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Gifted By Accident
Chapter 1. Overworked Elf

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Twas the day before the night before Christmas. All was hustle and bustle and dangerously near chaos. The last of the toys had to be
finished in time for Santa to give them to all the sweet girls and boys that are on his "Nice" list.

Having worked for hours, Pepper Minstix was just as tired as everyone else. As a Toymaker Junior Grade, Pepper has the unenviable task
of pounding all the teeny tiny nails into the wooden toys. He also has to use the glue gun and other tools to put the horse manes on the
rocking horses, and he has to put all the crayons into the special containers that have the 64 colors and he has to get them in the right order.

Pepper Minstix is just a typical elf, much much older than his youthful appearance. He's nowhere near as old as Santa, but he is at least
125 years old, give or take a decade. It's hard to keep track of time at the North Pole where it's always in the middle of winter. It's not known
for sure, certainly never proven, but there is a suspicion that Santa is not only the boss of the elves...he's also their Daddy!

It sounds outrageous doesn't it. The very idea that human women would have hanky panky holiday cheer with an aging and overweight Santa,
who was past his prime eons ago. The stories say that Mrs. Clause never goes for a roll in the snow anymore, and the frustrated and horny
Santa gets his jollies out only once a year. During all those deliveries of presents to so many human homes he's bound to run into a young
woman who catches his fancy.

Another part of the myth is how these children ended up at the North Pole. Some say Santa went back to certain houses a year later, and
he switched out the baby boy (always a baby boy) with a changeling who was stolen from an orphanage. Elf children don't grow up like
regular human children. They grow the same size as humans, but their growing stops somewhere around their 13th year. For the rest of their
existence they remain childlike just like in the photo presented at the beginning of this tale.

Now, back to Pepper Minstix. He was so busy pounding nails that he wasn't paying attention when the senior Toymaker said it was time for
lunch. Pepper is pounding away when he looks around. All the seats around all the work tables are empty. Pepper is the only elf in the
Santa's Workshop.

Feeling more tired than hungry, the junior Toymaker spots a large gift box in the corner. The box is large enough, and sure enough it has
some paper stuffing tucked down in there, that he can climb inside and lay down to take a nap. Pepper snuggles down among the colorful
thin crinkly paper, making a pile of it to form a pillow. Placing his head on that pillow, Pepper is soon dreaming of Sugarplums.

The supervisor elf, the senior Toymaker comes strolling into the workshop. Everything seems to be in order. Finished toys are ready for
packaging. Half finished toys sit at the work stations. But in the corner the supervisor elf finds a large empty box. Looking inside there is only
paper stuffing to be seen. "This box must be set aside for some special toy just about finished," the senior Toymaker says, and he finds the
lid that goes with that box. The lid is placed on the box just as the rest of the elves come back into the workshop following the completion
of lunch.

"Where is Pepper Minstix?" the supervisor asks. The other elves look around the room, but none has seen where the junior Toymaker went.
"I'm going to have to put Pepper on report. He'll be on the "Naughty" list this year."

The elves went back to work.

Fast asleep inside the box, Pepper doesn't notice the passage of time. He has no idea that at the end of the day all the toys in those fancy
packages got moved to the loading dock to be placed onto Santa's sleigh. All the toys and boxes have been moved. But wait...there is one
more box sitting over in the corner. It's a large box, and it's heavy. This box must be finished and ready to go. All it needs is a ribbon to hold
the lid on and a large red bow. These final touches are done and the gift box is carried up a ramp to where the Reindeer are being hitched
to the sleigh. The box with Pepper inside is the last one fitted into the back. Santa thanks everyone for their hard work, and calling out
the names of the Reindeer he takes off into the cold wintery night sky.

All night long Santa delivers the presents and packages, the shiny trinkets and sports equipment, and even the electric gadgets that are so
appreciated by certain females of the human kind.

At the last house on the first run, which happened to be a house at the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin, USA, Santa delivers the packages to
the various members of the Wallendorf Family plus a visiting Aunt and Cousins. It's a fairly large load, and fortunately Santa knows all the magical
tricks to get locked doors to open up. That squeezing down chimneys hasn't worked too well since Santa put on a few pounds.

