Christmas Contest Entry: Kringletastic

Contest Entry by: Macaia's Daughter, ID 10890

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"Whaddya think?" Rosa asked.

"Firstly I'm trying to get around the fact that there's a real Santa," said Analisa as she feverishly typed away at her console.

"MOM!"

"Preciosa... yes I know. You've told me of Krampus before, doesn't make it any easier to understand," Analisa replied in a soothing voice.

"We could call the others," offered Rosa.

Analisa shook her head. "They're both on a hot lead on finding your friend, don't want them to lose the trail. We can do this to help Nova out. Watch this..."

The screen displayed a projection of Earth, with all its population centres highlighted. Suddenly, more dots appeared, filling much of the land area and parts of the oceans as well.

"If Santa's real, and if I was his evil sibling who doesn't want him located, he'd be right around -" Analisa pointed at a spot on the map.

"You're brilliant, mama! Can you advise Nova? I'm on my way!"

"Um, you advise Nova. We're both going."

-

Some time later, two women clad in heavy coats marched down a snow-covered slope. The sun beat down from above, but temperatures were well below zero degrees. The older one carried a scanning device in her hand, but she did not activate it.

Rosa was proving herself more than capable of using her abilities to track and Analisa smiled.

"There," came Rosa's voice, muffled. She pointed to a mound. They jogged cautiously across the terrain until they reached their target.

"Look for a door or a hatch or, yes," said Analisa. There was indeed some kind of cover, metallic in appearance but with no obvious handle to pull it open. She looked at her daughter. "Stand back."

Rosa folded her arms and frowned. There was no way she was going to *not* see her mother go to work.

Analisa ignored her daughter's mock defiance and began to sing softly. The words were an unusual mix of Spanish, English and an old Amerindian dialect that Rosa had yet to understand to this day, but the melody was soothing and relaxing. After half a minute, Analisa pulled her arms in a yanking motion. The cover slid away, reveaing a wide tunnel.

Rosa pulled out a flashlight and entered.

"Hello?"

A muffled noise came from the darkness ahead.

"Coming!" shouted Rosa as she broke into a jog, her mother not far behind.

They entered a room and saw a tall man - not as heavy as the legends suggested - clad in red, gagged and tied to a bench.

"The jolly man himself," smiled Analisa.

As they untied him, Santa said, "However did you find me all alone here? And you'll have to forgive me but my energy is totally sapped."

"Easy, big guy," Rosa smiled. "We figured that an evil mind like Krampus would try and hide you away from children. What more appropriate place than the one place on Earth where there ARE no children?"

"So Antarctica it was... as close to the South Pole as possible," added Analisa. "Also as far away from your traditional home as possible, too."

Rosa handed the big fellow a bag of sugar cookies. "We figured you could use something jolly."

"Ho ho!" laughed Santa.

Analisa gave her daughter a fist-bump. "Now, let's get out of here. Nova will be happy."