The Christmas Stone

By Richard A. Flores

Abandoned at the age of two, Brân Finch anxiously waits for a family to take him in. But each year, the Elfin boy is passed over for other orphans.
Can it be that his eerie resemblance to the evil sorceress Maggie Crow has something to do with it?
Brân leaves the orphanage and ends up roaming from village to village picking pockets in order to survive. On one occasion, he is forced to escape from five village guards by jumping into a raging river.
The river carries him to the small village of Eve's Crossing. Each Christmas Eve, this village shines a special light that helps guide Mr. Kringle and his reindeer safely back home. The light comes from a special stone known to the villagers as the Christmas Stone.
Brân learns that the sorceress, Maggie Crow, has taken the stone. Without its light, Mr. Kringle and his reindeer would perish in the canyons below. Christmas Eve, as we know it, would come to an end.
Brân agrees to join four other elves in getting back the stone. Together, they make their way to the witch's house. But to get there, the group must cross through a mysterious forest where the trees nourish themselves with the blood of living creatures.
Can the five elves make it safely through these woods without becoming victims? Can Brân return the Christmas Stone to Eve's Crossing before midnight and also rescue the five villagers taken prisoner? And what about his close resemblance to Maggie Crow? Is it possible that he could be related to this sorceress and her family?
Find out what happens when Brân confronts the only person who may hold clues to his past and to the reason why he was abandoned at such a young age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350932515

Book preview

BEGINNINGS

Brân Finch wasn’t like any of the other elves living near the North Pole. He wasn’t a tailor, a toymaker, a baker, or even a shoemaker. Brân Finch was a sneak thief. Simple as that. He made his living roaming from village to village picking the pockets of other elves.

Who knows what circumstances lead anyone, especially an elf, to choose a life of crime? For Brân, however, this seamy life may have all begun at the age of two, when he was found sleeping underneath an old cart, wrapped with only a tattered cloth to keep him from freezing.

Being left alone at such a delicate age, Brân couldn’t remember anything about his parents or why they had chosen to abandon him near the outskirts of Meadow Drift, a quiet farming community. In fact, Brân didn’t remember anything about his first two years of life, including his own name.

The name he learned to recognize as his own, was given to him by Miss Mared Gill, the director of Finch House, a temporary shelter for young orphans. After laying eyes on this helpless toddler, Miss Gill knew exactly what to name him.

His bright red hair, dusted with golden wisps around his small, pointed ears, reminded her of a woodland fire raging out of control. And, being born and bred in Norway, she named him Brân, which means fire in her native tongue. His last name, Finch, also didn’t take much thought, seeing that she considered his life starting anew once being brought to the orphanage.

As for the month, day, and year of his birth, Miss Gill penned it in her register as the same month and day he came to live at the shelter, subtracting two years from his assumed age of two. His birthplace was recorded as Meadow Drift, the village closest to where he was found before being left in her care.

For the next eight years, Brân waited anxiously for a family to take him in. This was rather unusual, seeing that most of these unfortunate youngsters usually found homes within six months of entering Finch House. Save for Brân, no other orphan ever remained at the home for more than one year without being adopted.

So, what caused couples deeply in want of a child to overlook this needy boy, year after year?

The answer could be found in his appearance.

Brân’s problem, if you can call it that, was that his flaming red hair, along with his pale gray skin, bore an uncanny resemblance to one of the most feared individuals in the area: Maggie Crow.

Maggie Crow was an evil sorceress who enjoyed casting her spells and magic potions on many of the local villagers; something her older sister, Agnes, also took pleasure in doing further up north, just outside of Nicholas Parish.

Upon seeing this young elf, many of these childless couples feared that he was somehow related to these two unholy sisters and that they would one day come to claim him, all the while casting their wicked notions on anyone who happened to get in their way. And, if he truly were a member of this horrid family of witches and warlocks, he, too, may be harboring sinister powers that were waiting for the right moment to be unleashed. It would be in the best interest of any couple to overlook this abandoned elf and not take a chance of being confronted by either sister or being hexed by this orphan during a fit of anger.

By the time Brân turned nine, he had lost all hope of ever being adopted. On his tenth birthday, he made up his mind to leave the orphanage once opportunity arose.

That chance finally came one summer afternoon when a troupe of roving performers decided to camp in one of the open fields near the orphanage.

The group was on its way to Nicholas Parish to participate in one of the special festivals held there during the month of August. As they busily propped up their tents and set up their campfires, Brân rushed back to Finch House, packed the few items of clothing he owned, and waited for nighttime to arrive.

However, before leaving, he penned a letter to Miss Gill thanking her for the many years she had cared for him at the orphanage. He ended his note by writing, After eight years, I know that I will never be adopted. Please give my bed and my meals to someone else. Love, Brân.

Brân placed the letter on Miss Gill’s desk before slipping out the front door and making his way to the open field; never once looking back.

The young elf waited anxiously for everyone to bed down for the night before creeping through their campsite and making his way to one of their brightly colored wagons, where he slipped inside a wooden trunk and fell into a sound sleep. He did not make his presence known to anyone until the next day, and only when he was certain that the group was a far distance from Finch House.

