Trilly and the Christmas Spirit - Christmas Story 2016

It is the morning of December the first. The snow is falling lightly around the North Pole and the first elves have gotten out of bed and turned on the toy making machinery. At the morning table a young red haired female elf is eating a big bowl of Christmas porridge. She is part of the wrapping crew, specialising in ribbons. She has pretty green eyes and the cutest apple cheeks, her clothes are a little fancier than the clothes of others; the fabric seems greener, her buttons shines brighter and her perfume is sweet and round with a hint of cinnamon. She takes her time with the porridge as she is not needed at work for the next hour. Around her more elves appears, some passes by in a hurry and eats without breathing while others are arriving from the stables ready for their first break. As she sits there enjoying her porridge a sound of running clogs nears the dining hall. The door opens and Madam Claus enters the room slightly out of breath. The elves look up upon Madam Claus in silence awaiting her announcement.

"Something is wrong everybody, Santa is Christmas sick, he has lost his Christmas spirit during the night and he will not rise from bed, he even called it all for humbug" Madam Claus informs while taking deep breaths after each bid of information "I want three volunteers to go retrieve Santa's Christmas spirit. If you fail Christmas will be ruined as Santa will not be able to make his present run without it"

An old reindeer trainer stands up, he looks stout and well trained though he is only teaching young elves now "I will go find it, I know the North Pole better than most and I can track almost anything" he calls to Madam Claus.

A young machine repair elf likewise stands up, he is handsome and known for good craftsmanship "I will find it, I am young and everybody knows my work is some of the best, so when I'll put my work into this it got to be a success" he announces with a smug tone.

The red haired elf stretches and gets up "since those two are so sure to succeed I will also try, at worst I will get a nice trip out of it" she says.

"Then it is settled, Ludwig, Jork and Trilly is setting out to find Santa's Christmas spirit. You should gather what you need and meet me on the observation deck" madam Claus says before leaving the dining hall again.

Ludwig and Jork are soon gone, but Trilly finishes her breakfast before heading down to the kitchen filling her bag with cookies, cakes and sugar canes. She continues to grab a ribbon gun and some rolls of extra strong adhesive tape from her worktable. And last she puts on her Jingle n' Bells December 2016 coat and her My Little Penguin winter boots before meeting up with the others. Ludwig and Jork are both fully geared up with a snowballgun 3000, reindeer hair rope, ice axes and several other important survival items. They look like they have been waiting for some time and glance impatiently at Trilly as she walks up beside them.

"Now that all three of you are here I will show you what we know. According to the elves at the observatory a naughty presence entered Santa's and my bedroom at 3 AM this morning and left again 15 minutes later. It headed towards some caverns far from here and then the signal got weaker. Nobody has explored those caverns for the past 700 years, so be careful if you need to enter them" Madam Claus explains while an observer elf demonstrates what she says on a map.

Jork the young machine elf bows and storms off not waiting for anyone. Ludwig takes some time to assure Madam Claus that all is going to be fine before he too runs off. Trilly walks closer to the map and types the coordinates into her GPS. Where Jork took a snow scooter and Ludwig borrowed a reindeer Trilly decided to walk. She walks for ten hours straight enjoying the weather and the beautiful scenery before stopping at a spot of snow near some big stones. This is a good place to camp for the night as the stones provide good cover for the night.

After a long cold night she wakes up at 8 AM to enjoy a frozen breakfast before resuming her travels. She is freezing the weather is far colder than she expected. She has never really done camping in the frozen wilderness before. The cold lingers in her body and the snow has gotten significantly deeper during the night. She walks for another six hours constantly tripping in the snow. Her clothes are completely soaked and she is even colder than before but she has finally arrived at the cave and its five openings. At the first opening is Jork’s snow scooter with a note attached to it.

I have gone down the first cave entrance.

Ludwig went down the fifth entrance with his reindeer.

You should take one of the other entrances Trilly.

That way we cover a larger area.

Or you can wait outside here for us to return.

Jork.

