Corruption of Fate

Alice stared in horror as she watched the flames rise and consume the deer village, as they spread from building to building. She knew this was only an illusion depicting the events so far in the past that any damage they caused had been fixed, but that didn’t stop her from feeling for the deer who had to suffer through it, as their echos ran past her with expressions of fear. While she could not truly feel the heat of the flames destroying the original deer settlement, she could imagine what it was like for all those who had to suffer at the hands of Krampus.

While she had not yet seen the minotaur of myth, Aurora had said this was the cause of Krampus, and thus Alice’s already established hatred of minotaur grew. It seemed that no matter what point in history, from the beginning of civilization into the future, they only caused trouble. These bovine barbarians, who in Alice’s eyes were as much of monsters as any other evil creature that had appeared in Equestria and beyond, all appeared to have the same goal of dominion over creatures who had greater moral integrity than them.

As her resentment for the bull men rose, Alice’s lack of understanding of why Aurora would show her this, while being on the minotaur’s side, grew with it. To know this, and still support the idea that the deer somehow owed them something was a ridiculous notion. Alice couldn’t help but think that Aurora, in her old age, was confused, or mixed up with how the minotaur played in this tragic moment.

Alice looked on at the damage being caused, unable to do anything else since she couldn’t interact with the depictions directly, and after a matter of minutes, something appeared from the direction of the fire. A shadow emerged in the light of the destruction, a massive one that bore the imposing size of a bovine. Alice was certain that this had to belong to Krampus himself, the minotaur finally making his appearance in this tale. As the silhouette’s owner emerged from behind one of the burning structures, Alice became shocked to learn that she was only half right.

The figure was indeed the mythical terror of deer kind, but he was not the bull man that had been depicted in legend. He shared similar traits to a minotaur, being large, bulky, and muscular, but all it took was a good look at Krampus to tell he was not related to them in any way.

The fearsome creature wore armor that was colored crimson, the trim of which was white, with some parts covered in a white fluff that existed purely for design, with a cloak that matched the color scheme resting on his shoulders. It was actually similar in appearance to the cloak Alice was wearing at that moment, except her outfit was of a brighter red, but with more important things to focus on, the doe could not ponder what significance, if any, this held. Her mind was instead locked onto the rest of Krampus’ features, like his brown fur that could be seen at certain gaps in his outfit, gaps such as his thighs and his neckline. Just about his throat sat a red helmet that covered the bridge of his nose, and any part of his skull above his jawline, except for the set of antlers that protruded out from the protective steel.

That was right, ‘antlers’, not horns. The menacing creature was not a bovine of any sort, but instead a cervid similar to Alice herself. This was certainly a surprise to the youngest Gift Giver, who up until seeing Krampus had to assume the legend she was told had been accurate. Wanting to keep condemning the minotaur, Alice tried to reason with herself that maybe Krampus was hybrid deer, with the other half of minotaur descent.

“By now you’re probably still thinking that Krampus must have been descended from minotaur, despite the antlers atop his head,” Aurora said, not needing future vision to know what the younger doe was pondering in her head, “But that’s not how minotaur work. They are a special breed, who are always born both male and of pure blood. No creature can be part minotaur, nor can a minotaur be part something else.”

This new information threw Alice for a loop, as she could no longer connect Krampus to the minotaur without ignoring the facts given to her. For a split second she wanted to dispute the detail as not being fact, but then recalled that in her visit to the future, she had not once encountered a single female minotaur. She had seen does, mares, and even a female kirin, but no women she could say would have been a minotaur.

“Then what is Krampus?” Alice asked, “A deer, like us?”

“No,” Aurora replied, “Not a deer.”

As Krampus made his way into the city streets, making heavy hoof steps that could have been felt and heard from a good distant away had he not been a silent illusion, many more shadows appeared from the same path he emerged from, showing that he had followers that were assisting in his raid of the village. Seeing them as they too came into view, things became much more clear to Alice.

