Work Text:
There was once a poor defenseman who took in a hockey prodigy named Jack Eichel, and though the two were poor, they still managed to support themselves through exhibitions at the local rink. But one day the rink announced it was closing, and they didn’t know what to do.
“What shall we do?” asked the defenseman, wringing his hands.
“Cheer up, Gorgy,” said Jack. “We’ll find jobs, don’t worry.”
“We’ve tried that before, or did you forget how we ended up playing hockey? We’ll have to sell our equipment and use the money to buy a shop or something,” he replied with a sigh.
It was market day, so Jack took their hockey gear and went to sell it. He didn’t get very far from home before he met a man he’d never seen before.
“Good morning, Jack,” the man said.
“Good morning,” said Jack, wondering how he’d known his name.
“So where are you going with that hockey equipment?” the man asked.
“I’m going to sell it at the market for money to buy a shop.”
“Well, you look like a smart enough fellow, for sure. But are you smart enough to tell me how many snowflakes are in my hand?”
“It’s summer, how could there be any-” Jack began, but he stopped when he saw that there were indeed five snowflakes sitting peacefully in the palm of the man’s hand.
“Since you’re so smart,” the man said, eyes twinkling, “I wouldn’t mind doing a trade with you - your elbow pads for these magic snowflakes.”
“I don’t know,” said Jack, “it feels like there’s some kind of catch here.”
“No catch,” said the man. “If you lay these snowflakes on the ground at night, by morning they’ll do something exceptionally special.”
“That sounds unlikely,” said Jack, but he found himself holding his hand out for the snowflakes anyway.
“It’ll happen,” said the man, “and if it turns out not to I’ll give you your elbow pads back.”
“Right,” Jack said, and decided to go home.
“Back already, Jack?” Gorgy asked him when he returned. “Could you not sell anything?”
“Well, I traded our elbow pads for these magic snowflakes,” Jack said, blushing at the ridiculousness of the sentence.
“Oh, God,” said Gorges, burying his face in his hands. “Just throw them away. I’ll go do the selling tomorrow.”
So Jack threw the snowflakes away out the window, and went to bed feeling very foolish indeed. In the morning, however, he awoke to something different. Light was not streaming through his window the way it usually did - something was blocking it. When he rose and looked out the window, he could barely believe his eyes.
A large pathway made of ice was spiralling lazily up into the sky. Because it was so close to the house, all Jack had to do was lace up his skates and drop out of his window onto it, and he skated up to see what was at the top.
He skated, and skated, and skated, until he thought his legs might fall off, and at the top he found a large house. Well, what else could he do but go knock at the door? And it was answered by an attractive young man of roughly Jack’s own age.
He looked slightly panicked, to see Jack there. “Are you a hockey player?” he asked. “No, don’t bother answering, just hide!” And, so saying, he shoved Jack into the pantry with a sandwich and turned to the dishes just as a gremlin entered the room, sniffing deeply.
“Fee-fi-fo-far,
“I smell the blood of a hockey star,
“Be he quick, or be he slow,
“I'll use his skill to make my dough.”
“Nonsense,” said the young man. “It’s just me in here, and I’m hardly a star.”
“Then shut up and make me a sandwich, Reinhart,” the gremlin said. Jack looked guiltily at the sandwich in his own hand.
The gremlin ate, and began to count money on the kitchen table, and soon he was fast asleep. Reinhart let Jack out of the pantry and gave him one of the bags of money. “Take this,” he whispered, “and don’t come back, or he’ll do exactly what he said he would.”
“What’s your name?” asked Jack, reluctant to leave him there alone.
“Sam,” he said. “Now go on.”
So Jack took the heavy bag and left. The trip down the icy slope was much quicker than the trip up, and by the time he reached the bottom he had almost forgotten the terrible feeling the gremlin’s face had inspired in him.
“Look, Gorgy,” he said, dashing into the kitchen, “the snowflakes were magical after all!” And he dumped the bag of gold out onto the table.
“What the heck?” Gorgy asked, poking at the coins. “Are these real? We’re going to be fine,” he said, sighing with relief.
But Jack could not forget Sam, and so the next day he tied his spare skates together, hung them on his neck, and made the long trek back up the slope to the gremlin’s house.
“What are you doing here?” Sam hissed at him irritatedly, but he hid Jack in the pantry again and gave him another sandwich.
This time the gremlin called, “Reinhart, bring me the hen that lays golden eggs, and my golden harp besides,” and Sam did so. The gremlin ate, and said, “lay,” to the hen. She laid an egg of the purest gold each time he said it, until he got bored of that. “Sing,” he told the harp, and it sand a song so sweet that the gremlin was soon snoring again.
“I came to rescue you,” Jack said. “If you want to be rescued, I mean.”
“Can I bring the hen?” Sam asked.
“If you can skate while you hold her, sure,” Jack said, and Sam nodded.
“OK,” he said, and took her outside. But Jack thought to grab the beautiful singing harp, and that was where disaster struck.
“Commissioner!” called the harp, and awoke the gremlin.
Still, Jack and Sam were much faster than he, and made it to the slope and down it with no trouble. Jack, when he’d gotten very nearly home, started calling, “Gorgy, Gorgy, bring us some sticks!” Gorgy did, but was so shocked by the face of the gremlin that he very nearly froze.
Fortunately, he didn’t. The three of them took the hockey sticks and started chopping furiously at the base of the icy path, which was already weakened by the summer sun despite all its magic. At last, they chopped through it, and the gremlin screamed as he fell out of the sky, landing heavily on the earth below.
Then Jack introduced Sam, and the hen, and the harp, and with their newfound wealth they bought their hometown rink. The three of them ran it well, and Jack and Sam were eventually married, and they all lived happy ever after.