Legends...

[Therin]

I trudged steadfastly through the snow. It was probably a foot deep, and colder up here than I was used to. It was snowing still, though it had reduced itself to light dust, rather than great hunks hurtling through the air the way it had been a few hours ago. It was almost sunrise. I could tell because the sky was lighter, the sliver I could see. I was climbing the legendary stairway that ran to one tip of the world, and since I wasn't near the top yet, I couldn't see much besides the canyon through which the stairway wound. The sword on my back no longer felt heavy to me, as I had been travelling on foot for the last few months.

Over the last few days, however, as I began to climb the ancient stairs, a shadow had begun to grow in my perception. He was following me, that I knew, but it seemed to me that he was getting closer, preparing to strike. I wasn't running. I was trying to get to the right spot before I turned and stood my ground. This would be the last battle for the next four thousand years, or it would be the last battle ever. For both of us. He had already achieved his objective in the destruction of my world, and the cold-blooded slaughter of all its inhabitants, but apparently he knew the threat I posed, and wanted to finish me off as well.

I felt the threat jump, suddenly, and launched myself forward, activating my boosters and rocketing up the stairs. I hadn't wanted to do this. I would need my boosters for the battle ahead. Still, the most important part was location, and I had to have that before any of the other pieces fell into place. So I ran full throttle, stairs whipping by too fast for me to see, a dim white blur below me. The canyon didn't curve, so I needn't worry about steering. I just maxed my speed meter and prayed for the best. Suddenly, the incline of the stairs nearly tripled, and I had to pull back for fear of smashing myself against them. I blasted out of the canyon into clear air, miles above anything else, ejected my empty boosters, and dropped to the ground. I was standing on a plateau. Whiteness covered it, probably two or three feet deep. At the center of the perfectly circular mesa, an altar stood. It was bare, even of the snow that suffocated this place. I was here. The tip of the planet. The very air here was powerful, I could feel it as it sizzled through my hair.

The threat jumped again, impossible to miss. I whipped my sword out of its sheath, whirled around, and brought it up just in time. The crack of thrinandurum nearly deafened the both of us, and rays of light jetted out from the contact point of our swords. Then I shoved him to the side, running after to begin my attack. He dodged neatly, and scored my upper left arm, leaving a searing trail of pain. I twisted the opposite way, bringing my sword around the long way to try and catch him off guard, but all I caught was the edge of his sword, deafening the both of us again and searing away some of the snow on the platform. He jumped back and I followed, racing across the clearing to crash up against him again. Soon, we were joined in absolute battle, searing the plateau every second or so. I caught him in the side, and he sliced my leg. I traded a light cut in my abdomen for a deep scoring on his shoulder. He had the advantage of first blood, and wouldn't give it up easily, but I had to win. If I didn't, he would continue to terrorize the world for all time. Sunrise vaulted over the horizon, and the altar in the center began to glow as the stagnant energy in the air began to condense. I manuvered him toward it. He fought back, and pushed me almost off the cliff. I dodged his finishing cut by jumping clear over his head, landing lightly in the snow, and backing away toward the altar. He turned slowly, and began to come forward more slowly still. He was wary of what I might do with the altar.

"You cannot win, Klaus," he said. "I hold all the cards, all the power. All the other Sanna are dead. None could withstand my power, and neither can you. The last defenders of this planet are no more. And you, Klaus, a mere trainee, believe you can defeat me with your master's sword? I will kill you as I did the rest."

"I will win. Even if it costs me my life, I will beat you and lock you away, just as my master once did."

"Die, inferior being!" he screamed, and threw himself at me. I smiled. I had been training all my life to become Sanna, like my brothers before me. My style of fighting had been perfected over the last thousand years. It was unbeatable, and he was counting on it. In a blatant departure from all of my teachings, I simply ducked, stuck my leg out, flipped him onto the altar, and rammed my sword into his chest. Four million years of perfection, and he couldn't see it coming. The world turned white as pure planetary energy cascaded around me and into the altar, and I fainted.

I awoke to darkness. I opened my eyes, to darkness. I moved my hands and realized I was buried beneath the snow. It was only a few inches, though, as I found when I dug myself out and stood up to survey my surroundings. My sword was gone. The altar was gone. He was gone. I felt something tug at my robes, turned, and laid my eyes upon the ugliest creature I had ever seen. It was shaped vaguely like an elk, but shorter. And it didn't have the proud bearing that elk have. It also wasn't clean the way I knew elk to keep themselves. And its horns weren't graceful like those of an elk. Instead, it had a certain...certain...

A certain humanity, surprisingly enough. It snorted, as though reading my thoughts, and gave me a look of impatience. I looked behind to discover seven more of the same breed of creature. Behind those seven was an odd contrivance of wood and metal, almost like a box on skis. It, too, was among the more ugly things I had seen in my lifetime, but it, too, also held a certain life to it. It is impossible to accurately describe, but it was there, nonetheless. I climbed into it, and felt something click in my mind. This was my place, then. This was how I would survey the world as its final defender. Time no longer had meaning to me, I could come and go in it as I would in any room of a house. And the physical laws were stretched to accomidate my new guise.

For, while I know myself to be a skinny, awkward boy of around twenty-six, you all see me as an obese, smiling man who travels the world in one night and brings toys and other gifts to all who have been good this year. In fact, I am more of a planetary security guard, the last of my race and kind. Every year, I travel the world and moniter the threat levels of all of its locations, to make sure he can never return. I am the last of the Sanna, the final wall between this world and that outside.

I am Sanna Klaus, and those of you who may read this journal will now know these gifts for what they truly are. They are a message.

"All is well until next year!"


A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a happy, loving night.
~Santa Claus

[Tobias]

*Applause*

Awesome man. Makes xmas have one more meaning to it

That is all

[Shiny'game]

All I can say is wow......

[Terin]

A wonderful piece, indeed.
-T