As Santa was getting into his sleigh to take off for the North Pole for another load of toys, he spotted the large box still sitting in the back
of the sleigh. Looking at the box Santa sees no name tag.

Now the last thing Santa wanted to do was take the package back to the North Pole. He'd have to put the Elf who is in charge of Lost n Found
or mis-shipped packages to work, and this could delay his next departure from the Pole. It would be easier to leave the package with the Wallendorf's.

The fancy box which weighed a ton was carried by Santa into the house. Down in the corner next to the Christmas tree the box gets shoved
partway behind the tree. With a wink of his eye the busy old Santa is back on his sleigh as he shouts out "HO HO HO", and flipping the reins up and
down the Reindeer take off in flight into the misty dark night.

Love the Christmas treat, TeenFan! Looking forward to the next part.

Gifted By Accident
Chapter 2. The Family Gathers


The early morning rays of the sun are just beginning to peak in through the edges of the curtains and blinds as Gwendolyn Wallendorf creeps
down the stairs. As the only child in the Wallendorf household, the twelve year old girl was used to being the first to sneak into the living
room to see what Santa had left for them.

Young Gwen is amazed and delighted to see so many wonderfully wrapped boxes and packages tucked under the branches of the Christmas tree.

"All this? All of this for me?" the Wonder Woman themed superhero pajamas clad girl can barely contain her glee. Rushing over to the tree, she
picks up one package only to set it down and look at another. Yes indeedy the first package had her name on the tag. However, the second
package has the name Aaron.

Gwen stops and she smacks her head with the palm of her hand. Now that explained it all, why there was such an abundance of presents
scattered under and around the tree. Somehow Santa had known Gwen's two cousins were staying over at her house for several days. Some of
these gifts are for the cousins, and probably for Aunt Millie too. These must have been re-routed from their original destination. Aunt Millie Wallendorf and her two children, Cindy-lou and Aaron, live a long way off in New Orleans. Santa must have gotten some secret memo and he
brought all of the cousin's presents to Wisconsin. Santa must love such arrangements as he only has to make one trip to deliver to two distantly
related houses.

Being a little busybody, the nosy young girl looked through every package under the tree. She put presents together into little piles, each group
for a specific person. After the presents are sorted out, Gwen counted to see who has the most presents to their name. Dang nabbit...it's a tie
between her and Cindy-lou. Both girls got four presents that said "From Santa" on the name tag.

A mysterious package remained alone, not collected into a group of presents. The box was too large and heavy to move. It didn't have a name
tag on it. Left in the corner it sits alone.

"I wonder who that one belongs to?" Gwen says, and she has to resist untying the ribbon to take a peek.

Thumpety thumps of footsteps are heard coming from the carpeted steps of the stairs. Without having to turn around, Gwen knows it's Aaron
and Cindy-lou coming down to join her.

"Oh my...look at all the presents, " eleven year old Cindy says as she comes up next to Gwen, and the girl wraps her arms around Gwen to give
a sweet hug.

Thirteen year old Aaron doesn't say anything. He's the oldest of the kids, and he's seen more Christmas mornings and it's all sort of Humbug to
him now, that crazy excitement about gifts being flown in from the North Pole. Aaron, being the old wise guy that he is, knows there is no such thing as Santy Claus. As if trying to prove how tough he is, Aaron had come downstairs wearing only the shorts he went to sleep in. Aaron shivers and his nipples get hard and pointy, which was very much noticed by Gwen. Having been a Little League Baseball player when he was 11-12 as
both a pitcher and outfielder, Aaron was quite muscular for his age and most would consider him to be a developing heartthrob, a future High
School Hunk-O-the-Month prancing about on the sports field. Yes, it is quite cold in the house up in the frozen north, but Aaron rarely turns
down the opportunity to show off his newly minted Teenage muscles.

By contrast the unicorn pajamas clad Cindy-lou is a cute little princess. She's sweet and dainty and never causes much of a fuss about
anything and she's her daddy's little darling, except her daddy had to spend Christmas in Japan due to some business needs. Cindy didn't even
notice her pile of presents, didn't have a clue that she has the same number Gwen does.

