are capable of. Emily's magic reduced the amount of magic that I needed to perform her transformation."