by Tom Fletcher
The Christmasaurus felt it too. Something had just changed in him as he stood wrapped in the glow of a hundred twinkly lights. He knew he could do it. He didn’t just want to fly. He believed he could fly!
The Christmasaurus suddenly burst into the fastest run he’d ever managed, pulling William behind him with the gleaming reins of dazzling Christmas lights, and headed straight for the Hunter.
“What—the—devil?” spat the Hunter. “Stop, this instant!”
But they didn’t stop. They kept going, faster and faster.
“I’m going to count to three, and then it’s over for you and your dinosaur, boy!” the Hunter called out, but the Christmasaurus didn’t slow down. “ONE!” the Hunter shouted.
The Christmasaurus gained speed.
“You can do it!” William cried.
“TWO!” the Hunter screamed, tightening his grip on his rifle.
The Christmasaurus took longer strides, getting a little higher with each step.
“THREE!” yelled the Hunter, and he closed one eye and aimed down the sight of his rifle, just in time to see the Christmasaurus take one final, giant, almighty leap into the air….
He was flying.
The Christmasaurus was FLYING!
The Hunter and his dog, who were standing directly under the flight path of the dinosaur as he pulled William’s chair into the air behind him, dived for cover.William’s wheels skimmed the tip of the peacock feather in the Hunter’s hat, and the Hunter dropped his rifle in shock.
“A f-f-f-flying dinosaur?” he stuttered in amazement as he watched the Christmasaurus and William soar higher into the air, whizzing along the street. “A FLYING dinosaur? I MUST HAVE ITS HEAD!” he howled like a madman into the sky.
William grabbed hold of the luminous reins and steered the flying Christmasaurus up and around the grand exterior of the museum. From the air, the building looked even more amazing. In fact, everything suddenly looked more amazing. The snowy streets of William’s town, the clock tower in the distance, the white rooftops—it all looked magical. But then William realized that the most magical sight of all was directly in front of him, pulling his wheelchair like a sleigh across the Christmas sky. A flying dinosaur!
William and the Christmasaurus flew higher and higher into the sky. It was the most glorious feeling either of them had ever felt. It was, hands down, head and shoulders, unquestionably, without doubt, the best, most awesomely cool night of both their lives…by miles!
There had been so much excitement and commotion that William suddenly felt completely exhausted. His power gauge had hit zero: batteries drained. He was safe now, flying behind the Christmasaurus, and the warm, magical feeling inside him made him so sleepy. Before he knew it, he was snoring away happily twenty thousand feet in the air while the Christmasaurus flew on into the night.
* * *
—
William woke up suddenly as a blast of bright light exploded out of nowhere. How long had he been asleep? It only felt like minutes! He looked over the side of his wheelchair and saw that they were no longer flying over the streets and houses of William’s town at the edge of the city. They were over pure-white snowy mountains. He must have been asleep for hours! As the fresh, snowy air chilled his cheeks, William tucked his hands inside the sleeves of his thin bathrobe, wishing he were wearing a little more than his dinosaur pajamas!
There it was again. A vibrant explosion of greeny-blue light illuminated the entire sky.
The Christmasaurus let out a happy roar of excitement. He was almost home. He suddenly started climbing, steeper and steeper, until they were completely vertical, facing the moon!
“Whaaaat…aaaaare…yoooou…doooooing?” William cried, clinging on for dear life as the Christmasaurus kept flying up and up. Lucky for William that he’d had a seat belt installed in his chair! He quickly tightened the buckle just in time as the Christmasaurus flew an enormous loop-the-loop through the dancing Northern Lights. As scared as William was, he couldn’t help but give in to temptation, and while he was upside down, he reached out his hand and dipped it into the wonderful dancing colors in the sky. It didn’t feel like anything he’d ever felt before. It wasn’t like light; it was like running your hand through warm melted butter.
William’s dinosaur pilot performed some more daring aerobatics—loopy twists and twisty loops—and when they were finally back up the right way, William was a little sick over the side of his chair. (Unbeknown to him, it landed on an elf’s roof below!)
The Christmasaurus made a little scoffing sound.
“It’s not funny!” William said, nearly throwing up again as the Christmasaurus started descending to the gigantic mountains below. He weaved gracefully in and out of cracks in the cliffs until the mountains cleared in front of them and all William could see was an infinite sea of pure-white snow.
The Christmasaurus landed with a little bump, which, for his first landing, wasn’t a bad effort. Years of watching the reindeer had definitely paid off! He came to a sudden stop in the middle of the stark white nothing. William looked around him and saw absolutely zilch! He did a 360-degree scan and confirmed that they had flown all the way to nowhere!
But for some strange reason, the Christmasaurus looked wonderfully happy! He was jumping up and down, wagging his tail like a puppy, letting out all sorts of strange roars that William hadn’t heard before. He certainly didn’t seem to be lost. In fact, the Christmasaurus seemed to be exactly where he wanted to be!
“Erm…excuse me, Christmasaurus, but…where are we?” William asked.
