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The North Pole several months before Christmas was certainly a delight to witness. The elves worked nonstop in order to spread the amazing light of the holidays to the children of the world. Amongst all 600,000 elves working in Santa's Workshop, there was never a silent night. There were noises of laughter, squeaky voices, contagious giggles and the sound of construction. Each elf bubbled with life and filled the milieu with such a delight that was only experienced year round in the North Pole and during the holiday season- everywhere else in the world. Christmas music was orchestrated and blasted in every corner of the Workshop. The air was dusted in the rich scent of gingerbread and it filled Santa's Workshop as it traveled in the cold winter breeze. Certain spots smelled like sweet marshmallows and others smelled of pine trees. The air was hot and danced on the elves' skins as they worked harder than ever. Each had a lovely smile on their faces as they bounced and bobbed with excitement. It was the twenty second day of the eleventh month, that meant it was 'List Night'.
'List Night' is when the elves would be given the list of the nice children and what they wanted for Christmas. Before the list was read and distributed, Plumlight was in charge of editing it and making sure it was perfect. And for the most part, it was perfect. But there was something that Plumlight tweaked and altered every year. There was a boy, a human boy, whom she had fallen in like with.
Not love, but a strong infatuation with a mortal she had never met. Plumlight wasn't sure why she had fallen for the boy, but every year, seeing his name upon the naughty list, it spanked her heart and made her do something an elf was never, ever supposed to do. She changed his name from naughty to nice. She had done it for the last 8 years and no one had ever noticed.
As Plumlight sat in the 'List Room' at the very back of the workshop, where only herself and a few other elves were allowed, she got to work on changing the name on the list. The list was written on a scroll that had been used by Santa for centuries and centuries. She grabbed the paper and made her way to the bottom where she had found his name on the naughty side. Plumlight traced his name and tsked under her breath, "When will you learn, Park Jisung?"
After finding his name, Plumlight slid a small vile out of her pocket. She had made it nearly a decade ago with such a mixture of things, she barely even remembered what she used. All she remembered was having to travel into the forest to get a few ingredients and into the icecaps to get ancient water, "Only if you knew, Jisung, how much trouble I could be in if I ever got caught. You mustn't know the trouble."
She dabbed a drop of the concoction onto a cotton ball and slowly dragged it over the name and it began to disappear. Her movements were still and steady as she erased away his bad actions.
"Plumlight Dreamlove! What in the yuletide might you be doing!"
Plumlight froze as she heard the most cheerful voice turn into the coldest. She slowly turned around and braced herself for the worst. She had been caught, by Santa. The old man looked so extremely disappointed. His plump red cheeks turned into anger as she stepped away. His body shook with anger but he appeared calm. Plumlight winced in fear at his words, "Explain yourself, Ms. Dreamlove."
She began to fiddle with her hands as she tapped her foot nervously on the floor, "Mr. Claus, sir- I, well, I hadn't- You see, I hadn't meant to touch it!"
Santa's face got softer as she explained but he was still frustrated, "What do you mean, darling? How didn't you mean to touch it?"
Plumlight's eyes wandered as she tried to make up and excuse. She found her excuse, Glory Ribbonrum, the eldest elf, her advisor. "Well you see, Father Christmas, Ms. Ribbonrum had made a typo and I had caught it, but I didn't want to panic the others, as one typo may mean more. So, I thought I could fix it myself, change the name and make it appear as nothing had occurred."
Santa peered down at the elf with a look of suspicion. His eyebrows arched and his lips went into a lower frown, "Ms. Dreamlove, we both know, child, that Ms. Ribbonrum has done her job perfectly for the last 700 years. Tell me why a good elf like you might want to break a rule?"
The issue was that Plumlight didn't know herself why Park Jisung was so important to her. She had only seen him through snow globes, the normal way elves check on children, but she wasn't sure why the seventeen year old had caught her attention, "Father Christmas, I don't know."
Santa walked to look at past nice and naughty lists and searched for Jisung, he found his name and was stunned to see the pattern of 'nice' rather than 'naughty'.
Santa huffed, "Plumlight, you haven't ever made a mistake in the last 85 years you have been an elf, and therefore, I believe this will be a one-time-thing. So, I give you until Christmas Eve to change that's boy's ways and heart. And if you can't, then you will come back and have your position degraded to something of a lower class. If you reveal the secrets of the North Pole, I will strip you of your elf qualities and you will live your life in your human age. Which would be 85, which gives a possibility that you might not even be alive. Is that understood?"
Plumlight nodded her head, "Yes sir, but when do I go?"
"Right now! Further instructions will be given once you arrive!"