In less than an hour later, the entire family group is gathered in the living room. Everyone is eager to get started except for Mr. Wallendorf,
who would prefer the holiday stuff not happen until after it was Noon. The curtains are thrown wide open, the furnace turned up a few
degrees, and it's time to open the presents!!

One by one a colorful paper wrapped box is handed to somebody to open. Gwen wanted to open hers all at once, but Mrs. Wallendorf insisted
that each of the kids take a turn at opening a present. The collective Oohs and Ahhs, mingled with some sarcastic comments from the man of the
household, and Aunt Millie clapping her hands whenever one of her two kids opened something (which Aaron assumes she probably bought herself only the day before at Walmart), the room became a constant din of noise. A very cheerful noise indeed.

Pepper Minstix wakes up to a world with no lights. "Am I in my bed? I don't remember going to bed," the elf thinks to himself as he lifts his
head. The paper crinkles underneath, and Pepper remembers where he went to sleep. "Those guys are playing tricks on me," he thinks as
he tries to lift the lid off of the box. He gives the box a kick, trying to get the attention of the nearest elf in the Workshop. Thump thump
thump...his foot slams into the side of the box.

Then suddenly Pepper freezes...those voices he's hearing. They are high pitched voices, much like most elves have a high pitched voice. But
something is different about the qaulity and sound of the speach and that laughter...Elves don't laugh like that. It sort of a giggle. Then there
was a male voice speaking...but that isn't Santa. Who in the wide wide Siberian tundra can that be?

Gwen is the only human to notice it. She was closest to that side of the room, and she heard the thump thumps coming from the large box
in the corner. Only Gwen saw the box shake and the lid raise up and down several times. Not wanting to draw attention to the box or herself,
Gwen grabs another present, and she hands it to Aunt Millie. "Here you are Aunty poo. This little box is made for you."

About ten minutes later, all the presents have been handed out. All the boxes and gifts have been presented and opened, except for the large
gift box in the corner.

Excited to see what happens with that gift in the corner!

Gifted By Accident
Chapter 3. Secret Toy Surprise


"There's only one present left," Aaron says, as he points toward the large box partially tucked behind the tree. "That one is huge. Who could it
be for?"

Gwen already knows there is no name tag on the box, so she sits there quietly as Cindy takes a look.

"It's too heavy. I can't even budge it at all," the smallish eleven year old says, as she tries to move the large gift box.

It takes the combined efforts of Aaron, Cindy, and Gwen to move the brightly colored box out into the open. Cindy looks it all over, then declares
there is no tag on it. With no designated gift receiver, all three kids work together untying the ribbon and lifting off the lid. Looking down there
is mostly colorful and crinkly stuffing paper. As the stuffing gets pulled out the curled up elf is revealed. It's amazingly big and takes up almost
all the space at the bottom of the box.

"What is that?" asks Cindy.

"It looks like a kid in the box," Aaron says as he reached down to grab the top of the head. "It sort of looks like an elf."

Gwen leans over the opening. Only Gwen knew the box was moving earlier, that whatever was inside was trying to pop the top off. She keeps
her mouth shut and lets the others ask all the questions.

"How can this thing be so heavy," Mr. Wallendorf says, and he grunts and moans as he leans down into the box to try to lift out the elf toy. "Come
on Aaron, grab the legs."

With considerable effort the toy is pulled out and placed down on the carpet. Stretched out fully, the elf toy is even larger than it looked
curled up in the box. Every member of the family is amazed at how real looking the toy is. Cindy says the clothes are so cute and Christmas
like, the elf dressed up in red and green. Aaron says the hair feels like real hair. Aunt Millie says the ears look so real, a bit large but so
authentic.

Gwen's mom notices something on the shirt. "There's a name on his shirt. A name tag sewed on. Let's see...Pepper Minstix? Now that is a funny name. What do you think the TJG stands for?"

"What does the toy do? It must do something. Where is the on switch?" And Aaron has a good point. This elf boy toy can't be something to just
look at. "It's too heavy to only be a big assed doll. There must be mechanics inside."