The dinosaur suddenly stopped. He looked at William as if he was completely out of his mind. He roared a little chirpy roar, wiggled his head around, and gestured for William to open his eyes, as if he were missing something incredibly obvious!
“There’s nothing here,” said William truthfully. He couldn’t see anything at all.
The Christmasaurus shook his head with utter bewilderment, as though William had said something absolutely zany.
As William watched, the dinosaur suddenly seemed to become all flustered and frustrated, and tried to wriggle himself free from the Christmas lights that were tangled around his body. William wheeled closer and helped unloop the things he’d been using as reins all night. But just as he pulled the very last loop of lights over the Christmasaurus’s head, something unthinkable happened.
The Christmasaurus disappeared!
Just like that.
In the wink of a blink of an eye.
One moment he was right there, a few inches from William’s face. The next he was gone! William looked around. Was this some kind of trick?
“Hello?” he called, but his voice drifted on the frozen wind into the distant nothingness. There was only snow as far as his eyes could see. He was sitting in his wheelchair, holding the string of unlit Christmas lights, suddenly feeling very lonely and just a little bit scared.
All of a sudden, a gust of wind whooshed past, and William thought he heard whispers. He couldn’t make out exactly what the voices said, though—it was more noises than words.
“Is anyone there? Christmasaurus?” he called.
The breeze blew past again, and he heard the same whispers. He quickly searched all around. Weirdly, William no longer felt alone. Even though all he could see was emptiness for miles and miles, he suddenly felt as if he were being watched again!
William heard something. He used his hand to shield his eyes from the falling snow but still only saw long, empty fields of white all the way to the distant mountains. Then something caught his eye. There was something there after all. Something small, sticking out of the snow a few yards away from him.
He wheeled himself over and pulled out a shiny, delicious-looking red-and-white candy cane from the snow. He was sure it hadn’t been there before! He examined the yummy, sugary cane. It looked exactly like the sort of can
dy cane you might hang on your Christmas tree, except it was perhaps just a tiny bit larger and heavier, and somehow more scrumptious-looking. As he turned it around in his hands, he noticed something. On the flat, circular bottom of the cane was very small but very neat writing. The tiny, perfect writing said: WILLIAM TRUNDLE.
William was stunned! How on earth was his name written in this oddly beautiful candy cane? Was he supposed to eat it?
William looked around at the forever emptiness and decided that he had nothing to lose. So he put the candy cane in his mouth and bit off a chunk.
As he bit down, the most spectacularly magical thing happened. He didn’t disappear, as the Christmasaurus had. Quite the opposite, in fact: everything else appeared.
And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING!
Suddenly, William was sitting at the entrance to an enormous wooden building. It was the North Pole Snow Ranch. He couldn’t believe how grand it was—its impressiveness reminded him of the museum! As he marveled at the twisty turrets, the puffing chimneys, the toboggan-run path, and the snowflake door knocker, his mouth dropped open with wonder. It was just like his dad’s stories!
Then he noticed the animals. Except they weren’t animals—they were more like creatures. Magical creatures! Small ones with wings were whizzing overhead, trailing silvery dust behind them. There were snowmen in the distance, figure-skating on a large frozen pond, performing fantastic swirls and twirls and occasionally pausing to pick up a carrot or piece of coal they’d lost in the process. Most of all he noticed the small, jittery little creatures that were now surrounding his wheelchair as the Christmasaurus happily greeted them with sloppy licks and tail swishes. Even though William had never seen one before, he knew at once that these small creatures were elves!
“Hello, elves!” he said.
The elves all backed off and dived for cover, slightly scared of William. Then one by one they popped back out, looking frightened and cross, before all of a sudden they started singing!
“A child is here! A child, it’s true!
Oh, what are we poor elves to do?
We could not leave him there to freeze—
He’d heard our whispers on the breeze—
And so we made a candy cane
Personalized with his name
So when that cane was licked and tasted
This boy was evaporated
Through the void of time and space
And brought here to this magic place.
We’ve never done what we just did.
Now what should we do with this kid?
He’s seen our secret hiding spot—
Everything has gone to pot!
What will Santa think and say?
He’ll be here soon; he’s on the way!
He’ll land here in that great red sleigh
And say, ‘Boy, you must go away!’
He’ll be just as cross and grumpy
As he is fat and round and lumpy.
These things we say for you to hear,
But if you don’t believe your ears
Then turn around, move out the way,
Santa’s back, hip hip hooray!”
The elves stopped singing and stood back. William spun around to see a gigantic red sleigh appear out of thin air above them and circle down very fast toward where he and the Christmasaurus were standing.
The sleigh was even more incredible than William could ever have dreamed it to be. Shimmeringly shiny, ridonkulously red, and
But that wasn’t the most wonderful thing about it. The most wonderful thing, William thought, were the powerful creatures pulling it. He counted eight in total, striding through the air side by side. The flying reindeer. If he hadn’t just spent the past few hours with a flying dinosaur, he would have said that these were the most amazing creatures he’d ever seen. Now he put them a very close second, behind the Christmasaurus!
