The Workshop: A "The Santa Clause" Fanfiction. (Bernard x Female OC)

In Which Bernard Crashes My Wedding

What I couldn't understand about the whole situation was, why? Why did the king want to marry me?

He obviously didn't think highly of elves, and even in our previous meeting, he didn't seem all that preoccupied with me. Did he know I was Santa's daughter? Was it some sort of leverage situation? He must know that everyone was going to come back for me eventually. I wasn't even in his line of sight when he asked for the first snow globe, so why did he decide to make this sort of trade-off? He did call me his "Beautiful bride", but he most certainly couldn't actually be sincere... right?

The whole thing was confusing. My top guess is that he wanted more information from me, some "secrets of the Pole". He probably thought by giving me the highest treatment, that is, marriage, that maybe he could schmooze me into telling him everything. Everyone here seemed so enamored with the tiny strange gnome, that they were probably thinking that I would be crazy to not want to marry him.

I watched through the cracks of the door as more and more gnomes filed through. I couldn't quite tell from behind the door, but there seemed to be even more than were there at their "snowglobe party" a night previous. A few gnomes looked disgruntled and upset, most likely due to their prejudice, but quite a few more brought in large glass bottles of alcohol and looked ready for another party. I began to realize that gnomes must have parties pretty frequently, or, at least, were prepared for them at any time.

There were old gnome ladies with wooden canes and curly grey hair, knitting needles in their hands and purses. Old gnome men with boxy square hands and little jean overalls and flannels. Many of them, from the outer village at least, were farmers and looked exactly what you'd imagine a gnome to look with their long beards, bare feet, and somewhat gruff but rosy-cheeked appearances. There were gnome children, little chubby things with shiny round faces, and smaller, colorful, shorter versions of the pointed gnome hats many of the adults wore.

Loud dramatic organ music began echoing through the halls, and before I knew it, rushed footsteps were coming back for me. The two gnome ladies opened the door, one grabbing my arm and the other thrusting a pile of white flowers into my arms.

"Come on now, we can't keep him waiting," She said, pulling me forward into the hall.

Walking down the aisle was surreal. It felt dreamlike, well, nightmare-like. I thought the North Pole was a dream, but getting married to a gnome was far more extreme than anything I could dream up.

All eyes turned to me, so many that I couldn't count. There were so many gnomes all crammed into every aisle, that some were standing to the sides, or sitting on each other's laps, all clamoring on top of each other to fit in the room.

I fixed my eyes above the king, to the snow globe on the scepter in his hands, and took a deep breath.

"Here ye, here ye we are all gathered here today to acknowledge and witness the marriage of our king and gracious handsome dear leader, King Felpip the Strong, and..." The little priest-looking fellow glanced at me, "This elf girl." He finished weakly, and somewhat disapprovingly. "Before we begin with the ceremony, I must ask, does anybody object to this union?"

Almost every hand in the room and even one of his went up, but he continued, "Nobody? Alright then. Let us begin. Who is presenting the rings?"

A little round gnome boy with blond hair waddled over and raised the rings up on the small red pillow.

"Thank you, my dear boy." The priest said, picking up the pillow and holding it in his spare hand. "King Felpip, I'll have you repeat after me. I King Felpip."

"I King Felpip,"

"Take you... Future Queen Felpip."

"Take you, my wonderful and helpful future Queen Felpip-"