Merry Midwinter by Aprilertuile

Tyelkormo was standing in a corner of the kitchen, sipping a cup of hot sweetened tea, that he brought home from the Hunt, the tea had been a gift from Vana to all of Oromë’s Hunters.

Around him his two older siblings were being the unique voice of reason in the house, getting their younger siblings to eat breakfast even as Fëanáro and Nerdanel were busy pulling out the decorations for the midwinter festival.

Tyelkormo himself never saw a point in that festival. The Valar controlled the weather in Valinor, and they decided that one part of the year needed to be colder for the sake of the plant life, but everyone knew that they’d bring spring back soon enough.

“Ah, Tyelko, if you’re free, can you see if you can find the box of lights I made last year?” Fëanáro asked him.

“You mean the box of lights that you let your apprentices take back home last year as a memento of the insane celebration you decided that everyone needed to participate in?” Tyelkormo answered wryly.

“… Did I do that?” Fëanáro blinked, turning toward Nerdanel who frowned:

“Yes, dad, you did.” Maitimo answered even as he seemed to give up on stopping the food fight that Ambarussa were apparently desperate to start with Carnistir and Curufinwë.

Makalaurë and Maitimo joined Tyelkormo on his side of the kitchen, bringing their own mugs of their drink of choice, and all three of them, side to side, watched, as Ambarussa, Umbarto, Carnistir and Curufinwë were busy trying to paint each others with jam and cake, and their parents in the background were busy trying to see what decorations were left and what decoration needed to be replaced.

“Here’s to another chaotic midwinter, brothers.” Maitimo whispered, raising his mug.

“To our family.” Tyelkormo answered, gently hitting his brother’s mug with his own.

“May it be filled with less chaos than last year.” Makalaurë added amused, hitting their joint mugs with his own as well.

There was a crash near their father and the food fight stopped, as the children of Nerdanel and Fëanáro all looked looked up to see Fëanáro looking startled with the remains of a glass decoration in his hands.

“… To my defense…” Their father started, looking somewhat lost at what just happened with the decoration.

Nerdanel snorted at that.

Fëanáro instantly had a face of usual annoyance and Tyelkormo sighed. Family. He loved them, but he was just back and already started to miss Oromë’s hunt.

Next to him, Maitimo sighed, eyes wandering the room:

“You know what, brothers? I’m going to go gather firewood, if you want to come, you’re welcome, if you prefer to stay… Good luck and may your sanity rest in peace in Námo’s Halls.”

“Fleeing for dear life?” Makalaurë cackled.

“If you want to stay and clean up that mess, be my guest.”

Makalaurë grimaced, looking between their brothers who were back to eating, looking like a bakery just exploded on and around them, and their parents who were surrounded by glass shard and glitter…

The minstrel of the family followed Maitimo’s lead of walking toward the kitchen door, and Tyelkormo laughed slightly:

“Mom, Dad, we’ll go gather wood.” Tyelkormo said quickly even as Makalaurë and Maitimo were making their escape, himself on their heels, too fast for their parents to answer anything.

They were laughing when they reached the woodshed in the far side of the garden. 

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As always, after sorting out the old house decorations, the crafters of the family all went their own way to replace what needed to be replaced.

Curufinwë and Fëanáro in the Forge, Nerdanel with clay sculptures, Carnistir with yarn work…

Makalaurë and Maitimo had both strategically disappeared, leaving Tyelkormo alone with the Ambarussa.

Tyelkormo had sighed, but took a look at the twins who were doing their best impression of being absolutely innocent, which all their brothers knew to be a lie on principle alone, and decided on the spot that they’d bake midwinter cookies.

That’d at least keep them busy enough.

As he was mixing the dough, and the Ambarussa were busy tasting the pieces of dried fruits and jams they wanted to add to the cookies, Tyelkormo started to hum.

He couldn’t help it, and if asked, he’d claim that it was entirely Makalaurë’s fault.

Soon enough however, he heard his younger brothers’ voices join his, singing a song of the winter:

“Midwinter night coming with wind and cold,

Snow on the peaks of old Taniquetil,

Falling on the plains of the tired world,

…”

It was fun and warm to bake midwinter cookies with his littlest siblings, singing songs of the festival.

His little brothers’ voices weren’t the best, none of them were Makalaurë, and yet, it was fun, it was warm, and none of them cared about how they sounded.

When he came back in from wherever he went to hide, Maitimo’s voice joined theirs, and as the rest of the family started to trail in, their appointed tasks probably finished, they all started to join them in singing songs of good cheer and silent snow, of cold wind and hot drink.

The cookies would soon be done and shared, with hot drinks at hand and teasing aplenty. 

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Makalaurë was the living-room, reading his newest book, a music manual that at first had seemed interesting but alas seemed to be written by someone obviously stuffy who didn’t know a thing about music. The whole thing was so ridiculous that he could only laugh, and write furious notes in the margin, well decided to send his heavily corrected version to the publisher of that joke of a book.

