Michael Laine was lost. It wasn't just the fact that his dining companion had bounded out into the snow, leaving him cradling his sweater. It wasn't that he had been told to go to Santa's workshop. It wasn't even that he had been told that it was about his son and obviously important enough to elicit that amount of 'oh crap' energy out of the lupine doctor. But in the snow and storm he had gotten turned around to the point where he would be lucky to find his way anywhere around here. So not only was his mind racing with confusion and what-ifs, it was almost all he could do to to make his way to the front of the restaurant the pair had stumbled into as his mind was still processing the legends the wolf had been reciting to him.
There was no way he could find his way to the workshop. Hell, he'd be lucky to get back to the resort proper even with the signage that lay around the place.
With all the snow around, the front end of the restaurant was chock full of other escapees from the billowing cold. The snow-white tail of the vulpine hostess flicked behind her nervously as she gathered the next group of guests that were due a table. Carafes of hot cocoa, or rather that had once contained the warm elixer, were queued up on the desk next to her, obviously in line to go back into the kitchen and be replaced for the additional refugees from the cold still streaming in.
"Uh, Miss..."
"Give me a few moments, sir." Came the terse reply. Michael could feel the already heightened anxiety from everything that was going on crank up inside him, but before he could reply she was gone.
"Mr. Laine?"
Michael searched for the source of the voice, but in the crush of bodies he saw no one. Just hordes of people, the vast majority human tourists but with a scattering of animal shapes within. He had seen a bunch all around the resort when Tom had shown him around and had explained at least some of what they were. It was unbelievable, but seeing as his son was now a white furred fox and he had been flown here by a team of reindeer and his other son had charmed Santa, well it was the least unbelievable thing.
"Mr. Laine!" There was the voice again, slightly more insistent this time, but even as Michael whipped himself around searching all he could see were crowds of people all absorbed in menus and each other.
"Oh for crying out loud."
The sharp tug on his pocket finally grabbed his attention. Turning his head down, he could see the short man, no the elf, grabbing his belt and yanking it.
"You're Michael Laine, right? Eric's father?"
"Yes. Wha-"
"Come with me" Michael could swear that it was the same man...elf as from the train, even to a slight California accent still underlying his voice. But before he could even finish his response, the elf was pulling him toward the door, threading his way thru the throngs of humanity and dragging the human with him. Before he knew it he was back outside in the blowing blizzard and being dragged toward something big and shadowy ahead.
It took a few moments for the full sized reindeer stag to materialize from the snow, but before he could really do anything more than recognize what was in front of him, the elf spoke up again.
"There's a stepladder next to Ta- The reindeer. Just get on him like you did the horses that time back in the valley." The elf spoke curtly and quickly, already clambering up a set of indentations in the stag's harness and situating himself at the base of the deer's neck. Michael merely nodded, quickly mounting the reindeer.
"Put this on and hang onto the harness you're sitting on." The elf shoved a little earpiece, like he would have on a cell phone into his hand as his other hand patted the reindeer's flank. "Good to go." Michael heard the words thru the earpiece as he felt their mount quickly start moving and within moments the three were in the air.
"Heard anything, Dave?" Michael was surprised to hear the deep baritone thru the headset, but just shook his head and rolled with it.
"Excuse me, but what is actually going on? All I know is My son was in an accident at Santa's workshop. Now there are three things already wrong in that statement but can you at least tell me what happened?" Michael cut thru, not bothering to key up the microphone, but his frustration clearly carried enough that the line went silent for a moment before that deep voice came back.
"There was a crash. Eric was hurt. Badly. Our father and Eric's mother are already with him, and the doctor. Your other son and both their fiances are there as well. Doc and the boss asked for some help getting you up there and Davey and I were the best options there. Now hold on, we're coming in."
It had taken mere moments, but as the stag landed amid a shower of spray and a bit of a stumble from the blazing speed he had put on to get to the workshop, the doors to the workshop loomed in front. A sleigh, slightly dented and worse for wear was crookedly parked nearby as Michael dazedly got off.
" Go over to that door, Mr. Laine. We'll let you in in a second. Get this tack off of me, Davey, I need to see him too." The elf was already fiddling with the forward harnesses and without even thinking Michael reached under the reindeer and unlatched the main strap. Feeling it give, the reindeer was already half standing as he shifted to his standing form, the intricately embroidered harness sliding off into the snow, the letters TAG staring the human in the face, but before he could even process that sight, the elf was leading him toward the door.
"He's right straight thru." The elf motioned as the doors soundlessly opened and the massive shadow of a two hoofed reindeer fell over the pair.
"I'll take him over, Davey. Thanks for grabbing him for us." The voice was similar, although not the same as the deep bass that he had as a feral stag. "Mr. Laine, come with me." There was an urgency in his voice. Not panic, but this wasn't just a case of being an errand boy, as far as the stag sounded to Michael's unfamiliar ears.
Thru the doors, the pair had to be careful to avoid toys scattered across the ground, and the elves that were scattered around the scattered toys, triaging which ones were salvageable and which ones would have to be replaced. But as the pair quickly made their way across the workshop to obvious focal point, another massive stag, his back was turned toward the approaching pair. Their steps slowly sped up, until Tag called out.
"Isä? Is he..."The stag turned, revealing the catheter and line connecting the pair as he continued to transfuse blood into the supine reindeer on the table.
"He's asleep, Tag." His eyes ran and locked onto the human next to his other son. "And good, you found him. Thankfully doc sounds pretty confident." He sighed, relief in his voice overpowering the hints of fear and remorse that Michael could hear in his voice. There was obviously a 'I don't want to do this again' somewhere behind that statement that he could hear.
"So that's Eric? And he's alive?" Came Michael's halting question. The stag simply nodded, understanding that the human was still trying to process the last half hour. "And a reindeer."
"Not just a reindeer, Mr. Laine." Came Tag's voice as the pair came to the side of the sleeping stag, Michael's hand resting gently on his son's shoulder. The younger stag gave a quizzical look to the obviously older one who merely nodded. "He, me, well, we are all on Santa's sleigh team."
Michael simply looked between the faces of the two reindeer that were staring back at him, and back to the sleeping face that they were saying was his son's. He had dealt with enough people who made their lives by bluffing to know when someone was lying and when they were not. At this point there wasn't much he expected he could be surprised over. This whole trip had been one thing after another.
"And that's why you were so keyed up. Makes sense, especially this time of year, I assume."
"No. I'm nervous because he is my brother."