Waking up from the ride from hell Holly takes a moment to rub her head groaning at the slight headache she felt from the pull before taking in her surroundings.

Around her are five withered blackened trees, twisted and bare against an ashy haze of the sky. Set within each of them is a faded, filthy door fashioned in the shape of a heart, a shamrock, an egg, a turkey, and then the last, a faded, filthy, green Christmas tree.

Beyond the trees is a wasteland; The ring of trees the elves were in sits atop a glum little hill surrounded by a barren landscape of charred earth, devoid of almost any distinct features except one very obvious sight. Maybe close to a mile from where they were in another tree, not like the five they were amongst; curved, large, looming large on the horizon. There is some sort of clump or mass resting in its branches but it's hard to tell what that is from here, and as Holly turns and looks in every direction, through each of those trees, you see no other distinguishing feature in the landscape.

Holly moved to get up but felt something around her waist, looking down she sees arms wrapped around her in a tight embrace as if to keep her from going anywhere. Before she could remove them however they immediately let go of their a disappear in a flash hearing someone cough behind her she turns and sees Arty up and away from her yet she could see the red in the tip of her pointed ears. It takes her a moment to realize just who was holding her and feels her cheeks flush in embarrassment before getting up herself.

"Well, no Santa, time to go back!" Chutney decides, turning back to the Christmas Tree door.

Only to be stopped by Klaus who grabs him by the shoulder and gives him a look.

"We're going forward?" Chutney whimpers.

Klaus nods. "Yeah."

"How long have you been formulating this plan?" Bundles wonders out loud to Chutney.

"Look, I'm a realist, okay?" Chutney defends himself. "I read the landscape and I adapt! That's how I stayed alive this long."

"I- We all have been alive a long time." Bundles points to the group.

"Maybe instead we go look at the thing?" Ellory suggests pointing to the ominously large tree. "That's the only thing in front of us? I mean I don't know."

"That sounds like a good idea Ellory." Holly assures her fellow elf girl, giving her a smile.

"Bump in a tree? Sure what could possibly go wrong?" Klaus asks with a grin. "Let's do it!"

Chutney sighs. "Alright, who's leading this fucking parade?"

"Oh, I'll go out in front!" Arty volunteers with a grin.

Holly had to pause for a second, she has never seen Arty this... enthused or even this excited to do things other than parkour on building or eat her sugar cookies. She feels happy that she was seeing more of this side of him and maybe should take him with her when she went hunting or something.

"I will join you." she says.

"I'll get behind you two as back up." Klaus tells them, getting his swords out before looking over to Ellory. "Ellory, your idea you up with me?"

"Um, sure yes of course!" she expresses excitedly.

"Alright. Come on." he nods. "Let's go for a jog."

"Make me proud!" Cranberry smiles at Ellory who was just fangirling so much she is shaking.

The lot of them starts tromping through the dirty, blackened earth and as they walked, Ellory sees it's not as clear as back at the North Pole, but do see the occasional tracks in the ground, there is no dragging trail through the snow cause well there is no snow, however, she was able to pick up the tracks.

As the group got closer the large tree that they had all saw in the distance looks to be a large, bulky, multi-faceted treehouse. Like several shacks just shoved together willy-nilly, almost spiraling up.

Standing below this thing, a hundred feet tall or more there are iron pipes sort of wrapping around it, branching out. There are no steps or a ladder or anything around them, and cannot see a way in. Chutney hobbles around the width of the tree looking for anything from a staircase to even a blooming elevator and finds nothing of the sort but does see the lowest shack fastened to the tree, about sixty feet up, there is an almost like a round trapdoor or porthole, and a ladder hanging down from that only about three feet.

None of the elves would be able to reach it.

Nutmeg joins Chutney along with the others looking up at the ladder. "I've seen ladders like this before."

"Where?" Bundles asks in surprise.

"In New York, you know they only go halfway down, so you can't get in." She explains.

"I appreciate the practical construction though." Chutney comments.

"In New York, how do you pull them down?" Ellory asks Nutmeg.

"I think you gotta jump." Nutmeg answers. "You gotta jump and you gotta grab the last rung."

Klaus leans over to Nutmeg. "Can people in New York jump that high?"