For the next six years, Brân traveled with this family of jugglers, magicians, and escape artists who cared for him as if he were their very own, regardless of his grayish skin and fiery red hair. And being considered a member of their family, he was taught the family business, which consisted of learning to juggle all sorts of objects together, perform amazing acts of illusion, and escape from every known lock in existence.

To avoid frightening other elves with his sinister appearance, he hid his unusually bright hair underneath a wig which he made from the tail of a black stallion. As for his gray-colored skin, he covered the exposed parts of his face and neck with a tan-colored cream, commonly used by many actors to hide their scars and blemishes while performing on stage. And to avoid being discovered as a runaway and being sent back to Finch House, he changed his name to Thomas Wood.

Once turning sixteen and having mastered his sleight of hand skills, Brân left the troupe, hoping to make a name for himself as a solo performer. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as expected, and after one year, he gave up his dream of becoming a renowned magician. Instead, he turned to picking pockets, constantly moving from town to town, hoping to one day meet up with the only family that had never judged him based on his appearance.

Who knows how this young elf’s life would have turned out if not for the events that began at the tender age of two?

ONE

Brân Finch arrived in the village of Cedar Rest, an average-sized town forty-five miles north of Meadow Drift, two days before Christmas. The village took its name from the tall cedar tree growing in the main plaza.

Each holiday season, this magnificent tree was decorated with trinkets of all shapes and colors. Its trunk generously wrapped with streams of red ribbon trimmed in silver. And its top adorned with a huge, golden star dusted with shavings of cut crystal. With this celestial bauble reflecting the sun’s rays, the streets of this village glistened throughout the day in a rainbow of colors.

But the Yuletide atmosphere did not end there. Throughout the busy streets of this festive town, strands of silver tinsel could be found hanging on every lamppost and store awning. Candle shops filled the air with seasonal scents of peppermint drops and cinnamon spice. Bakeries displayed a generous assortment of freshly made breads filled with exotic jams and marmalades. Toy stores burst from their seams with oversized nutcrackers, extravagant doll houses, and stuffed polar bears affectionately called Polly bears by all the young children. And shoppers cheerfully made their way along the cobblestone streets with their pockets and purses filled with coins of silver and gold to make their last-minute purchases.

There can be no doubt that Cedar Rest was a shopper’s paradise during the holiday season, not only for those elves living in this village, but also for those living in nearby towns and hamlets.

For Brân Finch, the Christmas season was also a special time of the year, but not as one might expect. The Christmas season offered him the quickest way to fill his pockets with coins taken from unsuspecting shoppers, as well as to indulge his sweet tooth with a wide assortment of striking desserts especially created to mark the season.

Once entering Cedar Rest, Brân made his way to one of the busiest parts of town. And just like that, he sighted his first targets stepping out of a tavern. With quick and carefully planned steps, he approached this small group of well-dressed elves who reeked of spiked cider and elderberry wine.

A happy Christmas to each one of you and a merry good day! he greeted the entire lot, casually brushing against several of the more inebriated ones and lifting a few coins from their pockets without their knowledge.

Then, wandering over to one of the more popular bakeries on the opposite side of the street, he also offered his Christmas blessings to several of the customers standing in line while cleverly snatching two gooseberry puffs and a half-dozen honey biscuits from right under their noses.

For the next three hours, Brân continued his pickpocketing spree, making sure each of his victims were just as well dressed as his first targets. If this sneak thief had any scruples in his line of work, it was taking just a few coins from those elves who showed themselves to be well off and lifting only a delicacy or two from the street carts belonging to some of the more successful establishments.

But during the holiday season, Brân became a little more ambitious with his thievery; targeting a few more well-to-do elves and lifting a few more coins from their winter coats in his daily jaunt through town. The extra coins he collected were always set aside for Finch House which still held special memories for him, even after nine years.

Even though Brân had run away from the shelter, it was not because of the way he was treated or because of the living conditions there. As you may recall, Brân left because he felt that he would never be adopted and that he would probably remain at Finch House until he was old enough to fend for himself.

Brân’s admiration for Miss Gill and her unselfish work never wavered, although the years since leaving the orphanage had long passed. Besides the extra coins that he put aside for Finch House, Brân always remembered to include a king’s selection of freshly made desserts for the orphans, including his favorites: apricot dumplings, boysenberry twists, and maple butter tarts. However, unlike the coins that he targeted for the orphanage, the pastries he gifted to the young orphans were never stolen from any bakery or grocer’s cart. The treats were purchased legitimately, although the money he used to pay for them had come from his ill-gotten gains.

Once having placed the twenty-odd coins and the four dozen baked goods inside a sturdy box, Brân wrapped it twice over with a colorful print of wrapping paper containing a pattern of red bows and multi-colored stars before sending it on its way.

Wanting to keep his gift a mystery, he never added his name to the package. Instead, he covered that portion of the label with two simple candy canes crossing each other to form the letter X. And to make certain that Miss Gill wouldn’t think that the package was sent in error—and refuse delivery—he always printed the message, A Christmas treat for Miss Gill and all her young wards, on one side of the box.

TWO

Brân returned to the streets of Cedar Rest after leaving his holiday surprise at the only shipping