Christmas Story/ HoHoHo Read-a-thon Story Challenge

Here's a little Christmas story I threw together for the HoHoHo Read-a-thon reading challenge over at Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries and More. I thought this challenge was a great idea and was a lot of fun.

Please see Melissa's site for the rules of the challenge and for other good stuff. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS EVE WITH TRUFFLES

Christmas Eve found Truffles sleeping contentedly on the bed of her human. She was a young kitty, and new to the family, so all this Christmas stuff was new too. The twinkling lights, the presents under the tree with the irresistible bows and  wrapping paper, the ornaments on the tree… and the tree itself! What a wondrous thing- Truffles still remembered the day it came in from outdoors, snowy and smelling like wild things, and all the boxes and tissue paper everywhere as ornaments were unwrapped and placed on the tree. That had been a fascinating night! Lots of boxes to crawl into… too bad they had to be put away all too soon. Phooey!

Truffles was having little kitty dreams when something woke her. An odd noise- she listened for a moment, then put her head back down. There it was again- a thump from above. That was strange- it almost sounded like something was on the roof. What on earth could be moving around up there in the middle of the night? After thinking about it for a few moments, she decided to investigate. It was time for a bite to eat anyway.

As she jumped silently down from her human’s bed and padded into the living room, she saw Whisper curled up in one of the living room chairs by the tree. Whisper, her older sister and queen of the house. Whisper (so named because her meows were so quiet) had been here for years before Truffles arrived, but they got along well from the start. Truffles suspected that Whisper had been lonely and was only too glad to have some proper feline company in the house again… apparently her sister had gone away in one of those ridiculous cat boxes after falling ill, and had not come home.

Whisper was an old hand at this Christmas stuff- she had been around this block a few times. She sniffed disdainfully at Truffles’ fascination with boxes and loose tissue paper, and maintained her dignity at all times- but Truffles wasn’t fooled. She had caught Whisper just the other night tearing through the living room, batting a stray ornament around like she was a young’un, and looking decidedly undignified the whole time. Truffles had rather enjoyed watching her gallivant all over the house- apparently the old girl still had some moves left after all. Of course after Whisper was done, Truffles had to have a go at the ornament herself… until she batted it down the basement stairs and heard a tinkling crash. Oops.

Whisper watched with one eye open as Truffles made her way through the living room towards the kitchen. She passed the little card table with its saucer of milk and Christmas cookies- that had been odd, she thought, that they had left an unusual snack like that out. Her and Whisper had promptly lapped the milk up as soon as the humans were asleep, of course, but the cookies… nah. Not really her thing. Now as she approached her food bowl she heard something again- a rustling noise from the living room. Turning back, she saw Whisper now fully awake and quite alert. There it was again- something or someone was in the living room. At this time of night?

Peeking around the corner she saw movement by the tree. One of the little humans? No they were all fast asleep, she was sure. And the kids didn’t have pointed ears and wear red and green- nor did they have little bells that tinkled when they moved. This was something altogether different. This little creature was busy stuffing things into the stockings hanging from the fireplace, and there was a sack by the fireplace bulging with what looked like presents. The creature turned away from the stockings, rubbed his little hands together as if pleased, then went to the sack and began removing presents, placing them under the tree carefully. Truffles wondered if there was one for her…

Once the presents were placed, the strange little creature turned toward the fireplace- but then turned back and with a little smile approached the card table. Whisper rose as he got closer and arched her back, but she held her ground- this was her home, after all. The pointy-eared stranger just smiled at her, reached out a tiny hand and stroked her behind the ear, then turned his attention to the Christmas cookies on the tray. He looked them over, picked one, took a bite, and then apparently satisfied, stuffed the rest into his mouth. The other two he slipped into a little satchel he was carrying. “For later, you understand,” he said to Whisper.

Truffles moved closer, cautiously, and the little creature turned to look at her. “Hello, shy one,” he said pleasantly. His voice was like a bird chirping and yet not at the same time. Truffles wondered if this could possibly be the “Santy Claus” she always heard her little humans chattering on about. She thought he would be… plumper, somehow. As if reading her thoughts he shook his head and said, “No, I’m afraid I’m just one of the helpers. The old man had a few too many cookies on the first few stops, and ‘afore long he don’t fit down the chimney no more. So it falls to the rest of us to do the work while he sips hot chocolate up top.” He cocked his head towards the ceiling with a wry smile. “Happens ev’ry year…”

“Well I best be off… the night is still young and we got lots more stops yet. Tally ho, you two.” And with that the little man swept off his cap, gave a low bow, and waddled over to the chimney. Grabbing his sack he turned and waved, then he was gone in a rush of air up the chimney.

Truffles could see that Christmas was a little more peculiar than she had realized. She glanced at Whisper, who gave the feline equivalent of a shrug and proceeded to make herself comfortable, turning around in her chair several times before laying down and going back to sleep. Truffles decided to go have that snack, and had just reached her bowl when she heard muffled voices from the roof, and then a long thumping noise like something was being dragged across the roof. Then it was gone, though she saw snow drifting down outside the kitchen window, no doubt disturbed by whatever was going on up there. Strange, Truffles thought as she padded back to the bedroom. Certainly more to this Christmas than meets the eye. She wondered what else was going to happen. But a deep silence settled back over the house as she leapt onto the bed and found a spot on top of one of her humans’ feet. Lots of time for a good sleep before morning, she thought drowsily. After all, the night was still young.