Rudolph the Red

By Mark Owens

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer sped through the turns of the training course, with a load of coal in a small one-deer sledge harnessed behind him. He executed a perfect landing atop the roof of the house, the slats of the sledge inscribing arrow-straight tracks in the snow. He took off with a surge into the crisp North Pole air. A tight turn and a slide and he made it to the next roof, snow in sparkling waves behind him. The course wasn't difficult. Not anymore. The elite Reindeer team used it a few times a week to keep their skills sharp, but that left plenty of time for him to practice on it. He had gotten good. Very good. Santa couldn't help but see that. This is my year, he thought to himself, I'm faster than anyone on that team, except maybe Comet. Maybe. Donner and Blitzen are big, but I'm as strong as them. And Dasher. . .

Rudolph didn't like to think of Dasher. The Leader. Santa's Pet. The North Pole's darling, favorite son, who could do no wrong. Dasher. The asshole.

The others just follow Dasher's lead. They'll come around when Santa finally realizes I belong on the delivery team.

The rest of the team were no competition. Dancer, an opportunist and a sycophant, he was on the team because he looked good next to Dasher. Prancer had some measure of nimbleness about him, but often lost focus. Dasher had insisted Vixen join the team because he considered her his. Comet was fast. Really fast, but Rudolph had no doubt he could beat him over longer distances. Cupid's arrogance nearly matched Dancer's. Donner and Blitzen had grat slabs of sheer, solid muscle, and not much brain. They bore the main weight of the sleigh, and that was all they were good for. Bunch of slackers and suckups, every one of them. Every day he flew this course, more perfectly every time, across rooftops, through the tall hoops, and the delivery team spent their days eating alfalfa and kissing Dasher's ass.

Rudolph finished the course, perfectly as always, and gave a start when he noticed Vixen watching him.

"You've gotten pretty good," she said.

Rudolph felt warmth creep up his face. She was talking to him. Oh, and she was coming closer. His stomach clenched as she stepped next to him. "Thanks." Rudolph detached the hooks securing the coal sleigh to his harness with his teeth. He examined the load. Not one lump of coal missing. The naughty children would not be disappointed.

"I remember when you started, you used to drop coal all over the place and knock shingles off the roofs. You've really gotten good. I'm not sure I could do as well myself." She was close enough he could feel the warmth of her. His nose lit up despite himself, a warm glow that turned the snow pink around them.

"Sure you could. Santa won't put you on the Delivery team unless you can do this course."

"Speaking of joining the D-team, going to try again? I hear Santa's in a good mood today. You might just get lucky." She winked at him, and Rudolph swallowed hard. His nose flared brighter and Vixen giggled.

"Santa's in a good mood every day. He's Santa. But yeah, I hoped to talk to him about it again."

"I'll put in a good word for you." They heard hoofs crunching in the snow and turned to see Dasher coming up behind them.

"Vixen! There you are. Why are you talking to that freak? Is he bothering you?"

Vixen gave him a coy smile, "What if he was?" Dasher's face darkened. "No, no he's not. What is it?"

"Good. Santa wants to see the Delivery team. The elves have some new harnesses for us, and he wants to get them fitted. Hey, if the freak there is lucky, he might get to use our old traces." Dasher laughed and shook his antlers. Vixen smiled at Rudolph and gave him a wink, then followed Dasher as he walked off.

The Delivery team was trotting around the loading yard in their new traces when Rudolph arrived. The green-dyed leather straps looked good. Much better than the old brown ones. He'd look good in that harness himself. The others would come around when Santa put him on the team.

Rudolph trotted right along the traces toward where Santa stood observing the Elves as they adjusted the new harnesses.

Prancer's eyes narrowed and he let out a harrumph, as though Rudolph's very presence wearied him. "Piss off, Pinocchio. We're busy,"he said, his voice pitched low so Santa couldn't hear.

"Go back to hauling coal. You're no use here."Dancer watched him from his position next to Dasher, who just glared at him. Rudolph ingored them all.

Santa stepped in to adjust Prancer's harness as Rudolph approached. The reindeer fell silent at his approach. "Santa, could I speak with you a moment?"

"What is it, Rudolph?"Santa's jolly smile never left his lips, but his eyes remained focused on the adjustments to Prancer's harness buckles.

"Santa, I can fly as well as anyone here on the team. Please give me a chance to prove to you I am good enough to join the Delivery team. I promise, you won't regret it."

Santa looked up at him and sighed, "Rudolph, I'm sorry. I have a full team, chosen from the best flyers. I stand by my decision."

"But Santa,"Rudolph began, but Santa cut him off.

"No, Rudolph. I'm sure you've worked very hard, but I need you on the coal hauling team. The Delivery team has been together for over a hundred years, they work together like. . . like cookies and milk. I need more than just flying skill, I need teamwork, and each member of the team has proven themselves time and again."

"But. . . "

"Rudolph, I've told you before. We need your particular talents in the coalmines, where your nose can light hazardous tunnels without risk of explosion. You don't want the coal elves risking their lives by using candles, do you?"

