~Chapter 18~
Nebuka the Terrible
While Louis slept on the side of the lonely mountaintop Molly, Chug with the help of Algar, Alfeo and Elvina were hard at work, putting Louis's plan into motion. All were just relentless in building the sturdy hollow frame that would hold Growlar's fur coat and its two occupants.
All through the night as Louis climbed up the mountainside, the elves had worked hard in the woodshop at the far end of town: sawing, hammering, measuring twice, and cutting once. The wooden skeleton would have to be heavy enough to support the great coat's weight, but light enough to be rolled down Kris Kringle Boulevard at the center of town and into the great hall.
The knowledge and workmanship of the elves was magnificent.
Each and every detail of the drawing was perfectly implemented by the Lead-Elf Algar. There must have been thirty elves working on the frame of the great beast at any one time. Well into the night they: hammered, and fitted the parts together until Algar thought that they were finally finished.
"I think that will do it. Each detail of the sketch has been built, and we can finally rest now and wait for Louis's return."
A few other elves throughout the night showed Molly and Chug how to operate, the arms and legs, with the levers and pulleys found inside of the frame.
"Chug, are you sure this is a good plan, do you really think this will fool Black Jack?"
"Molly we have to believe in Louis, he has gotten us this far. We are so close now. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, everything we have been through, and all of our efforts have come down to this one night and this last plan. If we fail, you have to remember Charlie may not recover, or get well ever and the children of the world will miss their Christmas toys, for the first time in their lives, on Christmas morning. We have to believe, we just have to."
"Do you think Louis will be alright spending the night, up on that mountain? What if he comes across danger and we are not there to help? I am just so worried about him Chug. Remember I told Mr. Beamer that I would look out for him, and bring him back to Hattie May safe and sound. We shouldn't have let him go out alone and back up that darn mountain."
"He will just fine Molly. Remember this is our Louis. He just has a certain way about him of getting into, and out of trouble, without too much trouble at all. Am I making since at all Molly...?"
"Well if anything happens to him up there, I'm gonna put back on all my war paint: that Crimson Passion lipstick, heavy rouge on my cheeks, and the thickest eyeliner you have ever seen, and I will climb up that mountain and just scare the heck out of any old Yeti, or bear, or wolf...Chug. I will, I swear..."
"I am sure all the beasts or animals up on that mountain don't want that to happen, so Molly for now let's just hope and wait for Louis's return."
Louis had slept for the better part of two hours when he finally stirred. Slowly opening his eyes and sitting up in the snow, he felt a very strange sensation that he had never felt before. Remembering the figure he had seen out of the corner of his eye (before dozing off), now crept back into his memory. Within an instant, Louis speedily jumped to his feet, gripped his walking stick tightly in his hands, he then spun around to scan his surroundings.
The blue fogs that had engulfed him early in the night had lifted to about a hundred feet off the mountainside. They now hung like the canopy of the Boreal forest over him. There was still a strange opening between the fogs above his head, where small snowflakes and the twinkling of the heavens starlight fell about him.
It's as if something up in heaven above was watching over him.
Just as he gained his bearings, and senses again a soft, but yet ominous voice spoke to him from atop of the large rocky outcropping to his left.
"Little children should not wander out alone at night by themselves...for monsters sometimes...are known to lurk...in the darkness...where children...are known to play."
As Louis whirled about to his left, the stranger that just spoke stood up on his massive hind legs, raised his two huge hands up over his head, and bounded towards Louis, flying over forty feet with one mighty leap. And as he hit the snow-covered earth below, a nearby avalanche of snow rumbled, with hundreds of rocks tumbled off the mountainside. The noise of him crashing down on the earth sounded like a massive south-sea tsunami coming up from the bottom of the ocean rising up and smashing over a rock covered, Tropical Island; destroying all in its path.
The noise was all encompassing and just horrifying to hear.
Louis: dropped his walking stick, closed his eyes, lowered his head, and tried hurriedly to cover his ears with both hands, as the reverberation of his landing, echoed throughout the rocks surrounding him on all sides. When the echoes finally died down and faded off, and the avalanches of rock and snow had slowly finally stopped rumbling around him Louis: raised his head, removed his hands from covering his ears, and slowly opened his eyes.
