christmas wish list.
To most furs Christmas is just another day on the calendar, a day developed by department stores back in the fifties to drain their bank accounts by having them buy useless gifts and nic-naks. To buy toys and appliances that would get used and played with for about a week then broken and thrown away, sent to some landfill to rot and decay.
But to Dopey Dog Christmas meant far more than that, you see ever since he was a pup Dopey knew that December 25th, Christmas day, was magical. That it was the one day of the year where enemies could become friends, long broken friendships could be mended, and love, joy, and peace could prevail throughout the world. Now every Christmas season for the last five years or so Dopey had tried to bring out the Holliday spirit in others, he sang carols, he sent cards, he would even help the children in his neighborhood to write their letters to Santa. But also through out the years he came across more and more hostility from certain scrooges in his community, he would be singing a Christmas song like Holly Jolly Christmas while he was out for a walk, when a storm of shouts to knock it off and to shut the yiff up, as well as well aimed iceballs would force him to flee.
Or he would be helping little Tommy with his leter to Santa and Tommy's father would rush over and snatch him up by his snow suit, simultaneously calling Dopey a pedophillic nut job and telling young Tom never to go near him again.
But with each passing year, even with everyone becoming more and more hostile towards him and his overly joyful ways this time of year, Dopey remained hopeful, he hoped that one day they would all remember what it was that made Christmas so special and join him in celebrating the Holliday once again.
The last few years had been esspecially bad for poor Dopey, things got so bad in fact that he was nearly thrown out of his own home for refusing to take down his decorations. But through out it all, even with everything he had to endure from his scroogey neighbors, he always managed to find the Holliday spirit this time of year. This year after having had an esspecially depressing December Dopey decided to throw a party just like the ones he used to, he would invite his few remaining friends over to his house to watch the holliday movies and specials he had collected over the years, as well as going around caroling, and doing other Christmas themed activities. Then while talking to his friend Chritter on the phone he was given a far better idea, instead of just having a boring old Christmas party they would go on a grand adventure. At first Dopey thought that this was a bad idea, for one thing how could they even afford to go on such a trip when most of the group were either out of work or broke, for another thing even if they could come up with the money, where would they go?
To which Chritter had replied, "Don't worry about it dude, I will handle everything." Chritter had been Dopey's best friend for the past six years, they were really close and they always tried to help each other out when they could. Now for those who like a good back story, here's how they met each other.
Dopey was having another one of his Christmas block parties, he had thrown one every year for the past three and until that day Chritter had always declined his invitation.
He would make up excuses like his grandmother was ill, or he had band practice, or that he was already invited to another Christmas party that took place at the same time, etc. But in all reality he was just afraid that the other members of his band(peanut butter death-egg) would find out and make fun of him, the year that he finally accepted his invitation was during a time when the band was on the verge of splitting up and he needed something to do to cheer himself up. So he got on his coat and ventured out his front door and into the snow.
To Chritter's shock and anger he quickly realized that there was no one else around, the first thing that popped into his anger fried brain was that Dopey and the others were playing a cruel joke on him, like so many others had done to him so many times before.
This thought infuriated him to the point where he marched himself back up the walkway to his door, went inside and slammed it shut behind him,then he went about the task of taking off his winter gear. While removing his coat the little card containing his invitation fell to the floor,
upon seeing it he grabbed it and went to tear it up, but he stopped himself and double checked the instructions in the letter, as he re-read the letter he noticed that the note said that everyone was to meet over at Dopey's house where the fesitvities would begin. Then once everyone had arrived they would head outside for the party.
Now after having read that Chritter felt like a complete idiot about having over looked that little detail before, then again, once he read the words, "BLOCK PARTY", he assumed that it was to start outside like most of them do, so he bundled up again and headed off towards Dopey's house.
After a short jog he found himself standing outside a very nicely decorated front door with a wreath, blinky lights, the works. Chritter poked the button for the doorbell and was not really too surprised to hear jingle bells begin to play, then no less than a minute later the door opened and there in the doorway wearing a really tacky Christmas sweater was none other than Dopey himself. "Oh hey man, glad you could make it! Come on in the party's just gettin' started." he said excitedly, then he headed off into another room.
