Daniel held the steering wheel so hard he was surprised it didn't break. The moment the van's wheels hit the asphalt of the road, his world spun, and therefore, so did Thomas and Mikaela's. He yelled, unceremoniously, as he tried to regain control of the vehicle.

Don't step on the brake!

That was the first thought that came to mind. Daniel remembered very well the classes he had taken at his father's side before moving to Clarence. Peter loved teaching the same lesson at least ten times, or twenty if given the chance, and for the first time in his life Daniel appreciated the gesture. Today, that precaution was one of the few good things he attributed to the man who had thrown him out of the house.

Controlling his panic, Daniel began to slow down. The van skidded some more in the snow before it stopped, narrowly missing a tree. Taking a deep breath, the rocker thanked his luck.

"I thought you said you could drive!" Thomas complained, after composing himself. The blonde was whiter than usual.

"I said I got my permit, in case you didn't know, there's a huge difference between that and an actual license." He replied, irritated. "I've never driven alone even in a beautiful and sunny day. Try doing that in a blizzard, being chased by monstrous snowmen!"

"Speaking of them, maybe we should discuss traffic laws when we're safe. All on board?" Mikaela pointed behind her, where Daniel could see two snowmen heading towards them.

Carefully accelerating, he put the van back on the road and headed toward the center of town. Only after a few minutes, he found the courage to look in the rearview mirror, and smiled when saw that there wasn't any monsters on his tail.

From the park to the city, it was about a fifteen minutes journey, but the slippery track and the fear he felt of accelerating too much and ending up crashing the car made Daniel sure that it would take almost twice as long to reach his destination.

"Just checking, do you have any idea what we're going to do next?" he asked, not just to find out what his colleagues thought, but because talking helped him to remain calm.

"Let's go straight to the police." Thomas responded immediately.

Daniel glanced at the boy through the rearview mirror rising an eyebrow.

"Nice! And let's say we do that, what are we going to tell?"

"That there are people being dragged into the forest by monsters, that's what! The police need..."

The blonde stopped talking, as if he had just realized the absurdity of the situation.

"Daniel is right." Mikaela said, and he started to like her a lot at that moment. "They won't believe us, and who can blame them?"

"So we lie." Thomas insisted. "Can we just say there's some fighting getting out of hand and..."

"And in that case, my..." Daniel found himself almost saying 'Uncle' but decided the situation required a little more formality. "The sheriff will go there without any proper backup. What do you think he's going to do against a bunch of snow monsters? Not to mention the evil Elsa, the wind girl and the big bad wolf."

"Again, I need to go with him on that one." Mikaela said and crossed her arms. She couldn't stop looking back at the van.

Checking once more to see if anyone was following them, Daniel was relieved to find no sign of a threat and parked at the edge of the road.

"Why did we stop?" Thomas looked around.

"Because we need a plan, man." He replied and then turned around in the seat, so he could get a good look at the two of them. "We have to think carefully about what we're going to do from now on, don't you think?"

The basketball player didn't answer, but Daniel saw in his blue eyes that he was thinking about it. Mikaela looked at him and nodded. A long, uneasy silence filled the van, broken only by the sound of wind and snow falling outside.

Without any genius ideas, Daniel decided to say the only thing he was really thinking about at that moment.

"Thanks for being an impulsive nutcase." He told Thomas.

And when the boy glared at him with a frown, he promptly elaborated .

"No offense, I just wanted to thank you for buying us time back there. I was pretty sure the snowmen were going to surround us before I could get the van started, if you hadn't distracted them, I don't think any of us would be here right now."

Thomas was silent, looking at him. After a few seconds, he released an awkward smile.

"Sincerely? I don't even know what came over me at that time."

The rocker laughed. He also had no idea what had gone through his colleague's head, and knew he would never have had that courage.

I'm not like Jonas. I don't think I ever will.

"Thanks." Mikaela said too. The word tumbled out of her mouth as if the girl had pushed it out. "Seriously, thank you for putting yourself out there for us."

Daniel noticed that Thomas was looking at her as if she had just slapped him. His face turned very red and his eyes decided to do a thorough inspection of the van's floor. Ok... these two really have a history

The awkward silence returned, and this time it was Thomas who broke it.

"Perhaps we can use this magic scepter in some way?" He pointed to the golden object in the girl's hands.

She held the scepter close to her chest, as if trying to protect it from something.

"I don't know." She replied, with a clear tone of doubt and fear in her voice. "We don't know how to use it, and Santa just told us to keep it out of the wrong hands."

"And maybe it only works on people who know how to do magic?" Daniel joined her reservations.

Thomas shrugged.

"We won't know if we don't try."

"And what is your suggestion? Brandish the scepter and shout 'Abracadabra'?" Mikaela retorted, clearly unwilling to go along with the boy's suggestion.

Thomas snorted and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not listening to other ideas." He said impatiently. "Are any of you going to collaborate, or do you only know how to criticize?"

Daniel couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Is this for real???!" He slapped the steering wheel to get their attention. "We've been attacked by evil snowmen with teeth that would make a shark swim away, we've seen Santa get his ass kicked by evil Elsa, a girl made of wind and the big bad wolf, but even so, the two lovebirds decide that this is a good time to tease each other?" He finished and crossed his arms.

Once again, Thomas was extremely blushed. He opened his mouth and closed it without saying a single word. Mikaela glared at him, furious, and pointed a finger at the blonde.

"Do you think I'm dating this asshole?" She asked, sounding extremely outraged.

Her tone snapped Thomas out of his silence.

"I'm not an asshole." He said, and it looked like he would say more, but something stopped him.

Mikaela waited for more, but since he clearly had nothing else to say, she snorted.

"Tell that to my mother, it took her weeks to get the smell out of the shit bomb you threw on my front door!"

"Enough! Both of you!" Daniel yelled.

At the same time, Thomas and Mikaela turned towards him and fell silent. Daniel took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then, gathering all his composure, said.

"I don't care what happened or not between you. Can we focus on the problems we have now?"

Still angry, Mikaela threw the scepter at Thomas.

"Go on, show us how to use a magic scepter. I'm dying to see how this will work."

He caught it in midair. Then he raised the scepter in front of his face, frowning as he concentrated.

Daniel didn't think anything was going to happen, so when the scepter started to glow, he almost jumped in his seat.

"How's that for a first shot? What do you think now?" Thomas asked Mikaela. He looked just as surprised as any of them, but Daniel had to laugh at the confident, smug smile the blonde flashed.

Then something went very wrong.

The scepter began to shudder, and Thomas released it with a cry. The golden staff fell to the ground and, to their astonishment, broke into three equal parts.

Before anyone could say anything, the three pieces floated and, in a quick and precise movement, hit each of their wrists, sticking there like bracelets. Huge, golden bracelets.

Daniel examined his new garment in awe.

The girl was the first to say something about what had just happened.

"What do I think? I think you broke Santa's scepter!"

What now, indeed! Did you see that coming? Let me know what you think is going to happen now!

As always, please vote and leave a comment, that is a huge help to improve my writing and to keep the goblin army away from our world!