The train flew past red tall buildings as it dropped lower and lower to the ground, the gradient of the bridges dropping slowly to allow a gentle descent. As we approached the more built up areas, the train began to slow down. There were huge numbers of beings walking through the festive scenes, with carols playing over loudspeakers.
"Yona want to know who people in red are!" Yona asked.
"Those," Pharynx replied, "are elves. They are native to the North Pole, and are employed by the factories here. They are gathering in the centre of the city to see who will receive the First Gift of Christmas."
"Who will get the First Gift of Christmas?" Cozy asked. "And furthermore, how could we have been running late if the clock was always at ten minutes to midnight?"
"He will select one of you," Pharynx replied. "And you can still run late when time isn't moving."
Cozy just looked confused, but dropped the question as the train came to a stop well short of the central plaza. We hopped off, and saw in the distance that a massive tree had been set up in the courtyard before a set of giant doors. Massive crowds of elves stood there, and as most of us went to the plaza Sandbar suddenly tapped my shoulder. "Look," he said. "The boy's still onboard."
It then dawned on me I still didn't know his name, but we had to help him. We climbed back aboard, although I recall hearing a distinct hissing noise as I climbed up. We walked to the rear car, and saw the boy looking down at the floor.
"Aren't you going to join us?" Sandbar asked.
"No," the boy replied. "What's the point of going out there? I'm not going to be noticed, and I never have been. Christmas never has, and probably never will, work out for me."
"There's more to Christmas than just gifts!" Sandbar said. "There's the festivities, the spirit, the music, and the merriment that surrounds us at this time of year!"
"Christmas never has worked for me, and I'd be happier in here," the boy sighed.
I spoke up. "Look, I know I'm not the best of people to be lecturing about this, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you miss it, you'll be kicking yourself for the rest of your life!"
The boy looked as though he was about to reply, but there was a loud bang as the car in front of ours slammed into ours, and the rear car started rolling backwards.
"This isn't good!" Sandbar called, as he ran to the rear platform. "We look to be safe though, as the switch is set to take us along level track."
There was suddenly a loud buzz, and a point motor changed. We were now directed downhill.
"OK, maybe we aren't safe!"
The car rocketed downhill at dangerously high speed, miraculously not tearing off at any of the bends. I ran back to the rear of the car. I knew that although the cars were linked into a brake system controlled by the locomotive, the cars each had their own independent brake to hold them still on gradients. I must have disconnected the air brakes by mistake.
I found the brake handle.
"Turn that to slow the car down!" shouted Discord, who was somehow now perched atop the car. I swung the handle, a giant grey wheel, around to the right, which finally brought the brake blocks on. They screeched and groaned as sparks flew from the friction, and the car slid along through a dark tunnel and rolled onto a turntable suspended in mid air. A catch arm brought the car to a safe stop.
The three of us climbed down from the car. "Clearly, runaways like that are common, if they have safety features like that," Sandbar commented.
"Yeah," I replied, still panting heavily from the adrenaline. As you can probably tell, I wasn't the most athletic of people. "But where are we? And how do we get back to the main plaza?"
The boy's ears perked up. "Try following the music! Bing Crosby's that way!" He pointed to one of the tunnels.
"What?" I asked. "I can't hear anything!"
"This way!" the boy said, as he followed Sandbar over one of the exit tracks. I followed as best I could, the slippery ground not helping things in the slightest. We slid through the tunnel, walking on the sleepers as we did so to avoid sliding on the wet rails. Another odd thing happened as we followed the line. When we got about 50 feet out of the tunnel on the street side, the rails just stopped. The street kept going as if nothing was there!
"That's funny!" I said. "The rails just stopped."
"If we stop and catalogue every weird thing we see," Sandbar replied, "we'll be here all night." We then went into another building. The corridors were incredibly tight, so we had to try and squeeze through them even at our relatively short heights. Ahead of us there was a vast control room, with a globe of the world before them. More of the elves were operating the globe.
"Looks like this will be a quiet one, eh, Sam?" said one. "No major alerts today."
Suddenly, an alarm went off, and a location in the United Kingdom was illuminated. "You spoke too soon, Charlie!" called 'Sam'. "This kid here was caught correcting signs in his local supermarket, crossing our incorrect apostrophes."
"Yonder pedant, who is he?" 'Charlie' replied. "Seeing as it's almost Christmas Day, I think we should let him off just this once, but leave a note in his stocking telling him not to do it again."
"I see the Christmas Spirit has got to you too!" 'Sam' laughed. "Let's go. They're probably wondering where we are in the square!"
As they set off, Sandbar indicated to a door marked 'deliveries'. "That way!" he called, and we followed as best we could, navigating this bizarre underground empire at our height. We soon found ourselves at a sorting room in what looked like a post office. Suddenly, a yellow box dropped down a sorting hatch and onto the conveyor belt, which had started up.
"It's going to Johnstown, Pennsylvania," Sandbar read. "To a Mr Gallus Griffin."
"That's my home town!" the boy exclaimed. "And my name's Gallus!" He dived after the present before any of us could stop him.
"Well, what're you waiting for?" Sandbar asked. "We can't leave him alone, can we?" He dived in after him, and I followed. We soon found ourselves zooming around a series of delivery tubes and pipes that resembled slides at a water park. You know, the ones that give you horrible friction burns? We went down and round and round and down, into the dark dark depths before we fell through a plughole and onto a massive pile of presents in a bag.
"It's nonstop action around here!" I said, looking up at the roof as it slowly slid open. There was an airship above it, which attached guide cables to the bag and began to lift it into the sky. As we flew along over the sights of the North Pole, I began to consider the possibility that this was a dream again. However, I was snapped out of my thoughts when Gallus cried out.
"Something's got my leg!" he shouted. I looked down and saw a hand grasping randomly at things.
"Sandbar, there's somebody down there!" I shouted, as muffled cries for help came from below the pile of boxes. I began to dig through them and eventually hauled out the person. "Cozy Glow? How did you end up in here?"
The poor dear looked a mess as I helped her up. Her hair was frazzled, no longer in curls, and her clothes were dirty. "I wandered off and fell into the bag after I went through a door," she whimpered. I drew her into a hug. "Now I'll probably get in trouble."
"Guys? We got bigger things to worry about!" Sandbar called. "We're losing altitude, and we aren't going to clear the star!"
He was right. The bag slammed into the star and knocked it off, though it was luckily caught by a group of elves deployed from the airship lifting the bag. As for the bag, it was put on the ground, and a group of elves looked in at the four of us.
"We've been wondering where you lot were," said the first elf. We gradually climbed out and were dispatched to the bottom of the bag by sliding down it- the elves taking great delight in pushing us before they finished the countdown. No sooner were we back with the others, Gallus having relinquished his present in the meantime, a very slow and oddly drunk rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town started playing over the loudspeakers. Then reindeer were brought forward to be attached to a giant red sleigh sitting in front of the tree. They bucked and moved all over the place.
"Can you see him?" Sandbar called.
"See who?" I asked in return.
"Santa!" Sandbar and Silverstream chorused. "Don't those bells sound lovely?"
I couldn't see Santa or hear the bells. Suddenly, a bell appeared next to me, having detached from the reigns of the reindeer. I picked it up. I rang it. No sound.
Had I really come all this way for nothing? I closed my eyes, trying to hide the tears. "I believe," I whispered, and rang the bell again. No sound.
So I tried again, more forcefully and more confidently. "I Believe!"
Just then, the most beautiful sound and peals filled my ears. I opened my eyes and, to my amazement, I could hear the bell.
"What do you believe, dear?" asked a voice. I looked up, and gasped when I saw who it was.