{Because the mall is a magical place at Christmastime.}
"Hey, Elf!"
His name, of course, wasn't really Elf, but he'd been working at the main court in the mall for the past three years as Santa's helper and after correcting hundreds, no, thousands of small children who insisted on calling him "Elf", he answered to just about anything. Besides, he did have quite the mischievous grin; he wore the bright green felt hat with a great deal of flair and the tips of his ears were just a wee bit pointy so who knew?
He looked from between the legs of a miniature reindeer, smiled up at her, and held up a finger in the universal gesture of "gimme just a bit". Elf made one last adjustment with the penknife he'd been holding and rose to his feet.
"I'm not sure how long that screw's gonna hold, but it should be okay for a day or two," Elf said to Santa who was idly scrolling through his phone while sprawled across his throne. Santa's House was surprisingly quiet for Christmas Eve.
"What's up, Snow?" he asked as he gave the reindeer one last pat to test the sturdiness of his repair.
"Gift wrapping's all caught up. Wanna take a break with me?"
Snow was not her real name, either. She'd had a perfectly normal name right up until the night of her second grade Christmas program. Due to a freshly waxed floor, brand new Mary Janes and some overly ambitious choreography, she went sprawling across the stage dressed in a sparkly white costume. A perfectly timed photograph, a very slow news day and her picture with the caption "Snowflake Takes a Tumble" made the front page of newspapers across the state. Everyone she knew began calling her Snowflake which was eventually shortened to Snow. When she walked across the stage a few years ago to receive her high school diploma, she was almost surprised to hear the principal announce the name printed on her birth certificate.
Elf raised a quizzical eyebrow at Veronica, who was refilling her basket of candy canes from the large cardboard box behind Santa's throne.
"Yeah, take off," she said, adjusting the gold-rimmed glasses she wore as Mrs. Claus. "I'll text you if we get busy."
"Hungry?" Elf asked as they walked toward the food court. "I'll buy."
"Not really. Kate brought cookies in this morning and I've been nibbling all day. Want one?"
"Sure." Elf took a cookie from the baggie she offered him and popped it into his mouth. "Yum. Oatmeal. My favorite."
They strolled through the mall, making idle chit chat about the mannequins who wore expressions of disdain about the ugly Christmas sweaters they were forced to display on their oddly positioned bodies. Elf wondered just how far he could kick that yapping toy dog in front of Spencer's that annoyed everyone who spent more than five minutes within earshot of its shrill "barking". They debated which of the endless loop of slightly distorted Christmas carols piped throughout the mall was most likely to be the soundtrack of their nightmares until the spring thaw.
"How's the gift wrapping business?"
"It was kinda crazy all morning," Snow answered. "Why anyone waits until Christmas Eve to go shopping and then bitches about waiting another twenty minutes for me to slap some paper and a bow on the thing is beyond me." She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "It's not like they move it around or something. It's the same day every single year."
"Wanna see something really cool?" he asked and before she could answer, took her hand and led her down a hallway that angled away from the main concourse. "I found this the other night when I was dropping off the cash from the Santa pictures at the security office. Here." He stopped at a ventilation panel to the left of a door leading to the parking lot.
"I never noticed this exit before. Thanks. This'll save me a walk tonight."
"No. No. Not the door. This," Elf said and he slapped the edge of the panel with the flat of his hand. The metal panel swung forward and revealed a narrow passageway. "Come on," he said and tugged her inside, carefully closing the makeshift door with a barely audible click. The fluorescent light coming in from between the metal slats did very little to illuminate the area.
"Wow! This is way cool!" Snow whispered as she peered down the hall. "What is it?"
"I dunno. Access for the maintenance crew, I suppose. I didn't go much farther than this last night."
"Let's see where it goes," Snow took a few steps into the darkness.
"Wait a minute," Elf said and laid a restraining hand on her wrist while he fished a penlight out of his pocket and switched it on.
They followed the circle of white light for through the tunnel-like hall, stopping occasionally to shine the flashlight all around. There was no door or access panel to mar the smooth blankness of the walls and ceiling. The noise of the mall faded away and they could hear nothing but the quiet tap tap tap of Snow's heels and the faint jingle of the bell on Elf's cap.
Snow guided the light's beam to the face of her watch. "Over five minutes. This is a very long hall. I didn't realize the mall was that big."
"Me, neither, but I think that's the end of it," Elf said. He shone the light onto the blank wall just ahead of them. "Time to turn around."
"Okay, but let me pull my sock up. It's slipped down inside my shoe," she said as she leaned one hand against the wall. "Yikes," she squeaked as the wall gave way beneath her. She grabbed hold of Elf's shirt and they both tumbled through the open door. They landed with a tangle of arms and legs.
"Whoa! Are you okay?" he said to Snow, holding out a hand to help her to her feet. "I was definitely not expecting that."
And I," Snow said, pointing a trembling finger, "was most definitely not expecting that."
Elf's eyes followed her finger up into the brilliantly blue sky, quite a change from the usual grey and gloomy midwinter one, and saw what she was pointing at.
A dragon. A very distant deep bronze-tinted dragon, but a dragon nonetheless.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto," Snow whispered as Elf tightened his grip on her suddenly numb fingers.
They both watched, wide-eyed and very possibly open-mouthed, as the dragon soared on invisible air currents, covering wide swaths of cobalt skies, until it finally dropped behind a grove of tall trees and out of sight.
"Wow!" they mouthed as their attention turned from the sky to the rest of their surroundings. The mall parking lot, with mounds of dirty brown slush piled everywhere, had been replaced with a fantastical landscape straight out of a fairy tale.
Colorful butterflies flitted from flower to flower, dodging iridescent hummingbirds, at least Snow thought they were hummingbirds, on their way to the next drop of nectar. The air was filled with the scent of spring blooms and the grass under their feet was a lush vivid emerald green carpet, accented with a sprinkle of dainty white star-like flowers.
They turned full circle and found the faux-stucco concrete wall of the mall was now a thatch-roofed cottage complete with a wooden box of flowers under each of the two windows and a small calico cat curled up on the doormat. The cat blinked slowly and sat up, her long tail wrapping around her white paws.
There was a rustling sound somewhere behind them and Snow and Elf watched as a tall man, his deep auburn hair almost glowing in the sunlight, stepped out from the trees.
"Hey! I don't often get visitors out this way. Welcome!" he said, a warm smile brightening his almost stern features. "I see you've met Nyx." He gestured back to the cottage behind them.
"Well, we weren't formally introduced but," Elf began, but instead of the cat he was expecting to see, a slim strawberry blonde, barefoot in a black summer dress stood on the welcome mat. She smiled shyly, her amber eyes the same color as the calico's. Elf's mouth gaped open in astonishment. Snow feared her expression was much the same.
"Wasn't that a cat just two seconds ago?" Snow whispered in his ear. Elf nodded. "I don't think we're even in Oz any more, Toto."
"She does take a bit of getting used to," the man said, brushing copper-colored flecks from his shoulders. He wiped his hands on his thighs, leaving a faint sparkle on his brown pants. "As I was saying, that's Nyx and I'm called Ddraig by most around here."
"Drag?" Snow asked.