He was leaning against Maitimo, on one of the couches of the room, in front of the fireplace. He watched from the corner of his eyes the twins approach them:

“Hey, Nelyo?” Ambarussa asked their elder brother, interrupting his reading of what looked far too much like a political treatise of some kind for Makalaurë’s taste.

“Hm?”

“Why do we even have winter? What’s the point of it?”

Makalaurë looked up from his book and turned slightly to face his siblings, curious as to Maitimo’s answer:

“… Why do you ask me?”

“We asked dad earlier but his answer was not convincing and he said to ask you.”

Tyelkormo, who was sprawled on the thick carpet in front of the lit fireplace, buzy whittling a piece of wood, Huan curled up near his legs, huffed in laughter as Maitimo looked at the twins and then at their parents _who both seem to think that pretending not to have heard a thing was realistic_ and then back at their little brothers:

“I have the exact same answer than dad, ask Tyelko for another answer.” Maitimo answered, letting himself lean against Makalaurë.

“But we can’t ask Tyelko! He actually likes winter!” One of the twins protested, making Tyelkormo snort in amusement.

Makalaurë bit his lips in order to not laugh slightly as well. Their littlest brothers didn’t seem to enjoy the cold for all they seemed to have fun in the snow.

“All the more reason for him to have answers for you.” Makalaurë offered them in answer.

There was a moment of silence, the twins clearly deliberating via Osanwë, and then both came to stand in front of their hunter sibling instead:

“Tyelko, why do we have winter?”

“I should really tell you to ask dad instead.”

“I’m not the one running around with one of the Valar. Also they already asked me and didn’t like my answer.” Fëanáro protested.

Tyelkormo rolled his eyes at that even Huan snorted sounding strangely amused to Makalaurë’s ears; the animal companions of a vala were always too strange for his tastes.

“How about you answer us, Tyelko. The Valar control everything, right? We could have warm weather all year long! So why bother with winter?” One of the twins asked, glaring at him as if he was the one responsible for the cold weather, much to Makalaurë’s amusement.

Tyelkormo sighed but sat up, facing his brothers:

“This period is necessary for plant life. Some plants need the rest that the cold provides, others need cold for their seeds to germinate.”

There was a cough from their father that sounded vaguely like the words: “terrible design”, and Tyelkormo obviously chose to act as if he hadn’t heard.

“It’s also true for animals. The seasons as they are also regulate animal lives.”

“But why? Why couldn’t they make a more efficient and enjoyable season?!”

“You don’t find it enjoyable, but who says it’s not efficient? Look at it this way. Tree leaves and plant that die in autumn will fall to the ground. Those tree leaves and plant remains will rot, and as they rot, they feed the soil so the plants can feed on it in turn to develop new leaves or grow from seed in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. It’s a continuous source to replenish the food in the soil to feed plant life. Plant life that then can feed animals…”

“Those that won’t die of cold, you mean?” Ambarussa grumbled.

“And those animals that die will be eaten by other animals or rot and feed the soil that’ll allow plant life to develop around it. It’s all the same, little brother. It’s a cycle, a delicate balance. Life and death aren’t separated, they’re intertwined and codependent. The season of winter that brings death to delicate plant and animal lives only makes way for the next generations of plant and animal lives to thrive and reproduce.”

“Who taught you that?” The twins asked him.

“Lord Oromë and lady Vána.”

“So… If I understand well… There’s really no way to make a case with the Valar to cancel winter and bring us straight to spring?” Umbarto mused.

Tyelkormo started to laugh at that, and Makalaurë was close to join him. Curufinwë had had similar thwarted plans once upon a time. Of all his brothers, only Tyelkormo really liked the season as it was.

“No, there is absolutely no way to petition the Valar to wreck havoc in the natural world just to please you.”

“Well there goes that plan.” Ambarussa grumbled.

Nerdanel’s and Fëanáro’s faces were both strategically hidden behind their respective books, but there was also no mistaking the giggle that Fëanáro didn’t manage to stop at the twin’s disgruntled conclusion. 

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This late evening was calm and quiet in Fëanáro’s household. The following day would be chaotic, disorganized, cheerful and messy, as all midwinter days ended up being but for now the night was peaceful, the family was calm and…

Nerdanel raised her head from her book suddenly alarmed: the room was silent. Her children and husband were only quiet when sleeping or plotting and…

And all around her in the living-room, lying on the couch or the thick carpet in front of the fireplace, her husband and children were all deeply asleep.

Fëanáro was lying on the couch, Curufinwë settled between his father and the couch’s back.

Maitimo and Makalaurë were both lying together in the second couch.

Tyelkormo was lying on the carpet, using a throw pillow as an actual pillow, Huan snoring with his head on a side of his master’s pillow.

Nerdanel grimaced softly at that sight. She didn’t enjoy the idea of her children sharing a bed or a pillow with any kind of animal, alas, this particular child of hers and that dog were too stubborn…

Carnistir was sleeping with his head on Tyelkormo’s shoulder, and the twins were sleeping on each side of Tyelkormo, with their head on his belly.

Everyone was there and accounted for and sleeping peacefully.