Gwen and Cindy immediately start to feel around for the ON BUTTON. Each one takes a side, feeling down from the shoulders to the upper legs.
With group effort the toy is rolled onto the side and the back side is felt for the ON BUTTON. No such luck, and the toy is placed on its back
again. Gwen tries the belly button, finding it and lightly pushing a finger over that spot. But before Gwen pushes down hard on the belly
button, Cindy reaches down below that, and she places a hand on the toy's crotch with the fingers tucked under between the legs. Grabbing the slight bulge showing in the elf's pants the young girl squeezes her fingers.

"OOOF," the toy makes a sound and the eyes open wide.

Everyone jumps back a little at how loud the "Ooof" is, and how real those eyes look when they opened up.

"Oh...now THAT is funny. What a place to put the ON/Off switch," Mrs. Wallendorf says.

* * * * *

Pepper Minstix is cold with fear as he hears the sound of the ribbons being untied. He knows those aren't elves out there. He curls up and
closes his eyes. The lid is coming off the box. Suddenly his eyes detect a brightening. Lying motionless he hears the voices coming from above
him. There are lots of questions being asked. "What is that?" "It looks like a kid. It looks like an elf." "Why is this thing so heavy?"

Remaining motionless is hard to do as Pepper feels strong hands grabbing him under the armpit and under his backside.

'What am I going to do?' Pepper thinks to himself. His thoughts are a jumble of confusion and panic. 'I must be in a Human house. These must
be Humans. How did I get here?'

His body is lifted out of the gift box, then laid out on the floor. He can feel the softness of carpeting under his back. Those Humans are still
asking questions. They seem to be as surprised as he is. OH NO!...they are poking and prodding him. All along his sides they are looking for...
the ON SWITCH?? Wow, they think he is a toy. That's it...be a toy.

Pepper instantly has a plan. A plan to do nothing, to be nothing, to just be a doll as the younger sounding male voice said. If he's just a doll
then they will soon lose interest in him. They'll plop him up on a shelf and admire him for a day. Then when night comes he can slip away and
find his way back home. That is the plan...be a motionless do nothing nobody.

There is a hand or fingers on his tummy, lightly pressing downward. Pepper fights to maintain control, to keep himself from laughing, as he is
very ticklish. But when another hand grabs him by the balls, gives him a hard squeeze Pepper's eyes shoot open wide and he lets out a loud
"OOOF".

'Oh Reindeer poop. There goes that plan,' Pepper says to himself as he sees the faces of six Humans staring down at him.

Hilarious story! Love it.

Gifted By Accident
Chapter 4. Interrogating the New Arrival


All the other presents of the three kids are entirely forgotten, as Gwen, Cindy-lou, and Aaron marvel at the wonderous life sized and eerily
life-like elf toy. Cindy had just found the ON/OFF switch, and it was placed in a most peculiar location. Cindy grabbed it by the groin and
gave it a squeeze. That got the toy started, but all it's done so far is open its eyes and say "OOOF".

Everyone is making comments and shouting questions. The eyes of the elf dart back and forth from one person to another. Finally, Aunt Millie
gets everyone to shut up.

"You guys are only confusing the poor thing with all your shouting. Let me try talking to it." Aunt Millie gets down on the floor next to the
other three kids. She starts an interrogation.

"What is your name?"

"Hello...my name is Pepper. Pepper Minstix," the elf says in a somewhat high pitched and slightly artificial voice, which one would expect
from something with a mechanical voice box and computer programmed responses.

"Where are you from?"

"I come from the North Pole."

"Can you sit up on your own, Pepper?"

"Yes I can," the elf says, and Pepper raises his upper body. He sits in that awkward way, his back straight up, his arms straight down, and the
legs straight forward. The elf turns his head, and it looks at the kids, then looks over at the couch where the other adults are sitting. "Pleased
to meet you...I come from the North Pole."

Aaron laughs, and he slaps his own thigh. "That thing, does it know it's already repeating himself. How many lines is it programmed to say?"

Pepper turns to look directly at Aaron. "Don't be a naughty boy. Santa doesn't like naughty boys."

Aaron's jaw drops open, and silently he as to listen to the laughter of the others. Aaron's little sister thought it was so funny she rolled over on
the floor.