Nutmeg shrugs. "I've never seen it."

Klaus shudders at the thought while Chutney tries to calculate every one's height and figuring out how to reach the ladder but they wouldn't be able to reach it.

"Maybe we could shimmy up these sons of bitches." Chutney says pointing at the pipes.

Cranberry clears their throat. "I'm pretty good at tree climbing, you know it's one of the divisions in the timber sports."

Holly crossed her arms. "Yeah but your luck today hasn't really been..."

"Trying to work myself up to it, you know." They continue as if not hearing Holly.

"Do we have rope?" Klaus inquires to the group.

"I do." Bundles says.

"How many feet?" Holly asks him.

"Fifty." he replies.

"Alright, we're ten short, anybody else?" Klaus looks to the others.

Thankfully yes everyone else had some rope on them Holly however went over to Arty and ties both their rope together.

"All right, tie that shit together." Klaus says.

"Is one of us gonna climb or all of us?" Bundles asks.

"I think Cranberry's gonna go ahead and take it, right?"

"Well, yeah, you know, when we're cutting trees down in the forest, we can kinda so a little harness situation." Cranberry explains.

"Alright." Klaus says and throws the rope over to Cranberry.

While Cranberry is prepping for the climb Holly leans close to Arty and asks. "Is the star still working we may gonna need it."

Arty pulls the star out and... the ticking that it use to have is no more the ruby is dim.

"Uh guys, the star isn't working." Arty informs the others.

This makes Cranberry fall off the tree. "What?!"

"Hit it!" Chutney shouts. "it usually works when you hit it."

Arty ignores the elder and looks at the star, seeing if there is another way; he knew about it because of the old farts and Holly, it was made in roughly the 600s, Bigsby's grandfather and Santa Claus made it, and it was infused with a very pure form of arcane energy and it runs on magic and the belief in Santa Claus.

Arty walks over to Ellory and places it in her hands. "See what you can do with this thing, I don't know."

"Would you still be laughing at how many lives these gloves have taken?" Klaus voice cuts through the hair, making Holly turn around to see he was talking to Bundles.

"How many lives?" Bundles asks nervously.

"637 prying eyes." he answers, dead serious.

"Holy shit." Chutney exclaims.

"Wait! You've killed 600 elves?!" Bundles cries out in horror.

"Elves, no." Klaus shaking his head. "Only three but do you know how many people try and sneak into the north pole every year?"

"Humans?" Bundles says.

"Mostly."

"You're killing random explorers?!" Holly yells.

"No no!" Klaus protests. "Killing thieves and burglars, and men who were trying to take the shit you guys have been building."

"We don't have a jail system? We don't have a--" Nutmeg questions. "You just automatically kill them?!"

"I always thought the December red snows were the natural phenomenon outside the house!" Chutney says, his eyes widened in horror.

"Can I also point out that there are no posted signs saying no trespassing or any fencing at all?" Bundles adds. "These people are just walking in?"

Klaus puts his hands out and shrugs. "Not my department, I have a job, distinctly set, and I do it well."

"Oh my god!" Bundles exclaims.

How many climate scientists fell to Klaus's hands? Holly had to wonder.

"I thought you all knew." Cranberry says. "That's where Black Friday gets its name; it's the dark blood of the snow, I thought everybody knew that! Has anyone tried to get a Furby?"

Holly shakes her head and returns her gaze back to Ellory who is holding the star gently trying to put sacred fire into the star. The glow from the light made her more beautiful than she normally does, there's a halo around her and then the light fades and goes dark.

Ellory frowns, saddened that her belief in Santa wasn't enough to bring the star back.

"It's alright Ellory you tried." Chutney says.

"It's just cause of the environment we're in, you know." Nutmeg tries to comfort the young elf. "It's just not gonna light up the fire in the star, you know?"

Ellory nods before placing the star into her pink backpack.

"Alright Holy and I are going to try and climb this tree, you lot do what you got to do." Arty says. "Come on Holls."