Trilly wastes no time on deciding on a cave opening. She hurries down the middle cave in hope of finding a dry and warm place. She can’t feel her fingers and toes. As she is inside in cover from the cold weather she quickly pulls off her wet clothes and fumbles with getting some dry clothes on. She looks through her bag for something to start a fire with but realises she is unprepared. Cold she steps further but a terrible clicking sound starts. She looks over her shoulder just in time to see the cave crashing down above her. She jumps forward and escapes the falling rocks that now completely block the passage behind her. She is caught in this cave with no way back and no light. She gets up and brushes the dust of her clothes. It is getting late and she can’t see. She draws on her toy making magic and from her hands comes blue strings that comes together and forms a warm blanket. She was trying to create a flashlight but it has been some time since she last practiced toy making. But the blanket isn’t completely useless as it will keep her warm tonight. 

Warm and rested Trilly wakes up at two in the night. She can’t go back and might as well continue her mission. She tries again on using her magic and with better luck. From the magical strings a toy lightsabre is formed. It is not the best kind of flashlight but it will do for now. With the light from her new toy she walks deeper into the cave and arrives at a crossroad. She pulls out a roll of tape and marks the left road with an arrow and a capital T before continuing down the left road. The road is quite steep and leads Trilly deep into the cave with many more roads splitting off from it and marks every single one. It is a vast tunnel system and as she walks deeper she wonders who could have created them. The only thing she is sure of is that these tunnels aren’t made by elves. She opens a door and finds herself in a crudely made kitchen. She looks through the cabinets for food, so far she has only eaten cookies and cakes and it hasn’t satisfied her hunger. In the fridge she finds different well created dishes and takes out some cold roasted duck, beetroot, cold duck sauce and some rye bread and makes three sandwiches. She packs two of them in her bag and eats the third while checking a closet in the back of the kitchen. It is a big closet filled with towels, pillows and sheets.

"Have you heard that elves have gotten into our cave?" a hoarse voice asks in the kitchen.

"Elves IN our CAVe? ThAt’s rIddICulous” a high pitched dramatic voice replies in disbelief.

"It’s true. The elves are here because the bossman stole the Christmas spirit, I heard they already captured twenty elves, they are in the dungeons" a third deeper voice proclaims.

"Twenty? Those candy eating, toy making baboons are messing in our caves, they have even been here taking our food. We need to get them out" the hoarse voice exclaims.

Could twenty elves have been caught? Why have twenty elves been caught it was only supposed to be Jork, Ludwig and herself on this mission. Trilly glances out of the closet where she sees three goblins moving around the kitchen searching for elves. The goblins are closing in on her location. She straps pillows on her body like an armour and rips one open. As the goblins steps into the closet she throws the ripped pillow at them. Feathers spread out in the air giving her some cover. She bumps into the confused and blinded goblins with her pillows and as they get thrown of their balance she binds them together with tapes and ribbons. The goblins were caught by surprise and had no chance against her. She hides them in the closet and drops the pillow armour before sneaking out in the tunnel again. She opens another door and hundreds of goblins turn around to look at her. She has accidentally found a dining hall filled with goblins waiting for breakfast to be served. She slams the door as the goblins get up from their seats to capture her. An alarm and hundreds of footsteps sounds behind her as she runs back down the tunnel and back toward the crossroad. Some goblins steps out of a room in front of her and she makes a sharp left through a door. She runs through the room and out of another door in the opposite end of the room but end back out in the tunnel a few doors down. The many goblins close in on her and she jumps through another door to another tunnel and runs towards the end but stumbles into a trap hole and everything goes dark for a moment. She can still hear the alarm sounding through the cave but it sounds like it is moving. These goblins have some weird magic in this cave which she doesn’t understand. She clings to her toy lightsabre which doesn’t light up the darkness that surrounds her and then she walks out of the dark and is back at the crossroad. This could end up being a long mission if she is going to be transported back here more than once. She runs down the right path of the crossroad to avoid running into the goblins again. This path is unlike the other very plain and boring. It has absolutely no variation to it and there are no roads splitting off from it. It feels like she walks for hours without anything happening. There is only the cave tunnel and the sound of the alarm and her footsteps. She finally stops to take a break and get some food before continuing. While eating a pink cotton candy cloud forms around her and suddenly she is floating. It is like a dream she once had, it is a candy heaven with giant candy canes and gummy bears and a chocolate fountain. She floats to the chocolate to drink from it and falls into a warm chocolate pit with sharp caramel brittle pieces sticking out from the wall cutting her as she falls. The candy heaven turned into candy torture and just as sudden as she has entered she wakes up on the floor in room. She is completely naked and her clothes have been neatly placed in a pile beside her. Someone has also been going through her bag. This place is weird and crazy and now someone or something has been violating her privacy. She puts on her clothes in a rush and collects her items. She uses her magic to form a new toy to light her way and this time the strings forms a teddy bear with a heart shaped flashlight in its stomach. The teddy bear isn’t handy but it is very cute and fluffy. She lights behind her and sees that the crossroad is only a few meters away. She glances down at her watch and she was only caught in the magic for five minutes. Perplexed by these goblin trickeries in this cave she continues her mission. But she is wishing that she never volunteered for this place is creepy and her clothes feels weird. As she walks out of the room and further down the tunnel she finds a pink bra that looks exactly like the one she is wearing. And she picks it up to examine it closer she can feel tingling sensation on her skin and as she looks down her dress she can see the bra she is wearing disappear. Someone has swapped clothes with magical copies and she is instantly filled with horror. Her clothes could at any point disappear and leave her naked and what’s even worse is that goblins could find her naked here in the many tunnels. She puts on the bra under her dress with some difficulties. Next she finds her stockings, her panties, her hat and lastly her dress on a female goblin walking through a door further down. She runs after the goblin to catch her and get the dress back. No one is going to leave her naked on the ground in a cave and no one steals her clothes. This is a special designer dress and it cost a lot of money. She chases down the goblin around a few corners and she can feel the fake dress slowly disappearing as she gets closer.

