Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 087

"I felt that from upstairs, you know. You were generating a ton of magic, I thought maybe you were down here unwrapping our host and filling her with Christmas cheer."

"Why would I have a fever?" Mike asked, ignoring the last part of Yuki's comment.

"From burning out your brain." She patted him on the cheek. "Your own magic is one thing, but grabbing someone else's magic and doing stuff to it? Dangerous. Luckily, she was a willing subject and your intentions were good."

"It felt like a massage," Mrs. Claus added. "My whole body was tingling."

"Well I'm glad it was a good experience for you." Yuki helped Mike to the nearest couch. "But don't do that again until we can talk about it. I think you've taken another step down the magic road, and I need to apprise you of the pitfalls."

He sighed, grateful that she wasn't giving him an earful. His ears were buzzing with a nasty bout of tinnitus while his magic shifted about in his chest, giving him terrible heartburn.

"You can teach me how to manipulate outside magic?" he asked.

"A bit. Seeing magic can give you better control over it, but apparently you can actually touch it. The real expert is Ratu, how do you think she does all her tricks with those artifacts?" While she spoke, she examined his body with her hands, squeezing his wrists and arms. "Well, you didn't seem to blow out your meridians or anything, so I think you'll be okay."

"Meridians?"

"Don't worry about it, I'm just making sure your body is okay, because you probably feel terrible right now. You'll bounce back pretty fast, but maybe take it easy for a bit." She shook her head and looked at Mrs. Claus. "I really can't take my eye off of him for a single minute."

"I'm married to one like that." Mrs. Claus chuckled. "If he's not playing with the elves, he's off taking apart the latest toy so he can mass produce it, or building something new and exciting in his Workshop. I can't tell you how many times he's caught that building on fire."

"It's a lot." Holly sat down by Mike's feet, her eyes wandering across his prone body and eventually settling on his face. "Every year. We have an elf who follows him around with a fire extinguisher, and that one is followed by another elf in case the first elf catches on fire."

Mike laughed, then saw the serious look on Holly's face. "Wait, for real?"

"It's a chain of three elves, actually," Mrs. Claus added. "But only when he's working on electrical stuff. When it comes to carpentry, there is nobody better, but the world has moved on from old school dolls and wooden horses. He can build anything, as long as it's a gift for someone. But that doesn't mean there aren't hiccups along the way."

They all laughed and shared stories for a bit, and the nasty buzzing sound faded. Mike's magic settled down and he was able to sit and chat properly. Eventually Kisa appeared with a very sleepy Tink, and they left the room to have breakfast in the kitchen with Yuki.

While they were gone, Mrs. Claus talked some more about her experiences at the North Pole, most of her stories skirting the edges of what she had told Mike about Santa being a type of Caretaker. He wondered how much more she would have told him if the elf hadn't been around.

Holly, however, had managed to sit down right next to him, her petite body occasionally pressing against his when either of them would shift. He thought he caught her looking at him more than once, and knew better than to just dismiss it.

When the others joined them, Tink promptly found a chair off to the side and crawled into it before passing out.

"What's her deal?" Mike asked. "She okay?"

"She drank booze made for magical reindeer last night," Kisa said. "The hangover is very real this morning."

"I'm surprised it didn't kill her," Mrs. Claus said, then got up to get Tink a pillow. The old woman seemed rejuvenated, but when Mike examined her magic once more, he saw that a couple of tiny threads had already come undone. While he may have extended the woman's lifespan with his stunt earlier, they were definitely on a time limit.

"So I have a question," he said once Mrs. Claus returned to her seat. "You mentioned someone called Jólakötturinn, Grýla, and some...Yuletide guys?"

"Yuletide lads. Yes, let's discuss them for a moment." Mrs. Claus sat forward in her chair, then looked at the others. "Once upon a time, my husband fought some otherworldly creatures called frost giants. They were the last ones on Earth, trapped here from a battle long ago. Someone promised them a one-way trip to their homeworld if they could take down Santa, but it wasn't meant to be.

"Jólakötturinn and Grýla belonged to the frost giants. They are giants themselves but nowhere near the same size. Jólakötturinn was their cat, and Grýla essentially their servant. I don't know if they came from the same world that the frost giants did, or if they were simply found here. But that's beside the point. When the frost giants were defeated, Santa found Jólakötturinn, Grýla, and the others cowering back at the frost giant's camp. He took pity on them and allowed them to stick around as long as they stayed out of trouble."

