Title: A Teacher's Duty
Chapter 21: A Meeting with Aragorn
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.
The moment Aragorn left the clearing; the children surrounded the tree house, shouting questions up to Elano.
"Why did he leave?"
"Where did he go?"
"What did you say to him, Elano?"
"Where's sir?"
"How's Ivana?"
"Yes, how is Ivana, Elano?"
Elano climbed tiredly down from the tree house, raising a placating hand to silence the questions as he jumped to the ground from a low branch. Catching Linnor's eye, he jerked his head upwards in a wordless request for her to sit with Ivana. In a moment she was climbing up, unnoticed by the others, who were all gazing intently at Elano and awaiting an answer.
Ivana is fine," Elano said, to the general relief of all. No one liked Ivana particularly, but they certainly would not wish death upon her. Their jubilation lasted only for a few moments; however, and then their minds turned anxiously to Aragorn's departure.
"King Elessar has gone to seek sir," he said in reply to their queries.
"But why?" Linnor asked from above them; evidently she had been listening in on the conversation.
"He met sir on the way here and…" Elano's voice shook and died as he struggled to retain control of his emotions.
"And?" Linnor pressed him.
"He thinks that sir may be poisoned, by an orc blade," Elano answered in one breath.
He was greeted by blank silence, "But if sir was poisoned, then wouldn't King Elessar have done something to help him? He knew about the orcs attacking us, did he not?" someone, Elano was never sure who, asked bewilderedly.
"Actually he didn't know," Elano answered, frowning slightly, "He asked me what happened to sir just moments ago. I suppose sir led him to believe that it was an accident at practice which caused Ivana's injury, because when Lord Aragorn came here, he had absolutely no idea of what was going on."
"You mean, sir didn't tell him!" Linnor exclaimed, horrified.
"No…he didn't," Elano answered, irritated with himself for not having made this inference before.
"So how does he know that sir is-?" somebody else began, but Elano cut him off before he could finish.
"He doesn't know," he said, "He saw how tired and pale sir was looking because, you know how he hasn't been sleeping; and he asked me if I had checked him for poison. I said no, it hadn't occurred to me, so he said he would go and seek sir out to check if he really was poisoned. There's every reason to believe he isn't though."
He gave everybody a tired smile, trying to make light of the situation for their sakes, but nobody was fooled by this. For once they were all silent as they thought of the implications of Legolas being poisoned, glancing at each other in a fruitless search for comfort.
Elano broke the silence by asking in a rather forced matter-of-fact tone, "Does any one have a change of clothes that I can borrow?" He smiled ruefully, "I feel as though I've worn the same thing for decades."
"I have a shirt," Elgalad replied.
"You can borrow my trousers," Pilinel said at the same time.
"Thanks," Elano said gratefully. "It's time for the next lot to go up to the tree house to sleep. Try not to-"
"We won't disturb Ivana, Elano," the class chimed together, rolling their eyes at each other. They had heard the same words so many times in the last few days that they knew them by heart and felt no need to be reminded again.
Elano smiled sheepishly and continued from where he had left off, "Will you handle the lots yourselves? I don't remember whose turn it is and I'm far too tired to follow you up on this."
This sentence had the desired effect; for aside from angry shouts and protests, the children did exactly what he wanted them to, with a great deal of fervor, in an attempt to prove that the did not need to be 'followed up'.
If Elano's mood had been lighter, he would have smiled, amused by his success. He walked a little way from the clearing and changed quickly in a thicket of trees, after which he went up to the tree house, and washed his face with water from his own supply.
He felt a little better after this, but was still rather inclined to weep every time he thought about his mistake in not checking Legolas's wounds for poison. He leaned against the wooden wall of the tree house, in the only place unoccupied by sleeping Elflings. Though he had expected to be too worried to sleep, his exhaustion overcame his anxiety, and his eyes slid closed in a testament to his exhaustion.
…
Celin looked over his shoulder worriedly. Arod was lagging behind, for he had sensed that Legolas was injured or hurt in some way. What worried Celin, however, was that Legolas was no longer trying to urge the horse forward as he had been doing during the past few hours. It appeared that even Legolas's strong will could be broken by the orcs' poison.
Ever since Legolas's pretence had fallen over a day ago, his already fragile health had deteriorated rapidly. Now Legolas could barely sit on his horse without feeling nauseous, let alone think of food.
Gradually during the long hours, their roles reversed, and instead of Legolas leading Celin to safety, it became Celin who was leading Legolas to safety. The boy pushed his teacher relentlessly to his limits, not allowing anyone to rest for more than half an hour, for he knew with chilling certainty that time was of the essence.
