I found the box of ornaments. Oh, such lovely things they are. Shiny red. Shiny green. Shiny gold.
And look!
Ohhh, loooook.
There are some pretty, shiny silver ones too! Oh, so nice and lovely. And see? See? They are lined up so neatly inside this box.
Ha ha ha ha.
Like….candy.
Bon-bons neatly lined up in the box.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
A shiny dozen….and all for me.
Ohhh, okay. I’m not that greedy. I’ll share some with my family and friends. But! I found it. So, I get the prime choice.
Mmm. Hmm? Which one to choose? They are all so yummy!
I’ll take…ohhhh…hmmm…
What?
What was that? What was that sound?
Oh, no! Someone’s coming. One of those humans is coming. I got to hide. I can’t let them see me. Must hide.
But I will take one. Just one. A lovely, pretty shiny red—no. Gold. I want one of the gold ones. They have the best crunch.
I’ll carefully put the box. Don’t want to drop it. Don’t want the dear darlings to shatter. Gentle….set it down on the closet floor and—-
*Poof!*
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Wendy opened the closet to put her winter coat away. She sighed when she noticed the open box of ornaments on the floor.
“What’s the matter, hon?” George asked.
She gestured to the open ornament box. “That. I don’t know what keeps getting into that ornament box, but whatever it is, it stole one of them.”
He picked up the box and examined it. “Maybe it was a Christmas mouse who wanted to decorate their tree.”
“Ha. Ha. Not funny.”
“Oh, it’s kind of funny. At least, I think it is.” He put the box back into its rightful place. “But who knows? It could have been a grentelnek.”
“George. There are no such thing as a grentelnek.”
He shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility.” He closed the closet door.
///////////////////////////
The grentelnek crouched inside of the ceiling and ate the ornament. Oh, how it crunched! And the taste was divine.
It smiled with its impossibly wide mouth.
It would come back for the others later.
Christmas baubles in a box