Merry Midwinter by Aprilertuile  

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Sledding and a snowball fight

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Everyone had woken up quite late in the morning, Tyelkormo looking just a tiny bit unhappy at having been used as a pillow all night.

Somehow in his sleep he hadn’t moved at all and woke up to find himself stuck until his brothers awoke a bit later.

They had breakfast together, a breakfast hastily thrown together by a half awake Fëanáro.

“Alright so. How do we organize today?” Fëanáro asked Nerdanel when everyone was a bit more awake.

“I’ll need the kitchen to cook, I absolutely do NOT need any of you inside the kitchen to make a mess.”

“Funnily enough, I don’t recall anyone complaining about the cookies the other day.” Tyelkormo commented.

“I also remember that you managed to have flour up to the ceiling somehow.”

“Ask the twins.” Tyelkormo offered in answer with an amused face.

“Mostly I’ll ask you all to keep the twins and yourself out of trouble.” Nerdanel corrected.

“It snowed yesterday. We have the old sleds. We can take the twins out for a bit of harmless fun.” Maitimo suggested.

Nerdanel nodded, it’d be a nice solution, and would keep the twins from being underfoot.

So after breakfast, Maitimo and Makalaurë pulled their younger brothers to their rooms to get ready to go outside. As soon as he was ready, Tyelkormo ran out with Huan to get the sleds out of the shed.

Carnistir was the first of his siblings to join him there and help him get their prize out of storage.

Soon enough the 4 sleds they had were out, and their brothers were coming to them in the garden.

“So, where to?”

“The field I guess if you want to have fun sledding. For myself I’ll be happy building snow-elves instead.” Makalaurë commented in answer.

“That’s because you’re boring, brother dear.” Tyelkormo replied with a grin, making Makalaurë snort in amusement at that old argument.

“And you’re too reckless, little brother.”

“Always. So, two teams? One sledding, and one building snow-elves? Tyelkormo offered cheerfully.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go then.”

Maitimo led his brothers out of the house’s garden and into one of the nearby fields where they’d be able to use the sleds without ending in their mother’s beloved plants, and they all separated into groups:

One group, Makalaurë, Maitimo and Curufinwë decided to build snow-elves.

The other group: Tyelkormo, Carnistir, and the twins decided to go sledding. It’d be the first time for the twins.

Carnistir and Tyelkormo would go down the field with them once to show them, and then if they wanted they could try to slide down the field on their own.

The Ambarussa were clearly enjoying sledding if their loud laughter was anything to go by.

The field wasn’t that long but it had a nice incline.

Tyelkormo was faster to get down the top of the field, Carnistir was more cautious.

“Be careful!” Maitimo called from where he decided to build his own snow-elf as the twins each took a sled of their own to get up the field.

Tyelkormo shook his head in amusement at that. There was no danger here. Careful was really not a consideration they needed to have.

And the twins proved it well enough:

First way down on his own, Umbarto fell on his back, Tyelkormo caught the sled as it kept sliding down haphazardly without the pouting child.  

First way down on his own, Ambarussa, a tiny bit more careful fell on his side with a yelp, the sled coming to a halt planted somehow in the snow.

But neither of the twins were hurt or defeated by that temporary failure and they went again up the field to try again, encouraged cheerfully by Tyelkormo and Carnistir.

They got the hang on it pretty fast.

Maitimo watched with a mounting sense of: ‘Something is going to happen’, as the twins took to try to outdo Tyelkormo in terms of speed.

So Maitimo was on the side of the field, safely aside and out of range when Ambarussa slid down the field fast, faster than he could control and lost direction of his sled…

As he crashed into Makalaurë’s nearly finished snow-elf, sending said brother tumbling down the snow as well.

“My snow-elf!” Makalaurë yelped as he scrambled to his feet watching the damages.

Ambarussa looked sheepish at that even as Umbarto joined them, laughing.

Maitimo knew his brothers too well and just counted backward from 5 and at 1… Makalaurë picked up a handful of snow and threw it at a laughing Umbarto.

Ambarussa jumped in his twin’s defense and threw snow at Makalaurë who ran to take cover behind Tyelkormo, so Tyelkormo joined the fight, targeting…

Maitimo yelped as he felt snow hit his face, and on the side Curufinwë and Carnistir laughing.

It. Was. On!

By the time Fëanáro came to get the children back inside for lunch, the field had become a battlefield, the three eldest against the 4 youngest:

“LUNCH!” Fëanáro called, interrupting them.

That froze all his children who turned toward him… and seemed to come to an unspoken agreement for as one they all threw their snowball at their father who yelped and hid behind one of the trees growing on the side of the field.

It was Nerdanel who came to get them, an undetermined time later, and interrupted a snowball fight that seemed to be the children against her husband.

Everyone was soaked, the sleds laid forgotten in the field, and she sighed as she saw Fëanáro tackle Maitimo, both ending buried in the snow as Tyelkormo took that chance to hit the tree branch above them, making all the snow it had on fall on the two eldest of the ‘battlefield’.

“If you don’t stop now there will be no lunch for any of you!” She called firmly.

That stopped them all and the twins ran to her, ready to go eat.

Feanáro looked at the three of them vaguely scandalized: The kids listened to his wife while he was attacked violently by snowballs. It was unfair!

And he realized he had been either speaking of broadcasting in Ossanwë for all of them, Nerdanel included, started laughing, as they all followed his wife back toward the house.

Oh well… Children.