Rudolph lowered his head. "No. I just thought. . . " Maybe a flashlight? Rudolph bit back the suggestion. As long as he had a job here, he could stay. No sense in suggesting himself into the wild.

"The answer is no, Rudolph. I'm sorry."Santa finished his adjustments and trudged back toward the workshop, where three green-clad elves awaited him with papers in hand to lead him into the workshop.

Dasher snorted. "You should have listened, freak. I've had enough of you trying to weasel your way onto my team." He bent down and bit the harness buckle, releasing the straps. The others followed suit. They formed up around him with Dasher facing him down. Rudolph's nose glowed a dim red and his ears flattened. "Every year you come around here, wasting Santa's time. You should be grateful for having some reason to live. I wanted to leave you to the wild. It would be better for all of us, you included. You could wander around in some herd, unaware of your freakishness and we would be spared the sight of that ugly glaring red thing on the end of your face."

Rudolph said nothing. He glanced at Vixen, who sidled over to Dasher and nuzzled his face. "He keeps staring at me, too. He told me that once he joined the team, I'd be his whenever he wanted me. That he'd get the position behind me so he could 'enjoy the view'all Christmas Eve."

Dasher's eyes flared and he brought his antlers down hard on Rudolph's, locking them together and forcing him back a step. With a heave, he twisted his head, sending Rudolph tumbling to the ground at his feet.

"Freak, if you ever EVER speak to Vixen again, I'll trample your head into the ground and piss on the glowing mess, you understand me? Donner. Blitzen. Teach him a lesson."

Rudolph struggled upright just in time to meet Donner's charge. The huge reindeer's antlers collided with his, snapping off a tine and sending Rudolph to his knees. Stars sparkled before his eyes. Blitzen strode up beside him and casually kicked him in the ribs, and Rudolph went sprawling across the ice. "Get up,"Donner said, his voice as cold as the ice itself.

"Get. Up."Blitzen's voice echoed his brother's. Rudolph scrambled up and ran, the sound of Donner and Blitzen's churning hooves pounding behind him. The laughter of the rest of the team receded as he fled, willing his legs to move faster. Vixen's crystal laugh carried the furthest, and he fled from it as much as from the huge reindeer behind him. More than his ribs or the roots of his antlers, or even his pride, Vixen's laughter pierced the heart.

The twin brute's hoofbeats fell away, but with a rapid staccato of hoofbeats and a blur of motion, Comet crashed into him sidelong, sending him sprawling into a snowbank beside the stable door. Comet's laughter faded as he sped away, faster than Rudolph had ever seen any reindeer move. He'd thought himself the equal of anyone on the team, but he'd been wrong. So very wrong. Comet's speed, Donner and Blitzen's strength, even Dasher had humiliated him. Rudolph took to the air, he didn't care where he went, he just flew away. Far away.

Hot tears froze across his eyes as he flew. He was dimly aware of ice walls on either side of him, curving upward until they almost met a hundred feet above him. Heedless, he careened through the cavernous crevasse, dodging slabs of ice and icicles as thick as his neck and twice his height. On he flew until he hit a sheer wall of ice and fell to the ground unconscious.

The keening wail of the wind over the crevasse woke him. He would die if he stayed here. But wouldn't that almost be better? It's what the Delivery team wanted, for certain. But no, he'd worked too hard to lie down and let it all go to waste. So he couldn't join the team officially. Maybe he could be an alternate or something. If one of the others got injured or sick, perhaps he could step in in a pinch. Or maybe he could go back to the mines, grateful he could fly at all. Or speak. Or think. His shiver had little to do with the cold..

He stood and shook the snow off. His legs were numb and his nose glowed a dim, shimmery red that brightened steadily as he stamped warmth back into his legs and worked the stiffness from his joints.

"Hey!"Rudolph looked up to the source of the voice. Olive, the toy transport team leader swooped in and landed beside him. "There you are, Lightshow. What are you doing down here? The Coal team is looking for you."

"I was practicing. I'll head back. Thanks, Olive."He turned to go.

"What were you 'practicing'for? You look like you lost a fight with six bears. What happened to your atler?"She leaned in close to look at the snapped tine.

"I don't really want to talk about it."Rudolph took to the air, back toward the mines where he lit the darkest tunnels for the miners in the drear and dim, where all was sweat and cold and coal dust and bitter elves with nothing better to do than dig and complain. The miners were the last of the naughty children brought back in Santa's sack, the ones who persisted in naughtiness after their warning of a lump of coal instead of gifts. Turned into elves by the magic of the North Pole, they would live forever, working day in and day out to dig up the coal that heated the houses and fired the furnaces of the workshop and its attendant buildings. The practice had ended many years ago, but the dust elves continued their toils until their names came up 'nice'on Santa's List. Not one had in decades.

"You tried to join the Delivery team again, didn't you? I told you what would happen."

He hadn't realized Olive had followed him. "Maybe I did."

"Look, the D-team may have a stick up their collective butt, but they really are the best flyers we have. And they worked hard to become so. They were flying delivery when you and I weren't even a gleam in our mothers'eyes."

