Child of the Woods by Aprilertuile

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Chapter 10: Last stop before home

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Staying in Aulë’s Halls while juggling a child who was musically inclined and bothered by the noise of the Forge and a baby who clearly couldn’t stop crying when in close proximity to Aulë or his maiar was an exercise in patience and both Fëanáro and Nerdanel decided fast to go back home instead of staying.

Sure, the tools available in Aulë’s Halls were the best they’d ever find.

Sure, the conversations and studies led in Aulë’s Halls were more inspiring than discussing briefly with fellow artists in their own home.

However, the children were clearly not made to stay there and it was making staying there ridiculously difficult, even with the invaluable help of Mahtan, and Maitimo was still alone in the palace and hasn’t spent any time with his baby brother yet.

So Nerdanel and Fëanáro took the decision, a few days after their arrival, to leave again Aulë’s Halls and travel back home, making a detour by the palace of Tirion.

Finwë welcomed them with open arms when they arrived.

And he was alone.

Finwë embraced his son when he arrived toward them...:

“Indis left just yesterday for Valmar. She’ll be sad to know she missed you and this little one.” Finwë told Fëanáro when they arrived, before he turned toward Nerdanel who was carrying Tyelkormo and took the baby from her arms.

Nerdanel strongly disliked Finwë’s manners in that.

He could at least have ASKED her if he could take the child. But no, he straight up came and picked up the baby.

If Fëanáro didn’t love him that much that he feared growing estranged from his father, she’d tell him exactly what she thought of that. Alas, she needed to stay tactful for the sake of her husband.

She kept a bland, polite smile on her face until a tale-tell scent reached her nose:

“I apologise king Finwë, but I need to take my son back, I think he needs changing.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I can do it myself, I do have children of my own, my dear.”

“Yes but...”

Nerdanel sighed when Finwë just turned and left.

“I know.” Fëanáro told her.

“If he takes any of my sons from my arms again without asking, next dirty nappy I get my hand on will end in his face.” She hissed.

Fëanáro grimaced at that. His father wasn’t always the most... Diplomatic of elves.

Having said that, Nerdanel grabbed her bag of baby supplies and followed after the king, letting a servant lead her to the king’s personal room on palace grounds.

By now Tyelkormo had more than enough to be dirty and was expressing it clearly.

Really if Finwë had let her take care of her child, he would already be clean and changed into proper clean clothing. It was ridiculous!

She nevertheless entered the room, with the supply:

“Perhaps I could...”

“No, no, let me. I’m sure this little one doesn’t mind. It’s a little bit of bounding time.”

Nerdanel took a deep breath but with a smile that was, she felt, extremely unconvincing, she brought forward the clean nappy and tissue to clean the child.

Finwë had already had servants bring warm water to his room, and so he installed the child on the table to change him and clean him.

To his credit, he was quick and skilled in changing and cleaning the child, however, he placed the dirty nappy at arm’s length of the unhappy baby Tyelkormo and Nerdanel knew for a fact her son knew how to throw things to express his displeasure...

She said nothing, unsure whether to hope that Finwë would get an abject lesson on asking the mothers before taking the babies from them, or hoping her child would prove calm for once.

She had to bite her tongue to avoid laughing when invariably Tyelkormo’s hand found the dirty nappy and he just pushed it with surprising strength for a baby on his grand-father.

Finwë froze, shocked, as the nappy _ not close as securely as Nerdanel would have closed it _ opened as it hit him and he found himself with a robe of silk and gold embroidery... covered in baby poo.

“Perhaps I should...” Nerdanel started after a moment of silently focusing on not laughing.

“Take the child back while I go and change, please.” Finwë completed for her.

“Yes.”

Finwë went to his room, grumbling and Nerdanel was fast to finish clothing her child, leaving the rooms to get back to her husband and older children.

Once she joined them... She put her child in Fëanáro’s arms and started laughing uncontrollably:

“Dare I ask?”

Nerdanel tried to get her laughter under control before she answered:

“You know how our delightful little one has taken up the habit of throwing things to express his displeasure.”

“Oh... I have a feeling as to where that is going.” Fëanáro commented vaguely amused.

“Your father left the dirty nappy at your son’s arm’s length.” Nerdanel cackled.

“Oh dear...” Fëanáro was biting his lips at that.

At least his father didn’t get a dirty nappy in the face from his angry wife? Turkafinwë was a baby and couldn’t be held responsible for it surely.

When Finwë joined them again in the family’s living-room, he was changed into another set of robes.

Maitimo and Makalaurë were both very quiet about their amusement and Nerdanel was back to being very diplomatic about her feelings on the matter.

“This child has quite the strength for his age.” Finwë commented.

“Yes. I called him Turkafinwë. His mother name is Tyelkormo.”

“Hm... He’s cute. How long will you stay at the palace?”

“Oh not long, we just wanted to introduce you to your new grand-son and see if we could take Nelyo back home for a while. He barely could meet his own baby brother.” Fëanáro answered.

Nerdanel couldn’t help but notice that this time, Finwë didn’t even try to approach Tyelkormo. Good.