Elf Academy by Fiondil

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Chapter 11: Interlude

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11: Interlude

Saturday morning after breakfast, while Cassie and some of the other students invaded the internet café, Glorfindel and Nimrodel walked into town to visit the ski shop. It was one of the larger stores in town with aisles and aisles of poles and skis and boots and all the paraphernalia of downhill and cross-country skiing, as well as snow boards, toboggans and ice skates. One section held clothes appropriate for these winter sports. The two Elves looked over the garments with a critical eye.

"We want something that everyone can wear without looking foolish," Glorfindel said as he took in the racks of coats, sweaters, ski pants and the like.

"And still be warm," Nimrodel said with a wry grin. "I don’t know what Marian and Deirdre were thinking with those outfits, but no amount of thermal underwear would keep anyone warm in them."

"Ridiculous and insulting," Glorfindel said with obvious distaste. "I confess I was ready to join the Twins in their exodus, but I decided that would be the coward’s way out and would leave our friends in the lurch with no one to champion their cause."

"Do they even know they have a champion or need one?" the elleth asked.

"It matters not," Glorfindel answered imperiously. "They have one in me whether they know it or not, whether they think they even need one or not. Evan’s look of horror was all I needed to take on the role of guardian for these children against the so-called adults who would insult them and belittle them in such a fashion."

"Well, let’s see if we can’t find something that any Elf would be proud to wear," Nimrodel said with a smile and they continued to stroll through the clothing section, hoping to find something suitable, but nothing seemed appropriate. Either the colors were all wrong or if something looked like it might work, it would turn out not to be gender-neutral so everyone could wear it.

They were almost ready to give up when they turned into a cul-de-sac and found themselves looking at shelves of pullovers. They were in all shades including a lovely dark forest green and a red that was a bright cranberry. Nimrodel pulled one off the shelf to examine. It was bare of any logo or design, which was in its favor as far as they were concerned. It had a high neck and it was closed with a zipper that only opened to mid-chest. The sleeves were uncuffed and the whole thing fell to below the hips when Nimrodel tried it on. She took a look at the tag.

"A hundred percent polyester yet it has the feel and look of velour," she said in satisfaction.

"Which means it’s entirely washable," Glorfindel said with a pleased look.

Nimrodel checked the various sizes. "From small all the way to three-XL," she said. "And the best thing about them is that they’re gender-neutral."

"The forest green and cranberry red would satisfy the Christmas theme, but look! It also comes in white as well."

"Red and white for the men and green and white for the women if everyone buys two of these?" Nimrodel asked.

Glorfindel shook his head. "Let them choose whichever colors they want. Actually, they could easily afford to buy all three colors for these are on sale for ten dollars each, three for twenty-five."

"Still, even with thermals underneath, I doubt the Mortals would be warm enough in just these. They’ll need to wear some kind of arctic jacket."

"The safari companies outfit their guests with arctic boots and overalls, remember?" Glorfindel reminded her. "There’s no reason why their employees shouldn’t be outfitted as well, at least with a coat. The rest would be provided by the Elf."

"Yet, how does that distinguish the Elf guides from the other types of employees?" Nimrodel said. "These pullovers are very plain. There’s nothing to say that the person wearing one is a Christmas Elf."

"Excuse me."

They turned to see a young woman in her early thirties smiling at them. She had short black hair and brilliant blue eyes and stood only chest high to Glorfindel. She wore a waist length green cotton sleeveless tunic over her white turtleneck and grey slacks. The store logo of a downhill skier was stitched over the left breast, and there were deep pockets on the front. A name tag announced that she was ‘Sally’.

"I couldn’t help overhearing some of your conversation. Perhaps I could be of assistance?" Sally asked.

Glorfindel glanced at Nimrodel who shrugged, then turned back to the young Mortal with a gracious smile. "Perhaps you can," he said. "We’re from the college, the Elf Academy actually." Sally nodded in understanding and Glorfindel continued. "The various safari companies and resorts have decided that Elves should wear a distinctive uniform. Unfortunately, the one they came up with is very unsuitable."

"Horrendous, actually," Nimrodel put in with a grimace. "We students decided to come up with our own uniform because none of us will wear what they came up with."

Sally gave them a sympathetic smile. "I see. What sort of uniform were you thinking of?" she asked.

"Nothing really fancy or expensive," Glorfindel replied. "Part of our tuition goes for the cost of the uniform, but I suspect it is for their uniform, not ours. So, we need to come up with something that everyone can afford."

"Hmmm... you know, we are having a sale on our winter wear and there’s also a student discount," Sally said. "Why don’t we come up with something and see how much it will cost?" Both Elves nodded and Sally looked over the pullovers. "I think you were discussing the need for arctic coats."

