Page 20 of Run, Run Rudolph (Fairy Godmothers and Other Fiascos #2)

~ Tamara ~

I was driving back to my farm with the roof down to accommodate Rudolph’s antlers.

Haden was following behind in his truck, having smartly chosen to ride alone rather than freezing alongside me in the convertible.

He planned to meet us there to help ice Rudolph’s hind end, even though it was something I could do on my own.

I wasn’t sure if he was simply dazzled by the talking magical beasts, thought I needed the help, or wanted to spend more time with me.

I figured it was the former option, but hoped it was the latter.

While Rudolph didn’t have a broken leg, it was clear by the way he’d struggled to get back into the car that he was in no shape for flying.

I bit my lower lip, wondering how long I could put off making a wish on his behalf.

Shouldn’t Estelle or some other magical being be here, fixing this situation? Why was it up to me?

I know, I know. I should have been paying more attention or driving slower to avoid an accident. And even though I insisted it was Rudolph’s fault, I knew it was more mine than his.

Even though he’d been drunk.

And basically landed in front of me.

In the dark.

In a blizzard.

On a snow-packed road.

Once we were out of town, I raised my voice to be heard over the wind and snow twisting into the cab to bite us. “So, about that Christmas Eve time-bending thing? Does it mean you guys heal faster, too?”

“I don’t know,” Rudolph replied.

“Can you make a guess?”

“Prancer knows more about how your version of time works.”

“He doesn’t happen to have a handbook, does he?”

The way I figured it, time must move slower for us than for them. That way the North Pole crew would have more time to do all of their Christmas Eve deliveries in just one night. Therefore, Rudolph would have more time to heal before his flight if he was at the North Pole.

“How do we get you home again? Do you think you can fly?” I assumed he couldn’t, but it was worth asking.

“That apple was good,” Rudolph said, nosing my shoulder, and referring to the treat Haden had given him back at the clinic.

“I don’t have one. We need to return you to the North Pole so you have more time to heal.”

“Do you have some oats?”

“No.” We’d emptied Haden’s tin before hitting the road. Rudolph had scarfed the oats off my palm, tickling my hand with his soft muzzle. I’d probably overfed him, loving the feel of his nose on my skin.

Now, his fuzzy nose pushed forward as he leaned into the front seat, his antlers nearly whacking me as he tried to sneak a bite of the mistletoe bundle I’d tossed onto the passenger seat earlier while trying not to hit him on the road.

I snatched it up and hung it on my rearview mirror.

Rudolph stretched for it, his pink tongue darting out.

“Stay back there.” I grabbed one of his antlers and attempted to angle his head back, away from the front seat, and nearly drove off the road.

“I’m hungry.”

“I don’t have any reindeer snacks with me.”

“Cookies?”

“No cookies.”

“They were really good.”

“I wouldn’t know,” I grumbled. After Haden had bandaged Rudolph’s leg, he’d offered us a plate of Christmas treats. But before I could accept even one, Rudolph had cleared off the plate with what I swore had been a smile.

The brat.

Haden had laughed, but I’d been a bit miffed. The cookies were a beautiful arrangement of decorated gingerbread men, sugar cookies, and shortbread. All of my favourites. And I hadn’t gotten a single one, thanks to the little piggy riding in the back seat.

“How can we get you home if you can’t fly? Can Santa come get you with his sleigh?”

He didn’t reply.

“Okay, well, just so you know, I’m not making a wish to fix this mess.

There are all sorts of magical consequences that come with changing the past that I don’t understand.

We’re in this together, you and me, but I think it would be smarter to tell Santa so he can fly here to help us.

The danger of missing Christmas has to be worse than any trouble you could possibly get into for your stag party, right? ”

“Do you have any sugar plums?”

“I don’t even know what those are. Are they regular plums?”

“Some candy canes?”

“No. And why are you changing the subject?” I glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping to see him despite the darkness surrounding us.

For a reindeer, his face was surprisingly expressive, and I prayed I’d spot a helpful tell.

But with Haden travelling too far behind us to illuminate my cab with his headlights, I saw nothing but shadows.

“I’m not,” Rudolph grumbled.

“Are too.”

A muffled voice from the trunk added, “Yes, you are! You big chicken!” Snarky, the elf, started making gleeful clucking sounds.