"And did they?" Mike asked.

Mrs. Claus shook her head. "Of course they didn't. They snuck off and laid low in Iceland of all places. Do you know what they became famous for? Eating children."

"That's horrible!" Kisa said. "And Santa let them get away with it?"

"Not after he found out. He bound them here, and the magic of the North Pole transformed them. Like the Krampus, they were to become mere myths, their memories softened as a reminder for children to be good or else."

"You said there were others?" Yuki leaned toward Mrs. Claus in interest.

"Yes, a few. There were three males, but only Leppalúði remains."

"Wait, who is...Leppalúði?" Mike struggled with the pronunciation.

"Grýla's husband. Other than knocking her up with children, he is absolutely useless. The other two were better, but supposedly Grýla ate them. Now she's stuck with the third, because he's the only one who can give her children. It wouldn't surprise me if he stayed home instead of helping her take over the North Pole with the Krampus, he really is that lazy." Mrs. Claus stared off into space for a moment, then looked back at the others. "The Yuletide lads are Grýla's children. All boys, all trouble. My husband tried to give jobs to some of them early on, but it was clear they weren't cut out for any sort of structure."

"Interesting." Mike wondered how Lily was faring against the Yuletide lads. Or better yet, how they were faring against her. "Any ideas how Jack Frost comes into this?"

Mrs. Claus took a deep breath. "Actually, I do, but I need a break." She stood from her chair and rubbed at her lower back. "Feeling a bit stiff is all, gonna grab myself a quick snack. Does anyone want some cocoa while I'm up?"

Everyone's hands, including Tink's, went up in the air.

❄️❄️❄️

Jack had flown above the North Pole for several hours before daring to descend below the whirling mass of ice and snow. The storm she had summoned had gathered plenty of fury on its own, and she didn't know how long it would continue.

Upon landing, she saw that she had managed to fly to the magical boundary of the North Pole proper. Santa's village lay in the middle of a hundred mile wide island of rock that was actually the peak of a mountain from a range that lay deep beneath the arctic waters. If it could be properly seen from the outside, the North Pole would look like a perfectly circular island surrounded by ice with some steep, rocky cliffs, analogous to a giant snow globe.

She landed on one of the cliffs and let out a scream of frustration. The Arctic ice took her anger, but offered nothing in return.

"What are you doing?" The voice startled her so hard that she spun around and summoned ice from the ground, jagged spikes that would have ripped apart any other creature. Instead, the Krampus silently side stepped them, his body an inky blur as he whipped around and shattered the icy barrage. "Cute, but ineffective."

"I'm sorry, I..." She took a step back, worried that the Krampus would attack her.

"Relax, child." The Krampus sniffed at the air and grinned. "I can smell your intent, I shouldn't have frightened you."

Worried that the Krampus was acting uncharacteristically nice, Jack hugged herself and tried to look small. If the Krampus could sense intent, he wouldn't have punished her so harshly earlier. "I'm sorry I left the cameras, something came up."

"Oh, I know it did." The Krampus chuckled, then moved to stand beside her. "You looked into my mirror, didn't you?"

A litany of possible lies filtered through her head, but she suspected that the Krampus would only punish her more for whatever answer she gave him. He was a fraud, at least in terms of their relationship. He had promised her relevance and recognition, but had only delivered misery.

She nodded, then winced. When the blow never came, she turned toward the Krampus and was surprised that he had turned his back to her. His gaze was on the Northern Lights above, his whole body swaying from side to side as if hypnotized by them.

"He knew you would find out," he said, his voice barely legible over the storm. "That's what he kept telling me, while I was down there. Warned me over and over again that you would find out, that it would change everything. But I kept telling him it wouldn't matter."

"Found out what?"

"We're alike, you and I. Power incarnate, under appreciated, under utilized. If you wanted, you could freeze the ocean, could bring mankind to its knees! Yet here you stand, a glorified snowcone maker, trapped in the North Pole."

"I'm not trapped," Jack argued, but the Krampus waved her off.

"Aren't you? Maybe you weren't trapped like the others, but you refused to leave. Why is that? Why not seek your fortune elsewhere, make a bigger name for yourself?"