"What does Santa Claus do with the naughty boys?" Gwen asks the elf toy. She is literally bouncing up and down. She knows the toy moved on its own inside the box, so she is the least shocked by these developments though she expects the elf has more secrets to reveal, and she awaits
them eagerly.

Pepper grins, showing perfectly white and gleaming teeth. "Santa spanks them until their butt glows like Rudolph's nose."

Now it was Aunt Millie's turn to roll over on the floor, as she cackles hysterically. Mrs. and Mrs. Wallendorf look at each other.

"That is quite an unusual toy. Where did you get it?" Gwen's mom asks, whispering the question, though her daughter was close enough to hear
the barely audible question.

"Where did I get it?...I didn't get it. I thought you did." Mr. Wallendorf replies, and then both parents look at the strange elf toy sitting on
the floor. The elf is looking at their daughter as Pepper's face shows a weird mix of being blank and curious at the same time.

"What's your name?" Pepper asks, and it's the first time the toy took the initiative of asking a question of its own. "Are you a girl?...I've never
seen a girl before?"

"My name is Gwen. I am twelve years old." Gwen holds out her hand, and amazingly the toy responds by raising its right hand to shake hands.

"Oh my god...that thing has facial recognition? It's like that super toy talking teddy bear in "Artificial Intelligence", and now Aaron is most
impressed. "You know what the funniest line in that movie is?...'David...I mean Pepper...can you pee?"

Such a naughty elf.

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Pepper would never do such a thing.

Gifted By Accident
Chapter 5. Naughty Sugar and Nice Milk


It wasn't difficult for Pepper to pretend to be a talking toy. Having been a toymaker, albeit one who is junior grade, Pepper has seen the
development of toys for children over many many years. Pepper can remember when motion toys were first the rage. The Germans claimed
to have invented such fantastic gizmos and moving dolls, based on their expertise with clocks and weaponry. However, it was an early form
of Reverse Engineering on the part of the German toymakers. Santa's elves invented the first moving dolls.

Pepper was there to watch as the first talking dolls were invented. He marveled at the ingenuity the senior elves had, and he eagerly signed
his name to the volunteer list to help test these early inventions. Pepper got to pretend to be a child, a human child, as he played with the
newest models and prototypes. If pepper and the other testers liked a new product then it would most likely be enjoyable for human kids as
well.

One of the most fun things Pepper got to do was watch movies about humans. Santa would bring back a stack of VHS tapes, and there would
be a movie night once a week. "Know your customers" Santa would say when he put a movie on to play on the large screen tv in the elves
giant research room. One day, when the elves were watching a wonderful movie called "BIG" with some actor named Tom Hanks acting like a
kid who has to pretend to be an adult human who gets a job being a toy tester, Pepper shouted out "That's just like me. He's just like me."

During another movie watching night, as the other elves sat through a showing of "Toy Story" for the third time, Pepper snuck out of the main
room and into an adjoining room. Pepper had seen Santa slip into that room right after the lights in the research room were dimmed for
movie watching. Pepper snuck into that room to find Santa sitting at one of the computer desks. Santa was keenly looking at a large computer
screen, and on this screen there are what appears to be several humans rolling around on the floor. One male human and two of the female
types and none of them had any clothes on. Pepper snuck a little closer so he could see what is going on. Amazingly the male human was
sticking his wiener stick somewhere on the back end of a kneeling down female, while the second female was lying underneath the first one
as she was suckling on huge hanging down milk makers. "Wow...that female human must really be thirsty", Pepper thought to himself.

The strangest part of spying on Santa as the boss watched this strange video, was the feeling of something pressing on his green pants, right
where the zipper is. Pepper looked down to see his piss wizzer was somehow throbbing and pushing on the pants. Wondering what is going
on, Pepper lowered the zipper. Suddenly his joystick pops out and it sticks upward. This had never happened before. It had swelled up to more
than double its original size. Thinking something has gone wrong with him, Pepper steps closer to the chair Santa is sitting on. Then he saw it,
he saw what Santa was doing with his right hand, the hand Pepper couldn't see as he first snuck into the computer room. Pepper did see some
motion with that arm, but he never thought Santa would be doing what he's doing...stroking his own pee wizzer while watching a documentary
film on human behavior in their natural setting.