“Elk?!” she said, as she had not expected them to be the perpetrators of this destruction.

There was an elk village not too far from the deer village of present day, and for as long as Alice had lived there, the two species were friendly with one another. Elk stags were sometimes arrogant, faulting their bigger size and stronger physical aspects, but never went so far as to harm the deer. Yet here they were, flooding the streets of the first deer settlement, causing destruction, chasing after fleeing deer, and reveling in their acts of evil.

“Yes,” Aurora said, “Krampus’ true origin is that of an elk. Time can change much, as their tribe has come a long way since this dark time. These days they don’t even remember that they once saw us deer as little more than something to be conquered.”

Alice watched as the small army of elk went about, acting on Krampus’ commands, breaking into buildings to steal anything worth taking, and rounding up every non-elk doe and stag city who hadn’t fled the city completely. Aurora, believing she got her point across, ended the scene, and jumped forward to the morning of the following day, where every captured deer was brought to the city’s square, and forced to their knees before the large elk.

“Once Krampus had successfully seized the city, he started explaining to those he forced into submission what he had planned for them.” Aurora continued, “He intended to make himself the king of all cervid species, and reduce deer to what could be generously called serfdom. Many objected on the spot, but Krampus anticipated the deer’s refusal to serve, and put into action his means to coerce those able bodied to work into doing so in his name.”

At the command of the elk raid master, the other elk started to take from the crowd of subdued deer every fawn, using the lash of birch rods to motivate them into compliance. Every child up into their late teens was taken, with the parents of them becoming distraught as they watched their sons and daughters get led away and beaten by the elk. They were each brought to where Krampus stood, with the evil elk taking into his possession a doe with pink hair and blue fur who looked to be just young enough to not be a full fledge adult, saying vile words to her that Alice would never know, as the doe trembled and sobbed in the presence of this tyrant.

“Krampus would take every child in the village to his keep, to be used as both hostages and slaves, to make sure the deer would be kept in line. So long as he held their loved ones captive, no deer would directly oppose him, especially since he was showing he held no qualms in causing them harm. So began Krampus’ rule over us, we would work and toil to grow food for him and his soldiers.”

“That’s terrible,” Alice said, watching as the children and teens were taken from the village, “But he was defeated by a group of deer in the end, right?”

Alice was trying to go off what else Bori had told her about the story, but was neglecting to notice the discrepancies in that story compared to what had happened. Bori was not only wrong about Krampus being a minotaur, but Krampus’ motives, as she had said that it was only does nearing adulthood that had been taken, and they were abducted for breeding purposes. The only detail that was still possible was that deer had ended his reign of terror in the end, but if every other facet of the story had been wrong up until that point, then the odds of that being true were steadily decreasing.

The scene started to shift again, bringing Alice once more to the Moirai’s cave. A band of deer had come there to speak with the seers, a trio of does that Alice had not seen previously when shown others of their coven.

“I fear the deer were too afraid of the consequences to fight Krampus,” said Aurora, “At least, not without guidance. At this time, the three members of the coven were all three of our predecessors, Clotho of the past, Lachesis of the present, and Atropos of the future.”

“The Gift Givers before us?!” Alice had not expected this, especially since this event must have taken place hundreds of years ago.

The does that made up the Moirai before her were of varying ages, from an elderly doe that even older than Aurora was in present day, and two adult does, one looking to still be in her teenage years. They reminded Alice of the current dynamic of the Gift Givers, and she made a guess that each one took up the role of their age appropriate counterpart in current times.

“I remember you and Bori talking about Atropos and Lachesis, but you never brought up Clotho.” Alice said, as she continued looking at the three does in awe.

“It’s hard to talk of someone you’ve never met,” Aurora said, revealing that none of the does who became the Gift Givers had met the one who came before them, “That aside, the Moirai were visited by a small group of representatives from the village, lead by Blitzen.”