Acrobatics check:

Arty – 18

Holly – 16

Arty and Holly take ten feet back from the tree and does a run at it; Arty hits his foot off like one bracket around the bottom, and jumps, it moves about six feet, the pipe and then branches off to the left, he jumps off the little bracket and then hangs off of this, swings out, swings back to the right, and flips his body around, catches up on to ten feet up higher and then pretty much Nathan Drake his way around to the other side of the tree. Holly pretty much follows suit though does slip once or twice but with Arty right beside her to catch her the both of them pretty much synchronized going up the tree.

Everyone loses sight of them.

"Where did they go?" Nutmeg wonders.

"They died." Cranberry jokes, feeling a little bitter about how the two of them we able to easily get up the tree.

"No! They didn't die!" Ellory protests. "I need them to get married and have beautiful dark haired babies!"

Thirty seconds later Arty peeks around the other side shouting. "What's up losers!"

He is now hanging from one hand on the ladder like a bad-ass with the porthole hanging above his head. Using his other hand he ties the rope Holly made just start to wind it and get it going and drop it down before putting up his legs so he is dangling upside down grinning down at them.

Holly now appears as well and swings over to his side making herself comfortable to wait for the others.

"I will just grab the rope there Cranberry since you failed to climb a tree." Klaus says giving the bearded elf a look.

"You know I tried." They said crossing their arms. "I'm still working that out."

Klaus attempts to jump to catch the rope that was only eight feet above them, only to pull a hammy.

"Oh wow look at you Mister real good climbing that tree." Cranberry comments on the sly.

"Yeah, eating crow, a lot of crow in that mouth right now." Klaus grunts, rubbing his quad.

Holly looks over at upside-down Arty. "Crows?"

Arty shrugs.

"You gotta stretch, gotta stretch." Chutney tells him.

"Yeah, you're right, you're right." Klaus nods. "Learning a lot right now, a lot of lessons, I fucked up."

Nutmeg decides to give it a try, first stretching a bit first learning from Klaus's mistake as everyone cheers for her.

"You want me to give you a boost?" Cranberry offers.

"All right." Nutmeg nods.

The result was Nutmeg landing face-first into the dirt beside Klaus on the ground.

"I hate this place." Klaus grumbles with Nutmeg.

"Hey Burglenuts, it's time to get you fuckin' hands dirty, let's go come on!" Chutney looks over at Bundles.

"Wait, you are going to throw me?" Bundles asks. "But, I am much stronger than you, I think?"

"Oh really? Who lifted the sack bitch?" Chutney grumbles, frowning at the elf. "Get over here, let's go!"

"I don't know what I did to deserve your scorn!" Bundles whimpers.

Bundles sighs before taking a leap with Chutney's assistance and flies up and passes like five feet up above the rope and is just swinging back and forth looking down at Chutney.

"I did it!" Bundles pants. "I did it."

"Okay now climb." Cranberry orders.

"Up?"

"Yeah."

"I was more thinking of if he climbs down and we climb up to him." Chutney says to Cranberry.

"Oh that's a good idea!" Cranberry says before leaping up and grabbing Bundles legs.

With Bundles hanging there all the other elves were able to climb up his stockings and up his body going up. After a while, everyone looked like a monkey chain as everyone hangs from the rope as Arty takes a look at the door above him and work on the lock.

"So Ellory." Bundles begin, looking up at the girl. "Just curious, what do you know about like Judaism?"

"Because I said Oy?" Ellory asks, looking a bit confused.

"No, no, it's just my people encourage me to marry within the faith." he explains.

Everyone kind of laughs not really understanding what it is that just happened. Arty with one hand, this is such an amateurish lock, two moves of his lock pick, and boom it is unlocked.

Arty heads up first followed by Holly into what appears to be a sitting room or a living room, there's a really tattered moldy carpet on the floor and a red old soiled chaise lounge and there are slashed paintings hanging on the wall, and there are curtains but no windows.

"This is the coolest place ever." Arty says, making Holly give him a look.

"You and I need to reset your look on things that are awesome dude." She says looking back around herself.

On the far end, there are stairs curving up and out of sight. While Holly helps everyone up and out of the hole Arty tries and peek up the stairs without actually going up the stairs but sees nothing.

