The Teacher

Chapter 2


There, to the left of where they stood and a few yards out from the shoreline, stood a large black stallion. Sitting on the back of the horse was a young maiden with a mass of copper red hair that fell down her back, well past her backside. Elrond watched as she slid into the water, oblivious to the Elves presence. Looking along the shoreline, he noticed a pile of clothing, in an area that had been hidden from his view earlier. He let out a low groan. “I hope she is at least wearing a shift” he thought to himself; it had been hard to tell when she was on the horse because of her hair.

Motioning to his son’s, they backed around the bushes so that he could see her without her seeing them. Glorfindel, who had come over to see what the commotion was all about, stopped when Elrond raised his hand. Looking around him, Glorfindel let out a gasp when he saw what held his friends attention. They watched as she swam back over to the horse and pulled herself up onto his back. Slowly, with her back to the Elves, she stood up on the massive horses back. That’s when Elrond realized that she was in fact not wearing anything. He looked at his sons and Glorfindel. All three were staring at her like young, love-struck Elves. He told them to turn their backs and they did so, but grudgingly.

But Elrond didn’t turn. He watched as she dove back into the water, then swam back to the horse again. This time, though, she climbed back onto him, then grasping a hand full of his thick black mane, she turned him towards the shore. Elrond just stood there and watched as she rode towards them, taking her time, allowing the horse to pick his own way. “Are you going to ance nce our presence?” Glorfindel whispered, nudging Elrond in the side. Looking at him, Elrond nodded and, turning away, walked over and mounted his horse, motioning for the others to do the same. Luckily, the two wounded Elves had not dismounted yet. Nudging his horse forward he stated, in a louder than normal tone of voice, “This is as good a place as any to clean up”, knowing that the girl would hear him.

Then with a voice that could have come from a song bird, he heard her ask “Who’s there?” “What do you want?” Moving forward around the bush’s, with the others behind him, Elrond responded, “We are friends. We have traveled a long way and would like to wash the road dirt from our bodies.”

Suddenly he stopped his horse. There she stood in front of him. She had managed to put on a shift, leggings and boots, and was struggling with a tunic. “We did not realize you were here, we are sorry for the intrusion.” Looking around he asked, “Are you here alone?” Getting no answer from her, he dismounted and started walking towards her.

Suddenly, her horse came out of nowhere, rearing up on his back legs, and putting himself between Elrond and the girl. “Celahir! Down!” she shouted and immediately the horse came down on all fours. Stepping up to him, she said something to him speaking in a whisper so low that even the Elves with their excellent hearing could not make out what she said. But Celahir knew. Looking at her he knickered, then moved out of the way.

“My apologies, sir, but Celahir is very protective over me.”
“No apology is necessary my lady,” Elrond said; “he was only doing what he has been trained to do. As I said, we owe you an apology for coming up on you the way we did. My companions and I have traveled a long way, and just a short time ago we fought a band of Uruk-hai. We were merely looking for a place to rid ourselves of some of this grime.” He realized then that she was still struggling to put her tunic on, but was not having any luck. She had failed to dry herself completely and he could see that the dampness of her skin was causing her shift to cling to her, it was also causing two dark nipples to show thru the thin material. He turned his back to grant her some privacy. He was about to tell the others to do the same when Glorfindel dismounted and walked towards her, saying “It seems you are in need of some assistance in getting dressed. I would be more than happy to assist you.” Elrond could not believe what he had just heard. He was about to say something to Glorfindel when he heard the girl speak up. “If you were any kind of gentleman, you would turn your back and allow me some privacy.”

Elrond knew his friend would not like being talked to like that, especially by a human, so, hoping to change the subject, he interrupted them.
“I am looking for the home of William Honeyleaf. If you know him, perhaps you can give me directions to his home.”
“What do you want with him?” the girl asked.
“I have business with him of a personal nature.” The girl didn’t like this.
Looking at Elrond, then Glorfindel, then the others and then back at Elrond, she smiled and said “Go back to the main road, head north for one mile; there you will find a fork in the road, bear to the right and travel for five miles. You will come to a lone oak tree, follow the trail next to the tree, it will take you to his place.”
“Thank-you milady” Elrond said, then, turning to Glorfindel he said, “You, Elrohir and Amros will bathe first.”

Slowly Elrond walked over to where Celahir stood. Talking quietly to the horse, he reached out and touched the stallion’s neck. He could not get over the massive size of the animal. Celahir was bigger than his own horse, his tail almost touched the ground, and he had a mane so long and thick that he could think of a few she-elfs who would be jealous. “He is a beautiful creature, and a good protector; you are lucky to have a horse such as this,” Elrond said. By this time, Elladan had joined him, also admiring the horse.

Elrond looked at Glorfindel, noting that his friend was still staring at the girl, his bath all but forgotten. In fact, he appeared to be upset, perhaps because of the way the girl had spoken to him. “Privacy!” Glorfindel shouted, walking up to the girl as she finished pulling on her tunic, “Why are you worried about privacy?!” “You were not to worried about it when you stood on the back of that horse of yours and jumped into the lake with that lovely backside of yours showing!”

“What!” she yelled. Spinning around, she looked directly at Elrond. “What does he mean by that? Do you mean to tell me that you were already here when I was coming out of the water? I thought you said that you didn’t know I was here!”

“Nay, my lady, we did not” said Elrond. “When we came around the bush’s we saw you dive into the water, but we turned back. I only said what I did to save you from any embarrassment. There was no harm intended.”

Walking up to Elrond she glared at him, then before anyone knew what happened, they heard a crack, like skin meeting skin. They all looked at Elrond who just stood there. They watched as the skin on his cheek slowly turned red from where he had been struck. “There was no harm in that either,” the girl said, “or in this.” she continued She brought her hand up to slap him again, but Elrond was quicker. Grabbing her wrist and then the other when it came his way, he yelled for Elladan to watch her horse. Then he hooked his foot behind her legs, and brought her down to the ground, him landing on top of her.