I’d forgotten about him again. Based on his ability to stay hidden for long periods, I didn’t doubt his spying abilities.

“We should let him into the cab,” I said, before realizing that he was probably warmer in the trunk since he was at least sheltered from the blowing snow. The windshield protected me a bit, but not enough that I wanted to make driving with the top down a new winter habit.

“No, thanks,” Snarky shouted back.

“When we get to the barn, we need to contact someone to come help. Haden’s done all he can.” I spoke loudly, ensuring my two passengers could hear me over the wind as the car picked up speed on the straight stretch of road.

“You know, I’m feeling a lot better,” Rudolph said.

“Those are the pain meds kicking in. We need to give Santa enough time to put his contingency plans in place in case you can’t pull his sleigh.”

“Think Santa has eight or nine of those contingency plans?” Snarky was laughing, the sound lifting above the wind rushing past the car. “One for each of his naughty reindeer? Oh, I can’t wait to see the look on Mrs. Claus’s face!”

I was getting a better picture of why the reindeer disliked the elf.

“Cupid can pull,” Rudolph said.

“Cupid’s drunk. You all are.”

“We’ll sober up.”

Seriously, he was dragging his feet like a naughty kindergartener who was afraid to speak to the principal.

The elf, his delighted cackles partially carried away by the wind, began to sing, “Rudolph’s going on the naughty list!”

“I feel better, and nothing is broken,” Rudolph said. “We’ll get home before anyone has to know we left.”

I bit my tongue. It had taken some effort to get Rudolph back in the car again, thanks to his hurt leg, and I was certain we’d added new hoof scratches down poor Benjamin’s side panel. In other words, it didn’t seem as though Rudolph was flying anywhere in the immediate future.

“She’s gonna know you snuck out and played stupid reindeer games!

” Snarky hollered. I could hear him surprisingly well, and I realized he’d pushed down the small divider in the middle of the back seat that acted as a pass through into the trunk, as well as an armrest and cup holder for the rear passengers.

He wasn’t able to lower it all the way because of Rudolph, but he’d opened it enough that he could press his nose and one eye through the opening to see what was going on in the cab.

“What’s he talking about?” I asked Rudolph.

“I’m going on the naughty list,” he said glumly.

“Santa’s bad-kid list? Why? Because you snuck out? Is he a mean boss, worthy of one of those reality TV shows, or something?”

“No. The naughty list,” he repeated.

I really needed a handbook, because I was starting to get an uneasy feeling in my stomach, not unlike when I ate too much raw cookie dough.

“Right. Well. We’re not kids any longer.” Sure, I still believed in Santa and the spirit of Christmas, but not some list of bad people that Santa would skip over. I was a grownup, and Santa didn’t even bring me gifts any longer.

I blinked. Was that because I was already on his naughty list?

Wait. No. I didn’t know any adults who still got gifts from Santa.

Maybe we were all on the naughty list for no longer believing in him?

But I still believed. So why would I be on the naughty list?

Oh, right. For throwing bags of chips at Kade when we had our break-up fight in the grocery store.

But it had been so satisfying in the moment to take him off balance like that.

His surprise at seeing my spine at long last, and my willingness to stand up for myself instead of shying away from conflict and going with the flow.

His expression was one I’d never forget.

Except I hadn’t been getting Santa gifts even before that fight….

None of this added up.

“You don’t want to be on that list.” Rudolph was giving me sad reindeer eyes. I kind of wanted to hug him, ruffle his fur, and soothe him.

“I’m sure we can explain everything. It was one big accident, and we’re doing our best, right?”

From what I could see, his furry-faced expression grew even more bleak.

He seemed so blue, I momentarily doubted my vow against accepting Estelle’s costly fairy godmother help.

“I was drunk, and shouldn’t have been on the road.” Rudolph sighed so heavily I was surprised he didn’t throw a dramatic collapse in as well.

“Maybe you don’t know about cars and roads? You know, being from the North Pole?”

“He knows about roads!” Snarky hollered. “He was acting as dumb as a candy cane! His brain’s nickname is shortbread. Get it? As in short on brain cells?”

I heard the chomp of a large set of teeth clapping against each other, as if they’d tried to connect with something.

“Missed me,” Snarky gloated.

“What were you doing on the road?” I asked Rudolph, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“We were playing a game.”

“A game?”

“Reindeer games,” he said bleakly.

