Chapter Six: "Glass Onion"

A/N: Hello all, here is the re-reedited chapter six. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: As hard as I tried, as much I begged, Dr. Emmet Brown would not let me use neither the Delorian nor its flux capacitor to go back and take credit for Tolkien's work, woe is me.

Chapter Six: "Glass Onion"

(Flashback)

Snap, Crackle, and Pop sat back in their chairs and looked at us for a moment, then looked at each other and started talking to each other in that gibberish language of theirs.

Finally, they turned back to us. Glorfindel spoke.

"That is not precisely how Master Matthew explained it to me, you know."

(End Flashback)

"It-it's not." I stuttered. Well crap, now what was I going to do? I chanced a glance toward my student, who had a sincerely confused look on her face.

"No, but your story is simply shorter and more to the point than Master Matthew's, and for that, I am thankful."

"Oh," Heather and I turned to look at each other, she could only offer me a shrug, "well, alright then. Is there anything else you lords wanted from us. Do we need to discuss terms of payment for our lodgings, and where we might find supplies, and possibly help, in our search of Matt?"

El-Dorado and his two counselors-advisers-whatever they are- turned to one another and quickly conversed in their language before turning back to us.

"What would you like to know, Master Robert. The Bruinen is unusually strong for being this late in the year. My ellon are searching now as we speak. You yourself have just said that you are not knowledgeable of these lands. What do you suggest I do?"

I thought about it for a long while as they all sat looking at me. I had a responsibility to Matt's family. The decision was obvious.

"Allow me to go search for Matt."

Several eyebrows shot up at that, and Heather gave me a questioning look.

"Mr. Grey?"

"Look, I know you all believe him to be dead, but I know Matt better than you, I can guarantee you he's washed up on a river bank somewhere, lost and not knowing how to get back to us, and I'm not going to rest until I find out where he's at."

El-Dorado leaned forward with his elbows on the table, his ridiculously long sleeves trailing down, "I do not deny that there may be strength in your friend, but we are already looking for him, more search parties are being sent out in the morning to look for him."

"That's nice," I said, sarcasm dripping off the words. Boy, I needed to go to bed, I was really beginning to get grouchy, "but in the meantime, what happens if we find a way to get back to our homeland, what do I tell his wife, Vicki, or his four sons, Thomas, Silas, Lukas, and Phillip? 'Oh, I'm sorry, you're husband and father drowned in a river in a land so far from here, that we know not of it, so you'll never be able to see him again, or even bury him properly. So sorry.' Yeah, that'll work wonderfully El-Dorado."

Lord Elrond gave me a quizzical look as Lord Glorfindel mouthed the words, 'El-Dorado'. Lord Erestor gave me a look, "It would be wise to remember the name of your host, Mast Robert."

"Peace, Lord Erestor. Our language and names are more than foreign to Master Robert. However, to clarify, I am Lord Elrond Half-elven, Lord of Imladris."

Elrond stood and straightened his robes before walking around the table to me, and extended an arm to touch my shoulder and lead me off a ways towards one of the many balconies, "and if you insist on finding him, wait at least a couple of weeks, then we will see if any of the ellon would be willing to go with you on an extended search down river. In the meantime, you and your young pupil rest here, and recover your strength. We can discuss how to board your charge here whilst you search. I can see already that the wounds in your back are bothering you. I can take a look at them if you so desire. I am a healer of some renown."

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders. My back really did hurt, besides, I felt there wasn't much more we could do tonight. So I nodded and bid Heather good night as Elrond instructed Erestor to escort Heather back to her room and asked Glorfindel to send for someone when Elrond was done looking at my back.

Elrond gestures for me to walk with him and sets off down another corridor. Another obnoxiously long, labyrinth corridor which made one hopelessly lost if they weren't paying attention. I told Elrond as such. He chuckled and said that it was designed so that people would slow down and take in the beauty of nature surrounding them, helping them to relax. Great, now I can declare that it's not just a pain in the butt, but a sneaky pain in the butt.

We ended up in what was quite possibly the nicest looking hospital I had ever seen. The walls were a nice, soft yellow, and the beams were a creamy white, making graceful, arching patterns on the ceiling, the room itself was quite large, with thin rods criss crossing the ceiling to make a grid pattern so that curtains could be hung to create privacy for the patients if they wanted it. I could see a couple of tall shapes resting on beds down at the far end, and a pretty elf lady was checking on one of them.

"What happened to those two?" I asked as Elrond instructed me to take off my shirt while he set up a tray of different jars and strips of linen.