All Chritter could manage to do was stand there staring in awe at how finely and overly decorated the inside of this house seemed to be. There were garlands of various colors and designs draped from the ceilings, hung around banisters and every place imaginable.
Just about everywhere you looked was a Christmas tree standing proud and tall, coated with decorations from top to bottom in various styles and colors and sizes.
Everything from Disney characters to your typical Santa's sleigh pulled along by eight tiny reindeer, and there were so many twinkling lights that one almost needed sunglasses to enter the house without being blinded.
After having realized how foolish he must have looked just standing there like an idiot, Chritter shook his head he stepped inside and blinked his eyes against the almost blinding glow, then he removed his winter apparel and wandered into a nearby room from which the aroma of hot chocolate and cookies eminated. The instant he came around the corner he was greeted by a chorus of voices wishing him a "Merry Christmas". After the innitial shock he instantly became embarrased and nearly tripped over himself as he took a step into the room waving sheepishly, there were only eight furs about the room but to Chritter, who was shy enough as it was, it may as well have been eight thousand. He could already feel his face getting hotter and hotter with each step, he was suddenly very thankful to have been born with such thick facial fur.
Several girls noticed how nervous he was and giggled while the rest of the party goers merely shrugged it off and dove back into their conversations.
After seeing him just standing there awkwardly Dopey hopped up and came over to him. "Are you alright man, you look a little out of it..." Chritter only managed to nod his head and mumble almost unintelligibley that he was fine, just a little overwhelmed. Dopey laughed and said. "Overwhelmed, dude lighten up it's a party. Look man we're all friends here." Then he added, "Or at least I hope we are." Then after a few tense seconds he offered to introduce Chritter to everybody and proceeded to do so before he could answer, which was the last thing that he needed.
"Hey everyone, this here is my new friend Chritter Oxley..." Then Dopey walked him over by the couch where the ladies were sitting, "And Chritter, here we have Erin Malcowitz, Alexis Bramd, and Barbara Trails. Girls this is Chritter." All three looked up together and said, "Hi", then they began to giggle as he sheepishly backed away, he had recognized them from the neighborhood and was remembering how he had been admiring them from a far for years(if you know what I mean, wink wink).
Then Dopey walked him over to where most of the guys were, "Hey dudes, you've all met Chritter here, now he gets to meet you. Chritter this is Doofus D. Cat, Brutus Bovine, and Greg Cinderline." And they proceeded to shake hands and say the customary 'sups, and other greetings. Then lastly Dopey trotted him over by the fireplace where the only other person in the room was sitting who had not been introduced yet.
"And this shy guy over here is Bill Lector..."
At that moment Chritter's whole body went numb, for there sitting in front of him, was his bands drummer, the one whom he had been trying to hide the secret that he actually really liked Christmas from the most.
"Hey dude, I didn't expect to see you here..." He said with a big dopey grin on his face, all Chritter could do was stand there confuzzled, for as long as he had known Bill he had been one of the biggest scrooges on the planet.
Like the one time that he brought up the idea that they should totally do a holliday show, Bill was the first to shut it down, and now here he was in a Christmas T-shirt, wearing fake antlers and sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows by the fireplace.
Dopey: "Oh you two know each other?"
"Yeah," said Bill. "Chritter here's in my band. We've been playing together for the last five years now." He went on to say more but thats not important to this particular story.
Well after that the rest of the party went pretty smoothly, although he did have quite a few questions for Bill, after a while he eventually dropped it and wound up having a great time, as well as making some great new friends and begining several friendships that would last for a long time.
Well that took place six years ago, and since then some of those people had moved, others stopped coming over to Dopey's house, and just stopped talking to anyone who dared to even speak to him. As of last years christmas party only five people showed up out of the nearly ten that had arrived the year before, and now that you all know how this thing got started we can get back to the story at hand, although I did forget to mention that through out the years peanut butter death-egg soared in popularity, and had became one of the biggest selling rock groups of the last decade.