For an old guy Santa has a keen sense of hearing. He must have heard the little gasp Pepper made when he saw what whas happening to his
body. Pepper didn't know he made that gasp, but suddenly Santa turned his head around.

"That's quite a big candy cane stick you got there, Pepper. Bright shiny red head you got. Pepper Minstix is the perfect name for you. Now you
go back to the other room. I was just about to make some sugar syrup with condensed milk...but I prefer to do it with some privacy."

This accidental act of voyeurism made Pepper realize that even though he was around 100 years old, that there were things about elves and
their biological functions he wasn't told about. What was this making of "Sugar syrup and condensed milk"? Why would Santa say that
while he was pulling on his woody woodpecker? What does it have to do with the place one pees from?

It took a while for Pepper's pecker to return to normal. He had to hide it while sitting down to finish watching the Toy Story.

Several months after that, Pepper ventured back into the computer room. Only the Senior level Toymakers and Santa are allowed access to that
room. It took Pepper some time to figure out the password on the computer: Rain Dear. Ha ha...that was a good one.

Most of the files on the computer were about toy making, how to assemble them, how to paint them, how to give certain toys to certain groups
of humans but not to others. One file had a funny name to it. "Naughty and Nice". In that file was a series of videos where toy elves do weird
things to other toys. One short video was like stop action, and it showed several red dressed elf toys stripping a Barbie Doll. The naked
Barbie is then laid down on the tracks of a train set and the Elves had the train run the poor doll over. Pepper was laughing so loud he was
afraid he'd get caught. Another video showed a naughty elf with his red pants pulled down, and he was lying on top of another Barbie doll who
was missing her skirt, the legs sticking up into the air. For some strange reason Pepper's woody woodpecker started to push and press on the
pants. Letting it out of his pants, the pee wizzer was as hard as a wooden stick. But even after several times watching videos and getting hard
down there, Pepper still has no clue what Santa was doing and what any of that had to do with making cookies with sugar syrup and condensed
milk.

* * * * *

When Pepper was taken out of the box by the humans, he was scared. When the children pressed their hands all over his body in their search
for the ON/Off switch, the little wizzer started to get hard. All that poking and prodding was ticklish and sometimes he did get all tingly
when he gets touched that way. He felt it getting hard down there. Pepper was already worried his expanded joystick might be showing when
one of the humans grabbed him down there, and when she put the squeeze on his balls...Pepper could not remain motionless and silent.

'Pretend to be a toy. You know how to do that' Pepper says to himself, and he's been doing a great job of it. He really has those humans fooled.
Pepper can use his computerized toy voice and answer the simple questions posed to him. Just act like a dumb toy and play along.

When the boy human asked an unexpected question, Pepper clams up and he refuses to answer.

"Pepper...can you pee?"

Pepper did see the Artificial Intelligence movie. He remembers that scene by the swimming pool, when the robot child is wearing only a
swimsuit. Pepper remembers the response the David robot boy gave to the teenage boys, "No I cannot".

Pepper shivers as he recalls the next line one of the boys said in the movie, "Then let's see what you can't pee with." Those boys were going to
pull the David's swimsuit down and look at his woody woodpecker.

Pepper pretends he didn't hear the question. He continues to smile, continues to look from one human to another, continues to play
dumb as he says, "Can I have some sugar cookies and milk?"

Gifted By Accident
Chapter 6. Batteries Included?


It's still early in the morning and the gift opening is finished. Gwen's dad wants to go back to bed for a few more hours, and he says right
out in the open he wants his wife to snuggle up next to him and keep him warm n cozy. Aunt Millie gets the hint she's going to be left
on her own to do whatever she wants to do.

"I guess I'll get something put together for lunch. I guess nobody wants breakfast. How does turkey BLT sandwiches sound?"

Nobody complains about the food choice. Maybe on a Christmas morning nobody is thinking about their stomachs. With the three growups
doing their own thing for the next few hours, the three kids decide to move their collective grouping of presents to Gwen's room.

