"Uh... It's nice to meet you, sir...?" Dad said, unsure of how he was to address the tiny man.
"It's King Felpip or Dear Leader to you." He angrily grumbled, sort of how Charlie would sound when he was little and groggy after a nap.
"Pleasure," Dad nodded, now careful and aware of where his hands were in relation to any of the little gnomes. "Can you explain to me what seems to be the problem?"
"The prob- The problem is that we have been under-appreciated for too long!"
The other gnomes cheered in agreement.
"We supply you with all your tools and woods for your toys, yet we aren't even recognized along with your "superior" elves! Now tell me, how that makes sense? No gnomes and you wouldn't even have Christmas."
I wrote down what was taking place during the meeting to keep track of what was happening.
"Er, King Felpip-" Bernard began but the gnome immediately clutched his heart in an offended huff.
"I told Santa that he could address me as so, not one of his..." He looked him up and down with disgust, "Elves."
"Well, sir," Bernard obviously was somewhat used to gnome behavior, because he ignored his comment. "You probably don't remember me, but I'm Bernard, hi." He placed his hands together and tilted his head with a tight-lipped smile. "I'm Santa's Head Elf, and actually, currently, this is a new Santa so he's still learning the ropes, so I will be helping him out today."
The gnome leader opened his mouth to retaliate, probably about forgetting Bernard, and how offensive that also was, but Bernard kept talking. The other gnomes looked to and from each other unsure of what to do.
"What you also seem to have forgotten was that your great great great grandfather, King Yupold III signed an agreement when we first began purchasing products from you in which he wanted in no part to be recognized by humans who he thought were lower than him. We handled Christmas before without gnomes, and I know you care about profit too much to not want to deal with us after every other magical species has refused with your behavior. So, I suggest you tell us what it is that you want, and we will figure it out, but other wise, we will be taking our business elseware."
The elf side was filled with smug smirks, completely opposite to the completely red faces of the gnomes.
"The disrespect! How dare you, an elf speak to me in such a way?" The King slammed his scepter on the ground a few times but paused, his brows furrowed angrily.
Dad sat with his mouth slightly open in shock, completely out of the loop.
"Say what you want, but I can pull out the contract. In fact, I was there when it was signed, and I will gladly go over our agreement... for the thousandth time..." Bernard said with a stiff smile, the last part as a hushed whisper under his breath. "We have honored our side of the agreement, providing you with a substantial amount of the toys we make with your provisions, as well as the financial amount we agreed on. As you can see here,"
Bernard reached behind him and one of the elves handed him the contract, which, by the wear marks on the roll, it was obvious that this wasn't the first time he had to do this, and slid it in front of the gnome leader's face. "We gnomes agree to provide top quality tools and woods, without blemishes or tarnishing, yada yada yada, you get the idea." Bernard snatched it back, raising his eyebrows in an unamused expression. "You know what happens if you violate." Bernard sat back down in his chair to the right of Dad. "By the way, the Harpies have been wanting to do business with us, so if you do really wish to test us, I will advise Santa to do so."
"Uh-" Dad seemed to be as puzzled as the gnome, and I tried my best to catch everything Bernard had said, but copied about every other word in my notes.
The gnomes whispered to and from each other, Jormop muttering something in the leader's ear. Finally, he nodded slowly.
"We will continue to honor our agreement, so long as you..." The gnome leader looked around the room and finally pointed at something on one of the bookshelves. "Give me that!" He finished with a nod.
On the shelf was Dad's magic snow globe. He kept it there for council meeting purposes, but most of the time it was in his office.
His request shocked Bernard and puzzled Dad.
"They can't have that, can they?" Dad asked, which seemed to intrigue the little gnome.
"We can't- uh," Bernard took in a breath, a bit stressed looking, "Santa, a word. We will be back in a moment," He looked at Dad and summoned me over. The three of us walked through the side door that led into his office.
