Chapter Two
Dash
“Season sure went fast this year,” Blitz said. “Do you think we’re getting too old for this?”
“No way.” Comet, my other best friend and business partner shifted the messenger bag over his shoulder, the only luggage he would be carrying with him. “Why? Do you feel like we didn’t hold up our part of the team?”
“It’s not that.” Blitz started off toward the center of town where the actual Pole marked the top of the world. “But with everything modern coming into play, maybe the old guy could use something besides a bunch of flying reindeer to deliver his toys.”
“I get it.” Falling into step between the two of them, I gave Comet a knowing grin.
“He’s been watching Christmas movies again.
” Usually Blitz preferred the Hallmark variety, where someone saved Christmas and the sole business in a small town only to find they were destined to mate…
marry…the least likely person. “Maybe something with a solar-powered sled?”
“Not solar,” Blitz protested. “But there was this sled…” And he launched into a description of something powered by, well, he wasn’t sure what, but he thought it might have been jet fuel.
“The chief-mechanic elf in the story claimed it cut 20 percent off of Santa’s time.
I really think we should at least consider something that would be so helpful. ”
“I don’t think—” Comet began.
“What is going to help with my time?” The hearty voice of our boss came from behind us. “I’m always open to new ideas.”
“We’re just talking about something in a movie,” I hurried to say. Blitz might have some wild ideas from time to time, but he was like a brother to me and he meant well.
“Santa, it was a movie, but the tech is available. You could have a sleigh powered by something a little more modern. Jet fuel maybe?”
The old saint planted his hands on his belly as he laughed.
“You reindeer always have the wildest ideas. You’re not trying to get out of your traditional job, are you?
What would the children think if they looked out their windows and saw a rocket sled?
For that matter, how would I ever figure out how to operate anything like that?
I’m not exactly a hundred years old anymore, and I’m stuck in my ways. ”
Also…the idea came from a movie. It wasn’t as if a sled with the capabilities Santa needed was sitting at a dealership somewhere.
The way things worked was very delicate.
Delivering toys around the whole world on the same night was not based on technology but a magic much older and more etheric.
Sometimes I thought my friend Blitz had a more human outlook than shifter.
“Santa, you’re the best.” Comet fist-bumped our boss. “Blitz was kidding.” He wasn’t, but it might be best for all of us if we went that way.
“Of course.” Santa winked. “But we are not against everything modern, as you know.”
“Of course.” I looked around one more time. “I love our life down south, but it’s always hard to leave.”
“You could just stay, you know. You’re very valuable to the Pole, and you’re always welcome to make this your full-time home.”
“Thank you, but we’d miss our other home and the shop there as well. It’s just…”
I didn’t have to finish. Santa knew what it was just. We needed a mate, but so far, none had appeared.
What if she never did? That didn’t bear thinking of.
We still had a better life than most we knew, and maybe it was greedy to want everything.
If it was just about me, I might be less driven, but the look in my friends’ eyes when they saw mated couples and families offered a constant reminder that this wasn’t just about me.
Still, we had a lot to do, and when the boss used the last of the Christmas Magic to send us home, it was nice to see our house and shop were still there and only a little dusty.
Of course, there was no fresh food in the house, only some pantry staples, so the first thing we did was head for the market.
At the Pole, we usually ate at the employee dining room because training kept us too busy to cook, and then the week after Christmas Eve was one long party with food everywhere.
We were glad, once we landed, to settle in for the more mundane part of the year, and we purchased ingredients for simple, good food we could prepare while gearing up the shop for both our regular customers and a top-secret project for a special one.
And then, as soon as we were settled with bowls of beef stew and freshly baked biscuits, Blitz dropped the bomb. “We’re signing up for a dating app.”
I dropped a biscuit in my stew. “Come again?”
“The Mail-Order Matings app. One of the elves found their mate that way and suggested it might be a good fit for us.” He held up his phone. “See? I downloaded it.”
We spent an hour or so filling it out and answering all the questions because what did we have to lose?
If nothing came of it, we weren’t in any worse situation that we already were.