So anyway, Chritter made some calls and pulled some strings, managing to get tickets for a flight to a little town in alaska called Christmas town, where they would hop aboard a train to the north pole,(the train in question being the polar express), where they would have their adventure looking for the fabled Santa's workshop!
After having heard this everyone was really excited and reved up about the trip, everyone that is, except for Bill, he was one of the unfortunate furs who had had their spirit shattered due to how pollitically correct Christmas was becoming. He had held out far longer than most until he nearly got arrested because some little idiot thought that he was a terrorist trying to blow up the post office just because he had on a Santa hat and beard while he was dropping off some packages to be delivered.
Well even with that everyone else was elated when they heard the news from their employers that they would be getting two months paid leave starting December twenty second, thanks in no small part to a generous donation to their places of employment by Chritter.
So now with the trip only days away everyone began packing and gathering the appropriate supplies, of course with everyone being short on funds Chritter helped pay for most of their equipment. By December twenty first they were ready.
It was early in the morning when they boarded the plane, Chritter had arranged for the earliest flight possible, so they wound up on a 5:30 flight. During the flight the group had fallen back to sleep and were well rested by the time they touched down in Christmas town, everyone that is except for Dopey.
For him this trip was just like Christmas eve times ten million, he was so excited to finally be going on this trip, which he had been wanting to do and had been planning and saving up for for years, that he barely got any sleep during the entire fifteen hour flight. Well he managed to calm down enough during the train ride that he finally got some shut eye, although he did miss the hot chocolate and other surprizes while he slept, he woke up feeling refreshed and rejuvinated.
As soon as they reached the train station they rented a few snowmobiles and began their journey.
Oh it was a grand adventure indeed, the group which consisted of Chritter, Dopey, Bill, Greg, Alexis, and Barbara made their way across the frozen tundra at a steady pace taking in the wonderous sites of the arctic.
Mountainous hills of snow, the intimidating craggy glaciers, the polar bears and penguins, as well as all of the other inahbitants of this cold and snowy region of the world. Living and thriving together as well as the occasional polar bear eating a penguin or a seal, but thats too dark for our happy little tale.
Anyway, so far everything was going great, although they were bitterly cold, everyone was having a great time and were so full of joy to get to see such a wonderous and mostly untouched wonderland, which some knew that they would probably never get to see again, that they didn't care. With all the new sites and sounds and experiences it was just all too magical for my limited vocabulary to re-tell, so as I was saying.
Everything was going absolutely wonderfully until Greg's snowmobile suddenly crashed through the ice into a deep deep crevice, the others rushed over to help just in time to hear his muffled, horrified howl as he fell deeper and farther away from their grasping paws, and then silence. As they watched, the light on the front of Greg's snowmobile grew smaller and smaller then it disappeared all together, after calling out to him for a few moments they finally realized that he was gone.
Solemnly they decided to continue, Alexis and Barbara did not want to just leave him, but after a while they realized that just standing around in the snow crying tears that would freeze to their fur, wasn't going to bring back their friend. So after holding a little makeshift ceremony for him, and after having said their last good byes, they rode on. Driven on by a new determination, they had to find Santa's workshop, they just had to, for Greg.
They rode for several more hours before they had to stop and set up camp for the night, after setting up the tent, as difficult as that is with those harsh winds blowing all the time, they crawled inside with their rations and thermal sleeping bags.
It wasn't until Chritter spoke up that they realized that Greg had had the majority of their food and water, and now that he was gone all they had was enough rations to last three days instead of the two weeks that Chritter had planned, it was then and there that they decided to take off at first light, but then realizing that they were in the arctic circle in the middle of winter and the sun wouldn't rise again until april, they revised their decision to 6:30 the next morning.
