On January 7th, 1780, just as promised, five elves knocked on the temporary home of Kris and Ann Marie Kringle. Kris and Annie, as Kris called her, moved around so much through so many countries that they never had a permanent home. This was all about to change. The elves on the other side of the door were different than the first group that Kris and Annie met.
It was decided that since the trip would take some time, that elves skilled in other developments should accompany the Kringles during their trip up North. One of these was Carrow’s wife, Ulzana Stitchnsew who was an accomplished seamstress and tailor. Ulzana looked weathered and wrinkled, but Kris sensed the strength in this woman and thought many people would misjudge both her age and ability. She walked slightly bent but her eyes were sharp and clear, and her movements succinct.
She presented travel clothes to the Kringles. They were beautiful and seemed quite warm. Ann Marie got a heavy full length dress of green velvet with fur lining around the front, bottom and pockets. It came with an extensive overcoat to match and a heavy fur hat.
Kris received a heavy bright red woolen pair of pants and matching coat. His too, was trimmed in fur in the front and around the pockets. He joked that the bright color would certainly draw looks from everyone. He also received a matching overcoat and very heavy fur-lined boots that went all the way up to his knees. He thought they were a little tall for his comfort and rolled the tops down to around his calves. The inside fur of the boots matched the fur on the coat.
His hat was long and came to a point with a tassel. Ulzana said that her husband was vague on how big Kris’ head was, so she thought she would leave plenty of extra to trim off. Kris thought the extra material was fine and said it would do nicely to cover his face. With that, Ulzana pulled a long strip of fur from her bag and with remarkable speed that belayed her age, sewed it around the bottom of the hat to match the ensemble. She said it should keep Santa’s brow and head warm.
The other elves that accompanied them on their journey were Stacey Buttons, the elve's best doll maker; Jamie Hardrock, the chief miner who supplied the settlement with coal for their fires; Willie Movinmuch, the elve's principal transportation specialist; and Alfie Newsworthy, the elve's historian and record keeper.
Stacey was as spry and bouncy as Ulzana was old. She always talked in excited tones and the Kringles almost got the feeling that she was brought along for enthusiasm and comic relief. She had red hair that fell just past her shoulders and a clear, smooth face that showed a few freckles. Ann Marie thought she looked like a doll herself and wondered if she patterned her creations after the mirror image of herself.
Jamie looked somewhat like the Leprechauns Kris has heard about in Ireland. He also had red hair with a round red beard to match. He had a brightness to his eyes that showed he enjoyed life and was pleased to be here. He spoke with a bit of an Irish brogue, but could make his meaning plain. His hands and nails were blackish from his line of work, but he was clean overall and there was no soot or dirt on his clothing. Like Forrest from the last group, Kris sensed that Jamie was here as much for the load bearing as for the leadership.
Alfie Newsworthy's face was a series of angles and points. He had a long nose, a distinctly pointed chin, pointed ears and even his head seemed to come to a point. On top of his pointed head he had great tufts of white hair that were undisciplined and seem to go every direction. He also wore half moon glasses that he needed for reading that were perched on his forehead.
Willie Movinmuch had short cropped brown hair and a thin mustache. He had an unmistakable intelligence that you could tell existed just by looking at him. His eyes were keen and missed nothing, and while he was somewhat unremarkable in his features, there was something that drew you to him just the same. He moved with deliberateness and was very sure of everything he did. He spoke with a Scottish brogue and was sometimes hard for the others to understand, as it was more pronounced than Jamie's accent. Kris found him fascinating, and had a hard time not staring at the elf.
Willie asked Kris if he and Ann Marie were accomplished riders, which they were. Kris said he often would take a boat to Spain and then ride his great steed up into France, Germany and so on for his deliveries.
The delegation had arranged two horses for the Kringles, and Willie had constructed a cart and secured donkeys to carry the elves and the Kringle's belongings. They said that because of the great distance they would be traveling that they may be gone for quite some time. Once the cart was loaded and secured, they all set out across the landscape riding ever north.
During the trip the Kringles and elves discussed many things. The topics ranged from the making of toys, gathering of foods and sewing clothing for the children, to more complicated things. Such as the items the elves had at the North Pole, and what needed to be continually imported, to some of their modes of transportation, which were different from the Tallfolk's land. Willie used the word “outmoded” on more than one occasion.
Willie said that some amazing things had been constructed up north, but he would wait until they got there to explain, as it probably wouldn’t make too much sense to them now.
Alfie relayed the story of the great migration of the elves to the North Pole, and how so many were pushed to go there at the very same time.
Kris offered that maybe God put the thought in their collective heads as he had with the Jews during the exile from Egypt. Alfie shrugged and said whether God or a collective consciousness, they all seemed to be motivated to make the change and head to the same destination.
“Good thing too,” stated Stacey, “otherwise we might have frozen to death before we ever built the first building.”
