All I Wish for Christmas
Chapter 9: A Nutcracker in Shining Armor

The following night Tilly awoke but didn’t rush to open her eyes, taking in the last of the Christmas music Alexa had been playing before heading to bed. Tilly loved music almost as much as she loved books, for it led to dancing, her other favorite hobby.

But then, she remembered the handsome nutcracker she’d spent all of last night conversing with, and her eyes shot open, hoping it hadn’t all been some sort of strange dream. Scanning the scene in front of her, her heart skipped a beat—there he was, standing at attention, tall and straight. But, to her surprise, he was already looking at her. Upon catching her eye, he smiled, giving her a small salute, “Good morning, Miss Tilly!” he announced boldly, and Tilly’s heart stuttered some more.

She gave him a little wave back, “I have to take care of something quick, but I’ll be over momentarily.” He nodded politely, and Tilly unhooked herself from the tree, flying across to the far side of the room where Oliver and Olivia were positioned on the entertainment center this year—they sorely missed having a mantle on which to perch.

“Good evening, you two!” Tilly smiled at her old friends, good-naturedly arguing about something insignificant, as usual.

“Tilly!” Olivia called out, waving over the angel bobbing in the air towards them. Once she landed, Olivia stood, “You’re a little early, aren’t you? We weren’t supposed to go watch the game until closer to midnight.”

Tilly looked at her friend guiltily, “Well, that’s what I came over to talk about. You see, I promised Captain Tinsel that I’d show him the office tonight. I don’t think we’ll be back before the game. You guys will just have to go without me.”

The plan had been that the elf twins, Tilly, and a half dozen others would meet up to watch the peppermint ball soccer game. She hated ditching her friends, but it wasn’t like there wouldn’t be several other games to attend as the month progressed, she told herself.

“Ah, Tilly’s found something more important to attend to,” Oliver proclaimed with a wink and elbow to Olivia’s ribs.

Olivia laughed, “I think I would too, if I someone so handsome had kissed my hand like he did Tilly’s!” She uttered an overzealous sigh, giving Tilly a grin.

“Pfft!” Tilly waved them off, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s just that Balthazar assigned me as the Captain’s guide, and I promised him that I’d show him Alexa’s library.”

Olivia nudged her friend, “Oh Tilly, it’s okay.” And Tilly relaxed some, not wanting everyone to think she had the hots, as Olivia called it, for the nutcracker. Then Olivia continued, without missing a beat, “You can be honest with your best pals—you’re glowing redder than Rudolph’s nose and not one of us girls wouldn’t just die to have been in your ballet slippers last night. He’s right down scrumptious!”

“Shhh!” Tilly waved her hands at Olivia, while her eyes grew larger than the tiny black painted dots they usually were. She most definitely did not want anyone else to hear her friends tease her about Captain Tinsel, even if everything they’d said was in fact true. Still, she couldn’t contain her smile as she begged them, “Not so loud!”

The elves giggled lightly, then put their arms over Tilly’s shoulders, “We’ll keep your secret, Til. Huh, Ollie?” Olivia prodded her brother.

“Yep, even Santa Claus won’t get anything out of me.”

“You guys are terrible teases! I’m out of here!” Tilly admonished them with a tiny smirk. “Enjoy the game!” she added as she lifted into the air.

“Oh, we won’t have nearly as much fun as you!” Olivia resounded with a giggle as Tilly flew away.

Tilly did indeed like the nutcracker, but she wasn’t exactly sure if she had it as bad as Olivia proclaimed, she thought as she left them behind. She’d never really had it bad for anyone before, besides Glint, who she was over now, so she wasn’t sure what really having it bad was supposed to feel like. Remembering Mary’s old words of wisdom, she knew attraction was there because her heart and stomach fluttered much like her wings when she was around him. Yet, for some reason she didn’t seem to feel nearly as nervous as she did around Glint back then. Perhaps it was maturity, she wondered.

For now, I’ll just act normal and see how things go.

Acting normal ended up being easier than she thought, for once she got over the initial nerves upon greeting Captain Tinsel again, they both fell into a warm and comfortable rhythm enroute to Alexa’s office. Once inside the darkened room, Tilly flew up to turn on the lamp near the bookshelf, then fluttered to the desk to wait for Captain Tinsel to climb up.