Realizing how dangerous it is to be traveling at high speeds in winds that cold and through blinding snow, Dopey and the others were hesitant to leave that early, but Chritter reasoned that the more ground they could cover the better, esspecially considering their extreme lack of rations and provisions, plus the distance that they needed to travel, that leaving that early was a must.
So everyone crawled into their sleeping bags and tried to put the days events behind them and go to sleep.
Chritter and the others were riding their snowmobiles, racing to catch up with Greg, driving their vehicles harder and faster than they should trying to catch up to him. Then Chritter felt odd like suddenly somthing wasn't right, he looked to his right then to his left, now he was the only one chasing the deranged fur.
Something inside, something deep down in his very soul prompted Chritter to press on, to try and stop the lunatic before he hurt himself or worse, then to his horror the ice up ahead opened up right under Greg's snowmobile and swallowed him in one mighty gulp, but just before he vanished Greg turned around, and reached out his arm towards Chritter in one last desperate attempt to save himself and called out to him.
Then moments later as he sat there weeping for his friend, he found himself looking down at the blood splattered broken body of Greg, eyes closed, seemingly at peace at the bottom of the chasm.
Then suddenly his eyes flew open as he jumped up from the ice, rushing over and grabbing Chritter to hold him up so that they were now face to face, staring into those piercing cold, evil, damning green eyes, then Greg shouted through his broken maw, "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE ME!!"
Chritter woke with a start, his heart was racing, his blood ran colder than the arctic winds blowing outside the tent as he sat bolt upright, to his astonishment everyone else was already awake, apparently his alarm hadn't gone off and it appeared that Alexis had just come over to wake him when he had quickly sat up like that, as she was now staring at him with from the foot of his sleeping bag with her eyes wide in shock, then he noticed that she wasn't so much staring at him as she was staring behind him and so were the others. He slowly turned his head to find himself looking into the frostbitten face of Greg who repeated in the same damning tone "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE ME!!" Then vanished.
Again Chritter woke with a start, this time for real, he even punched himself in the face three times to be absolutely sure this time, and to his relief everyone was still asleep and there was no sign of Greg's frozen corpse anywhere. So he decided to try and go back to sleep, but just as his head touched the pillow, NGYAN! NGYAN! NGYAN! His alarm went off signalling him as well as everything within a hundred foot radious of the tent that it was time to get up.
So everyone slowly, grogilly, began to awaken from their uneasy and restless slumber. They quickly ate their meagor breakfast rations, packed up their stuff and started off, surprisingly there wasn't much of a wind that morning so they started off making really good time. But within a few hours of their departure their luck quickly changed when a much harsher wind than before came along and nearly blew everyone off of their snowmobiles.
Bill and Alexis were the only ones to lose their grip and fly off into the snow for an instant they could be seen flying through the air. Then suddenly, they were gone, as was the wind that had swept them away. The rest of the group searched and searched through the snow for hours on end, feverishly searching for their friends, but alas it was to no avail.
Bill and Alexis were lost, gone forever to join their friend Greg in eternity in the unforgiving snowy wilderness of the arctic. Now all that remained of the adventurous group were Barbara, Chritter, and Dopey. With all hope nearly gone the now smaller group, begrudgingly decides to continue onward, feeling that the others would want them to continue for them.
So Chritter and Dopey gathered up what rations and other necessities that they would need from the others packs, which had been strapped to their snowmobiles and quite luckily hadn't blown open in the wind. While the others did their deed Barbara continued to search calling out Bill and Alexis' names and driving her snowmobile around in circles until her voice was hoarse and the vehicle ran out of gas.
So once Dopey and Chritter had acquired what was needed, Barbara hopped on alexis' snowmobile and they were off once again, as the group rode along they befell two more tragedies, while riding through an ice cavern the rumbling of the snow mobile engines shook an enormous icicle loose from the ceiling which pierced Chritter through the head killing him instantly, and then the next day, as Dopey and Barbara were riding along, an avalanche claimed the life of poor Barbara. Now all but one of the carefree group of happy Santa seekers were dead, each one picked off by the frozen tundra's many booby traps and hidden dangers.