The horses were exhausted, thought Celin, regretfully patting his own on the head, but it was nothing compared to how ill Legolas seemed to become with every passing hour.
He cast another look back at his ailing teacher, and with a horrified gasp doubled back and quickly caught him before he slid off his horse.
Legolas said something soothing to the agitated Arod, and muttered something about feeling dizzy to Celin, inwardly cursing himself for once again displaying weakness. He leaned forward to coax Arod to ride a little faster, but Celin, guessing his intent, caught him by the shoulder and shook his head firmly.
"Stop, before you fall off again," he said, dismounting
Legolas's eyes widened in surprise as his student started rummaging in his bag of supplies, "What are you doing?" he all but croaked, "You know we can't stop-"
"Don't talk, conserve you strength, sir," Celin muttered distractedly, drawing out a length of rope.
Gently, he pushed Legolas down so that he was lying with his head on the horse's neck. Ignoring various protestations from his amazed teacher, he tied the older Elf to the horses back securely so that he could not fall off.
Arod looked decidedly amazed by this odd arrangement, but he bore with the situation out of love for his Elven master, as Celin had hoped he would. Legolas was nearly beside himself when Celin had finished.
"Why have you done this?" he asked, struggling to move from his lying down position.
"I've tied you so you won't fall, sir," Celin answered in a tone that made it clear that he would not be moved to do anything else, "Try to get some sleep."
"Sleep? In this position?" Legolas said, wondering if Celin had taken leave of his senses, "I'm going to be sick if I have to ride like this!"
"Sir, I don't think you could become sicker than you are already," Celin answered, "Just…shut your eyes and try to rest."
Without listening to another word from his protesting teacher, Celin mounted his horse and kept on riding in the direction of Mirkwood. Arod followed soon after, and presently Legolas decided not to speak anymore, for fear of being sick on opening his mouth. To his surprise, he was able to sleep fitfully, but not for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time because of the roughness of the road beneath his horses hooves.
A few hours later, Mirkwood's borders were in sight, to the acute relief of both teacher and student. Another hour passed, and they had plunged into the woods. But here Celin did not know his way through the winding pathways and the many forks, having only used them once.
He reluctantly awoke Legolas to ask for directions. Of course, Legolas insisted that he be untied so he could see where they were going, and Celin complied grudgingly because he knew that losing their way would be worse than anything else that might happen.
They rode on for a while until they reached a clearing. Legolas stopped and dismounted, bidding Celin to do the same.
"We're close," Legolas said by way of explanation, as he flopped down on the forest floor, far too tired to stand, "Climb a tree, and see if you can spot the others."
Celin nodded and climbed the tallest tree in sight. He spotted the willow tree with its tree house almost at once.
"I see it, sir," he told Legolas.
"Then you will know your way there from here, won't you?" Legolas asked.
"Yes, of course I will, sir" Celin said decisively, about to add that he would tie Legolas to his horse so he could sleep again, for the camp was still an hour's ride away.
"Then you must go on without me."
"What?" Celin said in shock, climbing down the tree and facing Legolas, "Sir, you know I cannot do that!"
"Celin, it will only slow us down if I continue," Legolas said, "Surely you can see that?"
"Yes, but I-" Celin began, but Legolas cut him short.
"Go to Aragorn and give him this letter," he said firmly, drawing the letter out of his pocket and handing it to Celin, "Send him to heal me."
Celin looked at Legolas in confusion. It was not like the teacher to actually propose that he go on alone through the perilous forests of Mirkwood. Nor was it like him to ask someone to go and find help for himself. In fact, Celin had thought that Legolas would try and keep up his pretences in front of Aragorn, and had been envisioning having to tell tales on his own teacher.
He wondered suspiciously whether his teacher was up to something, and Legolas, sensing his doubt, bade him "Go!" with more firmness than Celin had sensed he possessed.
"Alright," the boy said at last, "Wait here, sir, and I will send Aragorn as soon as I can."
"I know you will," Legolas smiled in relief, "Keep your sword at the ready and if you hear or see anything suspicious, climb the trees. Look out for spiders."
"Don't worry, sir," Celin said, "Just promise me you'll be here when we come to find you."
"Mmm," Legolas replied, not quite meeting his eyes.
Celin frowned at him suspiciously, "I mean it, sir!"
"Of course you do," Legolas said, "Now hurry up, before it's too late."
Celin gave Legolas another suspicious look; but he mounted his horse and rode swiftly out of the clearing. As soon as he was out of sight, Legolas shifted his position on the ground, and took out his emergency dagger from his boot.