"I'm confused, I thought you were supposed to be negotiating terms and stuff... I can hardly follow what's going on." I whispered, just in case they were able to hear.
Bernard sighed, "Gnomes have bad memories... or more, they allow their wants to overwhelm their outrageously small brains, so they tend to forget details. Their king has been bringing up their whole "Want to be recognized" deal for the last hundred years. Most of the time, they just want something we have, and once he settles on what he wants he can get stubborn."
"Can't you just say no? Obviously we can't give him magic?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Why do we have to do business with them anyway? Why not just do business with the Harpies like you mentioned?"
"There's no such thing as Harpies, they just don't know that." Bernard sighed. "They're our only way to get quality wood at a good price and quantity we need, hence why we put up with them."
"What would even happen if you gave him that?"
Bernard shook his head slowly, "Considering it has all of Santa's magic in a concentrated small little ball, probably nothing good. I didn't even think about how it was probably still there because of the meeting yesterday. We'll need to provide some sort of distraction."
"Great job, that's not something you thought would be important at all? What would happen if the gnomes got access to magic?" Dad asked.
"They'd probably in the most literal sense, actually try to enslave the whole world and take over everything." Bernard gave his tight-lipped grimace face. "Santa, you'll need to tell him that he can't have that snow globe without telling him about the magic inside. Can you manage that? You can? Great." He nodded without giving Dad a chance even to respond and paced to the side.
"That could happen if you gave them one of the snowglobes?" I gave him a curious look. "Charlie can only call Dad, and mine acts more as a large, slightly inconvenient, mood ring."
"Only Santa, certain elves, and very specific humans are allowed to have snow globes. It's like... in the rule book, or, I don't know... but it wouldn't be good."
"Okay, so- You can't have the snowglobe," Dad announced once we walked back into the room. "But, if you are willing to compromise, then we can arrange for something else."
"Why, tell us, what is so special about your... little orb?" King Felpip tapped the tips of his fingers together in a scheming sense.
"It's... mine." Dad said awkwardly.
"It was his grandfather's." I added in, lying.
"I thought you wished for better wood products," King Felpip frowned. "I am set on my want. You can either give me the snow globe or,"
"How about we give you a special hand-crafted snow globe from the Workshop? We can make it look the exact same, and the wooden base is made of the wood you gave us-"
"How about, for our "compromise," you give us every snow globe you made from our produce this year?"
"What the heck are you going to do with 30,000 snow globes?" One of the elves stood from her seat on the other side of the table, "That's ridiculous."
"If we do this, will you continue our agreement?" Bernard asked seriously.
"Bernard, that will set us too far behind-" I began but he ignored me.
"I suppose," The gnome leader seemed surprised that Bernard agreed so easily, and he nodded, a slightly suspicious look in his eye.
"Then box them up," Bernard looked around expectantly but nobody moved for a moment, "Curtis, what are you waiting for? Go let the others know!"
"Is that all then?" The king asked in a somewhat confused and quiet voice, which contradicted the loud slamming sound that he was oh so fond of producing. "You're just going to... do that...?"
"As soon as my second in command goes-" Bernard gave Curtis one final shove out the door. "But do not think this means we will do this next time,"
"What do you mean?" The king slid off the shoulders of the two larger gnomes, his cape dragging magnificently behind him again. "Enlighten me on why it is you are willing to go to these extremes? Setting your schedule behind for one little snow globe?"
"It's not such extremes," Dad butted in, his statement raising many eyebrows on the elf side. "We do what we need in order to keep you in our agreement, and if that means giving you 30,000 snow globes, then we will give you 30,000 snow globes." He seemed proud of this, but Bernard immediately squeezed his eyes shut and inhaled as soon as he said that.
"This time-" Bernard raised a finger. "This time we will agree to your wishes."
"This time..." The little gnome continued to pace with a thump click, thump click between the sound of his scepter and heels. "I suppose we will carry out our contract this time as well, then."
"Very well," Dad stood up, as well as the rest of the elves.
