Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, was wandering the halls reading a letter from Celeborn, Lord of Lòrien, which had arrived that morning. He was almost finished when he slipped and landed on his sensitive bottom. Looking to see what had caused his fall; Elrond saw little muddy boot prints making their way down the hall and around the corner. Folding up the letter he made his way down the hall following the boot prints, making sure not to step on them.
After following the prints down a few more halls they stopped in front of the closed door that lead to his adopted human son Aragorn’s room. Elrond softly knocked on the door and waited for a response.
“Yes?” Aragorn asked from within.
“May I come in?” Elrond asked. He waited for a response, when he did not receive one he opened the door and laid eyes on the muddiest human in all of Middle Earth.
“Aragorn, what have you been doing?” The four year old was covered from head to booted feet in mud.
“Nothing,” Aragorn said, trying to look innocent.
“You are filthy. You need a bath and you need one now.”
“No! No bath!” Aragorn yelled running out of the room.
‘This is going to be a long day,’ thought Elrond as he ran after Aragorn.
It was not hard for Elrond to find his prey, as Aragorn was still leaving muddy prints. Elrond found Aragorn sitting in the widest mud puddle in all of Rivendell.
“Where did this come from?” Elrond asked. “It has not rained recently.”
“Elladan and Elrohir made it for me,” Aragorn said, sounding pleased that he was getting Elrond’s twin sons into trouble. “They said you would want it in your privet garden.”
“Come out of there this instant,” Elrond said. “You are taking a bath.”
“No Bath!”
“Yes, that is your punishment for putting muddy foot prints all over Rivendell,” Elrond said, raising his eyebrows at Aragorn.
“No bath,” Aragorn said, not the least bit intimidated by the Elf’s look. He crossed his little arms over his chest, and mimicked Elrond’s expression by raising his eyebrows too. Elrond laughed at the comical look on the four year old’s face.
“Alright, no bath, but you at least have to change into clean clothes, and clean boots.”
“Alright,” Aragorn said getting up out of the puddle.
“Come lets get you changed, then we will get the twins to clean up your mud puddle and your foot prints.” Elrond said. ” Maybe you could slide in the halls and leave more mud for them to clean up too. How does that sound?”
“That sound like fun,” Aragorn said excitedly, and then taking Elrond’s hand he followed him out of the garden.