Caranthir's Babysitting Adventure

It would be an understatement to say that Caranthir was not happy. In fact, he was as far from happy as an elf could be. The reason for this was waving good bye to him as they all went down the path. It was quite unfair of them to assume that he had no plans, and therefore leave him with the munchkins, as they went off to have fun. Just because his parents wanted to go watch Maglor play, Maedhros had plans with Fingon, and Celegorm had been deemed an insufficient babysitter after he tried to use Curufin to pick up girls, did not mean that Caranthir was an appropriate one.

So, scowling, he turned back around to stare at his younger siblings. Right away, he could see problems. Amrod had Amras’s hair in his mouth and was chewing on it – that couldn’t be safe. Still, he supposed that the missing clumps of hair would grow back eventually. For now, he would ignore that and try to figure out where – Bang! Taking off at a run, Caranthir headed in the direction that the noise had come from.

Wonderful, just wonderful. Who had given Curufin explosives? The brat really didn’t need any help causing trouble.

Grabbing Curufin and holding him securely, Caranthir cleaned up the mess caused by the exploding planter. Or rather, half cleaned it up. Surely they didn’t expect him to manage to get the dirt out of everywhere, while Curufin was kicking him and having a fit?

“Ouch! You bit me!” he yelped, “I wonder how much trouble I’ll be in if I tie you to a chair…”

“Amil said you had to be nice to us,” it (clearly, it was not an actual elf. It was too mean.) said back.

Caranthir scowled at it, “Yeah, well, Amil isn’t here right now. You know who is? I am, so what I say goes.”

It sighed dramatically, “Whatever.” It was also rolling its eyes at him now.

“You’re just a little smart-ass, aren’t you?” Caranthir grumbled.

“YOU USED A BAD WORD!” and now it was yelling at him. “Ata and Amil are going to be mad at you!”

“Well, I’m angry at them for leaving me with you,” and it kicked him. He pulled it away and held it by the neck of its shirt, several feet away from him. “Bad! Don’t do that again!”

Smirking, it replied, “I’ll do what I want.”

Caranthir’s eye twitched, “I’m sure you will. Now, we’re going to go downstairs and stay with the Ambarussa, do you understand me?”

It didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, it resumed singing that he would be in trouble, while swinging its legs in his direction. Caranthir dragged it along anyways.

His mood did not improve when he got back downstairs. While less bratty and evil then the thing, they still had managed to get into trouble. Actually, the living room appeared to be coated in flour. Given that they were barely able to walk under their own power, he was not sure how they had managed that, but it was a mess. Twitching, he sat it down so that he could begin to clean, but it clearly had other plans.

It ran away in the direction of the kitchen, forcing him to follow it. When he caught it, it kicked him again. Clearly, this was not working. Grabbing a coat from the closet, he tied it to a chair, and then went to grab the dustpan so he could clean the living room. And the Ambarussa had managed to get up on top of one of the bookcases. Gritting his teeth, he got them back down and placed them on the floor.

When he had half the room cleaned, he heard giggling behind him. It had escaped from the chair, apparently, and was hiding something behind its back. He went to jump up and grab the object from behind its back, but before he could, it sprayed him with something.

Cursing, Caranthir changed course and ran towards the bathroom, where he ran his face under the water. Whatever thing had, it hurt. That was it! He could not be forced to work under these conditions; they were going to be the end of him. Furiously storming through the house, he found what he was looking for. Yes, this would be perfect.

~

A few hours later, Nerdanel and Feanor were making their way back from Maglor’s performance. As they reached their house, however, they spied something curious on the front lawn. Nerdanel blinked furiously several times before yelling for Caranthir, while Feanor collapsed to the ground chuckling.

“Yes, Amil?” Caranthir came out the front door of the house, munching on an apple.

“Why are your brothers in a cage?” she glared at him.

Caranthir shrugged, “Well, after it bit and kicked me several times, the Ambarussa coated the entire living room in flour, and then it sprayed something in my face, I had to do something with them.”

“And your solution was to put them in a cage and write Hravan feanorionous?!?” she screeched.

He shrugged again, “I figured that if we ever needed extra money, we could sell tickets to see them, like in a petting zoo.”

As Nerdanel opened her mouth to reply, Feanor managed to get his laughter under control, “Calm down, the boys aren’t harmed. Besides it rather suits them. In fact, I wish I had thought of it myself, it suits all seven of them. And it’s not half as bad as what I would have done…”

As Caranthir frowned at this, Feanor walked closer to the cage and released Curufin and the Ambarussa. Curufin was still glaring at Caranthir.

“It’s not my fault that you’re too stupid to take care of us,” he sulked.

“I am not stupid!” Caranthir yelled back.

“Quiet boys! I suppose this means that I can’t leave your brothers with you any more, Caranthir?” Feanor asked.

Caranthir nodded his head enthusiastically. He never wanted to be left alone with them again. They were absolutely horrible.