"Very well indeed," The gnome leader gave a smug smile, "Come on gnomelings, let us proceed back home." He gave one final pound of the scepter, and all the gnomes filed out in a single file line.
"Well, this is not going to be good." Bernard slowly turned to Dad as soon as the door closed.
"What? I didn't say that there was magic!"
"Well, now they know there's something up! And your eagerness was suspicious!"
"Bernard, I'm sure it's fine," I said.
"Angie, no offense because I know you have not dealt with gnomes before, but they are sneaky and scheming. We will need to up our security of the Pole," He looked back over at Dad. "I need eyes on your snow globe at all times. Don't even try getting it back into the vault, we might have someone looking over our shoulder." Bernard scribbled something down on a clipboard, "Your's too Angie, and mine." He said a bit more quietly.
"Hold on, you think they might break into the North Pole?" Dad asked surprised, "I thought they were just slightly unpleasant small men, but to break in somewhere? Could they even reach a door handle?"
"Why not? They've tried before." Bernard grabbed the arms of one of the elves and shoved the note into his hand, "Larry, go alert E.L.F.S right now, but don't draw attention to yourself in case they are still here."
"Is this a regular occurrence after your meetings with them?" The three of us walked through the side door back into Dad's office.
"Well we always keep E.L.F.S on watch, but usually we don't need them." Bernard closed the door behind us. "Usually he asks for a book, or a random trinket, not a valuable and highly important magical household decoration." He sighed, and I squeezed his arm with my hand. He reached a hand up to meet mine. "I'm sorry, I know this probably isn't how you wanted to spend a birthday, or the time while your family was in town."
"I think keeping the whole North Pole in order is a little bit more important than my brunch plans." I gave a small smile. "And we will figure it all out, it will be okay."
"How long do you think we will need to be on guard for?" Dad sat down in his big chair with a slight groan.
"Long enough." Was Bernard's answer. "But don't worry about it, you just hang out with your family, Angie, and I'll work with the E.L.F.S to make sure everything is okay. This one isn't your responsibility."
"I mean, considering I have a snow globe, I feel like I should be partly involved." I crossed my arms, "I can get my family back up to visit again, but if this is as important as you say it is, then I feel like I need to put this first."
"No- no." Bernard waved his hands. "You need to be with them," He looked at me, slightly desperately, "You will have forever here, but not with them. It may not seem like a lot of time to miss even one week, but Charlie will grow up, and your grandparents will only get older. So please, I am begging you, please let me deal with this one."
"I- No hold on- Just because you're stressed doesn't mean you get to choose how I spend my time-"
Bernard opened his mouth then closed it again, "This has nothing to do with my stress-" He raised his voice slightly.
"Angie!" Dad cut off Bernard before our argument could escalate anymore and stood up. "Bernard is right, you should spend time with them. They came all this way for you, so you need to enjoy this time."
"How am I supposed to enjoy this time when there's now a possible security threat and possible world domination by gnomes??" I sighed loudly, leaning my head back and crossing my arms. "That sounds so ridiculous, I never thought that's something that would seriously come out of my mouth-" I shook my head, frustrated.
"You need to try and trust that we will handle this," Dad directed me back towards the door. "It's not your job to fix this one, but I'll keep you updated."
"Hey hold on-" I turned back but Dad shut the door behind me. I placed my face in my hands and yelled a muffled yell.
"Angie?" Judy was carrying a tray of hot chocolate towards the door to the office. "Are you alright? Are you sure it's not Wuddle Wumps after all?" She whispered the last part.
"Yeah I just got kicked out of my Dad's office for trying to help them with something."
"Oh goodness, men." She shook her head, "This is about the snow globe thing, right? Let me just drop this off, then I have a break and we can talk."
A/N:
Do you like how about 10 chapters ago I talked about wrapping up the first book but I got distracted and opened up a new plot point? Oh well, hope you enjoyed this chapter.