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Ryu blinked in surprise at Elrohir coming in like that, but seeing his sister come up behind the man answered any questions he might have had. Looking down at the little boy Ryu asked gently.

"Would you... open your mouth for Elrohir?" he asked.

Elrohir swore again, this time more loudly, though it was still in his own language. He cupped the boy's jaw in his hands and peered inside his mouth, looking to see the extent of the damage and trying to see if he could find out how the boy had lost his tongue in the first place.

"I don't know what to do," he admitted in a murmur, lowering his hands helplessly after a moment. "I ... have only seen one person like this ... Sir Ryder ... his tongue was cut out by the dwarfs ... but why ... why would they do it to a child?"

Elrohir nodded thoughtfully.

"It's high summer," he told Ryu softly. "With his back like this, I wouldn't give him a shirt at all. It's easily warm enough for him to go without, and I believe that air is best for him at the moment. If he can sleep on his stomach ... which I doubt would be a problem for him by now ... then I would recommend he sleep like that, with the blanket only to his waist."

Anything else - shirt, cloak or blanket - would just pull at the edges of his wounds and tear them further open.

The boy looked up at Ryu, Cindy, and Elrohir, his gaze moving from one of them to the next slowly, purposefully, questioningly. He held one hand up to Cindy to get her attention, then pointed at the supplies on the floor around them, then at his back, as if asking if she was going to put anything on his back at the moment.

The boy looked up at Cindy tiredly and nodded. He rose unsteadily to his feet, rubbing his eyes a bit, and then looked back at Cindy. He made a rubbing motion on his arms, then pointed towards the stairs in the other room, as if asking if he should go upstairs to wash, where the other children had gone.

Elrohir nodded and moved to pick the boy up to carry him - but he didn't know a good way to carry him without having to touch his back somehow. Finally he figured it out. He knelt in front of the boy and murmured, "Lay on my back."

The boy leaned forward on Elrohir's back and put his arms around his neck, and Elrohir reached around to support the boy with his hands before turning to leave the dining room and head towards the stairs so that he could take him up to Haradhel for a sponge bath.

By the time Elrohir made it up to the third floor with the boy, all of the girls were finished their baths, dressed, and had their hair done by Feng, and when Elrohir came into the bathing room with the boy, Haradhel quickly shooed all of the girls out.

"I'll let you take care of him," she told Elrohir, nodding at the boy, "and I'll get these children in bed, then head downstairs and send up the rest of the boys. As far as I know they're still in the playroom with Triton."

Elrohir nodded. "We shouldn't be long up here," he told her, "but just wait a few minutes before you send up the other boys, I don't want them to accidentally hit his back."

Haradhel looked to see what he meant and winced. "Aye, that would hurt," she agreed. "I'll get clothes for all of them first before I bring them up then. Besides, I do have to put the girls to bed first as well."

And she headed out of the bathroom after the girls, taking Feng with her as well.

There was one tub of fresh, clean water left in the bath room, so that was where Elrohir decided to wash the boy. He took the softest cloth he could find and dipped it in the water, and without wringing it out he washed the boy's face and body, especially careful of his back.

The boy had to have been in pain from all of that, Elrohir was certain, but not once did he wince or flinch away. He wondered at the boy's tenacity. How could anyone ignore pain so completely?

Before long, the bath was finished, and Elrohir began to towel him off, patting his back dry rather than rubbing it, eyeing the door occasionally to see when Cindy would be coming back.