the gift of magic part 1

This is a story for the ages.

A tale of magic and wonder, it happens to all of us, or at least the sane ones anyway. One day we all wake up and no longer believe in magic, the harsh reality hits us and we are forced to simply accept that’ what we once thought we knew without any shadow of a doubt, was a complete load of crap…….

What if I told you that it wasn’t just a made up story, that magic was real and right now at this very moment there are people giving their lives just to hold onto that last spec of magic just for you, because without magic, the stuff dreams are made of, and not just any dreams, the dreams of the innocent, the pure and the unoppressed……we cannot dream or hope or fight for a better future.

The children of our world are our only pure source of magic; this is known to all of us, all of us who dedicate our entire lives to the preservation of this precious gift. We have existed in some form or another since the founding of religion and political power, our professions varies and we are everywhere.

The day is Christmas Eve a light snow had fallen on the ground and as far as anyone could tell only a single soul was out in the streets a man with a long white beard and a red fur cap coat and pants, could be seen walking down the street. At a closer observation you might notice for every step he took he moved several times the distance a normal man would and instead of the normal bob in a person was gliding over the snow not leaving a single foot print. Even though he had made this delivery many times before each following year it had become even more dangerous, the man was aware that somebody was following him

, and despite his seemingly agile self he let out a loud hack that crackled into the cold snowy night. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a note and after readjusting his small wire rimmed glasses he double checked information that he had already long ago memorized, he was a creature of habit, and checking his small note reassured him that the night would run smoothly. After about another hour of quickly moving through the small town at seemingly super human speeds he finally arrived at his destination. A fairly small brick house with a very homely appearance, two windows in the front and a light on in the kitchen, which is a superstition believed to keep burglars away.

The man chuckled a hearty laugh to himself as he pictured himself as a cat burglar; the thought amused him quite a bit. With a single quick leap he was able to launch himself onto the roof, but rather than make a loud crash he slowly floated down leaving no more than a small crunch as his feet sank into the snow. He approached the chimney and was comforted by the memories of the good he was performing and all the times prior to this night that he had done this before, from his first internship all the way to taking on his own apprentices through the years. For a brief moment he entertained the idea of retiring letting this be his last run before finally hanging his boots up so to speak, but the truth is he could never let it go, it had all become a part of him even his normal job no longer was fulfilling to him he now lived for this one tank each year. A cold winters chill blew heavily along the roof and even with the fur coat he felt it down to his bones, and knew right away he should get out from in the open before whatever had been following him; found him. So without any further delay the man clicked his boots together and rubbed his hands while leaning forward as if preparing to dive and jumped head first into the small chimney. One would of thought by looking at the man that he never would of fit but it seemed as if possibly the man was made to fit down that chimney, because he certainly did and down he went through his own personal front door to this seemingly oblivious house. The man arrived in what would seem to be a family room, quiet music played on the upper floor, and a tree was placed in the corner of the room with lights twinkling on and off in varying colors of red green and blue, everything was clean, warm and welcoming the man almost got the urge to become so comfortable that he might just lay down and take a rest, though he was a professional and quickly pushed such thoughts out of his mind. Out from his coat he pulled out what appeared to be a small coin purse, though as he unsnapped it the opening became quite large, large enough for the man to reach his entire arm inside, from which he pulled a single box wrapped in green paper and a red ribbon with a small card that said simply boy.

Suddenly the brightly dressed man heard a crack not quite like twigs but like kind you hear when a person cracks their knuckles only this one sounded as if it was performed with a whole body, it sent a chill down the red man’s spine’ for he knew what the sound was; without so much as a quiver of hesitation he spun around with a silver cane like device with silver bells on the end of it as it shot from his sleeve he caught it jerking the cane causing the bells to ring’ suddenly the entire room seemed to freeze as if the whole world was stuck in a single moment, and that’s because it was you see the bells are magical they stop time for anything the sound of the bells hit except for the user until they are shook a second time.