“Got you goblitch” Trilly calls as she leaps and the fake dress disappears.

The goblin turns around just as Trilly lands on her and knocks her to the ground. They roll over a few times and beat on each other. The goblin pushes Trilly off her and disappears down a trap door leaving Trilly behind half naked. Her other dress and her Jingle n’ Bells jacket is still wet from the trip through the snow so she wraps the blanket around her chest and binds a pretty ribbon bow. But when she finds that goblin bitch again she will get the dress back no matter what. She has lost track of the where about of this cave, there are too many rooms and tunnels and she just wants to go home. But instead of the way out she only gets in deeper. And goblins have been patrolling the many tunnels ever since the alarm sounded. She ducks down between some rocks to hide and suddenly she is gliding down a steep hidden slide. She pops out in a damp room with dim lighting and lands hard on her butt. 

“Trilly is that you? Where did you come from?” Ludwig’s voice asks.

She looks around lighting the room with her teddy bear and sees that she has found some kind of dungeon filled with steel cages and in those cages is both Jork and Ludwig sitting. Ludwig’s arm is broken and Jork has a bloody nose.

“Why are you here and are there others? I heard a goblin say that they had captured twenty elves” Trilly asks surprised while she examines the cages.

“It is only us but rumours must have run wild” Jork says “I had almost found their leader’s room but I stepped into a trap and got caught”.

“This cave is bigger than anyone had expected and the tunnel system is vast and weird. I tried to make a map as I moved deeper into cave but with their magic and their traps I lost track of where I was and had been. And then finally last night I walked into a tavern and got captured. They took my reindeer to some stables and locked me in here with Jork” Ludwig says.

“Why haven’t you just broken out of these cages? The locks seem simple enough and at least one of you would surely have the tools for it” Trilly asks.

“I tried just seconds after I got locked in here but it is that damn goblin magic. The cages can only be opened from the outside even if the cages are unlocked” Jork says and tries to push the cage open.

“So I just have to…” Trilly says while she opens the cage and lets Jork out and Ludwig “you two are hurt, you should get out and back home while I’ll find the Christmas spirit”.

“I agree for I can’t do much with a broken arm. We will get my reindeer and then head out of here” Ludwig says.

They open the door and find two goblins standing guard in front of it. Trilly and Jork grabs one each and pulls them inside the room and ties them up.

“I was caught in a trap just around the corner. It should be easy for you to find it Trilly and good luck” Jork says and pulls one of the goblins closer “I have two questions, how do we get to the stables and how do we get out?”

“Shut it, shut it, shut it, shut it, shut it. You big coward just shut it” the other goblin whispers angrily “the bossman will kill you for this”. 