Jack frowned, pondering the Krampus' words. Why did she hang around the North Pole so much? In hindsight, how many decades had she spent hovering around Santa, hoping to be a bigger part of things?

Pain blossomed in the back of her head again, and she clutched her temples. Memories burned through her mind, images of a much younger Santa kneeling over her broken form. The blood leaking from her body had already frozen, her breath coming in short gasps.

"He did this to you," the Krampus told her. "Locked away your true potential, made you think you were less than what you are. While your prison is different than my own, perhaps it is time you bend the bars."

"I don't--" She was cut off when he shifted toward her, his body like a shadow. Long fingers clutched her throat and he squeezed, lifting her off the ground. Any traces of kindness were now stricken from his dark features.

"You see, I have plans for this place, and I need you to be the better version of yourself." He held up an empty sack and shook it in her face. She could sense the powerful magic within, realizing it was a smaller version of Santa's sack. "It's not ideal, but now I have everything I need to leave this place, to bring truth to my legacy!" He was shouting now, his teeth inches from her eyes.

"You're...hurting..." She choked as he shook her.

"But I cannot LEAVE until YOU. WAKE. UP!" He slammed her into the ground, over and over again. Ribs cracked and bones splintered as an icy storm formed all around them, trying its best to rip the Krampus apart.

"Please, I..." Her words were weak as the world went black around her. For a moment, she was floating in a ball of golden light, her wounds burning trails of fire across her body. A silhouette appeared, the lights dimming to reveal the woman from the mirror.

"Are you really going to let him kill us?" There was panic in the woman's voice as she grabbed Jack by the hand, her whole body buzzing with the contact. "Gods, he's actually killing us, you have to make him stop!"

"How? He's so strong, I can't do anything to hurt him." Jack whimpered, but the woman in gold slapped her, sending a shockwave through her mind.

"You have grown weak! You have made us weak!" The woman's hair billowed up around her, her eyes now like molten gold as magic streamed away from her. "This isn't how it was supposed to be, Santa! You were supposed to prolong me, not make me into this miserable creature!"

"Who...what are we?" Jack's heart pounded in her chest as the woman in gold seized her by the throat and forced her mouth open.

"We were gods! We are whoever we want to be," the woman told her, then forced her mouth over Jack's. Energy rippled through Jack's mind as their magic billowed out of control. Her eyes snapped open to reveal that she was now choking the Krampus.

"Good!" He shouted, his hands on her wrists. "This is power, Jack, the power that he would have denied you! It's everything I promised you and more!"

The island trembled as massive tornadoes formed out on the ice flows. Enormous pieces of ice were ripped from the ground, revealing the cold waters of the Arctic beneath. Jack felt so connected, as if she had tapped into a reservoir of power just beneath those dark waves.

"I disapprove of your methods," she hissed, then smashed the Krampus into the ground. He laughed maniacally, rolling onto his back to reveal that he was unharmed.

"And yet they worked!" He was on his feet so fast that he may as well have teleported. "Look, Jack, look! I know I've been harsh, but you cannot crack an egg without using a little force!" He snatched her by the hand and held it up for her to see. Her veins were ablaze with golden light, and she could feel a rush of heat throughout her entire body.

This was what she had wanted...right?

"Power, Jack, all the power you could ever want!" He spun her around and hopped up and down with glee at the sight of the tornadoes. "Have you ever seen such a devastating force of nature? Tornadoes! At the North Pole! This is the mark of someone the world remembers, somebody who plays second fiddle to nobody!"

Her head still hurt, she was so confused. But what the Krampus was telling her made so much sense. It was power she had wanted, power to make the world notice her, to fear her glory!

No, power was too easy. The pain in her head had focused into a razor's edge right between her eyes, splitting her mind in half. She could sense that other woman now, the one she used to be, looking out of one of her eyes. They were fractured, but somehow whole.

Not power, the other woman sneered. We already have power.

Yes, Jack replied, remembering what it was she had wanted. She had become obsolete in Santa's shadow, yet another forgotten fairy tale. The world was a closed door to her, and she wanted to be a part of it. I want to be free, to be remembered. I want...I want...

