The Wrath of Oberon

TOBY

TOBY

Twelve-year-old orphan Toby Carter always wanted a family. So, when he escaped a brutal London workhouse at Christmas, and The Winter Freak Show adopted him, he believed he had finally found one. They loved him and taught him their magical ways.

Then London’s children started to disappear and Toby was forced to report Nicko to Scotland Yard, suspecting he was behind the crimes. Of course, he was wrong. Not only was Nicko innocent but he was Father Christmas, and his performers were elves.

Vowing to fix his mistake before the authorities executed Nicko, Toby exposed Nicko’s Head Elf, Melvin, as the real kidnapper. Melvin had gone mad, believing that naughty children drained Christmas spirit and deserved to be removed from reality.

Toby confronted him in magical combat and won. Then, with the help of the elves, he reunited the missing children with their families and freed Nicko. The elves wiped the memories of all human families and spectators, so no one remembered a thing, except Toby.

Afterwards, Toby escorted Charlie Thornton, one of the kidnapped children, to his home in Chelsea with Nicko and his new Head Elf, Stella. The Thorntons revealed that twelve years earlier they had left a child at a workhouse, too poor to feed him themselves. They’d promised to return but lost him forever… or so they thought.

A birthmark on Toby’s arm confirmed that he was their long-lost son. Nicko had found his real family. So, with everyone happy, Nicko left Toby with a snow globe and told him that the snow would fall as long as The Winter Freak Show was safe. And there they parted ways.

By the next winter, however, Toby missed adventure. When his father forbade him from re-visiting The Winter Freak Show and the snow in his globe stopped falling, he ran away to find them, taking his little sister, Violet.

When they arrived, they discovered that Nicko had been kidnapped. So, with the help of a ghost called Harry, who guarded the Time Globe, Toby and Stella worked out how Nicko was taken. He had been abducted while rehabilitating the imprisoned Melvin.

Suspecting who was responsible, Stella gave Toby an overview of the Faerie War and the elves’ history with Oberon. She believed Oberon’s followers turned Melvin and took Nicko, intending to resurrect the Prisoner-King.

Stella and Toby planned to save Nicko but were scuppered at every turn as the changelings captured their best elves and lured them into an ambush.

Finally, it was revealed that Oberon’s generals had returned. What’s more, their leader was Jack Frost, Stella’s brother, one of the victims Nicko abandoned during the Faerie War. Tortured and brainwashed, Jack joined Oberon alongside their friend Alice. Having returned, they planned to use an ancient ritual to summon King Oberon.

Thankfully, Toby escaped, with help from an elven friend, and returned wielding the Time Globe to save The Winter Freak Show.

Oberon’s forces lost but the damage was done. Disgusted by the truth of Nicko’s treachery, Stella departed to follow Alice into the shadows, leaving Nicko to fix his mess.

Having saved The Winter Freak Show and possibly humanity itself, Toby and Violet went back to their worried parents. However, later that night, Violet snuck out and convinced Harry, the ghost, that Nicko had sent her to ask him for the Time Globe.

Handed it, she ran deep into Hyde Park and revealed she was a changeling all along – Gryla, the giantess mother of the Yule Lads. She had fatally stabbed one of her sons just to stay undercover so she could later swipe the Time Globe, which was their actual target. Marvelling at their cunning plan, the changelings summoned King Oberon, knowing the world would soon fall at their feet.