As he swung his leg over the edge, she helped pull him up the rest of the way. “You are too kind, Miss Tilly,” he smiled standing upright.

“Welcome to the office! We only have one bookshelf, but it has grown over the years. At the rate Alexa buys books, I have a feeling she’ll have to buy a new bookshelf by next year.”

Captain Tinsel nodded, surveying the lone, but tall bookcase against the wall, “And how much of it have you read?” Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Oh, probably half of it. It’s hard to say since Alexa just moved into this apartment this year, so she’s rearranged all the books and got a new bookcase. I haven’t had a chance to see which books might be new.”

The soldier nodded, “Hmm, not very organized is it?”

“Huh?” Tilly questioned, thinking the books looked pretty organized in her opinion. At least they were all sitting upright.

“Oh, it’s just that in a bookstore or library, books are always kept in a specific order, generally by type, then alphabetically by the author’s last name.”

“Oh,” she frowned, knowing that Alexa wasn’t quite that organized. Sticking up a bit for their life-bringer, Tilly noted, “But she does keep the same themes together. All the textbooks and references are at the bottom, then self-help, health, and life type books. The middle shelf on up is all fiction.

He still didn’t look pleased, so Tilly changed the subject, “Oh, look! She’s got a stack of new books here!”

Pointing to the stack of seven paperback books at the corner of the desk, the pair walked across the wooden surface, over the large desk calendar, and stopped in front of the pile. A receipt from Fountain of Words lay next to them. “I guess she bought these from the bookstore you came from, Captain. Have you read these?”

He examined the titles and shook his head, “No, I haven’t. But they look interesting. I know of a couple of the authors.”

The Captain soon forgot his frustration over Alexa’s disorganized bookshelf as Tilly showed him several of the books she’d read, pointing out her favorites, while exploring shelves with books she’d yet to see before. Before long, it was half past three and Tilly motioned to her new companion, “We should probably start back to the living room. I can show you some of the rest of the apartment on our way.”

“Alas, time flies quickly when you’re having fun, but I suppose you’re right,” the charming fellow replied.

And time did indeed seem to fly as the days passed and Captain Tinsel settled, spending much of his time with Tilly and her friends. When the pair weren’t reading Alexa’s books, they joined in the games and festivities, and the Captain soon became a respectable friend to the entire household. The only exception was the ice rink children, who were sure Alexa had placed the soldier on ‘their’ table to ensure they couldn’t have fun.

The Captain, being a soldier by nature, and having been in charge of keeping watch over the bookstore for so many years, had a liking for order. And Tilly, like many others, thought Alexa’s pairing of the straight-laced nutcracker with the hyperactive children was a good balance. Captain Tinsel didn’t necessarily agree, complaining about having to wake each night to the wild running around of the miniature kids. His point was proven early one evening.

“Get down from there! It’s not safe,” the wooden soldier barked at George who was climbing the now dry wax drippings from the largest of the candles in the center of the table. Smoke from the wick, too high to view, was still swirling into the air, as Alexa had just blown out the candles moments ago before retreating to her bedroom.

Tilly shook her head and smiled as she fluttered over to the table. She found that she was often the mediator between both sides of late, telling Captain to let the kids be kids, and in turn, telling the children to calm down and listen to the soldier who would keep them from getting hurt.

“George, what are you doing?” Tilly called up to the youngster who’d already managed to reach the top of the candle’s rim.

The freckle-faced boy with a bright blue stocking cap and matching coat, blinked down at Tilly who now stood next to the Captain, “It’s okay. I just wanna see what it looks like when the wax is all wet.”

Tilly huffed, “You’re plastic, George. You can’t get too close to hot stuff.”

“It don’t feel too hot, just a little warm,” George countered.

“Young man! I order you to get back down here this instant!” Captain growled.

Tilly put her hand on his arm, “It’s okay. I’ll go up and retrieve him. Wait here.”

The soldier frowned worriedly, “Are you sure, I can climb-”

But Tilly didn’t let him finish, “No, it’ll be quicker if I just fly up there.”

She let her wings carry her up the length of the tall, wide cream-colored candle, hovering just over the top and looking down at the disobedient boy. “Come on George, let me carry you down, okay? You’ve seen enough.”