Trilly sneaks out of the prison and around the corner to where Jork said he was caught and leaves the others behind. There is an elf sized hole in the floor and now that she looks closer she can see many small holes. This room must be full of traps which would be reason why the door is unguarded. Very carefully she walks by the many traps and through the door and closes it tight behind her. She has entered a small room with wooden floor. There is nothing and it seems like Jork was wrong. Trilly is just about to walk back out of the room as she hears a voice from under the floorboards.

"Master the elves have escaped and they have released the animals in the stables" the voice says.

A sinister screeching voice answers "find those elves. They are ruining my plans of ruining Christmas this year".

Trilly pries loose one of the floorboards to better see what is happening. In a room right under her is an old goblin standing before a big rat walking on two legs and dressed with a cape and crown. She had heard stories about Rat Kings during her childhood but she thought it was just a myth. Here is a fully fleshed Rat King guarding a jar of a glistering substance which surely must be the Christmas Spirit. Now the next question was how to steal the jar without getting noticed. She sits back to think and can suddenly feel how hungry and tired she is. She glances down at her watch; it is five in the noon. Maybe she should get some rest and continue around midnight. It would be easier to steal the Christmas Spirit and escape while everyone is sleeping. She eats a sandwich and lies back against the wall and falls asleep.

At midnight Trilly awakes well rested to the loud sound of the Rat King snoring. She pries loose some more floorboards to make the hole big enough for her to crawl through. There is too far down for her to jump so she braids a rope out of ribbons and attaches it to the door. Very silently she climbs down into the Rat King’s room. The Rat King is curled up on a small bed in the middle of the room and on the opposite site of his bed is the table with the Christmas spirit. The snoring covers nearly all of her movement as she slowly walks around to grab the jar. And then silence. She turns around to look at the Rat King. He is still sleeping, he had just turned over on the other side and the snoring stopped. She carefully places the jar in her bag and climbs back out up the road and walks out of the door. It has now become time for her to escape the caverns without getting caught. But unfortunately she doesn’t know the way. She turns right in the room with all the traps and enters a circular room with nine new doors. Jork did not mention anything about this. Trilly tries the door right in front of her as she enters the room and it leads into another room with nine new doors. She walks back into the first room and tries the door to her right which also leads to a room with nine new doors. One after one she checks all the doors in the first room and every single door leads to a similar room with nine new doors. She reckons that this is a place where you could easily get lost and so she binds all the pieces of ribbons she has left to one long string. One end she binds to the door which she entered this room through and the other end she binds to herself. This way she will always have a trail to get back. She runs through door after door, through room after room until she has no more ribbon left. No matter which way she runs and no matter how far she runs all the rooms are the same. After have run back and forth and across the rooms for two hours she walks back to where she started. Maybe she can find another way out of the cave but as she opens the door that entered this hell through it also leads to a circular room with nine new doors. She lies down on the ground to catch her breath and get some breakfast. These goblins have some well-made trickery and if it wasn’t because she was trapped she could almost admire this kind of magic. While lying on the floor she looks up and sees that over one of the doors is a green lamp and over another door is a red lamp. She gets up and looks into some of the other rooms and finds the same situation; one red lamp and one green lamp in every room. She walks through a door with a green lamp on it and then walks through the next door with a green lamp on it but the rooms are still the same. Just to be sure she continues to walk through doors marked with green lamps and as she opens the fifth she is out where she started. The green lamps show the way deeper into the cave. Then the red lamps must show the way out of the cave. She runs through five doors marked with red lamps and is now out in a new tunnel. A goblin is sleeping beside the door to the circular rooms. She binds the ribbon string around the goblin before continuing. The tunnel splints into multiple other tunnels, some going downwards and some upwards and every tunnel leads to one or more rooms. She runs up a really steep tunnel and after a hundred meters upwards it turns into a slide dumping her back at the beginning of the steep tunnel. This is taking too long she should just find a goblin threaten her way out of here. She runs down a few tunnels and finally after some time she arrives in a little garden with a waterfall. A goblin is sleeping over his spear up on a small hill. She slowly pulls his spear out from his hands and points it at him before waking him.

"Where is the nearest exit" Trilly asks the goblin threateningly.

