The Place to Be on Christmas Day on Labyrinth Gardens

Headmaster Bulla

November 24, 2007 12:18 PM

The Place to Be on Christmas Day by Headmaster Bulla

Christmas day dawned bright and chilly. Proper paths through the snow were now well established (and were being diligently maintained) across the grounds by the Prairie Elves and it was oddly quiet, given the racket that had come from the direction of the Labyrinth Gardens over the past few days. A clue as to the quiet could be found when, just about noon, the gates around the gardens vanished. The signs, too, were now gone, leaving the way clear for any who wished to venture into the wintery confines.

If those who now had access to the gardens had been paying attention to the various clues that had been showing up around the school over the past days of midterm they would know the path to take. First one left, then another. And then a right. And so on and so forth, past the centaur statue in the middle of a small fountain who was looking particularly polished and shiny post-maintainence (and sadly was well aware of it. It took several requests for him to stop admiring his reflection in the water and point out the next step for those following the directions given by the clues).

Actually, all of the statues were looking like they'd been given a thorough cleaning - to the point of even cleaning behind their ears - and they were moving within their spaces with a little more ease; clearly the renewing of their spells was doing its job well.

The path that the narcissistic statue had pointed out was a long one. It skipped by openings to the left and to the right, and through one small clearing and then another slightly larger one with an old ironwood tree which played host to a swing. The rope looked like it too, had been bespelled during the recent maintainence. It had taken on a much paler hue that it had possessed before and the looked as thought it had undergone significant repairs to the basic fibres. The seat itself had been given a thorough cleaning and gleamed in the light of day.

But the instructions hadn't said anything about paying a lot of attention to the swing. In fact, they had said that now was a time to hurry on.

The final twist in the path opened into the largest clearing in the Labyrinth Gardens. It seemed the maintainence crew had been busy in there too.

The whole clearing was decked out in tinsel and little fairies had been charmed to dance around the lining hedges. A table large enough that it had to have been either transfigured from something else or shrunk while in transit was in the middle of the clearing. It was already set with plates and cutlery and Christmas crackers. Little fruit mince pies were arranged on the side plates and three arrangements of little pine trees with holly leaves and berries and far too much tinsel served as decorative centrepieces.

But the thing that really caught the eye - and the noses - of those who had traversed the cold to arrive here was off to the side. Several prairie elves were set up behind a bar on the far side of the clearing. The bench behind them groaned under Christmas-themed ceramic mugs, hot chocolate, cinnamon, milk, cream and marshmallows, tiny little whisks and a good many other things that the prairie elves had decided were vitally important for the task at hand. As people started to arrive they set to work, artfully - and clearly having put much practice to learning this task in recent times - turning orders into drinks that sent warmth tingling through frozen fingers and chilled bodies.

Headmaster Bulla, having been mingling a little until it was obvious that everyone who was likely to show up of the staff and students who had remained at the school over the midterm break was there, placed his own hot chocolate - half drunk, but much appreciated - down onto the table as he stood in his place at its head and after assuring an eager Prairie Elf that he would not require assistance getting everyone's attention cast a mild sonorus on himself.

"Merry Christmas, everyone, and congratulations of finding your way to the Sonora Christmas Feast!" he said. "If you'd all like to find a seat? There's plenty to go around. I hope the activities we've had available for the holidays are suitable compensation for not returning home to visit your families for this festive occasion. I'll even throw in one more piece of information for you all to mull over while we partake of the excellent food that the Prairie Elves have prepared for us. I'm sure you've all been wondering what I was referring to at the feast at the beginning of the year. Letters have been sent out to all the students who went home for the holidays, and they should receive them by this evening.

"An old tradition started by the founders of the school to celebrate the Summer Solstice is being reinstated. It sadly fell out of favour several decades ago after an unfortunate accident but we have secured permission to reinstate it. The midsummer celebrations, as begun by the founders, consisted of four activities, each held once every four years. This year, to celebrate the reinstatement we will be holding a Midsummer Ball just before the end of term. Next year there will be a fair - students and staff will be allowed to organise stalls and activities, forms for which will be sent out with your letters about books and materials you'll need for next year's classes. The following year is the Midsummer concert during which staff and students will be encouraged to come up with acts to entertain the school. The final event before the process begins again will be the bonfire night with fireworks. I hope you will all behave responsibly during these events, upholding the good name of our school and proving worthy of the efforts that have been expended getting permission for these events to be reinstated.

"But, for now, Merry Christmas to you all. Eat, drink - responsibly - and be merry." He almost added another 'responsibly', but decided that they'd probably already got that point.

A mere moment after a nod from the Headmaster to the eager Prairie Elves, the feast appeared on the table. Hot dishes of all sorts of descriptions steaming in the cool, crisp air.\r\n\r\n

39 Headmaster Bulla The Place to Be on Christmas Day 2 Headmaster Bulla 1 5

Elly Eriksson

November 25, 2007 3:55 PM

On my way! by Elly Eriksson

Chirruping excitedly to herself, Elly skipped from her bedroom and out through the commons, calling to anyone who might have been listening as she passed, “Midday on Christmas Day! C’mon, let's go to the gardens!”