Annie asked how they survived during that first year and since, especially during the harsh winter?
Jamie said in his Irish lilt that they all brought everything they could carry or drag with them, including livestock, tools and possessions.
Alfie said, “Yes, we shared everything and it was quite a communal project from the start.” He explained they had learned many secrets of the North Pole, and with their collective ingenuity they were able to begin amassing many things to make their lives more bearable.
“Believe it or not,” said Stacey, “We have a few months that are reasonably temperate reaching 16 to 21 Celsius [60’s to 70’s Fahrenheit]. Of course we don’t announce that fact very often to outsiders.”
When they had reached a town called Zevenbergen, north of Breda, they arrived at a dock on one of the inland rivers, there was moored a small ship guarded by two other elves. Skippy Seaworthy, the captain, was making nautical preparations and his first mate, Hardy Wavebreaker, was attending to the lines and manning the single sail of the ship. Kris commented that a lone sail would probably take them forever to reach the polar ice cap. The elves looked at each other chuckling and grinning as if Kris had just told a joke.
Once everything was stored and everyone made comfortable, Hardy cast off the lines and pushed the boat away from the dock. After they were far enough away from the shore, and out of sight of land, Hardy lowered the sail.
Suddenly a loud noise ensued that caused both Kris and Annie to leap to their feet in terror, and the ship began sailing under its own power and moving very quickly, too.
Willie came to the Kringles aid and told them to be calm, that the elves had discovered a form of combustible power that made almost every transportation mode much faster and easier to move products and food across huge expanses with minimal fuss and time.
Alfie came up to Willie and excitedly said, “Tell them about the livestock and the winged machines.”
Willie said, “I think we sha 'old off on that until later, laddy.”
Kris interjected, “It sounds like we have a great deal more to learn than what I first thought, and perhaps you should clue us in on anything you can. What are winged machines and what about your livestock?”
Willie shrugged. “We find when we give certain feed to some of our livestock they become weightless and begin floatin' through the air. We 'adn’t figured out what value that 'ad afore, but it is kind of fun to watch, and it made it easy to move um from one place to d'other. We also 'ave discovered the power of flight and have large machines that can move products and people from one area to 'nother through the sky.”
Kris said, “Surely you are mocking us now, trying to see just how gullible we are. We know if such machines were in use we would have heard about or seen them.”
“There are a great many things we hide from the populations of other countries,” commented Jamie, who had just walked over to the group. “An' there is a great expanse we must cross to even see any other folks, which keeps many of our machines protected from prying eyes.”
Kris laughed and said, “Well that may be well and fine, but you will never get me to move through the sky. That is the bird’s domain and I'm happy to leave it to them.”
Willie shuffled his feet, cleared his throat and said, “Well then, I guess you are going to 'ave a bit of a walk, because that is 'ow we intend to get you to your final destination.”
Kris looked crestfallen as if this whole trip had been in vain. He looked over at Annie who was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“Oh, imagine Kris, being able to fly like a bird and see things as God does!” She was clearly animated at the thought and in a rapid burst said, “I am certain that these clever folk would not risk our lives after taking us so far if it were not perfectly safe.”
Willie jumped on her words, “Absolutely not! We 'ave been using these for many years with nary a mishap!”
Jamie and Alfie glared at Willie, and tried to settle the look of concern that came over Kris’ face at the word ‘nary’.
“What he means,” Alfie quickly said, “is that these are quite safe and we worked the problems out of our machines long ago.”
“Look at what they did to this craft,” said an excited Mrs. Kringle. “The advances these people have made are astounding. I can’t wait to get there to see the other things they have invented and created!”
“You won’t be disappointed there, lass,” Captain Seaworthy said. “I thought I had really come up with something when I put their engines into watercraft, but that was just small potatoes to some of the stuff the village has accomplished. Wait until you see the dome.”
“And the manufacturing area,” piped in Stacey from the other side of the boat.
“How about when they discover the time continuum?” yelled out Ulzana from the bow.
“Alright, enough,” Alfie yelled sternly. “We don’t want to overdo it before we even get them to the village.”
The Kringles were trying to follow along, but couldn’t begin to grasp a word of the things these elves were shouting about.
The rest of the voyage was relatively quiet, which was fine since it hardly took anytime at all to reach their next destination under the swift vessel they were on. The waves became choppy as they approached land, but Skippy and Hardy handled the ship expertly and minimized the effects the ocean was throwing at them. The craft landed on a deserted but windy beach. The Kringles bundled their coats tighter and pulled their hats lower. Of course, the elves seemed to take this in stride and were almost unfazed by the howling wind.
The Captain and mate bid them a fond farewell and said they hoped to see them soon on another cruise. As they left the ship, the wind blew snow all around them and the ship suddenly seemed to vanish. The wind was blowing so hard they couldn’t hear a whisper from the boat’s engine.