Hearing that name, Alice pulled her eyes away from the images of the Moirai, and turned to the group with excitement. Blitzen was a famous figure in deer folktales, and she was able to immediately spot him in the crowd based on his appearance in historical representations of him, which all featured a reindeer stag with a thick white beard that hung off his chin. While not as bushy as Alice had seen in paintings of him, Alice could tell by his apparent youth that this was in his earlier days, and thus his more iconic features had not yet developed completely.

“Yes…” Aurora said, droning a little in annoyance from Alice’s distraction, “As you know, Blitzen was a respectable stag of his time, who was our leader during the founding of our people. While he might not be as impressive as the likes of Princess Celestia, he was the one who would come to lead us into an alliance with the yaks of Yakyakistan. That happens later, and here he simply is the one leading the group requesting the Moirai’s help. The first thing that was asked of our coven was to see if the fawns were safe. Lachesis used her power to spy into the Krampus’ stronghold, and found that the youngest were being kept in the dungeons, alive, unharmed, but not treated well by their captors. The older captives though, they were made to serve the elk as slaves, as the despot promised.”

“And after that?” Alice asked, still wondering when the minotaur were supposed to show up in this history lesson.

As fascinating as all of this was, Aurora had said that this event was what bound the fates of deer and minotaur together, but no bovine creatures had appeared at this point. Krampus, the one character Alice expected to be a minotaur, turned out to be an elk, and outside of that there really didn’t seem to be a point where they could be involved in the matters of the deer.

“After that,” Aurora said, “Blitzen asked the Moirai if they could discover a way for the deer to defeat Krampus, as they couldn’t allow his evil to stand, but likewise didn’t have a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, for as wise as Blitzen was, he and the other deer never understood exactly how the Moirai’s powers worked, probably because they were never around them enough to learn it. They assumed Atropos looked into possible futures to find an answer that would best solve the situation, but as we both know, the Path of Fate only reveals the future that is supposed to happen, not the one you want to happen.”

“Right,” Alice said, knowing that to be the truth.

Even if it seemed like actions in the future were the direct result of her looking into the future, it was, as Aurora said earlier, all cause and effect. If Alice tried to help someone find a lost item by using her power, she could only find it if the creature in question located it in the future, if they were capable of finding it. In the same regard, them finding it would have to be their destiny, and so if fate decided that you could never find the lost possession, then no amount of interference from the Gift Givers could assist in the matter.

“Fortunately for our kind, finding a solution to Krampus was not hard, as an end to his reign was already foretold. The deer would have to suffer a short period under the tyrant’s rule, but their liberation would come in the form of four traveling merchants. That they would be able to provide what the deer needed to overcome Krampus, and thus the village should accept the deal they would offer when the time came.”

“Merchants?” Alice questioned, as the given solution sounded like a cryptic message, leaving her to wonder what a group of salesman would have to offer that would grant the deer the power to defeat Krampus.

The scene shifted back to North Pole, with the deer now working the fields, mining for gold, and crafting armor and armament for the elk, who visited the deer city periodically. “As much as the deer loathed being told they would have to submit to Krampus, the advice given to them by the Moirai was all they had to work off of. So for months they waited, surrendering themselves to the will of the elks.”

Alice watched as sacks full of ill gotten items were handed off to the elks, stuffed it their sleighs until there was no room for more. The servants of Krampus sneered and laughed as they took nearly everything of value, leaving behind the downtrodden deer to watch as they left with their stolen goods. The imagery would have been disheartening to the yellow doe, watching this injustice, as the hard work of good, honest creatures go to the likes of Krampus, if she wasn’t aware that the story would end in their favor.

“As time went on, the citizens of North Pole started to lose morale, and feared that Atropos’ visions were incorrect. That was until the day… they came.”

Alice understood that Aurora had announced the arrival of the merchants mentioned before, and looked around the village to try and spot them. Eventually her eyes landed on four figures entering the city from the same road she had seen the elk leave from. Four large, bovine figures,who were walking right into the city.

