Feanor Never Planned to Fall in Love by Erulisse

Chapter 1

I had not planned to fall in love.

When I left home, my only intention was to get away from Tirion and my father. Well, maybe that's not totally true; I didn't want to escape from my father. Of all the people in the fair city, my father is the only one I love.

I wanted to get away from Tirion because I was finding it smothering to wander the streets without any anonymity, sympathetic glances still pinning my back as I passed through the crowded streets. But even more than that, I wanted to get away from my stepmother and her children - two younger stepbrothers, one stepsister and one still in the womb.

I miss my father every day. The rest of them can all go to Mandos and join my mother, for all I care. Insipid idiots, all.

I stand here in the shadows of the back entrance to the forge, watching her manipulate the metal and forge the blade; folding, hammering, heating, hammering, then folding yet again. Repeat and repeat and repeat. She is competent, intelligent, and strong in both body and mind. If there is ever an elleth I’ve met who could stand up to my stepmother and kill her through kindness, it is this smith, this artist with metal - this Nerdanel.

Through Blending upon Blending in fair Tirion, I danced the appropriate steps in interchanges of word, wit, and music with hundreds of eligible brides. To be honest, I can’t remember more than a handful of their names or images by now, yet each of them aspired to become my wife, bear my children, and carry my name.

Now I work to gain the attention of this single elleth, only - this Nerdanel. I make nails and horseshoes to meet her exacting specifications. I work the bellows and make ornamental hooks for entryways and sleeping chambers. While I hammer on my own anvil, I watch her every move. She works here, in her father’s forge, or in her own workshop where she sculpts large blocks of stone chip by small chip. She has patience, this elleth - this Nerdanel. The beauty she creates from smelted metals and hardened stone catches my breath and my imagination, but if she notices me at all, it is only in passing - after all, I am only an apprentice but she is a Master.

I strive to make her notice me by exceeding her expectations. I find myself breathing in rhythm with her breaths while we share the forge, and I dream of her every night when we part. Quite suddenly one single and unique elleth has captured my soul.

I had not planned to fall in love, yet it seems that I have. Now I must work to prove myself worthy of her attentions and affection.

Chapter End Notes

Reviews are always appreciated.