Fic: Tributary - Chapter 11

Tributary
Fandom: The Silmarillion, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away
Rating: PG13/T
Warnings: Mild child abuse/child endangerment, underage employment
Relationships: Maedhros/Fingon (pre-relationship), Fëanor/Nerdanel (background), other minor background relationships
Characters:Fingon, Maedhros, Círdan, Fingolfin, Anairë, Turgon, Aredhel, Fëanor, Caranthir, Maglor, Celegorm, Ambarussa, Nerdanel, Curufin, Curufin's Wife, Thranduil, Thranduil's Wife, Hildifons Took, Isengar Took, Rog (Tolkien), Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), Original Genderqueer Character(s)
Word Count: 34,139
Summary: Tributary: noun; a river or stream flowing into a larger river or lake.

Moving to another town can be difficult, especially when you're just a kid. Leaving everything you know behind - friends, classmates, teachers, the nice guy at the ice cream shop who sometimes snuck you an extra scoop - is scary, even if you know the place you're moving to.

For Findecáno, son of Ñolofinwë and Anairë, brother of Turucáno and Írissë, it's going to be even harder.

Dropped into a dangerous and treacherous world of spirits and magic, he doesn't know which way to turn, or even who he can trust, but he has to keep his feet under him in order to stay ahead of the great Sorcerer and save his family.

The days slipped back into routine, sliding past in a blur of warm, steamy nights spent hard at work. After a week it began to rain, and kept raining for a solid four days. It meant they were actually even busier, oddly enough, partly due to needing to clean more due to the wet and the mud, and partly because the customer load seemed to double. Celegorm got grumpier, as did Niph, Tolmedli and Rhanaur got stressed, and Tintastel and Gwaeleth were drooping from their perpetual cheer. Gwaeleth was even molting a little, and Tol collected the little brown, white, and iridescent green feathers the ruby-throated hummingbird spirit dropped.

Findecáno himself had developed an itchy, bumpy rash that ran down the length of his spine, and weirdly enough behind his ears and across the bridge of his nose. He’d scratched his nose open and bleeding before Celegorm caught him at it, slapping a bandage across the bloody scratch and getting Asa to give him a soothing balm. He’d called them growing pains, which had confused Findecáno a bit. He was having growing pains, the persistent ache through his bones and joints that heralded another growth spurt, but the rash was probably just stress. Tintastel had been talking to him a lot about how the other boy cared for his feathers, which was weird.( Read more... )