Title: A Teacher's Duty
Chapter 12: Many Surprises
NOTE: The title of this story has been changed from "The Terrors of Teaching Elven Teenagers" to "A Teacher's Duty" upon the advice of one of my reviewers. Thank you.
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Legolas watched in amazement as Elano swam with strong, graceful strokes towards a half-drowned Celin. How did the boy know? He thought in disbelief, children never learnt! He watched, frozen to the spot as Elano dove down into the water and disappeared from view.
A few agonizingly slow moments later, his dark head bobbed up again, and he had gripped in his arms the sandy-haired Celin, who was by now almost unconscious. Elano was thin and weak-looking with no muscles to speak off, so Legolas leapt in to the current to help him bring Celin to shore.
He gasped as the current pulled at him; it was really much stronger than it looked. He swam doggedly against it, until he reached Elano, and with his help they managed to bring Celin back to sure shore. By the time they had succeeded in this grueling process, Legolas's muscles were screaming in protest, and Celin was unconscious.
The moment they were on land, Elano leaped to his feet, adrenaline dulling the exhaustion in his own muscles. He immediately began to pump Celin's chest hard, and Legolas was once again momentarily floored by the Elfling possessing this knowledge. Children were taught very, very, rarely.
He jumped forward and began to pump Celin's arms and legs as well, until he coughed and vomited water from his mouth. Breathing a huge sigh of relief, both of them leaned back slightly, tired and panting.
By this time, all the other students were gathered around them. Legolas put a hand to Celin's head, and found that it was icy cold. It took enormous self-control to keep him from swearing aloud. The river water was not very cold at that time of year, so the only other explanation was shock.
"Get blankets," he and Elano said at almost exactly the same moment, "Quickly."
As everyone scampered to get blankets, Legolas glanced at Elano, who was checking Celin's pulse. He was amazed by the way he seemed to know exactly what to do for Celin and when to do it. If he wasn't so young, Aragorn himself could have called him a good healer.
A moment later, when the blankets arrived, Legolas swathed Celin in them and lifted him up to take him to the tents. When he was safely tucked away in his own, separate tent, Legolas could breathe a little easier. He touched the Elfling's head again, and was dismayed to find that it was still cold.
Just then, Elano burst into the tent carrying a small bag of what looked like herbs and healing draughts. Until then, Legolas had not even noticed that he had gone. His eyes widened in surprise and alarm as Elano began to mix the medicines together in carefully measured quantities.
"What do you think you're doing?" Legolas asked.
"I'm mixing a warming draught for him, sir. It will help against the shock."
"Are you certain you know what you are doing?" Legolas said, still hesitating despite the confidence in Elano's voice.
"I told you that if anyone got hurt, I'd be able to care for them, and I wasn't talking through my hat," was the firm reply.
Legolas watched silently as Elano poured a few drops of alcohol into the mixture and then began to crush dried peppers. He was feeling completely helpless because he did not know much about healing at all. Life as a soldier demanded knowing rudimentary first aid measures, but against this sort of thing, he was perfectly useless.
He knew he should not let an Elf of sixteen winters play with the life of another, but he had no other choice. He heard a soft rustling at the entrance of the tent and groaned when he realized all the other students were watching. They would think of him in a bad light for trusting Elano more than he trusted them.
Any relationship he might have had with them had come; it seemed, abruptly to an end. He shook his head resignedly; he could never win against these block-headed children.
Elano finished making the mixture, and poured it down Celin's throat. He sat back on his haunches, shivering slightly as a cool breeze blew over his wet clothes.
Legolas noticed this, and handed him a cloak; the same one Elano had leant to him the previous morning. "I don't need you to fall ill too," he said.
Elano smiled but put the cloak on. "Elves don't fall ill, sir," he said.
"Well, I'm not taking any chances."
Though it was a tight fit in the small tent, they remained there until Celin's temperature had gone up and his pulse had steadied.
Then Legolas ducked out and said to the crowd of anxious children surrounding his tent, "Celin will be on his way to recovery by tomorrow. Please go to your tents and get some rest."
Outraged shouts met this proposal, but Legolas was adamant, "Tomorrow there will be no hunting," he shouted over the din, "No one is to go towards the stream during the night. If you require water, go and drink it now while I am watching."
A few of them went and drank from the stream and Legolas watched to see that they didn't do anything dangerous. He ignored all the anxious questions put to him by Celin's friends, and said again and again, "He is recovering; he merely requires rest."
He could tell that they were all displeased that he had once again given his trust to Elano and not them. But it was unintentional; didn't any of them see that? He glowered to himself in the darkness.
