Kris Kringle

Prince Renier’s adviser, Monty, was a tall, skinny man, with thinning brown hair and a large nose that protruded from his face like a bird’s beak. He had just come from the bell tower where he had searched extensively for whoever was responsible for ringing the bells without authorization. However, he could find no sign of anyone having been there, and so he stormed into the main hall of the castle to begin his interrogation of the servants.

“No one move!” he ordered loudly as he entered the hall. The servants—twelve in number—paused from working on their various tasks to look up at Monty.

“Who rang the bell without authorization?” he asked firmly. There was no response from his captive audience. “Did anyone see someone near the tower recently?”

A hand was raised by a woman who had been washing the floor. “Barney and a man I did not recognize were in the inner courtyard just a few minutes ago. I saw them as I was walking over here.”

“Where are they now?” Monty asked quickly.

“Barney is outside by the wood-cutting area,” another servant answered.

Monty left as quickly as he came, this time headed for the location between the castle and the forest where the firewood was chopped for the entire castle. As he approached the area, he saw a servant splitting logs of wood in half with his ax.

“You there!” Monty called out, “Is your name Barney?”

The man rested his ax on the ground. “It is,” he replied with some concern, “Is something the matter?”

“Did you ring the castle bells just a few minutes ago?” Monty demanded.

Barney shook his head. “No, I was on my way back here when I heard them.”

“On your way? Where were you?”

Barney swallowed nervously. “Well, I was near the bell tower, but I was directing a new member of the castle servant-folk. He said he needed to fix—“

“A new member?” Monty repeated with disgust on his face, “We don’t have any new member among the servants.”

Barney’s heart dropped as he suddenly realized that he had unknowingly assisted an intruder through the castle.

“I…,” Barney tried to apologize but knew Monty was not listening to him anyone, nor would he have cared if he had been. The prince’s adviser had just come to the same realization as Barney—there was an intruder on the grounds. He hastily returned to the castle and spoke to the first guard he found there.

“Sound the alarm,” Monty ordered, “A criminal is within the castle. Ensure that Princess Eva is brought to her chambers and kept there until you receive word from me. I will inform Lord Renier and ensure he is brought to a secure location as well. You find this rat and bring him to me!”

Kris had barely made his way onto one of the rooves of the castle by the time Monty had arrived at the bell tower for its initial inspection. Kris—his heart and lungs overworked—lay breathlessly behind the walls of the roof, out of sight. He had jumped from the top of the bell tower onto the roof. It was a jump that hurt his right foot more than he had realized, due to the adrenaline that was being pumped through his body after he had given away his position by inadvertently ringing the bells. He lay behind the wall for some time, knowing that one or two guards would have likely come to investigate the cause of the bell ringing. After regaining his breath, Kris grabbed the coil of rope he had stolen from the basement and ran down the roof toward the area above the main hall, all the while staying crouched behind the walls. He stopped as he reached the area, looking around for the one thing that had brought him to the roof to begin with. He smiled when he saw it.

The chimney.

The only problem now facing Kris was that there were three stone chimneys coming up from the roof’s surface. Kris looked around for any clue as to which chimney might lead to Princess Eva’s room. And as if Destiny itself had known his thoughts and seen his dilemma, there came to Kris’ ears the beautiful sound of a woman singing. Kris looked over the south edge of the castle to find the source of the song. There below him, standing on the balcony, was Princess Eva.

Kris smiled widely. His heart was now quickened again that morning, but in a more pleasant manner than his previous experiences had caused. He could not stop looking at her, the glow of her blonde hair in the sunlight happily mesmerizing him. She was even more beautiful than he remembered, and her voice matched her face with its sweet and sensitive melody. When she stopped singing, Kris was awoken from his romantic reverie and reminded what he was there to do. As badly as he wanted to jump onto the balcony right then and there, he knew that would be too dangerous. The balcony, after all, stood far above the moat that circled around the perimeter of the castle. He had heard this moat contained crocodiles, but even if that was just a story to scare people from invading, he knew the fall into such a deep body of water with its high muddy walls would serve like a trap for a mouse. The moat was designed to be one thing: a watery grave. He could not risk falling in.

And so Kris went about approaching the princess the way he had planned just moments earlier while in the basement staring at the firewood. He knew now that the stone pillar nearest to the balcony was the chimney that would lead him to the princess’ room. Tying the rope around one of the other chimneys, he grabbed the rope’s other end tightly and stood upon the top of the chimney. It was not a narrow chute, and Kris was grateful for that. However, as he looked down, he saw an iron grating near the top of the chimney. The grating had holes large enough to let the smoke of a fire rise up, but small enough to keep birds and other animals from coming down. Unfortunately for Kris, it would prevent him from coming down the chute too. Kris examined the grating. It was clearly very old and rust was forming on the edges of its bars. Perhaps with enough force, he could break it loose.

With the end of the rope tight in hand, Kris jumped down the opening of the chimney and onto the iron grating. It remained intact. Kris pulled himself back up the rope and again jumped with all his weight upon the grating. This time, it seemed to loosen from its position within the stone chute. Kris repeated the maneuver three more times. On the fifth attempt, the grating broke free and fell down the chute, along with Kris, his grip on the rope burning his palms as he felt his body fall all the way down, stopping just shy of the half-burnt logs that were resting in the fireplace. Thankfully, no fire was currently burning.

The grating had reached the bottom before he did, and the loud clatter it created summoned the princess from her place on the balcony. Just as she entered her room to examine the sound, Kris let go of his rope and landed clumsily upon the wood and ashes on the floor of the fireplace.

Princess Eva fell backwards in terrified surprise, grabbing a large candlestick on the table next to her out of instinctive defense. She was about to cry out for help, but Kris quickly waved his hands frantically as a sign for her to stay quiet. As he did, Eva got a good look at the intruder’s face.

“The marketplace…,” she said softly, the memory of their first meeting coming back to her.

Kris nodded with a smile, his teeth shining like white snow against the black soot that was now all over his face. Eva looked at him, trying to hold back a smile. He really was a handsome man, even with all the smoky ash that covered him.

“What are you doing here?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“I need to speak to you about the Shepherds, the king, your note. Everything,” he replied quickly, “We need each other’s help if we are going to save Silverbell.”

Eva stood there in shock, her mind still trying to process what was happening. “How did…” She pointed to the fireplace and then to him.

“The fireplace?” she asked in disbelief, again trying to prevent herself from laughing at the humor she found in this most peculiar scene before her. “You actually just went down a chimney!”

Kris smiled again and began to casually brush off some of the soot on his clothes.

“Well,” he said with a playful shrug, “I don’t plan to make a habit of it!”