Standing before him with bright starlight shimmering off his glowing, thick orange hair was Nebuka the Terrible Orange Yeti.
"I find little children taste best slowly roasted on a wood-fired spit, with just a dash of fresh garlic cloves sprinkled about, then add in a few cups of chopped, onions, celery and herbs that have been slowly saut?ed in virgin olive...and then add...just a dash of sea-salt, just delectable and ever so tasty! And of course served with a side-dish of, buttery freshly baked apple pie, like the piece you have stashed in your backpack."
Louis's eyes froze open, in disbelief.
The hefty and very large figure standing in front of Louis blocked out the starlight above, casting a long dark shadow over him. Louis looked down at the ground about five feet in front of him. He saw two eminence orange feet that must have been, each over three feet across at their widest point, with toes that were so large and gnarled that is was amazing that he could even walk at all.
Louis started to shake and shimmy in place from head-to-toe, in sheer terror.
As he tried to quail his emotions, he slowly moved his eyes up towards the torso of the great Yeti. His hips were as wide as an elephant. His legs and arms appeared to be so muscled, and strong that he could surely swim across an ocean or two, if he had two. His long, thick, matted orange hair glowed in the evenings faint light, which reflected an orange glowing shadow all around him.
Louis was over-whelmed with fear!
He tried to speak, but the words could barely be heard, as they tried to rise out of his parched throat.
"Oh, you do-n't...ah...wa-nt to...ah...eat...ah...er...eat me. I do-n't ta-ste very...ah... go-od...at...all..."
Louis fumbled the words in his mouth, with his tongue twisting and contorting uncontrollably as he tried to speak again.
"No you will do just fine little boy"
"What Growlar failed to do...I will not. And that is to eat you alive in just one...little...bite."
Just as all was lost, Louis remembered, what Mr. Beamer had told him about wild beast.
Music!
Music, they love music; it calms the savage beast.
Louis was trying to think as fast as he could. Where is the flute? I have to find the flute that Mr. Beamer had given me.
"No I think you will taste just fine, you will be a perfect appetizer. Then I will head down to Santa's Village, and eat both of your little friends...Molly and Chug. But I will have to tenderize you first because you are a little older, than most of the kids I eat..., but again...you will be a perfect little morsel and a perfectly delicious snack for tonight."
Reaching over his head, Louis stumbled and fumbled at his backpack, until finally he found the flute stashed at the very bottom. Grabbing the flute in his hand, he now tried backing up the best he could, but he had forgotten about the large skid he had been pulling behind him. As quickly as he could he turned to jump over the two long handles, being used to drag its heavy load, but to no avail.
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Louis tripped after that he fell face first in the snow with the flute flying out of his hand, only to land in the deep snow away from his grasp. Louis frantically reached and searched about in the snow for the flute, until his hand bumped it.
"I found it! I found it!" he shouted out, but just as he was about to bring the flute to his mouth, Nebuka gripped Louis by the scruff of the coat, lifted him out of the snow, lifting him up right in front of his open mouth, all the while sizing up his snack.
Louis hysterically tried to place the flute into his mouth, to play a few notes just as quickly as he could. He was gasping for air, as his lungs heaved in and out so rapidly that a breath of air was a luxury that just would not come to him. Repeatedly he tried to slow his breathing, and calm down enough to play a few notes, but again his emotions overcame him, as terror took control of mind.
Louis's red cowlick raised high from the back of his head. It pushed his bearskin hat down lower across his eyes.
Seeing the Yeti's yellow broken teeth, then smelling his foul breath, and seeing his demon red eyes glow in front of him; finally sent Louis over the edge, and into a state of shear panic. The creature held Louis up a little higher, unlatched his lower jaw from his upper, and licked his thick orange lips with his long black forked tongue.
"Well, you are no more than one small delicious bite, but you will have to do." With these last words heard by Louis's his eyes rolled back into his head, he dropped the flute from his hand, and passed out cold from shear fright.
Seeing Louis go deathly limp in his hand Nebuka dropped Louis, sending him softly landing in a small snowdrift by his feet. As he landed, the small crystalline glass globe with the figurine of Nebuka inside fell away from Louis's open backpack. It rolled backwards over the snow, coming to a stop at the feet of the Yeti. As it came to a complete end, the snowflakes inside the ball spun about wildly in all directions, which began to light up the orange figure held inside its magical grasp.