The yellow doe’s eyes widened, as this was a twist she had not anticipated. She was witnessing four minotaur entering into the tale, pulling in behind them large carts made heavy by the amount of items stuffed into them. Alice found herself refusing to believe that these were the merchants that had been foretold, for if they were then that meant that they had somehow played a part in saving North Pole from Krampus.

“Four weary travelers from the lands of Equestria, who were trying to establish a new market in the yet untapped lands of the Frozen North. As isolated as North Pole was, they were not unknown by creatures beyond their realm. What hadn’t been heard of by the outside world was that they had been conquered, so when the minotaur arrived, with carts full of any bit of merchandise they thought the deer might want, they were disappointed to find the city in an impoverished state.”

As Alice stood staring, still in awe that this was how minotaur had made first contact with her ancestors, through an attempt at peaceful trade, and not an act of barbarism as she had assumed. This flew in the face of what she had thought of the minotaur, and confused her even further when she watched practically every stag and doe in North Pole run up to them as if they were their saviors.

“When they arrived, the deer knew immediately that this is what they had been waiting for, and that soon their ordeal would be over. Blitzen himself met with bulls, along with other representatives of the village.”

As Aurora said it, the figure that was Blitzen caused the crowd of deer to part for him and three other stags, making up an ensemble made up of one deer from what would be the four deer tribes.

“They informed the bulls of their plight, and their belief that the minotaur held some sort of answer to Krampus. The minotaur, having brought much in the terms of goods with them, couldn’t think of anything that could topple a tyrant.”

“They didn’t try to sell them something regardless?” Alice asked, thinking that if these minotaur weren’t slavers and raiders, that they might have at least been swindlers.

“Minotaur are often businessmen by trade,” Aurora answered, “And do have a code of ethics when it comes to their craft. They may use intimidation to get what they want, or make contracts that weigh heavily in their favor, but they never sell something under a false promise, or back out of their end of an agreement.”

Alice didn’t like that Aurora was once again disrupting her mental image of what a minotaur was. It was much easier to harbor hate towards the slavers she had seen in the future when she could demonize the whole species.

“Since the minotaur had no items that could guarantee victory against Krampus, Blitzen re-evaluated the situation, and came to the conclusion that if it wasn’t the minotaur’s wares the deer needed, it had to be the minotaur themselves.”

Once more the dust cloud shifted, and this time it brought Alice to a new location, the inside of Blitzen’s home. There, the legendary stag and those who represented the town with him were speaking to the minotaur in private, enacting in a discussion that Alice wished she could have heard first hand. Instead, she had to await Aurora’s narration, which she felt didn’t do this important moment justice.

“Blitzen shared his thoughts on the matter with the bulls, as his associates pleaded to them about the importance of their participation in this plan. The deer were requesting that the minotaur, with their physical power that surpassed that of the elk, would take down the elk through brute force. The minotaur, not being heartless monsters, considered the notion, especially since they still wanted to establish trade agreements with the deer in the future, and that couldn’t be accomplished if the elk were draining them dry of wealth.”

“So they agreed to help?” Alice asked, at this point curious as to how these ancient minotaur, who looked to be reasonable and empathetic creatures, could eventually produce the slaver culture she knew the tribe would become.

“Not immediately,” Aurora explained, “As during this conversation, they were informed that none of the deer could assist them, as Krampus would surely use their children against them if they had tried. We knew that the minotaur were fated to rid us of Krampus, but had no clue if they could do it without casualties, so no one wanted to put the hostages in jeopardy, If the minotaur did something alone, Krampus would have no reason to shield himself with slaves, or that was the logic.”

“Then how did they convince them?” asked Alice, knowing that the deer had to have changed their minds somehow.