"That's real encouraging, Olive, but I'm meant for more than the mines. Any other reindeer with a flashlight could do my job. The days of open flames in mines is over. I'm a glorified canary; if I'm not hauling coal like any of a dozen other reindeer, I'm waiting in a dark cavern to die of a gas leak."

"There's nothing wrong with being one of the 'other reindeer'you know."Olive's voice had lost most of its joviality, but Rudolph didn't notice.

"I know, but I am good enough to join the Delivery team."

"Look, a lot of us would love to fly Santa's sleigh. I've dreamed of doing so myself, even if only once, but it's not going to happen. Santa picked the best flyers for his team, and it's entirely his choice. 'Good enough'isn't going to cut it."

"I know. I have to become great."Rudolph looked back at the crevasse, still looming behind them as they flew. "Look at that course. All twists, turns, rocks and razor-sharp icicles. Makes the training course look like cake."

"Oh, no. Dumb idea. That is a glacial crevasse. It's unstable and dangerous and you were a fool to go there to begin with. If you think that training in that is going to do anything but get you killed, you're insane."

"Olive, you don't understand. I have to do it. I have to become the best flyer the North Pole has ever seen. You'll see."

"Now I know why your nose is so shiny. All the brightness leaked out of your brain and settled on the end of your face. Maybe you can find something else to do besides lighting coalmines, but give up trying to join the Delivery team and don't go back to that crevasse. People die in there. Elves. Reindeer. Other things. Santa's polar bear skin rug came from a bear that wandered in there once and got hit by falling ice. You've seen that rug, it's huge!"

"I'd wondered about that."

"Do you think Santa hunted it down and killed it himself? Not his style. But he's not wasteful, especially up here. And don't you waste your life either, not by trying to get on the D-team and not in that damn crevasse."

"I'll think about it,"he said, just to shut her up.

"No you won't. But at least I'll know where to look for your corpse when you go missing."

Rudolph watched her go. She joined her team on the ground as they were hitching a load of toys to haul from the factory building to the packaging facility. She never looked back.

Easy for her to say. Rudolph thought, She has a respectable job and her nose doesn't make her a freak. She'll understand when I do make it onto the team. He turned to look at the glacial crevasse behind him, a twisted scar in the ice, or some hideous maw howling its rage to the sky. He could just make out the howling of the wind through the ice. He turned and flew straight back toward it. If I can master this crevasse, I can do anything. Santa will see he can't afford to lose a flyer who can navigate like I can.

Rudolph picked out a punishing course through the ice and flew it as quickly as he could as often as he could. When others questioned his scrapes and bruises, he said he got them while training. He felt no need to elaborate on the particulars of his training. After several days he could navigate most of the crevasse without so much as a scratch, except the very end, where an ice wall loomed, from the bottom of the gap where the shadows were always deep nearly to the top, so crystal clear as to be nearly invisible. His course required him to dip low just before the wall, then spring up, avoiding an outcropping of compacted ice in the process. He had never succeeded. Every time he'd make it nearly to the top, and then crash into the wall. The first time he did it, he snapped another antler tine. After that, he learned to twist to the side to spread out the blow, but he could never quite make it.

He often arrived late to work in the mines, and fell asleep on his feet, which dimmed his nose, causing the coal elves to prod him awake on more than one occasion. After a month, he discovered that he could use the icy outcropping instead of avoiding it. He would race up to the outcrop and then drive straight for the ledge, launch himself from it and clear the top of the ice wall, if only barely. After that, the injuries healed and before long, he could navigate the howling crevasse untouched. It became routine. He would wake up, run the crevasse, work in the mines, then run it again before the elves came with dinner and again just before he went to bed.

When the winter fogs began, he would use the foggy days to hone his skills further, barely able to see and having little time to react, he learned to time each move in his mind, reacting almost without thought to each outcropping and each sharp turn and twist. He began to challenge himself, running more and more of it with his eyes closed, mastering the timing, the twists, the jumps, and the turns of the icy hell of the dying glacier. Then, two days before Christmas, he cleared the ice wall with his eyes shut. He finally mastered it. Santa would have to add him to the team.

The Delivery team glowered as he approached them in the yard. The elves busied themselves cinching Donner and Blitzen into their harnesses and attaching them to the sleigh. The rest of the elves decked their harnesses with the jingling bells of the season. The rest stood still as the elves checked their hooves and adjusted their harnesses. Blitzen bit halfheartedly at an elf who pulled too tight at his chest strap.

Santa was at his upstairs office window, overseeing the preparations. They wouldn't dare do anything with Santa looking on.

"We thought you'd finally given up, freak."Dasher glared at him over the head of the elf that was hanging bells from his chest harness.

"I've been practicing. Santa will see what I can do now and I'll be flying with you in no time."

Comet snickered and Vixen shook her head. The others just looked away from him or whispered to each other. Dancer gave him a pitying look, and Prancer just watched. He ignored them. Dasher snorted. "Don't you know you belong down in the mines where no one can see you? Let the coal elves put up with you, no one else should have to."

"You'll see. When Santa comes out here, I'll show him what I can do now. You'll all see I am good enough to join you."Donner grumbled, looking uncomfortable.

