Fandom: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Category: gen
Rating: G
Word Count: 206
Notes: Written for the LiveJournal group MFUWSS December 2009 Challenge #9 – “sleigh bells”
His only warning was the tinny crash of sleigh bells. The sled bore down on him, the mad-eyed driver a THRUSH agent disguised as Santa Claus whipping the horse mercilessly.
No way out but over! He leaped up as they bore down on him, grabbing the great horse around the neck and twisting his body up onto its steaming withers. The bells jangled wildly in his ears as he clung in place, ducking to avoid the over-sized artificial antlers mounted on the horses head.
Leather cracked and a line of fire flared across his cheek as the driver turned the whip on him. Illya ducked the next blow, letting the whip furl around his arm. He grasped the leather and tugged hard. The man shouted and fell beneath the blades of the thundering sled pulling Illya, still entangled in the whip, over the back of the ersatz reindeer and down.
Breath was knocked out of him as he slammed onto the frozen ground; he curled himself up as the carriage passed over him. Then there came a bone-jarring yank and his arm felt as if it were being pulled from its socket as he was dragged, plowing up a wake of snow behind the runaway sled.