He nearly threw his coffee all over himself. The little house had been shaken to its foundations, as if a giant had stomped on the roof.

A second crash rang out quickly afterward from the rear garden. This time he looked out of the window to see something that made him completely forget about his spilt coffee. On the field just outside the kitchen door there was a very large, very red sleigh that was lined with a number of golden bells the size of his fist. It had been turned completely on its side to show a wide-set seat with leather reins Laid out across the frosty grass. Still tied up to the sleigh were nine very large reindeer standing in two lines and Looking like lost sheep. At the head of the two lines was another smaller reindeer with a very shiny red nose.

And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows.

"You have got to be shitting me." Wendall ran to the door and pulled it open to see that his eyes weren't deceiving him at all.

It was only then that he looked at the low stone wall beside the overturned sleigh. He saw a single pair of shapely legs wiggling about up in the air with obvious distress. They were garbed in white and red, stripy leggings.

“Hey!" Wendall yelled out as he made a run for the legs.

“What the hell is this? That's my house you nearly just destroyed! I... fucking hell!"

When he mentioned his house he'd just happened to glance back and see that a very Large chunk had been removed from the middle of his roof, leaving him with an impromptu skylight. Pausing for only a moment to look over the damage before remembering the rest of the crazy in his back field, he turned to hurry over to the flailing Legs.

Whoever they belonged to had landed in a thick stack of straw he kept bundled behind the fence. It seemed like his unknown visitor had Landed in there head-first. His approach allowed him to take a closer look at the sight of those stripy red and white leggings, and see the toned and slender shape of the legs within. The legs were each topped with a pointed green shoe decorated with a Little, round bell attached to the upturned points. These allowed the Legs to jingle merrily whilst they flailed.

“Alright, alright, steady on." He said as he reached out and wrapped his arms around the Legs to pull. At first he got a knee in the nose for his troubles when the legs became even more alarmed at this manhandling. "Oh for crying out loud!" Wendall yelled. Summoning his strength after tasting blood on his Lip, he hauled the intruder up out of the straw in one go.

They both fell back onto the frosty grass with Wendall still in his pyjamas, slippers and dressing gown. It seemed like the frost didn't really consider those to be proper obstacles and he quickly felt a fresh chill go through his body. Turning his head, he Looked up to see the intruder scrambling to her feet.

From the back he wasn't immediately sure it was a her. She was about

5ft tall with a slender build and her hair was kept mostly inside a floppy, pointed, green hat. When she turned around to look down at him, he saw she was unmistakably female. Her face had delicate, pointed features that ran the mark somewhere between cute and surreally beautiful. Large, green eyes glittered with a Little of what seemed to be their own Light. They were framed by smooth, fair skin. A few tufts of bright red hair could be seen trying to escape from under her hat.

Though what made his heart almost miss a beat was her ears, which were long and naturally pointed at the tips.

The sight made him sit up urgently and pull himself to his feet despite some creaky bones offering resistance.

“It's you!" the girl's face broke out into a big grin and just as he got his feet underneath him she threw herself forward to wrap her arms around his chest.

For a pint-sized girl she could sure as hell give a hug. Randall felt his lungs struggle for air as she squeezed him whilst burying her face into the lapels of his dressing gown. He was almost certain that she could have easily lifted him right off his feet if she had a mind to.

“Oh, sorry!" she suddenly realised that he'd started turning blue and released him to catch his breath.

“Who? Wha? Huh!?" Randall tried to breathe whilst gesturing to the festive insanity surrounding them.

She looked back at the reindeer and glowered at the red-nosed one before marching right up to it and poking her finger right at that nose.