The Kringles followed closely behind the party of elves as they couldn’t see two meters in front them due to the swirling snow. Something large loomed ahead of them, but they could not make out its features. It was much bigger than the ship they just left. As they got closer, Kris could see that it had wings like a massive bird. He was led to a series of steps and as he boarded the great craft he began to tremble, though not from the cold.
Kris was just plain scared. Did they honestly think this hulking monster could be lighter than air? As the rest of the elves took their seats, Annie came up and squeezed her husband’s arm saying, “Isn’t this exciting?”
Kris just mumbled something that couldn't quite be understood, but had something about how 'exciting wasn’t the word that came to mind'. He turned to Willie as he approached the front of the craft with Jamie and asked, “Are you sure the weather isn’t too bad to try this?”
Willie just chuckled and said, “Heck, this is a nice spring day in the North Pole. Wait until we get into a real blizzard!”
Just then, even with the wind howling, Kris heard a sound that made the engine on the ship seem like a guttural burp. Willie was flipping switches and turning dials. He watched as two huge windmill type turbines began to turn on either side of the big ship, and he gave an involuntary shiver.
Stacey said, “Uh, Kris you may want to take a seat and put that belt on until we arrive. It won’t take too long.”
Kris stumbled to a chair and sat down. Moments later the big ship began to lumber through the driving snow. Shortly thereafter he felt himself jolt into the air. He closed his eyes and gripped the chair with almost superhuman strength.
After a few minutes, which seemed an eternity to Kris, the craft broke through the clouds into a beautiful blue sky. Ann Marie was watching out the window and her breath caught in her throat. She gasped, but with excitement rather than fear. The clouds looked like giant cotton balls and floated below them effortlessly.
When Kris finally dared to open his eyes he could scarcely grasp what he was seeing. At first hesitant, he inched closer to the window, where his wife sat across from him glued to the scene outside. As they floated across the heavens they felt a shutter and shake run through the craft and Kris came immediately to his feet. “What was that,” he fairly screamed.
“Relax, Santa, that was just turbulence, when cold air hits a warm air mass it causes the craft to make an adjustment between them,” said Willie from the cockpit.
“What is that?” asked Kris.
“Well cold air moves higher in the atmosphere…” began Willie.
“No, you called me something else, what was it?” asked Kris.
“Oh...ahh, whether you know it or not you are called many names from all the lands you 'ave visited. I originally hailed from Scotland and there they call you Santa or Sunty Claus or a loose translation in English would be St. Nicholas, and there are other names in other countries.”
“Well St. Nicholas was my legendary ancestor, but I am no saint myself,” explained Kris.
Willie shrugged and said, “Well whatever you believe, popular opinion has branded you as such, and as Shakespeare said, ‘A rose by any other name...’ You are called in many countries St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas or its local dialect, so you might as well get used to it if you plan to continue spreading joy to children as you do.”
Kris thought about Willie’s statement. He was slightly uncomfortable about being referred to as a saint and hoped God would not think it blasphemous, but he felt the rest was a term of endearment. Since he never really made a habit of introducing himself in places he visited, other than as an ancestor to his famous relative, he guessed the various names just grew naturally because they didn’t know what else to call him.
Kris noticed the nose of the machine beginning to point down and wondered if they had reached their final destination. He didn’t need to wait long to find out as the craft started bouncing around as it fought the winds in its descent back into the clouds.
Everyone else was undisturbed with the rocking and bumping going on. Even Annie seemed calm through it all. Kris finally decided that he would not be the only person showing distress during this crazy ride, and that it was really not much worse than riding on a particularly clumsy horse, so he pretended to relax and pull his hat lower over his eyes.
With a bang, the skis of the winged machine touched down on the frozen tundra of the North Pole. The ship taxied across the frozen field for a time and then made an about face and roared back toward what looked like a solid wall of snow.
Kris and Annie became more and more concerned as the machine continued its onslaught toward the wall without slowing.
It was Ulzana who came up to Ann Marie and assured her there was nothing to be concerned about. “We are approaching the dome and we will slip right through it in a moment. We are in no danger,” she explained.
Kris couldn’t help closing his eyes again as they sped towards the dome, sure that the whole adventure was going to end right there.
What he heard next was not a crash, but a gasp from his wife, followed by her saying, “Oh, my great heavens. I don’t believe it!”
As the great machine revved down its engines, Kris rubbed his eyes as if they were playing tricks on him. The sight was beyond belief, even after all the things he had recently witnessed with this amazing group.
There were buildings of every size and shape, with brightly colored beautiful stained glass on many of the buildings and with architectural styles of every kind and culture imaginable. He found himself gasping at the sight. And everywhere he looked were people no bigger than his companions.
They had arrived at the elves village in the North Pole.