Then another crack of the bones sounded loudly through the small house and a horrific shriek like that of a banshee sounded and a black shroud leaped through the air the faint lights bursting out as it flew across the room heading directly for the big red man, instinctively the red man with a flick of his wrist tried to cast the spell of bells once again but was again met with the sound of cracking bones, it would seem this fiendish creature had a natural resilience to the bells magic. By the time all that was occurring in the room had registered into the big red mans mind his fate was already sealed because the small shadowy figured had perched itself on the red mans throat and had already sunk his teeth and fingers deeply into the mans flesh killing him quite quickly, however not before the man secretly slipped a note into the lining of the green box he was carrying and tossed it toward the tree, once this task was complete and he could feel his last lofty breaths leaving his body he clung the dark figure close to him and kicked off one of his shoes into the fire. I am sure as your reading this you don’t know but with certain magical creatures they are required to live by rules and the boot being kicked into the fire was one of the rules for the dark one, it had something to do with it cannot kill a person relaxing in a place they feel safe in or something like that, truth be told there is a lot of grey when it comes to magical rules. Nonetheless it did the trick they were both warmed away to a place neither of them were familiar with, the entire time colors swarmed around them the dark ones bones snapping and cracking making spastic fidgeting noises trying to strangle the effect out of the red man, but this event was no longer under his control.

Finally the two of them reappeared on a deserted island in the middle of the pacific, the red man’s blood poured freely into the sand and the small figure shined in pure sunlight’s figure had been revealed he was a small elf, of the nightling variety he covered his face as the sun blinded him, for he was nocturnal. The dying red man used this as an opportunity to pierce the elfs chest with what appeared to be an ice sickle yet as it went through the heart of the tiny elf light erupted from every pore of the poor creatures body and he wailed in pain and agony almost in romantic unison the elf and man both let out their last dying gasps of breath and they were both dead.

One was Santa and the other an elf.

                Michel awoke with a quick jolt every kid knew what today was.

It was Christmas morning and that could only mean one thing Santa had come and delivered young Michel’s presents without even grabbing a blanket he bounded out of his room down the stairs two by two and saw it waiting for him under the tree was a present from Santa, FROM SANTA!!!! He’s real I mean of course he’s real, why wouldn’t he be I mean mom and dad always told me he was and they would never lie would they? But there it was waiting for him he dashed over to the small green box and ripped off the paper after thoroughly checking the small card that simply said boy and underneath was a smaller card board box with a separated lid. The young boys hands were shaking terribly, not out of fear but excitement his imagination wandered far and wide as he wondered what Santa could have brought him. Inside the box was a small wrist watch seemingly simple at first but as the boy observed it the small dome containing the time piece clouded up and inside he saw a train running along the tracks, then it clouded again and he saw birds flying over the ocean, it seemed like hours and hours went by that the boy was lost in thought staring at the beautiful sights his Christmas present was revealing to him, and no matter how long he stared the watch never went on a loop each and every peek at it revealed new exotic sights to behold .Michel thought to himself that Santa probably left a clue, so he could better send him letters the next year and make his job finding him that much easier, so he checked the small piece of paper as well as the wrapping, it was then he saw a small folded yellow piece of paper tucked away as if hidden inside the wrapping as he picked it up he began to unfurl it, and it seemed as if something was written on it but it seemed to be very faded he tried to hold it with both hands to put it up to the light, but just as he did the smoke inside the watch he received spurted out and shot into the paper, sparks and light shot forth from the now magically charged paper and began to fold itself into a beautiful peacock made out of hundreds of varying colors. Michel was knocked back in surprise and wonder as the small paper peacock began to take flight and buzz about the family room sparkling light falling gently from the wake of its small tail until it ran straight into the front door and fell to the ground were it flopped around as if disoriented, Michel knew right away that the small creature wished to get outside so he pulled on his boots over his bare feet and grabbed his winter coat and picked up the small magical paper bird and opened the front door. Immediately the bird began to squirm inside his small clenched hand and he instinctively let the bird go, the bird took flight once more and began to circle him spiraling around him faster and faster, until and aura began to envelope his tiny frame and lift him up off the ground Michel was in complete awe of this magical moment, he was flying and weirder still he didn’t feel any cold at all, he felt warm and weightless,