"The one Lirieth is attending to was shot by a poisoned orc arrow in the abdomen while out on patrol, the other fell off his horse when it was startled during a hunt, and he ended up getting gored in the leg by the boar he and his party were hunting." I grimaced for them, seems even elves could get injured around here. That posed the question, how was I going to survive here?

"Well," Elrond said as I felt him work on my back, "for getting only the adequate care my ellyn could give to you, I'd say this will patch up quite nicely. You only have a few sizable gouges in your skin. The rest is all scrapes and scratches. Things that will heal well enough on their own. Now, you will need to have someone else wash your back for you, as the wounds will need to be bathed regularly, I was informed that you would not have another wash your back for you. You must not do this again. Modesty is of very little concern for the elves, we will not judge you. I would recommend using lots of mint oil in your bath to help with the inflammation and infection. Beyond that, there is not much else I can do for you for now." Elrond and I sat in silence for a while and he rubbed mint oil on my back. The sounds of the female elf checking in on the other two patients was the only noise in there, until, as usual, I broke the silence. I don't do not talking well, probably the teacher in me.

"Elrond, I mean, Lord Elrond. What's going to be done about finding Matt?"

There was more silence while Elrond wrapped strips of linen around my torso. Finally, he spoke.

"We will do what we can. The river is unusually strong for this late in the year. But if you say he is strong enough to get himself to a shore. Then I will send search parties out to look for him further down the Bruinen." He helped me get back into my shirt, as the bandages were hampering my attempts, and I turned to him, looking him in the eye.

"I really do want to go with the search parties. Help them find him." Elrond opened his mouth to contradict me, but I beat him to it.

"He might have been hurt, might not remember who he is. I would have an easier time recognizing if he'd left a marker showing where he had been, or convincing him of himself if he has amnesia Please," I gave him my most solemn look, which, surprisingly, looks very similar to ones I give to students when I'm really desperate to get them to do their homework so that they pass and get out of my class, "he's my best friend, and I owe him that much. What would I say to his wife and kids if I didn't bring him home."

Elrond gave me a sad look. There was something in his eyes, like he knew something I didn't know.

"Very well, Master Robert."

"Bob."

"Beg your pardon?"

"My name, I prefer to just be called Bob, the only person who calls me Robert is my wife when she's especially angry with me."

Elrond blinked a little at that.

"Very well then, Master Bob, I give you free leave to accompany the search parties. But not for a few more days, you would not be able to ride a horse for very long with your back in this shape. I honestly don't know how you managed to spend all day riding a horse through less than forgiving terrain with your back in that position."

"Shear force of will," I responded quickly, "and the knowledge that I would have a hot bath and good food when it was all over with."

Elrond let out a hearty laugh and patted me on the arm.

"That is the mulish stubbornness of men, I am well aware that where other races would give in, they would keep on going."

"You seem to know much about us lowly, mulish men," I questioned, jokingly.

Elrond chuckled again and lead me back down the hall where we came from.

"I am a half elf, Master Bob; both of my parents were half man, half elf. I and my twin brother, Elros, were given the choice if we wanted to be counted of the race of elf, or man. I, as you can see, chose to be counted among the first born, whereas my brother Elros chose to be counted as a man."

I thought about that for all of two seconds.

"But why would anyone choose to die?"

"Why would anyone choose to watch while everything you know, the friends and family you love, fade away and die, while you remain, never to keep those that you cherish."

That shut me up for a bit. Well, a short bit anyways. Another thought came to my mind, it comes with being an adult and having those pesky responsibilities.

"Who will take care of Heather while I am out searching for Matt?"

"I am sure my daughter, Arwen, would love to keep Lady Heather in her company."

"You have children?"

"Yes, three. Twin sons, Elladan and Elrohir, and my daughter, Arwen Undomiel."

"I have five kids. Three boys, Brian, Leland, and Veryl, and two daughters, Cheryl and Bridget. They've given me five grandchildren too."

"Then you are well blessed. Alas, I have doubts as to whether or not I will ever have grandchildren."

"That's a shame, are they just not interested?"

We were at the door to my room. How did we get back here anyways?

"That, Master Robert, is a long story which we will have to wait until we have more time. For now, you must sleep, tomorrow; we will put together a plan of where to search."

"Very well then Lord Elrond. Thank-you," I paused, feeling like a teenager being dismissed from his principal, "and have a good night, Sir."

Elrond bowed his toward me and swept off down the corridor without a sound. How do they do that?

