It was a bright and sunny day at the North Pole - with only a few weeks until Christmas. Erno had asked the other elves to meet him at the reindeer barn. They were going to solve the puzzle of the riddling prankster. Erno had a small box containing all of the riddles that had been found around the North Pole by the elves, Mrs. Claus, and even the neighbours. Most were written in crayon on scrap paper from the Workshop. Some were simple word puzzles, such as, 'Take two apples from three apples. What do you have?' Answer: 'Two apples.' Or 'How many birthdays does the average man have?' Answer: 'one.' The elves had solved most of the riddles, but they didn't seem to provide any answers to the author or lead to any particular solution - the prankster simply seemed to enjoy leaving them as a calling card.

Erno said, "Mrs. Aliknak said someone planted all her Christmas decorations upside down two nights ago! Her plastic Frosty the Snowman was head first in the snow - with just a light bulb flashing out of his feet!" Amber giggled. "Well, Mrs. Aliknak wasn't too happy. The miniature Christmas sleigh with 'Santa's gifts' that she keeps by her front door was all upside down too and some of the gifts got ruined."

"Sorry, Erno, I didn't mean to laugh - it's just that most of these pranks are just kid stuff - funny, not harmful," Amber explained.

"Not yet," said Roly ominously, "But Smith said our toy production is low because of all this distraction. He's worried we won't be finished in time for Christmas."

"Aw, Smith is always worried about something," Amber said.

"Yeah, but between low production and a sleepy Santa . . ." Erno's voice trailed off. He looked downcast and sighed.

"You're right, even Mrs. Claus is worried about that. Santa's falling asleep everywhere! I found him napping in the back of the Workshop. I think he can sleep standing up, or even walking. But why, why is he so sleepy?" Amber asked.

Just then a sudden shout was heard from the side of the reindeer barn.

"I heard him - and saw him - last night!" Percy yelled as he ran toward the group of elves. "I was asleep and I heard something at the window. At first I just thought it was the wind but I got out of bed and when I looked out the window I saw someone had written a riddle on the window and in the distance I saw him running, well sort of loping away. He was huge and hairy and he ran sort of sideways, all crooked and creaky."

The other elves' eyes grew big and round as they listened to the story.

"He's out there somewhere just toying with us," Roly whispered and shuddered.

"Aw, com'on, Percy. Is it you?" Amber asked, "No one else has seen the prankster - it would be just like you . . ."

"It's not me, no really, it's not. He left a riddle on my window and it said: What has a mouth but never talks, what runs but never walks," Percy said.

Just then Rudolph the Reindeer burst out of the barn, madder than a wet hen. "Well, this really burns me up!" he cried. The elves looked worriedly toward him. "Look, just look at what that Prankster has done to me!" he said indignantly.

The elves looked at Rudolph from top to bottom with grave concern, but couldn't see anything unusual until . . .

"My nose, my nose, last night that horrible prankster painted my nose black!" Rudolph cried.

Just then Blitzen burst from the barn, "Come quick, Santa is in here, asleep on the hay!"