After digging through the snow and having found her body, Dopey was too late, Barbara, whom he had grown to love during this whole adventure, whom he had planned to ask to marry him once they made it back to civilization, and had escaped the cruel artic circle, was gone. But now that she was gone, Dopey was just a broken shell of his former self, the only thing that kept him going was the thought that if only he could make it, that if only he could find Santa's workshop, then everything would be alright again.
Dopey drove on and on until his snowmobile ran out of gas, then he walked and walked until his legs were numb, all the way to the bone, he marched along his own trail of tears, mourning the lives of his friends and his beloved until finally his legs gave out and he landed muzzle first in the snow and passed out from exaustion.
At that moment a sound could be heard, almost like that of a certain sleigh with eight tiny reindeer.
In his unconcious frost bitten stupor Dopey relives the horrors of the death of his friends over and over and over again, but the worst dream is that he and Barbara are just about to be married, when the frozen corpses of rest of the group, Chritter, Greg, Alexis and Bill appear out of nowhere, they grab Barbara and drag her out of the chappel into a blinding snow storm, where they wait for Dopey.
Then once he steps outside they heft a giant icicle into the air and as Dopey runs to save her, they plunge it straight through her heart. Then the five of them as well as the chappel disappear leaving him alone in the snow.
Unknown female voice, "Oh my goodnes! Where ever did you find this one Papa? My my, he's in terrible shape."
Unknown male voice "The poor thing was out there wandering about in the snow Mama, I saw him as I was passing over, I was going to stop and offer him a lift. But he flopped face down in the snow before I could get the sleigh down."
Hours later after having just gone through the maddening trauma of watching his corpsified best friends murder his beloved Barbara again for the umpteenth time, Dopey finally starts to regain conciousness.
"Oh! Papa come quick I think he coming to."
Dopey, "Wh-where am I? What happened?" as Dopey slowly lifts his head and opens his eyes his vision is very bleary and he feels very weak and tired he also notices that he's somewhere warm.
Unknown male voice, "Easy now little fellah, you've been through quite an ordeal tonight, havent you. You need your rest..."
Dopey, "But, but...my, friends." He goes to sit up when a strong but gentle hand lands on his chest and slowly forces him back down.
Unknown male voice, "Whoah there fellah, like I said what you need right now, is rest. Now go on, try and get some sleep and we'll talk more about your friends tomorrow, okay?" Dopey weakly nods his head, then lays back down, the instant his head hits the pillow he's out again.
Many hours later, very early the next day, in fact Christmas day, Dopey wakes to find that he's still terribly weak and exhausted, but this time he can see much more clearly.
Blinking the sleep from his eyes Dopey looks around and notices something odd, everything around him is Christmassy and cheery, at first Dopey thinks to himself,
"This has got to be the most well decorated hospital room I've ever seen."
But then it slowly dawns on him that this isn't a hospital room. Upon further inspection he realizes that he's laying on a couch and being covered by several large blankets, all of which are Christmas themed.
Now Dopey is really curious to find out where he is.
"Hello? Hello is anyone there, I'd like a glass of water please." He calls out weakly.
"Oh good, he's awake. Be right there deary."
After a few moments a plump woman enters the room wearing a bright red outfit with black shoes, her white hair is pulled up in a bun on the top of her head, seemingly held in place by a mistletoe branch, if Dopey didn't know any better he'd of sworn that she was Mrs. Clause.
She walked over and sat down on a chair in front of the couch facing him offering the glass of water.
After fighting with the blankets for a few seconds Dopey manages to pull his hands free from their covers and for the first time he notices that he's no longer wearing his parka or any of his other snow gear, but thats the last thing on his mind, right now all he can think about is that cool refreshing water going down his throat. So he gently grabs the glass and brings it up to his maw and begins guzzling it,
"my, my quite a thirsty one you are..."
At that moment a rotund older gentleman in a red suit with cheeks just like roses and a nose like a cherry, a long white beard, and a belly that jiggled like a bowl full of jelly, enters from the other room.