Dasher snorted. "Freak, no matter what you do you'll never be good enough to join us. It doesn't matter what skills you learn, what tricks you can do, you, yourself, are simply not good enough as a reindeer to join the D-team. You are a freak of nature and nothing you say or do will ever excuse that."

"You're wrong, Dasher. I am good enough. You'll see. When Santa comes out..."He looked up at Santa, still in his office window, his attention now focused on the reindeer yard and on Rudolph himself.

"Santa told you before, he handpicked us to fly his sleigh." Dasher advanced on Rudolph as he spoke, until they were nearly nose-to-nose. "We were chosen because we were the best, and we've only gotten better since then. You just don't have it. And you never will. Stop humiliating yourself and go back to the mines. It's embarrassing to be seen with you and embarrassing to have to keep teaching you a lesson."

"Santa's looking right now, I'll show you."Rudolph leapt into the air, and began an intricate acrobatic maneuver, but Dasher snarled and leapt up with him, locking his antlers into Rudolph's and flipped over his back, dragging Rudolph over and around and cast him sprawling to the ground. Dasher landed next to him and gave him a savage swipe with a hoof.

"No, freak, we don't want to see your ridiculous tricks, and you won't be wasting Santa's time again this year. Go back underground and hide. Or better yet, run out to the wilderness and forget all about flying and Santa and Christmas. You aren't a part of it and you never will be."Dasher turned his back and trotted to the other side of the yard, forcing the elves to come to him to continue outfitting him. The other reindeer just turned away.

Dancer gave him a sad look and trotted over. "Look, Rudolph, Dasher is deadly serious about this. Just stop. He really hates you and he will hurt you badly if you keep this up. It's gone on too long and it's not funny anymore. Just leave it alone."

Rudolph panted hard. Dasher's kick had broken the skin and his ribs were creaking from his fall. "I've worked too hard to stop now. I can do it."

"No, Rudolph you can't. The rest of us don't hate you, not really, but you're just not one of us. Santa picked us. . . "

"Yeah, yeah. Hand picked by Santa. Special and better. Whatever. It just means I have to work twice as hard. " Rudolph struggled to his feet and faced Dancer, who just shook his head.

"I warned you," he said and with a resigned sigh, turned to follow Dasher and the others and the waiting elves.

Rudolph looked up to the window, but Santa was gone.

Christmas Eve dawned cloudy, and as time passed, the day darkened with thicker and thicker clouds. By early afternoon, a fog had descended, and by nightfall, it had grown as thick as Santa's beard. The fog clung to everything and only the interior of Santa's house and the coalmines were spared.

Rudolph trudged up from the mineshaft sweating and exhausted, dragging a rickety sledge full of coal behind him. The light from his nose illuminated every surface with a ruddy light. He saw elves feeling their way around buildings, blindly fumbling along until Rudolph's nose lit their path. The other reindeer fared no better, navigating by scent and memory and stumbling in the snow. He helped one of his fellow coal-deer up after a nasty fall on a sheet of ice.

He reached the coal-dump and unlatched his harness, enjoying the relief as the harness straps fell away, freeing his sore back. Despite the sweat that lathered his coat, the icy air felt good on his skin. He knew he couldn't enjoy it for long. Even before he reached the stables, he felt the first shivers. He paused long enough to see the Delivery team harnessed and ready to go, with Santa situating his great bag of toys on the sleigh and issuing instructions to the elves. Rudolph sighed and shook his head sadly. They wouldn't make it far in this fog, blind as they were.

Catching sight of Rudolph's light, Santa called out to him. Rudolph trotted over, thinking about his warm stable and blanket, a bag of warm oats, sleep, and trying to forget all about his dashed dream of joining the team hitched to Santa's sleigh. He gave the Delivery team a wide berth as he approached Santa. Dasher snorted a derisive snort and Cupid gave him an uncomfortable glance, then ignored him. Dancer gave him a worried look, and shook his head as if to warn him of something.

"Rudolph, I was wondering. . . I couldn't help but notice that your nose gives off plenty of light to see by in this fog, and I was wondering if you would be so kind as to guide the sleigh this evening."

"What?"Dasher was looking back at them, wide-eyed with shock. The others muttered.

Santa gave them a stern look and they fell silent, their eyes intent on Rudolph. Rudolph could hear Dasher's teeth grinding. It was the most satisfactory sound Rudolph had ever heard.

Santa continued, "We're bound to encounter fog quite often this evening, and it will certainly be here upon our return, likely even worse than it is now, so we'll need you for the landing as well. I know how you've always wanted to go on Delivery runs. . . "

Rudolph stared at him. Unbelievable. "Santa. . . I. . . "

"Now, now, no need to thank me, we need. . . "

"Need? Need? What, now that you need me, you think I'll just forget all about the way the others treated me, the way you ignored it?"Rudolph shook, his nose flared brighter until Santa squinted against the glare. "Do you think that you can treat me like shit for years on end, crushing my dreams and my ambitions, and just when I become convenient, a few kind words will have me falling all over myself to help you? Do you seriously believe, for one minute, that I can forget all the crap your precious snowflake team of suckups and jerkoffs have put me and the other reindeer through, prancing about like they're better than anyone else with their useless dull noses in the air? You come to me and ask me to help you after all the abuse and mistreatment, and you think I'll go along just because it's foggy? It wasn't even all my work and training that makes you ask, but my damned nose. If my bright nose didn't let me see through this fog like it was nothing, would you or your all-star team of assholes here have a moment to spare for me?"