George stuck out his lower lip in a pout and was just about to say something in anger when his foot slipped a little on the now-cold wax on the outside of the candle, having to hook his arm over the candle’s rim to keep from falling. The wax in the center was still heated liquid, and the heat from the wick, with its faintly glowing, red ember was more than the plastic child could take and he jerked back in fright. Seeing him nearly fall, Tilly flew forward, reaching out for his arm, and grasping hold of him as she continued to fly just above the rim.

“George!” she shouted, as she tried to get a better grasp of him.

The look of scared surprise on his face told her just how close to melting his hand he’d gotten, and he began to cry. Unable to maintain her hovering for much longer, Tilly lightly stepped onto the solidified rim to keep her balance as she directed the boy to start climbing back down to Captain again.

“But, he’ll be upset with me!” George panicked, and Tilly scowled back.

“George, if you don’t move it now, you’ll have more than Captain Tinsel to be afraid of! Climb, now!”

But as soon as she let go of the boy’s arm, she lost her balance, the weight of her golden wings pulling her backwards and towards the slowly cooling wax and wick behind her.

She screamed, sticking her foot into a chunk of wax that was warm and soft. To her relief, it was solid enough to keep her from falling backwards, but it sloshed the puddle of liquid wax behind her, effectively splashing a few drops onto her wings.

“Ouch!” she cringed as the hot liquid instantly stuck and solidified to her cold ceramic wings. Being made of fired-clay, she had no fear of melting, but regardless, it hurt momentarily. She had no desire to be subjected to an entire pool of hot wax, no matter what she’d read about paraffin wax treatments from the spa brochure Alexa brought home from when she went to get her nails done.

She halted, not wanting to make matters worse, and glanced down to ensure George had safely scaled his way to the bottom. Once George was out of harm’s way, Captain looked back up at her, waiting for her to fly back down. Her gaze must have told him that something wasn’t right, and he shouted up, “Tilly, what’s wrong?”

Tilly tugged at her leg, but her ballet slipper was encased in now cooled wax and she wasn’t nearly strong enough to easily pull out of it. “I’m stuck!” she called out in nervous panic.

“Crushed candy canes!” The soldier cursed under his breath. “Hold on, Tilly, I’m coming up!”

By this time, others had figured out that some kind of trouble was happening on top of the table and began to gather. George, now feeling bad about getting Tilly stuck, was wailing as he huddled with his siblings.

Captain Tinsel tried to wedge his boot into the base of the candle in an attempt to find a decent foothold. But the solid wax drips were too dainty for him to grasp, and he looked around for something to chip away at the candle. If only he had an ax or sword. Suddenly, Tilly managed to pull her foot loose from the wax.

“I’m free-,” she started, but her exclamation turned to panic as she realized that she was now falling forward, her wings unwilling to move properly with the solidified wax making them heavy and inflexible.

The tiny Christmas angel was sure that she saw her life flash before her eyes as she locked hers with Captain Tinsel’s at the base of the candle, her heavy wings forcing her to twist so that they were falling first. She was falling for the first time in her life and she couldn’t do anything about it. She squeezed her eyes shut, supposing that if she were to be shattered now, at least the fleeting memory of the wooden soldier’s handsome face, would at least make the inevitable a little less unpleasant.

But alas, there was no crashing, no shattering, and no shards of ceramic scattered across the table. Tilly’s fragile body was soon enveloped in the strong and sure wooden arms of the Captain. He’d somehow managed to catch her despite her belief that there was no way she was making it out of this alive.

“Tilly! Oh dear, Tilly. Are you alright?” His deep voice echoed in her head and she was sure she had to be dreaming or dead. “Open your eyes. It’s okay.”

Obeying the Captain’s order, Tilly finally blinked her eyes open, finding that she was staring into the two painted and very worried green eyes of her nutcracker. At that moment her breath stopped and she finally understood everything Balthazar and Mary had said about falling in love. Just like her fairy tales, the brave Captain had saved her and cared enough about her to be sorely worried that she would have shattered. If she thought she might have had it bad for him before, she clearly underestimated what having it bad meant, for as of this moment, she had fallen. Fallen hard.

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