The goblin stares defiantly at her. She asks him again and places the tip of the spear on his chest. But he continues to stare defiantly at her. She stares back into his dirty face. She has to do something or she’ll lose the power in this situation. But she really doesn’t want to hurt him. The goblin senses her hesitation and a smile forms on his face. She slaps him with the spear and walks up behind him. The goblin turns around as he stands up and he tackles Trilly throwing her to the ground. She throws him off and tries to keep him at a distance with the spear. One thing is to hit someone but another thing is to really hurt and do damage to someone. The goblin moves closer and she stabs for him with the spear to make him stop. The goblin grabs the spear and yanks the out of her hands. She is defenceless and he keeps coming closer pushing her towards the waterfall.

“I just want to get out of here. Please” she begs.

But the goblin laughs and stabs for her. She panics and reacts by using magic to create a toy. The spear hits the magical strings and it explodes into a cloud a glimmer. Surprised the goblin falls stumbles and falls into Trilly. They fall into the waterfall and gets pushed down under water. She pushes the goblin of her and swims to the side and crawls out of the water. On land she looks into the water for the goblin ready for him to try something. He is flailing with his arms splashing wildly. It doesn’t look like he can swim. She hesitates for a second but then jumps back into the water. She grabs a hold of the goblin and pulls him out of the water. She stands beside the goblin as he gasps for air.

“Show me the way out”

“Why did you save me?”

“Because you were drowning and now you owe me, so show me the way out, please”

“There is a hidden tunnel on the top of the hill that leads out but for saving my life I owe you more than an exit”

“The exit is fine for now”

She finds a tunnel on the top of the hill. It is not much larger than an elf or goblin can crawl through it. But before she crawls through it she needs dry clothes. The blanket dress she made is soaked and she would freeze to death outside in this cold. Her Jingle n’ Bells jacket is still damp and her other dress is wet. She uses her magic and the strings forms a sweat that is three sizes too big. She puts it on and then pulls her jacket over it before crawling through the tunnel dragging her bag with the jar after her. After some time the tunnel goes straight upwards and leads her out on top of the cave. It is cold and it is snowing but she is finally back out of cave. Now she only has to get back home and then she get a warm bath and return to the relaxing work of gift wrapping. With the sun rising above her she climbs down the side of the cave. It is a difficult climb as it is covered with ice and snow but she eventually manages. Jork’s snow scooter is still standing outside the cave covered in a thin layer of snow. She hopes it is because they left it for her and not because they haven’t made it out yet. She can’t stay here and waste time to find out. She got to bring the Christmas spirit back to Santa and then she can worry about the others. The keys are in the scooter and ready for use. It takes a few tries to get the scooter started but it works and the trip home is easy much easier than the trip out. It only takes her a few hours to arrive back home. She leaves the scooter in the mid of the workshop yard and walks in to meet Madam Claus in the dining hall.

“Sweet Trilly you are back! Come in come in. You must be hungry and tired. Oh my this is a nice surprise” Madam Claus says as she sees Trilly in the door “Jork and Ludwig came back yesterday and they said you stayed to find the Christmas spirit. We have been worrying a lot and Santa has been getting worse”.

“Yes I got the spirit it is here in this glass jar you can give it back to him now” Trilly says and pulls the glass jar out of the bag “it was a Rat King who stole the Christmas spirit, he wanted to ruin Christmas”.

“Thank you so much. Well done Trilly go get some rest” Madam Claus says and then leaves with the jar.

Trilly takes some fruit, a bagel and a cupcake and walks back to her apartment. She wants a long bath and using her own bathroom without having to fear getting caught by goblins. And most of all she wants to sleep in a warm bed.

It’s evening. Someone screams outside in the hallways. Trilly has slept like she wouldn’t believe it and she is clean and dry. More screams sounds. Orange light breaks the darkness outside and lights up her room. She rolls out of bed to see what is happening outside. Through the window she can see large flames rising into the air like dragon fire. The stables are burning. Reindeer and elves run around in panic and a large dark shadow moves over the snow. Another fireball flies over the sky lighting up everything. The shadow is hundreds of goblins storming towards the workshop. She grabs a dress and pulls it over her head before running out in the hallway. She jumps to the side to avoid collision with elves running away. Three goblins are chasing the fleeing elves. She runs back into her and grabs a bunch of ribbon rolls. As the goblins runs by her room she uses her magic not to create a new toy but to control the ribbons. The ribbons moves like tentacles through the air and grabs the goblins one by one and pulls them inside her room. They get tied up and disarmed.

