Unexpected visitors

Usually the workshop is hard to find. There's a special magic about the place that seems to fool people's eyes.

It was the smell that gave us away.

I was busy finishing up my Feast of the Epiphany activities, and the elves were preparing a celebration for the end of this year's Christmas season. Cookies, gingerbread, and other sweet delicacies were being baked, and the scents of those delicacies wafted across the ice fields. It was a balmy day by our standards - -12 degrees with occasional light snow, but not much, and no wind to speak of.

Suddenly an alarm bell rang.

Guard elves rushed out to see four figures walking across the ice toward the workshop buildings. It was too late to stop them, or even to trick them.

Gleegul, the head of security, order the intruders to halt, then led them to the town constable's office. There, the visitors, who turned out to be four young men, were questioned.

All this was reported to me when I returned from my trip.

I decided to meet with them.

When I walked into the constable's office, the four men looked at me with a mixture of disbelief, and what I can best describe as defeat. except for one fellow who smiled in a way that made me uneasy.

"I told you there was a chance," one of them said.

"He doesn't prove anything," another said.

"I'm not here to prove anything, " I said, smiling bravely. "I'm just here to welcome you."

The third young man advanced toward me, his hand out.

"David George," he said as I grasped his hand.

"Nicholas," I replied.

The other three came forward, shook, and announce their names.

Tom George.

Bill Wendell.

Nick Parmelee.

(more tomorrow)