"No we wouldn't, freak. We don't want you and we don't need you."Dasher punctuated his remark with a snort and a shake of his antlers.

"See? See what I mean? I've endured that kind of treatment for years and you've done nothing about it, even ignoring it when you saw them attack me before, and now, I'm supposed to forget all of that and be a team player? You let them believe that they were better than the rest of us. They've had the best food, their own private stables, and only work one night a year. And now, when they don't have what it takes to fly through the fog, I'm somehow supposed to forget all that and save the day? No, Santa, I'm not putting up with it any more. I'm going to bed. Good. Night." Rudolph turned and stalked away back toward the stables and the warm bed of straw that awaited him there.

"Rudolph, surely you can't mean. . . I just thought. . . "

"No, clearly you didn't. Sir." .

"But the children? They deserve their toys. Would you deny them their Christmas cheer out of pique?"

Rudolph stopped and looked back. He hadn't considered that. The children had no part in this. Surely they deserved their Christmas, whatever his own situation. But no, he couldn't let himself be used. If Santa's request had been because of all the training he had done, that would have been wonderful, but to be selected because of his damned nose... No, it was too much to ask.

Santa slumped against the sleigh, his face in his hands. The elves gaped for a moment, uncertain, and then began unhitching the Delivery team.

"I... I'm sorry."Rudolph shook his head and strode off toward the stables, the imagined crying of children haunting his steps.

Rudolph stopped at his stable long enough to throw a thick saddle blanket over himself and went back outside. Once he left for good, he'd have maybe a year of clarity before his mind began to fail him and he became just another wild reindeer, with no memory of flight or speech or his life at the North Pole. He wanted to remember the place as best he could. And he had to think.

He wandered past the workshop where the Elves worked all year creating wonderous toys, their hammers and machines stilled for this one night. He passed the foundries and machining shops where the elves created parts for the more intricate items, the windows dark and still and decked with snow. He grinned as he stopped to look at the bakery and the sweet shop where the chubby little baking elves worked under Mrs. Claus'supervision baking treats and candies for stocking stuffers. He knew how much he loved it when the elves would let the reindeer have the rejected and extra candies and pastries. How much must the children love them on Christmas morning? No, he mustn't think of them. He avoided the mines. The less memory he carried of the coal mines the better. He stopped and stared at Santa's house. A cozy home despite its impressive size, with large chimneys and a perpetual dusting of snow. Large windows and heavy curtains thrown wide, permitting soft golden light to shine from Christmas trees and candles inside into the dense fog. The smell of cookies and sugarplum pies wafted from kitchen window where plump, white-haired Mrs. Claus stood by her oven, baking treats for Santa's return and for the celebrations on Christmas Day.

Christmas Day. Thoughts of the children intruded on his thoughts, despite his efforts. Children disappointed at receiving no toys. Little boys and girls wondering what had become of Santa, tears in their eyes and parents at a loss for words. They wouldn't know anything about what had happened way up here at the North Pole. Perhaps he'd been hasty to lay all the blame at Santa's feet. Sure, he had been taken for granted, but could he really let the children suffer for it? No, he realized, he really couldn't do that. He'd do the one delivery, then he'd be gone. With a deep breath of resignation, and a twinge of excitement, he started back toward Santa's house.

As Rudolph drew near the Delivery team's private stables, he heard their voices drifting on the wind. The Delivery team lived in a warm, well-insulated hall with a fireplace on each end and the softest hay for beds. They had their own staff of elves dedicated to their needs, from cleaning the stalls to brushing their coats every night, to caring for their hooves and antlers. They had the freshest oats and barley, and alfalfa. The bastards didn't deserve a bit of it.

He approached silently, covering his head with a corner of the blanket so that his nose wouldn't give him away. They were discussing him.

". . . what he said about us to Santa?" Vixen's voice. "Santa's never paid much attention to the plebs grumbling about us before, but now that that freak ruined Christmas, he'll probably take it all away!"

Dasher cut in, "Don't panic. Relax. I'll handle Santa. He won't make us live like the others in that hovel of theirs. Rudolph's just one reindeer and the others are fine with the way things are."

"But if he talks to them, gets them to agree with him?" Prancer sounded worried. "Enough of them complaining at once, and we could find ourselves eating hay and sleeping in filth."

"No one will listen to that freak," Dasher said. "He's too proud of himself by half and the other reindeer laugh at him almost as much as we do. "

"Not Olive," said Vixen, "the leader of the toy haulers. She's the only one who takes him seriously, and the others would listen to her. Santa would listen to her, too, especially if she brought her team or some of the other team leaders with her."

"Olive? She calls him 'lightshow'to his face. That doesn't sound like she takes him seriously to me," Dancer said.

