“Very good,” Corey replied taking off behind him. “And Hillstern, will you send someone over to alert St. Nicholas? He should be able to use the globe to find her. Perhaps he can transport himself to where she is located.”
“I’ll send someone,” Hillstern replied. “If they can reach St. Nicholas in time…. It’s just, you know how hard it is to get an audience with him.”
“Tell him it’s an emergency, and that I need his help,” Corey insisted, knowing the elf was right. He watched as Snowshoes took the red light from the wall and began to strap it onto the miniature reindeer the same way that Serendipity had shown him. “How can I help?” he asked.
Pulling the strap tightly, the elf gave a stern nod. “That should do it,” Snowshoes assured him. “Now, can you transport us to where you think she might be?”
“I have no idea where she might be,” Corey admitted, “but I shall do my best to get us close to her.” He placed his hands on the elf’s shoulder and on the reindeer’s antlers and transported all three of them to the bottom of the first stairwell at the foot of the mountain.
Corey was astonished at just how well they could see with the light from the reindeer’s nose illuminating the mountain around them. Despite the falling snow, they could see Corey’s footprints from several minutes ago. They could also see nearly halfway up the side of the mountain. “I don’t see any sign of her, do you?” Corey asked.
“No, sir, nothing,” Snowshoes confirmed. “Shall we try another place?”
Corey moved them up the mountainside a bit, near where the light had begun to dissipate from their previous vantage point. They began searching the area again. This time, the light shown all the way to the top of the mountain, illuminating the doors of the Snow Queen’s palace. Still, there was no sign of Serendipity.
Just as Corey was about to relocate them again, they heard a whizzing sound overhead. Looking up, they saw at least a dozen reindeer flying by, some manned by elves that worked in the barn, others rider less. Each of them picked a landing spot along the mountain range and began to search for Serendipity. Most of these reindeer had met her just yesterday and had already fallen in love with her. He knew it was just as important to them to find her as it was to himself. “Let’s check the other stairwell,” he yelled to Snowshoes before transporting them back down to the base of the mountain.
Using the red light to fight against the glare from the falling snow, they peered up the side of the mountain again. At first, they saw nothing. But then, just as Corey was about to move on, his eyes caught something in the snow. “Are those rocks sticking out of the snow there?” he asked pointing.
“Where?” Snowshoes asked, squinting into the wind.
“There!” Corey pointed with one hand and turned the reindeer’s head with the other so as to better direct the light.
Seeing what Corey was looking at, Snowshoes nodded. “Yeah, I think so! Maybe Serendipity knocked ‘em loose! How else would we be seeing gravel on top of freshly fallen snow?”
Corey knew it was very possible that someone--or something else--had caused the rocks to come loose, but he was hopeful that this was a clue as to where Serendipity may have gone.
“Let’s have a closer look,” he shouted above the wind and transported them up the side of the mountain just above where the gravel had fallen, hopeful that his guess as to where the footholds might be was correct.
Just when Serendipity thought she could not take one more step, she saw something in the distance, just a hundred yards or so away, that renewed her strength. At first, it appeared to be only a dark patch in the snow, which made little sense to her frozen sensibilities, but then she realized it was an opening! There, maybe twenty or thirty footsteps ahead of her, lay the entrance to a cave! If she could reach the entryway, she could get out of the wind and possibly have the opportunity to warm up a bit, maybe wait for the blizzard to pass. Her entire body ached from head to toe, her fingers had been jabbed so many times by sharp rocks that stuck right through her thick mittens, and her feet were so numb she could no longer feel for sure whether or not her steps were placed correctly, but with the echoes of her father’s favorite phrase playing over and over in her mind, she began to slide forward. “Come on Pozzletot,” she said aloud, her hoarse voice just a whisper. “Let’s give it a go!”
“Thank goodness you found a ledge, sir,” Snowshoes exclaimed above the wailing wind, “or else we would have been in for quite a fall.”
“Don’t worry, my good man. I’m quite capable of transporting you even in mid-air,” Corey replied as he glanced around his current position. Then, looking down the mountainside to the ground far below, he added, “Although I would certainly prefer not to.”
“Look, sir! There, in the snow! It looks like footprints, doesn’t it?” Snowshoes exclaimed. The baby reindeer turned his head to shine his light at the ground, and sure enough, they could plainly see what looked like fresh, scuffled footprints.
“They seem to be headed in that direction,” Corey replied. “If you look over there, toward the area where the staircase connects to the mountain, they aren’t nearly as easy to see, which means they are older.”
“Then, let’s proceed this way!” Snowshoes recommended as he took the baby reindeer by the reins and pulled him along as they carefully made their way through the thick snow atop the narrow ledge hopeful that they could locate Serendipity before it was too late and she succumbed to the intensity of Mt. Menzelfrap.