This is definitely not one of my better chapters. I had a sort of writer's block for this chapter and so it's not exactly very good compared to my other chapters. But I promise that I will try to write better ones after this!

Chapter 11 : Riding At Night

"Come, let us go, Lothíriel."

Lothíriel gave Éowyn one more hug, and bowed to the king and queen. She gave Éomer another grin. "I suppose I'll see you sometime," she said.

Éomer nodded. "Depend upon it." He laughed. "This time I will be prepared for any… surprises. Good bye, Lothíriel."

As the party rode away, Lothíriel looked over her shoulder, not wanting to tear her gaze away from Éomer's shrinking form.

One and a half months later…

"Amrothos! Give that back!" Lothíriel yelled, running after her brother. Amrothos laughed and tossed the letter to Erchirion, who went off in the other direction. "Erchirion!"

Lothíriel chased her two brothers across the gardens, and the chase finally came to an end when Elphir came along, and snatched the letter out of Erchirion's hands. "Honestly, you're no longer children anymore," he chided. "Stop doing such childish things, for goodness sake." He gave Lothíriel a sideway glance. "I want to read it."

"Elphir!" Lothíriel complained, snatching the letter from him. "Not you too."

"I think that soon all the messengers in Dol Amroth are going to retire," Erchirion declared.

"Otherwise the horses will retire," Amrothos added. "Journeys to Rohan aren't the most fun, you know."

"Especially now that it's going to be wintertime."

Elphir cleared his throat. "That is why Father suggested that you go to stay in Rohan for awhile. Learn more about the people, look around the country… and stop having messengers running back and forth."

Lothíriel reddened. "Father said that?"

"Yes, he did. I just spoke with him, and was on my way to look for you. Isindil can go with you. What do you say to that, sister?"

"Well… that would be nice," Lothíriel admitted.

Erchirion hit Amrothos' arm. "Our sister just volunteered to leave the country again."

"I know, isn't that brilliant?"

Elphir wheeled round to face them. "You two, enough!" he commanded.

Erchirion and Amrothos sobered down immediately. "All right, brother."

Elphir nodded, satisfied. "That's right. Celebrations can only begin after she's left."

"ELPHIR!" Lothíriel was horrified.

Some time (days) later… (A/N: Seriously I need to find out sometime how long it takes to get where.)

"Oh no, not you again!" Éomer groaned.

Lothíriel punched him on the arm playfully. "It's not that bad to see me, is it?"

Éomer grinned. "No, it isn't. Welcome to Rohan again. So, you'll be spending the winter?"

"Yes I will. It's going to get too cold to go back to Dol Amroth, anyway."

"All right then. It's good to have a friend in Edoras." Éomer beckoned to a serving woman. "Please show the Lady Lothíriel to her room."

Lothíriel flopped onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her heart had been pounding so loud when she was with Éomer that she had thought that she was about to die. Why? It made absolutely no sense; she had never felt that way before.

She turned over, burying her face in the pillow. Another most frustrating thing was that she couldn't decide if she wanted the feeling to go away. It confused her like nothing ever did before, but it made her feel strangely… happy.

"What is going on?" she moaned into the pillow. But there was no answer, of course.

"Thank you, Éothain. You may go now."

Éothain bowed and left the room, and Éomer was alone once more. He leant back in his chair. He had asked that the kitchen prepare something special, since Lothíriel was here to visit. It was nice to see Lothíriel. And it was probably a relief for the messengers of both places as well. For a month and a half messages had been flying back and forth, and not all were necessary filled with important news. In fact, most were just friendly correspondences, filled with almost no news at all. But Éomer enjoyed every single letter he received; looked forward to them, even. Sometimes he would just look out, just to see if any messenger was going to be seen riding to Edoras.

He stood up, having decided that perhaps he would put something else on for dinner, just to look more presentable. After all, he had a guest in Edoras now.

"So… how are you finding your food?"

Lothíriel gave Éomer a look. "Don't you have anything else better to say?" she teased. She had another spoonful of soup, and grinned at him. "It's rather good, why do you ask? Did you cook it yourself?"

Éomer looked at the soup wistfully. "I wish I could boast of that talent. It would come useful on my journeys around Rohan. Unfortunately, I have no skill in cooking."

"Well, you just have to learn, then," Lothíriel commented, tucking into her soup happily.

"And are you going to teach me?"

"I would do it for you," Lothíriel said seriously.

Éomer burst into laughter. "A princess of Dol Amroth for a cook? That is a most wonderful idea," he said with a wink.

Lothíriel laughed too. "Yes, yes I suppose it is," she replied, and then fell to her meal again.

"Have you ever gone riding at night?"

Lothíriel spun around to face him. "What?"

Éomer nodded out at the vast plains. "Riding at night. Éowyn and I used to do it a lot, when we were children." He smiled at Lothíriel. "Would you like to try it?"

"What's so different between riding at night and in the daytime?"

"There's a great deal of difference, princess. When you ride with the night air in your face… it's just different. And it's especially different when you see the sunrise."

"You mean to ride the whole night? Don't you need any sleep?"

Éomer laughed. "I'm not an old man yet! I think I can deal with one night without sleep. Can you?"

A grin spread across Lothíriel's face. "You know I can."

They took some little necessities and fetched their horses from the stables, and after Éomer had a word with the guards, they were off. "You know, if you kept riding that way, you'd go into the Gap of Rohan, and then to the Misty Mountains," Éomer said, pointing.

"I've never been that far away from home," Lothíriel said. "Perhaps one day I shall go there, just to see things for myself."

"Perhaps indeed," Éomer agreed. "Now… let's see who's the fastest rider." Giving his stallion a kick, he was off.

"You're cheating!" Lothíriel yelled, urging her horse on after him.

The ride seem to go on and on, and Lothíriel felt like letting it go on forever, just to let her hair stream behind her in the wind, to let the cold air hit her face. But finally Éomer brought his horse to a halt, and Lothíriel followed suit. Éomer spread a blanket on the ground, and they both sat down on it. "So, did you like that?"

"Yes, of course I did. It felt wonderful," Lothíriel replied with a smile. "You said that you and Éowyn used to do it a lot… don't you do it anymore?"

"First there were other things to occupy us, and then I was thrown in jail. And now there isn't really any sense to be doing it by myself, is there?"

"I suppose not," Lothíriel said with a sigh. "You know, sometimes I wish I fought during the War of the Ring, just so I won't be so much an outsider now."

"What do you mean?"

"I just hear people thinking back, telling great tales of what they've experienced, and through all that I was in Dol Amroth."

"You had to take care of things."

"In name, yes I was supposed to be in charge. But I wasn't even twenty yet, and there wasn't really much to be taking care of. I didn't seem to be doing anything but stay at home."

"And that was a great help to your father," Éomer said earnestly. "Knowing that you were safe, he could fight the war without being distracted by his worry for you."

"But I wanted to be fighting next to him!" Lothíriel exclaimed. "Isindil and Elphir taught me how to use a sword well enough, but I never had any occasion to use it. I could have been there. All my brothers were there."

"Wars aren't women's work…"

"Your sister fought in a war," Lothíriel argued. "And she came out of it all right after all, didn't she? I keep hearing all these tales and wishing that I was there."

"Well, I, for one, am glad you weren't there. Because something could have happened to you, and I might never have met you," Éomer said seriously.

That took Lothíriel's breath away, and she shivered in a strange delight. Éomer took it as a sign that she was cold, and took out another blanket to wrap around her.