~~~
Hattie was beginning to wonder if she should have taken the helicopter ride after all. She and Bartholomew were tasked with getting to the farthest aerial doors’ controls which, according to the map Santa had brought up in the front door control room, was nearly three-quarters of a mile into the facility. Peter was taking the first doors, much closer to the front door control. The idea was that two had a better chance of making it together greater distance, whereas Peter just had to stay hidden away.
Their route took them back across the face of the giant outside doorway again. Fortunately with it having been closed for a while and not too many of the Yeti being bright enough to even try the control room door, let alone try to force it or unlock it, there weren’t many in their area. They swapped stones with Peter and cloaked themselves. Bartholomew had pointed where to meet up and said he’d uncloak within 5 minutes in that spot and she had better be there. It was a little against his opinion to use shimmer again, but with only two to be cautious he figured they could probably make it without careening into each other again.
Having made it to the rendezvous in one piece and removing the shimmer Bartholomew and Hattie moved on. They had observed some funny behaviors from the Yeti just as Qanik, Santa and Josh had. But they were obliged to keep to the shadows and behind stacks of both presents and supplies as well as wrapping papers. Out on the floor were many belts and machines that appeared to do the bulk of the wrapping for whomever worked there, be it Elf or Yeti. However, it was also clear what Santa meant about redirecting according to the needs of the child. Apparently some of the Yeti were so well trained they kept right on working, through all the mess and ruckus going on around them.
Once in a while, some of the invading Yeti would stumble across a belt and knock a present off, or take one to use in a sort of Yeti snow-ball fight with presents instead of snow. At that point one of the few “worker” Yeti would burst into their large form, growl at the interruptions and shoo them away. Once resolved the worker would inspect the packages and place them, tenderly, according to where they must have thought they needed to go next.
Maybe Santa’s right. They don’t seem all that bad, Hattie thought to herself. She began wondering if something more than just a hostile take-over to get at a source of magic was motivating the Yeti. In all her observations over the past few years they really didn’t seem to want much else but to be left alone. In fact, that was the conclusion in her reports and Agent Jackson Davison had even reported to her that the IPMA historian himself had agreed with the assessment. It just made sense when you consider how little humans actually knew about Sasquatch and Yeti on the whole.
Finally, nearly twenty minutes later, as they heard the rotor of the helicopter begin spinning a ways behind them they had come across the control booth for the third aerial doors, furthest away from the opening at the village end. It was guarded by a number of Yeti. As the pair watched it became apparent the Yeti weren’t so much guarding as just milling around looking for things to do. With the helicopter starting up, many of them slowly moved away from the area in the direction of the copter to get a better view of what was going on.
Bartholomew took the opportunity and grabbed Hattie’s arm, dragging her into the control booth and then slamming the door.
There in one of the chairs was as single remaining Yeti. It looked about at them and sat stunned for a moment. Perhaps without others of his kind to egg him on he was not as keen to pick a fight. He cocked his head, and then raised his right palm and wiggled the fingers as though he were saying hello.
“Ohna!” the little Yeti chirped, then patted his hands on his legs.
“Maybe he’s one of the ones Belschnickel hired,” assessed Bartholomew. But then he moved quickly to pick up the Yeti by the scruff of its neck and motioned Hattie to open the door.
The little Yeti scrabbled a bit at that hand upon his back and grumbled about it, but really didn’t do anything aggressive. As Hattie cracked the door open, Agent Bartholomew dropped the creature outside the door and then she shut it again quickly. For a couple seconds the thing seemed to be scratching at the door, like a dog might when it wants to be let back indoors. But it wasn’t long before the noise stopped.
Hattie and Bartholomew supposed the thing had gotten caught up with the flight of the helicopter as the rest of his kin had. They went to work quickly trying to locate the aerial door controls. It looked like the helicopter was just about to get out through the central aerials and theirs had to be open shortly after.