The only lights in the room were the thin rays of Telperion from a crack of the curtains, the dying light of the fireplace, and numerous candles set all around the room.

Nerdanel hesitated.

She probably should do the responsible thing and wake up her husband and older children to send them all to their beds and carry the twins to their bed herself but…

She settled back against the deep comfy cushions of the chair she was in.

The air was warm, thanks to the fireplace and whatever invention of her husband. The children and her husband all looked peaceful under the warm light of the candles, and the silence in the room was broken only by their soft breathing.

It was rare when things seem so quiet and slow.

She moved to lean further into the cushions at her side.

In her direct line of sight stood a candle made by the twins, a first attempt. Its soft light attracted her eyes as she was settling herself comfortably. The candle was slightly crooked, the candle wick wasn’t quite as straight as it should be, but its light was soft, the little flame dancing in the relative darkness of the room.

She couldn’t stop a smile as she watched it.

The twins had enjoyed making the candles with Maitimo this year.

It was a midwinter tradition to make candle for the winter around this date. Maitimo was the most patient of the family with the task and so had been tasked to teach the twins how to make the candles.

Some of their attempts had been scrapped back to melted wax to start again, and some had been good and usable, and the twins were delighted to see their candles be really used, crooked or not.

She felt her eyes close, and decided that she was too comfortable to move. She’d regret it, or not, in the morning. 

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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.

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Lunch had been a pretty fast and light affair considering that everyone knew the main meal would happen that evening for the celebration proper of midwinter.

So at the end of the meal, Maitimo raised and while his brothers were busy cleaning the table, he picked up chocolate, fresh milk, cream and cinnamon.

Maitimo was distractedly listening to Makalaurë’s running commentary on a letter that Findaráto apparently had sent him that day. Maitimo was quite sure that their cousin wrote the letter specifically to rouse his brother’s temper.

Their friendship was of the strangest kind.

He put the milk to boil on the stove while he was cutting the chocolate in tiny pieces.

“Why are you cutting a perfectly fine chocolate?” Umbarto asked his brother with a grimace.

“Because I’m making hot chocolate and the tiny pieces will melt more quickly and easily in the boiling milk than a big chuck of chocolate would.” Maitimo answered, even as he saw this brother of his stealing a piece of chocolate from the plate.

“Careful little one, I’m still cutting pieces, don’t put your hand in my way.” He warned.

“Like anyone would believe you’d cut one of us.” Ambarussa snorted dismissively.

“I wouldn’t want to, but it could still happen on accident. Just ask Tyelko.”

The twins exchanged a look and turned toward their third elder brother who smiled in a way that showed a hint of teeth.

“Who did you cut?”One of the twins, Umbarto, asked Tyelkormo.

“I cut no one, Nelyo got my hand with the knife once.” He showed them a fading scar on his hand. “That taught me better than to try to steal anything that Nelyo’s in the process of cutting.”

The twins looked mildly shocked at that.

“But you like Tyelko.”They told their eldest brother.

“He didn’t do it on purpose kiddo, that was an accident. A stupid accident might I add, that wouldn’t have happened had I not tried to steal a piece of caramel from the pile he was in the process of cutting into pieces.”Tyelkormo intervened gently.

“Uh. I’ll… Keep my hands for myself.” Umbarto promised.

“How come you still have the scar? Didn’t Estë heal it?”

“No, Estë didn’t heal it, we went to a healer in Tirion, it was quicker and frankly it healed well enough that I don’t see the point of going to Estë for a mere scar.” Tyelkormo answered with a shrug.

The twins exchanged a look and grimaced eloquently.

“You’ll add cinnamon to the chocolate too?”

“Hm…”

“Oh sweet. Sugar as well?” Makalaurë asked, hopeful.

“Over my dead body.” Maitimo answered.

“Oh come on, Nelyo!” Makalaurë insisted.

“You want to add sugar to a perfectly fine chocolate, you make it yourself.”

Makalaurë grumbled at that:

“I’ll add it to my cup then.”

“You’ll do whatever you want to your poor sad cup of hot chocolate.” Maitimo sniffed primly.

Once the milk was boiling, Maitimo add all the chocolate pieces into the milk, stirring the pot until the chocolate was dissolved and the liquid was smooth.

While he was stirring the hot chocolate until it thickened a bit, his mother put cups for everyone on the table.

Makalaurë lost absolutely no time adding two spoonfuls of sugar into his cup, grumbling that a good hot chocolate was also sweet.

Maitimo added cream to all cups and sprinkled cinnamon on top, the twins tasting the hot chocolate without the cream first, and then with the cream and then with the cinnamon.

“Uh. And with sugar how is it?” The twins asked.

Makalaurë let one of them grab his cup to taste and Ambarussa grimaced, not really fond of the more sugary drink while Umbarto, who stole the cup from his brother, liked it so much he drank half of the cup, under Makalaurë’s scandalized eyes.

Nerdanel preparing another cup of sweetened hot chocolate nipped in the bud any argument from her second eldest son before they arose.

Makalaurë was very careful to keep his new cup in his hand and out of reach of his littlest brothers. He did want to finish his own drink… 

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