"That's because you have no sense of subtlety," Vixen said, "She calls him that affectionately. I think she sees him as a sort of defective little brother or something. Anyway, she's the real key here. If Rudolph were to convince her, then she would convince the others and Santa, and we can kiss our nice stables and good food and private staff of elves goodbye."

"So we apply some pressure to Olive? Make sure she knows her place?" The menace in Blitzen's tone made Rudolph's fur stand on end.

"And turn all the other reindeer against us?" Dasher said, "She's a team leader and well-liked. If we threaten her, she'll retaliate. Olive doesn't back down and her team has almost three times our numbers. A conflict like that among the reindeer and we might as well just ask Santa to take it all away ourselves. No, it's best if Olive doesn't even get the idea in the first place. And that means we need to deal with Rudolph before he gets it into his head to complain to her."

"Are you suggesting we go roust him out of his stall and get rid of him?" Donner said.

Dasher answered, "No, if we make an obvious move against the freak, Santa will figure it out. It needs to look good. Rudolph's always flying down that glacial crevasse south of here like an idiot. If he were to be found there under a pile of ice, then it'll look like he flew over there to clear his head after the altercation with Santa and met with an accident. We just need to get him out of his stall and away from the others and we can take care of him with no one the wiser."

"I know just how to do that," Vixen said, her voice a purr.

"No." Dancer's voice.

"What?" Dasher said in a flat tone.

"That's going too far. Roughing him up is one thing. What you're suggesting. . . It's going too far," Dancer said, his voice firm with conviction.

"I agree," Donner said, "I'll knock him around if you want, but nothing permanent."

A snort, then Blitzen's voice, "I'm with you Dasher. He's got to go."

"I. . . I'm not too sure about this." Prancer sounded frightened. "I'm all for making sure we don't lose our stables and stuff, but. . . Sorry, Dasher, we can't. . . kill him." The last words were almost a whisper.

Cupid's sonorous voice broke in, "I don't like him either, but this sort of thing gets you on the Naughty List. I won't do it."

Vixen sounded exasperated, "Santa doesn't put reindeer on the List, Cupid. That's for children to worry about, not us."

"Do what you want, Dasher, but I can't be part of this." Comet sounded agitated. "I taught him all the lesson I needed to before, when he came to bug Santa. My point is made. I won't stop you, but I don't want to know about it."

"I don't believe I'm hearing this,"Dasher said, "We have to deal with him right now, or else he'll have plenty of time to talk to Olive and Santa."

The sound of the stable door opening made Rudolph step back into the shadows of the building, out of earshot of the discussion going on inside. Vixen had slipped out and headed off toward the common stables. He watched her go, then continued on toward Santa's house.

He hadn't thought things would go this far. Dancer had been right. Dasher truly did hate him. His heart and stomach had both gone cold. But they'd been right about one thing. He might just be able to make life better for all the 'other'reindeer and himself, too. Olive would listen to him, and the others would listen to Olive.

Grateful for the thick fog, he trudged back through the deep snow toward Santa's house. He tapped on Santa's door and an elderly elf answered. He asked if he could speak with Santa, and the Elf let him in to stand in the foyer. Rudolph pulled the blanket back from his face so he could see. Every inch of Santa's house boasted all manner of Christmas ornamentation. Garlands decked the trees, one in each room, and holly draped every wall and up the banister. The huge polar bear skin rug lay beside the equally huge fireplace, a fire roaring its heat into the house and bathing the room in a warm golden glow. At any other time, Rudolph would have basked in the chance to step inside, if even for this brief moment. After a short wait, Santa came down the stairs, still garbed for flight but missing his boots, which lay next to Rudolph on a mat.

"Yes, Rudolph?" Santa sounded weary.

"I've been thinking, Santa. It would be selfish of me to not help the team out, if only for the sake of the children who aren't involved in this and don't deserve to miss their presents. I'm still not pleased at being taken for granted, especially after the way the Delivery team has treated me, but if I can get you out of the fog and back safely, for the sake of the children, I will."

Santa gave a chuckle and a brief sigh, "I had hoped you'd come around with a little thought, Rudolph. I knew it would turn out for the best. Go on out and pick up your tack, I'll be out in a moment. This delivery is going to have to be a fast one to make up for the lost time."

"About that, Santa, my help tonight comes with a couple of conditions." Santa's eyebrows climbed as he listened, but after Rudolph explained what he had in mind, he nodded, smiled, and placed his finger alongside his nose. With a friendly wink for Rudolph, he erupted in a flurry of sparkles of gold, red, green, and white, and whisked upstairs in a rush.

Rudolph tugged the blanket back over his head and stepped outside into the snow. The cold deepened and the fog grew thicker by the moment. Rudolph picked his way back toward the stables as silently as he could, entering at the end furthest from his stall to avoid Dasher and Vixen, who were waiting for him at the door near his stall. If he moved quickly enough, they would be on their way before either of them noticed.

He stopped by Olive's stall and tapped on the door with his antlers. He heard yawning and muttering and a curse, and Olive's bleary eyes peeked over the stall door. "Rudolph? What is it? I was asleep. Can't you turn that thing down?" She squinted at him.

"Sorry." His nose had brightened involuntarily when he saw her. "Great news. We're standing in for Dasher and Vixen on the Delivery tonight."