It had been a fairly quiet Christmas morning by all counts. Elly had received a mysteriously large package which, upon opening, revealed an assortment of gifts from her mother’s family, most of whom she’d only met twice. There was also a card, signed by her mother, which simply read, “Merry Christmas.” Charming. Still, Elly couldn’t deny she was inordinately pleased to receive the long knitted scarf and matching gloves for, even though they were pink, they were going to keep her warm outside, which none of her other garments had managed successfully. She had also been delighted to discover an envelope of money from her father, with an accompanying note that more was available, should the cost her new broomstick exceed the enclosed amount. Elly’s paternal grandmother had also sent an envelope of money, and a long letter, which contained many apologies for not being able to have Elly to stay over Christmas.

Elly hadn’t given much thought to Christmas presents. She usually went shopping with her mother during midterm, but since that hadn’t occurred this year, she hadn’t been able to procure gifts to send to anyone. She did have some ideas for her roommates, though.

Now, however, wasn’t the time for thinking about Christmas presents. Now was the time for finally discovering what it was all those clues had been leading to. Wearing two jumpers with her pink scarf and gloves, Elly arrived outside the Pecari commons at about a minute past noon. To her great joy, the gates had gone, and it was once again possible to enter the Labyrinth. Grinning widely, Elly jumped into the maze and took a left. She hadn’t been in there long when she saw another figure nearby. “Hey!” she called out cheerfully. “Merry Christmas!”
\r\n\r\n

0 Elly Eriksson On my way! 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Guenther Heindrich

November 25, 2007 10:48 PM

hmmm....am I going the right way? by Guenther Heindrich

Guenther jumped as someone yelled "Hey, Merry Christmas".

He spun around, his heart still pumping VERY quickly. He hadn't noticed this girl, Elly, approach. "Uhh-" he started, "Hi?"

She was girl, and he was a boy. Social situations were awkward with another guy, but she was a girl that he didn't know very well. "Merry Christmas?" he said nervously and unsure.

He didn't exactly know where he should be going, and he wasn't willing to guess. His luck was not with him. Already, he had fallen out of bed onto his reading glasses(which broke), tripped over an untied shoelace, had owl droppings fall on the front of his clothes, and found out that one of his triplet sisters had decided to jump off the garage roof the a few days before and was nearly in a full-body cast. Christmas, it seemed, was not turning out altogether good for him. At least him mom had sent him a new sweatshirt for christmas. It was just a plain, black sturdy sweatshirt, but it was warm.

"Do you know where we're supposed to be in here?" he asked Elly.

0 Guenther Heindrich hmmm....am I going the right way? 0 Guenther Heindrich 0 5

Elly

November 26, 2007 10:57 AM

Yup! Just a bit further... by Elly

Guenther turned to Elly and returned her season’s greetings, albeit with a substantially lower level of enthusiasm. Elly quickened her pace a little to catch up with Guenther, her orange curls bouncing behind her – she’d left her hair loose in an effort to keep her ears warm. As she reached his side, Guenther asked, “Do you know where we’re supposed to be in here?”

“Not exactly,” Elly replied, noticing that her breath was visible, floating on the air before her. When it was that cold back home, she and her Dad liked to pretend to be steam trains, but Elly sensed that this wasn’t the right moment for imitating locomotives. “We have to follow the last bit of the clues, remember?” she said, recapping the discussion some of the scavenger hunters had undertaken following the discovery of the final clue. But then Elly suddenly remembered that Guenther had only joined them just before that clue had been discovered, so perhaps he didn’t know what the previous notes had said.

“Well the clues said to go into the gardens and take two left turns then a right, or something, and then we find the centaur statue, who points us the way, and we pass the swing – I know where the swing is anyway, because I built it – and then hopefully we’ll find whatever it is we’re looking for,” she explained cheerfully. “I know a short cut to the swing,” she added, “but I think we’d better pass the centaur statue just in case, because he might tell us something else that we need to know. I wonder what the surprise is?” she mused out loud. “I hope it’s something good because Chrissy won’t be impressed if it’s nothing after all that searching. I think she was a bit disappointed with the last clue, anyway.”

Elly stopped talking then, and realised she’d been rambling. Inwardly she was laughing at herself – her talking non-stop could have a lot to do with being the only student in a room that was usually occupied by three other girls. Midterm had been a bit lonely, but the skating and treasure hunt had been fun, nonetheless. Opening presents alone had been a bit strange that morning, too.

“So how’s your Christmas?” Elly asked Guenther. Then, barely waiting for an answer, Elly spotted the centaur statue up ahead, standing in the centre of a small fountain. “Oh look!” she exclaimed excitedly, “We’re going the right way!”

0 Elly Yup! Just a bit further... 0 Elly 0 5