With Erno leading, the elves hurried into the reindeer barn, followed by Rudolph and his blackened nose.
"He's over here, asleep," whispered Blitzen.
"I hope the prankster hasn't harmed Santa," Roly said.
The elves tiptoed quietly toward the sleeping Santa, nestled almost like a baby in the hay. "Aw, he almost looks like a kid," Amber said softly.
"Yeah, a big kid," Roly said.
"Yeah, a big prankster kid!" Percy said, "Look!" he cried and pointed to a tin of black shoe polish that Santa held tightly in his hand. The elves gasped.
"Santa did this to me? My Santa?!" Rudolph cried, holding his hooves over his nose.
"Aw Rudolph, chill out," Erno said, "Come on now everybody, let's remember these are pranks, just pranks, the kind lots of kids pull. I admit it's somewhat odd that Santa seems to be our culprit . . ." his voice trailed off as Santa stirred on the hay.
"Harmmph, hamrph, snort," Santa mumbled and snored in his sleep and then, as if suddenly aware of all the eyes on him, Santa's own eyes popped open.
"What the . . .what are you all doing here? Hey, what am I doing here?" Santa blinked several times and shook his head. "I was having the strangest dream, I was dreaming about when I was a kid and I used to pull pranks. In my dream, I put old raw fish in my father's slippers and painted Rudolph's nose black. Ho, ho, ho," Santa chuckled at his dream. "But what am I doing in the barn and what is this?" Santa looked at the shoe polish tin in his hand. "Why, it's just like my dream. Oh, no! You don't mean I'm the merry prankster? Ho, ho ho," Santa laughed heartily.
Just then Smith arrived on the scene with the Big Book of Christmas. "Aha! Just as I suspected! You prankster! You haven't changed your ways in 300 years!" he cried warmly. "Santa, I started to guess it was you when our prankster left all those riddles too. It wasn't enough to pull pranks, you always loved the riddles, ever since you were a kid," Smith said.
Santa rose out of the hay and brushed off his bright red suit. "True enough Smith, and you're the only elf old enough to remember when I was a kid! It's funny, I've been dreaming about when I was a kid, I guess I was doing more than dreaming." Santa said quietly.
"Sleepwalking to be exact," Smith said with authority. He began rapidly flipping the pages of the digital video textbook, the Big Book of Christmas. "Here it is," he said pointing a finger at a brightly illuminated page. "You were about due for a little childish regression in this millennium - a 're-winding' of your kid clock, if you will, and with Mars being so close to the earth this year, and a lack of blue moons, but two lunar eclipses in the calendar year . . ."
"Okay, okay Smith, what does it all mean?" Amber asked excitedly.
"It means the big guy has been acting like a kid for the past month, but only at night, reliving his childhood fun while sleepwalking around the North Pole!" Smith said.
"Well now, that would explain my sleepiness. I haven't been sleeping at night, I've been pranking!" Santa yawned. Then shook his head and asked somberly, "Is it over now? I have a Christmas trip to make on the 24th of this month, as you know and I wouldn't want to disappoint any of the children in the world."
"According to the Big Book of Christmas, you'll be totally over it by the time of the new moon on the 23rd of December. Until then, we'll just have to make the best of it," Smith said.
"Well, now that we've solved the biggest Christmas riddle this year, let's get back to work and make this the very merriest Christmas ever!" Santa called. Then he and the elves and all the reindeer paraded to Santa's Workshop to make the final preparations for Christmas. As they made their way across the sparkling snow, the elves reminded Santa of his pranks and riddles and Santa could be heard loudly enjoying the tales,
"Ho, ho, ho," he cried merrily.
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