Her eyes opened wide. "What? Why? Are you sure? What's going on?"

"I'll explain later. Dasher's at the door by my stall waiting to kill me and dump my body in the crevasse. We should slip out the other way."

"What he hell is going on?" Rudolph didn't answer. He merely trotted off toward the far door. He smiled when he heard her hoofbeats behind him.

Santa had rousted out the other Reindeer and harnessed them to the sleigh himself. Blitzen gave Rudolph a silent glare, but Dancer gave him a smile and a nod. Santa harnessed Olive beside him, moving Dancer back into Vixen's normal place. The others muttered at this, but Dancer silenced them with a warning glance. Dasher and Vixen were nowhere to be seen, probably still at the common stables, looking for him.

Santa was oblivious as he climbed aboard the sleigh, calling out to each of them in turn in a cheerful voice. Rudolph took the leading steps and the others followed. With a leap, they were airborne and Santa's "Ho! Ho! Ho!" boomed into the night as he flew at the head of the Delivery team.

A hideous bray of rage erupted beneath them. He glanced down to see Dasher glaring as he rose to meet them. His eyes locked on Rudolph with murderous intensity. Rudolph smiled and picked up the pace. The other reindeer surged forward and under their combined power, left Dasher far behind.

Rudolph couldn't have imagined how rigorous the Delivery could be. He had been tired after a long day hauling coal, which didn't help, but the excitement of fulfilling his dream buoyed him along. The world stood still as they flew, the few people he saw on the ground stood mid-stride as if frozen in place. Still, the frantic pace wore him out as they flew, house to house, town to town, city to city, between the ticks of the clock. From the first stroke of the midnight hour to the dying echo of the last bell, the flight was weeks of work compressed into seconds. Sometimes the children would think of the reindeer and Santa would bring them each a treat from the grateful child. These treats reinvigorated him, leaving him feeling rested and fulfilled.

During one such stop, Rudolph explained to Olive what had happened with Dasher and why he and Vixen had been left behind. Olive's eyes showed first incredulity, then fright.

"It's true."Dancer whispered to her. "But keep it quiet."He glanced at Prancer next to him. "Prancer and Donner know Dasher's gone too far, but some of the others aren't so sure. Blitzen especially. Watch yourself."

Rudolph glanced back at the others. Cupid studyed him as though he didn't know what to make of him, and Comet studiously avoided his gaze. Donner looked at him with an impassive calm, but Blitzen's glare spoke murder.

After that, Rudolph tried to lose himself in the wonder of the Delivery, but he imagined he could feel Blitzen's eyes burning into him, and the prospect of facing Dasher and Vixen when they returned haunted him.

The rest of the Delivery went by too quickly. He heard the last tone of the last bell sound and as Santa turned the team to fly back to the North Pole, he bellowed, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"and with a "Ho, Ho, Ho"they were off into the sky, their return paced to wind them down slowly after their long exertion.

They touched down by the light of Rudolph's nose at the delivery yard, still blanketed with thick fog. Mrs. Claus waited to greet Santa with a contingent of cheering elves and the few reindeer who chose to witness Santa's return. Dasher and Vixen were nowhere to be seen. The elves took them off their traces and rubbed them down and saw to their needs. Rudolph and Olive approached Santa through the press of elves, catching him just before he got to his front door.

"Santa,"Rudolph said. Santa turned to regard him with a smile. He swallowed hard, forcing his pride down enough to speak. "I just wanted to thank you for giving us this chance tonight. And for being patient with me."Rudolph lowered his head.

"That's all right, Rudolph. You and Olive did a wonderful job. You learned a lot, I think, and well, so did I, quite frankly. I haven't paid enough attention to you, to Olive, the other reindeer, who work so hard and help to make the Christmas delivery possible. As for Dasher, I'll have a long talk with him tomorrow. He'll come around. You'll see."

Rudolph thought that unlikely.

He opened his mouth to tell Santa what had happened, about Dasher's plans, about Vixen and Blitzen and their plot, but Santa was bustled away by Mrs. Claus and a contingent of elves, eager for the delivery report. Rudolph couldnt get a word in edgewise before Santa, his wife, and the elves were gone. Perhaps he could wait until the morning to talk to Santa after all.

Rudolph walked back to the common stables with Olive, still flying at the head of Santa's team in his mind's eye when he heard hooves stomping behind him. Dasher stood glaring, his antlers angled toward Rudolph, ready to charge. His eyes were wild and bloodshot. "Freak! You had no right. No. Right."

Blitzen stepped out of the fog behind him, his eyes every bit as angry, but cold. Rudolph backed up a pace and bumped into another reindeer behind him. Dancer strode forward to face Dasher.

"That's enough Dasher. Santa made his decision. You need to calm down and go back to the stables."

"Traitor. You just want the top spot and you're using this freak to unseat me. You're no better than he is."Dasher's fierce breaths blew angry swirls in the fog.

"Neither are you."Olive said. "You're not better than anyone else. That's the problem here."