A series of swears rolled through my head. Reindeer games? On the road? At night? Of course, one of them had been hit! I hadn’t stood a chance, had I? Those stupid, risk-taking, testosterone-fuelled deer thinking they were invincible!

“Well, I don’t care about the naughty list,” I said definitively, holding my temper. “We need to save Christmas.”

“I won’t go on the list,” Snarky said primly.

“Because you’re her little narc.” I heard a muffled thump, like a hoof striking the seat, followed by a squeak.

“Boys!” I snapped. “Fighting won’t get us anywhere. We’re in this together, remember?”

“I’m going to tell Mrs. Claus,” the elf said, a waver in his smug tone.

Rudolph gave a cough, while saying, “Narc.”

Rolling my eyes, I slowed Benjamin to a crawl to turn down my winding driveway, Haden following behind.

“And you’re going on it, too, lady!” Snarky sounded as if I’d deeply and intentionally insulted him. “You’ve been interacting with the magical world without proper permission!”

“You guys didn’t really give me a choice,” I muttered.

“You don’t have proper clearance.”

“Yeah? Funny, because I didn’t see an application form or request booth on the side of the road.”

Rudolph let out a guffaw.

“And anyway, my friend Char interacts with your world all the time. Or she did, anyway. So did I. How is this different?”

“That was a business arrangement between you and Estelle,” Snarky stated. “And it wasn’t an intentional, unauthorized breach of the wall separating the two worlds. Her shroud breach was agreed upon by both parties. It’s covered under an inter-world treaty.”

He sounded as if he was reading a clause from a book of rules. You’d think he and Prancer would get along, seeing as he’d been quoting similar rules earlier.

“If I don’t have proper clearance, how do I see you as well as the reindeer? Just because you chose it? This wasn’t a business arrangement or an intentional breach. And I don’t think it was agreed-upon by both parties, either.”

“We’re drunk,” Rudolph stated.

“It weakens the walls between them and other worlds,” the elf said, starting to sound bored.

Rudolph muttered something to the elf that sounded like, “But she also still believes.”

“Does that make it so I can see more?” A bubbly feeling of excitement rose within me, along with the knowledge that I might be special in some way.

“Rules are rules,” the elf snapped at Rudolph. “And you broke them! You’ll both have to go before the magical courts.”

“Well, I’m sure they’ll see I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and am trying to amend the situation.”

“She won’t listen,” Rudolph said.

“Who?” I asked tiredly. “The judge or something?”

“Or something.”

I shivered, my imagination running wild. Maybe I didn’t want to go there to plead my innocence after all. Then again, the other option seemed to be fairy godmother debt. Unless I got Rudolph up into the air in the next few hours.

“You’ve injured one of Santa’s reindeer,” Snarky was saying, his tone prim and bossy, “and detained one of Santa’s elves within twenty-four hours of Christmas Eve. That’s very bad.”

“You know there’s a glow-in-the-dark pull-tab thing in the trunk, right? You could’ve let yourself out at any time.”

The elf was silent for a long moment, then I heard the telltale click and pop of my trunk opening.

“Dude! I’m driving!”

The trunk lid rattled and banged up and down as I made my way through the snow-packed ruts toward the barn. Haden’s headlights bounced over us as he followed behind.

“Does Haden still believe in Christmas? He saw the herd outside his clinic.”

“Weakened walls. Belief. Touching Rudolph. What does it matter? He’s going on the list, too,” Snarky informed me in a bored tone. “You’ve both been interfering with the process of Christmas.”

“Haden’s innocent. I asked him to help.”

“He touched Rudolph. Gave him drugs. He’s aiding and abetting in the transportation of the lead reindeer to undisclosed locations within the Christmas bubble of time.” He sounded like a lawyer laying out charges, like they were cards in a game of Solitaire.

As I pulled my car up to the big barn doors, I checked the sky for reindeer circling to land or whatever they did.

The last thing I needed was to mow down a few more of Santa’s drunken finest, and add to my list of growing charges.

I grumbled my concerns aloud, becoming aware that I was quickly ending up in a pickle similar to what Char had had with Estelle.

The magical world made their own rules and then held unwitting humans to those rules.

Even if they didn’t know or understand them.

And it looked like I was getting caught up in a big mess I had no clue about.

The only option was to get Rudolph healed and back home as soon as possible.