Hawthorn was more than confused. He thought these people were Alica's friends and now they wanted to kill Jingle Berries!

"Give him back!" said Hawthorn. He knew he didn't sound threatening at all but he had to at least try. The girl brought her sword closer to his throat.

"Sorry, but I'm not exactly known for letting people live" she said. Snowball howled and ran at her, biting her legs. She kicked at him but he held fast. Dropping Jingle Berries, she focused on the attacking dog. Alica threw herself at Aurora while Hawthorn went for the least menacing target, the golden one. However, he took two steps backwards then tripped on his own cape. Holly was jabbing the blue girl with her antlers. Only the one in green was armed but Jingle Berries was working on unarming her. The gold one fell on top of the red and black ones and they all fell down, getting themselves tangled in their capes. He put his foot on them, keeping them in place. Soon the girls had been defeated. Alica was wiping sweat from her forehead and lots of her hair had come loose.

"I think we did it!" he said.

"Yeah! It was easier than I expected." They locked at the group of struggling siblings in a cupboard, then Alica and Hawthorn headed off to find their parents.

"Alica, Hawthorn?" asked the unmistakable voice of the Snow Queen.

"Mum!" cried Alica, rushing to the side of the cage and beginning to pick the lock.

"Ada" said Hawthorn, setting to work on the cage next to it. Once they were freed they all hugged.

"How did you find us?" Santa asked.

"There's no time for that, you still have to finish Christmas" said Hawthorn as Jingle Berries came in, followed by a whole group of reindeer and the excitable puppy, as well as Snow Flurry.

"Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Vixen? Rudolph? You're all ok!" said Santa, getting into the sleigh. "Don't worry, Hawthorn, I've got you something too" he said as they took off into the night sky.

"Now let's get it snowing" said the Snow Queen. "But first, how do we get back?"

"Holly?" asked Hawthorn. She snorted but allowed them all to climb onto her back. They took off into the night sky after Santa.

"Holly is much stronger than she looks" said the Snow Queen as Holly flew them all back down to the ground where they walked home.

"She really is a very brave reindeer" said Hawthorn, patting Holly's back. Hawthorn dropped the girls off and he, Holly and Jingle Berries continued the extra mile to the elf village.