"Enough talk."Dasher charged for Rudolph. Rudolph braced to meet his antlers, but Dancer intercepted him, knocking him aside. Rudolph scrambled out of the way only to meet Blitzen's charge. The big reindeer's antlers clacked with his own and his knees buckled, sending him sprawling to the ground. Blitzen reared up, his eyes flashing hate, but another blur smashed into him, sending Blitzen crashing down. Donner had engaged his brother.

"Enough. This goes too far."Donner's voice boomed in Rudolph's ears. Blitzen's eyes were wild as he charged Donner, their antler's locked together in a titanic struggle that churned the earth up from under the snow. Rudolph leapt aside and turned to Olive, who shouted at the others to stop.

"Get Santa,"he said, hoping she could hear him over the noise. She nodded and took off. Rudolph turned back toward where Dasher and Dancer were fighting. Dancer was bleeding in several places and fought sluggishly. Dasher seemed untouched and he fought with a wild savagery Rudolph had never seen in a reindeer before. Before he could get close enough to help, Dasher swept his antlers up, forcing Dancer's head back, and with a spin, kicked him in the throat with his rear hooves. Dancer fell choking to the ground as Dasher rounded on Rudolph.

Rudolph fled. As he leapt into the air, he heard Olive's voice, the words swept away in the wind. Vixen had intercepted her and they were trading hoofblows every bit as vicious as Dasher's had been. He felt a slash across his backside. Dasher had caught up. In a panic, Rudolph flew as fast as he could, his legs churning, his muscles burning at being forced to work so hard after the Delivery. He hoped that he could lose Dasher in the fog, but no matter how he flew, Dasher kept up with him, following the light of his nose.

He flew south, sure he could feel Dasher's hot breath on his back as he fled. He swept into the icy crevasse, the fog even thicker here than at the compound. He led the maddened reindeer around bends and turns and under frozen bridges of ice, over spikes and through sharp turns. Dasher kept up. He darted down the turns and the twists, up sweeping chimneys and down icy rills, faster and faster Dasher him strove to reach him, closer with each second. The crevasse blurred as he rounded the final curve. He dove straight for the frozen ledge and launched himself from it, clearing the top of the icy wall where he had battered himself so mercilessly for months.

Behind him, Dasher crashed into the wall at top speed, his antlers snapping, his body crumpling against the ice. The wall groaned and crumbled and fell, huge fragments raining down on him.

Rudolph swooped back and landed next to Dasher's crumpled form. He lay broken on the ice, his legs bent at unnatural angles and a huge slab of ice broken across his back. He still breathed, deep wet gurgling breaths.

"I heard your plans to kill me. You were going to leave me out here in the crevasse. Make it look like an accident. I'm not proud of this Dasher. But you earned it."

"Freak. . . " Dasher said through clenched teeth, and died.

Rudolph shook his head. Tears formed and froze in his eyes. "I wish it didn't have to be like this."

"Rudolph."

Rudolph turned. Santa stood behind him, his form coalescing from a cloud of golden sparkles, a long sheet of parchment in his hands. The last of the sparkles faded away as Santa took a step forward. "I'm sorry Rudolph. I should have seen this coming. I should have seen what Dasher and Vixen and Blitzen had become. I should have put a stop to it instead of turning a blind eye to their actions."

Santa reached out and patted Rudolph's flank. He checked him for injuries, and where he found the gouges that Dasher and Blitzen had left on him, he healed them, his hands working gently and firmly.

"Santa, I. . . " Rudolph hung his head, fighting back tears.

"This wasn't your fault, Rudolph. Olive came to me, injured, and told me you and she had been attacked. She asked me to write Dasher's name on my List. Vixen and Blitzen, too. That's how I knew."

"They were naughty."

Santa chuckled sadly, "Yes, Rudolph. They were. Very very naughty. I wish Dasher's madness and rage hadn't done him in. In time, maybe he could have been helped."He glanced at the crumpled body. "Or maybe not. We'll never know now."Santa lifted the body of the fallen reindeer and carried him sadly back to the compound.

* * *

After that, the changes were swift and decisive. Rudolph and Olive joined the Delivery team, with Dancer as the lead reindeer. Rudolph thought that was only fair. Dancer had the experience and had shown he could lead the others. Vixen was given Rudolph's old job in the coal mines, swinging an electric lantern from her teeth down in the gloom and hating every moment of it. Blitzen had been released to the wild.

A few years later, the wild breeds boasted many large, strong reindeer, some of whom Santa awakened to work in the North Pole compound. A large, cheerful fellow took Blitzen's old spot. Before that, Santa made do with seven on the Delivery team.

The elves refurbished the common stables until they matched the Delivery team stables in comfort and amenities. The Delivery team received work assignments among the other reindeer, one on each team, throughout the bulk of the year, only taking time off to do the Delivery and to train. They had grumbled about this, but before long, each member had made fast friends among the others, and no one would have it any other way.

One night, years later, Rudolph and Olive slept in their stall, their newborn calf nestling close for warmth. Rudolph woke to a bright green glow. He looked down and gave a chuckle. He nuzzled Olive awake and proudly showed her their son's glowing green hooves.

"Ahh, crap."Olive said with a chuckle.

The End