older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.

The dwarfish natives of the Arctic caverns did not speak his language, but conversed in their own, twittering tounge, conducted incomprehensible rituals, when they were not actually working in the factories.

Once every year they forced him, sobbing protesting, into Endless night. During the journey he would stand  near every child in the world, leaving one of the dwarves' invisible gifts by its bedside. The children slept, frozen into time.

He envied Prometheus and Loki, Sisyphus and Judas. His punisment was harsher.

Ho.
Ho.
Ho.