"Santa!?" Dopey managed to choke out after finishing off the water.
Santa, "The one and only, and you must be Dopey dog, right?"
Dopey nearly shat himself, could this be true, could it really be truely true that he was in the home of the legendary Santa Clause himself, no less actually talking to him in person.
"Wow, sir it is and honor to meet you." Dopey said as if he were addressing some big pollitical figure, while offering his hand for a handshake.
"Well it certainly is nice to meet a fan of my work around here," he says in his jolly tone. "Now dopey I have a question for you, that is, if you're up to answer it?"
Dopey nodded his head so hard that he thought it would fall off.
Santa, "Whoah there, okay, heh heh, now then about these friends of yours, any ideah where they might be? The wife and I went out and looked for them near where I found you and well we're worried about them."
Suddenly Dopey remembered and his attitude went from happy to somber, "They're dead."
Santa nervously, "Ho ho what, they're dead."
Dopey, "yes Santa, dead. My friends and I came all the way from northern Ohio to try and find your workshop, was just supposed to be something fun for us to do to get away for a while."
he pauses to wipe a tear from his eye, then continues,
"we took a plane to christmas town, then the polar express to the station where we rented some snowmobiles, and then everyone died. Greg fell into a chasm, Bill and Alexis got blown away by the wind, Chritter took and icicle through the brain, and Barbara, my sweet, sweet Barbara, was burried alive under four feet of snow in an avalanche. And now I'm all that remains of our happy little group."
As he finishes his story Mrs. Clause has tears in her eyes as she stands up and walks into the next room, and Santa is standing there with a very disturbed look on his usually cheerful face as he obsorbs this information. He takes a seat where the mrs. was sitting and his expression changes from one of deep sorrow and worry to a more thoughtful one.
Dopey, "Santa? I'd like to tell you what I want for christmas this year."
This apparently breaks santa out of the thought cloud he was just swimming in as he lifts his head up and looks towards the furson on the couch before him intently.
Dopey starts. "Santa, I don't know if you can do this or not but..."
Santa, "what ever it may be my dear boy, I'll do my best to make it come true for you."
Dopey, "All I want for christmas this year santa, is my friends back and to have all of us back at our homes celebrating christmas with our families and friends. Thats all I want santa, no stupid toy or video game, I just want to go home with my friends and have them return to their families alive and in one piece again."
Now that thoughtful look returned to the usually jolly mans face, "I thought that might be what you'd want. Dopey I do have the power to restore your friends."
A huge silly looking grin spreads across Dopey's slender canine face at those words that he thought he'd never hear.
"But" Santa continued causing, Dopey's smile to fade slightly.
"This will require a small sacrifice on your part.
Now normally I would never do this as this goes against many of my principles, esspecially considering how many letters I get from children who just want me to bring back their mother, or father, or grandparent, that I have to decline. But I have seen how you manage to keep christmas in your heart through out the year and how people treat you because of it, esspecially at this time of year.
So for your having had to suffer through all of that, as well as what you've endured these last few days I'll do this for you.
Dopey, if I am to do this for you, I will have to rewind time and in doing so your friends shall live and breathe again as they did before their untimely deaths, but also in doing so, you all shall lose your memories of what has happened here these last few days, and yes in theory you would all be doomed to repeat the same mistake.
But to prevent this I shall plant a thought in your minds, to convince everyone that this trip is a bad idea.
Are you willing to sacrifice your memories for this wish of yours, Dopey dog?"
Without even a second thought, dopey nodded his fuzzy little head.
The telephone was ringing, he was standing in his living room with Christmas music playing, he was wearing his favorite Santa sweater and holding a mug of cocoa.
He set the cup down and walked over to answer the phone.
"Hello? Merry Christmas." He said.
"Hey Dopey, it's me Chritter,..."
Dopey, "Oh hey dude whats up?"
Chritter, "Well man, I was thinking about what you said the other day, you know, the whole thing about having another one of your christmas parties...."