"Yes," Glorfindel said. "We were thinking of these pullovers with black ski pants and an arctic coat, but we are not sure it will be distinctive enough."

"Color is the key," Sally said, all professional in her demeanor. "While green and red are traditional Christmas colors, white or silver, gold and blue are also becoming popular." She paused to think, then gave them a brilliant smile. "Let’s take this white pullover and go hunting."

Glorfindel raised an eyebrow at the sparkle of glee in Sally’s eyes as he and Nimrodel followed the young Mortal. He recognized it as similar to the glee he had often seen in the Twins’ eyes when they were about to go hunting for orcs. Sally apparently had the same adrenaline rush of the hunt as any hunter, even though her prey was the perfect outfit rather than orcs or a ten-point buck. He smiled at the image of her with bow and arrow hunting through the store for just the right pair of boots.

Sally, oblivious to Glorfindel’s thoughts, made her way to the ski jackets and went to a particular rack. "These are not our most expensive parkas," she told them, "but they do the job. I like them because the style is somewhat different from the usual ski jacket." She pulled one out to show.

The coat was white and consisted of a thick outer shell that had the look of suede to it, rather than the usual polyester, with a removable inner shell made of blue fleece. There were two deep pockets in the front as well as side pockets. When Nimrodel tried it on, it came to her hips. The fleece shell closed with a zipper while the outer shell had large buttons, giving the coat a somewhat old-fashioned look when completely closed. It had a detachable hood trimmed with black faux fur.

"This outer shell is insulated with a thin thermal layer," Sally said, "so it’s warmer than it looks."

"And it isn’t too heavy or bulky in spite of the layers," Nimrodel said to Glorfindel.

"Now, let’s look over here at ski pants," Sally continued. "I think if we combine the white pullover with this parka and black ski pants, we might have the beginnings of a nice looking outfit." She grabbed a pair of ski pants and then sailed on through the aisles with the Elves in tow.

"It doesn’t look that distinctive," Nimrodel said. "I suspect that you’re going to find a lot of people wearing the same outfit or something similar."

"Ah..." Sally exclaimed in triumph, "but we haven’t finished. Now, here we have knit hat and scarf sets." She searched through the racks until she found what she was looking for, pulling out two distinct sets. "This style of hat is different from the usual, as you can see," she said. "It’s a style that’s popular in Europe. I think together with the old-fashioned looking coat the outfit will have an Old World look to it. What do you think?"

Glorfindel looked at the hats. They were shaped more like medieval peasant caps with earflaps. Braided drawstrings hung from the flaps and another was attached to the top. While obviously machined knitted, they looked as if they’d been hand-knitted with bands of colors and a design of stars and snowflakes. One hat was primarily red and white, while the other was green and white. Both were lined with white felt. The scarfs were striped with the same colors.

Sally took everything over to a counter where she laid the coat down, shoving the pullover inside it and the ski pants underneath. Then she wrapped the red-and-white-striped scarf around the neck and placed the matching hat just above the ensemble. She stepped back to admire her handiwork.

"Now I am thinking that the women could wear the red-and-white-striped scarf and hat set while the men wore the green-and-white one. Gloves and boots would be supplied by the students themselves. What do you think?"

The Elves stared at the outfit lying on the counter. Glorfindel tried to imagine how distinctive such an outfit might appear to others. He called up a mental image of Cassie and Matt wearing the outfit but with the appropriate hat and scarf set as Sally had suggested as they greeted families at the airport. He tried to imagine several students of both genders walking through the woods with their groups wearing this outfit and realized that Sally might have something there. The coat was indeed distinctive enough in style from the usual polyester parkas and that alone helped. He realized that Sally was correct. The striped colors of the scarf and the Old World look of the hat made the entire outfit distinctive, making the entire outfit stand out from the usual winter garb. He nodded and gave Nimrodel a glance. She was pursing her lips in deep thought but she nodded as well.

"So, how much would all this cost?" Glorfindel asked.

"It would be wise for you to buy two sets of the pullover and ski pants," Sally said, "then you can wash one and wear the other." Glorfindel nodded. Sally reached over the counter and grabbed a calculator and began punching in numbers. "With the student discount it comes to this," she said, shoving the calculator at them.

"That’s just a bit more than the fifty dollars Marian said we would have to pay for the second set of that atrocious outfit," Nimrodel stated. "If we can convince the administration to buy the coats for everyone then students are only out about thirty-five dollars."

"Less than that," Sally reminded them, "because they would get the student discount on whatever they buy themselves. If the college buys the coats, we can probably do a bulk discount that will save them money. Obviously, there aren’t enough coats in stock, but we can easily order more and they’ll be here before the holiday season. Same with the other stuff."