“They didn’t,” Aurora said, “The minotaur considered their odds, and while they would be outnumbered, there was a detail that swayed them towards accepting the request. That was that the elks didn’t appear to use magic. They didn’t use their horns to levitate objects, or cast spells to aid them in battle. They are, as you might know from their descendants, non-magical beings. Considering that, the minotaur felt that they, with their levels of strength few could compare with, could possibly defeat Krampus. However, they would not do it out of the goodness of their hearts. This was to be a service, and as with all services, there is a cost.”

After deliberating with themselves about the situation, the minotaur turned back to the deer, giving their proposal. What they said got an immediate negative response from the deer, with even Blitzen recoiling at what the bulls said. The antlertean representative yelled back at the minotaur in outrage, eliciting little reaction from the bovines as they saw him as no threat. While the minotaur made no hostile actions, Blitzen intervened to silence the other stag.

“What… was the deal?” Alice asked, since the reactions of the stags ranged from shock to offense.

“The minotaur, knowing that they would be risking their own lives going up against the elk, and that the deer had no material possessions worth endangering themselves for, made an offer that they knew would be unreasonable, but was the only thing the deer could give that they desired. Their offer was simple; they would make an attempt to rid the lands of Krampus, in exchange for does of their choice, one for each of them, to become their life long mates.”

“But that’s-” Alice said, only to be cut off by her elder.

“Barbaric?” Aurora said, “Alice, you need to understand that at one point, every species was more savage than they’d like to admit. For ponies it was with infighting. With us it was xenophobia. While these minotaur were requesting we hand over four of our does, in what could be described as sexual slavery by those who want to cast a poor light on it, the truth is that minotaur have trouble continuing their race without the use of contracts and bargains. Part of the reason minotaur accumulate wealth is to entice potential mates with riches.”

“But this is coercion,” Alice disputed, “They knew the deer had no other choice but to rely on them, due to the prophecy.”

“No,” Aurora corrected, “None of the deer told the minotaur that they needed them to defeat Krampus. While it might have looked to them that our kind were desperate for any outside help, there was no mention of the prophecy or the Moirai. In the end, while the others had clear objections, Blitzen heeded the Atropos’ words, and would come to agree with the minotaurs’ terms, but not before conferring with the rest of the deer about the matter, and with conditions made for the sake of the does that would be picked. They had to be full adults, and not already married. Aside from that, he made the minotaur promise whoever they picked would be treated well.”

“He trusted that they would do that?” Alice asked, realizing that while the first two would be something the deer could be regulated, there was no means to ensure the third would be abided by if the minotaur took them away form the village, which they undoubtedly would.

“Perhaps not, but Blitzen was doing what he could to save his people.” Aurora answered, “The minotaur wrote up a contract, that they would receive their payment on the condition they rid the lands of Krampus, and had each North Pole’s representatives sign it. While each of the stags might have been reluctant, they did so at the order of Blitzen.”

“So they ended up being the ones who defeated Krampus,” Alice said, seeing the outcome of this tale now that she knew the facts.

“Yes, but be patient, deerie,” Aurora said, “You might know the facts of the tale, but you’ve yet to discover why the story was changed. You see…”

The world changed once more, this time to a mountain top, where a dark fortress sat. The minotaur had now become the main characters, as perhaps they rightfully were, and tugging along their carts full of goods, they were making their way up a path to where Krampus and his forces resided.

“These minotaur, while just as brutish as any other, were not stupid. They knew that they couldn’t just storm Krampus’ keep and defeat an entire army with just the four of them, so they decided the best course of action was to present themselves as the merchants they were, and enter under the guise that they were there to trade goods.”

The bull men stopped at the gates for a moment, but it didn’t take long for the doors to be opened for them. Alice followed alongside the merchants, curious as to what more Aurora could want to show her. Her opinion about these minotaur was barely changed, and even if she felt their compensation was just, that didn’t mean the minotaur in the future were acting under the same conditions. The minotaur lord himself treated the enslavement of other races as what it was, so what could Alice learn that would somehow justify that?