Fifteen minutes later, he had managed to coax all of them into their respective tents, though judging by then noise level in the camp, not one of them were asleep. He ducked again into the tent, and affirmed that Celin was well.
He beckoned quietly to Elano, and went outside so he could ask him some questions. His mind was still reeling from the fact that Elano knew how to swim and save drowning people.
"How do you know how to swim?" he asked.
"My father taught me, Elano answered.
"So early?" Legolas said incredulously.
They both knew that Elves were usually not taught how to swim until they became of age, because it would ensure that Elves would keep their Elflings away from water. It was something his father had suggested half a century ago, when an Elfling who was supposed to be good at swimming, had drowned to death.
It was all in the list of the "Directive Principles of the Policies of Mirkwood". These guidelines were almost as good as rules; except that when broken, they were not punishable by law. But this was because they were very, very rarely broken.
"My sister drowned a few years after my birth," Elano said, "So my parents thought it best if I learnt to swim, so the same could not happen easily to me."
Legolas suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of pity. Elano's life already seemed to be a litany of losses, something that no child should have to face.
He did not want the perceptive Elano to read this emotion, so instead of offering sympathies he asked, "And healing? Where did you learn that?"
"My mother taught me. She's a healer, and she trained me in the healing arts."
"She taught you well then," Legolas said, trying to conceal the fact that he was very surprised that one so young could learn so much in his lifetime. "You did well today."
"Thank you, sir," Elano said, looking gratified.
There was a short pause, and then Legolas noticed that Elano was looking exhausted. "Go to your tent and get some rest," he said, "And don't bother waking up early, for there will be no practice tomorrow, or hunting. You've all had a tiring day."
"Yes, sir, I'll do that. Thank you," Elano said, smiling and nodding at his teacher before leaving.
Legolas settled against the pole of his tent and sighed. His body ached form the hard swim, and he was exhausted, too tired even to change out his wet clothes. Yet he could not allow himself the luxury of sleep, especially after what had happened. He was angry with himself for drifting off. If he hadn't, he might have been able to prevent this.
He shut his eyes, knowing that if there was one way of keeping awake, it was this. Again and again, images of Celin drowning played themselves on his closed eyelids. He did not open his eyes; he wanted to see those images, wanted to punish himself for falling asleep.
When he was completely engrossed in terrible images, he felt something warm on his shoulders. His eyes opened, and he turned to find Linnor standing behind him. She had put a cloak on his shoulders.
"I thought you were asleep, sir, so I thought I'd just put that over you…" she stammered out an explanation.
"There is no need, Linnor, you can have the cloak," he said, touched that she had thought of him in all the confusion. He held out the cloak to her. "Thank you for offering, though."
"But sir, you're soaking wet!"
"Elves don't catch cold, Linnor," he reminded her, suppressing a smile as he thought of how he had had the same conversation with Elano just a little while ago, "Besides, you need it for tomorrow."
"No sir, it's a spare," she said, blushing slightly when she remembered that the list of clothes to be brought for the trip had included only one cloak.
"I truly don't need it, thank you. I have my own cloak," Legolas insisted, reaching for his bag to prove his point.
"No, you don't have your own cloak, sir. Have you forgotten that Celin stitched it up?"
"I…" Legolas began, but stopped as he realized what she was saying. "I did forget," he said numbly, "But…are you sure Celin did it?" It was one thing to have very sure suspicions, but for Linnor to actually accuse…?
"Yes, sir, I saw him. And I wouldn't have told you if I wasn't sure that you knew yourself," she added hastily to clarify that she was no tell-tale."You did know, didn't you?"
Legolas nodded, "I had my suspicions."
"Keep the cloak, sir," Linnor said softly, turning to leave.
"No, wait," Legolas said, deciding he may as well ask her some questions, "Do you know what exactly happened to Celin? I mean, do you know why he fell into the stream?"
"Sir, he was trying to soak someone's shirt in the water, and he slipped on some moss."
Legolas had a very good idea who that 'someone' was. He sighed slightly and dismissed Linnor with his thanks. Then he went to his bag and began to check his belongings.
Sure enough, one of his shirts was missing. He sighed, once again angry with himsel. If he had confronted Celin earlier, instead of letting the matter pass, maybe he could have prevented this from happening. Now he had to confront him anyway.
He shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if Elano didn't know how to swim, or if he himself had not arrived when he did, or...
His mind wheeled on, shaping disasters which involved five or six people getting killed. With these thoughts in his head, he found it fairly easy to keep awake that night.
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TBC…
Many thanks to kind reviewers!