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” cried a deep, booming voice from overhead as the sleigh swooped around them and then touched down with a smooth swish along the snow. That’s when William first saw him.
William couldn’t believe his eyes. It was really him. Actually. Genuinely. One hundred percent authentically.
The real deal.
“SANTA!” yelled William unexpectedly.
Santa pulled hard on the reins, and the sleigh came to a stop directly in front of William, the Christmasaurus, and the crowd of tiny elves that had gathered to greet him. The elves rushed forward, cheering and screaming like crazed fans at a rock concert, but William still had a perfect view of Santa, as the elves were only half his height, even when he was sitting in his wheelchair!
The mind-blowingly massive man, dressed all in red, stepped down from his sleigh and for a moment looked every bit the jolly, happy, fat man you would expect him to be. But William was worried. The elf song had made him feel naughty, like he shouldn’t be there! What would Santa do? What would he say?
William was about to find out.
“Hello, my elves! Merry Christmas! We’ve done it again, another year over!”
Then Santa spotted something out of place—William!
“What the crackers is this?” he asked, completely confuddled. He bounced straight toward William, who was squished in the center of a crowd of elves, and stood, towering impressively, over him. “You’re a little tall for an elf! Why, you’re not an elf at all! Nor snowman, or forest fairy, or reindeer! Tell me, are you a mountain troll? Yes, I’ve heard of lost, wandering trolls before, but I’ve never seen one. How fascinating!” He rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Well, merry Christmas, troll friend! Join us and we shall celebrate the season. Ho, ho, ho!”
“B-b-but…Mr. Santa, s-s-sir…,” William spluttered nervously. “I’m not a troll!”
Santa paused and scratched his beard thoughtfully.
“No…of course you’re not! Wait…don’t tell me…you’re a…bald yeti! Yes! That’s it. How peculiar!”
“No!” William said. “I’m not one of those either!”
“Hmmm, not a troll and not a bald yeti, eh? Don’t tell me! I’m thinking, I’m thinking, I’m thinking….Oh, what a fun guessing game this is! Isn’t it fun, ho-ho!” and Santa did a little hop and a skip and walked around William, inspecting him.
As he circled the boy, the elves moved out of the way, revealing William’s wheelchair.
“What’s this? A one-man sleigh! How intriguing! I see no deer—what creature pulls your sleigh?”
“A flying dinosaur,” William said.
There was silence.
Everything was still.
“I’m sorry, my dear fellow, could you repeat yourself? I’ve had a very long night, and my ears must be full of cloud, for I thought you said a flying dinosaur!”
“I did say that, Santa, sir!” William said politely. “You see, I’m not a troll or a yeti. I’m just a boy!”
There was a sudden rumble of whispers and giggles from the surrounding elves.
“Just a boy?” Santa bellowed in his mighty, jolly voice. William was unsure whether he was jolly happy or jolly angry. “JUST a boy?” he repeated, and looked around at his elves. Then all of a sudden, Santa seemed to find something completely hilarious.
“Ha-HA-HA! Ho-HO-HO!” He boomed an enormous laugh that made his belly ripple and wobble. Then all the elves joined in the laughter too. They laughed in the most peculiar way. It was as if they’d been meticulously rehearsing the laugh for weeks with very complicated harmonies and rhythms. William thought it was fantastic. In fact, he thought it was very funny! Before he knew it, he felt a little chuckle rising up inside him too, and he suddenly found himself laughing with them. And because William was laughing, the Christmasaurus thought he should probably join in.
So, there they all were: Santa, the elves, William, and t
he Christmasaurus, with uncontrollable giggly laughs. They laughed and howled giggles and roars for so very long that by the time they had calmed down, William had forgotten what they were laughing at.
“Oh, Santa!…What…on earth was so funny? I can’t remember!” William said, wiping the tears away from his chilly cheeks.
“Well, I was laughing because you said you were JUST a boy!” Santa said, still finding the thought amusing.
“But I am,” said William. “I am just a boy!”
“My dear confused little friend, you can’t be! There’s no such thing as JUST a boy.”
William was awfully confused.
“Allow me to explain,” Santa said. “You see, up here we have all sorts of wonderfully magical creatures. Flying reindeer. Skating snowmen. Forest fairies. And lots more! But there’s something we don’t have—we, the most magical creatures in all the world…”
William didn’t have a clue what that could be.
“Children!” Santa said with a smile.
“Children?” William said. “Children aren’t magic. I’m a child, and I’m not magic at all!”
All the elves giggled, and Santa smiled knowingly.
“Oh, but you are! You really, truly are. You just don’t know it! You can create impossible worlds in your imagination that don’t really exist. That is magic. Because you can only see the best in people, the best in the world, in life. That is magic. Because you understand the importance of silliness, the importance of fun, of laughing and playing, which grown-ups have forgotten. That is magic. But, most of all, because you believe, without question, in the impossible. Without needing proof. Without hesitation. That is magic.”
William couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He could do all of those things, and he hadn’t even realized that they were magic!
