Santa grumbled as he looked down at himself. He could see his belly was continuing to grow. The previous house's chimney was easy to slip into, but this chimney, which he assumed was the same size, was tighter than he anticipated. He wiggled his feet in vain. He couldn't even grab the sides of the chimney, as his belly was making it impossible to grab onto.

"Fudge nuggets," he whispered. He snapped his fingers to summon his phone and immediately called the elf on duty, Ralph. It rang once before a cheery voice called, "Hello, Santa! Welcome to the helpline! Press one if your sleigh is malfunctioning. Press two if you're missing a present. Press three if a kid has trapped you in their Santa trap. Press four if you are stuck in a chimn-"

Santa angrily shoved his finger on the four button and waited.

"Please hold."

The helpline started to sing jingle bells. Santa found himself humming along to it but was interrupted when Ralph came on the phone. "Hello, Ralph here. Got yourself stuck in a chimney again?"

"Fifth time tonight, only this time, I'm literally unable to move. WHY am I still getting fatter, Ralph?" Santa sneered. "This chimney is the same size as the last house's, yet I somehow can't fit in THIS chimney at all."

"Have you tried the twinkle of your nose-"

"Four times already!"

"Have you sucked in your belly?"

"Yes. I'm sucking in RIGHT NOW." Santa started to yell, but he cupped a hand over his mouth.

"Santa doesn't yell or get angry, that will count as a demerit if you continue," Ralph said.

Santa pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ralph, please... if it's the fourth time tonight, don't you think, maybe, something's amiss? It's almost like you guys are trying to make me fail."

Ralph stayed silent.

Santa took as much of a deep breath as he could, but his belly was making that difficult. "Listen, Ralph, I'm lodged in the chimney, my shirt size has exceeded 13xl, and the current suit you guys have me doesn't fit..." Santa looked down at his belly, "and I'm STILL getting fatter!"

Ralph grumbled. "That's the eighth suit you've gone through, Santa-"

"Don't try and blame me for this. You know I can't control it. It's whatever sorta magic you guys use to fatten me up every year! It's got a glitch in it or something."

"Magic doesn't glitch-"

"Well, FIX IT!" Santa hissed. "If you're gonna force me to be santa for the rest of my life, at least cap the weight gain so I can at least do my job."

"Sorry, Santa," Ralph said. "I don't understand why it's acting up like it is. Maybe we'd have to reevaluate the contract and see where something went wrong. We'll send out a shrinker again."

"Thanks," Santa said. Once Ralph hung up he sighed heavily. "This is going to be a long night."

---

The last picture for Santa for year 2025. Seems He's on year three of the contract and is running into some problems. At the back of his mind, he was hoping that this would break the contract, but he knew something out of his control wouldn't breach it. He still needed to figure a way out... but did he want to? He had to admit, being two hundred years old, magical, and sporting a big belly was very exciting to him.

---

Sarge/Art/Story (C)  pikminpedia Me