[piosenniel]

Zimzi

‘Shush now, Marigold,’ said Zimzi, picking up the Hobbit in her arms. Fat tears slid down the girl’s cheeks, and Zimzi caught them with her finger. Her tongue flicked out to take them in, and she smiled at Marigold. ‘You taste just like the sea, you know.’ Marigold’s tears and sniffles stopped as she regarded Zimzi closely. ‘That’s where I grew up,’ continued the woman. ‘Near the salty sea. I thought that only my brothers and I tasted so . . . but now I have found a Hobbit with the sea’s spirit in her!’

Marigold’s hand went down to a spattering of frosting that had fallen on her pretty skirt, and the stormclouds began once more to form behind the girl’s eyes. ‘Tis naught but a little sweetness for one so sweet herself,’ said Zimzi, setting the girl down on the ground. She crouched down beside Marigold and dabbed away the frosting. ‘All pretty again for the party,’ she laughed, twirling the girl about. ‘Oh, but look here. Here’s something to make you even prettier.’ Zimzi took the necklace the kind Elf had just given her and fastened it about Marigold’s neck, looping the fine gold chain twice about the little girl’s neck, so that the pearl hung in the hollow of her throat. Zimzi held up one of the bright, shiny silver platters for her to look in and was rewarded as a bright grin of delight pinned itself on Marigold’s face. Crisis averted, Zimzi cut another good-sized slice of cake for the girl and sent her on her careful way to sit down on the soft grass with it.