…
Celin had only been riding for two minutes, when he heard horse hooves sound before him. He stiffened and dismounted quickly, looking around for a place to hide his horse. There was none. He drew his sword and waited with a quickened heartbeat for the rider to emerge near the turning of the path, planning to surprise the rider into submission.
But when the rider came within sight, Celin lowered his sword and stepped forward with a joyful cry. "Lord Aragorn!"
"Celin!" the Man said, pulling on his horses reins, "What are you doing here all alone? Where is Legolas?"
"Legolas is in the clearing that you will find if you follow this path," Celin answered him, "He has been poisoned by an orc blade, my Lord-"
Aragorn groaned as his worst fears were realized, and was about to ride off again, when Celin shouted suddenly, "Wait! I nearly forgot, he told me to give you this letter," Celin handed him the letter and as Aragorn started to unfold it he asked, "By the by, my Lord, how is Ivana?"
"She is well, I was able to save her," Aragorn said distractedly, as he began to read the letter.
He had not read two lines, when he gasped and dropped the letter as though it had burned him. A moment later, he pulled on his horses reins and rode down the path as fast as he could, leaving an extremely confused Celin staring after him.
…
TBC…
Hello people! Sorry about the chapter title, couldn't think of anything better than that.
Today I have another question, or rather a topic to raise with you. The topic of Mary Sues (don't worry WildBlackWolf and Viva, this has nothing to do with you, Ivana's been called a Mary Sue before this). When I asked, in this very story, what a Mary Sue was, exactly, I was told more or less that she is a female original character with a flawless personality (no faults at all!), beautiful, and always falling in love with a canon character such as Legolas or Aragorn (I don't think an MS has EVER fallen in love with Gimli, LOL!).
But what I don't get is the fact that everyone is prejudiced towards the females. Why never the men? Elano, for example, has a very, very sweet personality, almost flawless personality. But no one's ever called him a Mary Sue. Also, we make even Aragorn and Legolas really REALLY perfect in our stories. They are always saving peoples' lives, etc. etc. Are they Mary Sues then?
For me, I'll read any story, MS or not, if it's well written with a good plot. I just want to hear everyone's opinion on this, and perhaps looked into the bias against women that most of us, including myself (for this struck me only recently), are party to.
Anyway, that's enough for now. Review replies:
Kabuki733701: Thanks, I appreciate it.
Lindahoyland: My best yet? Thanks! Healing scenes? I'm afraid I'm gonna disappoint you, but I was planning to gloss that over the way I did with Ivana. Don't get me wrong, I HAVE looked on the net. I found this information on the properties of herbs of medieval Europe and what they could cure, but I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how those herbs can be used. If you gave me a good site to check on, I will try and include healing scenes, but I'm afraid not as much as you have in your stories because I don't have too much talent for such things. You may have noticed how I always say 'herb' or 'shrub' but never give the name of the herb in my stories.
Ella Enchanted is a best seller by Gail Carson Levine (I think that's how you spell it). It was made into a movie last year and I loved it, don't think it was a huge hit though. Thanks for reviewing!
James: Welcome back! It's been ages since you reviewed this.
WildBlackWolf and Viva: Naughty, naughty. Breaking an entry. I'm going to call the cops! Sorry about that, I went a little nuts for a second.
Yes, English is practically my first language. That's because my mum and dad come from different parts of India, and thus did not have a common language to speak in except English. Thus I grew up listening to English at home (and am ashamed to say that I only know one Indian language- and that not very well). Not to mention the two years spent at JIS.
I seem to be a lot different than you; I'm okay at science and math, I suck big time on Geography, but I'm good at music, history and English. You seem to be more of a science person, yet you read fanfiction. Then again, you don't write it. What the hell am I saying? SERIOUSLY.
I can guarantee that Ivana has no romantic feelings for Legolas, but please answer the question asked above. I want to know what you mean exactly, when you say you hate a Mary Sue. Just want to hear your opinion, don't take this the wrong way.
Weird teachers. Hm. History I think. The woman who was said to be the beauty of the school until she decided, abruptly, to cut all her lovely hair off as short as though she'd shaved it. Not to mention she wears a huge bindi (big red dot) in the center of her head. It looks terrible with the short hair.
Until the ninth, she scared us to death by not appearing to have any knowledge of what the word 'syllabus' means. Then in the 10th suddenly she didn't know the meaning of any other word apart from that. In the ninth she made us right an essay on whose life we'd save, an ant's or a dog's. Something about Buddha. We wasted two classes debating that. I said all the right things, but some people never learn.
Someone said that there are too many ants anyway, so why not let one or two die, and she accused them of being Hitler. Not to mention, she cried every time she did Buddha with us.
Okay, I got to go now. Give me a long review on whatever you wannna talk about. See you!