Child of the Woods by Aprilertuile

Chapter 5: Still in Yavanna’s Pasture

Nerdanel had recovered swiftly from the birth. And while she was working on the sculpture that she had a limited time left to complete and send, using material graciously given by Yavanna’s maiar, Fëanáro was taking care of the children and looking for inspiration himself.

Sadly he has been forbidden to cut wood to build a proper crib for their infant. Yavanna had made one herself with living plants. He could admit it was pretty enough but he didn’t. Trust. The. Thing.

It MOVED!

Nerdanel had found charming that the crib of living unidentified plants were moving when the baby was within the crib, but who knew what the plants were really feeding off of! And how far would it move? There was no proof that one day they wouldn’t just find the crib upturned and their child on the floor!

Nerdanel had called him an idiot and left their baby son in the crib every night. So Fëanáro had to wait every night until she fell asleep to go take his son back from that infernal plant to put him in a far more reasonable bed.

“He would be fine, you know.” One maia told him one night.

The only living thing that looked sentient around was an owl, but Fëanáro wouldn’t put it past one of the Powers to be an actual tree. For all he knew the crib was actually a maia in disguise.

“That thing moves, so no I don’t know.”

“Your creations move too. The cribs I mean.”

“Cribs are a fine technology, duly tested, well identified, with all parts made carefully and specifically for their defined purpose. THAT is not a crib, it’s a mess of unidentified garden plants that could break or move too far for all anyone knows. And speak less loudly, you’ll awaken my wife!” Fëanáro snapped.

“You speak more loudly than him, and yes husband, you are ridiculous. Now let our son sleep and come back to bed.” Nerdanel grumbled, making him wince.

“You... Heard us. I mean, I didn’t want to wake you up...”

“I felt you move, as I do every night. Now stop being an idiot and let us all sleep, Tyelkormo isn’t going to disappear in the night. Particularly not here.” Nerdanel said with a tired yawn.

Fëanáro turned to look at her at that with a frown:

“What do you mean, ‘particularly not here’?”

“You didn’t notice? There’s always a maia of Yavanna around him. They’re apparently curious to see a baby from up close. I’m thinking of delegating diaper change to them.”

There was a faint alarmed sounding ‘eep’ in the night and then a sort of still silence that grated on Fëanáro’s nerves in its complete unnaturalness, despite Nerdanel’s soft, silent laughter.

“You’re not seriously thinking of doing that?!”

“Why not? It’d be entertaining, I’m sure.”

“Nerdanel, you can’t trust maiar with our baby! They’ll forget to feed him or change him and we’ll find him later dead on a windowsill somewhere!”

Nerdanel looked at him with a raised eyebrow:

“Do they even have a windowsill somewhere?”

“You aren’t taking me seriously!” Fëanáro told her.

“No indeed, I’m not. Be serious love, you’re always around our son. What do you think will happen? Apart from you traumatising those poor maiar, that is.”

Fëanáro’s eyes grew large, his face indignant.

He wasn’t the problem here! THEY were! THEY were constantly sniffing around his baby boy, no doubt tempted to do something eerie to him because maiar were just that different and wouldn’t understand the baby like they, his parents, could.

“I can assure you that we have no such intention!” Grumbled a bush nearby.

And what was his life that he felt perfectly normal now to have a conversation with a bush?! He needed to go back to the Halls of Aulë. At least there things were normal, and the only song he could hear was that of the stone and gems, which was perfectly NORMAL.

“Don’t read my mind!” Fëanáro snapped at him. Her? It? How do you even gender a damn plant?

“Him, and learn to close your mind then! Seriously, you’re like someone shouting their discontent in our face and then telling us off for answering your screamed accusation.”

Wait? What? He knew basic shielding of course, all elves did, but the maia implied that wasn’t enough. Did that apply to everyone? Or was he just too loud? How would closing his mind work without closing his wife out? Or would closing his mind not block the familial bounds he had with his children?

There was a deeply heartfelt sigh from the bush.

“Elf. Let your child sleep, and go to sleep.” The bush grumbled.

“Only if you’ll answer my questions in the morning.”

“Agreed. Now stop thinking so loud.”

Fëanáro found himself wondering what to do for his child, and a mattress of soft RECOGNIZABLE moss appeared next to his and Nerdanel’s bed.

Alright. That he would trust. Not the mystery moving plant.