𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕠𝕟 || 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘧𝘪𝘤

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕖𝕟‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

"We're gonna miss the whole thing," Clove said; she looked near tears.

Agnes looked around, hoping to find something to cheer the girl up, all while trying to comfort her by speaking to her gently, "Hey, hey, we're not gonna miss it."

Her voice was distant as she scanned the nearby scenery. Shops, shops, more shops. Nothing overly helpful. "We're gonna be fine." Felix was saying behind her. And then her eyes landed on something. She lowered her gaze back to meet Clove's hazel eyes.

She grinned at the girl, determinedly. "We're not gonna miss it."

"Reduce, reuse, recycle!" Agnes held up the pieces of cardboard confidently. "Buckle up, we're going sledding."

"Are you sure that's the best idea?" Felix looked a bit skeptical.

"I'm not saying it's the best," Agnes defended. "Just that it's the only idea I've got. Do you want to get to the Square on time or not?"

"Well, I do, but I also kinda want to not die," Felix said, crinkling his nose. Clove nodded at his statement.

"I agree. Not dying is nice."

Agnes rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to let you die. Just take a cardboard piece, it'll be fun."

Reluctantly Felix and Clove took two of the three cardboard pieces Agnes had in hand. She took her own, positioning it under her body.

"Just follow my lead." She looked back to Felix and Clove before pushing off, the cardboard sliding easily across the ice and gaining speed as they declined a small slope. Behind her, she could hear Clove opening her mouth to let out a hum that bounced around in pitch as she slid across the bumpy cobblestones. Agnes laughed, remembering she used to do that same when Dad would let her stand on the front of the shopping cart and then push her across the bumpy parking lot asphalt.

"OK, I have to admit," Felix called out to Agnes, his voice bouncing. "This was an OK idea."

Agnes turned to look at him. "Thanks! My brother and I sometimes use cardboard boxes to sled if we can't find the regular ones."

Felix opened his mouth like he was going to respond, but he abruptly changed his mind on what he was going to say. "Agnes, there's a turn!"

She whipped her head back to the front; there was in fact a turn, a necessary one to get to the Square. Desperately, she leaned to one side, hoping that might cause the cardboard to turn. It kept going straight. She even turned the cardboard to where she was facing the side, but it continued to go straight downhill, and now she was facing sideways.

"I don't know how to turn!" She called out, panicked. "We should try to stop or we're just going to end up further away than before!"

"We're going too fast!' Clove responded. "There's not enough time, the turn is right there!"

Agnes tried to reach out for a pipe on the side of a house, but her fingers slipped. And then she was face to face with the turn.

She went forward.

"Wait, what?" She looked back to see that Clove and Felix were behind her, but now their cardboard pieces were turned sideways. They had made the turn, which explained why her board was fixed and theirs wasn't, but she wasn't sure how the turn was made.

"That was magic!" Clove was shouting; Agnes was afraid if she kept moving, she'd fall off the piece of cardboard. "I saw it, magic made us turn!"

Agnes wasn't quite sure what Clove meant by "seeing" the magic, but she believed the girl. Magic was the only thing that could've saved them in that moment. They were still going top speed through the icy roads of the North Pole, and the next– and final– turn was just up ahead.

"Look!" Agnes pointed. "We're almost there!"

"Watch the magic!" Agnes almost didn't catch what the girl said over the wind of how fast they were moving, but she looked back to watch for anything unusual.

She knew when they were making the turn by two indicators: 1) she could feel, and see, the direction change- she was facing sideways again, and Felix and Clove were facing front, but the bigger indicator was 2) blue and purple sparkly magic whisked the cardboard pieces into the correct direction.

Clove was right, it was magic. And it was breath taking.

.｡❅*⋆⍋*∞*｡*∞*⍋⋆*❅｡.

"Mr. Train Conductor!" Three overlapping voices caused the train conductor to turn. It was Miss Junips and Gaines, and Mr. Lamarie. They, for some reason unbeknownst to him, were carrying pieces of soggy cardboard, but they all had bright smiles as they rushed over to talk to him. They slipped across the cobblestones, but eventually came to a standstill in front of him.

"Glad you decided to join us, children." He tipped his head towards them.

"We planned to!" Miss Gaines insisted.

"Yeah but the train car went woosh! and then we had to find the tree again!" Miss Junips made a backward motion with her hands.

"What do you mean, 'went woosh'?" He raised an eyebrow at the girl.

"The train car detached, Mister." Mr. Lamarie explained. "It went backward down the track."

The train conductor looked over to the train, and quickly counted the cars; one was missing. He resisted the urge to groan and run his hands across his face , convinced that everything that could've gone wrong tonight has. He instead simply pinched the bridge of his now and gave a long, suffering sigh.

"Well," He said after a moment, lifting his head and adjusting his uniform. "At least you made it back safely. I'll be sure to inform the elves so they can return the train car to its rightful place. Anything else?"

The three exchanged looks before Miss Junips was nudged forward. He leaned down a small amount training his bron eyes on the girl. "Yes, lass?"

"Um, we did accidentally break a stool in the confectionary, and messed up a tray of cookies." She explained.

"We're really sorry," Mr. Lamarie quickly added.

"The damage could be worse." He told the children. "I'm sure the elves won't be too terribly angry."

"We'll even apologize," Agnes said. "We just don't know who to apologize to."

"Well," The train conductor said, turning back to the double arched doors. "Let's start with the boss, hm?"

And then silence fell across the square.