Getting Dirty by Elleth

Prompts: Sauna, Vihta

Rían is a little glum - luckily, Morwen and Aerin know exactly what will help. 

It was after midsummer, when Morwen, Aerin and Rían went into the forest together, all three of them armed with knives and baskets. A light wind sent the branches above them dancing and the sun beat down, leaving the edges of the leaves silvered.

It wasn't far from the village to one of the birch-woods, grown on a sandy bank in between two stretches of moor where the trees stood higher and drier. They each picked out suitable trees, and when they began cutting the branches, Rían's song soared up into the sunlight. Before long, Aerin joined in, and even serious Morwen was smiling for once, adding her voice a little reluctantly, but adding it all the same.

They were still singing when they returned to the village, finding a bench by the square and the elven fountain there, all three now hard at work stripping the lower branches of their leaves, but leaving a large tuft of them at the top, tying them together with a twisted branch and cutting them all down to the same length so the resulting bundle lay in their hands comfortably.

"Your branches are so thick, Morwen," Aerin teased, grinning, knowing full well that Morwen prided herself on enduring a little pain and unpleasantness, saying it built character and was an elvish custom to do so, and said as much this time, if with a smile. Rían, watching the two of them, flushed. Her bundle was the least imposing of the three, and she had woven herbs and fragrant flowers into it - the first of the blooming meadowsweet from the banks of Nen Lalaith that they had crossed on the way back, the pink candles of willow herb, loosestrife and wild mint.

Not long after, they made their way over to the sauna that stood open to all of the village, and it was a stroke of luck to find it exclusive to them. Aerin, bravest of them, peeked in, finding it warm and pleasant - not long since it had been in use, but abandoned now. When all three of them had entered, they decidedly shut the door behind them, leaving the key in the lock. Only then they began to undress, and Rían could not help watching the other two with envy - Morwen dark-haired and radiant as an elf, Aerin golden and soft, while she herself, with her brown hair and short statue, found very little that was lovely about herself.

When they had heated the place again and tossed water on the hot stones to bring up fragrant steam, they began using their vihta bundles, drawing them over legs, bellies, shoulders and finally backs, but their happy gossip - of which Rían was the heart, usually, took time to begin, and Aerin held up her hand eventually.

"What is wrong?" she asked. "You've been glum since we were making them; today you are more taciturn than Morwen…"

Morwen harrumphed, but did not contradict her. "I think I know what ails our Rían… have you not seen her watch us?"

Aerin's eyebrow rose, and if the sauna hadn't made Rían flush already, she knew she'd be doing so now. Even now, her cheeks burned.

"I hadn't noticed, not quite… but in that case… Rían, darling, is it true?"

She could only nod, tongue-tied.

Morwen, leaving her vihta, rose and came to her, sitting next to Rían on her bench and pulling the flower-wreathed bundle out of her numb fingers. "I think I know what will help. Lie down -  on your stomach. Tell us if it becomes too much, and surely Aerin will also be taking good care of you…"

Still anxious but relieved that she hadn't caused offense, Rían complied, pillowing her head on her arms as she stretched out. Morwen kept the blows light, and a wonderful fragrance, not just of birch but also of all the flowers she had woven in, began to rise soon, and at last she sighed, especially when Aerin bent to kiss her back across a barely-there welt where a branch had struck a little too hard.

"Better yet?" Morwen asked after a while, and Rían breathed a soft "yes," finding an answering smile from her friends.

"Good," said Aerin. "Then let us come to the more exciting part of the day now…"

Chapter End Notes

Shout-out to Tyellas for the mention of the "elvish custom". ;)