A Christmas Tale
Written by Kai for the paper Soul of Seoul.

Once upon a time there was a boy. He lived in a village near the forest. The boy was the town chief’s son, and though his father was loved by the people, his son was not. They boy was cold and thought of no one but himself, but since he was the beloved chief's son, no one did anything toward him. He could do and say as he liked, without anyone going up against him. Many feared the day the boy would take over after his father, but little did they know that that day would never come.

One winter day the boy was out walking into the forest he suddenly walked into a clearing and found a boy standing there in the middle of it. The boy was the complete opposite of himself. He was not that long, not that dark and not that cold.

- What are you doing? the boy asked the other one.
- I’m just watching, said the blond boy tenderly, still with his eyes on the evening sky.
- Watching! Watching what? the other asked annoyed with the angel looking boy.
- Nothing you would be interested in! the boy answered and looked at the dark haired boy.
- Until next time, he said and walked off, leaving the black haired boy alone in the clearing.
The black haired did not understand anything, but continued on his walk, and soon the angel-looking boy was forgotten.

The next day, the black haired found the blond one standing at the exact same spot, looking up at the sky. Knowing that he would get the same answer, he did not ask, but just walked further into the forest, trying to forget the blond boy, though that was not an easy task.
Because every day from that day and forward; he found the blond one standing there, looking at the sky. He tried his best to ignore him, but the boy was curious to why a little angel-looking boy would stand there watching the sky every day, so he decided that the very next day he would ask the boy.

But when the black haired reached there, he was surprised to find the clearing empty. The boy was nowhere to be seen, and the black haired decided that the blond had run tired of standing there every day looking at the boring sky.

The boy was about to leave when an unusual light caught his attention. He was dazzled by it, and suddenly the light faded away, leaving the forest darkened. Curious to what the light was, the boy was early standing at the clearing the very next day, watching.
When day shifted to night, the light came flowing down from the sky at exactly the spot where the angel boy had been standing every day.
The dark boy walked solemnly to the spot and was blinded by the pure light shining at him. Using a few minutes to readjust his eyes to the shining light, he soon was able to lift his head and look up at the sky. What he saw amazed him. A scene was drawn before him into the floating air, and what he saw was a little house out in the forest. He saw a mother and three children. They sat at the table, waiting for food, but the mother did not have much. She gave each of her children a dry branch they could chew on.
The scene faded away, and the forest turned dark again. The boy stood left, alone, feeling sorry for someone for the first time in his life.
It was horrible that someone did not have any food. So he walked home and found some food that he packed down with him and walked toward the house. He remembered he had seen it on many of his walks in the forest.

But the road was long and it was night before he reached. The boy walked to one of the windows and peeked in. The people inside were sleeping. He decided the food could not stand outside, so he opened the door and walked in. On the table there were branches laying. He didn’t want them to see it at first, so he placed the food underneath the branches and sneaked out again.

The next day, he walked to the spot again, but this time it was another scene that was shown before him. There was a father and a son, sitting in a house. The little boy had clothes that were too little for him, and the father had less clothes than his son. They sat in their house, close to the cabin trying to get a little warmer. Then the scene faded again, and the light was gone once more. For the second time, the boy felt sorry for the people he had seen.
It was cold during the winter, and you needed clothes to keep yourself warm during the winter wind.
So the boy traveled home and picked out some clothes from his closet, and also took a few clothes from his father’s closet, and walked out to the house. It was far away from the town, so it was dark when the boy arrived. The door was open, and inside he could hear sleeping noises. He saw the cabin had burned out, and he decided that he would lay the clothes in front of it. He picked up two socks and hang them in front of it and lay some of the bread he had in his pocket in them, since he did not want the mouse to get to the food.
Happy with his doing, he walked out again.

The next day he walked to the spot, and same thing happened. This time he saw two children who were playing with a spoon and a branch. They looked sad and bored, and the boy was once again feeling sorry for someone that was not himself.
When the light faded he rushed home and picked out some of his own toys and ran over to where he had seen them.
The sun was about to go down when he reached the house. He recognized the children as one of those who was scared of him, and would run away every time they saw him.

He did not want them to recognize him, so he turned the brown cape he used to wear, so the inside was out. It had a dark red colour on the inside and he ran toward the back of the house. The children saw the red cape, and ran inside to their parents, telling them about what they had seen. The black haired placed the toys behind the house and ran off before the parents came out.
He smiled brightly as he ran home, and he felt even better, being able to make someone smile for once.

But the next day the boy walked out to the spot, the only thing he could do when the light faded away, was to cry. There were millions of children hungry, sad, and freezing out there. And the poor black haired could not see how he could be able to help any of them. They were so far away; some of the children lived in a place where there was only sand that covered the ground.

- Poor children, a voice suddenly uttered, scaring the black haired. The one who had spoken was the blond boy who had been standing at the same spot as the black one.

- I did not know that there was people having so much sad things to think about, the black haired sniffed.

- Yes, there is. But YOU have helped, so now there are three families out there that does not have any sorrows to think about, the boy uttered.

The black haired just wiped his tears away, not thinking that that was nearly enough, because there were so many other children around that had a bad day.

- If I give you a way to help this children, would you use it? the blond asked, getting repetitive nods from the black haired.

- Then I will give you this elf flut. It can summon the elves and they will help you with anything, the blond one said and handed the black haired the flut.

- What is your name? the blond asked.

- Noel, the black haired answered.

- Then from this day and on, this day will forever be Noel’s day.

And from that day on, Noel traveled with the help from the elves to every child on that cold winter day. He gave them whatever they needed and was through time turned from a cold hearted little boy into a warm caring man. And still today, children all over the world celebrate Noel’s day, better known as Christmas.

★

a/n:

yo!

thanks for everything ♥

it has been a true adventure! see you soon ♥

jr (xiumickey) ♥

hi (waves)

on a quest from all of us, i want to wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new years eve.

wow, we are finished. and i am so proud of us all.

thank you for being with us all this time, and a special thanks to everyone that commented.

so for the last time i want to say:

with love from the authors <3

queen almighty (Manem92)