Glorfindel nodded, feeling pleased. "We’ll have to buy two sets to model for the others," he said, "though I’m not sure I want to spend the money in case the students nix the idea."

"No problem," Sally said with a smile. "I have a digital camera. I’ll take pictures of you both and print them out on the store’s computer to take with you. And I just thought of something. Over on McDowell there’s a commercial embroidery shop that does company logos and such. Perhaps they could design a distinctive name tag that you would wear on your coat letting people know you are an Elf guide. I’ll give you directions. It’s just a five minute walk around the corner."

Glorfindel nodded. "We’ll go find our sizes," he said, and Sally pointed to where the dressing rooms were.

"We have a display over by the windows," she said. "I’ll meet you there to take the pics. Oh, and help yourselves to boots and gloves to complete the ensemble."

Twenty minutes later, Glorfindel and Nimrodel walked out of the shop with two printouts of them in the outfits and directions to the embroidery shop. They turned to wave at Sally who waved back. Half an hour later, after consulting with Tom, who ran the embroidery shop, they had a printout of a computer mock-up for the name tag: a dark blue background with the person’s name between two snowflakes all stitched in white. The style of the letters was similar to the Celtic lettering found in the Lindisfarne Gospels. When asked for a name, Glorfindel, out of pure mischief, gave him his own. Tom merely raised an eyebrow but made no other comment as he plugged in the letters on the computer.

"We can glue the tag on stiff mounting board with a pin," Tom had told them. "That way, when you’re no longer working as elves, you can remove the tag and wear the coat as you normally would."

"I think we have a winner," Glorfindel said with a huge grin as he and Nimrodel bade Tom farewell and made their way back to the college. Nimrodel grinned back in full agreement.

****

Just before lunch, Glorfindel went to the cafeteria and pinned the two photos of him and Nimrodel in the outfits on the bulletin board with the name tag printout in between. To one side of the photos was an itemized listing of the cost for the entire outfit including the name tag which would cost the students an additional five dollars. Nimrodel had grabbed some construction paper from the stationary store on their way back to the Academy and made a sign that read: THE NEW ELF LOOK!, with each word on a separate sheet of paper. She pinned it above the photos and then underneath all that she pinned up another sign that simply read: YES? NO? VOTE! Sheets of paper were placed on a table next to the bulletin board on which Glorfindel had written the slogan as a heading with NAME/YES/NO on a line below.

As students began to saunter into the cafeteria, they gravitated to the bulletin board, looking over the photos. There were smiles all around. Out came cell phones as many of them took photos of the display. Glorfindel suspected that these would be sent to their parents for comparison purposes. Then, they lined up to sign the voting sheets before heading for the cafeteria line. Glorfindel and Nimrodel had already signed the top sheet and naturally voted ‘yes’.

"Good job," Daeron said as he and the other Elves found them sitting at the table digging into their lunch. "I think we may have a winner here."

"Me, too," Glorfindel said. He and Nimrodel then explained how they had come up with the outfits and there were pleased nods from everyone at the table.

"Now all we have to do is convince the Admin people," Lily said.

Cassie shook her head. "Nah. Our parents will be doing the convincing for us," and the others all agreed.

"We’re going to take the display down in between meals so Marian can’t order it taken down," Glorfindel said. "I’ll put it back up before dinner and then again on Sunday before each meal. Hopefully by Monday we’ll have everyone’s signatures."

In fact, it turned out that Glorfindel did not have to bother with the display on Sunday. Word had gotten around to those students who normally did not bother to eat on campus over the weekend and at dinner that evening the cafeteria was packed. When Glorfindel retrieved the voting sheets there was not a single NO marked off.

****

Monday, the classes with Deirdre and Marian were somewhat subdued. Glorfindel presented Marian with the protest sheets, along with the photos and voting sheets before her class began. "I think you have to agree that what you want us to wear is unsuitable," he said to her firmly. "No self-respecting Elf would be caught dead in such an outfit. We’ve come up with our own uniform and you will see that it’s actually cheaper than what you designed. If the Administration is willing to foot the bill for the coats, the students can pick up the balance."

"I’ll have to discuss it with others," Marian said mulishly. "I rather resent you contacting parents over this. My office has been flooded with irrate emails since yesterday."

"The parents are ultimately footing the bill for their children," Glorfindel pointed out. "They have a right to voice their opinions on how that money is being spent. I believe if you think it through, you will find that our solution is fair to everyone. The students will not die of extreme embarrassment and the college will not lose any money."

Marian still looked doubtful but offered no other protests.

****

And so life went on.

