Ahem. This is GundamWingFanatic90, with the long-awaited prequel to Mother's Day, which I submitted last year. This fic will finally give an answer to the mystery of Fëanor's cryptic statement about feet and chickens.

Hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I own The Silmarillion no more than I own the birds of the sky or the fish of the sea.

BEGETTING DAY.
By GundamWingFanatic90.
Submitted 8-4-08.
Written in 45 minutes.

All was quiet. The lights of the Two Trees had not yet mingled, and Telperion's silver light graced the floor of the bedroom. It was a modestly-sized room, furnished with rich mahogany and soft velvets in varying shades of red and gold. Set against the eastern wall was a four-poster bed large enough to engulf four grown elves. Beneath its warm covers lay two unsuspecting people.

They were oblivious to the quiet creaking of the door as it was slowly pushed open.

A small head peered around the doorframe, light grey eyes alighting upon the forms of the pair in the bed. A proportionately small body soon followed the head, tiny hands gently gripping a fluffy yellow-and-brown ball of down and feathers. The thing in the child's hands gave a faint chirp and a squirm.

The child hushed it, glancing furtively toward the slumbering pair. They did not stir, their breathing remaining deep and even.

A grin spread across the child's face, and he bounded across the room to stand at the foot of his parents' bed. Then he paused, faced with a dilemma.

How would he show his parents the surprise if he could not get up on the bed? His hands were full of chick, after all…

An idea hit him, and the small boy-child set the chick atop the quilt before eagerly trying to clamber up onto the mattress, himself.

'Trying' being the operative word.

The child became frustrated when he discovered that he could not hoist himself up onto the bed, still being too short to really even see over the top of it very well. A solution came to his mind. He turned and pulled over the small stool that his mother sometimes used to reach high shelves just above her head; maybe it would help him get onto the bed.

The boy's hunch had been right, indeed, but he still faced the dilemma of having to get onto the bed without waking the sleeping couple. Standing on the stool, he peered over at the top of the bed. To his horror, he saw the baby chick stumbling over to halt next to the raven-haired elf's face.

"No! Laurë, come back here!" the child hissed. The chick, Laurë, chirped softly and ignored the boy. Then, the boy saw something that horrified him.

The raven-haired elf had opened his mouth slightly so that he could breathe easier in Telperion's waning light, and the chick had wandered over to stand near the parted lips. The boy grimaced, scrambling clumsily up onto the bed. He could not let that chick wake his parents!

However, his mission was doomed to fail.

With a squawk of surprise, the boy felt his knee slip as the bedcovers slid against each other. He came crashing down heavily on the raven-haired elf's foot.

The elf woke with a startled gasp that also led him to inhale a mouthful of dirty chicken down.

With a yelp, the raven-haired elf bolted upright, wrenching his foot in the process, and spat out the peeping chick. Gasping for air through a mouthful of feathers, the elf winced slightly as his foot throbbed. It had been twisted strangely when the boy fell upon it, and the ensuing jerk had wrenched it painfully.

Brushing aside the twinges from his appendage, the raven-haired elf's grey eyes cleared fully and landed upon the red-haired culprit of the rude awakening.

"Nelyo?" he asked, drowsily slurring his words. He spluttered a bit, pulling a chicken feather from his mouth. Then he noticed exactly what he was picking from between his teeth, and blanched when he glanced down at the chick in his lap, realizing that it now sported a bald patch on its tail end. With a strangled cry of dismay, the raven-haired elf leapt out of bed and ran to the adjoining bathing chamber.

In a few heartbeats, Nelyo could hear his father rinsing his mouth vigorously. The sloshing of water in the basin woke up the bed's other occupant.

"Maitimo?" she asked, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. "What are you doing up at this hour, my son?" Large grey eyes blinked innocently up at her.

"I wanted to show you and Ata Laurë," Nelyo replied. "I was going to climb up here and wake you up, but then I slipped and fell on Ata's foot, and Laurë fell onto Ata's face, and now Ata is in the bathing chamber…"

Nerdanel blinked, finally registering what the sounds from the bathing chamber really were. She glanced at the chick that was peeping in distress as it tried to untangle itself from the bedcovers. Nerdanel giggled when she saw its tiny head peek out from underneath the blanket. The animal's dark eyes blinked up at her.

"Hello, little one," she murmured, unburying it and picking it up to cradle it in her palms. Nerdanel giggled again when she saw that it was sporting a new bald patch on its hindquarters. "So it is you who have made a mess of Fëanáro's mood this morning."

"Indeed," grumbled Fëanáro, reentering the room with a faint limp and looking slightly green. His grey eyes landed upon his firstborn, who blinked innocently up at him. "Nelyo, what were you thinking?"

"I wanted to show you Laurë, Ata." The boy pointed to the chick, who was now stumbling around Nerdanel's blanket-covered lap. She absently adjusted a sleeve of her nightgown as she smiled up at Fëanáro.

"Is she not just adorable?" Nerdanel inquired. Fëanáro's grey eyes came to rest upon the chick, and anger sparked in them.

"Surely she must be," he muttered dryly. "Since she has captured your affections as well as those of our son, she must be something precious, indeed."

Nerdanel sighed, and then glanced to her firstborn with a small smile. "You may keep her if you wish, Maitimo."

The boy's eyes grew large with excitement, and a radiant grin spread across his face.

"Really, Amillë?" he gasped, ecstatic. Nerdanel's smile grew.

"Yes, Maitimo," she murmured, sending a glance at Fëanáro. "Happy Begetting Day, my son."

Nelyo squealed in joy and flung himself forward to hug his mother vigorously. "Thank you!"

Then he paused, and turned to his father. "Ata? May I keep her?"

Fëanáro looked for a second as though he would refuse, but then he saw his son's hopeful expression. He told himself to fight it, but those big eyes… that quivering lip… Ai, but even by Eru's grace he could not fight that look!

"Fine," he grumbled. As Nelyo began to thank him profusely, Fëanáro raised his voice so that he could talk over the child's words. "On one condition."

Nelyo sobered, and nodded, eyes serious. "Yes, Ata. What is it?"

"You must keep her out of the bedrooms, the kitchen, and my forge." Fëanáro watched as Nelyo grinned radiantly and hopped down off of the bed to hug his father around the knees. His tiny head barely crested the middle of Fëanáro's legging-clad thigh.

"Thank you, Ata!" Nelyo exclaimed, burying his face in the side of his father's leg. "Thank you both so much!"

Fëanáro and his wife exchanged glances, and Nerdanel watched with tenderness as her husband's severe expression softened to a loving smile before he looked down at his son and ruffled the auburn hair.

"Happy Begetting Day, Nelyo."

END.

I couldn't figure out at first why exactly Fëanor might feel ill when he looks at chickens, and I had less trouble with the whole 'My foot has never been the same since' bit, but I think it turned out all right. Hope you liked it, and sorry for the wait.

Ata - 'Daddy'.
Nelyo - Short for Nelyafinwë, which is Maedhros' father-name and means 'Third Finwë'.
Maitimo - 'Well-Formed One'. Maedhros' mother-name.
Fëanáro - 'Spirit of Fire'. The Quenya spelling of the name Fëanor.
Amillë - 'Mother'.
Laurë - 'Golden'.

Feedback is much appreciated. It helps me to improve.

-Fanatic