Part Three
“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” Noelle
exclaimed – the ice palace’s sparkly structure twinkling in her eyes.
“You took the words right outta my mouth,” Kimbyr said.
Both women were equally awed by the massive crystalline
bastion, the origins of which they were more than curious about. Before they
could think to investigate it, they were soon approached by a small wandering
group of people: a young woman with long, flowing platinum-blonde hair and wearing
a glittering white gown (a bit light for such frigid temperatures); a younger
woman with long strawberry-blonde hair and a winter outfit of Norwegian design;
a young rugged man with shaggy, shoulder-length blond hair and wearing a thick
dark tunic and trousers; a lively reindeer; and – most surprisingly of all – a
living snowman!
“Oh!” the strawberry-blonde gasped. “We didn’t think
there could be anyone else out here in the middle of this snowstorm.”
“I promise you that I wasn’t
responsible for it this time,” the platinum-blonde said.
Her reassurance on the circumstantial weather baffled Kimbyr.
“Why would you be responsible for
it?”
“Maybe ‘cause she was responsible for the first one?” the
rugged blonde uttered, which earned him an elbow to the gut by the
strawberry-blonde, clearly not thinking about what he said before he said it.
“You ladies must not be from Arendelle,” the
platinum-blonde deduced of Kimbyr and Noelle. She then gestured to herself and
said, “I’m Elsa.” She then looked to her companions. “This is my sister, Anna,
and our friends Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf.” Of the living snowman, she added,
“Don’t be too worried about Olaf. He’s harmless.”
“Oh, he’s okay,” Noelle told Elsa with a giddy smile. “He
reminds me so much of my childhood friend, Frosty.” She walked up to Olaf and
shook one of his twig arms. “Nice to meet you, Olaf.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Lady-Dressed-Like-Santa,” Olaf
remarked.
“Actually, I am
Santa, but you can call me ‘Noelle’.”
“Did she just say that she is Santa?” a befuddled Kristoff whispered specifically to Sven, who
grunted with a shrug.
Getting back on topic, Kimbyr asked Elsa, “What did you
mean when you said that you weren’t responsible for this snowstorm?”
Elsa fought through her reluctance to answer. “Well…I was
born with this power that allows me to control ice and snow.” She briefly
demonstrated by conjuring a small flurry by twirling her left index finger in
the air, much to the astonishment of Kimbyr and Noelle. “For so long, I thought
they were a curse…but my sister helped me to see that they were blessing. Olaf
is living proof of that.” That last testimonial made the little snowman blush –
hypothetically, of course, since he had no blood vessels.
Gathering what Elsa explained, Kimbyr then inquired, “So,
if you weren’t the cause of this snowstorm, who else would be capable of
causing it?”
“That’s what we traveled out all this way to find out,”
Anna replied. “There has to be someone else with similar powers to Elsa
somewhere out here.”
“I may not be the only one of my kind,” a hopeful Elsa
surmised.
“I don’t think that may be a good thing, Elsa,” Noelle
suddenly said, her voice sounding rather uneasy.
“Why do you think that?” Elsa asked her.
“Because I’m sensing a very naughty presence up here with us.” Noelle pointed in one
direction within the snow-covered forest. “And it’s right that way now as we
speak.”
Kimbyr realized she was pointing in the same direction
that she came from earlier.
“That’s where my TARDIS is!” she
cried out in despair.
------------------
Unable to take the bizarre
alien spaceship’s equally bizarre dimensions any longer, Howard stepped out of
the TARDIS to catch a breather. It wasn’t any better outside in the insanely frigid
temperatures. Why was he even there? He kept asking himself that with every
second he was away from home – much further than he cared to be. All he wanted
was to get that Turbo Man doll for his son. Was that so much to ask?
“It’s not too much to ask at all, Mr. Langston.”
He heard a voice speak beyond the mist, apparently having
read his thoughts. It was so dark and snowy that he could barely make out who
it was. “Who’s there?” he asked the stranger that somehow knew his last name.
After a moment, the visitor walked close enough for
Howard to discern his physical appearance. He was a bearded, thinly-mustachioed
anthropomorphic gray wolf of a gigantic, slender, strong and heavy build in a hooded
blue and purple robe with fancy orange patterns, a green talisman hanging down
from his neck, and a red sash tied around his waist. A blue cape with a maroon
interior flowed from the gusty wind behind him, while his primrose slippers
stomped in the snow.
“What are you?”
Howard asked him, put off by this wolf-man character.
“You may call me ‘Merlock the Magician.’ I am here for
you, Mr. Langston. You have gone through such an arduous quest for your son,
Jamie. But I’m willing to bring it to a satisfying conclusion, in exchange for
two trinkets you have there in that craft behind you.” He specifically gestured
to Kimbyr’s TARDIS.
Obviously, Howard found his offer a little hard to
swallow. “Yeah, sure. I’m supposed to believe some guy in a bathrobe can get me
a Turbo Man action figure on a snowy mountain?”
“Believe it or not, I can,” Merlock said before he
reached from beneath his cape to retrieve the
Turbo Man action figure Howard so desperately sought after. It was there, right
in Merlock’s hands, still fresh in the packaging.
Howard couldn’t believe it. This wolf-man was his savior.
All he had to do was exchange the cowboy and spaceman
toys for the Turbo Man.
For a fleeting moment, he considered it. But then he
heard two kids shout to him, “Don’t do it!” He turned to see Kevin and Shyla
standing at the doorway to Kimbyr’s TARDIS. Shyla carried Woody and Buzz in her
arms, crying out to Howard, “Don’t give them to him!”
Howard then saw Kimbyr return to the scene with a whole
new group of people, just in time to see him with the Merlock character.
Merlock’s ominous presence momentarily startled her and her new friends.
“Ahh, the Gladiator of Gallifrey,” he mockingly addressed
Kimbyr. “Such a lovely face this regeneration of you has. So many others have I
seen… each of them a thorn in
my side.”
Kimbyr vaguely recalled ever meeting a being like Merlock.
She presumed it to be her personal timeline fluctuating with the magician’s
meddling. “Mom!” she heard Shyla cry out to her. “He wants to take Woody and
Buzz!”
“What for?” Kimbyr asked the magician. “Why’re you so
interested in two toys?”
“Their magic,” Merlock told her. “I need it to feed…to
become more powerful than imaginable.”
“You’re powerful enough to create this snowstorm over
Arendelle,” Elsa noted.
“A parlor trick compared to what I can really do, my dear,” Merlock retorted.
He then once more offered to Howard, “Your son’s gift for the toys, Mr.
Langston, or you will never find
another like it in your world or any other.”
Again, Howard considered the proposal.
He imagined how happy Jamie would be on Christmas morning,
waking up out of bed and running downstairs to open his Turbo Man gift that
waited for him under the tree. And then, as if knowing exactly what he was
thinking, one of the women Kimbyr returned with – the one dressed like Santa Claus
– told him, “I know it would mean the world to Jamie to know you kept your
promise to him, Howard. But think of how disappointed another boy would be to
wake up and not see his precious toys
are gone.”
Howard didn’t know who this woman was or how she knew so
much about his situation (everyone seemed to, all of the sudden), but what she
said weighed heavily on his conscience. After much hesitation, he boldly told
Merlock, “No deal.”
In retaliation, Merlock made the Turbo Man package
evaporate in his grips.
No comments:
Post a Comment