Nebuka leaned over and stared into the glass ball in complete delight.
He reached down, placed the ball in-between his two large crooked fingers then brought it up closer to his glowing reds eyes. As he stared into the glass, a horrified look came across his large face.
"Oh, this is terrible; I have really done it this time. This child is a friend of Mr. Beamer, and Santa Claus. Oh...no...what...have I done? Oh, what have I done, that crystal ball was given to me so very long ago by Santa Clause now I remember. I lost it one day on the mountainside. Santa had found it, and I had heard that Santa had given it to Mr. Beamer as a gift, and he must have given it to this little boy. It is all becoming so clear to me now. Oh, gosh...this is so terrible. I hope this small boy is OK. I should have stopped scaring little kids long, long ago, but I could not help myself. If I do that, then I will have nothing else to keep me busy up here on this cold old mountain; besides that's what monsters do, they scare little boys."
Nebuka reached down to pick little Louis up again, to see if he was still breathing. He tried his best to revive him, when he suddenly noticed the strangest thing. Poor tiny Louis's hair had turned from a bright red to a bright white.
Louis looked to be about fifty years old.
What had happened to him?
Nebuka could tell by the small movement in Louis's chess that life was still inside him. He carefully, placed his two enormous orange lips over Louis's face and mouth. He blew a long, soft breath of warm life-giving air into the child's lungs.
Then, another breath and then another.
Louis's body was responding slowly, but surely, as Nebuka held him in as close as he could to his warm, furry chest. He wrapped his thick arms around Louis to warm his body; slowly Nebuka rubbed the top of Louis's white head.
Louis started to come around slowly. His chest took in a deeper breadth, then another. Feeling better now, he slowly opened his eyes, only to see glowing orange fur completely engulfing him.
"I've been eaten, man, I've been eaten!"
"No you haven't been eaten, your still talking are, you not?"
"Ah...ah...I'm in his belly...aggg!"
Louis was mortified.
"I am so sorry I did not know that you knew Mr. Beamer and Santa. I would have never tried to scare you, and don't worry I wasn't going to eat you either. You have to understand this is my job, scaring little kids and you just happen to be a little kid."
Nebuka placed Louis softly on the ground. He backed up a few feet to show Louis that all was well, and that he really was a friend. The orange Yeti did a little jig and dance, in the snow that wasn't very good which only confused Louis that much more.
Louis just stood there dumbfounded and flummoxed.
"You're not going to eat me then...? And yes...Mr. Beamer is my friend?"
"No, I won't eat you, and you have to know that I have never eaten one kid my whole life. I just scare em; that's how I have fun. Nevertheless, after making this horrible mistake with you, and knowing that you are friends with Mr. Beamer and Santa, I just cannot do this anymore. I think I have been scared straight. That's right. Me the scariest monster on the planet has, scared myself. I'm going to live a better life from now on; and I owe it all to you Louis."
"How did you know that I knew Mr. Beamer and how do you know my name?"
"Oh everybody knows your name...you're the one that took the life of Growlar. All the monsters and beasts that live up here have been talking about you. "
"What other beasts live up here?"
"Well, there's George the Cave Troll, Harry the Centaur, Dragon the Fire Breathing Dragon, who lives over by Broadfoot's cave...and on and on. All sorts of monsters...live up here Louis. Oh...yes...where was I. Oh yes...Mr. Beamer. Did he or did he not, give you that crystal ball?"
"Yes, that's right he did give me the crystal ball, the night before I left home on my journey to the North Pole. Wait a minute; you have to promise me you will not scare any more kids in the dark, or daylight or ever again for that matter. That's just not right. You could have given me a heart attack."
"You're right Louis, I have been wrong all these years, by scaring little helpless kids. I promise to you here and now that I will, never...ever...scare...another child as long as I live. Ever! Now why again are you on this mountainside. It's still a little foggy to me."
"Well, now I've accepted your promise, and I will hold you to it. No more scaring, so I will trust you with my secret. Yes...now as for why I am here you ask. I am on a noble quest to save Christmas. I've come a long way to get here and conquered many dangerous tasks placed in front of me that I will not go into right now. I only have this one last task to do, and then my friend Charlie the Great White Horse will be healed and Santa's Village will return, to its rightful owners. And are there any other monsters up here like you that are going to try and scare me to death or eat me, or what, you know the dragon or the cave troll?"
