Page 18 of Chasing Cheer
When they touched down in the North Pole, Ivy and Clove excitedly trotted over to the other young reindeer, ready to show off after their successful first Cheer cycle outing. Holly gave Dasher and Gale an extra-long brushing, thanking them for supervising the trainees. By the time Holly finished in the stables, Clementine was waiting for her at the start of the path to Merriment Square.
“You’re back early. Is everything all right?” She pulled at the bottom of her crisply tailored suit jacket. Night was just beginning to fall, and the northern lights glittered beyond the village like bioluminescent algae.
“Clem, you’re never going to believe this,” Holly said breathlessly as they began their trek under the arched lights, moving away from the stables. “My Cheer quota is filled already!”
Clementine's ears pitched upward, the elf equivalent of arching an eyebrow.
“I went to this small town for a fall festival to test a new theory.” Since Clementine was walking quickly down the path, Holly had to pick up the pace. “Anyway, it was nearly filled on the first evening, before the festival even started. I thought I’d pick up on some negative emotions that would bring it down, like always, but this Cheer was resilient. It was like nothing could affect it! I still don’t know what caused it. So I decided I needed to come back here and discharge it in case it turned out to be some outlier.”
Clementine’s eyes had followed Holly as she spoke. “That is all very strange. Let’s take it to the North Post and see if it charges up like normal Cheer.”
They emerged into Merriment Square.
“Exactly. I was wondering the same,” Holly said excitedly as she strode to the lamppost in the center of the square. A few elves came out of the studios to watch, though it was a smaller group than normal. No one had been expecting her.
A nervous tingle went up Holly’s spine. She took a deep breath and pressed her palm to the post, right on top of the snowflake engraving. The warm sensation filled her palm as usual, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
When the elves let out a collective gasp, Holly looked up at a flash of bright light. She took a step back then froze. The North Pole had gone silent. Holly blinked then stared in disbelief.
The North Post was glowing more brightly than it had in many seasons. The last time she had seen it putting out that much light, her parents hadn’t yet moved to the other side of the spirit portal. For once in her life, Holly was truly and utterly shocked. As she and all the elves stood there, staring up at the North Post, snow began to fall softly.
* * *
The North Polewas abuzz the next morning. The North Post, a central beacon of life there, was shining at full capacity once again. Many of the younger elves couldn’t remember a time when the post shone that way, and many of the older elves had tucked it away as a deep memory, one they were not quite confident was real.
But since it was back, the elves couldn’t stop talking. Rumors abounded. Maybe Ms. Claus’s strength had finally fully matured. Perhaps the Cheer source she had tapped into was somehow different from others. Or maybe it was just part of a natural cycle within Cheer that they had all been unaware of.
Holly contemplated many of those questions as she sat on her front porch, drinking hot cocoa and staring at the North Post. The elves who had been awake the previous night had quickly run home to their families in the tree houses, spreading the news about the post. That morning, Merriment Square was even busier than a normal day when Ms. Claus was in residence. While the Kringles were subtler about their curiosity, the Keyblers chatted animatedly with one another.
In the light of morning, the North Post was still unbelievably bright. It seemed as if their home had only been lit by lanterns until suddenly, it had been wired with electricity. Holly’s childhood memories flashed through her mind. The North Pole had quite literally been brighter, one of the many reasons why her time with her parents had felt different from her time without them. She hadn’t noticed until it went away and came back again.
Holly swirled the heavy mug in her hands. It showed four reindeer dashing across the sky, pulling a golden sleigh. Her mind was running through every hypothesis she could think of.
The Cheer cycle had been shorter. Her watch had filled almost immediately. And the Cheer she’d delivered had been brighter than ever before.Why?She tried to consider all the variables that had changed since the last Cheer cycle.
She had visited a small town. Well, it had hardly been the first time she’d visited one of those. She’d attended other festivals in rural areas as well as weddings and retirement parties.
Oregon.She’d been to Oregon, too, mainly to the coastal towns.
A fall festival.She had attended those before.Was this one different somehow?Not likely, other than the fact that she had been way more involved with it than she normally would be. But her Cheer meter had been skyrocketing before the festival even began.
Emerald Hollow.Holly paused on that variable for a moment. She’d never been to Emerald Hollow before, and she had to admit there was something inviting about the town that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Plus, their hot cocoa was the only one she had tasted that could rival the one made at the North Pole. But after she’d walked around the town and tested her watch, it didn’t seem that the town itself was impacting the Cheer.
She let her mind go to the one place she had been avoiding:Ash. Her watch had first started kicking off when she met him, and it always seemed to feel extra warm every time she was around him.But what could that mean? Is he just full of more Cheer than everyone else? Does his Cheer somehow repel negative emotions from others? And even if those things are true, why would that make the light in the North Post glow more brightly?
It didn’t make any sense, and things that didn’t make sense bothered Holly immensely. She took another sip of her hot cocoa, but she barely tasted it. Her eyes roved over Merriment Square, looking but not seeing.
The elves weren’t as invested in thewhyandhowof Cheer as she was. Clementine had come on as elf mayor when Holly had taken over as Ms. Claus, and while she had intimate knowledge of all the North Pole’s many operations, Cheer was one thing that was a bit of a mystery to them all.
Clementine had always said she was okay with that, as long as the Cheer kept functioning as it always had. The end result was what was important to Clementine, not the many paths to getting there. Those were Holly’s domain. And the new path, the strange, unexpected synapse, had lit a fire under Holly to unravel it.
Someone had to know what was causing it. She set the mug down on the polar-bear-shaped wooden table next to her and stood quickly.Time to go see Lumi Kringle.
ChapterFifteen
Lumi Kringle was the oldest living elf in the North Pole. While all elves and Clauses had longer lives than humans because of magic, Lumi’s life had been particularly long. Though Holly hadn’t seen Lumi since she was a child, and she barely remembered what she looked like, she knew that if anyone had the answers she was seeking, Lumi did.
Holly trod through the dense forest, slipping softly along the little wooden paths that hung a few feet in the air, connecting the tree houses. The snow that was a constant companion of the North Pole sparkled on the ground below.
