The Rebellion in the North

"You dog!" cries Mud Face. He steps toward Say A Hoot, and punches the youthful elf in the head. The spy falls to the floor.

Kris Kringle steps in between them. Claus says, in a beautiful voice that cools the madness in Mud Face's and the other elves' souls on the bridge, "There will be no more fighting amongst us. Have your hearts become as dark as my cousin's?"

"I am sorry, Kris, but this dog almost got us killed. He is a spy for the Blue Shirts, and he must die," says Mud Face. . . .

Claus says, "I can understand why a youthful elf would do as this one did, and those others back home. I almost gave up many times. Hope was gone from me. I felt that I was beaten, but I thought deeply on this matter, and deep down inside of a part of my soul, thought still burned. I knew that a day would come when I would be free, and I thought about the elves that betrayed their sisters and brothers. Do I want to be like my brother elves in the South, killing those who couldn't handle this pressure? It would be easy to kill them, and bury their rotten bones.

'I thought of our history, and I cried, because I knew that we are not like those poor elves in the South. Unlike them, we understand what was beauty, feeling, and the joy of laughing at nothing. On that day, I decided that in reaching for that beauty, that joy, and that laughter we once had, it means we must throw away the ways the Southerners have of acting, and that means to let those who betrayed us to live, as the first step in recovering what has been raped from us. I know it will be hard, but it has to be done, if we are to grow back into beautiful elves,'" says Kris Kringle with a voice that has the beauty of nature singing in it.

A moment of silence passes.

Mud Face speaks up. "As you say Kris, it is hard not to want him dead, but I don't wish to be like the elves from the South. I can remember how that beauty was, the feeling of life, and the joy of laughing at nothing." He walks toward Say A Hoot, and the old toymaker moves out of the way. Mud Face smiles at Say A Hoot, who can feel the smile is warm and friendly, and not phony. That is why he doesn't move in fear when Mud Face helps him get to his feet, and hugs him, saying, "Welcome home, brother."