December 9th, 2009
Well. Today, Duddles is all set up with the Account he found, ready to look into it. He was going to go into that new tower Snatter helped to build recently, but I don’t think that would have been a very good idea for him to go in there. It’s new, so people would have come in to admire the new woodwork wouldn’t they, and they would have seen him and gone WHAT IS THAT? and he would have had to explain why he had taken away this magical globe thing to look into it, instead of giving it straight back to the Ghost of Christmas Past or someone like that.
So instead, he has gone to a secret hidey-corner somewhere in the Workshop, where not many people goe. He’s going to look into it now! How exciting, what will it be…
“Duddles! What are you up to?”
Uh-oh! Here’s Dooley! A much more sensible elf than Duddles. Rumbled!
“I, er, that is to say, well I mean,”
“We have more important things to worry about than fooling around with trinkets!” go Dooley. “Some force is drawing near which we don’t understand, and we must prepare for it. Haven’t you noticed the strange atmosphere building this year? An air of resentment and competition, people are becoming…”
“Bothered.” offer Duddles
“Yes! Precisely! I wonder whether it isn’t something to do with the fact that we’re supposed to be preparing our “Christmas” idea for that money-obsessed board at the World Mint. It’s set us on edge, we’re at one another’s necks! If only Chris and Rose were here!”
“But I think I can help,” say Duddles. “That’s what I’m doing! I found this in the snow near Snatter’s hut. I had a look into it, and I… I think it’s the future.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It tells you the future! Only one specific part of the future, but I think whoever left it there was deliberately bringing it here, they’d seen it and wanted to come back and do something to help. To warn us.”
“Give that to me.”
Dooley grab the Account from Duddles and look at it very seriously for a while.
“If we use this… we must use it wisely.”
Dooley think hard.
“My first instinct is to disapprove,” he say, “…but I remember Burgess last year told me something that gave me great concern. He said that the Chosen One must pay a terrible price before he can truly become Snatter. I hope that day is not imminent…
“I will look. Perhaps at the very least I must discover the name of the force that approaches the North Pole. You stand back, and if anything befalls me, run and inform the Head at once.”
Duddle nods, looking a bit scaredy. Dooley peer into the Account.
There’s purple swirling in the Account and in Dooley’s eyes, and after a few seconds there a flash, and Dooley look up happily.
“Oh, that’s all right then!” He say.
“What is it?” goe Duddles
“A feeling of Christmas cheer and goodwill is approaching! We’ve all got that to look forward to!”
“Oh good,” say Duddles, happy. “Anything else?”
“Well, there was one other thing, a sort of prophecy, but… well, it can’t be right, that’s all.”
“What?”
“I don’t know, it… it was jumbled up and made little sense! I got the impression that, at some point in the proceedings, I’m going to – well, I mean it sounds so silly – apparently I’m going to lick someone.”
“Lick someone?!”
“Yes, I know! Ridiculous isn’t it! Do we know anyone called Ronald?”
“Ronald? Don’t think so,” say Duddles.
“Well, keep an eye out. Apparently he’s in danger of being licked!”
they mohh.
What a silly prediction! I can’t see how that will be relevant! Well they’ve gone off mohhing to themselves, so let’s have a look in the Log Book for today. Ok, chocolate is of a multipack of tin cans, you noe like drinks cans, and they seem to have tropical flavour sauce in! Yumm, we’ll have one each of those I think.
So, it say here in Log B– mmmmm, oh those tropical filling chocs are nice, whoopfh. – it say in Log Book that Snatter met a robot maid today! And it was on the beach! That’s weird isn’t it, in the middle of the north pole, but also weird is that the “maid” was “made” out of an unusual Thing.
That’s right! She was constructed entirely out of tins of Lilt! isn’t that weird! She was tidying up the beach, doing her duties efficiently and with a totally tropical taste!
Snatter have no better idea what that’s all about than I do m80s! What a silly adventure!
Luckily he is happy and still travelling home.
Everything is going very well for Snatter today. 