Classes became rather routine and the Elves settled into their roles as students. Glorfindel, Elladan and Elrohir continued to teach archery and worked with the students who formed an archery club to prepare them for competitions, though they themselves did not compete. More often than not, the Northern Lights Archery team came home with the trophy.

In the end, the Administration did agree to the new outfits and offered a formal apology to the students and their parents and also stated that the entire cost would come out of the tuition, so no additional money was spent by the students. Everyone was asked to go to the ski shop and check their sizes. Order forms were produced and filled out. The name tags were a slightly different case. It had been decided by the tourist agencies that, rather than using their actual names, each student would come up with what someone jokingly called a ‘nom d’elf’ as a working name. Tom assured the Administration that it would take only a week for him and his people to create the name tags for everyone so there was time for people to decide on a name.

Daeron had started to work with Zach on his speech impediment after the first week of classes, introducing him to plainchant as a way of modulating his voice and the speed of delivery. Zach was still not sanguine about singing or chanting every word he spoke as a guide, but Daeron insisted that he would not have to.

"We’re using the plainchant as a way of training you to speak slowly and distinctly," Daeron explained with much patience when Zach complained about it for the twentieth time. "We know that you never stutter when you sing, since you have to concentrate on what you are singing. Using plainchant will help you with your concentration so that eventually it becomes second nature. Then we’ll see how well you speak without singing."

So Zach continued his speech lessons and in fact, as the weeks went by, there was a noticeable lessening of his stuttering. When he was able to speak an entire sentence without stuttering once, Zach’s attitude changed and he became more cooperative and enthusiastic in his lessons.

Penny whistle lessons also were held. Glorfindel made a good show of not knowing one end from the other and it amused the other Elves to watch several of the young female students falling over themselves to be the one to teach him. Glorfindel took it all in stride and treated each and every one of them with a graciousness that they had never experienced before. It left them feeling as if they were someone special because ‘Loren’ had smiled upon them.

"And he doesn’t even half try," Elladan complained to the others as they watched Glorfindel’s performance. "It’s so unfair." Elrohir nodded in agreement but the older three Elves just shook their heads in amusement.

Labor Day came and went and the days were becoming decidedly chillier as summer gave way to autumn. Near the end of September, they finished the first set of classes. The final class was on the last Friday of the month and in lieu of the usual Friday afternoon nature walk, the Academy hosted a party for all the students. The Arctic Fringe came to play and there were friendly competitions in such activities as volleyball, archery, touch football, and tug-of-war, as well as fun races, such as three-legged, water balloon, burlap bag and egg-on-a-spoon. The Elves joined the fun, keeping their skill levels on par with the average Mortal and had a grand time. Glorfindel kept a short leash on the Twins and monitored their drinking, making them switch to sodas after their fourth beer. Neither ellon bothered to argue with their captain.

"So, Monday we start whole new classes," Daeron said to Glorfindel and the others as they sat around a picnic table eating hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad. "Should be interesting."

Glorfindel nodded as he took a sip of root beer. "Winter survival skills and nature studies. I don’t think any of us will have a problem with those classes." He flashed them a knowing smile and the other Elves snorted in good humor.

"I’m actually going to miss that cooking class," Elrohir said. "I didn’t know there were so many ways to make hot chocolate."

"It was fun making the gingerbread house," Elladan averred with a smile.

"House?" Cassie exclaimed in disbelief. "More like a castle."

The other Mortals nodded. "Totally awesome," Jud said.

The Twins just shrugged. Glorfindel hid a smile. As a final project in the cooking class everyone got together in groups and constructed gingerbread houses in designs of their own choosing. Elladan and Elrohir decided to reconstruct Imladris and Glorfindel helped, being the only other Elf who knew the place intimately; none of the Sindar had ever seen it. Naturally, it was the largest of the ‘houses’ and everyone admired it.

"Well, you’ll have to put aside your aprons for the nonce," he said to them with a wink, "and concentrate on remembering all that I taught you about surviving in the wilderness."

"Hmph," Elladan snorted. "As if we could ever forget those lessons."

"So you guys know a lot about it?" Matt asked somewhat diffidently.

"Well, don’t forget, I was in Search and Rescue," Glorfindel said with a smile, "and I made sure my friends knew something about surviving in the wilds in case they ever got lost."

Everyone nodded, recognizing the logic of his words. Then Shane gave him a wicked grin. "So, does that mean you’ll be taking over the class from that Pettingill guy?"

The others laughed while Glorfindel just shook his head. In truth, he had no desire to do anything of the sort. He was actually looking forward to seeing how the former Marine handled the class and he was willing to sit back and watch.

"We’ll see," was all he said and that just made everyone laugh the louder.