Chapter 4 -A Close call at the North Pole
With his limited strength, Santa pulled up his magic sleigh and his reindeers who looked extremely tired. They lifted their heads to greet their master. “Reindeers are creatures born from part of my magic and if my magic were to vanish completely then they wouldn’t die but they would suffer tremendously,” sighed Santa.
Chris would stay behind to ensure that if anything were to happen at the North Pole then he would be on standby to assist with the problem. In the meanwhile he would do as much research on whatever was threatening Santa’s magic and see if there was a way to defeat it.
The sleigh began to rise and the reindeers began to pick up speed. Soon Chris’s house was nothing more than a shrinking dot which would soon vanish.
Time passed by and the wind started to pick. A freezing tundra soon came into view and Tom and Jerry turned to look at the North Pole which was rapidly coming closer.
A landing strip for the sleigh was raised out of the impossibly dense layer of snow. The sleigh began to descend but it certainly wasn’t slowing down at all. They were gonna crash land into the white strip. Santa then summoned multiple talismans around the sleigh and reindeers. He groaned with effort as he pleaded for the magic to work. The ground was only a mile away and they were still not slowing down. It looked to Tom and Jerry that their mission would be over before it even began. Soon they noticed that the talismans that Santa was working on were starting to work. Even Santa could not believe it. They soon touched the ground relatively unharmed compared to the alternative.
Then mystically, a voice broke through, “You seem to have finally landed!”
It was Chris and boy! were Tom and Jerry glad to hear his voice. So was Santa!
“We are so glad that you could intervene Chris. I don’t know what happened, my magic just seemed to have lost control.”
“Hmm,” remarked Chris, “I observed your magic during the flight and to save you I had to tap directly into the magic stone back here to provide power for the talismans you failed to power up fully”.
The party soon recovered from their ordeal and travelled towards the North Pole. It was already evident why Santa’s magic was so necessary. The factories were producing much too little for what would be required to make toys for children around the world. His workers, the elves, were trying to compensate for the factory’s limited output but they could only compensate so much. The elves job was to refine and check the quality of the toys, not to take raw material and create toys out of them.
Santa stood there and communicated to Chris to send him help one more time. Santa then walked outside the factory and stood there. He surged his magic and the magic charms around the factory lit up, albeit a little dim. He then began to surge the charms in an attempt to power up the factory. Chris from his house created a direct channel to Santa and the two began to work.
The magic was working but they were nowhere near close to fully restoring the factory. They heaved with effort but all was in vain, they were about to give up when Tom and Jerry began to glow with a blue and orange light respectively, the light began to move towards Santa. The lights made contact and Santa felt empowered like never before. The charms began to work faster and more powerful than they were ever before. The light soon died down and the duo collapsed onto the floor. They were groggy and tired for some reason unbeknownst to them. All they heard was Santa’s cries for elves to help the two to the gurney and get them some help from the workshop. Tom passed out and Jerry soon after.
Chapter 5 – Hope?
Eventually the pair woke up. Santa was nowhere to be seen and the elves were busy again thanks to the factory that was now working overtime.
“What was that?” asked Jerry.
“I don’t know, why are you asking me?” replied Tom.
“Did you know you could do that?” inquired Jerry.
“Did you know you could do that,” mocked Tom “How did you do that? ” he shouted back at Jerry.
“Something strange happened and we should investigate what happened before we progress with helping Santa any more. If what we did could help Santa then we should learn how to use it on command”Jerry replied.
The pair then continued talking but stopped when they heard the door open. Santa walked in, “Hello there you two almost had me worried that you weren’t going to wake. Thanks for your help but we won’t be able to restart production”. Santa smiled but in his head he truly wondered what had happened to the two of them. He wondered if they had any innate magic within them before Chris gave them magic so they could speak.
Chris was already in the basement and was deep in research, book and scrolls sitting all over his table. He had thrown himself at finding a solution to the problem. The problem lay in the fact that almost nobody had ever had a proper encounter with whatever was messing with the magic of the world. His best chance of finding the solution was to go back to the time of the last magic crisis, a time when magic had begun to fade out and the spirit was crushing the magic stones around the world. The last attack was 1000 years ago. Hence the non magic people didn’t remember that magic truly existed once upon a time. The texts of the time were guarded with secrecy, but he as one of the last remaining sorcerers, had access to them. As he went through the sacred texts, he made a shocking discovery.
Chapter 6 – More History
It said in the scrolls that when the spirit began stealing away the magic of the world, two wizards conducted a powerful ritual which pleaded to the starlit skies for help. They say that the stars responded and sent aid to help vanquish the spirit, but it turns out that this aid would only temporarily subdue the spirit for a period of 1000 years. But 1000 years was a pretty long time.
The scrolls described that the aid that was sent was now the two ‘spirit familiars’ of the wizards who partook in the ritual. One was born of the coalesced stardust and nebula and the other was birthed by the power of a constellation known for its great potency in sorcery amplification. The scrolls also mentioned that the form of the ‘spirit familiars’ would be a secret lost to time.
Chris thought that maybe they could conduct the same ritual that the wizards had conducted 1000 years ago. He began gathering necessary material until a message came through. He looked at it and what he saw absolutely shocked him. If what he saw was right and what he read was true then they finally had a means to subdue the spirit for another 1000 years. The two ‘spirit familiars’ who had aided in the downfall of the spirit a thousand years ago had been with him the whole time. He found the scroll which held the same spell required. He began gathering the necessary parts to put this spirit to sleep again. But for that, he needed to go to the north pole.
Just as Chris was gathering his stuff, he noticed a dark shadow forming over the crystal and then emanated a cry so agonising that it chilled him to the core. He saw the spirit for the first time- a giant swirl of gas. The colour was so dark that even light would not be able to reveal its form. He tried to blast the creature away to prevent it from destroying the crystal, but it only absorbed the blast and grew in size. Chris knew he stood no chance and that the crystal was about to be destroyed. He needed to escape.
Turning around, Chris fled with all his research material in his bag. The creature did not give chase but instead began to drain the crystal. Chris pulled any power that he could from the crystal and made a portal to the north pole. The crystal began to crack and the portal warbled. Chris ran as fast as he could. The crystal cracked further and soon shattered. The portal was closing fast but Chris managed to jump through leaving the demonic entity and narrowly escaping. The beast would attack the remaining crystal, so Chris needed to act fast.
Tom, Jerry and Santa were zoning out until Santa snapped them out, the alarm was going off. Santa ran off and Tom & Jerry soon gave chase as well. They all continued to run towards the source of the problem until they accidentally ran into Chris, toppling him over.
“Chris? What are you doing here?” Santa asked.
“I know how we can put this spirit away for another 1000 years,” replied Chris. “And you two are at the centre of the solution”, he pointed at Tom and Jerry.
“WHAT, WHY US?” Tom asked.
“WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?” Jerry fired.
Chris looked at them in bewilderment, he could not believe that Tom and Jerry did not know what they were. There should be a reason why their past was not known to them. The alarms continued to blare and everyone was brought back into the situation. Santa told everyone to rush into the crystal room and Chris feared that it might be too late to save it.
Writer : Ethan
Grade : 10 (Year 2023)
Place : Sydney, Australia
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