"Well I think I am the only monster that you have to worry about right now. I run this mountain. So let's get back to your quest. Please sit down with me, and tell me more about this quest of yours, and let me see if I can help you out."
Louis and Nebuka sat down on a nearby rock. both began a long genuine and sincere chat. Louis dutifully informed Nebuka all about: Growlar, Panthera, Squint-Eye Pete, and Black Jack Tilley. Nebuka just sat there, scratching his head and then he nodded a few times that he understood all that Louis was saying. Louis pulled out the last piece of apple pie out of his backpack and offered it to Nebuka.
"Well, that is quite a story. I know exactly what to do to help you out. I will carry you and your skid full of bear fur, down the side of the mountain just as fast as I can carry you. I will be sure to get you back to the edge of Santa's Village by Christmas Eve, and back to all of your waiting friends. I promise you Louis."
Louis smiled widely, agreeing with Nebuka. He then ate the last bite
of the apple pie, and they were off.
Throughout the last of the night and into the next day Nebuka the Good, flew down the mountain; great leaps and bounds were taken by his mighty legs. He jumped over large crevasses, and hurdled over massive rocks and boulders that lay in his way. Louis had found out the best way to travel, and the most comfortable way was to sit on Nebuka's, massive harry shoulders with his legs wrapped around his thick neck.
Onwards they traveled throughout the morning and into the early evening.
"You know Louis you would have not made the journey back in time dragging this heavy coat and skid."
"I know that has occurred to me as well. Nebuka, I just want to thank you so much for doing this for me and helping me out."
"Well it's my pleasure Louis. What are friends for but to help each other out in a time, of need?"
Onwards they went down the mountain making great time, off the foot of the mountains and into Snow Valley, found far below the mountain.
The sun was hanging on the horizon over the black mountains as the orange Yeti with Louis finally reached the outskirts of Santa's Village, to the thicket of bushes that Louis, Molly, and Chug had first rested at, when they had reached the city limits.
"Louis, it was sure great to meet you, thanks for enlightening me about how to treat people, and I hope your adventure ends happily and Charlie gets well. But I must be off now to my home back up in the mountain."
"Are you sure you don't want to come into town and meet: the elves, the workingmen, and all the reindeer?" They could all be your friends and they would surely welcome you warmly, if you would just let them. I am sure of it."
"No I have scared more than a few of them when they were little over the years, so I don't think I will be too welcome here, but you be sure to tell them that I have changed my ways, and I promise not to scare them anymore. Will you be sure to tell them for me, and then one day...er...then one day...I might just come back down from the mountain, to see if they will be my friends, like you said they would."
"OK I will be sure to tell them. Good luck with the new you...Nebuka the Good."
"I like the sound of that, Nebuka the Good. Therefore, that is what you'll be called for now on. I know that you can stay good, and thanks again for the lift down the mountain. By tomorrow tonight, if you look up in the sky about midnight you should see Charlie and his one-horse sleigh crossing over the winter sky heading out to deliver the presents, to all the children of the world. That is, if I can succeed, by running Black Jack out of town, and getting that darn great wrapping-machine up and running again."
With all the parting words spoken, it was now time to get back to work.
Louis gave Nebuka a great big hug; in return, Nebuka gave a big deepest hug to Louis, with each promising to stay in contact. Nebuka turned to look at the black mountain that he called home, looked back at Louis one more time, gave a friendly wave goodbye, then turned, and with a dozen great leaps he was back at the foot of dark mountain; climbing his way back to his life of solitude and loneliness.
Louis thought.
I'm going to get him a bunch of friends, I tell ya. There is no reason for him to live like that. When I have a chance, if it's the last thing I do on earth, I am going to make sure he lives out his last days on earth, with children or young elf's all around him, to love and adore him, for the person that he has become.
Louis then stepped in-between the two wooden handles of the skid. He began to pull it slowly forward. As he passed over a few large sheet of frozen ice on the ground, he looked down at his own reflection only to say, "Who is that old man with the white hair looking back at me?"