A Better Place - The Hobbit Fanfiction

Alternate Entry Fifteen - A Bright Holiday

“What are you going to decorate it with?” Runi wanted to know as she watched me sprawled on my belly under the tree after the lads righted it, wedging the pail with rocks.

“You know I have no idea,” I admitted. “Bits and bobs. Shiny things. Having a tree is excellent in its own right so I don’t have to decorate it, but I’d like to.”

Runi pursed her lips, looked at Byrnhild—who shrugged—and looked back at me. “How about old earrings? There’s thousands of them we’ve been sifting from Smaug’s old hoard. It’ll take years to organize them all back into pairs, if they all even have pairs anymore—and it’ll be no trouble to get you a bucketful to decorate your tree with for a couple weeks.”

I squirmed out from underneath the tree and looked up at her. “Really? That would actually be perfect, if I’m allowed. I’ll count them before and after and everything.”

Runi waved her hand at me. “Don’t worry too much, though do try not to lose or damage any of them. At this point their worth is in their parts until they’re all matched up, so I at least will be glad to see them put to some use.”

I grinned. “Could you get me some sometime this month then?”

Runi snorted. “Lass, I can get you an armful tomorrow, after work. That’s what I’ve been doing these last few weeks, is sorting treasure.”

“You’ve been sorting earrings since you’ve been here?” I asked in astonished dismay. That sounded like it had the potential to be both awful and boring, though I was sure all the dwarven jewelry was just as grand as that which the others had shown me when they’d showed off Smaug’s hoard.

She chortled. “No, lass. All of us here rotate between regular jobs and treasure-sorting, it’s that dull of business. Bofur’s taken his turn at it too, for as little time as he’s been back.”

And that was that. Within a day I had a basket full of earrings, and then a basket strung with paper-wrapped necklaces that had already been untangled and hadn’t yet been filed. Runi assured me no one would mind, though I was far more leery of using the necklaces since necklaces didn’t need a pairing, and could very easily be used already.

But Runi was well on her way to being a new best friend, along with Dila, so she even stuck around after dropping off the earrings to see what exactly I was going to do with them and then, once she had observed, to see if I wanted any help.

“Sure! Thanks! There’s nothing to it, I’m just trying to make the tree sparkle evenly.”

Then Byrnhild brought the necklaces the next day and helped us string those without tangling them all together again or with the earrings—some of which were quite long. I liked the pearl necklaces best—they looked like drops of snow draping gently over the blue-green boughs of what Bofur told me was a blue spruce.

Over the next several days after decorating the tree with as many glimmering, glittering earrings and shining necklaces as we could find, I sat down and used a hank of twine Bofur found for me to twist a number of branches into a number of wreathes. I hung three on three of the high, sloping walls of our living room and one I put on our front door. I then made bouquets of sorts out of the rest of the pieces and put one in each of our bedrooms, and Bofur said he would miss the fragrance when spring came around.

“I’m sure one of the ladies can tell me how to make scented something-or-others that will help keep the house piney fresh,” I said cogitatively, sweeping for the dozenth time because pine needles seemed to just drop out of the ceiling and scatter themselves at will.

“Most likely they can,” he agreed. “Now what are you doing for Christmas? What can I do to help? Or what are you going to tell me I have permission to do?”