Chapter Fourteen

Douglas

The day of the Christmas party, I received an email in the morning telling me where to go, what to bring, times, and all the last-minute details. Nothing in it was surprising, except for the not-meeting-Santa-at-Animals part. Instead, I was to go about a half mile down the road.

It made sense that Santa would want to make a grand entrance with me. If there were any humans around the club, seeing me shift into my reindeer form wouldn’t be allowed. And really, even if it was all shifters, watching me get ready would steal some of the magic away. This was better.

I kissed my mates goodbye, told them I’d see them at the party, and drove a short distance to what turned out to be an empty lot. From what I could piece together, there had been a building here not too long ago. My guess was they planned to rebuild in the space. There weren’t any signs telling me not to trespass, so I pulled in.

There were no other cars there and I parked my car, turning it off as I waited for Santa to arrive. I’d barely turned off the ignition when a knock on the door startled me. I looked over to see Santa at my window, dressed in his costume and waving. Behind him sat a sleigh that hadn’t been there when I pulled in—or had it? Things were just getting weirder by the second.

I climbed out of the car. “Hey, Santa. I didn’t see you.”

“Just got here. Come, let me show you the rig.”

The sleigh was small—much smaller than what I thought of as Santa’s sleigh—but it was beautiful. Intricately carved wood and leather made it look like something out of a museum and, of course, it was complete with a red velvet seat.

“This is gorgeous.” I ran my fingers along the wood trim.

“Thank you. She’s my favorite. I can’t take her on the big night, for obvious reasons.”

I blinked back at him. I had no idea what those obvious reasons were, but I wasn’t about to ask.

“I need something faster, but it works.” His explanation didn’t clarify much.

“Wait, how is this not fast? Aren’t the reindeer just as fast no matter what?” And that was the moment I realized that I believed he was the Santa. But if that were the case, why was he hiring me instead of bringing his own deer. Maybe I’d brave asking him that later.

He held his belly and laughed and laughed. “Ah, the reindeer. They’re just for show. Once upon a time, they weren’t, but now…now they’re just going on a run and looking magnificent in the air. They’re not doing the heavy lifting. I take care of the sled.”

“And I’m going to be…”

“Fine. You’re going to be fine.” He clapped his hands together. “Let’s talk about how this is going to work. All you need to do is basically be in the air. I’ll help lead you in the direction we’re going, and you don’t need to worry about the weight of the sleigh—I’ve got that.”

“Wait…you were serious about the flying?” I knew this. Probably always had if I was honest with myself. But now that it was happening, things were getting real.

Logically, none of this made sense. I guess that was why they called it Christmas magic.

“Well, of course! Now, we have about a half hour to get these lessons in. Let’s get to it.”

He started by explaining the different parts of the sleigh and the harness, how he would direct me once I was in my fur, and how we’d manage our altitude. He talked about how, if I wasn’t managing, he’d take care of it, so I didn’t need to worry. There was so much to take in and since magic was fueling most of the “how,” I still didn’t get how it was all going to go down.

The harness was firm—not soft, like I had imagined it would be. It wasn’t like a dog lead or anything like that. It would hold me in place.

I should’ve been getting more nervous with each part of the conversation. He was telling me I was going to fly . There was nothing normal about that. But I wasn’t nervous. I was excited. It was like Christmas morning, pulling my gift out of my stocking kind of excited. I could not wait.

Finally, Santa deemed it time to shift.

Santa collected my clothes and put them in the back of the sleigh, promising I could have them at the club. Then he got me settled into the harness. It was remarkably comfortable, given how inflexible it was. Had anyone told me I was going to willingly let my beast get restrained and turned into a method of transportation, I’d have thought them drunk. Yet, here I was.

“Ready for your snack?” The snack in question being what helped me get all four hooves off the ground. He handed me a carrot and told me to eat it.

I’d never been a huge fan of carrots in human form, but like all reindeer I knew—which, let’s be honest, was me—carrots were a favorite. I ate it all down, loving the sweet crunch.

Instantly, I felt different. Nothing I could put my finger on—just lighter, more relaxed. I was still me, but also…new. I’d have to ask Santa about that later when I had the ability to speak.

Santa told me I was a good deer then climbed into the sleigh. “Now, Douglas. Let’s dash away. Dash away!”

I took a couple of steps forward before my hooves no longer touched the ground. I was floating. No. Not floating. Flying! I was really flying.

The sleigh was in the air with me, and Santa had been right. I only needed to worry about myself. The rest would work out in the details.

As he pulled back on the harness, he guided me where to go, assuring me everything would be all right. I did as the harness directed. It came naturally in this situation.

We were up in the air, heading toward Animals. Either the entire city was going to see and I’d be on the news, or there was some sort of magic protecting us, masking it so that no one could see us. Soon enough, I’d find out.

And really, it didn’t matter if the entire city saw. No one would connect it to me. Everyone would assume it was a stunt for some movie being filmed, or an event happening at the zoo, or the Christmas market. Not a single one would think, “Oh, that’s the new guy in town who bought the money pit.”

When Animals came into sight, Santa told me we were going to circle it, so I did. We circled once then went a little lower before circling it again. On the third trip around, I saw my mates waiting for me, seeing what I had somehow managed to do.

They were standing there, looking up at me—Sage, staring up at me with the world’s largest smile, and Caspian, his jaw dropped and confusion on his face. They were out of sight too quickly for my liking.

A few more trips around and we landed, much to the joy of everyone there. If you asked me what I did to help with that, I had no idea. It simply came naturally to me.

Santa patted my nose and told me how well I’d done, asking if I was okay to stay harnessed. I nodded. There was no reason not to, and Santa had people coming over already. He was super popular, as I already knew. But seeing the people not going into the club to speak to him instead? That was awesome.

One after another, they swarmed around him, chatting him up, sharing their wish lists, and trying to figure out how the sleigh worked—or how I worked, in some cases.

Most of them thought I was a robot at first, which was fair. It would’ve been cool, too. But once they got closer, they could see I was just a typical reindeer…at least the kind in movies about Santa.

When people finished with Santa, they went inside. The music was already playing and knowing the reputation of the club, there was so much more fun than dancing happening in there.

Soon after, it was just my mates, Santa, and me.

“You gonna pick that jaw up, Caspian?” I teased.

“He really flew!”

“Yeah,” Santa said, “but he won’t be able to do it all the time.”

Which was good. I didn’t think I wanted that skill. It was cool for the moment, but wasn’t something I wanted to have at my fingertips—or, I guess, my hooves.

“Well, why don’t we get him undone? I brought his clothes.”

After I was out of the harness, I shifted and grabbed my clothes from Santa. Sage helped by taking my shoes to free up my hands a little.

“Where did you start from?” Sage asked. “It’s like you came out of nowhere.”

“Oh, I’m parked just about a half mile from here.”

“That’s impossible.” Sage looked more confused than ever. “We parked right next to you.”

Santa clapped my shoulder. “Figured you’d want to be here with your mates and party, not worry about it.”

If I had a single stitch of doubt he was the real deal, there was not one left.

“How did you…” I started, but he just tapped the side of his nose.

“Now, go on inside.”

“Let’s see what this party is all about.” Sage kissed my cheek as Caspian kissed the other.

As I pulled on my shoes, I noticed the sleigh was gone. I decided to chalk it up to one of the million things I would never understand about today.

I took my mates’ hands, and we went inside. We danced, drank copious amounts of eggnog, ate cookies, and sang very loud (and very off-key) Christmas carols.

It was the perfect party. Sure, having Santa there was great, but it was my mates who made the event. I was a lucky, lucky reindeer.