Christmas is a season when the need to be good to your fellow man is brought into sharper focus. Children are told to be good so that Santa Claus will bring them presents, with the fear of coal in their stockings hanging over them. Parents of course know their threats are hollow, afterall, there is no such thing as Santa Claus. These parents are only half correct. The fat, jolly, bearded man seen throughout the world in advertisements, movies, and stories is a work of fiction. What exists instead, is something much older and darker.
Ancient people believed they lived in a world filled with magical creatures; fairies, sprites, and elves. They knew the importance of keeping these powerful entities appeased, avoiding the areas they lived and leaving offerings when appropriate. Modern humans have forgotten all of this and no longer respect these sacred spaces or sacred ways. These creatures still exist, but have retreated to the far north, the inhospitable climate giving them this last refuge. Over the years, the knowledge of where these creatures went was folded into the stories of Santa Claus and his elf helpers. For a thousand years, these creatures have bided their time and have watched humanity slip further and further away from the old ways and instead developing ever more ingenious ways to destroy nature. This Christmas, these ancient powers will send an avatar to punish mankind for its inequity.
Unimaginable power was focused into just one of these creatures, an elf. She looked human, aside from her ears, and her outward appearance was that of a girl in her late teens. She had been chosen to bring retribution on humanity and, with the power now barely contained inside her body, she would do this alone. Being Christmas and not without a sense of irony and humor, the young elf decided to dress appropriately for the season.
The city of New Rawlingston was built on the ashes of the great northern forest that once stretched for as far as the eye could see in every direction. That forest was not even a memory anymore to the people who called this town home. These people were not without sin themselves. They were cruel to their fellow neighbor and sought only wealth and power at the expense of the humans less fortunate than themselves. That night, Christmas Eve, the vast majority of the city's citizens were home. They were glued to their televisions watching the Christmas specials they had all seen a dozen times before, counting the minutes until they could open their gifts. As they sat idly, families across the city were shaken by what many thought was an earthquake.
The elf had been standing on the city's outskirts, She looked at the trash that seemed to pervade every inch of what was once virgin forest. The sight of this affront to nature steeled her for what she was about to do. Closing her eyes, she focused inward. In her mind she could see the burning fire of the gift she had been given. Reaching out with her mind's eye, she took the fire into herself. As she did so she felt her body begin to change. As the power coursed through her, the elf's body began to expand. She was growing larger and larger. Opening her eyes. She looked down on the now insignificant city of New Rawlingston. From her perspective, the sprawling city was nothing more than a patch a dozen meters square. The buildings were barely high enough to reach the tops of her boots. "Pathetic," she thought to herself. They were now nothing more than bugs to the elf and she would exterminate them as insects.
The ground shook for a second time. Now people were leaving their homes to see what was happening. As they did so they immediately realized, to their terror, that what they had experienced was no earthquake...it was much worse. Looking towards the city's edge, the townspeople could see the silhouette of what appeared to be a giant! Another tremor and the figure stepped closer, now being illuminated by the city's lights. To the people's amazement, they were looking at a giant Christmas elf! She was wearing a green and red blouse and skirt, red and white candy-striped thigh high stockings, long red gloves, and green boots. If not for the monstrous size of the elf the city's citizens would have found her to be yet another teenage helper of the many Santas seen in the local shops. This thought disappeared as the giantess elf brought her foot up and dropped it crashing down on one of the warehouses in one of the outlying industrial parks.
The elf looked down at her foot, she had stepped on a large building but she had felt nothing as if the structure was made of tissue paper. Twisting her foot slightly, she watched what remained of the building collapse onto the top of her boot in a heap of twisted metal and rubble. The feeling of power was exhilarating! She had known that the humans would be no match for her but to actually feel how helpless and insignificant they were in comparison to just her foot excited her. Looking up at the city lying before her, she began walking towards the city's center.
The main street was in complete chaos! The far end of the main road that cut through the city of New Rawlingston was ablaze. Buildings were lying in the street in rubble and smoke was filling the sky. Above all this stood the elf. She was standing with her legs astride the main street and looking down at the pathetic humans as they were fleeing before her. She had no pity for them, they were vermin and would all die under her crushing feet.
The elf began to walk down the main street. Each step shook the buildings to each side almost to collapse. She was taking slow and measured steps, each step crushing a dozen or more fleeing townspeople. No matter how fast the people ran, they had no hope or chance of escaping their fate as nothing more than blood smears on the soles of the elf's boots. In just a few steps she had traversed the entire length of New Rawlingston's main artery. Looking over her shoulder, she looked back at her path. Enormous bootprints pressed into the broken concrete, each filled with the flattened remains of the bugs she had come here to punish. She walked back the way she had come, both finishing off any of the tiny humans she had missed the first time and crushing the buildings on each side for good measure. Sweeping her leg in an outward arc, her boot bulldozed entire city blocks in that single lithesome movement.
Finding the act of simply stepping on these insects and their pitiful structures now boring, the elf lowered herself onto her hands and knees. Crawling now like a hunting feline, she stalked through the side streets, crushing anyone she found under her gloved hands. Finding a group huddled in a dead end alleyway, she smiled and licked her finger. Reaching out, she touched the group with many becoming stuck in her saliva. She brought the helpless human insects up to her face. She said nothing, instead opening her mouth and putting her finger inside her mouth. Her tongue took the hapless townspeople off her finger. She moved them around inside her mouth, enjoying their struggle as they fought against the unstoppable power of her tongue. Finally, she swallowed. She repeated this with the rest of the huddled human ants in the alleyway, eating at least 20. For the last three humans that were stuck to her finger she had other plans.
Lifting her skirt, she pressed them between her buttocks. She clenched her buttocks together, turning these into more smears. Looking down at her body, she noticed that, aside from the dust from the countless crushed buildings, she had many such red smears across her body. Some she had done intentionally, using her finger to crush the tiny humans against her stockings, thighs, and blouse. The other smears were unintentional, dozens crushed against her body unaware as she moved through this city of ants.
Standing up, she surveyed what was left of the city of New Rawlingston. It was for the most part a smoking ruin, burning mounds of rubble amongst a patchwork of massive bootprints pressed deep into the earth. The elf smiled, the first of the human cities was no more. She knew she was far from finished, she would be very busy this Christmas Eve.