Child of the Woods by Aprilertuile

Chapter 6: For a leaf?

It didn’t take as long as Fëanáro had thought for Nerdanel to finish her statue. Yavanna had looked intrigued, and Nerdanel had managed, Fëanáro didn’t know how, to convince one of the Valië’s maiar to take the statue to her customer.

His wife was a miracle who could talk to people in a way he just couldn’t and he didn’t understand how she was doing that.

Alas, his delightful wife seemed quite taken with the Pasture of Yavanna, and the Valië herself, and so the little family stayed there longer than Fëanáro thought strictly necessary.

And now he found himself waking up from a nap... And having lost his baby child.

“NERDANEL! MAKALAURE!” He called in a panic, running to the last place he had seen his wife.

“Here love!” Nerdanel said.

“Turkafinwë disappeared!”

Nerdanel blinked at him at that:

“Turkafinwë is a baby, dear. He can’t have disappeared that far. Have you asked a maia?”

“Our son disappeared! Why are you so calm?!”

“Love, our son doesn’t walk yet. If he wasn’t where you left him, then one of the maiar have certainly seen him. I told you, he can’t just disappear. And you’d know it if you thought about it a few moments. So calm down and we’ll go look for our son.” Nerdanel answered him, the tired voice of reason.

Yavanna had her head tilted to the side stiffly, eyes eerily light. All the movements the valar made when corporeal were stiff, Fëanáro noted.

Well, but for those who were unnaturally fluid.

Not a single one of them managed to look natural.

“Your son is with one of my maiar. Come, I’ll lead you there.”

Fëanáro was fretting the few minutes it took them to reach the place where they would find the baby again...

And when they arrived, Nerdanel giggled at the sight.

A maia was carrying baby Turkafinwë in their arms, showing him apparently a leaf from a tree. The maia was nice and was describing the leaf painstakingly in a soft voice: colour, form, how it grew and would die later.

Fëanáro was stuck being between furious the maia kidnapped his son without saying anything, and curious as to why the being thought his baby son, who wasn’t even of age to know how to talk, needed to know all about... A leaf.

Turkafinwë was sucking one of his fingers as he seemed to be watching the leaf with care, seemingly listening to the maia’s voice.

“Is our son truly listening or...?” Fëanáro couldn’t help but ask.

“He is. But it seems to be more to the sounds itself than the information that your child is paying attention to.” Yavanna answered amused.

“He is too young to pay attention to what is being actually said, I’m afraid.” Nerdanel told her.

“Why exactly did that maia think our son needs to know about a leaf?”

“You were sleeping, and he was waking up. You seemed tired. I thought it’d keep him busy and calm, so you could sleep. Was I mistaken?” The maia said gently, coming back to him with the child in his arms.

“Common courtesy would dictate that...” Fëanáro said, taking his son back in his arms, noting the child had a leaf firmly held in his hand. Probably one of the previously introduced leaves at that.

“Thank you. We appreciate it. Don’t pay attention to my husband, he was afraid our son disappeared.”

“In the Pastures?” The maia blinked, surprised that anyone at all would believe such a thing possible at all.

“It’s a perfectly reasonable fear when one wakes up to find his baby suddenly gone from their bed!” Fëanáro argued grumpily.

“I told you, love, you should have asked a maia. I’m pretty sure any of them could have told you where to find our son and who had him.” Nerdanel said amused, brushing gently the hair on her child’s head.

“He’s my son. I’d love to know why the assumption even exists that I’d be bothered by waking up if my son needs me.” Fëanáro answered tartly.

“It’s not that you’d be bothered, love. It’s that you never get much sleep and everyone can see you are tired and they are trying to be nice. So, be nice too. You can see that our child is fine.” Nerdanel told him firmly.

Fëanáro’s eyes darkened, and his lips turned downward in a grimace, but he added nothing, turning with his child in his arms to go back to where they left their belongings.

As they left, Fëanáro heard his wife tell the maia and Yavanna: “Please, forgive my husband, he’s over protective of our son right now. It’ll pass.”

Never. He thought when he heard that.

“That’ll never pass me, child of mine. Whenever you’ll need me I’ll be there for you love, and it’s not a maia or a meddling Vala that’ll stop me from being the father you deserve.” He whispered to his baby boy, who firmly grabbed a lock of his father’s hair, clearly uncaring of what was being said, but happy to be carried in his father’s arms.