"Why are you here?" she asks the goblins.

"To ruin Christmas like the bossman wants” the first goblin laughs.

"Why does he want to stop Christmas?"

"We don't know. Bossman never told us and we don't care”

“Then why are you following the Rat King’s orders”

“If we don’t he is going to kill our kids and destroy our cave. He came a month ago and killed our King and Queen and locked our kids away deep in our cave. And now we have to do what he wants or he’ll kill more” the third goblin explains.

“What about dethroning the Rat King? I saw much great trickery in your magic when I was in your cave”

“We tried that. We had a resistance army but he killed them all and to punish us he also killed a child for every goblin who opposed him. After that we figured it was better if we followed rather than fought him”

“I heard Rat Kings were awful but this is horrifying. He needs to be stopped”

“Yeah what are you going to do about it?”

“Glerb I think she is the one who saved Galack from drowning and the one who stole Santa’s Christmas spirit from bossman” the second goblin says.

“You are the one who tricked bossman?” the first goblin, Glerb, asks.

“Yes that was me and I will defeat him again. Is he here in the attack with you?” 

“He is the one casting balls of fire across the sky”

“Good. No one as evil as him should be allowed to be free. But I could use your help in taking him down”

“We can’t or he’ll kill our children”

“Your children are back at the cave and he is here. He can’t touch them unless he gets back to the cave and he can’t get back to the cave if we stop him once and for all. But if you aren’t brave enough I will just let you hang here all night”

The goblins look at each other and whisper in goblish.

“We have agreed that you are correct. We will help you” Glerb finally says.

“Then go and tell the other goblins that when I give the signal we all turn on the Rat King” Trilly says while letting the goblins down.

“Thank you boss-lady. I am Glerb and this is Mrak and Nolk”

“I’m Trilly. Now go. I’ll spread the word to the elves”

The three goblins run out of the room and back where they came from. Trilly walks the opposite direction. She should go find Santa and Madam Claus to explain the plan and situation. Everywhere she finds goblins and elves fighting and running. She sneaks through the hallways of the workshop and strings up goblins every now and then with her magic. She feels much safer sneaking around the workshop as she knows every inch of it.

“There you are Trilly. It is good we found you. Madam Claus wants to know what you can tell about the situation. She said you said there is a Rat King” Jork calls to her. He is leading a small group of armed elves.

“I was just on my way to find her. Can you take me to her? And please don’t hurt the goblins too much, I’ll explain later”

“As you wish”

Jork signs to his group to take formation around Trilly and then they run as a single unit to the infirmary. They have barricaded the doors heavily and many elves stands guard outside with drawn weapons ready for an attack. Madam Claus is standing near a bed and puts bandages on an elf. Santa is lying in another bed with an empty glass jar on the table. Nurse elves run back and forth between beds and use their magic to take care of the injured.

“Madam Claus we found Trilly”

“Oh good and you are well. There are goblins everywhere and many elves have gotten injured in the fight already. We also have reports that many have been captured. What can you tell about their plans?” Madam Claus informs.

“Well I have good news. I captured three goblins in my room and they told me that the Rat King is forcing to goblins to obey him or he will kill their children and destroy their home. They don’t really want to do this. So I convinced them that we should join forces and stop the Rat King together. They are out their spreading the plan between the goblins. When I give the signal they will turn the fight on the Rat King”.

“Can we really trust them on this? I mean they are goblins after all” Jork grunts.

“We have to trust them on this or many will die tonight” Trilly snaps at Jork “we just have to drag the battle out long enough to inform the elves and give them time to inform the goblins”.

“Mother I think it sounds like a good plan and it is what dad would have done if he were better” a young woman says to Madam Claus.

“You are right Sabrina. Jork go out and spread the word. We shall not hurt more goblins in this fight and when Trilly give the signal everyone shall go for the Rat King” Madam Claus command and Jork runs out of the infirmary with his group.

“Is Santa going to make it?” Trilly asks as she looks over at him.