That wasn’t why Alice continued to listen though. She was still hoping that her future self was, despite being a collaborator to the slaver minotaur, was truthful that the Moirai held the answer to changing history. Since they were gone, searching through the shadow of a time where they existed felt like her only chance to discover what it took.

Alice followed along, and took note of her surroundings. Unlike the scenery of North Pole, which seemed bright and cheerful, at least until Krampus came, the elk’s stronghold was bleak and oppressive. More a military base than a city, with elk men practicing their combat prowess with one another, or preparing their weaponry that they had taken from the deer, while partaking of likewise stolen food and drink. The women were no better, as while none had participated in the conquering of North Pole, here they took up the role of task masters, attending to the older captives as they forced them to perform hard labor for the benefit of their captors.

“As the minotaur walked through the elk city, they kept their hearts stoic to the cruelty going on around them, as they needed to have the elk believe that they held no allegiance with the deer, or sympathy towards the treatment of the fawns. The elk, in turn, held no suspicions against them, and to their surprise, were granted an audience with Krampus himself.”

“What? Why would he personally greet four mere merchants?” Alice asked, as she watched the minotaur sell off items from their carts to the elk. While Aurora claimed it was to gain their trust, it felt like it was just to make a few bits on the side.

“To understand that you have to understand Krampus. He was a stag who believed that the strong were meant to rule over the weak. Not merely powerful, as he held no respect for magic since he could not use it himself, but those with raw physical strength. To him those with magic only existed to serve, bestowing their gifts in service to those with the might to rule. It’s likely that had he not been stopped, he would have expanded his rule across the known world, as his end goal was to elevate those like him above all who possessed magical talent. So when he saw the minotaur, and how pronounced they were in their casual displays of physique, he wanted to forge an agreement with their kind.”

Aurora skipped forward a bit in time, until the minotaur were seated in Krampus’ feasting hall, being presented with delicious foods as they sat with him and his strongest warriors at his table. The tyrant wore a smile on his face as he spoke to the merchants, to which Alice had to guess he was recounting how he had made the deer into serfs, and trying to pitch the bull men how advantageous it would be for them to join him. The minotaur humored Krampus, replying periodically as they ate the food presented to them. Since the story ended with them defeating the elk, anything they said to continue the conversation must have been a ruse.

Alice remained silent for a moment, assuming that Aurora would continue on her own, but for some reason the old doe held her tongue as the feast took place. All the elk present greedily partook of the food, which had been given as tribute by the deer, while the minotaur ate at a more reserved pace. Around them scurred a group of enslaved teenaged fawns dressed in tattered rags, who rushed around the table clearing finished plates, and keeping the table full with food they didn’t dare try to take for themselves. Another small group were tasked with refilling the drink cups of their slavers, carrying around large pitchers, practically refilling them after every gulp an elk would take.

Alice watched all this take place, wondering what the significance of this moment was if Aurora was allowing it to linger, keeping her eyes mostly on the minotaur. At one point though, she saw something that distracted her, as one of the servant girls approached a minotaur to top off his goblet. It was the same blue furred girl that Krampus had focused his attention on when he took over North Pole, now equipped with a steel collar around her neck, linked to a chain that went slack along the floor and led all the way back to the elk lord’s throne. While others wore collars of a similar nature, hers was the only one with a leash, which meant that Krampus saw her as a personal possession.

As the minotaur she served accepted the drink, his eyes drifted over the unfortunate doe, one who looked a bit older than all the others there. Alice, remembering the deal the minotaur made, shuttered to think that the minotaur was appraising her as a potential mate, but she recalled that the contract the minotaur made with North Pole specified that the minotaur had to select those who had entered adulthood. Still, she didn’t believe that creatures who would enslave others would abide by the letter of their own agreement.