First there is a problem. The Elf toy is too large and heavy to carry up the stairs. Mr. Wallendorf won't be doing it, as he and the wife have
already slipped upstairs to their room. Aaron is strong enough to drag the elf up the stairs, maybe. Gwen decides to investigate the new toy
some more before moving it. She gets the help of Aaron and Cindy-lou in lifting Pepper the Elf up to a standing position.

"Walk for us, Pepper," Gwen orders.

Pepper begins to walk. He looks a bit wobbly at first, like he might fall down. Then he got moving faster and the elf walks across the living
room, stopping just before bumping into the wall.

"Turn around and come back to me."

Pepper does as he is told. Aaron and Cindy follow right next to him, both looking down at the elf's legs.

"He can walk, but it's all a bit clunky," Cindy observes. "He's all herky-jerky."

Elves are not known for their athleticism and grace. They could be accurately described a prone to clumsiness. Pepper accentuated the
stiffness of his walk. He has to maintain the illusion of a mechanical device, one that in no way moves like a living thing.

"Hold my hand. Follow me," Gwen says, and she holds out her hand.

Pepper reaches for the hand, then grasps it to be led by the girl. Gwen leads Pepper out of the living room. She stops at the foot of the
stairs.

"We are going to go upstairs now. Can you climb stairs?"

"Yes Gwen. I can climb stairs."

Still holding hands, the two begin to go up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. Without being prompted, Pepper uses his free hand to grab
onto the railing. Aaron and Cindy follow behind, both carrying the presents they had recently opened. Gwen left her four items down
by the Christmas Tree. The talking Elf is the only thing that interests her at the moment.

Once the group of four is inside Gwen's bedroom the door is shut and the lights all turned on, the overhead light and the two little lamps on
either side of Gwen's bed. Then she throws open the curtains on the windows. It seems she wants the most light possible in the room. Pepper
sees the window, and he walks over to it. Looking from the window he can see the backyard of the house...and horrors...there is a swimming
pool, but there is no water in it.

Cindy and Aaron sit down on the bed, and they both look at Gwen with amused and puzzled expressions. The other girl is busy clearing stuff
off from the floor of her closet, pulling out some shoe boxes and old plush toys.

"Hey...Gwendolyn...what are you doing?" asks Aaron.

"Oh, I'm only making some space for Pepper. He is going to need a place to sleep at night."

Cindy-lou straightens up with a burst of concern and dismay on her pretty little face. "What do you mean...a place for Pepper to stay. How
do you know Pepper is staying with you?"

"Of course he's staying with me. It's my house, my tree, my present," Gwen says, as she turns to face her cousins on the bed.

"There wasn't any name tag on that box. It could belong to anybody," Aaron does his best to sound unbiased while trying to help his younger
sister's case. "Do you know how to take care of it. Do you know what type of batteries it needs when the power runs down?"

All three kids turn their gaze toward Pepper, who is still looking out the window.

With her brother clearly on her side, Cindy is immediately more cheerful. "That's right. All toys like that need batteries. What kind do you think
it uses? How about C size batteries?"

"It's D size batteries," Gwen blurts out as if she truly knows the answer.

Aaron suggests another possibility, one he is somewhat familiar with due to his camping trips in the Boy Scouts. "It might be something else.
Pepper is a big toy, a lot of mass and he needs loads of energy. I think he has a lantern battery stuck in there somewhere. Possibly some 9-
volts batteries in there as well."

Cindy comes up with the perfect solution to their mutual problem of ownership. "Whoever guessed right gets to keep Pepper."

Gwen scowls, though it is a fairly good way to solve their dilemma. However, she does realize this gives her cousins two chances to win, while
she only has the one chance to guess correctly on battery size.

As if he's been called, and he does know the three Humans are talking about him, Pepper turned around to watch the bizarre standoff. This talk
of batteries is amusing. He don't need no stinking batteries to power his body. He can walk and talk and climb stairs all day and all night and
never ever fall over due to power failure. But he does need a nap now and then...which is what got him into this mess to begin with.

"Where do you think those batteries are on Pepper?" Cindy asks her brother.

Before Aaron can answer, Gwen interjects, "That's easy to find out. The battery compartment will be somewhere under that green and red
suit Pepper has on."