Chapter II
Disclaimer: Everything but the idea for this fic belongs to Tolkien. And I don't think he'd want my idea anyway. (I wouldn't if I were him!)
A flash of something gilded caught Fingolfin's eye. High up in the top branches of a tall pear tree, his daughter's doll sat wedged in the fork of a branch. With a long-suffering sigh, Fingolfin scrambled up to the top and grabbed the toy in one hand. Looking down, he realized that his trip would be several times more difficult to execute one-handed and going in the opposite direction. The distance from the top of the tree to the ground suddenly seemed much greater than the distance from the ground to the top of the tree. Grasping the doll around the waist with one hand, he began to slip and climb down the tree again. As he paused to rest nearly two-thirds of the way down, he wondered, not for the first time, how his little Írissë had managed to get up there at all.
Curufin, slightly in the lead, reached the door first and dragged it open. Dashing inside, he rushed upstairs to his brothers' bedrooms. Maedhros shot awake with a start, sitting bolt upright and glaring at his brother. Curufin blurted out, "Intruder in the gardens!" Withdrawing just as quickly, he made the rounds of the other bedrooms, his rapid warnings snapping his brothers awake before fading down the hallways just as rapidly. Before many more minutes had passed, the sons of Fëanor were gathered on the doorstep, all in varying states of readiness. Maedhros, his red hair standing up at odd angles, and Maglor, hiding a large yawn, were holding iron-tipped walking sticks. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes with one hand, Caranthir used the other to belt on one of Celegorm's hunting knives. The four truants were practically dancing with impatience as the others, still half-asleep, stumbled about.
Fingolfin had nearly made it to the bottom of the tree when his grasp on a branch suddenly slipped, and he fell ten feet through a tangle of leaves onto the ground below. The impact knocked the wind out of him, leaving him flat in the dirt, gasping for air and wincing as a particularly knotty tree root embedded itself in his back. Soon, however, he was up again and heading for the wall over which he had first come. So engrossed was he in this business that he never heard the many snaps and crackles as three half-asleep elves followed him at no great distance. Their wood-wise brothers made loud hushing noises, and Curufin, who was in the lead, glared at all six of them for making such a ruckus.
Some few minutes passed before Fingolfin was able to regain his bearings and find the wall over which he had come. Setting Aredhel's doll on the top, he was about to pull himself up after it, when a large, blunt object found its way to the middle of his back. A familiar voice suggested that he turn around slowly and explain his business, at least if he had any desire to keep all his ribs intact. As he faced about, he was confronted by his seven nephews, all quite prepared to do him some serious hurt. Maedhros was still holding his walking staff, which was now aimed at the center of Fingolfin's chest, as was Maglor's. Celegorm was obviously prepared to send Huan after his ankle, and Caranthir was holding the hunting knife in a rather threatening manner. Curufin had snatched up the nearest object as they left the house, which had happened to be one of his chisels: a very large, very sharp steel tool that looked capable of creating a hole in an elven skull with little difficulty. The Ambarussa had hunting spears poised to throw.
All seven elves stared at Fingolfin. The twins quickly reversed their spears, Maedhros and Maglor dropped the ends of their staffs to the ground, and Huan shut his jaws with a snap. The silence dragged on for minutes. "This is quite the anticlimax," Armod finally remarked. "I was rather expecting a dangerous madman bent on murdering and robbing us. Father would likely say that we have found exactly that," he added as an afterthought. A pained expression grew on Maedhros's face, and he appeared mere minutes away from sighing in exasperation and living in the woods with Fingon, away from all his family and their troubles.