“Don’t you worry about old dad he has been here in like forever. We just gave him the Christmas spirit back. He will be as good as new in a few hours” Sabrina says and sends Trilly a smile.

“That is good. What would we do without Santa. Well I should be out there helping the others please stay save here” Trilly says and then leaves the infirmary.

She sneaks around spreading the word of the plan while looking for Glerb, Mrak or Nolk in the crowds.

"Bosslady! Bosslady!” Glerb calls for her as he sees her sneaking around the dining hall. He catches up to her “we have talked with most of the goblins and they are in on the plan. Though we couldn't get to his private army; he has one hundred of our most fierce warriors to protect him. But even if we had gotten to them they would probably have turned us in. So we will have to fight some of our own. Bossman is in the workshop with his private army destroying toys and machinery. We are all just waiting for your signal"

"That is good. Now I need you to take me to the Rat King as your prisoner”

Glerb binds a loose knot around Trilly’s wrists and then escorts her through the hallways to the workshop. Goblins and elves stops fighting as they pass them and follow far behind them waiting for the signal. As they pass Jork, Trilly smiles confidently to reassure him that his is part of the plan. Glerb leads her up to the workshop doors where five brutal looking goblins stand guard. The many goblins and elves that followed them stop just around the corner out of sight. Trilly gets pushed to the ground in front of the guards.

"I caught this elf in the apartments" Glerb says “she is the one who stole the Christmas spirit”.

"Set her up front. Bossman will enjoy killing this one" Glerb gets instructed by the guards and let in through the door.

One of the guards follows them inside and whispers something to the Rat King while Glerb places Trilly as instructed.

“So you are the one who ruined my plans. Don’t you know who I am? I am the great Rat King Garlth’wern. I will destroy Christmas, you and everything you love. You have just escalated my plans”

Garlth’wern walks around and stabs random elves while he talks. He clearly enjoys inflicting plain and killing. Trilly looks around the room and can count eighty heavily armed and brutal looking goblins which she guesses is part of the private army. They stand tall and ready for any command Garlth’wern could give them.

“I am going to stop you”

“And how are you going to do that little girl? I have you caught here in front of me and when I have killed you I will find Santa and kill him”

Garlth’wern stabs at Trilly with his rapier but Glerb pushes her out of the way and gets hit instead.

“I am going to stop you like this. Attack!” she yells and stands up.

Ribbons fly up from inside her clothes and spreads out in the workshop. All the doors to the workshop flies open with goblins and elves storming inside ready to fight. Garlth’wern moves back from the living ribbons while cutting down a few elves and goblins charging at him. The private army goblins are strong and every single one of them is easily fighting against four opponents each. Trilly puts a hand Glerb before following Gartlth’wern through the room. He points his rapier at her awaiting the first attack. Trilly pulls out a knife and starts to attack furiously but it is no match for the Garlth’wern. He parries every single attack and dodges the ribbons trying capture and bind him.

"You are weak. Your friend has sacrificed himself for a foolish idea. You can't save Christmas or the elves and now you have doomed the goblins. You are a disgrace and you have failed" Garlth'wern says and kicks Trilly in the stomach.

Trilly falls down gasping for her breath and Garlth’wern steps in over her with the rapier at her neck.

"I am going to enjoy killing all the goblin children" Garlth'wern provokes Trilly and forces her up standing with his rapier “I want to look you in the eyes when I kill you”.

The anger burns bright in her eyes. Garlth'wern swings his rapier but the ribbons block the attack. Ribbons from all around the workshop come alive and rises up in the air and flies towards him. He cuts them to million pieces as they come near. But it doesn’t stop the ribbons. All the small pieces keep flying at him. A storm of ribbon pieces forms around Garlth’wern and creates hundreds of paper cuts. Garlth'wern turns his focus to Trilly, he can’t fight the ribbons but he can fight her. He disarms her with a quick manoeuvre and now she has to retreat. All around her are elves and goblins fighting a violent fight. Blood, weapons and toys are lying everywhere. Many have gotten hurt or killed. Garlth’wern keeps stabbing for her but the ribbons blocks attack.

“You have thought better than expected but look around you, you are losing” Garlth’wern says and picks up another sword “this is over now”.

