A Lucky Fox (standard:fairy tales, 6255 words)
Author: J.A. Aarntzen	Added: Oct 17 2005	Views/Reads: 4114/2562	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A fox kidnaps a young elf in the deep of the night.

A Lucky Fox 

Up to this point, the night was very quiet. 

The fox snuck under the fence.  His red coat glistened in the soft
moonlight that fell upon the little backyard.  He could see the outline 
of an old thatched cottage before him.  The wet, black nose at the end 
of his long, pointed snout rose up and down, as he smelled the sweet 
odour of the four wee elves that lived inside.  His ears perked and 
were able to pick out the distinctive sound of elf snoring. 

A wicked sneer draped onto the fox's lips as he thought, ‘Good!  I have
nothing to worry about now!' 

He made his way to the slivery oaken door, cocky in knowing that it
would not be locked.  It hadn't been for the last five nights which he 
had spent watching the four elves go through their bedtime routine.  He 
watched as the little people took turns washing themselves.  One would 
always throw out some bread chunks for the small birds that nested in 
the nearby trees.  That elf would never look the door behind him.  
Shortly thereafter four squeaky voices would be breaking the night's 
silence with a round of “Good night and sweet dreams to every one”.  
The kerosene lamps would flicker out and soon would come the nasal 
throbbing of snoring elves. 

It was that wrenching that the fox heard now.  He pushed his shoulder
against the door.  It gave with a creak. 

The fox froze.  He was sure that the elves might have heard that squeak.
 He held still for a moment, his black ears standing at alert.  Elves 
were notorious for being light sleepers.  Many of them were known to 
never to sleep at night at all.  But up here in the far north the 
nights were far too long to stay awake until morning. 

The steady rhythms of inhalations and exhalations coming from the two
bedrooms satisfied the fox that the elves were still asleep. 

He knew he was lucky.  But then again most of the time he was lucky.  It
was his name, Lucky the Fox. 

His fox eyes were able to see things in the dark that other eyes might
not be able to see.  He was in the main room of the cottage.  In the 
center was an oval, white pine table.  It was not as tall as other 
tables that he had seen but then again this table did not need to be 
tall for the people that used it were short.  The four chairs that sat 
around the table all had short, sturdy legs that could hold up the 
portly weight of the elves.  On the back of each chair was carved a 
name for that chair's owner. 

Lucky read the carved names.  Kiddo, Diddo, Hum and Ho. 

The last chair, Ho's, was ever so slightly larger than the others. 
Lucky the Fox was surprised by this for he had often heard the four 
elves squabble over which one got to sit where.  It seemed that Kiddo, 
Diddo and Hum all wanted to sit in Ho's chair.  This made Ho grouchy 
towards them.  He would let no one sit in his chair other than himself. 
 As Lucky looked at the seat he wondered what the commotion was all 
about.  The little bit of difference in size was not worth the trouble. 
With elves, however, you never know what will get their gruff. 

The fox's sniping eyes drifted across the rest of the quaint living
quarters.  One wall was dominated by a big potbelly stove that even now 
was giving off a steady supply of radiant heat.   It could get very, 
very cold up here so close to the North Pole.  So Lucky was not 
surprised to see that another wall was all taken up by the woodpile 
that kept the fire going.  A third wall bore paintings and a window.  
Most of these pictures showed snowy landscapes but one was of a chubby, 
little boy with white hair and crimson features.  The child was wearing 
the alpine garb of a Bavarian.  Lucky wondered who this child could be 
and why the elves would want his picture hanging in their home.  The 
child was clearly not an elf. 

The fourth and final wall held the frames of two doorways.  The fox knew
that these led to the bedrooms where the elves were sleeping. 



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