Stealth check: Chutney – 16

Bundles – 9

Cranberry – 13

Nutmeg – 13

Klaus – 8

Arty – 25

Ellory – 1

Holly – 14

The elves, though cowering a bit, climb up the stairs as quietly as they can though Klaus is grunting as he goes up because of the pulled hammy from before, but as Ellory is going and she reaches for purchase her hands rest on the side of the metal trapdoor and goes to left herself up and it snaps off as she's going and the other hears the loud crashing noises.

Holly grabs Ellory before she fell to her death as Chutney disappears into the shadows while Klaus puts himself in between the stairs and the other elves with his candy cane swords out at the ready.

"Oh, are you all right Elloroy?" Cranberry asks, reaching over and helping her in.

"It's Ellory." Bundles corrects.

"They can call me whatever they want." Ellory sighs. "Um I think I am okay but my pride."

"It's okay, I do not think anyone heard us." Holly says to the others, pulling Ellory out of the hole.

Cranberry looks around. "I wonder if there are lights in here, actually."

"I think you're graceful still." Bundles compliment Ellory nervously.

"Thank you." she says smiling. "I'd love to answer your questions another time."

"Sure." he says with a smile.

"Hey, Arthur." Nutmeg whispers to Arty. "You anything up those stairs?"

"Nothing yet." he says looking again up the stairs. "Not any movement I can see so far."

Klaus takes on e of his candy canes, hooks the kerosene lantern at the end of it, keeping the other candy cane at the ready before turning to the group. "All right follow me."

The lot creep slowly up the stairs till they get to the top of the landing, there is a door on the left, and it just continues to curve up further still to the right. Chutney goes to the door to see if it is locked or not, bending down on his teetering little legs and finds that it is unlocked and slowly peek inside.

The look on Chutney's face told Holly whatever was in that room, it was not filled with candy and toys.

He backs away from the door, hacking as if to stuff himself from throwing up. "Unless they made pasta, I think there are body parts in this room."

Everyone's face turns pale as they looked at one another while Klaus holds out the lantern into the chamber. There are seven or eight chains hanging from the ceiling with hooks hanging from them and the room is 30 to 20 feet, rough wooden walls that are smeared with faded red while on the ground not only covered in gore but in blood as well.

"What the fuck?" Holly whimpers.

Nutmeg takes a closer into the door frame and takes a better look around the floor, in the far corner where what Klaus just thought was refuse, there was a shape of a little green stocking covering a leg and a little curled shoe.

"I- I think these are dead elves." She croaks.

"Want me to take a closer look?" Bundles asks.

"If you wanna go look, but I feel like it's dead elves. I don't know I don't wanna get any closer." Nutmeg crosses her arms backing away from the room.

"I'm gonna go in, I've been calf-deep in worse than this." Bundles boasts puffing out his little chest as he walks into the room.

"Bundlestein!" Holly calls for her friend. "Being in a pile of shit doesn't compare to a pile of dead body parts!"

Ignoring Holly, he pushes through the chains crossing the room gingerly, and get a closer look, and looking down it is like the left half of someone elf-sized but with a reddish beard and a green top hat.

"There's bad news, guys!" He notifies the others coming back from the gore room. "It is a leprechaun and it has been bifurcated! But I think that's good luck? We might find a pot of gold? I don't know how the legend works."

"I really like your optimism." Ellory weakly giggles.

"I don't know if that's the accurate lore, but-"

"Nah sounds legitimate, I'll take it." Claus chimes in interrupting Chutney.

"Wait a minute, there was a shamrock door. So he came from the shamrock place" Nutmeg exclaims.

Everyone slowly turns their heads to Nutmeg, they knew she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box but they assumed that New York would at least sharpen her mind a little.

"I'm putting two and two together!" She states proudly before gasping in surprise. "The different holidays! We're gonna be finding eggs, Easter bunnies, turkeys, cupids hell maybe even... oh."

Holly thanked Kris Kringle that Nutmeg stopped her through the process.

"Thank the good lord that Hanukkah was not one of them." Bundles says, cleaning his glasses.

"Who would do such a thing?" Ellory asks.

"This Wormsack whoever that fucker is." Holly answers.

"Alright guys, come on." Klaus pushes the other along. "Let's ahead and move on further up the stairs here and see what else is in the place, alright?"

Holly goes over to the door, gives a little prayer for the souls in the room, and closes it.