He cuts through the many layers of ribbons trying to protect her and stabs her right in the stomach.

“You are right. This is over” Trilly coughs and spits out some blood.

The several strings of ribbon grab a hold of Garlth’wern’s arms, legs, tail and neck. He is completely immobilized and gets strangled. She takes his rapier and stands up before him. While staring him deep in the eyes she stabs him through the heart. She falls over and passes out and both the ribbons and Garlth’wern falls to the ground with her.

“Oh good you are awake, how are you?"

She has been moved. This is not the workshop. A nurse elf comes and checks on her. She is lying in the infirmary and nurses runs around helping all the hurt elves and goblins. The nurse helps her to sit and then runs out of the room. At the bed to her left is Glerb drinking a cup of tea.

"Good morning bosslady" Glerb greets with a lift of his teacup.

"You are live! But you took a hit from me" Trilly says gladly surprised to see him. She reaches out to give him a hug, but ends up puking on the floor.

"No, no no no, NO, keep still and take it easy. You used too much of your magical power yesterday, your body is drained for energy. You are lucky you didn't die of exhaustion" a nurse comes rushing over and pushes Trilly back in her bed.

“And I thought it was the sword in my stomach that would have killed me” Trilly laughs.

Santa, Madam Claus and Sabrina walks in through the door and over to her bed.

“You have saved Christmas Trilly and even better, you saved all the goblins. You are a true hero and we are so glad that you made it through the night. We will celebrate you with a proper feast when you are better. And if there is anything we can do for you just mention it” Santa says.

“Yes well done Trilly. We just came to see how you were. We hope you are up and running soon. Now get some rest and do as the nurses say” Madam Claus says where after she and Santa leaves the room again.

“Thank you very much for saving my dad and Christmas” Sabrina says and moves closer to Trilly “you know the hero of these stories should always be rewarded with a kiss” and then she kisses Trilly.

After a few days in the infirmary Trilly is finally healthy enough to leave. The goblins had been flown home to the caves as soon as they were well and everything that had been destroyed in the battle was fixed. There are no traces left of the battle except for a small shrine honouring all who had died. She gets back to her apartment where she undresses for a hot shower. She could really use some time alone to just relax and let it all sink in. She has had a hard few days and she killed a person. She looks at herself in the mirror and Garlth'wern is standing right behind her. She spins around in shock and falls on the bathmat. She looks up but Garlth'wern is gone again. Trilly sits naked on the floor for a few minutes looking around. Had she just seen him? Could she just have seen him? She is sure she saw him, he looked so real. She gets up and takes a shower but doesn’t dare to pull the shower curtain. She stares at the door while showering fearing he will return again. She finishes off and gets dressed. She doesn’t feel like being in her room right now. Everywhere she goes elves comes up to congratulate and thank her. But why would they thank her for killing someone? As she enters the dining hall she is met with a loud applause; everybody claps and hoots at her. The loud cheer startles her and she instinctively makes ribbons fly up ready to protect her. Everybody gaps in shock and she realises what is happening. She takes a small bowl of Christmas porridge and sits down on an empty seat. Her hunger disappears after one bite and she gets a little nauseous. She takes another bite and is completely stuffed. Everybody in the room is looking at her and she can hear how some are retelling her story to anyone who wants to listen. The room starts to feel crowded. Everything is closing in on her. She can’t be in the dining hall much longer. She hurries to clean up and leave. Sabrina runs out of the dining hall after her and stops her in the hallway. Sabrina gets down on her knees and pulls Trilly into a big hug and just holds her really tight. Trilly starts to cry. They sit like that for half an hour. Sabrina just holds her tight. She feels safe.

"I saw him. He was in my room earlier and, and … I just need to …" Trilly can’t finish the sentence but Sabrina seems to understand it anyway.

"You did what you had to do. There were no other way, he would have killed you and everybody ells if you didn’t. But you are safe now. I will keep you safe now" Sabrina whispers softly in her ears.

Sabrina kisses Trilly after some time and then gets up.

“Come let us get you ready for the feast tonight. All the goblins are also coming. We are making it a combined celebration and funeral party to honour all who died and celebrate each other” Sabrina says and leads Trilly back to her apartment through the workshop yard where the snow is falling fresh.

THE END