The next morning was bright sunny, and I hated it. Sure, the bed was really comfortable, the clothes Glamhirel laid out for me were really nice, but I still have arthritis in my back, knees, and hips. Thus, getting out of that nice comfy bed was just as excruciating as it is back home.

"By the Valar, I can actually hear your joints creaking and cracking!" Glamhirel exclaimed as he helped me into my shirt and long leather vest. I shot him a dirty look.

"You age like I do, and you'll be lucky to be moving as well as I am." A thought occurred to me.

"Do you have any sort of paths or tracks where I can run? I run five miles every morning back home, just to stay in shape, it would be nice to have somewhere to run here."

"Hm, that is an interesting request. There are paths all throughout Imladris where you can run. I'm sure it will be alright for you to use them. I shall show you them after breakfast and the tour."

"Tour?"

"Oh yes, Lord Erestor instructed me to give you and Lady Heather a tour of the House of Elrond today. I'll even show you the rest of Imladris if you like."

"That'd be nice. Heather could use something to occupy her mind, not which that's not hard to do anyways, that kid has an unnatural love of learning, and it's sort of disturbing."

Glamhirel gave me a confused look as we set off to collect said topic of conversation and get to the dinning hall for breakfast.

"Mast- Bob," he started, "was I not informed correctly when it was said that you are a teacher?"

"Hm? No, I'm a teacher."

"Then why would you think it strange that a student would want to learn?"

"Well," I began, not quite knowing where I would go with this, "where we are from, it is mandatory for children to go to school. Most kids don't want to go, or at least, don't want to go to the classes they don't like. I teach history, it's a subject I'm sure most students would like to become history. But not Heather, she has this love of learning, and reading, or anything which leaves her with only herself for company as far as I've seen,

I've seen that girl read books ranging in topic from Ancient History to 'How To' books on knitting. For a teacher that's used to seeing kids not care all that much, it's just alien."

Speaking of alien, there she is now, another book under her arm, and another dress that's just too big for her thin frame.

"We were just talking about you," I started, trying to keep the conversation light. I could tell by the circles under her eyes she slept about as much as I did last night, "what book are you reading now?"

"This? It's an encyclopedia of machines from the industrial revolution, it includes detailed diagrams. It's quite fascinating."

"Whatever you say, Spock."

Ugh, it's such a pain when you're the only one who gets the pop culture references. Glamhirel looked very confused. Heather, fortunately, only mildly so.

"Fascinating, it was Spock's catchphrase." I said for Heather's benefit. I wouldn't even bother trying to explain how the heck TVs work to Glammy. We needed to stick to our story if we were going to survive.

When Glamhirel did ask what this 'show' was we were talking about, Heather looked to me for a suitable answer.

"It's a play from our country, very popular with certain crowds."

"Ah, I see." We continued on in silence for a short time before we came to a large set of doors, behind which much noise could be heard.

"This is the main eating hall, breakfast is served fairly early in the morning. So I wouldn't suggest sleeping in late. He opened the door and gestured for us to go first.

It was a very large hall, with many long tables, packed with elves, and what looked to be a smattering of people, honest to goodness people, and, was that, in the corner?

"Dwarves?" Heather questioned.

"Have you never seen a dwarf, Lady Heather?"

"We don't have dwarves where we come from. Can I meet them?"

"I wouldn't bother, it's not like you'd be missing much. However, I can introduce you if you like."

"Oh, can I? I've read about dwarves in stories, but I didn't think they actually existed."

"Most assuredly they do, their smell renders them all but impossible to ignore."

"You don't like them, Mr. Glamhirel?"

"Elves and Dwarves don't get along that entirely well, even when they're on the best of terms, Lady Heather."

"Why? Have they done something to you?"

"To me personally, no, but there is bad blood between our races."

"Well that's not right." Heather exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Heather, not now. You can discuss civil rights and equality another time." I muttered to her, guiding her to an empty seat in the middle of the room.

"But that's not right, disliking someone based on something they themselves didn't do."

Glamhirel rubbed his hands together in an agitated fashion without further comment and waited till we were seated before bidding us adieu.

We sat by ourselves in the hall, eating breakfast and listening to the conversations swirling around us. Finally, Glamhirel came to get us as the crowds were thinning out.

"Well, shall I show you around the House of Elrond now?"

I suddenly remember why there was a little voice in the back of my mind telling me to lay of all the food. Curse you, tasty bread.

Little sleep, aching hips, cracking knees, Swiss cheese for a back, and now a really full stomach and soon to be really full bladder, and we were going to be walking up and down this hilly valley on a tour? Why oh why did I leave the blood pressure medicine at home?