This is part of a challenge that my husband — http://danhoyt.livejournal.com/ and my friend Kate Paulk http://katepaulk.livejournal.com/ are also doing.
Mr. and Mrs. Gadge T. Wiggs
Elf Hollow
Dear Mom and Dad,
Oh, boy, alligators. You can imagine my excitement as I woke up. I mean, alligators totally fit the weight requirements for sleigh animals — unlike elephants, which my superior tells me would change a poem that will likely be written (95% chance) at some future date, from “up on the roof there arose such a clatter” to “down the roof came with a clatter.” Which apparently wouldn’t be as satisfactory.
But the day started badly. One of the twenty alligators, picked to make magical sleigh history was missing. We harnessed the other nineteen anyway.
And then waited. And waited. the alligators just… lay there on the snow. At last Boggs said they were probably too cold and that he would go get some coffee. I thought, of course, like a good engineer, he was getting coffee to pour over the beasts.
But when he came back with a cup from Starbucks, North Pole division, all he could say was that alligators was a stupid idea. I would have protested, but at that point, one of the auxiliary elves came running, to tell us that they’d found the bones of the twentieth alligator. yes, that’s right. Bones. Picked in clean on bloodied snow.
We checked all the pens, but none of the other animals was missing. Certainly not the carnivores. So… what could have eaten the twentieth alligator? What horror stalks our experiments?
Rather sad, I had the alligators unhitched from the sleigh and taken to their warm pen. I still feel kind of bad, really. I had another elf secure their pen, hoping whatever it is won’t attack them again.
Tomorrow we’re going to try camels.
As always, your loving son
WW
According To Hoyt 