As the vision of the minotaur looked at the doe, his lips moved as if he was speaking to her, to which the does briefly moved her own to give a reply. The bull took another sip of his cup, setting it down so the doe wouldn’t idle next to him, and said more to her, to which she gave a single word reply as she performed her task again. He tried to keep her nearby through focusing on his drink, but Krampus must have noticed this, as her slack chain went tight, and she was summoned to his side.

The elk did nothing to hide his own revolting nature as he awaited her return, his own eyes leering at her supple form, snatching her pitcher away to guzzle the remaining liquid from it before tossing it to the wayside. With her task complete, he forced her to sit with him on his throne, pulling her right into his lap, an act that the doe openly showed her discomfort with as the elk’s hand found its way to her hip. Krampus said some words to the minotaur he had pulled the doe away from, perhaps asserting that this girl was his, or making promises that he could have one like her should they join forces. Whatever he was saying though, he spoke it with a smirk of superiority on his face, as he must have believed he was invincible at this moment in time.

“So why didn’t the minotaur side with Krampus?” Alice asked, as she watched the scene take place, spotting a hint of annoyance on the minotaur’s face as he went back to eating.

“You mean aside from the Path of Fate?” Aurora said, understanding the question. It was backwards logic to believe a prophecy or vision of the future made creatures do things, when the truth was that what was seen was what would have happened whether or not it had been scried, “It was probably the contract. Minotaur will not, under any circumstance, go back on an agreement unless they believe it has been breached. Had they met Krampus before having gone to North Pole, things might have been different, but thankfully that is not what fate prescribed.”

Aurora fast forwarded again, to a point where, to Alice’s surprise, Krampus’ feasting hall was in shambles, with elk bodies scattered all around. There had been an obvious conflict, with the minotaur resting off to the side, weary and wounded from whatever conflict took place here.

“When the bulls saw a moment to strike, they brought Krampus and those who would try to protect him down, their raw strength able to defeat those not of the stag lord’s own power with little effort. Within a day of their arrival, Krampus was no more, and there was no one else willing to test the might of the minotaur. With their leader finished, they reluctantly capitulated with the demands of those who brought an end to their misdeeds, and handed over every fawn they had kidnapped.”

Alice could not find it in her to be impressed by this swift defeat of Krampus, not when it had been foreseen long before it happened. Nor could she truly be relieved when she never had to endure his evil, and she knew what was to come for four of the does back in the deer village. She could only take solace that what was to come had happened long ago, that it had to happen to save the deer from oppression, and the suffering of those doe selected has long since ended.

The minotaur took the same carts used to steal the fawns away in the first place, and used them to leave the defeated elk’s territory, making sure to take with them whatever goods they had not sold to the elk prior. Another skip in time, and the minotaur had returned to North Pole, with every fawn the elk had kidnapped. The stags and does of the village were elated to have their young returned, celebrating that Krampus’ rule over them had apparently been brought to an end. The only thing that dampened the mood was when one of the minotaur spoke over their cheers, to remind them that this service was not without a fee.

Reluctantly, the deer agreed, and by the evening of that day a line up was made of every adult doe not betrothed to another. None of them looked pleased, some trembling where they stood, as they were well aware that they could be picked, taken away from their home, and made to breed with these beastly men.

“Aurora, I get it.” Alice said, having seen the events of Krampus’ tale from start to finish now, “The minotaur helped us, and in return they got their reward. Do we have to keep watching this?”

“I’m afraid so,” Aurora said, for once sounding disheartened about the continuation of this vision, “As we still aren’t at the true end of this tale. You see, while the minotaur had done their part, and earned their prize, something happened that not only denied them of it, but changed the fates of all creatures.”

Of everything Aurora had said, this caught Alice’s attention the most. This was the moment the old doe said she would divulge, the secret of how fate could be altered. She wondered what could happen at this exact point that could derail the predestined events, and to her surprise the scene shifted back to the Moirai’s cave den, where the stags who represented North Pole stood before the seers bearing infuriated expressions, all save for Blitzen, who was not present.