TO BE LOVED. The other woman said it for her. Feeling a surge of emotion, Jack reached into the depths of the storm and poured that golden energy into it, watching the ice on the ocean's surface tear itself apart in order to obey her. Her self admission brought fiery tears to her eyes as she thought about what she needed to do.

"Yes! That's it!" The Krampus howled, his whole body tense as the storm gobbled up his cry. "And you can keep that power, Jack, my friend! I just need you to do one more thing for me!"

Jack was suddenly wary, fearing more of the Krampus' treachery. No, that couldn't be it, he had helped her, he was her friend. Wait, but he had hurt her, badly, just to--

"I need you to take out that mortal staying in my house." The Krampus grinned, revealing all of his teeth. "Mrs. Claus will be gone soon, which means the door can be opened. Remove the Caretaker so that he doesn't usurp my throne, and make sure you kill the elf. When I return, this glory shall be yours...forever!"

"Forever!" Jack raised her hands to the sky, now certain what it was she needed to do. The Northern Lights bent away from her, as if to avoid her outstretched hands. Her whole body was flooded with magic, and she sent it outward, raising an army made of snow and ice. Frozen beasts formed all around her, prying themselves up from deep drifts. Those golden flames burned hot beneath her skin as she lowered her eyes to see the Krampus hop into a makeshift sleigh hooked up to seven corrupted reindeer.

"I'll be back soon, my Queen." He bowed dramatically, and then the reindeer took to the sky.

"I may be a queen," she whispered. "But I am certainly not yours." For the first time she could remember, she felt hot. Her outfit, made of magical ice, melted into a beautiful golden gown. Commanding the winds to carry her back to the Christmas Village, a small voice in the back of her mind cried out that all was not well.

Not that it mattered. The only thing on her mind now was that strange man who had compelled her with his voice alone. Santa had ruled her with kindness, and the Krampus with fear. But Mike? He had attempted to rule her with words alone, those beautiful, golden words that had clung to her skin like a lover's touch. She shivered, wondering what could have been if she had given in to her desires, her sudden need to obey.

She was going to kill him for his insolence. After all, nobody told her what to do, not anymore. Once he was dead, she would kill his companions, and anyone else who was a threat to her newfound freedom. When she was done, she would wait for the Krampus to return.

When he did, she would kill him, too.

❄️❄️❄️

Mrs. Claus emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray of cookies with several mugs and a thermos of hot cocoa. Tink nearly hurt herself getting out of her chair to move closer to the table with the cookies. When she grabbed a handful, Mrs. Claus swatted the goblin's hand.

"You need to share," Mrs. Claus warned her. When she looked away, Tink stuck her tongue out, but obeyed.

Mike chuckled, then got up to get some cocoa. While Mrs. Claus was pouring his drink, he saw Yuki's ears open wide as she turned her attention to the nearest window.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

The kitsune frowned. "I just felt...hmm." She got up and moved to the window, then opened it. A fierce blast of cold air tousled her hair, but she ignored it, sticking her head out the window.

"Not to complain, but it's hard enough to keep it warm in here already," Mrs. Claus said, then looked at Mike. "The fire is nice and all, but we really do rely on the furnace."

"That's at the top of our to-do list," he said, knowing full well that task would fall on Tink. The goblin had already snuck a handful of cookies off the tray and had tucked them down into the couch cushions.

"There's a nasty storm rolling in." Yuki looked at Mike. "I'm going to pop outside for a minute, see what's going on."

Mrs. Claus frowned. "The Krampus might be out there."

Yuki winked. "And if he is, I'll give him a frosty reception. Be right back." With that, she let herself out the window, making sure to shut it behind her.

"Will she be okay?" Mrs. Claus looked at Mike.

"I'm sure she will," Mike told her. "She's in her element out there."

"I'm not so sure about that," she replied. "There's a lot more than just snow and ice out there, but you know her better than I do."

"I trust her with my life, which means I trust her judgment. So Jack Frost," he said, prompting her to continue. "I would like to hear what her deal is."

"Ah, yes. A bit of a tragedy, honestly." She started pouring hot cocoa for everyone, pausing briefly to frown at the stack of cookies. When she looked at Tink, the goblin had both hands in her lap, a beatific smile on her face.

"To properly understand Jack Frost, we need to go back a bit further than Christmas. The world of magic and the world of man used to be one and the same. Myths and mortals lived side by side, and not necessarily in harmony."